A Tribal Trinity: The Rise and Fall of the Franks, the Frisians and the Saxons in the Historical Consciousness of the Netherlands since 1850

Abstract

In the late nineteenth century, it became common to consider the Franks, the Frisians and the Saxons, three Gemanic tribes believed to have settled in the Netherlands during the Early Middle Ages, as the oldest ancestors of the Dutch people. The success of this historical theme was partly due to evolutions in the human sciences, which during that same period were stronglyinfluenced by a tribal paradigm. Being politically and geographically inclusive and leaving at the same time space for diversity, the theme also responded to the needs of Dutch nation-building and integration. Nevertheless, the disadvantages of the theme soon became apparent. Since it did not allow for strong external borders, while suggesting fairly clear-cut internalborders, the theme appeared, especially during the Second World War, to be an insufficient warrant against the dangers of regionalism and annexionism. When after the Second World War the tribal paradigm lost its grip on the human sciences, the ‘three-tribes-theme’ was also fundamentally questioned, and slowly faded away.