the golden age of the dutch republic

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, think Cromwell)

Build strong national identity Great cultural & intellectual

achievements

State religion = Calvinism› BUT Dutch Calvinism does NOT control the

state policy no one majority religion

› large Catholic minority – private worship only› Lutherans› Mennonites welcome› Jews

Calvinist calling aids in the economic miracle

a. The Dutch Republic was founded by Calvinists who built an intolerant Calvinist theocracy.

b. Calvinist precepts of leading a God-fearing, productive, thrifty life had no direct impact on the Dutch.

Rembrandt’s The Syndics of the Clothmakers Guild, 1662

Vermeer’s The Geographer, 1668

Economic wealth: banking, stock market, international trade

Population and wage increases Grain from Poland = ability to focus on

other agricultural products’› Butter, cheese, hops, livestock, fishing

Other industries boom› Land reclamation, › urban construction work, › printing and engraving, › shipbuilding

c. Agriculture and fishing served only as a nutritious food supply in the Dutch Republic.

d. The Dutch Republic had a primarily agricultural economy with little interest in other industries.

major European freight carrier between Spain, France, England, and the Baltic

1660 = 10,000 ships; throughout 17th century owned majority of European shipping

1609 – founded the Bank of Amsterdam & established the most sought after currency (gold Dutch guilder)› Amsterdam financial center of Europe until

French Revolution Stock Market is born in Amsterdam

~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)

e. The Dutch Republic had no trade contact with Spain due to their long on-going political and religious battles.

f. The Dutch Republic had no interest in establishing trade in East Asia.

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.“

Scientists: Leeuwenhoek & Swammerdam –

microscopic world, biology Huyghens – physics & mathematics,

telescopic improvements, wave theory of light, pendulum clock

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