Abstract
In the general introduction, David Onnekink makes the case for reinterpreting the Dutch Forty Years’ War (1672–1713). He explains how, according to historians, the Dutch Republic became locked in a prolonged defensive struggle against France in the Franco-Dutch War (1672–1678), the Nine Years’ War (1688–1697) and the War of the Spanish Succession (1702–1713). He then proceeds to show how this interpretation rests on theoretical assumptions generated by structure of politics and realism, assumptions that have been challenged by post-revisionist scholars. Onnekink then discusses an analytical model devised by Lene Hansen, who proposes to rethink foreign policy as a discursive practice. This model forms the basis for the case studies in this book.
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- 1.
Pamphlets in notes are referred to by catalogue number according to W.P.C. Knuttel. Catalogus van de pamfletten-verzameling berustende in de Koninklijke Bibliotheek (Utrecht 1978). This reference: Het waare interest van Europa, tot conservatie van hare vryheyt (1702) (Knuttel 14800), dedication. Titles of and quotes from pamphlets have been translated into English by me.
- 2.
J.J.C. Voorhoeve, Peace, profits and principles. A study of Dutch foreign policy (The Hague 1979), 27.
- 3.
J. Aalbers, ‘Hollands financial problems (1713–1733) and the wars against Louis XIV’, in A.C. Duke et al., eds, Britain and the Netherlands VI: War and society (The Hague 1977), 80.
- 4.
For an overview see D. Hellema, Buitenlandse politiek van Nederland. De Nederlandse rol in de wereldpolitiek (Utrecht 2006), chapter 1, and J.I. Israel, The Dutch Republic. Its rise, greatness and fall 1477–1806 (Oxford 1995), chapters 29–32.
- 5.
This is the central argument of J. Aalbers, De Republiek en de vrede van Europa. De buitenlandse politiek van de Republiek der Verenigde Nederlanden na de vrede van Utrecht (1713), voornamelijk gedurende de jaren 1720–1733. Deel I. Achtergronden en algemene aspecten (Groningen 1980).
- 6.
Aalbers, De Republiek, 1.
- 7.
E.g. W. Troost, William III, the Stadtholder–King: a political biography (Aldershot 2005), 95, who noted that William never used the term but pursued such a policy none the less; Voorhoeve, Peace, 27.
- 8.
C.W. Wood, ‘A study of Anglo-Dutch relations in the Grand Alliance, 1701–1706’ (PhD-thesis, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 1971), 1.
- 9.
S. Groenveld, ‘“J’equippe une flotte très considerable”: the Dutch side of the Glorious revolution’, in R. Beddard ed., The revolution of 1688 (Oxford 1988), 213.
- 10.
Opposition against the war surfaced in each conflict several years after the war started. See P.J.A.N. Rietbergen, ‘Persuasie en mediatie: de Republiek en de Vrede van Nijmegen (1678)’, in S. Groenveld et al. eds, Tussen Münster en Aken. De Nederlandse Republiek als grote mogendheid 1648–1758 (Maastricht 2005) for the Franco-Dutch War. For the Nine Years’ War, see D. Onnekink, The Anglo-Dutch Favourite. The career of Hans Willem Bentinck, 1st Earl of Portland (1649–1709) (Aldershot 2007), chapter 3. For the War of the Spanish Succession, see M. van der Bijl, ‘Utrechts weerstand tegen de oorlogspolitiek tijdens de Spaanse Successieoorlog. De rol van de heer van Welland van 1672 tot 1708’, in H.L.Ph. Leeuwen et al. eds, Van Standen tot Staten. 600 Jaar Staten van Utrecht, 1375–1975 (Utrecht 1975).
- 11.
Most notably D.J. Roorda, Partij en factie. De oproeren van 1672 in de steden van Holland en Zeeland, een krachtmeting tussen partijen en facties (Groningen 1961). But see M. van der Bijl, Idee en interest. Voorgeschiedenis, verloop en achtergronden van de politieke twisten in Zeeland, en vooral Middelburg, tussen 1702 en 1705 (Groningen 1981).
- 12.
E.g. J. Stork-Penning, Het grote werk. Vredesonderhandelingen gedurende de Spaanse successie-oorlog 1705–1710 (Groningen 1958), xxvi; P. Geyl, De geschiedenis van der Nederlandse Stam (vol. IV, Amsterdam 1959), 892; G. de Bruin, Geheimhouding en verraad. De geheimhouding van staatszaken ten tijde van de Republiek (1600–1750) (The Hague 1991), 410–414.
- 13.
In English historiography, the comparable reaction in the 1960s and 1970s against the ‘Whig interpretation’ is generally styled as ‘revisionist’ as well. E.g. K. Sharpe and P. Lake, eds, Culture and politics in Early Stuart England (Houndmills 1994), 1ff. The term revisionist is not current in Dutch historiography.
- 14.
Roorda, Partij en factie.
- 15.
Roorda described his efforts as a ‘namierization of historiography’: ‘Party and faction’, Acta Historiae Neerlandica II (Leiden 1967), 196. Cf. H. Horwitz, ‘The structure of parliamentary politics’, in G. Holmes, ed., Britain after the Glorious Revolution 1689–1714 (London 1969), 96–99.
