American Minute with Bill Federer
Dutch Golden Age, world's foremost maritime economic power, & Dutch colony of New Amsterdam
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After
seven centuries
of Islamic occupation,
Spain
finally drove the
Muslims
out in 1492.
Jews
were culturally caught in the middle between Christians and Muslims.
King Ferdinand ordered Spain's large
Sephardic Jewish population
to either convert or leave.
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Some
Jews
fled to
Portugal,
then to the
Holland,
which was Europe's
center of religious toleration.
In the next century,
Holland
prospered tremendously, with its largest city of
Amsterdam
becoming the
wealthiest city in the world.
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During this time,
Holland
fought an
80 year war of independence
from Spain, from 1568 to 1648.
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As part of this war, in 1572, the
Iron Duke of Alba
had his men pillage and murder thousands across Holland in "
The Spanish Furies."
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The
Dutch
fought back, led by
William the Silent,
and the
"Republic of the Seven United Netherlands" was founded in 1581.
It was one of the few nations with no king.
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Philip II's Spain
also fought
Queen Elizabeth's England
during the
Anglo-Spanish War,
1585-1604, with the
Invincible Spanish Armada
attacking in 1588.
Dutch
and
English
sailors fought together repel the
Spanish attack.
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During
The Eighty Years War,
there was a brief 12 year truce, till hostilities began again in 1619.
This was part of a larger European conflict called
The Thirty Years War,
1618-1648, which started between
Protestant-Catholics
but ended as a bloody rivalry for political dominance between
France
and the
Habsburg Empire,
resulting in 8 million deaths.
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The fighting in
Holland
and in the rest of Europe did not end till the
Peace of Westphailia in 1648.
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The Dutch Golden Age
is considered to have begun in 1568, and lasted until Napoleon's wars in the early 1800s.
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The
Netherlands
became a
global leader
in
trade, military, science, and art.
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Holland's
University of Leiden,
begun by
William the Silent
in 1575, became a center of the study of
Hebrew, Aramaic and Syriac,
with a
Jewish rabbi
as a professor.
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The
Pilgrims
lived in
Leiden
before sailing to Massachusetts, and identified themselves with the
ancient Hebrew republic.
Several
Dutch companies
approached the
Pilgrims
to settle
New Amsterdam
on behalf of
Holland,
but they decided to sail with a patent from the
London Company.
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"Companies"
were a novel development.
In
Medieval Europe,
it was forbidden to pay or receive
interest.
It was called
the sin of "usury."
As a result, there were
no companies.
If someone wanted to attempt an expensive endeavor, such as sailing around the world looking for spices, they had to approach a rich person or a monarch to underwrite it.
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After the
Reformation, Amsterdam
was where some of the first corporations were started, such as the
Dutch East India Company.
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Common individuals could invest in a company expedition of ships going around the world in search of spices, and when the ships returned, interest or "dividends" were paid from the profit to the stockholders.
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If someone wanted to sell his share of ownership, he could do so at
the first ever stock exchange - The Amsterdam Stock Exchange.
Individual investors also had
limited liability,
only risking the amount they invested.
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If a ship sank, or was taken in battle by Spain or England, or captured by Muslim Barbary pirates,
the Dutch invented insurance companies
to cover the loss.
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The Dutch city of Amsterdam,
became
Europe's leader
in
shipping, banking, insurance
and
commerce.
The city of
Gouda
in South Holland became famous for its
cheese.
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Dutch Calvinism
prohibited religious painting in churches.
As a result,
Dutch artists
developed a variety of other genres, such as informal portraits, still life, peasant life, flowers, landscapes, townscapes, animals, and maritime paintings.
Famous Dutch painters included:
- Pieter Brueghel the Elder,
- Pieter Claesz
- Frans Hals,
- Willem Kalf,
- Rembrandt van Rijn,
- Jacob Isaacksz van Ruisdael,
- Jan Steen,
- Hendrick Terbrugghen
- Johannes Vermeer.
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The
Dutch
sailed around
Africa's Cape of Good Hope,
and captured
Goa, India,
from the Portuguese.
Dutch
opened trade with:
- Japan,
- Jakarta,
- Mauritius, and
- the Indonesian Spice Island of Maluku.
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Dutchman Willem Schouten
was the first to sail around
South America's Cape Horn
in 1616, naming it
"Kaap Hoorn"
after his home port city of
Hoorn
in the Netherlands.
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The Dutch sighted
Fiji
and
Australia
, and colonized:
- the Pacific islands of Tasmania and New Zealand;
- the Caribbean Islands of Netherlands Antilles, Aruba, Sint Maarten;
- the South American settlements of Guyana, Suriname, and Brazil, which they captured from the Spanish and Portuguese for 24 years;
- the North American colony of New Netherlands, which included New York, and parts Connecticut. It also included parts of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware, which had previously been New Sweden.
