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Interesting:
Iceberg on the pier of Delfshaven, 1565
At the same time, we see Germany in ruins after the 30-years war:
The Dutch are pretty innovative. They also managed to supply the world with cocaine in world war 1, essentially becoming one the richest nations in the world in the process after Germany got hit by an export ban due to the politics of WW1.
Possible explanation:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nati...5fb2d8-0c25-11e8-8b0d-891602206fb7_story.htmlIn one empire after another, the sick and starving blamed governments for their misery. As a result, the coldest stretch of the Little Ice Age brought an unprecedented surge of revolts and civil wars. Rebel and state armies alike conscripted farm laborers who joined refugees in spreading disease. In the end, millions died.
Yet remarkably, inhabitants of the Dutch Republic — the precursor state to today’s Netherlands — enjoyed a golden age that perfectly coincided with the chilliest century of the Little Ice Age. Somehow, a country with a small population emerged as a great power, with a navy that went from victory to victory and a commercial fleet that dwarfed all others.
The Dutch Republic was an oddball in the 17th-century world.
Iceberg on the pier of Delfshaven, 1565
The Little Ice Age: its effects when far beyond climate change | BBC Science Focus MagazineOn 2 January 1565, the little Dutch town of Delfshaven, close to Rotterdam, became the scene of a surprising spectacle. An iceberg crashed into the coast and was soon swarmed by curious locals exploring the towering mass, marvelling at its bulk and measuring its size. The painter Cornelis Jacobsz van Culemborch documented the strange event. On his panel, a little group of onlookers can be seen dancing on the ice in front of the glacial visitor. The cold of the scene is almost palpable.
The iceberg off Rotterdam was a harbinger of change. Winters were becoming longer and more bitter across the globe, summers frequently more brief and less sunny. For the inhabitants of temperate zones such as Europe this creeping but unstoppable transformation heralded not only freezing temperatures, but also hunger and hardship, epidemics and social unrest. The Little Ice Age had begun.
The abrupt rise of a country unendowed by nature to such heights of wealth and power was, indeed, frequently regarded as a ‘miracle.’ As early as 1600, a French Protestant, the Duc de Rohan, declared that nothing in his travels through Western Europe had impressed him more than the marvels of the small province of Holland. Some years later his compatriot, the economist Antoine de Montchrétien, asserted that there was no other example in world history of a country that within such a short span of time had risen from humble beginnings to a position of influence in almost all quarters of the world. Even Rome, he held, had needed many more years to conquer her empire.
Diana Muir Appelbaum » Blog Archive » Miracle of the Dutch RepublicIn no other part of Europe, not even in Northern Italy, so it was noticed, did so large a part of the population live in cities, or was town life so bustling with activity and so efficiently organized. Most foreigners were struck by the absence of the hordes of beggars which infested other European towns of the period, and praised the numerous institutions taking care of the poor, the aged, and the diseased. ‘The alms-houses of the city of Amsterdam’, noted the English consul William Carr in 1688, ‘look more like Princes’ Palaces than lodgings for poor people.’
At the same time, we see Germany in ruins after the 30-years war:
Hollandgänger – Wikipedia"Hollandgänger" (Dutch walkers) were migrant workers who, after the Thirty Years' War, from about 1650 to 1914 - driven by social need - moved seasonally from economically weak areas of Germany to the Netherlands (colloquially: Holland) to work and earn an urgently needed income for themselves and their families. Migrant workers who moved to West or East Frisia were also known as "Frieslandgänger".
The Dutch are pretty innovative. They also managed to supply the world with cocaine in world war 1, essentially becoming one the richest nations in the world in the process after Germany got hit by an export ban due to the politics of WW1.
Possible explanation:
Aglionby makes in his overall positive description another observation and attributes the reputation and success of the Dutch Republic in the 17th century to its networks of commerce and migration, both within Europe and world-wide. The Dutch, who had long been decried as "Block-Heads" and "eaters of Cheese and Milk" and who had been thought stupid, were now regarded as being as sensitive and intelligent as other Europeans.
Recent studies have confirmed this judgment. In comparison to northern Europe the Dutch Republic had the highest rate of immigration in the 17th century – primarily Calvinists from the Spanish dominated southern Netherlands and Sephardic Jews who, beginning in the late 16th century, had begun to settle in Amsterdam and in the province of Holland. Along with seasonal workers from the neighbouring German territories, the Calvinists from the southern Netherlands and the Jews constituted the largest group of foreigners working in the Netherlands. Within the Republic the province of Holland experienced the highest rate of immigration and the greatest economic and cultural growth. Due to its maritime location and the privileges and extensive religious freedom that it awarded to immigrants, Amsterdam registered the greatest growth in population.
The "Dutch Century" — EGOThe migratory movements, which were not confined to the northern Netherlands, were closely linked to political, economic and social changes in Europe. By the end of the 16th century these developments had transformed northern Europe with its world-wide commercial relations, into one of the most important economic regions. In this way northern Europe attained the economic supremacy that had formerly belonged to south-western Europe. Recent research has interpreted the rise of the Dutch Republic in the context of this pan-European process and thus qualified the older perspective in which the Netherlands appeared to be a special case, and a miracle.


