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Germany: 'Emperor Leopold's Wedding with Claudia Felicitas of Austria, Graz, 15 October 1673', copper engraving by Cornelis Meyssens and Johann Martin Lerch (1643-1693), c. 1673. Leopold I (1640-1705) was the second son of Emperor Ferdinand III, and became heir apparent after the death of his older brother, Ferdinand IV. He was elected Holy Roman Emperor in 1658 after his father's death, and by then had also already become Archduke of Austria and claimed the crowns of Germany, Croatia, Bohemia and Hungary.
Cornelis de Houtman (2 April 1565 – 1 September 1599) was a Dutch explorer who discovered a new sea route from Europe to Indonesia and managed to begin the Dutch spice trade. At the time, the Portuguese Empire held a monopoly on the spice trade, and the voyage was a symbolic victory for the Dutch, even though the voyage itself was a disaster.<br/><br/>

The voyage may be regarded as the start of the Dutch colonisation of Indonesia. Within five years, sixty-five more Dutch ships had sailed east to trade. Soon, the Dutch would fully take over the spice trade in and around the Indian Ocean.
Rogier van der Weyden (1399 or 1400 – 18 June 1464) was an Early Dutch / Flemish painter. His surviving works consist mainly of religious triptychs, altarpieces and commissioned single and diptych portraits. Although his life was generally uneventful, he was highly successful and internationally famous in his lifetime. His paintings were exported – or taken – to Italy and Spain, and he received commissions from, amongst others, Philip the Good, Netherlandish nobility and various foreign princes.<br/><br/>

By the latter half of the 15th century, he had eclipsed Jan van Eyck in popularity. However his fame lasted only until the 17th century, and largely due to changing taste, he was almost totally forgotten by the mid-18th century. His reputation was slowly rebuilt during the following 200 years; today he is known, with Robert Campin and van Eyck, as the third (by birth date) of the three great Early Flemish artists ('Vlaamse Primitieven'), and widely as the most influential Northern painter of the 15th century.
The Second Indochina War, known in America as the Vietnam War, was a Cold War era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of South Vietnam, supported by the U.S. and other anti-communist nations. The U.S. government viewed involvement in the war as a way to prevent a communist takeover of South Vietnam and part of their wider strategy of containment.<br/><br/>

The North Vietnamese government viewed the war as a colonial war, fought initially against France, backed by the U.S., and later against South Vietnam, which it regarded as a U.S. puppet state. U.S. military advisors arrived beginning in 1950. U.S. involvement escalated in the early 1960s, with U.S. troop levels tripling in 1961 and tripling again in 1962. U.S. combat units were deployed beginning in 1965. Operations spanned borders, with Laos and Cambodia heavily bombed. Involvement peaked in 1968 at the time of the Tet Offensive.<br/><br/>

U.S. military involvement ended on 15 August 1973. The capture of Saigon by the North Vietnamese army in April 1975 marked the end of the US-Vietnam War.
The Dutch East India Company (VOC) was set up in 1602 to gain a foothold in the East Indies (Indonesia) for the Dutch in the lucrative spice trade, which until that point was dominated by the Portuguese.<br/><br/>

It was a chartered company granted a monopoly by the Dutch government to carry out colonial activities in Asia, including establishing colonies in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and India.
The First Dutch Expedition to Indonesia was an expedition that took place from 1595 to 1597. It was instrumental in the opening up of the Indonesian spice trade to the merchants that eventually formed the Dutch East India Company, and marked the end of the Portuguese Empire's dominance in the region.
The Dutch East India Company (VOC) was set up in 1602 to gain a foothold in the East Indies (Indonesia) for the Dutch in the lucrative spice trade, which until that point was dominated by the Portuguese.<br/><br/>

It was a chartered company granted a monopoly by the Dutch government to carry out colonial activities in Asia, including establishing colonies in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and India.
Cornelis Matelief de Jonge (c. 1569 – October 17, 1632) was a Dutch admiral who was active in establishing Dutch power in Southeast Asia during the beginning of the 17th century. His fleet was officially on a trading mission, but its true intent was to destroy Portuguese power in the area. The fleet had 1400 men on board, including 600 soldiers. Matelief did not succeed in this. The Dutch would ultimately gain control of Malacca more than thirty years later, again joining forces with the Sultanate of Johor, and a new ally Aceh, in 1641. He was born and died in Rotterdam.
This scene is taken from the Book of Samuel in the Hebrew Bible, or the Christian Old Testament.<br/><br/>

