Lyceum & Book Club - Week 16 - Lecture Notes on the Netherlands

The Netherlands is in a lowland river delta on the North Sea. As you would expect with a coastal country - the people have traditionally made their living off the sea. This region is called the Low Country because the land is low and flat, close (or below) sea level. (Until 1830, the Netherlands included Belgium)

The problem for the Low Countries is location, location, location. It was a source of income from its trade as sea merchants and/or it was a strategic location militarily. As a result, everyone wanted to own it.

First as a militarized zone by the Roman Empire, then as outlying part of the Frankish Roman Empire, then controlled by the Duke of Burgundy, and later, by Charles V of Spain as part of the Holy Roman Empire which his son, Philip II of Spain inherited after him.

And the entities that sought to control and use the Netherlands for themselves were always someone outside the Netherlands.

And not one of those outside entities cared about the people who lived on the land they wanted to occupy; who brought in the income they coveted.

By Philip II, they had had enough. And when they finally were able to achieve the means, they were able to successfully push back.

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A national identity, rather than an identity tied to a person’s hometown, really only developed after 1433, when the Duke of Burgundy united the Low Country region in what is called the Bulgarian period (1433 - 1567).

Because the Burgundian rulers had the wherewithal to defend the Dutch trading interests, the Dutch fleets were able to break away from the stranglehold the Hanseatic League held. As a result, Amsterdam grew and in the 15th century became the primary trading port in Europe for grain from the Baltic region, distributing grain to Belgium,Northern France and England.

By 1500, more than half the people lived in cities as opposed to rural setting. The Netherland countryside was no longer able to produce foodstuffs, like grain, sufficiently because land drainage had caused the peat of the former wetlands to sink to a level that was too low for drainage to be maintained. Trade(shipping and transport) was vital to its survival.

The merchant ships of the Netherlands,(mainly Holland) were just becoming a prominent player on the world seas. At this point the big trade centers were in southern Netherlands (Belgium).

One of the hallmarks of the Netherland society is that it was less divided by economic class disparity than you saw in other countries at this time. (And that remains so today)

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The territory passed from the Burgundy House to the Habsburg House when Duke Charles the Bold’s daughter, Mary of Burgundy, married Maximilian, the son of Habsburg Emperor Frederick III. They had a son - Philip I of Castile and when Mary died in 1482, all of the Burgundy lands, including the Netherlands, went to him. Maximilian ruled it as regent for his minor son (who was only 4 at the time of her death).

Now we start on the Habsburg Netherland period.

Maximilian faced Flemish revolts from 1482 - 1492, before he brought the area under control. The issue was that the cities of the Netherlands had previously obtained concessions of greater autonomy from Mary and now Maximilian threatened to curtail them. So we already see the foundation of a continuing quest for autonomy from outside rulers.

Later on Philip I of Castile had a son, Charles V, who inherited the Habsburg Netherlands in 1506 at the age of six. Charles V was born in the Netherlands and spent his youth there under the care of his aunt, Margaret of Austria. Under her regency, the Netherlands were heavily taxed to pay for Habsburg military campaigns.

Charles V engaged in a constant stream of military campaigns to expand his empire. So he was always either fighting for new territory or fighting to keep what he had already won.

And France featured in a lot of that conflict.

Because the Low Country was right next door to France, it became the ideal spot from which to engage France in battle - housing troops, etc. This was not appreciated by the locals in the Netherlands.

But at least Charles maintained a connection to the Netherlands, having Brussels as one of his court capitals, and he spoke the language, he knew the culture, having spent the first 17 years of his life there.

It was perhaps the only thing that kept things from exploding even while the actions he took to streamline the operation of the Netherlands into a very centralized organization and make it more efficient to his needs created an ever greater river of resentment.

Previously each province had had its own government and courts that operated by their own set of traditions and rights dating back centuries, controlled by the local nobles. And within those provinces, many of the cities also had their own set of legal rights and local government that was usually controlled by the merchants who were growing ever more powerful as Dutch trade came into prominence.

It was highly inefficient.

You can see why Charles V would want to institute a single unified structure of the whole. (And in the process restrict any growing sectors of power within the population.)

The thing is, Charles brought in outsiders, Spanish officials under his strict direction, rather than utilize the local nobility or merchant class, and both of those groups who welded local power, resented having their circle of power reduced, which of course was the whole purpose. But the Spanish officials exacerbated the issue by totally ignoring both local customs and the nobility and local officials whom they treated as beneath them. They did not speak the language, they knew nothing of the people or culture and had no interest in learning.

