History in Upper Secondary Education

vmbo, havo and vwo, including gymnasium

See the article: The Dutch history canon: a never-ending debate?!

There are several subject combinationsin upper secondary education havo, vwo (including gymnasium). In two of the four subject combinations history is mandatory, in the other two optional.

About 78% of all the havo students and about 57% of the vwo students (including gymnasium)  take part in the history exam.

The history exam consists of two parts, a schoolexam and a national written exam. Domain A, C and D (see below) are intended to be part of the school based exam organized independently by the schools, while domains A and B are intended to be part of the national written exam. For the time being domain A,B,C and D are part of the schoolexam and the national exam consists of two themes, which change every year.

See the article on a pilot with the new exam.


1. A school exam (= 50% of the final grade) 
2. A national exam on one day (in may) for all students  (=50% of the final grade) 

Exam program history for upper secondary havo and vwo (including gymnasium);

This program is meant for high schools of the category 'havo' and 'vwo': high school levels that prepare for higher education in (respectively) colleges and universities. The parts printed in italics are part of the vwo-program only. The rest is part of both the havo-program and vwo-program.

Domain A: Historical consciousness

1 The candidate is able to:

• * arrange and organize events in his own life, as well as phenomena, events and persons from history using a timeline or some other form of chronological diagram, applying the following indications of time and time classification: years, centuries, eras [meaning compartments of time], periods and eras [meaning systems of chronology].



• * explain, using examples from the classification of periods and eras in attainment target 2, and using the western chronological era and another example of a chronological era / several other examples of chronological eras and systems of periodisation, that chronological systems of classification have an interpretative character and depend (partly) on the position taken or the question to be answered.

2 The candidate can name the following eras in the correct chronological order, including the dates which indicate their time limits, and use these as a frame of reference:

	era of hunters and farmers (up to 3000 BC) / Prehistory
	era of Greeks and Romans (3000 BC - 500 AD) / Antiquity
	era of monks and knights (500 AD - 1000 AD) / Early Middle Ages
	era of cities and states (1000 AD - 1500 AD) / High and Late Middle Ages
	era of discoverers and reformers (1500 - 1600 AD) / Renaissance / 16th century
	era of regents and princes (1600-1700 AD) / Golden Age / 17th century
	era of wigs and revolutions (1700-1800 AD) / Age of Enlightenment / 18th century
	era of citizens and steam engines (1800-1900 AD) / Age of Industrialisation / 19th century
	era of world wars (1900-1950 AD) / first half of the 20th century
	era of television and computer (after 1950 AD) / second half of 20th century

 

The student in this context learns in any case how to relate events and developments from the 20th century (such as the world wars and the holocaust) to present day events.
(attainment target 37)

2. The student learns how to utilize historical sources te create for himself an image of an era or to find answers to questions and also learns how to relate to their cultural-historical environment in this context (attaiment target 40)

The Canon of Dutch history is mandatory in lower secondary education as a startingpoint for the purpose of illustration.

• Megalithic tombs circa 3000 BC
  Early farmers


• The Roman Limes 47 A.D.-circa 400 A.D.
  On the frontiers of the Roman world


• Willibrord 658 A.D.-739 A.D.
  The spread of Christianity
• 
  
• Charlemagne 742 A.D. – 814 A.D.
  Emperor of the Land of the Setting Sun
• 
  
• Hebban olla vogala circa 1100
  The Dutch language in writing
• 
  
• Floris V 1254-1296
  A Dutch count and disgruntled nobles


• The Hanseatic League 1356-circa 1450
  Trading towns in the Low Countries
• 
  
• Erasmus 1469?-1536
  An international humanist
• 
  
• Charles V 1500-1558
  The Low Countries as an administrative unity
• 
  
• The “Beeldenstorm” (iconoclastic outbreak) 1566
  Religious conflict


• William of Orange 1533-1584
  From rebel nobleman to “father of the country”
• 
  
• The Republic 1588-1795
  A unique political phenomenon
• 
  
• The Dutch East India Company (VOC)1602-1799
  Overseas expansion
• 
  
• The Beemster Polder 1612
  The Netherlands and water
• 
  
• The canal ring 1613-1662
  Urban development in the seventeenth century
• 
  
• Hugo Grotius 1583-1645
  Pioneer of modern international law
• 
  
• The Statenbijbel (authorised version of the Bible) 1637
  The Book of Books
• 
  
• Rembrandt 1606?-1669
  The great painters
• 
  
• Blaeu Atlas Major 1662
  Mapping the world
• 
  
• Michiel de Ruyter 1607-1676
  Heroes of the sea and the wide reach of the Republic


