The emergence of the Dutch nation-state in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries would alone mark the period as instrumental for understanding the history and character of the Dutch nation, but two interrelated developments left indelible marks on the Dutch republic during the same period: their revolt against Spain, which gave them nation-state status, and their expansion overseas. In their birth as a nation, their struggles with European rivals, and their transoceanic commercial and colonial activities, the Netherlands were no different than England, Spain, Portugal, and France, and each nation repeated similar patterns during the period. But as Benjamin Schmidt so ably demonstrates, the Dutch shaped their own identity by looking to America, and the idea of America, to provide a context for national endeavors throughout the century under consideration.
Identifying the contrasting motifs of “innocence” and “tyranny,” Schmidt argues that “the Dutch construction of America” provided explanatory power...
