addiv
Hero of our time
I know the Chinese sailed to East Africa and America but I've never heard that they circumnavigated the world. Got any source for that?
I know the Chinese sailed to East Africa and America but I've never heard that they circumnavigated the world. Got any source for that?
Androrc
Prince
Sodak
Paha Sapa Papa
The Dutch demise was primarily the same as their rise - economic. Amsterdam was a world-port, being the main warehouse (point B) of goods moving from A to C. They essentially invented large-scale speculation and investment in trade, which was more or less international banking. The decline of Flanders opened up big opportunities for the Dutch, as did their eventual beating of the Hanseatic League.
Jack Merchant points out quite a few important factors in their decline. One important factor was internicine warfare - conflict with the Utrecht eliminated the safety of inland trade. Neighbors also began taking larger portions of the economic pie, leaving the Dutch with less and less. The book 'Kleine Geschiedenis van Amsterdam' (short history of A'dam, if it's in english) explains a lot about the growth and decline of the whole economic climate from well before to well after the Dutch golden century.
Jack Merchant points out quite a few important factors in their decline. One important factor was internicine warfare - conflict with the Utrecht eliminated the safety of inland trade. Neighbors also began taking larger portions of the economic pie, leaving the Dutch with less and less. The book 'Kleine Geschiedenis van Amsterdam' (short history of A'dam, if it's in english) explains a lot about the growth and decline of the whole economic climate from well before to well after the Dutch golden century.
Ribannah
Fighter Druid
I don't think there ever was a real decline. What happened was that bigger countries learned to copy what the Dutch did and thereby reclaimed a proportionate piece of the pie.
Nonetheless, today the Dutch are still very high on the ladder, despite their relatively small size.
Nonetheless, today the Dutch are still very high on the ladder, despite their relatively small size.
Ribannah
Fighter Druid
Actually, the whales did ...
Androrc
Prince
There WAS a decline during the 18th century in the Netherlands. And it's not like the others could 'imitate' the Dutch. Their wealth was based in commerce, and transport of goods from one country to another. So, basically their ships transported things for other countries. It was the major naval power for a very big time, until the British took over in 1805. In the 1700s the Dutch faced corruption and a lot of whole other problems, caused by the extreme wealth that entered their coffers. And at the 19th century it wasn't one of the most industrialized - Belgium, with it's large coal deposits and less conservative thinking industrialized much quicker than the Dutch, although the Dutch reached Belgium later.
