31.3 Europe: a.d. 1601 to 1700  (Page 15/30)

But to regress a little, in the middle of the century Holland had some serious difficulties. It was in 1651 that the English Parliament passed a Navigation Act forbidding foreign vessels to bring any merchandise into England except that locally produced. One of the Dutch-Anglo wars resulted and the supremacy of the English naval power at that time was soon obvious. An English blockade of the Dutch coast ruined the economy and the population approached starvation. At that point Jan de Witt undertook the leadership of the country. He was diligent and devoted to the tasks of the government. For awhile England continued to dominate, taking over New Amsterdam in North America, among other indignities and thus started the 2nd Dutch War. In the end the Dutch still lost New York, but gained some territory in South America and more freedom on the seas. A four year Portuguese war over Brazilian interests started in 1657. (Ref. 222 ) Jan de Witt and his brother Conrelis finally lost favor with their people and were assassinated. The Dutch Republic went down with them.

Protestant Holland and her successes were an affront to Louis XIV and in 1672 he entered Holland at the head of a large army and swept to within sight of the steeples of Amsterdam. William of the House of Orange (a family originally from near Avignon, France), now only 21 years of age, was nevertheless appointed Stadholder and Captain-General of the army, forever. Despite his army's holding efforts, he finally had to open the dikes and flood a great part of Holland, leaving Amsterdam as an island. After much destruction, the French withdrew and a peace came in 1678, but William's hatred of the French king never abated and even after he became King of England, the situation remained unchanged.

In the second half of the century there were 2,000,000