American Minute with Bill Federer
Dutch Golden Age: An Empire from Indonesia to South Africa to New York
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S
pain's "Iron Duke," the Grand Duke of Alba, fought the Ottoman Muslims in 1535, recapturing Tunis, North Africa.
Spain financed its war with gold from the
Inca Empire.
The
Ottoman's defeat at
Tunis led them to seek a permanent alliance with
France against
Spain.
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The
Iron Duke then turned to crush the
Reformation in the
Netherlands in what is referred to as the "Spanish Furies," 1572-1576.
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The
Iron Duke sacked and decimated the
Dutch cities of Mechelen, Diest, Roermond, Guelders, Zutphen, Naarden, and
Haarlem.
Antwerp, considered the most important port in the world, fell to the Spanish in 1585.
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The
Netherlands fought an 80 year war of independence from Spain, led by
William of Orange and aided by English soldiers sent by
Queen Elizabeth I.
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The
Dutch Republic of the Seven United Netherlands grew to become the foremost maritime and economic power in the world during its
Golden Age, beginning in 1648.
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In 1688, the
Dutch leader William III, Prince of Orange, drove King James II out of England in the Glorious Revolution.
Then, with his wife Mary, they ruled England as co-regents,
William and Mary.
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The Netherlands' War for Independence from Spain coincided with the
Dutch-Portuguese War,
which lasted from 1601 to 1661.
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The
Dutch
fought battles against the
Portuguese
in
Atlantic Ocean; Brazil; West Africa; Southern Africa; Indian Ocean; East Africa; India; Burma; East Indies: Straits of Malacca;
and
Indochina.
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Capturing many
Portuguese
ports and colonies, the
Dutch Empire
included settlements around the world, from
Recife, South America to South Africa to New Zealand, Asia, Jakarta,
and
Java.
The
Dutch
had a
monopoly
on
trade
with
Japan.
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After the Amboyna massacre of 1623, between agents of the
Dutch East India Company and agents of the
English East India Company, tensions with England erupted into
four
Anglo-Dutch Wars, 1652–54; 1665–67; 1672–74; 1781–84.
Fighting for control of world trade, many battles took place in the Far East territories where profitable exports came from, such as: coffee, tea, sugar, indigo (blue dye) and opium.
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The
British
gained control of
India,
while the
Dutch
gained control over
Indonesia.
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Trade was interrupted in
1815
when the volcano
Tambora
erupted on Sumbawa.
Considered as
the largest explosion in human record,
the blast was heard 1,200 miles away and killed 71,000 people.
Its effect on global weather caused
1816
to be called
"the year without summer."
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Trade was interrupted again in
1883
when the volcano
Krakatoa
erupted on Java.
The blast was heard 3,000 miles away, being considered
the world's loudest sound. Barometric instruments recorded the pressure wave circled the earth three and a half times.
As
Krakatoa
was near the sea, its eruption caused monstrous tsunami waves to reach over 150 feet high, killing 34,000.
Ash devastated the world's climate for over a year. Los Angeles received so much rain, over 38 inches, that 1883 was called the "water year." Global temperatures fell for five years.
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As early as 1804, Muslim pilgrims returning from Mecca to the Far East were influenced by
militant Wahhabi teaching.
Being called
"Padri,"
their prominent leader was Tuanku Imam Bonjol.
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As the
Padir
aggressively spread fundamental Islam, many moderates fled to the
Dutch
for protection during the
Padri War,
1821 to 1838.
The
Dutch
restored order by water-boarding terrorists and arresting imams who preached sharia law, thus stopping the incitement of violence against the Dutch colonial government.
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Dutch leaders gradually took an ethical position, advocating to improve the welfare of those in their colonies.
One such leader was
Abraham Kuyper,
who founded the
Reformed Churches of the Netherlands
in 1892, and in 1901 he was elected
Prime Minister of the Netherlands.
Kuyper
wrote pamphlets promoting the
Dutch
take moral responsibility for
the people of Java,
which was experiencing a
famine.
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The
Netherlands
had adopted the
Calvinistic Protestant Dutch Reformed faith
as the State religion.
It had a history of tolerance rare in Europe toward other faiths, including
Remonstrants, Renaissance Humanism, Catholics, Anabaptists and Jews.
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The
Netherlands
influenced America, as the
Pilgrims
lived there for 12 years
before sailing to settle Plymouth, Massachusetts.
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During its
Golden Age, Netherlands
prospered, attracting some of the brightest minds of the age:
-writer
Jan Amos Comenius;
-astronomer
Christiaan Huygens;
-scientist
Anton van Leeuwenhoek;
-engineer
Jan Leeghwater;
-playwright
Joost van den Vondel;
-international lawyer
Hugo Grotius;
-philosophers
René Descartes, Pierre Bayle, John Locke, Spinoza;
and
-artists
Johannes Vermeer, Jacob van Ruisdael, Frans Hals and Rembrandt.
