In world-systems analysis, the United Provinces are interpreted as one of only three hegemonic states in the history of the capitalist world-economy. Unlike the subsequent hegemons Britain and the United States, the United Provinces only became an independent country just before its rise to hegemony in the early seventeenth century. This essay explores how this new small state became the first hegemon of the modern world-system. Two questions are asked: why did the area of northern Netherlands became a state, and why did this state became a hegemon? Using Mann's sources of social power, it is shown how a promiscuous combination of ideological, military, political, and economic power produced a unique state combining the economic policies of city-states with the protective capacity of territorial states. It is concluded that the Dutch promotion of an economic raison d'etat was a necessary component for the consolidation of a competitive interstate system, itself a necessary requirement for the expansion of the capitalist world-economy.
ArrighiG.1990. “The Three Hegemonies of Historical Capitalism”. Review13: 365–408.
3.
AymardM.1982. “Introduction”. In Dutch Capitalism and World Capitalism, edited by AymardM.Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.
4.
BarbourV.1963. Capitalism in Amsterdam in the 17th Century. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
5.
BlockmanW.P.1988. “Alternatives to Monarchical Centralization”. In Republik und Republikanismus im Europa der Fruhen Neuzeit, edited by KoenigsbergerH.G.Munchen, Germany: R. Oldenbourg Verlag.
6.
BoogmanJ.C.1978. “The Raison d'Etat Politician Johan de Witt”. In The Low Countries History Yearbook (1978): 55–78.
7.
BoogmanJ.C.1979. “The Union of Utrecht: Its Genesis and Consequences”. Bijdragen Mededlingen Detreffende de Geschiedenis der Nederlanden94: 277–407.
8.
BoxerC.R.1965. The Dutch Seaborne Empire 1600–1800. London: Hutchinson.
9.
BoyerJ-C.1982. “Le Capitalisme Hollandais et l'Organisation de l'Espace dans les Provinces-Unis”. In Dutch Capitalism and World Capitalism, edited by AymardM.Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.
10.
BraudelF.1984. Perspective of the World. London: Collins.
11.
BurkeP.1974. Venice and Amsterdam: A Study of Seventeenth Century Elites. London: Temple Smith.
12.
CatonH.1988. The Politics of Progress. Gainsville: University of Florida Press.
13.
Chase-DunnC.1990. “World-state Formation: Historical Processes and Emergent Necessity”. Political Geography Quarterly9:108–30.
14.
Chase-DunnC.1989. Global Formation. Oxford: Blackwell.
15.
de la CourtP.1972. The True Interest and Political Maxims of the Republic of Holland. New York: Arno.
16.
DukeA.1990. Reform and Revolt in the Low Countries. London: Hambledon.
17.
DysonK.H.F.1980. The State Tradition in Western Europe. Oxford: Martin Robertson.
18.
Gelderenvan M.1992. The Political Thought of the Dutch Revolt. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.
19.
GottmannJ.1973The Significance of Territory. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press.
20.
GreverG.H.1991. “William III's Conflicts with the City Council of Amsterdam”. Parliaments, Estates and Representation11: 53–61.
21.
HaleyK.H.D.1988. The British and the Dutch. London: George Philip.
22.
HolstiK.J.1991. Peace and War: Armed Conflicts and International Order 1648–1989. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.
23.
HopkinsT.K.1990. “A Note on the Concept of Hegemony”. Review13:409–12.
24.
IsaacsA. 1948. International Trade: Tariffs and Commercial Policies. Chicago: Irwin.
25.
IsraelJ.I.1982. The Dutch Republic and the Hispanic World, 1606–1661. Oxford: Clarendon.
26.
IsraelJ.I.1989. Dutch Primacy in World Trade, 1585–1740. Oxford: Clarendon.
27.
KennedyP.1988. The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers. New York: Random House.
28.
KleinP.W.1982. “Dutch Capitalism and the European World-economy”. In Dutch Capitalism and World Capitalism, edited by AymardM.Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.
29.
KossmannE.H.1963. In Praise of the Dutch Republic: Some Seventeenth Century Attitudes. London: University College.
30.
KossmannE.H.1970. “The Low Countries”. Pp. 354–384 in The Cambridge Modern History, edited by CooperJ.P.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
31.
KossmannE.H.MellickA.F., eds. 1974. Texts Concerning the Revolt of the Näherlands. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.
32.
LaneF.C.1965. Venice: a Maritime Republic. Baltimore: John Hopkins Univerity Press.
33.
LuardE.1986. War in International Society. London: Tauris.
34.
MaddisonA. 1982. Phases of Capitalist Development. New York: Oxford University Press.
35.
MannM.1986. The Sources of Social Power, Vol. 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
36.
ModelskiG.1987. Long Cycles of World Politics. London: Macmillan.
37.
MotleyJ.L.1856. The Rise of the Dutch Republic. London: Swan Sonnerschein.
38.
MulierE.H.1987. “The Language of Seventeenth Century Republicans in the United Provinces: Dutch or European?” In The Languages of Political Theory in Early Modern Europe, edited by PagdenA.Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.
39.
ParkerG.1977. The Dutch Revolt. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
40.
ParkerG.1978. “The Dutch Revolt and the Polarization of International Politics”. In The General Crisis of the Seventeenth Century, edited by ParkerG.SmithL.M.London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
41.
PriceJ.L.1974. Culture and Society in the Dutch Republic during the 17th Century. London: Batsford.
42.
RowenH.H., ed. 1972. The Low Countries in Early Modern Times: Selected Documents. New York: Walker.
43.
RowenH.H.1978. John de Witt, Grand Pensionary of Holland, 1625–1672. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
44.
RowenH.H.1986. John de Witt: Statesman of the “True Freedom”. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.
45.
RowenH.H.1988. The Princes of Orange. The Stadholders in the Dutch Republic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
46.
SchamaS.1987. The Embarrassment of Riches. London: Collins.
47.
SchofferI.1978. “Did Holland's Golden Age Coincide with a Period of Crisis?” In The General Crisis of the Seventeenth Century, edited by ParkerG.SmithL.M.London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
48.
SkinnerQ.1978. The Foundation of Modern Political Thought, Vol. 2. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.
49.
TaylorP.J.1993a“States in World-systems Analysis: Massaging a Creative Tension”. In Domestic Structures, Global Structures, edited by GillsB.PalanR.Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner.
50.
TaylorP.J.1993b. “Contra Political Geography”. Tidjschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie84: 82–90.
51.
'T HartM.1989. “Cities and Statemaking in the Dutch Republic, 1580–1680”. Theory and Society18: 663–87.
52.
'T HartM.1993. The Making of a Bourgeois State. Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press.
53.
TillyC.1990. Coercion, Capital, and European States, AD 990–1990. Oxford: Blackwell.
54.
WallersteinI.1979. The Capitalist World-Economy. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.
55.
WallersteinI.1980. The Modern World-System II. New York: Academic.
