Age of Absolutism: The Golden Age of the Dutch Republic

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Age of AbsolutismThe Golden Age of the Dutch
Republic

• AP European

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Dutch Republic

• economic wealth stock market, banking, Amsterdam
  rises to forefront in trade
• government Republic (States General) gained
  independence from Spain in 1648 (P of W)
  practiced international diplomacy
• other republics at this time Swiss cantons,
  Genoa, Venice and England for a time
• national identity and cultural, intellectual
  achievements

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The Dutch Republic

• Hooge Moogende delegates of seven provinces
• no head delegate but several provinces elected
  the same man as stadholder (leading army
  maintaining order) usually head of the house of
  Orange, William II (d. 1650) no new stadholder
  for 22 years
• affairs generally managed by burghers

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William II of Orange

• born 1650
• grave and learned (Dutch, German English, French/
  Italian, Spanish Latin)
• Dutch Calvinist, extremely pious
• hated Louis XIV
• married Mary Stuart (England) in 1677

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William III of Orange

• Son of William II and Mary Stuart
• Married Mary II (yes, his first cousin) in 1689

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Stuart Family Tree
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Religious Tolerance

• Dutch Calvinists divide
• moderate group toned down predestination
  (Arminian Calvinists) theologian Leyden (aka
  Arminius)
• Calvinist Synod 1618 in Dordrecht to denounce
  Arminian Calvinists orthodoxy won Grotius fled
• but by 1632 toleration
• large Catholic minority Jews Mennonites welcome

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Commerce Colonialism

• major European freight carrier between Spain,
  France, England, and the Baltic
• 1660 10,000 ships throughout 7th century owned
  majority of European shipping
• 1609 founded the Bank of Amsterdam
  established the most sought after currency (gold
  florins)
• Amsterdam financial center of Europe until French
  Revolution

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Commerce Colonialism

• 1600 reach Japan, after 1641 Dutch sole
  Europeans in Japan
• 1602 Dutch East India Company
• 1612 Manhattan Island 1616 Willem Schouten
  Jacob le Maire round Cape Horn (Kaap Hoorn)
• 1619 Batavia, Java (Jakarta)
• 1621 Dutch West India Company
  Spanish/Portuguese Americas
• 1652 captured the Cape of Good Hope (South
  Africa)

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Dutch Trade Map
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Troubled Times for Dutch Republic

• 1651 Oliver Cromwells England passes the
  Navigation Act all goods brought into England
  must be carried by ships of products origin
• 3 sea wars btw. England Dutch 1652-1674
• England annexed New Amsterdam

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Troubled Times for Dutch Republic

• land wars with France
• Louis XIV 1667 makes a move for Spanish
  Netherlands Franche-Comté
• 1672 Louis XIV tries again and succeeds, also
  gets 5 of 7 northern provinces
• 1672 provinces vote to appoint William III, King
  of Netherlands

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William III of Orange returns

• desired absolute monarchy, he attempted to
• centralized/consolidated government
• revoked feudal liberties
• freed himself of constitutional checks
• failure! Dutch Republic remained strong until 1795

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William III of Orange returns

• What to do about Louis XIV?
• build alliance with Brandenburg (Germany),
  Denmark, Austrian Spanish Habsburgs
• Success! Treaty of Nimwegen 1678
• Louis XIV gets Franche-Comté and towns in
  Flanders but not the Dutch Republic
• 1689 William becomes king of England
• England becomes part of continental European
  affairs

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Cultural Advances

• international law Hugo Grotius Law of War and
  Peace
• "I saw in the whole Christian world a license of
  fighting at which even barbarous nations might
  blush. Wars were begun on trifling pretexts or
  none at all, and carried on without any reference
  of law, Divine or human.
• philosophy Spinoza (pantheism)
• scientists Leeuwenhoek Swammerdam
  microscopic world, biology Huyghens physics
  mathematics, telescopic improvements, wave theory
  of light, pendulum clock

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Cultural Advances

• scholarly writing Bekker World Bewitched
  debunked witchcraft myth Anna Maria van Schurman
  The Learned Maid or Whether a Maid May Be Called
  a Scholar
• Dutch Realism Frans Hal, Jan Vermeer, Rembrandt

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Discussion Question

• How do the illustrations on following slide
  demonstrate (a) Dutch artistic achievements, (b)
  Dutch intellectual, commercial, and colonial
  activities?

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Rubens
Vermeer
Hals
Rembrandt