Disaster year 1672 of the Dutch Republic: the people were senseless, the government distraught and the country hopeless. | dHNfcFF3RW13ZTNnMUU
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00:00It sounds like an exciting headline.
00:03The Netherlands has been attacked from three sides.
00:06But in 1672, this is the reality.
00:09How did it get so far?
00:12For that, we go back to the year 1648.
00:15The Eighty Years' War is over.
00:17The Republic is powerful and the Netherlands is prosperous.
00:21What else do you need an army for?
00:23It's peace. We don't need all those soldiers anymore.
00:26And it costs a lot of money.
00:29The Oranjes are put on a side track.
00:31Under the leadership of statesman Johan de Wit,
00:33the army will be subsidized.
00:35And trade will come first.
00:39World trade makes the Netherlands richer.
00:42Our neighbors see it with sad eyes.
00:45Because our wealth goes at the expense of theirs.
00:51The Netherlands and England fought one after the other sea wars.
00:55Like in 1667.
00:57When Michiel de Ruyter brought England to a great defeat
01:00with his trip to Chatham.
01:02In the years that followed, the Netherlands was safe.
01:05A treaty with England and Sweden protects the Republic
01:08against the great France.
01:10Because Louis XIV is looking for more power in Europe.
01:14France also negotiates in secret with the still-injured England.
01:18Where the loss in Chatham still feels like a deep wound.
01:21The Republic would be crushed.
01:23If the Netherlands is invaded in 1672, the disaster is imminent.
01:27How can the tide be turned?