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On MAY 6, 1626,
Peter Minuit, Dutch Governor of the New Netherlands Province,
gave 60 guilders of brass buttons, scarlet cloth and trade goods to the
Manhattan Indian Tribe
in exchange for
Manhattan Island.
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The Articles for the
New Netherlands' Colony,
issued by the
Chamber of Amsterdam,
1624, stated:
"They shall within their territory practice no other form of divine worship than that of
the Reformed religion ...
and thus by
their Christian life and conduct seek
to draw the Indians and other blind people to the knowledge of God and His word, without, however, persecuting any on account of his faith, but leaving each one the use of his conscience."
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In 1628,
Rev. Jonas Michaelius
organized
the first Dutch Reformed Church in the Colony of New Amsterdam,
considered one of the oldest continuous congregations in America.
The
Dutch
set up a
New Amsterdam Stock Exchange
along the wall of their fort.
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New Netherlands' original Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions,
June 1, 1629, stated:
"Patroons and colonists shall in particular, and
in the speediest manner,
endeavor to find out ways and means whereby they may support
a Minister and Schoolmaster,
that thus the
service of God
and
zeal for religion may not grow cool and be neglected
among them, and they shall, for the first, procure a Comforter of the sick there."
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Franklin D. Roosevelt
told the
Detroit Jewish Chronicle,
March 7, 1935:
"All I know about the origin of the
Roosevelt family
in this country is that all branches bearing the name are apparently descended from
Claes Martenssen Van Roosevelt,
who came from
Holland
sometime before 1648."
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The Dutch
Amboyna Massacre
occurred in 1623 against the British over which country would control of the far east spice trade.
Reports of this massacre were circulated, stirring up tensions which broke out into the
Anglo-Dutch Wars:
- First Anglo-Dutch War (1652-1654),
- Second Anglo-Dutch War (1665-1667),
- Third Anglo-Dutch War (1672-1674),
- Fourth Anglo-Dutch War (1780-1784).
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After the
First and Second Anglo-Dutch Wars,
in which
British Admiral William Penn
helped
defeat the Dutch Navy,
New Amsterdam
was taken over by the
British
in 1664.
The city was renamed
New York City
after the
Duke of York,
who became
King James II
after the death of his brother King Charles II.
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The New Amsterdam Stock Exchange
became the
New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street.
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King Jamess II's
daughter,
Mary,
married the Dutch stadtholder
William of Orange.
When it appeared
King James II
might make England Catholic again, Protestants asked
William of Orange and Mary
to leave Holland and take over England in 1688.
This was called
The Glorious Revolution.
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King James II
fled England, leaving
William and Mary II
to co-rule England.
When
Mary
died in 1694, Parliament agreed to recognize
William
as the
King of England
provided he agree to certain restrictions being placed on the powers of monarchy.
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In 1696,
William
granted freedoms to
Dutch Church
in
New York
with the
Charter:
"William
the third, By the grace of God,
King of England ...
Our said loving subjects ... to preserve to them and their successors that
liberty of worshiping God
according to the constitutions and directions of the
Reformed Churches in Holland ...
have therefore thought fit ... that no person in communion of the said
reformed protestant Dutch Church,
within our said City of New York ... shall be any ways molested, punished, disquieted, or called in question, for any difference in opinion in matters of the
Protestant religion
...
that all ... persons in Communion of the said
reformed protestant Dutch Church
may ... freely and fully have and enjoy his and their own judgments and consciences in matters of the
Protestant religious concernments
...
not using this liberty to licentiousness and profaness
...
Mr. Henricus Selyns, the present Minister of the said
reformed protestant Dutch Church
... since the ... dedication of the said
Church
to the
service of God
... the instruction of the members of the said
reformed protestant Dutch Church
inhabiting within Our said City of New York, in the
Christian faith
according to the constitutions and directions aforesaid."
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New York's Dutch congregation
met in several buildings over the centuries, including the imposing
St. Nicholas Collegiate Reformed Protestant Dutch Church
at Fifth Avenue and Forty-eighth Street.
President
Theodore Roosevelt
attended church there.
The congregation continues at the
Marble Collegiate Church.
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As a British colony, the
Colonial Legislature of New York
stated in 1665:
"Whereas, The public worship of God is much discredited for want of ... able ministers to instruct the people in the true religion, it is ordered that a church shall be built in each parish capable of holding 200 persons;
that ministers of every church shall preach every Sunday, and pray for the king, queen, the Duke of York, and the royal family ... Sunday is not to be profaned."
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Schedule Bill Federer for informative interviews & captivating PowerPoint presentations: 314-502-8924
wjfederer@gmail.com
American Minute is a registered trademark of William J. Federer. Permission is granted to forward, reprint, or duplicate, with acknowledgment.
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