The Civil War is a great topic, thanks for poping in Faolchú !! I know some people that are very heavily dedicated to one side or the other! I have always found it quite interesting, especially because it is very closely tied to Abraham Lincoln (I admire him greatly! ) So I might be biast if it comes down to it, but I usually try very hard to see both sides. Though, there are just some things I cannot and will not compromise on.

I have not visited Virginia (for Civil War purposes that is), but I have been to Gettysburg and found it to be very fascinating! Has anyone else been there?

Gettysburg? Oh yes! About half a dozen times! It's my favorite battlefield. I prefer it to Antietam and Shiloh, my other favs. smartypants, have you been to Eisenhower's place near there? I toured it a summer or two ago.

I like topics as WWII, Titanic, Napoleon.

I'm really interested in the stories and movies of Titanic and Napoleon, and I've been in the concentrationcamps Vught and Bergen-Belsen, Transit Camp Westerbork, Ghetto Theresienstadt and labout camp Mauthausen. Really, really impressive! Next year we might are going to visit Auschwitz I Monowitz and Auschwitz II Birkenau.

I'm also interested in the history of the USA, but we haven't discussed that yet in our class.
At the moment we're discussing the world leading position of the Netherlands during the 16th and 17th Century (I'm from the Netherlands so we mostly discuss things about the Netherlands). Pretty interesting!

At the moment we're discussing the world leading position of the Netherlands during the 16th and 17th Century (I'm from the Netherlands so we mostly discuss things about the Netherlands). Pretty interesting!

Cool! My family is Dutch on my father's side. At some point in the distant past my family owned a lot of land in upstate New York but it's all gone now except for one road with our name on it (which my mom snapped a picture of back in the 70's...it's funny to look at). The Dutch navy of the 16th and 17th centuries was the finest in the world, far better than anything else other nations could come up with. They could dance circles around Spanish ships and still pack a volatile one-two punch. Fluyts were pretty versatile ships, weren't they?

GeorgieFan: you've been to all those camps? What were they like? And what do you like about World War II?

I know a little Dutch history. I know they "discovered" New York. Didn't NYC belong to them at some point? And I know they rivaled the British fleet in the 16th and 17th centuries. I read about a few naval encounters between the two countries. I also know the Brits started their empire to rival the Dutch's, you know the "East India Company." Of course for the Dutch, the company was in Java or Sumatra or something. For the Brits, India. And in the early 1600s, some pilgrims left England for the Netherlands on their way to America. But it occurred to me a few years ago that the reason some contemporary Brits didn't like this, even though the Dutch were friendly, was because of the heated rivalry between them and the Dutch.

My family is Dutch on my father's side. At some point in the distant past my family owned a lot of land in upstate New York but it's all gone now except for one road with our name on it (which my mom snapped a picture of back in the 70's...it's funny to look at).

Very cool, Shadow.

Gettysburg? Oh yes! About half a dozen times! It's my favorite battlefield. I prefer it to Antietam and Shiloh, my other favs. smartypants, have you been to Eisenhower's place near there? I toured it a summer or two ago.

220chrisTian, I have been to Eisenhower's place! It's amazing and so beautiful! Did you enjoy it?

smartypants: I did enjoy the place but it's been awhile since I've visited it of course. So I'm going on memory. I thought the home's location was ideal and really peaceful. The whole visit was peaceful. The bright colors inside the house helped. What did you think of the tiny golf course?

GeorgieFan
I know a little Dutch history. I know they "discovered" New York. Didn't NYC belong to them at some point? And I know they rivaled the British fleet in the 16th and 17th centuries. I read about a few naval encounters between the two countries. I also know the Brits started their empire to rival the Dutch's, you know the "East India Company." Of course for the Dutch, the company was in Java or Sumatra or something. For the Brits, India. And in the early 1600s, some pilgrims left England for the Netherlands on their way to America. But it occurred to me a few years ago that the reason some contemporary Brits didn't like this, even though the Dutch were friendly, was because of the heated rivalry between them and the Dutch.

The Dutch were the original settlers of New York, yes, but it was swapped to Great Britain for something I cannot remember now,the Island of Run according to Wikipedia.

The Honourable East India Company wasn't founded to rival the Dutch, at least not specifically, but they were rivals, yes, but so were the French and Portuguese.
In general though, because of their common Protestant heritage and a few other factors, after the Anglo-Dutch wars, the British and Dutch Empires were generally on the same side where possible. It was in British interests for the Low Countries to remain independent from any large rivals, the Channel ports in the hands of France or another major European nation would have facilitated an attempt to remove the superiority at sea the Royal Navy had acquired by the mid 1700s. This is what prompted the abortive attempt to support the Netherlands against Napoleon, and even our entrance into the Great War.
It did not hurt that William III came from the Netherlands, and the famous campaigns of the Duke of Marlborough were fought on behalf of the Netherlands. (And you guys say the American Civil War had some fancy marching and fighting. )

The Empire itself wasn't exactly founded to rival anything either, it was rather accidentally and haphazardly acquired, only a few things like Aden, Gibraltar, Malta, and some parts of India, plus islands for coaling stations, were picked up for strategical use, mainly to guard the routes to India. The Suez Canal also comes to mind in that category.

The Dutch had some possessions in India also, Ceylon stands out, it only being taken over by the British when the Netherlands came under Napoleonic rule. The borders in the Indonesia area were only settled in the 1820s with the British swapping their small possessions in Sumatra for exclusive rights on the Malay peninsula. But you are right, the Dutch were the major presence in the area, Sumatra, Java, the southern portion of Borneo and other smaller holdings, the British being next with northern Borneo, Malay, Singapore Island and so on.