King David of Israel looked out of his palace one evening and saw Bathsheba bathing, assisted by her two servants. He immediately fell in love with her. Although she was married—the wife of Uriah the Hittite—King David was smitten by her beauty and seduced her, making her pregnant. He took her to be his wife and she gave birth to Solomon.
Van Haarlem depicts a horrific scene from the Old Testament of the Christian Bible in this 16th century oil on canvas masterpiece.<br/><br/>

King Herod has heard that a new King of the Jews has been born in Bethlehem. Unable to identify the Messiah, he orders his soldiers to kill every boy in Bethlehem aged two or under.
According to the Hebrew Bible, Mary and Joseph had already fled to Egypt with their newborn, Jesus. They stayed in Egypt until after Herod's death.<br/><br/>

In the painting, Herod's naked soldiers kill mothers protecting their babies. Then they murder the babies too. In the left corner, a gang of mothers tackle a soldier and gouge out his eyes.
According to the Book of Genesis, which is the first book of the Christian Old Testament or Hebrew Bible, God created the universe in seven days. On the sixth day, he created ‘Adam’, the Hebrew word for ‘man’, and placed him in Paradise—the Garden of Eden. From one of Adam’s ribs, God then created a mate for him: Eve, meaning ‘Mother of Life’.<br/><br/>

Adam and Eve were permitted to eat all the fruit in the garden except that from the ‘Tree of Knowledge’. However, the devil, disguised as a serpent, persuaded Eve to eat the forbidden fruit—an apple—and she gave in to the temptation. This was considered mankind’s first sin.
On this map, the boxes ‘A’ indicate the king’s palaces; B is where de Houtman met the king; C is what de Houtman calls the ‘Cape of Pigs’; D is where the Dutch fleet anchored; E where they went ashore.<br/><br/>

Cornelis de Houtman (1565—99), brother of Frederick de Houtman, was a Dutch explorer who discovered a new sea route from Europe to Indonesia which helped start the Dutch spice trade. At the time, the Portuguese Empire held a monopoly on the spice trade, and the voyage was a symbolic victory for the Dutch.<br/><br/>

However, the voyage itself was a disaster, beset with mutiny, killings and scurvy. De Houtman managed to insult and alienate almost everyone he met on the way. He was refused spices after insulting the Sultan of Banten on Java, then he allowed his men to rape and plunder on Madura. He managed to buy only a few pots of peppercorns on Bali; then in 1599, in Aceh in Sumatra, he insulted the sultan, setting off a sea battle in which he himself was killed.
Cornelis de Houtman (1565—99), brother of Frederick de Houtman, was a Dutch explorer who discovered a new sea route from Europe to Indonesia which helped start the Dutch spice trade. At the time, the Portuguese Empire held a monopoly on the spice trade, and the voyage was a symbolic victory for the Dutch.<br/><br/>

However, the voyage itself was a disaster, beset with mutiny, killings and scurvy. De Houtman managed to insult and alienate almost everyone he met on the way. He was refused spices after insulting the Sultan of Banten on Java, then he allowed his men to rape and plunder on Madura. He managed to buy only a few pots of peppercorns on Bali; then in 1599, in Aceh in Sumatra, he insulted the sultan, setting off a sea battle in which he himself was killed.
René Descartes ( 31 March 1596 – 11 February 1650) was a French philosopher, mathematician and scientist who spent most of his life in the Dutch Republic.<br/><br/>

He has been dubbed the father of modern philosophy, and much subsequent Western philosophy is a response to his writings, which are studied closely to this day. In particular, his <i>Meditations on First Philosophy</i> continues to be a standard text at most university philosophy departments. Descartes' influence in mathematics is equally apparent; the Cartesian coordinate system — allowing reference to a point in space as a set of numbers, and allowing algebraic equations to be expressed as geometric shapes in a two-dimensional coordinate system (and conversely, shapes to be described as equations) — was named after him.<br/><br/>

He is credited as the father of analytical geometry, the bridge between algebra and geometry, crucial to the discovery of infinitesimal calculus and analysis. Descartes was also one of the key figures in the scientific revolution and has been described as an example of genius.