- 16.
S. Groenveld extended Roorda’s thesis by pointing to provincial factions in addition to local factions: Evidente factien in den staet. Sociaal-politieke verhoudingen in de 17 e eeuwse Republiek der Verenigde Nederlanden (Hilversum 1990); Van der Bijl criticized Roorda but did not differentiate fundamentally in his Idee en interest; M. Prak, Gezeten burgers. De elite in een Hollandse stad, Leiden 1700–1780 (Amsterdam, 1985); J. de Jong, Met goed fatsoen. De elite in een Hollandse stad, Gouda 1700–1780 (Amsterdam/Dieren 1985). Admittedly some of these historians were aware of the limitations of their research method: e.g. Prak, Gezeten burgers, 12. Nevertheless, the notion of the absence of national parties has been widely accepted.
- 17.
J.R. Jones, The Anglo-Dutch Wars of the seventeenth century (Harlow 1988), 4.
- 18.
I owe this observation to conversations with Geoffrey Symcox. Examples are Stork-Penning, Het grote werk; M.A.M. Franken, Coenraad van Beuningen’s politieke en diplomatieke activiteiten in de jaren 1667–1684 (Groningen 1966); Aalbers, De Republiek; O. van Nimwegen, De subsistentie van het leger. Logistiek en strategie van het Geallieerde en met name het Staatse leger tijdens de Spaanse Successieoorlog in de Nederlanden en het Heilige Roomse Rijk 1701–1712 (Amsterdam 1995); idem, De Republiek der Verenigde Nederlanden als grote mogendheid. Buitenlandse politiek en oorlogvoering in de eerste helft van de achttiende eeuw en in het bijzonder tijdens de Oostenrijkse Successieoorlog (1740–1748) (Amsterdam 2002); H. Rowen, John de Witt, Grand Pensionary of Holland 1625–1672 (Princeton 1978); S. Groenveld, Verlopend getij. De Nederlandse Republiek en de Engelse Burgeroorlog 1640–1646 (Dieren 1984).
- 19.
This coincides with the neo-realist or structural-realist ‘turn’ in IR theory as initiated by Kenneth Waltz’s influential Structure of international politics (1979). However, we should keep in mind that Dutch historians tend to avoid utilizing IR theory explicitly. See for instance Boogman’s criticism of Rowen’s empirical approach in his review in Bijdragen en Mededelingen voor de Geschiedenis der Nederlanden 98 (1983), 212–219.
- 20.
C. Wilson, Profit and power. A study of England and the Dutch wars (Cambridge 1957), 1.
- 21.
Aalbers, De Republiek.
- 22.
The historiographical genealogy of revisionism shows how it came to dominate the studies of both domestic and foreign policy. In retrospect this revisionist school can be seen to have emerged during the 1950s, and was influenced by Boogman, himself a student of the famous Dutch historian Pieter Geyl who criticized partisan historians such as Nicolaas Japikse. Boogman was mentor of a number of influential revisionist historians. Stork-Penning, like Boogman a pupil of Geyl, wrote a realist study of Dutch policy during the War of the Spanish Succession (Het grote werk). Geyl and Boogman supervised the doctoral thesis, Partij en Factie, of Daniel Roorda, the founding father of structure-of-politics in the Netherlands (see the obituary by H. van Dijk in Jaarboek van de Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde te Leiden 1984–1985, 125–131). Wout Troost’s PhD-thesis on William III was supervised by Roorda and fully endorsed his views. Guido de Bruin is an admirer of Roorda and wrote a rather grim analysis of Dutch political decision-making processes: Geheimhouding en verraad. Maarten Prak’s PhD thesis, supervised by Boogman, was an essentially ‘structure-of-politics’ analysis of local politics and society: Gezeten burgers. Simon Groenveld, a colleague of Roorda, explicitly hailed his factionalist interpretation in Evidente factien. Johan Aalbers’s PhD-thesis de Republiek was supervised and influenced by Boogman.
- 23.
J.C. Boogman: ‘Achtergronden, tendenties en tradities van het buitenlands beleid van Nederland (eind zestiende eeuw – 1940)’, in N.C.F. van Sas, ed., De kracht van Nederland. Internationale positie en buitenlands beleid. (Bloemendaal 1991). The article was originally published in 1978. Cf. Boogman, ‘De raison d’état politicus Johan de Witt’, Bijdragen en Mededelingen voor de Geschiedenis der Nederlanden 90 (1975), 379–407.
- 24.
Voorhoeve, Peace. Voorhoeve’s emphasis on ‘peace’ and ‘principles’ suggests an idealist, rather than a realist angle. However Kossmann argued that in essence Voorhoeve’s argument was realist in nature. E.H. Kossmann, ‘De deugden van een kleine staat’, in his Politieke theorie en geschiedenis (Amsterdam 1987).
- 25.
M.A.M. Franken, ‘The general tendencies and structural aspects of foreign policy and diplomacy of the Dutch Republic in the latter half of the seventeenth century’, Acta Historiae Neerlandica III (The Hague/Leiden 1968).