• Christiaan Huygens 1629-1695
  Science in the Golden Age
• 
  
• Spinoza 1632-1677
  In search of truth
• 
  
• Slavery circa 1637-1863
  Human trafficking and forced labour in the New World
• 
  
• Country mansions 17th and 18th centuries
  Prosperous living
• 
  
• Eise Eisinga 1744-1828
  The Enlightenment in the Netherlands
• 
  
• The patriots 1780-1795
  Political conflict about modernising the Republic


• Napoleon Bonaparte 1769-1821
  The French period
• 
  
• King William I 1772-1843
  The kingdom of the Netherlands and Belgium
• 
  
• The first railway 1839
  Acceleration
• 
  
• The Constitution 1848
  Fundamental rules and principles of government
• 
  
• Max Havelaar 1860
  Scandal in the East Indies


• Opposition to child labour 19th century
  Out of the workplace and back to school
• 
  
• Vincent van Gogh 1853-1890
  The modern artist
• 
  
• Aletta Jacobs 1854-1929
  The emancipation of women
• 
  
• The First World War 1914-1918
  War and neutrality
• 
  
• De Stijl 1917-1931
  Revolution in design
• 
  
• The crisis years 1929-1940
  Society in the depression
• 
  
• World War II 1940-1945
  Occupation and liberation
• 
  
• Anne Frank 1929-1945
  The persecution of the Jews
• 
  
• Indonesia 1945-1949
  A colony fights for freedom
• 
  
• Willem Drees 1886-1988
  The welfare state
• 
  
• The great flood 1 February 1953
  The danger of water
• 
  
• Television since 1948
  The rise of mass media
• 
  
• The port of Rotterdam since circa 1880
  Gateway to the world
• 
  
• Annie M.G. Schmidt 1911-1995
  Going against the grain of a bourgeois country
• 
  
• Surinam and the Netherlands Antilles since 1945
  Decolonisation in the West
• 
  
• Srebrenica 1995
  The dilemmas of peacekeeping
• 
  
• Diversity in the Netherlands since 1945
  The multicultural society
• 
  
• The natural gas deposit 1959-2030?
  A finite treasure
• 
  
• Europe since 1945
  The Dutch and Europeans

3 The candidate is able to

• * arrange the eras mentioned in attainment target 2 within the periods Prehistory, Antiquity, Middle Ages, Early Modern Period and Modern Period.

• * explain that this classification of eras and periods represents a western perspective and explain the limitations and drawbacks thereof.

4 The candidate is able to

• * describe the connection between continuity and change within historical developments.

• * indicate the significance of historical events, phenomena, and developments for the present.

• * distinguish between different types of historical change.

• * indicate, distinguishing continuities of longer or shorter duration, how elements dating back to different periods can manifest themselves simultaneously in one period (simultaneity of the non simultaneous).

5 The candidate is able to

• * formulate a question and a corresponding hypothesis.

• * acquire evidence suitable to answer a question and select data from this evidence.

6 The candidate is able to

• * give explanations, within the context of a historical question, for historical events, phenomena and developments.

• * distinguish between different kinds of causes.

7 When formulating a judgement about the past, the candidate is able to consider

• * the distinction between facts and opinions.

• * the fact that judgements by persons in the past and persons in the present, including his own, are products of their time and place.

• * the role played by values in the past and in the present.

• * supporting his views with arguments.

Domain B: Orientational Knowledge

8 The candidate can, for each of the eras mentioned in attainment target 2:

• * name the characteristics indicated below for each era

• * provide, for each of the characteristics, an adequate example of an event, or phenomenon, or development, or acts or ways of thinking of a person, and use this example to explain about the characteristic concerned

• * explain how knowledge of the era concerned can influence views of the present.

• * explain how the significance attributed to eras depends partly on the time, position and circumstances in which people deal with the past.

The following characteristics apply for era 1:

• * the way of life of hunters and gatherers.

• * the emergence of agriculture and agricultural communities.

• * the emergence of the first urban communities.

