Dutch Republic, DBQ

During the 17th century the economically wealthy but politically and military fledgling Dutch Republic faced both foreign and domestic threat to its unity, security and prosperity. These challenges caused the competition over domination of wealth, and trade, and the nationalism that people were showing to stop the war. All these facts demonstrate that the Dutch Republic was uniting to stop the competitions for wealth, and trade in Europe.

There were many wars against the Dutch Republic which were mostly caused by England. But why was England trying to destroy the Dutch?. First, the Dutch had commercial, financial, and naval power. At that time, the Dutch Republic was very powerful because it possessed a extensive commercial revolution which was bringing financial benefits to the Republic. England didn’t possessed most of that, so they decided to go against them.

England did it by many ways one of them was by uniting their forces with France, which gave many problems to the Dutch.

England, in their way to destroy the Dutch Republic, France and England decided to unite their forces, so it could be easier to destroy the Dutch. This was affecting the unity, security, and prosperity of the Dutch Republic because if France, and England attack the Dutch, it would be a massacre for the Dutch, because it will break the security, the unity, and it won’t let the Dutch’ prosperity to go on. For example if the republic ends up totally destroy, they won’t have any way to reconstruct the republic again, which will bring deaths, insecurity, disunity, and the prosperity will go away. The king of France promises to pay to the king of England two million livres. Each of the allied sovereigns will then jointly declare war on the Dutch Republic. The king of France will defray all expenses of the campaign by land. For the war by sea the king of England will arm at least 70 warships(6).

Which means that the king of France, and the king of England were thinking seriously about declaring the war to the Dutch Republic. This was going to really affect the security, unity, and prosperity because their mission was to eliminate the commercial, financial, and naval power. Not only the French monarch but other kings seem more and more to scheme how to ruin what remains of the trade and navigation of the Dutch Republic, and to take over part of it for themselves(7). Which is when other nations were planing to take over part of the Dutch Republic for themselves. This was going to completely destroy the Dutch Republic because many nations would go against them that they won’t be able to defeat them. If this happens the Dutch Republic will be seriously be challenged to the security, unity, and prosperity because the attack of other nations combined would be more complicated for the Dutch Republic to destroy. Many other countries are interested in the Dutch Republic and they are going to do whatever is possible to get want they want. Also all these attacks later brought the Dutch Republic to stop their prosperity caused by all the wars.

The Dutch Republic’s prosperity was affected by the attacks caused by their rival states. The Dutch Republic and their rival states in the late 17th century had many wars during 1652-1674 which were mostly Naval Battles between England and the Dutch Republic. The Dutch Republic in their trade and fishing routes faced many wars while traveling, which produced the decreased of the Naval power by losing about 2,000-2,700 ships that were destroy by the England. Also the Baltic Sea Trade was decreasing considerably caused by the wars that the Dutch Republic had.

These facts demonstrate how the prosperity of the Dutch Republic was decreasing, and vanishing because all the financial, and naval power was going away caused by the wars. All these wars put the Dutch Republic in unfavorable situations by breaking their prosperity, which didn’t let the Dutch Republic to reform very easily. Also all these events created a unification between people that wanted to stop the war, and save their republic.

Also all the wars between the Dutch Republic and England, didn’t only brought bad things to the people, but it also brought unity between the people. A good example of this is when the people decided to make defensive fortification on land as well as outfit warships at sea to try to stop the war by going against England. Many decisions were made, there was a election of a military commander to lead the troops, to go against the violent attacks of Louis XIV, and also the people decided to fight against the French. All these facts demonstrate that the men at that time wanted to stop the massacre by going against the French to destroy them. There was a election to lead the troops against French. Hopefully the people decided not to run away, but they chose to try to stop the massacre.

At the end, the English East India Company has grown even larger and causes the Dutch anxiety. This was probably the real cause of the war which broke out in the 1650’s between England and the Dutch Republic. But all of these have turned into losses, the Java trade is declining, and the commercial competitions cannot be checked. All of these turned into a massacre of the Dutch Republic which lost their commercial, financial, and naval power.

The commercial, financial, and naval power that the Dutch Republic possessed, probably disappeared, but even do the wars broke the prosperity, and security of the Dutch, it brought with it unity which is very important in a war situation. The prosperity was broken because all the attacks produced by England and France together caused a considerable decreased in the trades which was bringing financial stability to the Dutch, which was also bringing prosperity to the Dutch. Also the wars caused the lost of security because the people didn’t feel secure anymore because the war was destroying everything the Dutch had. Also the war created unity between the people because they wanted to stop the war, which was destroying everything. They had an election to pick a military commander to lead the troops against France, and many men wanted to fight the French. All these facts really changed the Dutch Republic, and the way many people used to live.