Replies

The Netherlands was once the dominant economic power in Europe, with a world-wide empire. But its time at the top did not last long. Between the 1660s and 1740s, Dutch living standards did not just fall in relative terms as other empires and nation-states advanced, there was an absolute decline in per capita income. "There was no national consciousness among the Dutch," argues Greenfield, beyond the initial desire to win independence from the Spanish Hapsburgs. The Dutch elite were merchants, not patriots; and central authority was very weak. "They remained economically rational instead, embodying the ideal of Homo economicus so rare in modern economic reality and so dear to economic theory. In other words, they were not a nation." They could not compete against states energized by nationalist drives.

Good article, but I think the author makes the decline of most European empires more complicated than they really were. I believe simple geography -- and its relationship to international trade and military affairs -- played a far more important role in this decline than most people realize. The Romans were the dominant civilization for hundreds of years because their ability to extend their influence and project force throughout the Mediterranean Sea was unparalleled. They were less successful in projecting force to the east over land, since technology (i.e., maritime vessels and the associated military/trade applications of such) was far less important in land-based movement than in water-based movement.

Spain, France, the Netherlands, and Great Britain became the dominant colonial forces that grew out of the remnants of the Roman Empire because their exposure to the Atlantic Ocean made them better-suited for expansion over long distances across wide bodies of water. And Great Britain eventually dominated the North American colonial scene because as an island nation in the harsh waters of the northern Atlantic Ocean and North Sea their superiority on the high seas -- in terms of raw seamanship and maritime skills -- was unparalleled.