- 26.
Cf. S. Groenveld, Regeren in de Republiek. Bestuurspraktijken in de 17 e -eeuwse Noordelijke Nederlanden: terugblik en perspectief (Leiden 2006).
- 27.
For example, Aalbers, De Republiek; R. Hatton, Diplomatic relations between Great Britain and the Dutch Republic (London 1950); Van Nimwegen, De subsistentie; Groenveld, Verlopend getij; De Bruin, Geheimhouding en verraad.
- 28.
With the notable exception of the monograph on De Witt by Herbert Rowen, which is steeped in realism.
- 29.
Troost, William III; Van Nimwegen, De Republiek; G. Rommelse, The Second Anglo-Dutch War (1665–1667). International raison d’etat, mercantilism and maritime strife (Hilversum 2006).
- 30.
H. Butterfield, George III and the historians (London 1957); H. Horwitz, Parliament, policy and politics in the reign of William III (Manchester 1977); Horwitz, ‘structure’; G. Holmes, British Politics in the age of Anne (London 1967); T. Harris, Politics under the late Stuarts. Party conflict in a divided society 1660–1715 (New York 1993), 149.
- 31.
As summarized by D.S.A. Bell, ‘Language, legitimacy, and the project of critique’, Alternatives: Global, Local, Political, 27/3 (2002), 5; Cf. M. Knights, Representation and misrepresentation in later Stuart Britain. Partisanship and political culture (Oxford 2005), 48.
- 32.
S. Pincus, Protestantism and patriotism. Ideology and the making of English foreign policy 1650–1668 (Cambridge 1996); T. Claydon, William III and the godly revolution (Cambridge 1996); A. Thompson, Britain, Hanover and the Protestant Interest, 1688–1756 (Woodbridge 2006).
- 33.
J.L. Price, Holland and the Dutch Republic in the seventeenth century. The politics of particularism (Oxford 1994), 59, 61. See also Jonathan Israel’s review of De Bruin, Geheimhouding, Bijdragen en Mededelingen voor de Geschiedenis der Nederlanden 109 (1994), 78–80.
- 34.
H. Helmers, The Royalist Republic: literature, politics, and religion in the Anglo-Dutch sphere, 1639–1660 (Cambridge 2015); R. Harms, De uitvinding van de publieke opinie: pamfletten als massamedium in de zeventiende eeuw (Amsterdam 2011); M. Reinders, Gedrukte chaos. Populisme en moord in het Rampjaar 1672 (Amsterdam 2010); J. Stern, Orangism in the Dutch Republic in word and image, 1650–75 (Manchester 2010); D. Onnekink and G. Rommelse, eds, Ideology and foreign policy in early modern Europe (1650–1750) (Farnham 2011).
- 35.
D. Haks, Vaderland en vrede: publiciteit over de Nederlandse Republiek in oorlog (1672–1713) (Hilversum 2013), chapter 6.
- 36.
A. Wendt, Social theory of international politics (Cambridge 1999), 113–114.
- 37.
L. Hansen, ‘Poststructuralism’, in J. Baylis et al., eds, The globalization of world politics. An introduction to international relations (5th edn, Oxford 2011), 170.
- 38.
E.g. Y. Rodríguez Pérez, The Dutch Revolt through Spanish eyes. Self and other in historical and literary texts of Golden Age Spain (c. 1548–1673) (Bern 2008); M. Meijer Drees, Andere landen, andere mensen. De beeldvorming van Holland versus Spanje en Engeland omstreeks 1650 (The Hague 1997). Cf. L. Jensen, ed., National identity formation in Early Modern Europe, 1600–1815 (Amsterdam 2016).
- 39.
J. Leerssen, ‘Imagology: history and method’, in M. Beller and J. Leerssen, eds, Imagology: the cultural construction and literary representation of national characters. A critical survey (Amsterdam/New York 2007), 17–32.
- 40.
Leerssen, ‘Imagology’. But see R. de Bruin et al., eds, Performances of peace: Utrecht 1713–2013 (Leiden 2015).
- 41.
According to Daniel Riches, Protestant cosmopolitanism and diplomatic culture. Brandenburg-Swedish relations in the seventeenth century (Leiden 2013), 6. Cf. M. Ebben and L. Sicking, ‘Nieuwe diplomatieke geschiedenis van de premoderne tijd. Een inleiding’, Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis 127/4 (2014), 541–552, and J. Watkins, ‘Toward a new diplomatic history of Medieval and Early Modern Europe’, Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 38 (2008) 1–14.
- 42.
L. Hansen, Security as practice. Discourse analysis and the Bosnian War (Abingdon 2006), xvi, 1, 6.
- 43.
C. Weber, International relations theory. A critical introduction (Abingdon 2001), 2, 6.
- 44.
Hansen, ‘Poststructuralism’, 169.
- 45.
Cf. Hansen, Security, 59 ff.
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Onnekink, D. (2016). General Introduction. In: Reinterpreting the Dutch Forty Years War, 1672–1713. Palgrave Pivot, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95136-9_1
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