What they viewed as the proper response of a greater power toward entities that could threaten the state agenda (and their own position, if they failed) was to show those locals who the boss was.

It created a strong sense of unified nationalism and anti-Spanish hatred along with anger over ever growing taxes that were needed to pay for Charles’ wars.

The people of the Netherlands had been saying for almost a hundred years now that they did not want to be ruled by outsiders who callously shaped them to their own needs disregarding the people who lived there.

Charles V abdicated in 1556 and his son, Philip II of Spain inherited the Netherlands.

This began the Spanish Netherlands period.

Philip II moved his capital that had been in the Netherlands to Spain, so all personal connection / ability for direct communication was now gone. Leaving behind a stricter taxation policy and less autonomy. It was that combination, more than any religious difference that created resentment. Religion just because a vehicle for expressing & venting that anger and devolved into an entrenched US vs THEM. The tool that aided in united the region against an outside entity also divided the population that had once been united against that same outside entity.

But let’s also note two other factors that came into play at this same juncture in history that have nothing to do with religion. The situation was unsustainable no matter what - people want to have a say in their governance. No people voluntarily choose to be a subjugated people whose needs are subordinated to another group. But the juncture of these other two factors pushed events to the brink.

The first was a rising economy and empowered local merchant class in the Netherlands who felt they had both the right and had the means to stand up to the status quo.

It is not the poor and downtrodden who start revolutions. It is the sector that feel they inherently deserve the same privileges as those above them, and/or feel they were promised the same or had been given such rights as the ruling class and those promises were pulled back, that start revolutions.

Revolutions don’t happen on the way down because no one wants to believe it will go too far and they are busy trying to adapt and figure how to work within the system that is now in place and when they reach the bottom, they are just trying to survive. Revolutions happen when those who are ruled get their feet under them so they can stand and fight successfully.

And the merchant class of the Netherlands fit both of those criteria.

(As an aside, this is always the conundrum those that rule over a subjugated population whose resources and rights of participation in the public square are truncated or denied, always face. To achieve the same degree of deterrence from revolt, you have to squeeze harder. But you risk destroying your own resources of labour and funding or having that policy spread to the general population, making it harder to sustain and eventually you risk smothering the whole of society so there is no new lifeblood of ideas flowing in / where all of your resources are spent on maintaining that blanket of suppression and it weakens the whole, giving an opening for some other entity to come in. But if you lift the pressure, you run the risk of giving the subjugated time to breath and gather their feet under them to once again demand participation in all sectors of the public square as equals.)

The second - crop failure, famine and recession during the 1560s created a crisis, but it was the noncaring attitude of the Spanish governing entities that sealed the ferocity of negative feeling toward the Spanish amongst the whole of the population. It was this series of events and the blundering political stupidity of Spanish response that created the spark of revolution and finally everything blew up.

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The Dutch were one of the dominant world powers in the 17th century due to their success in the Atlantic Trade with the new world, primarily in the slave trade. The chief rival were the British. Both of these countries faced fewer restrictions placed on their merchant class than other nations at this time due to the fact they did not have an absolute monarchy to deal with, which aided their ability to operate more efficiently in the market.

Before the Dutch Revolt (1566 - 1648) aka the 80 Year War, the King (Habsburgs - first Charles V of Spain and then his son, Philip II of Spain) controlled Dutch trade. They used trade for the benefit of Spain’s agenda, which included the making of money, but its decisions regarding trade, who to trade with, what to trade, were often through a political lens rather than through a mercantile one.

And of course, the king made sure the merchants who actually ran the business did not have any say or influence in those decisions for fear it would empower the Dutch merchant to the detriment of Spanish royal power.

Aside from the core issue of forever being under the control of some outside power to the benefit of that outside power, this aspect of merchants, who knew they held the ability to have power in their own right and were being denied what they felt was their rightful elevated position probably did more than any other issue to bring about revolt. The poor know they are always going to be used by someone else, but the rising merchant class exercised authority in their own right through an enterprise that was rising and to be denied after having a taste of power was doubly hard.

