The Dutch World

1
The Dutch World

• Section 4.18

2
Questions to Consider

• Describe Dutch cultural and commercial
  accomplishments in the 17th century.
• How do the paintings of Rembrandt, Vermeer, and
  Moreelse illustrate Dutch artistic achievements
  and Dutch intellectual, commercial and colonial
  enterprises?
• Explain the nature of government and of political
  life in the 17th century Dutch Republic.
• How did the Dutch and English come into conflict
  in the 17th century? With what results?
• How did the Dutch become involved in conflict
  with Louis XIV With what results?

3
Dutch Civilization and Government

• Republic of the Netherlands was the most wealthy,
  flourishing, and most important in international
  diplomacy and culture (1650)
• most bourgeoisie of Europe
• Wealth helped to avoid direct war

4
Cultural achievements

• Literature
• Hugo Grotius
• Law of War and Peace (pioneering work on
  international law)
• Baruch Spinoza Baruch Spinoza
• Son of Portuguese Jewish refugees
• wrote philosophy on human conduct, church and
  state
• Leeuwenhoek biological science
• Huyghens improved the telescope, wave theory of
  light, saw rings of Saturn
• Anna Maria van Schurman education of women in
  The Learned Maid or Whether a Maid May Be Called
  A Scholar

5
Cultural achievements

• Painting
• Jan Vermeer portrayed typical domestic scenes
  (Girl with the Pearl Earring)
• Rembrandt
• Masters of the Clothe Hall show businessmen and
  judges
• the men who are running the Republic
  (Calvinistic)
• burghers personal simplicity in the face of
  wealth

Vermeer, The Geographer
The Masters of Cloth Hall
6
Religion

• Religion
• Adopted tolerance
• Calvinists split orthodox regroup stay split
  by 1632
• Arminius questioned predestination
• Catholics granted rights
• Jews were welcomed
• Christian sects found refuge
• Pilgrims

Arminius
7
Dutch Exploration

• Controlled most of Europes shipping
• 10 thousand ships in 1600
• Carriers between France, Spain, England, and the
  Baltic
• 1602 founded the Dutch East India Company
• began to displace the Portuguese
• Founded Jakarta (Batavia)
• Trade with Japan (isolationist) achieved by 1600
• Expelled all other Europeans
• 1612 New Amsterdam
• 1652 Cape of Good Hope
• Afrikaners

8
The Bank of Amsterdam (1609)

• European money was chaotic
• kings, cities or private individuals minted own
  coins
• often debased with other alloys (uncertain
  values)
• Amsterdam
• accepted mixed monies
• accessed their value
• exchanged European currency for gold florins
• known and unchanging weight
• Florins became the currency of trade
• Amsterdam is the financial center of Europe until
  1790s

9
Dutch Government

• High Mightinesses
• delegates from 7 provinces
• made up estates general passed on interests of
  the provinces
• Stadholder
• elected representative (executive) of the
  province
• but none for the provinces as a whole
• Had much status but the burghers were running the
  financial affairs of the country
• When the country was threatened the status of the
  stadholder went up
• stadholder had not been selected for 22 years
  (since William II died in 1650) as peace prevailed

10
William of Orange/King William III

• changes/expands the role of the stadholder
• B. 1650
• Son of William, Prince of Orange, and Mary Stuart
  (daughter of Charles I)
• small, stocky, grave, determined
• Multilingual
• spoke English, French, Dutch, German, Latin and
  Spanish fluently
• Disliked pomp and circumstance, flattery
• Preferred to focus on the affairs of state
• 1677 married Mary Stuart (b.1662, daughter of
  James II and Anne Hyde, King Charles II of
  Englands niece)
• Louis XIV complete opposite and implacable enemy

11
Foreign Affairs Conflict with English/French

• 1651 England passes the Navigation Act
• Ships carrying goods to England or Englands
  colonies must be from England or the country of
  origin not middle party
• aimed directly at the Dutch
• Dutch must salute English when in the English
  Channel

12
Foreign Affairs Conflict with English/French

• 1652 1674 three wars take place
• English take New Amsterdam
• 1667 Louis XIV takes the Spanish Netherlands
  (southern provinces) and the French Comte

Sites of the battles of the First Anglo-Dutch
War.
13
Foreign Affairs Conflict with English/French

• Dutch form the Triple Alliance with the English
  and the Swedes
• Louis XIV drops claim to Spanish Netherlands
  briefly
• 1673 Louis XIV took three provinces of the
  Spanish Netherlands
• Dutch are unable to defend them against the
  French army
• What should they do?

14
Dutch and the Balance of Power

• 1673 Dutch make William III stadholder and make
  the office hereditary
• William III moved the Dutch toward absolutism and
  works to centralize his power with limited
  success
• William III develops a new alliance
• Denmark, Brandenburg, Austria, and Spain
• Dutch and Hapsburg alliance illustrates the
  complete shift to balance of power politics

15
Dutch and the Balance of Power

• Treaty of Nimwegaen (1678)
• unstable peace is made with France
• Spain loses the French Comte to France
• HRE loses city-states in Flanders to France
• Dutch provinces are preserved
• 1689 William III becomes king of England
• Fate of European affairs turn as England becomes
  the sword of Williams balance of power political
  strategies