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The Dutch Golden Age

The Dutch Golden Age. 1584-1702. There’s more to the Netherlands than just windmills. What is it called?. Spanish Netherlands Holland Netherlands Low Countries United Provinces The people are Dutch. Overview. 1609: Northern provinces = independence

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The Dutch Golden Age

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  1. The Dutch Golden Age 1584-1702

  2. There’s more to the Netherlands than just windmills

  3. What is it called? • Spanish Netherlands • Holland • Netherlands • Low Countries • United Provinces • The people are Dutch

  4. Overview • 1609: Northern provinces = independence • Southern = still part of Spanish Empire • Industrial and commercial • Urban • Prosperity • Tolerance • Very literate • Why? Reading important to Protestant societies • Individual must read the Bible by himself

  5. The “Dutch Century” • Dutch Trade, Science, and Art become widely recognized • Religious tolerance • Stable, thriving economy • Golden Age of artists

  6. Wealth and World Trade • Dutch dominated world trade • 1602: Dutch East India Company • Spices = profit • 1609: Amsterdam bank founded • 1650: Main slave trading country in Europe

  7. Wealth from Trade • Geography favors trade • E-W, N-S trade routes • Near Rhine • Shipped in Baltic and Mediterranean • National industries • Shipping and dairy farming • Large, wealthy merchant class. • Emphasis on arts, literature and science.

  8. Tolerance • Trade = tolerance toward minority views and interests • The Reformation • Each person interprets Bible • Emigration (religious refugees) to the Netherlands • Jews from Portugal and Belgium fled the Spanish Inquisition • Philosophers found political refuge from Germany

  9. Formation of National Identity • Revolt against Spain -- Eighty Years' War (1568-1648) • Religious freedom • Economical and political independence • Political and religious freedom created openness to new cultural and scientific ideas as well

  10. 1579: Union of UtrechtBlue = independent Yellow = loyal to Spanish King

  11. Oath of Abjuration: 1581 • Offered rule to Elizabeth I. Declined. • Republic? Dutch deny the right of a king to rule them • Sets precedent for English and French revolutions

  12. 12 Years Truce1609-1621 • Spain too busy with other European issues • Northern Provinces = de facto independence • support of England and other Protestant kingdoms • Rule is Republican • Stadholder is elected

  13. Peace of Munster: 1648

  14. Social Structure • Determined by income, not title or birth • Merchants dominate the cities • Sought public office to raise power and status • Countryside: aristocrats became traders or took public/military office to earn a salary • Clergy little influence • Catholic Church had been suppressed since the Eighty Years' War began

  15. Social Hierarchy • Aristocrats and patricians • House of Orange • Affluent middle class • Ministers, lawyers, physicians, merchants, industrialists, clerks • Small shop owners, specialized workers, craftsmen, farmers • Skilled laborers, servants • Last: Peasants, beggars, day laborers

  16. Pieter Brughel: “Corn Harvest”

  17. Class Divisions • Less defined • Greater social mobility • Calvinism • humility and tolerance as an important virtues

  18. Religion • Calvinism dominant, but country not unified under Calvinism • Other Protestants • Catholics

  19. Religious Tolerance • Tolerance was not so easy towards Catholics • Catholics could buy the privilege to hold ceremonies • No public offices • Catholics neighborhoods • The same applied to Anabaptists and Jews • Tolerance attracted religious refugees from other countries • Jewish merchants from Portugal and Spain • French Huguenots

  20. Painting • Merchants are primary customers, not church and nobility • Themes • More emphasis on topics of their choice • Emphasis on scenes of daily life • Close scrutiny of the natural world - -no supernatural aspects • Light and color

  21. The Milkmaid by Jan Vermeer

  22. Girl with Pearl Earring by Jan Vermeer

  23. “The Little Street” by Vermeer

  24. Nightwatch by Rembrant, 1642

  25. Anatomy Lesson by Rembrandt

  26. Architecture • Less emphasis on Baroque (no Versailles here!) • Architecture emphasized democratic ideals: restraint and balance

  27. Canal with patrician houses

  28. Decline of the Dutch Empire • War of Spanish Succession (1701-1714) • By the 18th century, the Republic no longer a military power • Competition for trade and colony, especially from England

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