The Dutch were fine seafarers though to be sure, but being overrun by Napoleon and consequently aligned against the United Kingdom and the Royal Navy certainly didn't help matters.

I'm currently studying Modern Medicine as the final unit in a course called medicine through time. So we have yet to learn about WW1,WW2 and today's medical world.

the topic so far has been so interesting(then again nothing in history fails to interest me-minus weapon history) I can't wait to continue this!

Gmatt: thanks for all the info on the Dutch and British! You really know your stuff, don't you? I'm also interested in imperial history but it's confined to the 19th century, and mostly the British.

Btw, love the avatar.

Gmatt: thanks for all the info on the Dutch and British! You really know your stuff, don't you? I'm also interested in imperial history but it's confined to the 19th century, and mostly the British.

Btw, love the avatar.

Well I cannot say I know all that much, just that I only recently put a few hours into Dutch Empire research for something I am participating in, and a handful of years for the British Empire (Well, actually ten, but it wasn't until the last five years or so that I got very serious) but thank you for the compliment.
British Empire History from 1707 until about the Korean war is my interest, with extra attention from between 1789 and 1945, and special mention to English history before the Union, I am glad to here there are more of us out there!

Regarding the avvy, cannot say its all that good, I made it myself, but it represents me fairly well I suppose.

Well I cannot say I know all that much, just that I only recently put a few hours into Dutch Empire research for something I am participating in, and a handful of years for the British Empire (Well, actually ten, but it wasn't until the last five years or so that I got very serious) but thank you for the compliment.

I guess I've been interested in the British Empire ever since I read Kipling's Kim in 2000. My specialty is British imperial literature and history, c.1850-1914. This is the subject of my dissertation, in the works since 2005 or 2006. Pray I finish...

Well I cannot say I know all that much, just that I only recently put a few hours into Dutch Empire research for something I am participating in, and a handful of years for the British Empire (Well, actually ten, but it wasn't until the last five years or so that I got very serious) but thank you for the compliment.

I guess I've been interested in the British Empire ever since I read Kipling's Kim in 2000. My specialty is British imperial literature and history, c.1850-1914. This is the subject of my dissertation, in the works since 2005 or 2006. Pray I finish...

I find it extraordinarily interested myself, and oft misjudged by people in general who focus on the unfortunate incidents, blow them out of proportion, make them sound like they are the norm and ignore the facts of era they were set in!

I am more a history type person, opposed to literature, although my sister convinced my to try my hand at this National Novel Writing Month thing and I am setting up something during the Boxer Rebellion, Sir Roger Keyes being the main character. His actual story through that 'war' sounds like it was contrived, but it wasn't.
Who knows how it will go though.

But it is curious how one little thing can get you started. Back 12 years or so, when I was 7 or 8, my parents took me and my family to a re-enaction of a battle in the War of 1812, and I haven't looked back since, it is just quite fascinating, and saddening at times too. (I think our Canadian political and justice systems, not to mention the British ones, has degenerated a lot from a peak in the late 1800s and early 1900s...)

I find it extraordinarily interested myself, and oft misjudged by people in general who focus on the unfortunate incidents, blow them out of proportion, make them sound like they are the norm and ignore the facts of era they were set in!

Thank you for this! Someone in a certain Narnia and Christianity thread did something similar when I mentioned missionary work in colonial settings.

I am more a history type person, opposed to literature, although my sister convinced my to try my hand at this National Novel Writing Month thing and I am setting up something during the Boxer Rebellion, Sir Roger Keyes being the main character. His actual story through that 'war' sounds like it was contrived, but it wasn't. Who knows how it will go though.

Well, I like history and literature. Boxer Rebellion, eh? Sounds interesting! I haven't read any literature on this, since my focus is Africa and India. But I have read short biographies of J. Hudson Taylor and Jonathan and Rosalind Goforth. They escaped the Boxer Rebellion. What do you know of them? National Novel Writing Month? Good luck! I can't even write short stories.

Thank you for this! Someone in a certain Narnia and Christianity thread did something similar when I mentioned missionary work in colonial settings.

The techniques were not as refined as they are today (And you cannot blame them entirely for that) but I personally think that our culture at that time was better, so while you don't need to rub it in, trying to remove disgusting practices is hardly a bad thing at all.

Well, I like history and literature. Boxer Rebellion, eh? Sounds interesting! I haven't read any literature on this, since my focus is Africa and India. But I have read short biographies of J. Hudson Taylor and Jonathan and Rosalind Goforth. They escaped the Boxer Rebellion. What do you know of them? National Novel Writing Month? Good luck! I can't even write short stories.

Hudson Taylor, quite the man of God. I read a biography on him when I was younger (I ought to read it again) but he was something else..
I have heard of the Goforths but I don't know them well at all.
But seeing as the Boxer Uprising had a few thousand Chinese Christian and Missionary deaths, (Because they were Christian) it certainly has a certain draw. Not, of course, that I like to hear about Christians sacrificing their lives, but it certainly showed their temerity, as well as proving beyond a shadow of a doubt it was an unfair expedition on the part of the Europeans.
I have not read extensively of it, but I know the basics now, and it sounds like a very interesting setting, I just hope I can do it justice. It will be my first attempt at anything of the sort, so we shall see how it goes.

Edit: Just a note of interest, but at the moment your post count is '666'.