Bovensmilde is a village in the Netherlands' province of
Drenthe
Drenthe () is a province of the Netherlands located in the northeastern part of the country. It is bordered by Overijssel to the south, Friesland to the west, Groningen to the north, and the German state of Lower Saxony to the east. As of Nov ...
. It is a part of the municipality of
Midden-Drenthe, and lies about southwest of
Assen.
History
The village was first mentioned in 1847 as Boven-Smilde (literally: Upper-Smilde), and refers to north-eastern part of the
peat excavation of
Smilde. Bovensmilde is a
linear settlement which started as a peat excavation village along the . It was sometimes referred to as Nieuw-Smilde (New Smilde).
Bovensmilde was home to 896 people in 1840.
The Dutch Reformed church is an aisleless church built between 1868 and 1869 in
neoclassic style. It has a wooden tower.
School hostage crisis
In 1949,
Indonesia became independent, and the
Royal Netherlands East Indies Army was disbanded. The islands of
Ambon
Ambon may refer to:
Places
* Ambon Island, an island in Indonesia
** Ambon, Maluku, a city on Ambon Island, the capital of Maluku province
** Governorate of Ambon, a colony of the Dutch East India Company from 1605 to 1796
* Ambon, Morbihan, a co ...
,
Buru, and
Seram had fought on side of the Netherlands. They were opposed to a
Java-dominated Indonesia, and proclaimed the
Republic of South Maluku which resulted in an attack by Indonesia. In 1951, 12,000 refugees from South Maluku were temporarily resettled in the Netherlands. They started to feel betrayed, because it developed into permanent exile.
On 23 May 1977, four armed Moluccans
occupied an elementary school in Bovensmilde and took 105 children and five teachers as hostages. After five days the children were released. On 11 June, the five remaining teachers were freed when the school was stormed by a Dutch army tank, and the hostage takers were apprehended.
References
{{Authority control
Midden-Drenthe
Populated places in Drenthe