The following characteristics apply for era 2:

* the development of a scientific way of thinking and thoughts about politics and citizenship in the Greek city state.

• * the forms of Greco-Roman classical material culture.

• * the growth of the Roman Empire by which Greco-Roman culture was spread throughout Europe.

• * the confrontation between Greco-Roman culture and the Germanic cultures of North-West-Europe.

• * the development of Judaism and Christianity as the first monotheistic religions.

The following characteristics apply for era 3:

• * the spread of Christianity throughout Europe.

• * the emergence and spread of Islam.

• * the nearly complete replacement in Western Europe of the urban culture by a self supporting agricultural culture, organized in domains with serfdom.

• * the emergence of feudal relations in administration.

The following characteristics apply for era 4:

• * the rise of trade and crafts, providing the base for a revival of the urban society.

• * the emergence of an urban citizenry and a growing autonomy of cities.

• * the conflict in the Christian world about the question whether a spiritual or a secular authority should have primacy.

• * the expansion of the Christian world, such as manifested in the crusades.

• * the beginnings of national and centralized states.

The following characteristics apply for era 5:

• * the beginnings of European overseas expansion.

• * the changing world view and portrayal of mankind of the Renaissance and the beginnings of

• * a new scientific interest.

• * the renewed orientation on the heritage of classical Antiquity.

• * the protestant reformation resulting in a split up of the Christian church in Western Europe.

• * the conflict in the Netherlands resulting in the founding of a independent Netherlands State.

The following characteristics apply for era 6:

• * princes striving for absolute power.

• * the special position of the Netherlands Republic in political respect and the economic and cultural flowering of the Netherlands Republic.

• * world wide trade contacts, commercial capitalism and the beginnings of a world economy.

• * the scientific revolution.

The following characteristics apply for era 7:

• * rational optimism and enlightened thinking applied to all fields of society: religion, politics, economics and social relations.

• * the continuing existence of an 'ancien régime' and attempts of princes to shape monarchical government in a contemporary and enlightened manner (enlightened absolutism).

• * the extension of European overseas domination, especially the founding of plantation colonies and the transatlantic slave trade involved, and the emergence of abolitionism.

• * the democratic revolutions in western countries, resulting in discussions about constitutions, fundamental rights and citizenship.

The following characteristics apply for era 8:

• * the industrial revolution in the western world, providing the base for an industrial society.

• * discussions about the 'social issue'.

• * the modern kind of imperialism resulting from industrialisation.

• * the emergence of emancipation movements.

• * ongoing democratisation, more and more men and women taking part in the political process.

• * the emergence of socio-political movements: liberalism, nationalism, socialism, confessionalism and feminism.

The following characteristics apply for era 9:

• * the role of modern means of propaganda and communication and forms of mass organisation.

• * the bringing into practice of the totalitarian ideologies communism and fascism / national-socialism.

• * the crisis of world capitalism.

• * the waging of two world wars

• * racism and discrimination, resulting in genocide, especially directed against the Jews
  the German occupation of the Netherlands.

• * destructions on an unprecedented scale by weapons of mass destruction and the involvement of civil population in  warfare.

• * forms of resistance against Western-European imperialism.

The following characteristics apply for era 10:

• * the division of the world into two ideological blocks seized by an arms race and the threat of atomic war resulting from that.

• * decolonisation which ended western hegemony in the world.

• * the unification of Europe.

• * the increasing affluence in the western world, which resulted in drastic socio-cultural changes in the western world since the nineteen-sixties.

• * the development of multiform and multicultural societies.

Domain C: Themes

The candidate is able to:

• * answer questions on two/five (subject combination C&S)/four (subject combination E&S) themes using domain A.

• * describe long term dvelopments in more than one era.

Domain D: History of the constitutional state and the parlementary democracy

10 The candidate can, within the framework of a theme 'History of the constitutional state and parliamentary democracy':

• * indicate a coherence between the emergence of liberty rights and political rights in certain historical eras and the general characteristics of those eras.

• * name important thinkers and their views concerning the relation between the state and its subjects.

• * explain which factors influenced the development of the constitutional state in the Netherlands and which actors were involved in this development.

• * explain which factors influenced the development of parliamentary democracy in the Netherlands since 1795.

• * describe the emergence of the most important political movements and parties since 1848.