An outline, era by era

Dutch Republic

Golden Age and global trade

Early Modern Era · ~1500 – ~1800

The Dutch Republic, formally the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands, was a federation of provinces in the north-western Low Countries that existed from 1579 to 1795. It grew out of a long revolt against Spanish Habsburg rule, and its leading province, Holland, and its great city, Amsterdam, shaped much of its politics. It was unusual in Europe for having no king, being governed by provincial and city assemblies and a loose national body, the States General.

The seventeenth century is called the Dutch Golden Age. The Republic became a leading commercial power, with a huge merchant fleet, powerful trading companies such as the Dutch East India Company, an advanced banking and stock market in Amsterdam, and trading posts and colonies from Asia to the Atlantic. It also became a centre of painting, science and printing, and was known for relative religious tolerance. From the late seventeenth century it declined in relative strength against Britain and France, and it fell to French revolutionary armies in 1795.

Things happened, and the rest is history

  1. The Union of Utrecht and the Dutch Revolt

    Event

    What happened

    In 1566 and 1568 resistance to Philip II's rule, over taxes, privileges and religion, turns into open war in the Netherlands, led by William of Orange. In 1579 the northern provinces form the Union of Utrecht, a defensive alliance. In 1581 the States General formally renounce Philip II in the Act of Abjuration.

    The rest is history

    The union became the basis of the later Republic, a state of sovereign provinces with no monarch. The war with Spain continued, with pauses, for decades. Spain only recognised Dutch independence in 1648, in the Peace of Münster. William of Orange was assassinated in 1584, but his family remained central to Dutch politics.

    Sources

    1. BookIsrael, Jonathan I. The Dutch Republic: Its Rise, Greatness, and Fall, 1477-1806. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995.
    2. BookParker, Geoffrey. The Dutch Revolt. London: Allen Lane, 1977.

  2. The fall of Antwerp and the move of trade north

    Event

    What happened

    In 1585 Spanish forces under the Duke of Parma take Antwerp, then the greatest commercial city of the Low Countries, after a long siege. The Dutch hold the Scheldt estuary closed to shipping afterwards. Many merchants, skilled workers and Protestants leave for the northern provinces, above all Amsterdam.

    The rest is history

    Historians widely agree that this migration strengthened Amsterdam's trade, finance and manufacturing in the following decades. How large the effect was compared with other causes, such as the Dutch lead in shipping, is debated. Amsterdam rose to be the main European entrepôt by the early 1600s.

    Sources

    1. BookIsrael, Jonathan I. Dutch Primacy in World Trade, 1585-1740. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989.
    2. BookParker, Geoffrey. The Dutch Revolt. London: Allen Lane, 1977.

  3. The founding of the Dutch East India Company

    Event

    What happened

    In 1602 the States General grant a charter to the United East India Company (VOC), merging several rival companies that had sent ships to Asia since 1595. The charter gives it a monopoly on Dutch trade east of the Cape of Good Hope, and the right to make treaties and wage war. Its capital is raised by selling shares to the public.

    The rest is history

    The VOC became one of the largest commercial enterprises of its age, with bases such as Batavia, founded in 1619. It dominated the spice trade for much of the century. Its shares traded in Amsterdam, helping create an early stock market. The company was dissolved in 1799 after years of financial trouble.

    Sources

    1. BookGaastra, Femme S. The Dutch East India Company: Expansion and Decline. Zutphen: Walburg Pers, 2003.
    2. BookIsrael, Jonathan I. Dutch Primacy in World Trade, 1585-1740. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989.

  4. The Twelve Years' Truce and the Arminian crisis

    Event

    What happened

    In 1609 Spain and the Republic agree the Twelve Years' Truce, ending open war for the time being. Soon after, a dispute between followers of the theologians Arminius and Gomarus splits the Reformed Church and the political leaders. In 1618 Maurice of Nassau arrests Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, and in 1619 Oldenbarnevelt is executed after a trial.

    The rest is history

    The Synod of Dordrecht in 1618 to 1619 condemned the Arminian view. The affair shows the tension between the powerful provincial regents and the House of Orange, which would recur through the century. The war with Spain resumed in 1621 and merged with the wider conflicts of the Thirty Years' War.

    Sources

    1. BookIsrael, Jonathan I. The Dutch Republic: Its Rise, Greatness, and Fall, 1477-1806. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995.
    2. BookTex, Jan den. Oldenbarnevelt. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1973.

  5. The Peace of Münster, 1648

    Event

    What happened

    In January 1648 Spain and the Dutch Republic sign a treaty at Münster, part of the wider negotiations that end the Thirty Years' War. Spain recognises the Republic as a sovereign state. The treaty confirms Dutch control of the Scheldt closure and the Dutch hold on overseas gains.

    The rest is history

    The peace ended about eighty years of conflict, so the war is often called the Eighty Years' War. It brought the Republic wide recognition in Europe. It also left the question of the Orange stadtholdership open, and in 1650 the death of William II began the first stadtholderless period.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryTreaty of Münster between Spain and the United Provinces. Treaty, 30 January 1648 (ratified 15 May 1648).
    2. BookIsrael, Jonathan I. The Dutch Republic and the Hispanic World, 1606-1661. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982.

  6. The Anglo-Dutch Wars

    Event

    What happened

    Between 1652 and 1674 the Republic fights three wars with England over trade and the seas. In 1652 the English Navigation Act of the year before is among the causes of the first war. In June 1667 Dutch ships sail up the Medway and burn English ships at Chatham.

