Section 4.18

The Dutch World

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?

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

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

• 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

Cultural achievements

Vermeer, The Geographer

The Masters of Cloth Hall

• 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

Religion

• Controlled most of Europe’s 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

Dutch Exploration

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

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

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 England’s niece)

• Louis XIV complete opposite and implacable enemy

Foreign Affairs: Conflict with English/French• 1651 England passes

the Navigation Act– Ships carrying

goods to England or England’s 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

• 1652 – 1674 three wars take place–English take New

Amsterdam• 1667 Louis XIV takes the

Spanish Netherlands (southern provinces) and the French Comte

Foreign Affairs: Conflict with English/French

Sites of the battles of the First Anglo-Dutch War.

• 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?

Foreign Affairs: Conflict with English/French

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

• 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 William’s balance of power political strategies

Dutch and the Balance of Power