It is fashionable political escapism, especially among the new Spanish political parties, saying they want to be like the Nordic countries; starting with the Netherlands and Denmark, after having been a weekend, without knowing at all its history, with its connecting links and disputes with our country, Spain. In that sense, it is essential, as Aristotle said, let them know that the story tells what happened; poetry what should happen, and I would say to these practical esperpento of what should never happen.
There remained this trip in Holland, given that many years ago, I stopped in Antwerp (as the Castilians Tercios of Alejandro Farnese) with the desire to Rotterdam, the Rhine frontier as unbridgeable divide, and check both ways other than seeing things, that offers the prospect of the two sides, but have a common cultural base.
We went from the Catholic and francophone culture in the south, to the Protestant and Germanic north, on a flat land or Netherlands, divided by this great way of intercultural and business communication that is the great Rhine. In that sense, ethnicity and how to proceed of its people, reminded me a lot to England, this symbiosis between the Romanization of border and the pagan culture of the Saxons, which has led to great religious controversies and progress of all kinds. The synthesis of Greco-Latin culture and Christianity, with the old Flemish and Dutch, who used a language Saxon or Germanic (Dutch) origin, during the fall of the Roman Empire, was rooted in centuries of coexistence in the border conscientious boaters Frisians and bellicose Batavians, we must not forget participated as auxiliaries to the Legions in the Roman conquest of Britain (then the Saxons and Anglos, would do likewise 550 years later when the Romans abandoned gradually the Islands).
Starting with the Brabant from the bustling city of Eindhoven, and we see that the landscape is totally modern and industrial buildings carefully designed, canals and modern infrastructure, which is not alien destruction during World War II the previous buildings neither the presence of the Dutch multinational Philips (to manufacture electronic bulbs). Festival Tilburg city of Breda, where the name of Ambrosio Spínola and the Tercios, immortalized by Velázquez, make you think of another feature of this nation, its struggle for identity, cultural or religious independence, and longing to preserve individual liberty.
Already in Rotterdam, on the Meuse and the Rhine, we reach the largest port in Europe. It is a new full city due to arson by Nazi aviation in 1940, in just 15 minutes bombing devastated the city, killing 800 people and leaving 80,000 homeless. This would cause the unconditional surrender of the Netherlands, fearing an attack on the dikes, but not prevented Allied bombing, and the systematic extermination of tens of thousands of Jews; and after the war, what was once a small fishing port, medieval city market and drained by Dutch engineers, it became now a modern metropolis in which emphasizes its spacious and carefully designed buildings, formidable communications; one of whose emblems are the Euromast, the statue of the destroyed city of Zadkine or the same Erasmus Bridge.
But you have to visit the Laurenskwartier, which is the oldest district of the city, the City Council, but not before touring the Coolsingel and the Boijmans Museum (with works by Van Eyck, Memling, Bosch, Metsys, Brueghel the Elder or Tintoretto to Spanish Dalí), and finish on the Blaak, an area of traditional markets and modern, visiting the Markthal or first covered market in the Netherlands, which ends the cube houses in Laurenskwartier or great church of San Lorenzo. In Market Square, from 1622, it is the bronze statue of Erasmus of Rotterdam, humanist, philosopher, philologist and Dutch theologian, born in the city, and author of important works written in Latin as the Praise of Folly.
Erasmus, is the paradigm of European scholar traveler (gives name to the Erasmus student exchange scholarship), he taught at Cambridge and Oxford, Rome, Paris, Leuven or Basel. In all left good friends like John Colet and Thomas More, and was even admired by Cardinal Giovanni de Medici (future Leon X), and the Spanish Emperor Charles V. His accredited humanism itself, led him to stay away from power, and I was convinced that schools such as the universities, and in general, often the same Church, prevented his disciples think freely. In religious controversies of the time, it remained on the sidelines, because he was not willing to cooperate with any of the two sides, because he cared more freedom of thought and individual and intellectual independence, which serve as an argument to them. He admired by Luther, following the publication of the Greek New Testament by Erasmus, would be inspired to translate the Bible to the people understood it from Latin into German, and systematize step dialectal understanding of that language.
