HISTORY OF THE END OF THE WORLD

THE COLOUR ORANGE

The current Olympic Iceskating event is dominated by the Dutch and used for globally boosting the power of the colour orange

Strangely enough most participating countries have atletes wearing the colour of their countries national banner.

Most Dutch associate this colour with our royal family of the House of Orange. They appeared on the scene in the 16e century. Their founding father was William of Orange, who led the Dutch revolt against the Spaniards. He was a Gerrman nobleman. One of his possessions was the town of Orange, in France. He became the regent (stadhouderr) of the 7 rebellious Dutch provinces.

After the Napoleon-occupation the Netherlands, including Belgium, became a kingdom. The Dutch accepted the House of Orange as so and they (king or queen) ruled ever since.

Few Dutch know that organge was part of the banner of the young Reublic. Official colours: Oranje, blanje, bleu, meaning orange, white and blue. Used on the battlefield and their fleet. Those were immense flags.

But soon the national flag was in high demand, due to the success of the rebels, the banners were in high demand. The problem was, that the colour orange was expensive to make, because of the expensive pigments and ingredients.

The magistrates of the Republic realised the importance of this revolutionary banner and the effect on its people.

They decided to replace orange by red. Much cheaper and easier to produce. So the flag was born that is our national banner still. The meaning of the flag and its colours changed in the process. Of which later more.