In class today I found out numerous differences between the British and the Dutch. The British were so much more advanced and powerful compared to the Dutch or so it seems since Britain won all the wars between them two. The Dutch never had a very early "Golden Age" so their army wasn't as well equipped as the British when it came to fighting in 1899.
The Dutch started to settle in South Africa at first because there was very nice land to farm with. Instead of calling themselves the Dutch, they were named the Boers and spoke Afrikan. The British heard there was gold, rubber, diamonds, etc in the southern part of South Africa. Those materials in the 1890s were considered very valuable and it was rare. The Dutch gave them the land they had been settling on so they found land more towards the middle of South Africa. However, the resources they had been looking for were located near the "Boers." Hence the name of the war was called the Boer War. In the end, British took over and the "Boers" were transported to another part of the country.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Actually, most historians would say that there was a Dutch Golden Age, and it occurred during the 17th century. It was a period of rapid scientific, artistic, and commercial growth, that reinvigorated the Dutch economy. The reason why the Dutch lost, in my opinion, is because the British put much more resources and energy into their conquest. The Boer army was mostly made up of farmers without any military training. A small group of dutch farmers simply could not take on the largest empire in the world.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en-us&q=dutch+golden+age&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_Golden_Age
http://www.dutchgoldenage.com/
http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/Harreld.Dutch
http://dutch-history.suite101.com/article.cfm/trade_in_the_dutch_golden_age
The British merely wanted to obtain resources. The Dutch merely wanted to maintain their land as farmers. A compromise couldn't be reached because all the farmers were all on the resources, so it lead to war. The dutch were only composed of farmers, while the english brought soldiers so it was an easy war. So I agree with Cy.
ReplyDeleteto add on to Cy's post you might remember the gold age because of a ridiculous increase in Tulip production. The Dutch were so incredibly wealthy that people paid what would be eqivilent to millions of dollars for a single bulb. The funny thing being that the most sought after bulb turned out to be stripped because of a genetic mutation that causes the tulip to only bloom once. In Amsterdam today you can see a wide variety of Tulips at Keukenhof Gardens. So basically yes the Dutch did have a Golden Age because of their smart decisions in finding new territory but not conquering it, and instead setting up small trading posts. This let them have the location without the problem of having to conquering a bunch of towns. Another upside is that with only an outpost at these locations, the people living there would like you because you brought them different products and didnt kill millions of innocent villagers. http://cruises.about.com/cs/europe/a/keukenhof.htm
ReplyDelete