The Maritime Museum is essential to understand the industrial development the city, and on the pier we see a collection of cranes and old boats dock workers, origin of the modern port city.
We can not understand the Dutch character, without reference to the network of rivers, dams, canals, artificial lakes, gates and ports that make up the landscape. Built mostly behind dikes, much of Rotterdam is below sea level and we found that the parish of Prince Alexander, in the northeast, is nothing less than 6 meters below sea level, this being the lowest point of the Netherlands. It is worth visiting the old port of Delft, the Delfshaven, which survived the bombings of 1940 and in highlighting the Distilleerketel: a grain mill that gives right to the port and served, not without some religious controversy, for grinding malt or corn necessary to distill all kinds of spirits.
The Church of the Pilgrims or the English Puritans, who lived protected in the Netherlands about 20 years, since they were persecuted in their country for their Calvinist ideas and democratic principles, start from here to London and in 1620 definitively from Southampton to America.
It's funny how this port was in 1400 fishing small shipyard, which then turned to building whalers and, after independence from Spain, warships for the Dutch East India Company.
Here and there to talk about Archimedes of Syracuse ( 287 -212 BC), mathematician, eminent physicist, engineer, and inventor Sicilian, thanks to its comments on the weight of the objects and the thrust exerted on the water (its Archimedes' famous theorem), laid the foundations of theoretical origin of navigation. But not only study that, but his wit was able to facilitate the toughest tasks using levers, pulleys and hydraulic mechanism known as "Archimedes screw" in addition to mathematically calculate the value of number "Pi" etc. Roman engineers were well aware of all these mechanisms, because those who got a technical level capable of great public works, and on the Rhine were stationed several Legions, with their respective military engineers, so it would not be surprising that the practical ingenuity locals apply this knowledge base, with the presence of the winds, to apply the Archimedes screw to the driving force of the wind, and achieve expel water from the dam to drain the land, and getting more virgin arable space.
Here we have to go to the city of Delf and talk about William of Orange, father of the Dutch nation, who lived in this city and led the rebellion against the Habsburgs, until he was killed at his home, the Prinsenhof, in 1584. Holland belonged to the House of Burgundy as County, and became the European region most densely urbanized in the sixteenth century, with most of the population living in big cities, and Calvinism replacing Catholic beliefs in their population as ideology . Emperor Charles V introduced the Inquisition to fight, and the Dutch nobility opposed claiming their right to religious freedom. War breaks out between the provinces of North and South, and after episodes of severe repression of the Duke of Alba (Council of Troubles), the Dutch nobleman William of Orange gun with his money to beggars Sea and hired German mercenaries against Thirds Spanish Duke of Alba. A long war of attrition for nearly 80 years, just with the real independence of the northern provinces of the Netherlands (Friesland, Groningen, Gelderland, Netherlands, Overijssel, Utrecht and Zeeland). But especially has two important consequences: first the loss of prestige of the Spanish Crown (heavily indebted, has a number of colossal bankruptcies, despite the galleons laden with riches of America, which causes a terrible economic crisis in Spain) and especially the Netherlands emerge as a world power, giving itself a powerful navy and considerable commercial fleet, which has the Spanish routes explored as a challenge. The Dutch burghers (inspired by the Protestant ethic) show a great ability to trade and transport goods, and also to further explore new Arctic sea routes to Oceania (Barents, Hudson or Tasman, which he named New Zealand). But above all they expand their interests, with a slight advantage over England, to delimit the vast Spanish Empire, which had in America its trading platform and its seas reference the Pacific and Atlantic fleets crossed by Galleon. Facing the Philippines are made with the Moluccas (founded Batavia, now Jakarta) to control the straits and trade in spices, Ceylon, Formosa and the Strait of Malacca, reaching Easter Island. In America New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island (then step by English hands like New York), attack Salvador and Guyana. In Africa they founded Cape Town (bring Calvinist farmers who migrate to the Transvaal and initiate the supremacy of the Boers), and create the foundations of liberalism, industry and modern capitalism (always inspired by Calvinism, according to Max Weber theory).
