Frisian nationalism

The Frisians derive their name from the Frisii, an ancient Germanic tribe which inhabited the northern coastal areas in what today is the northern Netherlands, although historical research has indicated a lack of direct ethnic continuity between the ancient Frisii and later medieval 'Frisians' from whom modern Frisians descend.

The lands inhabited by Frisians are today known as Frisia and they stretch throughout the Wadden Sea region from the northern Netherlands to north-western Germany.

"[7] Sax set out to collect knowledge and historical maps about North Frisia and published his research in 1638 as a parchment volume.

However, Dutch replaced Frisian first as the administrative language in 1498, and later as the cultural lingua franca after Frisia was incorporated in 1579 into the Union of Utrecht.

In the latter half of the 18th century, however, the Netherlands increasingly began to assert its own nationalism and centralised governance to the detriment of Frisian autonomy.

In the High Middle Ages, Frisians, who then formed a free confederation, used this alleged history for political purposes by legitimising armed resistance to domination, as was seen in the Battle of Warns.

[2] In the 19th century, however, after Frisia had been subsumed into the Sovereign Principality of the United Netherlands, Frisians compensated for their loss of political autonomy with a new-found cultural nationalism.

[3] Historiography has also played a key role, particularly in earlier times, as it was in the medieval past that an example of a free Frisian polity could be found.

This thirst for historical study was satisfied in part through publications such as the Frisian People's Almanac (Friesche Volksalmanak) which was primarily devoted to historiographic writings.

[11] Nonetheless, this region was historically diverse and, by the 19th century, was shared between Germans, Danes, and North Frisians primarily.

In the context of 19th century nationalism, the region was the subject of the so-called Schleswig-Holstein Question, and although it was mainly a dispute between Germany and Denmark, North Frisians were also caught in the socio-political crossfire.

[11] Petersen argued that Frisians had lost their national pride by excessively adopting foreign traditions and being taught by their invaders to look down upon their own as "provincial" and "anachronistic."

[16][better source needed] In the Dutch province of Friesland, the West Frisian language is spoken by around 74% and understood by around 94% of the inhabitants.

The South Schleswig Voters' Association was founded in 1948 and advocates for both the Frisian and Danish minorities of the state of Schleswig-Holstein in Germany.