The Golden Age appeals to the imagination of many history buffs. The glorious era in which a small republic was great. Politically an outsider – because without a monarch – but still the most powerful and the richest. But it wasn't all gold that shone…
The run-up
The Low Countries fought their way out of the Spanish yoke in the sixteenth century and formed the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands. This new independence resulted in enormous prosperity in the seventeenth century. The desire to expel the Spanish occupier resulted in unity and unity between the regions. Political propaganda, an invention of William of Orange, painted the Spaniards extra black and thus justified their own government, separate from the Spanish king.
Read more:
- The Duke of Alba (Knowledge Link)
- Media violence and propaganda by Willem van Oranje (Kennislink)
- The Union of Utrecht (Knowledge link)
- Theme Eighty Years' War (Historisch Nieuwsblad)
Politics &religion
Politics and religion run like a thread through the Golden Age. Despite its prosperity, the country was almost constantly at war. If it wasn't beyond the national borders, a civil war was lurking in the regions themselves. Where politics and religion intersect, the battle was fiercest. Like during the Truce Years, the armistice with the Spaniards between 1609 and 1621.
Different Protestant movements were at odds with each other because of differing theories about the Calvinistic teachings. This disagreement led to rifts between relatives and friends, scientists and city governments. The country was torn into two camps headed by Maurice van Oranje and Johan van Oldenbarnevelt.
Although in theory Maurits was a servant of the Republic and not a head of state, he deployed the Dutch army. He had the most powerful official at the time, Van Oldenbarnevelt, arrested and indirectly sentenced to death for treason.
The later stadtholder William III would also fight a struggle for power with political administrators, if it weren't for a bit more in the background. When the Grand Pensionary De Witt and his brother were murdered in 1672, William III did nothing to restrain the crowd or punish the perpetrators. On the contrary:his camp added fuel to the fire with political pamphlets about treason.
Read more:
- Maurits and the File Disputes (Knowledge Link)
- The Reformation:Religion is political (Knowledge link)
- Willem III:Murder and the media in the 17th century (Kennislink)
Migration
The political unrest outside the country's borders had a major effect on the prosperity of the Golden Age. The Netherlands had always been a country to which refugees, especially religious, moved because of the relative freedom of religion. But where traders from distant countries still settled in the Southern Netherlands in the sixteenth century, the emphasis shifted to the north after the loss of the Flemish trading cities such as Antwerp, Brussels and Bruges to the Spaniards.
Keeping the Scheldt closed, which meant the demise of Antwerp as a trading city, helped with this. Protestant refugees from the Southern Netherlands took knowledge, a network and wealth with them, which they proudly use in the North for a good cause:for religious freedom and against the Spaniards. But poor refugees were also welcome:workers were desperately needed in the rapidly growing Republic. They found massive work in the cities. In 1622, 67 percent of Leiden residents would be of Southern Dutch descent.
Another well-known group of religious refugees were the Pilgrim Fathers. After their stay in Leiden, these English Protestants sailed to the United States to become the ancestors and mothers of today's Americans.
The Dutch who left their homeland mainly went in search of new regions where trade could be conducted. From high to low, from smallholder farmer to high-ranking official:many sought their happiness beyond the national borders.
Read more:
- Successful integration in the 16th century (Knowledge link)
- The Pilgrim Fathers:Thanksgiving a Dutch legacy? (Knowledge link)
- Ambassador in Turkey reluctantly (Knowledge link)
- Citizens, farmers and traders of beaver hides in the New World (History Magazine)
Economics
The Dutch East India Company (VOC) played an important role in the migration. They needed so many personnel, also because of the high mortality along the way, that half of the seafarers recruited had to be recruited from abroad. Mostly poor slobs hoping to find golden mountains in the West or East. The other half, homegrown, generally also came from the lower class of society.
After months of being on each other's lips, the surviving sailors took it easy. Killing native villages or trading slaves was seen as a necessary evil:profit was paramount. Completely favorable was a letter of marque from the stadtholder, authorizing the raiding of enemy ships. The conquest of a Spanish silver fleet by Piet Hein in 1628 yielded 12 million guilders and a week of celebrations upon returning home.
Shipping and trade were the main pillars on which the Dutch economy thrived. When people think of trade, people quickly think of the VOC, but the most extensive and profitable trade went through the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. Most of the grain traded entered the country via that route. At the outbreak of famine in Europe, there were enough stocks in Amsterdam that then sold at high prices. In addition, famine in our own country no longer occurred.
The opening of the Amsterdam exchange bank provided a good impulse to trade. Traders no longer had to carry around with different currencies, but could transfer the amount to be paid. Shares also came into vogue. By buying a share in a VOC ship, everyone could share in the wealth and the risks.
The archives show that not only rich merchants participated in this:'poor people' such as domestic servants also bought in for a small amount. The downside of the new stocks was the rise of speculation. This would lead to a true tulip mania that ended in 1637 with the first stock market crash in history.
Women in general were not commercially competent with a few exceptions. In a country of fishermen and VOC sailors, where the men were away from home for a long time, their women enjoyed more power than elsewhere. These wives were authorized to run the trade or business independently in the absence of their husbands. Widows also had the right to continue their husband's business until they remarried.