Rain and wind energy from its oceanic climate, along with the lifting screw of Archimedes, it provides the driving force to develop modern shipyards (in just 2 months can build a modern freighter combat, cheaper than its competitors) and drainage managed to drain the marshes peat stable in the sixteenth century way, and the subsequent gain land from the sea, which after a period of regeneration a few years becomes extensive totally flat and irrigated plots (thanks to the vast network of channels), makes possible high-yield agriculture with abundant grass, combined with intensive livestock (sheep and cows, origin of their butters and famous cheeses), which specialized in products of much higher value when international trade development (spices, flowers and bulbs). To this end, he founded the Dutch East India Company in 1602, first capitalist monopoly company, and is the first multinational corporation. He had close to a government powers: including the power to declare war, negotiate treaties, coin money, and establish colonies. The ships of the same, led by the marine born in Delft, Piet Hein, come as privateers to capture the Spanish fleet Indies against Cuba in 1628.
The Dutch Golden Age can be seen in the arts, as the great master of light based in Delft Vermeer, Frans Hals and Rembrandt. Although Calvinism forbade images in the churches, they were accepted in the world of private patrons biblical passages, but abounded especially marinas, still lifes and portraits, which realistically showed what was happening in Dutch society. In this city of Delft, do not miss the Vermeer Centre, New Church (where are buried the members of the Dutch royal family since William of Orange) or factory blue Delftware known as De Delftse Pauw.
In Utrecht, we have a very dynamic and populous city, which retains a very interesting historical district. Founded in Roman times by the Emperor Claudius in the defense of the Rhine, its citadel went through various vicissitudes, until it was Christianized in the late seventh century, the English missionary Willibrord (the islanders Anglos were Christianized before the continent), which founded a bishopric and erected the church of Saint Martin (Domkerk), the cathedral's north of Holland, and that was confirmed later by the Frankish monarchs. But when it is best known is in the time of Emperor Carlos V (his advisor in Spain Adriano de Utrecht would become Pope), and in 1579, in the same city seven northern provinces signed the Union of Utrecht, to address the Spanish hegemony and practice to achieve political independence from the Spanish monarchy. was also signed here Peace of Utrecht, on 11 April 1713, by which ended the War of Succession in Spain, with the final arrival of the French to the throne Bourbons, being the great beneficiary Britain that, in addition to their territorial gains, it earned substantial economic advantages that allowed him to break the commercial monopoly of Spain with its colonies (in addition to losing the rock of Gibraltar).
From the Tower of the Cathedral (where stood the Roman Castellum Trajectum), you can see Amsterdam, and has a cloister of the XV century with a stunning vegetation. It is close to the Instituto Cervantes, and can follow the course old canal Oudegracht, and adjacent, or the new Nieuwegracht buildings to discover a young city, with many bicycles, and the music of carillon enlivening the walk, you can admire an architecture in quite original brick. Strolling, you can see how people also enjoy its many gardens (Oude Hortus), boat trips on the Canals (even picnicking while surfing) or cycling. Visit its museums (Centraal Museum) and the Rietveld-Schröder House 1924, icon of modern architecture movement (along the Swiss Le Corbusier), is a must to visit. Indeed, the innovative character in the architectural world of Dutch, is one of the characteristic features of the beauty of this country. Wherever you go, there are new buildings, with original, suggestive and different designs, which makes gives the landscape an aura of modernity, combining canals, gardens and buildings.
Haar Kasteel is in close Haarzuilens, Haar Castle is the country's largest. It has 30 bathrooms and 200 rooms. This medieval fortress was in ruins and was restored in the late nineteenth century in the Gothic style, thanks to the link between the rich heiress Helene de Rothschild with the noble baron Etienne van Zuylen (without consent of both families, surrounded by a small lake, forest and a large park consisting of trees all over the Netherlands. as a fairy castle brick, he ordered all kinds of amenities and was the resting place of celebrities of the time, while the barons fraternized with them as gracious hosts .