And then you had the fact that the king extracted more than his share from their profits through taxation which he needed to pay for his wars. He could not afford to lose such a gem or the whole of his project would collapse. For the king, it was a life or death matter to maintain the status quo and so he could not afford to give even an inch for fear of losing everything. (Which of course, then meant he lost everything anyway, but at such a high cost)

Nobody likes paying taxes, but they pay them for the betterment of the whole, but no one wants to be taxed unfairly and to be disparaged in their worthiness while they are doing the giving. Which goes back to the underlying (being controlled and used by outsiders for someone’s agenda other than their own) issue.

Religion was the vehicle, merchants expectation of increased power was the driver, but independence from outside control was the engine. And the resentment that fed that engine was the burden of unfair high taxation that went to the benefit of outside interests.

When the Dutch revolted in 1566 and were no longer under the thumb of the king of Spain - all of a sudden, their merchant transport and shipping business took off. Not just shipping expanded; agriculture and public finance expanded as well. The Netherlands not only gained power and control, they prospered with the merchants at the head leading them on. This framing and the success it engendered set the pattern for the nation’s future.

There was little restriction or regulation placed upon merchants’ activities; and that “nothing is out of bounds if it makes money” ethic was a great part of their success.

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In 1576, unpaid Spanish soldiers mutinied and went on a rampage in Antwerp in south Netherlands, which was not only the largest city in the Netherlands, but the financial center of trade. They massacred thousands of citizens and burned down hundreds of houses. As a result, when the northern (mainly Protestant) provinces formed the Union of Utrecht in 1579, Antwerp joined them.

In 1581 came the Declaration of Independence and the forming of the Republic of Seven United Netherlands or simply - The Dutch Republic.

Philip II sent a flood of troops into the Netherlands in response, determined to retake the territory by force. The Dutch could not match the military might of Spain at that point in time and so the southern provinces of Flanders and Brabant, including Brussels were retaken by 1583. The Spanish troops besieged the city of Antwerp the next year in a vice so tight, so supplies could slip in. They lasted a year and one month and were forced to surrender. The Protestant population was given four years to settle their affairs before they would be expelled.

Out of a population of 100,000, 60,000 were Protestant, and many of those were among the most skilled tradesmen Antwerp had. Which laid the commercial foundation for the “Dutch Golden Age” of the northern United Provinces.

From wiki:

When the Spanish captured this port, it became a turning point in the war. Prior to the Fall of Antwerp, Portuguese had been sending gold, ivory, sugar, and other products from the Atlantic to the main port in Antwerp.

Although the city returned to prosperity, the Dutch blockade of commercial shipping in the Scheldt remained in place and prevented the city recovering its former glory. The blockade was maintained for the next two centuries and was an important and traumatic element in the history of relations between the Netherlands and what was to become Belgium.

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To illustrate what the impact of the war had on the population, particularly with the expulsion and squeezing out of Protestants in the South:

Inhabitants Dutch cities : Mid 1560s > Around 1600 :

North :

Amsterdam : 30.000 > 65.000*

Delft : 15.000 > 20.000

Haarlem : 15.000 > 30.000

Leiden : 14.000 > 25.000

South :

Antwerp : 145.000 > 47.000

Brussels : 50.000 > 45.000

Ghent : 60.000 > 45.000

Lille : 60.000 > 33.000

* by 1650, the Amsterdam population had boomed to 140.000 inhabitants, by 1700 to 200.000.

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During the Revolt, Dutch trade was revolutionized, and the 16th century marked a considerable expansion of the Dutch economy. Several important modifications were made to both the military and commercial strategies. Before long, the Dutch had gained access to Asian and American trade centers.

Leading this drive to independence were merchants.

In 1590, the beginning of divergence between the South and North of Europe began to be noticeable, as well as the explosion of Dutch commerce and the early stages of Amsterdam growing as a large financial center. The growing Atlantic trade was edging out the once profitable Baltic route. With trade growing along this route and specialization prospering, the Dutch were ultimately victorious in their pursuits against the Habsburgs.

From 1590, there was a dramatic improvement in the Republic's economic circumstances. Commerce and shipping expanded enormously, as did the towns. As a result, the financial power of the states rapidly grew, and it was possible to improve the army vastly, both qualitatively, and quantitatively, within a short space of time. The army increased from 20,000 men in 1588 to 32,000 by 1595, and its artillery, methods of transportation, and training were transformed. By 1629, the Dutch were able to field an army of 77,000 men, 50 percent larger than the Spanish army of Flanders″

They did so particularly through conflict and specialization. Now we see the importance of competitive goods, the Dutch traded what was in demand and the strategy proved to be very favorable for them. They were long distance tradesmen and had some breathing space as far as trade regulations went, which also contributed to their growth. This is in comparison with the previous Habsburg restrictions. The Atlantic trade led to the enrichment of merchants, which resulted in the development of political institutions. Said institutions are responsible for constraining the power of the crown.

