The Dutch Golden Age, known for its renowned artists and writers, was also remarkable for its immense impact on the spheres of commerce, finance, shipping, and technology. Israel gives the definitive account of the emergence of the United Provinces as a great power, its subsequent decline in the 18th century, and the changing relationship between the northern Netherlands and the south, which was to develop into modern Belgium. 32 color plates.

• Preface


• Lists of maps, tables, and abbreviations


• Part 1: The Making of the Republic, 1477-1588


• 1: Introduction


• 2: On the Threshold of a Modern era


• 3: Humanism and the Origins of the Reformation, 1470-1520


• 4: Territorial Consolidation, 1516-1559


• 5: The Early Dutch Reformation, 1519-1565


• 6: Society Before the Revolt


• 7: The Breakdown of the Habsburg Regime, 1549-1566


• 8: Repression Under Alva, 1567-1572


• 9: The Revolt Begins


• 10: The Revolt and the Emergence of a New State


• Part 2: The Early Golden Age, 1588-1647


• 11: Consolidation of the Republic, 1588-1590


• 12: The Republic becomes a Great Power


• 13: The Institutions of the Republic


• 14: The Commencement of Dutch World Trade Primacy


• 15: Society after the Revolt


• 16: Protestantization, Catholicization, Confessionalization


• 17: The Separation of Identities: the Twelve Years Truce


• 18: Crisis Within the Dutch Body Politic, 1607-1616


• 19: The fall of the Oldenbarnevelt Regime, 1616-1618


• 20: The Calvinist Revolution of the Counter-Remonstrants, 1618-1621


• 21: The Republic Under Siege, 1621-1628


• 22: The Republic in Triumph, 1629-1647


• 23: Art and Architecture, 1509-1648


• 24: Intellectual Life, 1572-1650


• Part III: The Later Golden Age, 1647-1702


• 25: The Stadholderate of William II, 1647-1650


• 26: Society


• 27: Confessionalization, 1647-1702


• 28: Freedom and Order


• 29: The Republic at its Zenith I: the 1650s


• 30: The Republic at its Zenith II:1659-1672


• 31: 1672: Year of Disaster


• 32: The Stadholderate of William III, 1672-1702


• 33: Art and Architecture, 1645-1702


• 34: Intellectual Life, 1650-1700


• 35: The Colonial Empire


• Part IV: The Age of Decline, 1702-1806


• 36: The Republic of the Regents, 1702-1747


• 37: Society


• 38: The Churches


• 39: The Enlightenment


• 40: The Second Orangist Revolution, 1747-1751


• 41: The Faltering Republic and the New Dynamism in the `South'


• 42: The Patriot Revolution, 1780-1787


• 43: The Fall of the Republic


• 44: Denouement


• Bibliography


• Index

Jonathan Israel is Professor of Dutch History and Institutions at the University of London. He is the author of many well-respected books in European and particularly Dutch history.