The Dutch Golden Age, the age of Grotius, Spinoza, Rembrandt, Vermeer,
and a host of other renowned artists and writers was also remarkable for
its immense impact in the spheres of commerce, finance, shipping, and technology.
It was in fact one of the most spectacularly creative episodes in the history
of the world. Jonathan Israel gives the definitive account of the emergence
of the United Provinces as a great power, and explains the subsequent decline
in the eighteenth century.
He places the thought, politics, religion, and social developments of
the Golden Age in their broad context, and examines the changing relationship
between the northern Netherlands and the south, which was to develop into
modern Belgium.
| | xvi | (2) |
| Explanatory Notes to the Plates | | xviii | (6) |
| | xxiv | (1) |
| | xxv | (3) |
| Abbreviations | | xxviii | |
| | 1 | (8) |
| PART I: THE MAKING OF THE REPUBLIC, 1477-1588 | | 9 | (224) |
| 2. On the Threshold of the Modern Era |
| | 9 | (32) |
| | 9 | (12) |
| | 21 | (8) |
| The Early Habsburg Netherlands |
| | 29 | (6) |
| The Institutions of the Habsburg Netherlands |
| | 35 | (6) |
| 3. Humanism and the Origins of the Reformation, 1470-1520 |
| | 41 | (14) |
| 4. Territorial Consolidation, 1516-1559 |
| | 55 | (19) |
| 5. The Early Dutch Reformation, 1519-1565 |
| | 74 | (32) |
| The Netherlands Church on the Eve of the Reformation |
| | 74 | (5) |
| | 79 | (5) |
| | 84 | (12) |
| Spiritualism and the Impact of Persecution |
| | 96 | (5) |
| | 101 | (5) |
| 6. Society before the Revolt |
| | 106 | (23) |
| The Land, Rural Society, and Agriculture |
| | 106 | (7) |
| | 113 | (3) |
| | 116 | (3) |
| Institutions of Civic Life: Guilds, Militias, Chambers of Rhetoric |
| | 119 | (4) |
| Poverty and Civic Welfare |
| | 123 | (2) |
| | 125 | (4) |
| 7. The Breakdown of the Habsburg Regime, 1549-1566 |
| | 129 | (26) |
| | 129 | (8) |
| | 137 | (18) |
| 8. Repression under Alva, 1567-1572 |
| | 155 | (14) |
| | 169 | (10) |
| 10. The Revolt and the Emergence of a New State |
| | 179 | (54) |
| The Revolt Survives, 1573-1575 |
| | 179 | (5) |
| From the Pacification of Ghent (1576) to the Union of Utrecht (1579) |
| | 184 | (12) |
| | 196 | (9) |
| The Habsburg Reconquest of the South, 1579-1585 |
| | 205 | (15) |
| The North Netherlands under Leicester, 1585-1587 |
| | 220 | (13) |
| PART II: THE EARLY GOLDEN AGE, 1588-1647 | | 233 | (362) |
| 11. Consolidation of the Republic, 1588-1590 |
| | 233 | (8) |
| 12. The Republic Becomes a Great Power, 1590-1609 |
| | 241 | (35) |
| | 241 | (21) |
| The Fixed Garrison System |
| | 262 | (5) |
| The Dutch Military Reforms and their European Significance |
| | 267 | (4) |
| The Dutch in Europe: Skills, Technology, and Engineering |
| | 271 | (5) |
| 13. The Institutions of the Republic |
| | 276 | (31) |
| | 276 | (9) |
| Taxation and the Tax System |
| | 285 | (6) |
| | 291 | (6) |
| | 297 | (3) |
| | 300 | (7) |
| 14. The Commencement of Dutch World Trade Primacy |
| | 307 | (21) |
| Revolt, Commerce, and Migration from the South |
| | 307 | (8) |
| The Changing Balance between `Bulk-Carrying` and the `Rich Trades` |
| | 315 | (3) |
| The Beginnings of the Dutch Colonial Empire |
| | 318 | (10) |
| 15. Society after the Revolt |
| | 328 | (33) |
| | 328 | (4) |
| | 332 | (5) |
| | 337 | (4) |
| | 341 | (3) |
| | 344 | (4) |
| | 348 | (3) |
| | 351 | (2) |
| Civic Poor Relief and Charitable Institutions |
