Directions:
(1) Read the documents and use the Dutch Republic DBQ organizer linked below to annotate the documents. Paraphrase the document’s data [don’t quote it!]
(2) Place each document into one or more of the categories security, unity, prosperity. In the POV column, indicate whether the document represents a Dutch opinion, foreign opinion, or neither.
(3) Write a thesis that addresses all parts of the question.
(1) Read the documents and use the Dutch Republic DBQ organizer linked below to annotate the documents. Paraphrase the document’s data [don’t quote it!]
(2) Place each document into one or more of the categories security, unity, prosperity. In the POV column, indicate whether the document represents a Dutch opinion, foreign opinion, or neither.
(3) Write a thesis that addresses all parts of the question.
Identify and analyze the challenges to the security, unity, and prosperity of the Dutch Republic, 1650-1713. Take into account both Dutch and foreign opinions.
Historical Background: In 1650 the Dutch Republic, a political union of seven provinces, was a formidable commercial, financial, and naval power. the wealthiest and most powerful province was Holland, dominated by the influential merchant elite of Amsterdam, the leading banking and trading center in Europe. For the Dutch Republic, the period from 12650 to the Peace of Utrecht (1713) was one of shifting alliances and a series of military conflicts with other European powers.
Historical Background: In 1650 the Dutch Republic, a political union of seven provinces, was a formidable commercial, financial, and naval power. the wealthiest and most powerful province was Holland, dominated by the influential merchant elite of Amsterdam, the leading banking and trading center in Europe. For the Dutch Republic, the period from 12650 to the Peace of Utrecht (1713) was one of shifting alliances and a series of military conflicts with other European powers.
Document 3: Estimated Losses to Merchant Shipping in the Three Anglo-Dutch Wars, 1652 - 1674
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Dutch Ships Seized by the English = 2,000 - 2,700
English Ships Seized by the Dutch = 500 |
Document 4: Sir George Downing, English ambassador to the Dutch Republic, letter to the English government, 1664
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The government of the Dutch Republic is a shattered and divided thing; the province Holland alone must expect to bear the financial burden in a war because the other provinces are poor.
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Document 5: Anonymous pamphlet published in the province of Holland, 1669
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We must make defensive fortifications o n land as well as outfit warships at sea; but we must also try to end the heavy taxes that are most burdensome on our merchants, especially those taxes levied to provide convoys for merchant ships. We who are naturally merchants must have low taxes, peace, and trade as well as protection, and we cannot be turned into soldiers.
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Document 6: The Treaty of Dover, 1670
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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.
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Document 7: Resolution of the Amsterdam City Council, 1671
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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.
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Document 8: Konrad Van Beuningen, Dutch ambassador to England, letter to the government of the Dutch Republic, 1672
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England's interest consists in continuing or encouraging war between the Dutch Republic and France. Either these Dutch lands will become permanently a theater of war or they will be overwhelmed or flooded, in either case ruining our commerce.
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Document 9: The Dutch Republic, government report, 1674
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Differences arose with regard to the election of a military commander to lead the troops. Toward the end of 1671, the mutual distrust among the Dutch provinces hindered deliberations on how to oppose the violent attacks of Louis XIV.
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Document 10: Political pamphlet published in Amsterdam, 1683
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Other Dutch cities and provinces all too easily consent to a recruitment of thousands of men to fight the French. But who, other than wealthy citizens of Amsterdam, much like a rich milk cow, is to furnish the money?
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Document 11: Marquis de Pomponne, French ambassador to the Dutch Republic, report to the French government, early 1680's
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The English East India Company has grown larger and causes the Dutch much anxiety. This trade competition was the real cause of the war which broke ou in the 1650's between England and the Dutch Republic. It also caused another war between the Dutch and the king of England in the 1660's
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Document 12: National Debt of the Dutch Republic (in guilders)
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1688 = 30,000,000
1713 = 148,000,000 |
Document 13: Dutch colonial administrator, letter to the directors of the Dutch East India Company, 1705
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The profits of our East Indian trade have turned into losses, the java trade is declining, and the commercial competition from the English, French, Portuguese, Chinese, and Muslims in Asia cannot be checked.
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Document 14: Englishman resident in the Dutch Republic, letter about the Dutch reaction to losses suffered in the War of the Spanish Succession, 1709
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The cries of widows, orphans, and tender virgins, deprived of their husbands, fathers and young men, prevail. Dutch armies, allied with the English in his war against France, have suffered extremely: they have not a hundred men left in each battalion out of a total of thirty battalions that engaged the French at the beginning of the war.
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