Preserved accounting documents show that the VOC did not actually get out of the red during the first decades. The research team of historian Oscar Gelderblom digs into the archives of the past and finds economic solutions for today.
Read more:
- Slavery:the dark side of the VOC mentality (Kennislink)
- Pirates from the Netherlands (Knowledge Link)
- The Golden Age:a financial journey of discovery (Kennislink)
- Investor tip:buy VOC shares! (Knowledge link)
- When spring comes, I'll send you… the Tulip Madness (Knowledge Link)
- Immortal widows. Sailor Marriage in the 17th Century (History Magazine)
- Theme VOC (Historic Nieuwsblad)
Culture and Society
Grain in abundance did not mean that there was no poverty in the Republic. In addition to a small, wealthy upper layer of regents and merchants, there was a fairly large middle group that could manage quite well. The bottom layer of the population was the largest. For them there was little gold in the 17th century. There was plenty of employment in the cities, especially in Amsterdam, which attracted many people. Income was only low, so that unskilled workers with large families were often unable to make ends meet.
25 percent of the population needed support to a greater or lesser extent. They reported to the poor relief every week and received tailor-made help in the form of money, bread and peat. This care was paid for from the generous donations of the city residents and was only intended for poor residents of the city. Vagrants, petty criminals and recently arrived migrants without money ended up in the gray circuit or a penitentiary.
In addition to care for the poor, care for the sick and orphans was also highly developed in the Republic. The Dolhuis was a place where mentally ill people were cared for. The orphans were divided into the civilian orphanage and the poor orphanage where they received food, shelter and education. The last group was a lot less well off:the food was a lot worse and the training consisted mainly of hard work for a living.
The youngsters who were in a more wealthy crib had it a lot better. Just as in the 1960s, a true youth culture emerged in the seventeenth century. These kids had never experienced a war in their own country and lived a lot less frugally than their parents. They thoroughly enjoyed music, dance, each other and new products such as coffee and tobacco.
Read more:
- Rich and poor in the Golden Age (Knowledge link)
- A generous people (Knowledge link)
- You are young and you want something:youth culture in the Golden Age (Kennislink)
- Between honorable entertainment and questionable fornication (History Magazine)
- The madhouse:storage place or nursing home? (History Magazine)
Art and science
The Golden Age is known for its unparalleled artists. Paintings by Rembrandt, Frans Hals, or Vermeer now fetch millions. The great masters were able to make ends meet from their work in their days. Less than today, paintings were seen as art. Painting was a craft. The painters with a nose for trade in particular farmed well. The demand for paintings was great and not only in the Republic itself. Millions of works by lesser gods left the studios.
Research into household effects has shown that less fortunate and even poor people often had several paintings or prints hanging in their homes. The richer the owner, the greater the number of paintings and the more great masters. Paintings were big business and painters often became proficient in a certain genre in order to be able to deliver their work on an assembly line.
In addition to art, the Republic also flourished in science:important discoveries took place within the national borders. Many internationally renowned scientists went to the Dutch Universities, of which Leiden University is the oldest:it was donated to the city in 1575 by William of Orange. The number of international students was also high:those who could afford it came to the Netherlands to attend lectures with the best scientists. The language of science was Latin, so no one was bothered by a language problem.
The lectures did not only attract scientists and students. The anatomical theatre, where medical students were taught about the anatomy of the human body, was an internationally renowned attraction. The Republic was at the forefront of practical research, at a time when reading scientific theories from Classical Antiquity was the custom.
Dissecting the human body was an important part of this practical study. The emergence of practical science also allowed the development of auxiliary medical devices, such as the microscope, with which groundbreaking discoveries were made. It turned out that there was a whole world in itself, of small animals such as bacteria and sperm cells…
A dimpled skull was put back in place with an elevatorium in the Golden Age. Skull drilling played an important role in the very limited repertoire of surgeons.
Read more:
- Mythology in painting (Knowledge link)
- Fictional interview with a scientist:Galileo Galilei, the tenacious (Knowledge link)
- Fictional interview:Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, the suspicious one (Kennislink)
- Fictional interview:Christiaan Huygens, the versatile one (Knowledge link)
- Anatomical Theatre, a pocket-sized Roman arena (History Magazine)
- Little Ice Age:Climate makes history (History Magazine)
- Simon Stevin (Pythagoras, KWG)
The end
After the disaster year in 1672, in which the Republic was attacked from all sides, things went downhill. Stadtholder and King of England William III died in 1702 and in the same year the French King Louis XIV, alias the Sun King, declared war on the Republic. He claimed the Spanish throne for his grandson and so the Republic, already weakened, ended up in the War of the Spanish Succession.
Peace was concluded in 1713 at the international negotiating table in Utrecht. The emissaries from the Republic had little to say and the peace turned out to be especially beneficial to the other important seafaring nation, England. They secretly made an alliance with France, which for years had looked at the mighty Republic with a jealous eye. Impoverished by a declining economy and years of warfare, the Republic could do little about this.
Read more:
- War was commercial business (Knowledge link)
- 40-year war made republic poor (Kennislink)