| | 353 | (8) |
| 16. Protestantization, Catholicization, Confessionalization |
| | 361 | (38) |
| | 361 | (6) |
| The Organization of the Dutch Reformed Church |
| | 367 | (5) |
| The Rejection of Toleration |
| | 372 | (5) |
| | 377 | (13) |
| Confessionalization and the State |
| | 390 | (5) |
| Anabaptism and the Confessionalization Process |
| | 395 | (4) |
| 17. The Separation of Identities: The Twelve Years Truce |
| | 399 | (22) |
| The Pressure to Negotiate |
| | 399 | (6) |
| The Political and Economic Consequences of the Truce |
| | 405 | (5) |
| `South` confronts `North` |
| | 410 | (11) |
| 18. Crisis within the Dutch Body Politic, 1607-1616 |
| | 421 | (12) |
| 19. The Fall of the Oldenbarnevelt Regime, 1616-1618 |
| | 433 | (17) |
| 20. The Calvinist Revolution of the Counter-Remonstrants, 1618-1621 |
| | 450 | (28) |
| | 450 | (10) |
| The Synod of Dordrecht (Dordt), 1618-1619 |
| | 460 | (5) |
| Maurits, the Counter-Remonstrants, and the Commencement of the Thirty Years War |
| | 465 | (9) |
| The Beginnings of the Further Reformation |
| | 474 | (4) |
| 21. The Republic under Siege, 1621-1628 |
| | 478 | (28) |
| Maurits`s last Years, 1621-1625 |
| | 478 | (7) |
| The Commencement of Frederik Hendrik`s Standholderate |
| | 485 | (14) |
| Politics, Ideology, and the Great Dutch Toleration Debate of the late 1620s |
| | 499 | (7) |
| 22. The Republic in Triumph, 1629-1647 |
| | 506 | (41) |
| Frederik Hendrik Victorious and the Regents Divided, 1629-1632 |
| | 506 | (10) |
| The Negotiations between North and South of 1632-1633 |
| | 516 | (7) |
| Frederik Hendrik and the Regent Party-Factions, 1633-1640 |
| | 523 | (14) |
| The Contest for the Leadership of the Republic, 1640-1647 |
| | 537 | (10) |
| 23. Art and Architecture, 1590-1648 |
| | 547 | (18) |
| | 547 | (5) |
| Architecture and the Building Boom |
| | 552 | (3) |
| Specialization in Painting |
| | 555 | (4) |
| The Second Phase in Golden Age Art, 1621-c.1645 |
| | 559 | (6) |
| 24. Intellectual Life, 1572-1650 |
| | 565 | (30) |
| The Forming of a New Culture |
| | 565 | (4) |
| Universities and Civic High Schools |
| | 569 | (6) |
| | 575 | (6) |
| The Rise of the Mechanistic World-View |
| | 581 | (6) |
| Boreelism and the `Third Force` |
| | 587 | (8) |
| PART III: THE LATER GOLDEN AGE, 1647-1702 | | 595 | (364) |
| 25. The Stadholderate of William II, 1647-1650 |
| | 595 | (15) |
| | 610 | (27) |
| | 610 | (9) |
| | 619 | (3) |
| | 622 | (5) |
| | 627 | (3) |
| Wages and Living Standards |
| | 630 | (3) |
| | 633 | (4) |
| 27. Confessionalization, 1647-1702 |
| | 637 | (40) |
| | 637 | (8) |
| William III and the Churches |
| | 645 | (4) |
| Jansenism and Anti-Jansenism |
| | 649 | (4) |
| The Waning of the Lesser Churches |
| | 653 | (5) |
| Church Politics in the Generality Lands |
| | 658 | (2) |
| The Unity of the Public Church |
| | 660 | (9) |
| Internal Confessionalization |
| | 669 | (5) |
| The Later Stages of the Toleration Debate |
| | 674 | (3) |
| | 677 | (23) |
| | 677 | (9) |
| Schools, Literacy, and the Reshaping of Popular Culture |
| | 686 | (4) |
| The Further Reformation and Society |
| | 690 | (10) |
| 29. The Republic at its Zenith, I: The 1650s |
| | 700 | (39) |
| The Making of the `True Freedom` |
| | 700 | (13) |
| The First Anglo-Dutch War (1652-1654) and the Exclusion Crisis (1654) |
| | 713 | (13) |
| De Witt`s System during the Later 1650s |
