Dutch Golden Age

The Dutch Golden Age (Dutch: Gouden Eeuw) was a period in the history of the Netherlands which roughly lasted from 1588, when the Dutch Republic was established, to 1672, when the Rampjaar occurred. During this period, Dutch trade, scientific developments, art and overseas colonisation was among the most prominent in Europe.

Quotes

• In thriving arts long time had Holland grown,
    Crouching at home and cruel when abroad:
  Scarce leaving us the means to claim our own;
    Our King they courted, and our merchants awed.
  Trade, which, like blood, should circularly flow,
    Stopp'd in their channels, found its freedom lost:
  Thither the wealth of all the world did go,
    And seem'd but shipwreck'd on so base a coast.
  For them alone the heavens had kindly heat;
    In eastern quarries ripening precious dew:
  For them the Idumæan balm did sweat,
    And in hot Ceylon spicy forests grew.
  The sun but seem'd the labourer of the year;
    Each waxing moon supplied her watery store,
  To swell those tides, which from the line did bear
    Their brimful vessels to the Belgian shore.
  • John Dryden, Annus Mirabilis: The Year of Wonders, 1666, sts. 1–4