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• Thursday, May 8, 2008 03:29 PM

  Glorious Revolution

  hi, I've been making my way thru Amy Chua's _Day of Empire_ (I'm sure a much easier slog than Schama*) which takes a tour of world history and its great empires (or 'hyperpowers') under the lens of toleration** -- racial and religious. Anyway, I just hit the chapter on the Dutch trading empire that rapidly arose following the 1579 Union of Utrecht establishing freedom of religion and the 1581 establishment of the United Provinces*** and the Oath of Abjuration:

  "As 'tis apparent to all that a prince is constituted by God to be ruler of a people, to defend them from oppression and violence as the shepherd his sheep; and whereas God did not create the people slaves to their prince, to obey his commands, whether right or wrong, but rather the prince for the sake of the subjects... [When a prince] does not behave thus, but, on the contrary, oppresses them, seeking opportunities to infringe their ancient customs and privileges, exacting from them slavish compliance, then he is no longer a prince, but a tyrant, and the subjects ... may not only disallow his authority, but legally proceed to the choice of another prince for their defense. This is ... what the law of nature dictates for the defense of liberty, which we ought to transmit to posterity, even at the hazard of our lives."

  What's neat is that if it wasn't for Spain's 1492 expulsion of the Jews, the Dutch would probably not have risen to prominence so quickly. By 1625, Chua sez, the (relatively tiny) Dutch Republic sat astride the world, commercially at least. That then set the stage for the Dutch "conquest" of England in the Glorious Revolution... but I haven't quite gotten to that chapter yet :P

  cheers!

  ---

  * altho he comes up in Chua and btw does a great job illuminating Turner - http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/powerofart/turner.shtml

  ** cf. Wright - http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/68

  *** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_Republic

  —gorgongogol Read gorgongogol's other letters
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