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The Dutch invented a way of financing their endeavors -- the
Amsterdam Stock Exchange.
It was the first modern stock market.
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People could buy shares in the
Dutch EAST India Company
(Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie) whose ships sailed to Indonesia or Japan.
For nearly 200 years, the
Dutch East India Company
was more profitable than all other countries' companies combined.
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When the ships returned filled with goods and spices, they would be paid a profit.
And in case the ships sank, the
Dutch invented "insurance" companies.
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The
Dutch
experienced the
first stock market crash
with the
Tulip Mania of 1636-1637.
Tulips
imported from
Turkey
became so popular that a single tulip bulb's worth exploded to more than the average person's yearly salary -- then in one day it suddenly dropped to one-hundredth of its value, plunging the country into an economic depression.
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The Dutch started the
Dutch WEST India Company
which sent
Henry Hudson
sailing west in hopes of finding a water route to India through North America.
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Though unsuccessful,
Hudson
claimed the land along the
"Hudson" River,
and founded the
New Netherlands Colony,
receiving its charter JUNE 3, 1621.
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The Dutch began a
New Amsterdam Stock Exchange
which met on the street next to the wall of the settlement.
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In 1624, the
Chamber of Amsterdam
wrote articles for the Dutch Colony, establishing the
Dutch Reformed
denomination:
"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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The
New Amsterdam Charter of Freedoms,
June 7, 1629, gave land to wealthy "Patroons" who helped 50 families emigrate, stating:
"Colonists shall ... in the speediest manner ... 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."
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One Dutch family that immigrated was the Roosevelt family, as
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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Beginning in 1639,
Lutheran Germans, Swedes and Finns, as well as Anglicans from England,
began immigrating, numbering 500 of the colony's 3,500 population in 1655.
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Presbyterians
erected their first meeting house on Eastern Long Island in 1640, and the first Jews arrived in the colony in 1654.
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After
Britain's Admiral William Penn,
father of Pennsylvania's founder, helped defeat the Dutch navy, the British took control of
New Amsterdam
in 1664, changing the colony's name to New York.
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The
New Amsterdam Stock Exchange
then became the
New York Stock Exchange,
referred to as
Wall Street.
Though British established the
Anglican Church, French Protestant Huguenots
began arriving in 1680.
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Continuing the Dutch tradition of tolerance, the
New York Charter of Liberties and Privileges,
(paragraph 27), October 30, 1683, stated:
"That no person or persons which profess faith in God by Jesus Christ shall at any time be any ways molested ... But that ... every such person ... fully enjoy his or their ... consciences in matters of religion ... not using this Liberty to Licentiousness ..."
"Licentiousness" is defined as "promiscuous and unprincipled in sexual matters," "sexual immorality."
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Continuing,
New York's Charter of Liberties and Privileges
stated:
"The respective Christian Churches now in practice within the City of New York .... shall ... enjoy ... freedoms of their Religion in Divine Worship and Church discipline."
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The first
Methodist
meeting in the American Colonies was in New York City in 1766.
In 1781, was the first mention of a public
Catholic
worship service in New York.
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In 1811, the
New York Supreme Court's Chief Justice, Chancellor Kent,
stated in the case of
Peoples v Ruggles:
"Christianity was parcel of the law...that whatever strikes at the root of Christianity tends manifestly to the dissolution of civil government ...
The people of this State, in common with the people of this country, profess the general doctrines of Christianity ...
We are a Christian people, and the morality of the country is deeply engrafted upon Christianity, and not upon the doctrines or worship of those impostors."
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In 1816, the
Dutch navy
joined the
British navy,
under the command of Sir Edward Pellew, in
bombarding Algiers,
forcing the Muslim Barbary state to release some 3,000 European prisoners.
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In 1838, the
New York State Legislature
wrote:
"No people on the face of the globe are without a prevailing national religion ...
With us it is wisely ordered that no one religion shall be established by law, but that all persons shall be left free in their choice and in their mode of worship.
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Still, this is a Christian nation. Ninety-nine hundredths, if not a larger proportion, of our whole population, believe in the general doctrines of the Christian religion.
Our Government depends for its being on the virtue of the people, - on that virtue that has its foundation in the morality of the Christian religion."
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New York's State Constitution,
1846, 1894, and 1938, stated in its Preamble:
"We, the People of the State of New York, grateful to Almighty God for our freedom, in order to secure its blessings, do establish this Constitution."
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American Minute is a registered trademark of William J. Federer. Permission is granted to forward, reprint, or duplicate, with acknowledgment.
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Schedule Bill Federer for informative interviews & captivating PowerPoint presentations: 314-502-8924
wjfederer@gmail.com
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