The Rise of the Great Powers A Timeline of the Great Events in Dutch History

In 1358, in a small fishing village in the north of the Netherlands, a fisherman named Willem Birkerszoon invented a way to remove the intestines of a fish with just one cut. The herring's stomach was cut open, the guts were taken out, the head was removed and salt was put inside so that it could be preserved for more than a year, there were no refrigerators in those days, and this method was unique, so that's why the Dutch herring was able to sell well all over Europe, especially in England. With the help of herring, the Dutch began a career of merchant traveling.

The geographical discovery at the end of the 15th century brought unprecedented commercial prosperity to Europe and provided the Netherlands with a historic opportunity to achieve a commercial empire. As middlemen, agents, processors and pushers, the Dutch loaded spices, silks and gold from Portugal and Spain and then shipped them across Europe. On their return voyages, they shipped wheat from the Baltic grain regions, iron from Sweden, timber from Finland, and naval supplies of their own production for the two earliest maritime hegemonies.

The Dutch defeat of England began with the design of a ship that was much cheaper to build. Previously, the typical European merchant ship had been built with platforms on which guns could be mounted, which made them effective against pirate attacks. The Dutch were the first to take the risk of building a merchant ship that could only carry cargo and could not mount guns. Its design was unique in that it had a large belly, so the hull was large and round. And the deck was small. This was done because, in Scandinavia, the tax paid on a ship depended on the width of the deck; the narrower the deck, the less money was paid, so the Dutch built a ship with a small deck and a big belly, and the more profit it made. To a large extent, it is by this kind of boat, the Dutch won the world-renowned "sea coachman" title.

Between 1596 and 1598, a famous man named Barents, a Dutch sea captain, tried to find a route to Asia from the north. He passed through Sanvinya, now a Russian island, but they got stuck in the frozen sea. Samunya is located within the Arctic Circle, where Captain Barents and 17 Dutch sailors spent eight long months of winter. They tore down the ship's deck for fuel to maintain body temperature in the -40 degree cold; they hunted for clothes and food that barely kept them alive. In such harsh and perilous conditions, eight men died. But the Dutch traders did the unthinkable; they left untouched the goods that had been entrusted to them, which included clothing and medicine that could have saved their lives. As winter turned to spring, the surviving merchants finally brought their goods back to Holland, almost intact, and delivered them to their clients. At the cost of their lives, they kept the faith and created a law of business that was passed on to future generations. At the time, this also brought the Dutch merchants the obvious benefit of winning the world market for maritime trade.

In 1543, the King of Spain took over the Netherlands through a political marriage. When the King of Spain declared that Holland was a sacred and integral part of Spain, the Dutch agreed; when the King of Spain redrew Holland's administrative area, they accepted it with open arms; and when the King of Spain sent a new governor for Holland, they submitted obediently. But when King Philip II of Spain put his hand in their pocketbook, the Dutch rose up.

The Dutch War of Independence broke out. At first, Spain's armies easily crushed the Dutch's scattered resistance. In less than six years, 150,000 Dutch died. The grim reality forced the separate Dutch provinces to unite, and in 1579, representatives from the seven northern provinces of Holland signed an agreement in this very hall to form a military alliance*** against the enemy. Thereafter, the war began to turn in favor of the Dutch, partly because of their union, and partly because Philip II had made enemies on all sides of Europe, and successive years of wars for supremacy had depleted Spain's national strength.

On July 26, 1581, delegates from the revolted cities of the Netherlands solemnly proclaimed in The Hague the abolition of the King of Spain's dominion over the provinces of the Netherlands.

The Dutch entrusted their country to Queen Elizabeth I of England. The Queen of England readily agreed to be their monarch and sent troops to protect Dutch lives and property. But savvy merchants soon discovered that the Queen of England was actually charging more for her protection than the King of Spain, whom they had ousted.

In 1581, seven provinces joined together and declared the United Provinces of the Netherlands*** and the State of Peace. It was a state unprecedented in human history. Many historians say it was the first country in the world to "grant full political rights to the merchant class".

In 1602, the United East India Company of Holland was founded under the leadership of the Grand Speaker of the **** and State, Alden Barnvelt. Just as they had created a country like no other, now they had created an economic organization like no other. In the five short years since the East India Company's founding, it has sent 50 merchant fleets overseas each year, a number that exceeds the number of Spanish and Portuguese fleets combined.

Founded in 1609, about a hundred years before the Bank of England, the Bank of Amsterdam was a city bank, a treasury bank and an exchange bank. It took deposits and made loans. All payments of a certain amount had to pass through the bank, so the Bank of Amsterdam played an important role in the economic stability of the Netherlands. More importantly, it invented what we now call credit. It was called "imaginary money".

By the mid-17th century, the global commercial hegemony of the Dutch United Provinces*** and States was firmly established. By this time, the Dutch East India Company had 15,000 branches and accounted for half of the world's total trade. More than 10,000 merchant ships flying the Dutch tricolor flag cruised over the world's five oceans:

In East Asia, they occupied Taiwan, China, and monopolized Japan's foreign trade;

In Southeast Asia, they turned Indonesia into their own colony, and the first colonial stronghold they established -- the city of Batavia. -the city of Batavia, which formed the shape of today's Jakarta;

In Africa, they captured the Cape of Good Hope, the stronghold of the New Route, from Portugal;

In Oceania, they named a country -New Zealand- after a province of the Netherlands;

In South America, they occupied Brazil;

On the North American continent, at the mouth of the Hudson River, the East India Company built the city of New Amsterdam, which today is called New York.

Holland in 1648: the zenith of commercial prosperity had been reached, Marx said.

In 1648, the citizens of Amsterdam decided to build a new city hall. For reasons of quality, the citizens did not set a deadline for the completion of the project. In fact, it took them eight years and over 70 tons of gold to create this magnificent structure, and in 1656 the new town hall was completed.

In 1656, a Dutch mission arrived in Beijing. The Qing court, which had been in power for just eight years, received them with a sense of excitement. But the Dutch encountered a problem common to all diplomatic missions to China in those days, namely, the three bows and nine kowtows that had to be performed during an audience with the emperor. In fact, until the end of the 18th century, hardly any European diplomat was willing to accept this harsh rule of the Celestial Empire. But the Dutch agreed without hesitation.

In September 1688, a huge fleet of ships pulled anchor from the harbor of Amsterdam, carrying the Dutch supreme consul, William III, and 20,000 Dutch soldiers. William III had been invited by the British Parliament to protect the "religious liberty and property" of British subjects.

Toward the end of the 17th century, the Netherlands slowed down and gradually lost its hegemony over the world. In both time and space, William III's departure from the Netherlands to England became a highly symbolic shift in the center stage of the world.