The Dutch and the Dutch Seaborne Empire
--"One of the great enigmas of European history is how the inhabitants of this miniscule area of waterlogged land succeed in asserting their independence from the apparently overwhelming power of Spain, and in establishing themselves during the first half of the seventeenth century as a dominant force on the European scene." [historian John Elliott]
the Low Countries [map]
I. Spain and the Netherlands [Jon's lecture]
emergence of the Dutch Republic
Eighty Years War (1568-1648)
constitutionalism (vs. absolutism) / religious toleration
II. Anglo-Dutch rivalry
first Navigation Act (1651)
mercantilism
Anglo-Dutch Wars (1652-54, 1665-67, 1672-74)
III. The Dutch Empire
the Dutch Golden Age
exchange bank (1609)
Amsterdam Bourse (1611)
tulip mania (1636-37)
Dutch East India Company (1602)
new mercantile elite
Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669)
Jan Vermeer (1632-1675)
III. the birth of consumer society
capitalism: an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market [Mirriam-Webster]
