Challenges to the Dutch Republic

Prior to the 1650’s, the Dutch Republic was the wealthiest and most powerful province in Holland through Amsterdam, the leading force in trade and banking. Many European nations were jealous of their success and wanted it for themselves which resulted in conflicts between the Dutch and many European powers. As a result, the Dutch Republic entered a period of decline until the Peace of Utrecht of 1713. The expensive wars with England and France, decline in trade and distrust between the Dutch provinces led to challenges in security, unity and prosperity of the Republic.

The wars with England and France threatened the national security of the Dutch Republic. According to document 1, a lot of naval battles between the English and the Dutch occurred on Dutch trade and fishing routes. The constant attacks were a threat to the national security because Dutch merchants and citizens were getting captured by foreign governments. The reason the English attacked the Dutch ships so much is to seize their ships. Document 3 shows that the English seized at least 1,500 more ships than the Dutch, who only seized 500. This means that the Dutch grew weaker as they lost their ships and their enemies, the English, grew stronger as they gained ships. The English could use their newly obtained ships to perform more naval attacks on the Dutch which further challenged the security of the provinces. Some merchants were afraid of sailing anymore and argued for free warships protection, like the anonymous merchant in document 5. This document shows that merchants were beginning to lose their faith in their government’s security and were worried about being attacked while trading. Attacks on merchant ships were not the only source of threat for the Dutch Re...

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...t expressed in document 10. Written by an anonymous wealthy citizen of Amsterdam, the author argues that as the government is quick to start wars, there is no fund source to back them up, meaning that only wealthy citizens like himself must pay. This document is obviously biased because as a wealthy citizen, he does not want to spend him money on the government and could be over exaggerating the high taxes he has to pay. It does also, however, show the challenge of war and how it affects the government’s economy. There were also outside factors which caused economic troubles for the Dutch. Document 7 states that many countries, like France and England but not limited to, are trying to take parts of the Dutch economy for themselves. This is an outside economic challenge because foreign countries threaten the Dutch economy by trying to weaken it to benefit themselves.