Eager to stay, going to Amsterdam, we headed whose name refers to the river that bathes, the Amstel and the Dam name, which in Dutch means prey. Founded in the thirteenth century as a fishing village, it was a Frisian village that had a bridge and a dam. Within the Hanseatic League, he began to flourish in the fourteenth century as a commercial port, but it will be with the independence of Spain in the sixteenth century, when crossing the time of its peak. Despite having a reputation for place of tolerance towards the Sephardic Jews from Portugal and Spain, or the Protestant merchants of Antwerp, and Huguenots from France, the truth is that Calvinism systematically persecuted Catholics, and try to erase the past with his fury iconoclastic (mutilation of images in major churches), even Catholics had to take refuge in underground churches or places such as the Begijnhof (actually dates from the twelfth century, and hides the oldest house in Amsterdam, the Het Houten Huis 1420). Within this area we can also observe the Engelse Kerk Church, confiscated beguines in the S. XV and after this they had to unite two houses and form an underground church, the Chapel of Begijnhof.
The truth is that its extensive network of channels (over 75 km) and bridges (over 1000), is known as the Venice Dutch (Bruges would Flemish), and the best way to get around is the boat, watching their famous houses floating or cycling (impressive the symbiosis of the population with this vehicle). Its extensive network of channels (the water is renewed every three days, thanks to the gates), dating from the seventeenth century, when the city becomes the richest city in the world, being the center of the large network of global trade posed the Dutch East India Company, one of whose reference ports were in town. The Grachtengordel is the ring name the three most important channels, designed to support the population increase during the S XVII. The three channels are called Prinsengracht, Keizersgratch and Herengracht, the latter being the most striking of the three. In them a certain social category were established, as the houses were small merchants, the houses were tall and narrow, with a loft warehouse; or rich, with wider and include gardens and a palatial facade decoration. You really are aware of the sensitivity of the Dutch towards architecture, when you see all these rings carefully houses and canals. But certainly the heart of Amsterdam's Dam Square (the first dam of the thirteenth century was), where not miss the neoclassical Royal Palace, Old Town Hall become Palace by King Louis Napoleon Bonaparte (interior contrasts with the sober facade, to be able to contemplate its marble floors, magnificent paintings, delicate sculptures and huge chandeliers, in addition to reliefs with mythological motifs) and the Gothic Nieuwe Kerk (new church, place of ceremonies of the Dutch monarchy since 1814, certainly a institution requiring further comment, admirable always). Perhaps what most caught my attention is the wooden box from the royal treasury flows, key to all good government, and the room where justice is dispensed, the other pillar of society.
The Red Light District and get into the taboo of prostitution legal in Amsterdam since early last century, see the neon red and sex-related establishments, is another display of Dutch liberal temperament. Walking around the neighborhood you find the Oude Kerk, or Old Church, the oldest monument in Amsterdam. It was built in the early fourteenth century with a vaulted wood ceiling and stained glass windows, it was mutilated by the Calvinist intolerance, and barely retains traces of its medieval Catholic past.
The Westerkerk, is a Renaissance-style church, the first Protestant, when Amsterdam expelled its Catholic rulers and therefore has an austere interior. Except its imposing body and its large windows, its tower stands 85 meters high and its carillon, on top of which the imperial crown, from where we can see the best views of Amsterdam is.
At the same side of the Westerkerk, is the House-Museum of Anne Frank, where there are real queues to visit with people from different countries and cultures (many face with headscarves are completely covered, by the way, when they see that you're going to take a picture). In the building were hiding Anne Frank and her family during the Nazi invasion, and he Anne Frank recounted in his diary in the two years that remained hidden until betrayed them and ended up in a concentration camp, which only survived his father.
The Spui square before being what is now land was flooded by water that marked the end of the city of Amsterdam. After dissect it and fill it, it became a flirtatious square lined with cafes, restaurants, shops, and where every week a market in which to buy books and works of art is placed. It is the seat of Dutch youth, and the libertarian world, although again is the Art Noveau the "Gebouw Helios", what I call the attention. Follow wondering around Leidesplein, full of street performers or the bustling and vital Leidsestraat, is a pleasure as we are carried away by the human torrent of stores or malls. The Voldenpark, Amsterdam's main park on foot or by bike, is an ideal place to see and enjoy their free time the residents of the city. We are not going to the famous Coffee Shops (it is allowed marijuana in different ways, but is a smoke snuff).
