History from 1566 till 1646!

V.O.C. schip The Batavia

This afternoon I was very busy by learning my history test for next Tuesday. Tuesday we’ll have a history test over the period from 1566 to 1648. So many years I have to learn …so difficulty!
Here just a few of them I have to learn....

1568 till 1648 the 80 years of war
1594 First travel around Africa
1602 The set up of the V.O.C.
1619 Johan van Oldenbarnevelt decapitated
1648 Peace of Munster

Furthermore I must learn some old fellows by name and what they ever did. That turned out to be very difficult. So hard to remember! Mam helped me by that, so she gave every old guy an extra sentence to remember him by. She read the sentence and I had to complete it with her extra sentence and then it was easy to find the answer which guy it was.
Here under a couple of examples:

Willem Barentsz - He tried to reach India by ship by sailing the Northern Ice sea.....
(Mom’s sentence =) by sailing the Barentsz sea ...... tata…. tata…by sailing the Barentsz sea ….yes... yes..

Piet Hein - He conquered as a captain in service of the V.O.C. a Spanish ship full of gold, silver and precious stones.....
(Mom’s sentence =) Piet Hein, Piet Hein, Piet Hein his name is small, his actions were big ... he conquered the (silver) plate fleet! (= a very old Dutch children's song)

Johan van Oldenbarnevelt - He ensured that the V.O.C was set up
(Mom’s sentence =) they have... ggggrrrr.... (= decapitated him)

Jan Pietersz. Coen - He was the first Dutch governor in Indië
(Mom’s sentence =) He is the one (sssttt....say it softly ... ) F. Idi ... you’ll keep forgetting all the time!

C. de Houtman (Dutch for woodman) – He was the first Dutchman who sailed around Africa all the way to Indië (the Netherlands Indies)
(Mom’s sentence =) in a wooden ship…. Yes… in a wooden ship .......yes.... in a wooden ship!

We, however, could not stop laughing... we had such great time when we studied this afternoon. Mom’s extra sentences really worked so I could not forget these old guys. It really was nice to learn this way! Ppppfffhhhhh... I think I know it all very well by now.

Tonight I watched skating again the 1000 meters women. Woooouuuw... what was that exciting… Marianne Timmer won the gold medal! Great eh?

I go upstairs and watch the distribution of the medals, Erben Wennemars who won the bronze medal yesterday gets it now... bye see you tomorrow!