The Dutch Republic Downfall

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Within 1650 to 1713 the Dutch Republic underwent a formidable transformation, which changed its status as a major influence in Europe. The Dutch Republic was a political union of seven provinces that was not only an impressive banking and commercial capital, but the Dutch also had a great navy as well. Additionally, the center of flourishment in the Dutch Republic was Amsterdam, which was the foremost trading and banking center in all of Europe. The changing environment of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries forced the Dutch Republic into a position of conflict and unbalance, which proved detrimental to their country as a whole. One of the first challenges to the Dutch Republic dealt with military and how countries, such as the English, wanted to snatch the Dutch’s profitable sea trade routes for themselves. As a result of military conflicts, the Dutch Republic’s economy decreased as a whole due to the fact that wars burdened the previously flourishing trade routes and wealthy cities. Another challenge to the Dutch Republic was unity and how Dutch cities began to doubt other provinces of loyalty to one another, which destroyed most efforts of unification for retaliation against the countries attacking the Dutch. Overall, the major decline of the Dutch Republic was a great example of when one part of a nation goes down, the rest of the nation followed suit.
One of the first parts of the Dutch Republic to become challenged, which led to an overall decline, was the military or security. Most of the major threats came from foreign nations, such as France and England. One of the conflicts with the French was the War of Spanish Succession when the Dutch suffered extreme losses, having not even a hundred men left in each ...

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...to rise dramatically, which caused Amsterdam to become less influential. Finally, unity was also challenged and this was seen because Dutch cities began to distrust other Dutch cities, which devastating because the country needed unity to survive and stay as a major power in Europe. The late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries saw an uprising of major powers, some of whom forced the Dutch Republic into a series of conflicts, which destroyed the Netherlands at the core. Ultimately the Dutch Republic’s downfall began with foreign opposition, but the country proved to be unstable because once one part of the empire went down, many other parts followed suit. The removal of the Dutch Republic as a major influence in Europe was also similar to the decline of the Prussian Empire and how some of Prussia’s demise was internal and foreign hostility eliminated the rest.

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