The Dutch Seaborne Empire 1600-1800 - Tapa blanda

In terms of European expansion, the Portuguese and Spanish dominated the 15th and 16th centuries, then the Dutch took over the leading role in the 17th century and lost it to Britain in the 18th century. Charles Boxer here sets out the history of the Dutch domination. The breadth of his knowledge was exceptionally wide, and Boxer presents an interesting view of Dutch domestic and overseas society over two centuries in this important study in English. It also has a reasonable number of helpful maps and plates. Boxer's ten chapters are almost ten separate essays. His main theme is the background of Dutch expansion, rather than what it achieved. He starts with the background to the rise of the merchant navies of Holland and Zeeland, the social make-up and governance of the Dutch republic and the formation of the Dutch East India Company and a less successful West India Company. The bulk of his study deals with political, economic and social conditions in the Dutch republic as much as in the colonies, and mainly about the 17th century. The rapid decline of the overseas empire in the 18th century is dealt with in one chapter, in which either Boxer or the Dutch Overseas Empire seem to have run out of steam. Boxer attributes this to a decrease in population and a decline in the North Sea fisheries, which in turn lead to a lack of trained seamen, rather than the wars with England. He also comments on the increasingly narrow basis of the ruling oligarchy