Bloemenmarkt or flower market, is another traditional commercial space where, on a large barge canal Single, can find all kinds of seeds and flower bulbs, especially tulips, and took the opportunity to have a Dutch remember when late spring outbreak in our small gardens.
You have to visit any of the 65 museums museums of Amsterdam, Rembrandt House, the branch of the Hermitage or the Stedelijk Museum, the Van Loon museum or showing a house and way of life of the inhabitants of Amsterdam of S XIX.
The Van Gogh museum with the largest collection of the artist (200 paintings, 500 drawings and 700 letters) is what catches our attention, as big fans of the Dutch genius of impressionism, organized exhibitions at different times of the painter: Netherlands, Paris, Arles, Saint Remy and Auvers-sur-Oise, with its haunting biography.
The Rijksmuseum, which houses the most important collection of Dutch art world, National Museum of Amsterdam is located in Amsterdam, capital of the Netherlands. It is dedicated to arts, crafts and history. It has the most famous collection of paintings from the Dutch Golden Age and a rich collection of Asian and Egyptian art. The Rijksmuseum is home to significant works of almost all the great Dutch masters of the XV to XVII: Geertgen tot Sint Jans, Lucas van Leyden, Hendrick Goltzius, Frans Hals, Jan Vermeer, Ferdinand Bol, Nicolaes Maes, Guerrit Dou, Jacob van Ruisdael, and a generous repertoire of master Rembrandt van Rijn. also features works by other painters like Fra Angelico, Piero di Cosimo, Hugo van der Goes, Peter Paul Rubens and Francisco de Goya, as well as numerous drawings and prints, oriental porcelain, furniture, clocks, tableware, porcelains, jewelry and dresses Dutch Golden Age in the seventeenth century, model ships and marine scenes of Dutch naval power, and landscapes with windmills and polders, frozen rivers with skaters, livestock and still lifes, scenes of taverns and drunkards. There are also modern paintings (Van Gogh, Mondrian, Karel Appel) and objects of industrial design of the twentieth century.
However, the main attraction of the museum lies in the works of the great Baroque master Rembrandt: The Nightwatch, The Jewish Bride, The Tree of Jesse, The Three Crosses, the death of the innocent and different customs landscapes of old Holland . The most important work of the painter is the stunning "The Conspiracy of the Batavians under Claudius Civilis" (1661-1662), originally the biggest and most important painting, considered his masterpiece and property of the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts, was in temporary exhibition at the Rijksmuseum, but I was lucky to admire at the National Museum of Art in Stockholm (where he had deposited more than 150 years). The work tells the story of a crucial time for the Netherlands and Europe, and is the rebellion of the Batavians (Germanic tribe settled in the Netherlands), taking advantage of Vespasian against Vitellius proclaimed emperor.
Do not miss the slender Central Station and the port of Amsterdam and NEMO Science Museum. It is a museum of science and technology building ship-shaped green and has many interactive tools, which makes you think how the Dutch have the technical knowledge applied to practical life, managing to be an industrial power. Right next to the museum it is anchored an armed merchant, a replica of which sank in a typhoon in the Far East by 1749, owned by the Company of the West Indies name "Amsterdam".
Do not leave the big city, without making an excursion to Zaanse Schans, in the channel Zaan, direction Alkmaar to get a good idea of what was this populated area between the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries. In those days, the Zaan was an important industrial region in which hundreds of mills helped to produce construction timber (logs are plunged into the canal and in just two months made a boat), linseed oil, paint, snuff, mustard, paper or grinding species. The mills drained water network of ponds, levees and canals, with agriculture and intensive farming, produced large surpluses, which revalued trade. The bourgeoisie and the small proletariat flourished, thanks to the entrepreneurial spirit, the sense of community (ensured fire its mills in common), creativity, social mobility and ability to share knowledge, improving living standards and leading to a new thinking.
