Digging deeper summary chapter 2

2.1

1600-1700: Regents and Dukes

Absolute rulers

Spain and Portugal built colonies

World-wide trade and colonisation

Scientific revolution

Newton

Huygens

Dutch East India Company

VOC 1602

Changes
-Economic: to do with trade and money

-Political: to do with the way countries are run and interact

-Religious: to do with faith

-Technological: new machinery or equipment

-World view: how people look at the world

2.2

Dutch Republic controlled parts of:

• Brabant
• Flanders

They wanted all southern provinces.

Dutch Republic after start of truce→ accepted as independent state.

Had:

-Ambassadors

-Official government

Most important part of the republic: states general: all seven united provinces.

Stadholder ran the army + navy.

Government: based in The Hague

2.7
Dutch Republic was the greatest sea power of the 17th century, but England was catching up fast.

A strong sea power needed a large number of merchant ships and many expert sailors.

New economic idea:

Merchantalism: showed how countries could use their colonies to become stronger and richer.

Colonies must only:

• Trade with home country
• Produce raw materials
• Import manufactured goods from the home country
• Trade could only be done own ships

Law of Navigation Acts:

-Goods imported had to be carried in English ships

-Export could only go to England

-Only English ships could land fish in England

Michiel de Ruyter started to reform the navy:

• He built many new war ships
• He set up an system of supplies and provisions
• He made sure the navy had professional officers who were good seamen

2.9

Since 1500 the Dutch started to use dykes, sluices and drainage canals to drain land and keep it drained.

To keep the land below sea level drained:

-Workers built a dyke around the area

-Put windmills on top of it to pump the water away

-They used ditches to carry the water away

Best type of windmill: tower scoop windmill.

2.11
The Dutch Republic grew rapidly because of:

• Guilds had never been very powerful in Amsterdam; this allowed merchants and other craftspeople to trade more freely
• The Exchange Bank made it easy for foreigners to trade
• Services provided by the city, form rubbish collection to care for the poor. Improved health and so the death rate decreased

Amsterdam always had many foreigners living there, often more than half the city’s population.

To enlarge the city people built main canals looping around it.

Dam square was the focus of trade. In the middle of Dam Square was the Weighing House where all goods had to be brought. Merchants paid the city council a tax on the weight. The town hall, where all city business was carried out, was also in the square. The Exchange Bank was there and the merchants’ exchange, where merchants met to trade.

2.12

The rarest most expensive tulip was the Semper Augustus, a white tulip with red flames on the petals.

2.13
There were lots of versions of the Dutch translation of the Bible, but the Dutch Reformed Church wanted a new translation. The new version was called the Statenbijbel.

Benedictus Spinoza was a Dutch Jewish philosopher. Many of his ideas were about religion, which upset many people.

He believed everything was made out of the same thing; called substance. He also believed in predestination; your life was decided before you are born. He said ideas had to be proved to be useful.

2.15

Newton:

• Explained gravity
• Explained how planets moved

Huygens:

• Theory of probability
• Pendulum clock