The Dutch Seaborne Empire: 1600 - 1800

by Charles Ralph Boxer, J.H. Plumb (Introduction)

Despite ceaseless conflict between different classes and cities, Holland's rise to powerwas almost miraculously rapid. In a few short years a tiny country gained control of territory from Indonesia to the West Indies, from South Africa to South America. In this marvellously evocative book Professor Boxer recaptures the scenes of adventure and dissipation in the four corners of the earth , the upsurgein the arts and sciences, and the sad decoines from the ' Golden Centurt' to the 'Periwig Period'. Few stories could be as rich and colourful, yet it was largely inspired by the ' grave and sober people of Holland', the Calvinist merchants of Amsterdam who forged a nation based on ' gain and godliness'. Such were the people whom Rembrandt painted, who debated policies of apartheid or assimilation, who founded factories and forts. The Dutch Seaborne empire offers a portrait of them all, as they made their spectaculair entrance into the modern world.

Genres: History, European History, 18th Century, 17th Century, Maritime, Nonfiction, Nautical

363 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1965

About the author

Charles Ralph Boxer, FBA, was a historian of Dutch and Portuguese maritime and colonial history. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._R._B...]

Reviews

[Lauren Albert · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a sometimes surprising look at the Dutch Empire. It was a surprise, at least to me, that poverty was common at home and that sailors were notoriously underfed to keep prices down. “It was not Calvinism which was the driving force behind Dutch expansion overseas,but a combination of ‘love of gain’ among the merchants with the threat of unemployment and starvation for many of the seafaring community at home.” 128 Low pay and the hazards of living overseas, led to illicit trading which also decreased profits.

Eventually, the Dutch let their ships become dated and didn't invest in new technology. This actually increased their costs.

[Walt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Both fascinating and frustrating, Boxer shares a lot of information with the reader. However, the reader needs to have some background in Dutch History to understand it. Boxer, and series editor Plumb, want to focus on the social history of the empires, not the basic historical context. Even with the 3-page outline of History ca. 1550-1800 that Boxer offers readers as an appendix is inadequate.

Boxer tells us the Dutch experienced a golden century followed by the stagnant Periwig Era. This is roughly 1550 - 1750. After 1750 the Dutch experience a rapid decline. The opening chapter discusses the 80 Years War between the Dutch and the Spanish. But remember, the focus is on the people, not events. The result is a maddeningly confusing chapter on migrations, religious fever, references to historical events, and out of this mixture is the explanation that the 7 united provinces prevailed.

The following chapters examine merchants, peasants, sailors, pendikants (preachers), life at home, life at the colonies, and the decline. These chapters are enlightening if the reader is interested in history and has a background in history. This is certainly not for the casual reader. It is interesting to see that the golden century was marked by extreme wealth concentrated at the top with the regent oligarch class, and grinding poverty among the masses. Boxer may have been exaggerating a bit. For much of the medieval period, the low countries were one of the wealthiest areas in Europe and one of the most densely populated areas. Everyone wanted to tap the wealth and industry of the region. To argue here that the Dutch became miraculously wealthy and productive when they broke with Spain is not accurate. Nor is passing judgement on the rise of the Dutch Empire owed to a combination of Calvinist furor and enterprise. Recent scholarship on the Portuguese and Spanish Empires argue that Dutchmen frequently accounted for much of the crews for these two nations. In short, they were the ships and seamen of the first colonial powers. It is not too difficult to see how the Dutch rapidly grew as an empire. More interesting is their decline.

The last chapter of the book spends considerable time discussing the decline of the Dutch Empire. Boxer contends that the Netherlands could not compete against the resource rich nations of the industrial period. France and England out-produced the Dutch. Protective barriers also closed ports to Dutch shipping. Also, most nations were rapidly building their own industries. Boxer contends that competition in the herring industry in particular during the 1700s led to a massive decline in Dutch seafaring. However, he also focuses a great deal of ire on the regent oligarch class becoming involved in merely renting at home and investing abroad. They remained wealthy. In fact, Boxer shows that the Netherlands as a whole was wealthier in the 1700s than in the 1600s. But the grinding poverty was just as bad if not worse. Boxer blames that on the wealthy who refused to invest in home industries. It is a poignant argument relevant in Trump's America.

The transformation of society was fascinating. The Dutch were driven more by profit than anything else. They were unsuccessful in colonizing. They had notoriously poor relations with their colonies. Their "industry" focused on cutting costs for efficiency. Boxer points out time and again how the Dutch seized enemy strongholds and systematically reduced them to scrimp of costs. In effect, he outlines how the Spanish, Portuguese, and Dutch Empires lost to the late-coming English and French Empires. But to see these connections, readers need to know a holistic conception of the era, not just the gleamings from Boxer's work.

