AP European History
AP European History
For all of France’s greatness, its small neighbor to the northeast posed a challenge by being different in almost every possible way. The seven northern provinces of the Netherlands (or United Provinces, officially the Dutch Republic after 1648) became Europe’s leading commercial power in the first half of the 17th century. How did this nation of about 1 million people with few natural endowments threaten powerful France? First, the Dutch made efficient use of their resources. Land was recovered from the sea by use of dams and dikes and was then organized into polders for purposes of diverting water. After 1580, the Dutch moved into Portuguese markets in the East Indies and South America, establishing colonial outposts and reaping huge profits with their joint-stock companies. Second, the Dutch set themselves up as the “middlemen of Europe” by ignoring the prevailing mercantilist philosophy and using their fleet of maneuverable flyboats (or fluyts) to trade with all nations and their colonies. It didn’t hurt that the Netherlands lay astride important trade routes in the Baltic and Atlantic. Amsterdam served as an entrepot city, where ships were efficiently uploaded and offloaded with goods (much like a modem computer file server), as well as the financial center of Europe, what with its Bank of Amsterdam and the Stock Exchange. Merchants played a key role in the Netherlands, and their activities drew investment and trade from allover Europe. Finally, the Netherlands practiced religious toleration, attracting Huguenot refugees from France, Jews, small Protestant denominations, and those fleeing the Inquisition in Spain. These talented minorities lent their business acumen and craftsmanship to the flourishing Dutch economy.
The period 1550-1650 marked the Dutch Golden Age. Its “embarrassment of riches” fueled an outpouring of cultural activity, which, unlike in France, focused on themes of middle-class domestic life, nature, and science. Talented painters, such as Jan Vermeer (1632-1675), Judith Leyster (1609-1660), Frans Hals (1588-1666), and Rembrandt von Rijn (1606-1669), reflected the Dutch preoccupation with light and shadow, natural landscapes, still lifes, domestic scenes, and group portraits. René Descartes (1596-1650) and Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677) found a home for their unorthodox philosophies in the Netherlands when they couldn’t elsewhere. Such economic and cultural achievements attracted the envy of the Netherlands’ larger neighbors.
Internal strife and external threat posed a problem for the Dutch. Constitutionally, the Netherlands were a loosely connected federation of seven provinces that often jealously guarded their liberties, but in times of war relied on leadership from the House of Orange in Holland. Because of continual threats to their security, the other six provinces elected William of Orange (later king of England) in 1673 the hereditary stadholder of the Netherlands, though the House of Orange never succeeded in creating a strong centralized monarchy. Given their inherent limitations, it was probably only a matter of time before the Netherlands was surpassed by its rivals. A major turning point proved to be the Anglo-Dutch Naval Wars, fought in three phases between 1652 and 1674 over the English Navigation Acts (1651, 1660), which attempted to restrict Dutch trade with England’s colonies. Though the Dutch survived the onslaught, it seriously undercut their commercial power and set the stage for their later conflict with Louis XIV.