The United Provinces of the Netherlands were growing quickly when the truce was established (1609 - 1621). Their colonies spanned across five continents and their growth can be considered as what was ‘a new type of global trade and the formation of the world economy.’

The Dutch trade differed from its rivals in many ways. They paid close attention to the relation between risk and profit. If the potential profit was greater than the imposed risk, they were willing (and managed to) trade with their wartime enemies.

The middle class played a key role also; they had a large amount of capital accrued within. Due to the Netherlands deficiency in mineral affluence, they had to find another source of profit. They began specializing in competitive goods. Competitive goods are defined as: A production of goods that are not dependent on a particular climate, deposits, and can be produced anywhere in the world.These goods included, but were not limited to: Scandinavian wood, means for shipbuilding, iron, copper, wheat, rye, North Sea Fish, and English wool. The Dutch faced the pressure of competition with several growing competitors. The Dutch focused on their growing agriculture, their domination in continental trade markets, and their widely praised skills as seafarers.

Non-competitive goods are referred to as: goods that are produced in only one spot. Non-competitive goods include: sugar and tobacco from the Caribbean, tea, pepper, camphor, spices, sandalwood and teak wood from Southeast Asia, cinnamon and cloves from Ceylon, and Chinese and Japanese porcelain and silk. The Netherlands were becoming a melting pot for religious acceptation and variation. The goods they produced were affected by the religions of those who had migrated into their lands. The Dutch were able to overcome their Portuguese rival by manifesting such effort into the trade of these particular goods.

Some historians argue that sugar acted as the product that drove the expansion into the Atlantic by the Dutch. This trade pressured the Dutch to gain access to Brazil from South America.

In 1585, Phillip II gave permission to Dutch rebels to take ships to Brazil in order to conduct business as a favor to Spanish Merchants. They originally sent three ships. A few years later, 14 Dutch ships continued sailing to Brazil, carrying cargo for these Spanish merchants. In between times of war, these ships frequently had to stop at a neutral country mid-trip and adopt a new nationality for the time being.

By the late of the 1590s, approximately eighteen Dutch ships had gained access to Brazil. These ships would bring back mostly sugar, but also Brazilian wood, cotton, and ginger.

17th Century Dutch Trade

A truce that occurred amongst the Dutch Republic and Spain in 1609 opened up trade access to the Mediterranean to the Dutch. This was the first time Dutch ships had gained such access since they had entered into trade with Asia.

The Dutch East India Company was established in 1602. It is also referred to as the VOC. This company was a crucial tool used to control Dutch colonial and commercial trade affairs. Investors within the company were granted an allotted percentage of profits depending on the sum of the capital invested. With the help of this company, the Dutch expanded their occupation to Cape Town, Ceylon, and Malacca. They also established posts for trading in the latter two places. VOC imports into Europe consisted largely of spices, tea, coffee, drugs, perfumes, dyestuffs, sugar, and saltpeter. Half to two-thirds of the worth of Asian goods imported into Europe were accounted for in Dutch exports of precious metals.It wasn’t long before other nations caught onto this business and followed the Dutch trend. In the beginning of the 17th century, A round-trip from Europe to the East Indies during this time cost between thirty and thirty-two Euros per ton. Halfway through the 17th century, though, prices dropped to between sixteen and twenty-three euros per ton. The fall in price was due to the Dutch having to deal with Asian revolts in their local waters, building forts, conferring agreements, displaying the flag, and often keeping away their fellow European competitors. All of these conflicts occurred leading up to 1640. In the time following, the Dutch East India Company developed a smaller fleet of ships to deal with these problems.

During the truce, the Dutch also began producing their own tobacco. They had originally 'bartered' with the Indians for tobacco, but after they expanded to the West Indies they began to produce their own. Before long, the Dutch were on par with the Spaniards in terms of how much tobacco they made. This product trade also established Dutch connections with Virginia. A huge segment of trade of Virginia tobacco fell into the Dutch realm. At the beginning of the 17th century, the center of Northern European tobacco trade was located in Zeeland.