It is interesting to know that the Dutch hardly had any lasting effect on their former colonies. Even in South Africa, Boxer describes the Afrikaans as not identifying with the Dutch. They were frontiersmen from the Netherlands, France, and Germany who formed a creole language of their own loosely based on Dutch. Consequently, it was easy for other nations to conquer Dutch colonies. It is a wonder why the other empires tolerated Dutch control in Surinam and Indonesia.

Overall, it is an interesting book. Readers who make it through will learn something. But the lack of a basic historical narrative hurts the audience who are not aware of the place of the Netherlands in History. They did not sprout out of nothing in 1550 and forge an empire overnight because of awesome-ness. Their decline is a bit of a disappointment in part because they could have and should have lasted longer.

[Alex Helling · Rating 3 out of 5]

From a gruelling 80 year war the Dutch empire took flight, it rapidly attained dizzying heights before rapidly falling back to earth. This empire was perhaps the first built solely on trade with very little attempt to control territory beyond what was necessary to control trade routes and monopolise supplies of the most expensive spices. As the title of C R Boxer’s book The Dutch Seaborne Empire 1600-1800 goes this was an empire of the sea. It was reliant on the navy and on the companies that ran the ships through which the empire operated, making it very different from its contemporary colonial empires such as the Spanish.

Pros
A wide ranging look at the Dutch empire
A good readable introduction

Cons
A blind eye to European events

Boxer perhaps does not structure the book in quite the way that might be expected. The rise and decline are largely at the beginning and end but in between is largely unmoored from narrative history. Instead the chapters explore: burgher-oligarchs and merchant adventurers - the elite and governance; sedentary workers and seafaring work - society and the driving forces behind industry and merchant marine; Mare Liberum and Mare Clausum - the ability of the men on the spot out in the empire to determine and prosecute war; Grain and godliness at home and abroad - the influence of calvinism and comparative toleration; Pallas and Mercury - education arts and sciences; Fort and factory - trading and conquest; Assimilation and Apartheid - what life was like in the colonies; The tavern of two seas - developing Cape colony; The ‘Golden Century’ and the ‘Periwig Period’ - the decline.

While this is clearly a wide ranging book Boxer manages to organically slide from one topic to the next without it seeming disjointed. It does mean each subject is not covered in great depth before we are on to the next. However Boxer also brings in lots of examples and statistics without the book ever feeling too weighed down by them. Indeed it is more readable than I was expecting for something that is non narrative or chronological.

As a book about the ‘seabourne’ empire Boxer clearly tries to separate the farflung Dutch empire out from the events going on in Europe. By this I don't mean that the homeland is not covered, it is, particularly the social, religious, commercial situation, but the narrative of events in Europe is not. I am not sure how successful this is as the Dutch cannot stand in splendid isolation from Europe and so events at home regularly intrude. But it does mean that there are some things that are just ignored, thus the last chapter on the decline in the 18th Century is focused on considerations such as decline in ship numbers or mariners and changes in the economy with no consideration as to the costs of security on the Dutch landward side and whether the long wars at the end of the 17th Century might simply have overstretched the country. The United Provinces might be rich but they had a population only a tenth of their principal opponent - France.

The other side of the coin is that there is a lot in here that will be new to most. Whether that is the elements of society that drove the creation of the empire, events bringing the Dutch into controlling more and more territory, how their colonies worked, or how little assimilation actually took place. Even more than the British empire that followed the Dutch empire was driven by commercialism, and essentially profit. Anything that undermined that profit was ignored whether that be fair wages or preaching the bible.

As a precursor to the British empire that followed, at least initially, a similar pattern it is fascinating to study the Dutch seaborne empire and so this book would be worthwhile for anyone with an interest in Empire.

[Steve Bender · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting book about the Dutch at the height of their power. Unfortunately you need to now a lot about Dutch history to keep freom being excedingly frustrated. Boxer examined much of the details of Dutch society, but left out the chronologicla history except for a 3 page appendix aty the end of the book. I was looking for something different.

[Grand Nerd · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book that delivers information about what the Dutch Seaborne Empire, however it is rather dry in places, however I feel this is partly down to my short attention span rather than the book itself. Quite good.

[Xico Pedro · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aquela introdução do "Historiador" do século passado matou-me os cornos, obrigado evolução

[David Newell · Rating 5 out of 5]

An illuminating read on a relatively unknown period (to me), well structured, and well researched