THE DUTCH REPUBLIC

The low countries, consisting of 17 provinces and principalities, became during the Middle Ages a centre of trade, export of goods and textiles, shipbuilsing, mills and inundation. Especially in the Northern part of the Netherlands, the Dutch seemed to have defeated the powers of the rivers and the sea.

The low countries (present Luxemburg, Belgium and the Netherlands) were part of the Habsburg Empire. Due to marriages between royals, Spain obtained the area, inhabited by Frisians, Dutch, Flemish and “Walen”, French speaking southern folk.

Spain's Habsburg King Philip II saw himself as the main protector of Catholicism. At the same time protestantism got a foothold in European society, especially in the North-West. This lead to confrontations with Spain and finally in a declaration of war and an 80-year struggle for independence. In 1648 became an indepent nation, consisting of 7 Provences: Zeeland, Zuid- en Noord-Holland, Friesland, Groningen, Utrecht, Overijssel en Drenthe.

The Republic was born. In the recent past Dutch traders had circles the globe and New-Amsterdam, Caribbean, Kaapstad (Zuid-Afrika), Indonesia and Decima, the entrance to Empirial Japan, were colonised and under Dutch control. These colonies made the Dutch very rich and a global competitor for power. Dutch raiders plundered Spanish shilps, filled with gold and silver. stolen, in enormous quantities from the South-American Indians.

Main competitor was the British Empire, who saught world domination. This can be illustrated by the struggle for existence of the Dutch in South-Africa (the Boer-war) and the occupation by the British of the Dutch colony Nieuw-Nederland and Nieuw-Amsterdam. A short confrontation after which Pieter Stuyvesant, a Frisian, surrendered the city. It was renamed: New York.