Still in the midst of the Thirty Years War, Phillip III attempted to prevent the Dutch from furthering their growth into the West and East Indies. He did so by offering peace and independence in exchange. They declined, though, as they had already manifested a great deal of investors in the Dutch East India Company.

In 1621, The Dutch West India Company was founded. This Company’s focus was primarily on trade with Latin America and Africa. The Dutch were prospering like never before from their newfound commerce and enterprise. The 17th Century was a time that the Dutch had experienced what was the highest standard of living in all of Europe.

Their overseas trade within their two companies had afforded them to become the largest naval fleet in the world. This fleet was the means for the Dutch to patrol and dominate long-term trade routes. The fleet also allowed their colonial provisions and power to grow even further. Despite potential setbacks that fighting with the Portuguese could have caused the Dutch were successful in these battles in several aspects.

They gained control over more territories in Southeast Asia. They included: Sumatra, Java, Malay Peninsula, southern region of Borneo, and the islands of the Moluccas and West New Guinea. They even expanded as far as a settlement in Australia; however it did not last due to lack of economic profit. The Dutch were so profit-focused that they even exchanged New Amsterdam for Archipelago with Britain. The small island in Moluccas was home to a large stock of spices.

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In 1619, conflict started up again and a new phase in the ongoing 80 year conflict started, now known as The Thirty Year War. What had been a war of independence and economic freedom became a religious war that went into the trenches on both sides.

It only ended with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 and a recognition of Netherland independence.

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A Word Concerning the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg

The interesting thing about Luxembourg is that the king of the Netherlands, William I, treated Luxembourg as his special cookie jar from which he could draw as much taxes as he wanted without giving anything back to its people, whom he treated as a hostile entity to be contained.

Same as the Habsburg Kings of Spain did to the Netherlands.

And so it goes, on and on - those who have faced subjugation will, in their turn, subjugate the one next to them, never learning the lessons of history.

Background:

After the 80 Year War, Luxembourg became part of the Southern Netherlands.

In 1713, the Southern Netherlands was passed to the Austrian line of the Habsburg dynasty.

From Wiki:

French domination ended with the fall of Napoleon in 1814, and the allied powers decided the future of Luxembourg at the Congress of Vienna in 1815.

The congress raised Luxembourg to the status of a grand duchy and gave it to William I, prince of Orange-Nassau and king of the Netherlands. William obtained a Luxembourg that was considerably diminished, since those of its districts lying east of the Our, Sûre, and Moselle rivers had been ceded to Prussia. The status of the grand duchy during this period was complex: Luxembourg had the legal position of an independent state and was united with the Netherlands only because it was a personal possession of William I. But Luxembourg was also included within the German Confederation, and a Prussian military garrison was housed in the capital city.

The standard of living of Luxembourg’s citizens deteriorated during this period. Under Austrian rule, and especially from 1735 on, the duchy had experienced an economic expansion.

From 1816–17 on, however, William I ignored the duchy’s sovereignty, treating Luxembourg as a conquered country and subjecting it to heavy taxes. Consequently, it was not surprising that Luxembourg supported the Belgian revolution against William in 1830.

In October of that year, the Belgian government announced that the grand duchy was a part of Belgium, while William still claimed the duchy as his own.

In 1831 the great powers (France, Britain, Prussia, Russia, and Austria) decided that Luxembourg had to remain in William I’s possession and form part of the German Confederation.

Moreover, the great powers allotted the French-speaking part of the duchy to Belgium (in which it became a province called Luxembourg), while William I was allowed to retain the Luxembourgish-speaking part. Belgium accepted this arrangement but William I rejected it, only to subsequently accede to the arrangement in 1839. From that year until 1867, the duchy was administered autonomously from the Netherlands.

In 1839, it lost more than half its territory to Belgium, but gain a greater measure of autonomy.

In 1867, Prussia and the French Empire almost went to war over the status of who owned Luxembourg, but instead Luxembourg was formally given full independence.

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A personal union is the combination of two or more states that have the same monarch while their boundaries, laws, and interests remain distinct A real union, by contrast, would involve the constituent states being to some extent interlinked, such as by sharing some limited governmental institutions. Unlike the personal union, in a federation and a unitary state, a central (federal) government spanning all member states exists, with the degree of self-governance distinguishing the two. The ruler in a personal union does not need to be a hereditary monarch.