The Colony of Benevolence in Frederiksoord: Birthplace of our modern welfare state.

The colony of Benevolence in Frederiksoord is considered as the birthplace of our modern wellfarestate and received a UNESCO world heritage status because of it.
It all started with Johannes van den Bosch in the early 19th century. He came back to the Netherlands after spending 12 years in Indonesia, a Dutch colony at the time.
He found the Netherlands in extreme poverty. This was the result of the end of the Napoleonic war and the massive debt accumulated by the Dutch colonial company that went bancrupt.
Johannes's goal? End the extreme poverty.
He came up with the idea of starting the colony of Benevolence in the area around Drenthe.
He'd bring poor families from Amsterdam there and give them a home in return for farming the land.
Not only that, the children also got free schooling, 90 years before it became universal all over the Netherlands. He also made the first steps in what today is seen as very normal: universal healthcare.
We learned about this at the Proefkolonie museum in Frederiksoord and by taking the electric Colony express which took us around the area and showed us the remaining houses and also how some of them are adapted to modern times.
Let us show you around in our vlog. ;-)
#kolonienvanweldadigheid #unesco #Frederiksoord #thenetherlands #travel #travelvlog #welfarestate #drenthe #visitnetherlands

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