    The rest is history

    The wars were fought mainly at sea and strained Dutch finances. The Treaty of Breda in 1667 gave the Dutch Suriname, while England kept New Amsterdam, which became New York. After 1688 the two powers were allies, as William III of Orange became king of England.

    Sources

    1. BookRommelse, Gijs. The Second Anglo-Dutch War (1665-1667). Hilversum: Verloren, 2006.
    2. BookIsrael, Jonathan I. The Dutch Republic: Its Rise, Greatness, and Fall, 1477-1806. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995.

  7. The disaster year 1672

    Event

    What happened

    In 1672 France, England, and two German bishoprics attack the Republic. French armies overrun much of the country, and Dutch defenders open the dikes to flood the Holland water line. In August a mob murders the leading statesman Johan de Witt and his brother Cornelis at The Hague, and William III becomes stadtholder.

    The rest is history

    William III led the Dutch resistance and by 1678 the Peace of Nijmegen ended the war without major Dutch losses. The crisis showed the Republic's vulnerability to larger neighbours. William later became king of England in 1688, linking the two countries' interests against Louis XIV.

    Sources

    1. BookRowen, Herbert H. John de Witt: Statesman of the True Freedom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986.
    2. BookIsrael, Jonathan I. The Dutch Republic: Its Rise, Greatness, and Fall, 1477-1806. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995.

  8. The Batavian Revolution and the end of the Republic

    Event

    What happened

    In January 1795 French revolutionary armies cross the frozen rivers into the Netherlands. Dutch Patriots, supported by the French, proclaim the Batavian Republic, and the stadtholder William V flees to England. The old system of provincial sovereignty is replaced by a centralised state.

    The rest is history

    This ended the Republic of the Seven United Provinces after more than two centuries. The Batavian Republic was a French client state and was followed by the Kingdom of Holland in 1806. A Kingdom of the Netherlands was founded in 1815.

    Sources

    1. BookSchama, Simon. Patriots and Liberators: Revolution in the Netherlands, 1780-1813. London: Collins, 1977.

  9. Tulip mania

    Popular belief

    The legend

    In the 1630s the Dutch are said to go mad for tulips, with ordinary people trading houses and fortunes for single bulbs. In February 1637 the market collapses and thousands are ruined. It is told as the first great speculative bubble.

    The rest is history

    Contracts for tulip bulbs did rise sharply in price in the winter of 1636 to 1637, then fell. Modern historians such as Anne Goldgar find little evidence of widespread ruin, and few records of famous tales such as a sailor eating a valuable bulb. The best prices were paid by a small group of wealthy buyers, and the economic effect appears to have been limited. Much of the popular image comes from pamphlets written soon afterwards, which were moralising satires, and from Charles Mackay's 1841 book.

    Sources

    1. BookGoldgar, Anne. Tulipmania: Money, Honor, and Knowledge in the Dutch Golden Age. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007.
    2. BookMackay, Charles. Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions. London: Richard Bentley, 1841.

  10. The boy with his finger in the dike

    Folk tale

    The legend

    A small Dutch boy sees a leak in a dike on his way home. He puts his finger in the hole and stays all night in the cold until help arrives, saving the town from flooding.

    The rest is history

    The story is not Dutch folklore. It comes from the American writer Mary Mapes Dodge, in her 1865 novel Hans Brinker, or The Silver Skates, where it appears as a tale told within the book. The Dutch did not know it until later, when it was adopted partly for tourists. Real Dutch dikes were maintained by water boards, which date back to the Middle Ages, and not by single children.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryDodge, Mary Mapes. Hans Brinker, or The Silver Skates. Novel, New York: James O'Kane, 1865.
    2. BookSchama, Simon. The Embarrassment of Riches: An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age. London: Collins, 1987.

  11. Amsterdam bought Manhattan for 24 dollars

    Popular belief

    The legend

    In 1626 Peter Minuit, director of the Dutch colony of New Netherland, is said to have bought Manhattan island from Native Americans for trinkets worth 24 dollars. It is told as the greatest bargain in history.

    The rest is history

    The only contemporary record is a 1626 letter from the Dutch merchant Pieter Schaghen, which says the island was purchased for 60 guilders. The 24 dollar figure comes from a nineteenth-century conversion. Historians doubt that both sides understood the transaction the same way, since Lenape ideas of land use differed from European ideas of ownership. Which group was actually involved is also uncertain.

    Sources

    1. PrimarySchaghen, Pieter. Letter to the States General, 5 November 1626. National Archives, The Hague.
    2. BookShorto, Russell. The Island at the Center of the World. New York: Doubleday, 2004.

  12. Dutch tolerance as a land of full religious freedom

    Popular belief

    The legend

    The Dutch Republic is often described as a haven where everyone could worship freely, welcoming Jews, Catholics, and dissenters of every kind.

    The rest is history

    The Republic was more tolerant than most of Europe, and Sephardic Jews and French Huguenots found refuge there. Yet the Reformed Church was the public church, and Catholics, Jews and others worshipped in private or in hidden churches that were tolerated, not legally equal. Rules varied between towns and over time, and enforcement was often lax in practice. Historians describe this as a pragmatic tolerance, not modern religious freedom.

    Sources

    1. BookIsrael, Jonathan I. The Dutch Republic: Its Rise, Greatness, and Fall, 1477-1806. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995.
    2. BookFrijhoff, Willem, and Marijke Spies. Dutch Culture in a European Perspective: 1650, Hard-Won Unity. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.

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