Liberalism was born in Holland, under the wars of religion, as long as the rebels of the House of Orange enemies of Spanish absolutism, legitimizing their power in the Pope's authority, and declared mature. Spain is in a way, the catalyst for change, when the United Provinces emancipate the great Spanish Empire, establishing an organization of liberal type, exactly a century before England itself did. From an economic and social, able to leave behind the old feudal regime with a bourgeois oligarchy that thrives on commerce and trade, welcomes Protestantism (in one of its most rigid interpretations, Calvinism) as a pattern of behavior in business it is quite enlightened, and implements the virtue of tolerance (except with their Catholic enemies), achieving levels higher life (enjoy a per capita income 1.5 times higher and advanced English, or workforce agriculture is 40% compared to 60% of the other emerging Atlantic power). His desire for profit, not prevent them to be the first slavers or forced labor, to ensure laborers in plantations overseas, believing that the virtuous, that is, the progresses in this life is saved .
We must go further north, to the area of Marken medieval in an old island where the Dutch traditions, traditional costumes or clogs building is preserved. A small boat trip takes us to the port of Volendam, a town founded by fishermen Friesians, populated by Catholics, rather touristy and lively city, its most visited areas are the harbor with its bars and restaurants, beside the old town and its flirtatious residential area.
The Dutch cuisine is marked by two characteristics, the use of fried in its different variants, such as croquettes (kroket, bitterballen or ollieballen) and the little presence of traditional dishes in their restaurants because of Calvinist tradition, and there are pretty simple. Until we reach the Volendam Catholic, we could not enjoy the kibbeling cod or haring (herring curing recipe medieval origin), preceded by a simple Stamppot (mashed potatoes mixed with some other plant). Without forgetting its delicious cheeses, varied and delicate. Beer, music and joy live in this pleasant corner of the inland sea.
On the journey, you can glimpse the large polder of Markermeer, followed by another large reclaimed from the sea space necessary to pour sweet at the same water, and regulate the level of the Netherlands, the polder the IJsselmeer, which has a road connects with the region of Friesland (still pending for another break).
The accumulation of capital produced by the gains from trade, social mobility and industrial development, make Holland a very advanced society, which today is seen as the vanguard of the liberal, both social issues (minimum guaranteed income in Utrecht, recently rejected in a referendum by the Swiss) or as a country that creates most jobs (zero-hours contracts) and traditional tolerance for other ways of seeing the world, but perhaps is at a crossroads due to excessive permissiveness, and some indifference that leads to condescension and evoke a debate about the limits that threaten the liberties of Europeans, on the other hand affects all highly developed societies across Europe. A complex problem that requires a new perspective that can also be found in history.
The perspective about how religious clashes, provoked these changes, and as both poised brake them in southern Europe, could have a similar origin. In fact, the anti-liberalism that took hold in the south, if not the absolutism itself, could be a result of these conflicts side effect, making the countries of southern Europe, the changes are live not as an opportunity (as They postulating some renovators, not all, who defended the Counter, when rethink the relationship between the Church and society), but as an obstacle (the dogma that was established after the council of Trent, would revive the Catholic Church a truce on social issues that would last about 300 years, but that would not solve the underlying problems), to strengthen social behaviors, that still separate us morally and ethically neighboring northern societies (would be unthinkable, for example in Spain, which a referendum would bar incorporate a poor country like Ukraine to the EU, or a political step down of its own accord by social pressure, any symptoms of irregularity).
In Spain, soon it served us to tell a very advanced minority of theologians or advanced thinkers of his time carving of the School of Salamanca, which saw private property as a sacred much needed development of trade well and with a function completely legitimate (private property was essential to promote peace but insufficient to eradicate all the ills of society and given the innate ability sinful man). In addition to private property, they defended issues that remain valid as free competition, economic freedom and the dynamic nature of markets. The Spaniards, the great theorists, while the Dutch they were being implemented with great success.
For Spain, contact with the New World was the trigger high inflation and shortages of basic goods in Spain. That is, the arrival of large amounts of gold and silver caused the country to slide into severe poverty. In this sense, it was Martin de Azpilcueta who analyzed for the first time in history the amount of money that exists in an economy in relation to its price level (the abundance of money generated price inflation). The Dutch practical, focusing on a laborious industry and in the production of goods for the real economy, and taking advantage of the massive arrival of means of payment of the Indies, focus on exploring the sea lanes open by the galleons of the empire and its fleet merchant begin to exploit world trade, reaching create the first multinational under capitalist form (as well as the first economic bubble caused by the speculative appreciation of tulip bulbs).
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