| | 726 | (13) |
| 30. The Republic at its Zenith, II: 1659-1672 |
| | 739 | (57) |
| `South` and `North` after the Peace of the Pyrenees, 1659 |
| | 739 | (9) |
| Party and Faction in the Early 1660s |
| | 748 | (10) |
| Ideological Conflict in the Early 1660s |
| | 758 | (8) |
| The Second Anglo-Dutch War, 1664-1667 |
| | 766 | (10) |
| The Republic in Conflict with Louis XIV |
| | 776 | (9) |
| The Twilight of the `True Freedom` |
| | 785 | (11) |
| 31. 1672: Year of Disaster |
| | 796 | (11) |
| 32. The Stadholderate of William III, 1672-1702 |
| | 807 | (56) |
| From the `Year of Disaster` to the Peace of Nijmegen, 1672-1678 |
| | 807 | (18) |
| From Nijmegen to the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, 1678-1685 |
| | 825 | (16) |
| The Republic and the Glorious Revolution, 1685-1691 |
| | 841 | (13) |
| The Last Years of William III`s Stadholderate |
| | 854 | (9) |
| 33. Art and Architecture, 1645-1702 |
| | 863 | (26) |
| Urban Expansion, Town Planning, and the Arts |
| | 863 | (10) |
| Phase Three: The Zenith in Painting, c.1645-1672 |
| | 873 | (8) |
| Art after the Crash of 1672 |
| | 881 | (8) |
| 34. Intellectual Life, 1650-1700 |
| | 889 | (45) |
| | 889 | (10) |
| | 899 | (4) |
| | 903 | (6) |
| The Anti-Socinian Campaign |
| | 909 | (7) |
| Radical Cartesians and Spinozists |
| | 916 | (9) |
| | 925 | (6) |
| The Two Dutch Enlightenments |
| | 931 | (3) |
| | 934 | (25) |
| | 934 | (6) |
| Commerce, Shipping, and Seamen in the Indies |
| | 940 | (6) |
| Power, Politics, and Patronage |
| | 946 | (5) |
| | 951 | (8) |
| PART IV: THE AGE OF DECLINE, 1702-1806 | | 959 | (172) |
| 36. The Republic of the Regents, 1702-1747 |
| | 959 | (39) |
| | 959 | (9) |
| The War of the Spanish Succession, 1702-1713 |
| | 968 | (7) |
| The Austrian Netherlands and the North after 1713 |
| | 975 | (10) |
| Neutrality and Domestic Stability, 1713-1746 |
| | 985 | (13) |
| | 998 | (21) |
| Economic Decline--Relative and Absolute |
| | 998 | (8) |
| | 1006 | (6) |
| | 1012 | (7) |
| | 1019 | (19) |
| Dutch Reformed, Protestant Dissenters, Catholics, and Jews |
| | 1019 | (11) |
| The Loosening of Internal Confessional Barriers |
| | 1030 | (8) |
| | 1038 | (29) |
| | 1038 | (9) |
| The `Radical` Enlightenment |
| | 1047 | (2) |
| The Decline of the Universities |
| | 1049 | (2) |
| The Decline of the Visual Arts |
| | 1051 | (3) |
| The Enlightenment in the Austrian Netherlands |
| | 1054 | (3) |
| The Enlightenment in the Colonial Empire |
| | 1057 | (5) |
| The Later Dutch Enlightenment |
| | 1062 | (5) |
| 40. The Second Orangist Revolution, 1747-1751 |
| | 1067 | (12) |
| 41. The Faltering Republic and the New Dynamism in the `South` |
| | 1079 | (19) |
| Politics during the Minority of William V, 1751-1766 |
| | 1079 | (8) |
| New Directions in the Austrian Netherlands |
| | 1087 | (3) |
| The Early Years of William V`s Stadholderate, 1766-1780 |
| | 1090 | (8) |
| 42. The Patriot Revolution, 1780-1787 |
| | 1098 | (15) |
| 43. The Fall of the Republic |
| | 1113 | (9) |
| The Orangist Counter-Revolution, 1787-1795 |
| | 1113 | (2) |
| The Conservative Revolution in the `South` and the New `Netherlands Republic` |
| | 1115 | (4) |
| The End of the United Provinces |
| | 1119 | (3) |
| | 1122 | (9) |
| The Batavian Republic, 1795-1806 |
| | 1122 | (5) |
| | 1127 | (4) |
| Bibliography | | 1131 | (58) |
| Index | | 1189 | |