According to research, Europe has some of the most prosperous countries since they created the European Union to create peace, clean up after the war and to bring about stabilization of the economy and politics. The union has enabled many countries in Europe to boost their economic standard as well as their standard of living. This paper argues that the Netherlands is the most successful European country in the world.
During the war period, most of the battles used to happen in the Netherlands, and this derailed their economic status. For the Netherlands to become independent, they had to fight against Spain, which made them become Protestants since Catholics dominated Spain. Their way of fighting Spain was to go into a religious war. The Netherlands had an advantage since they were able to attain religious tolerance as opposed to Spain and France who have strict rules about religion (Lucier, 2017). They accepted all religions, and this made most people very comfortable doing trade in their country.
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By 1600, Netherlands achieved naval supremacy over the Portuguese and the Spanish; this has been a contributing factor to their success in Europe. When the Netherlands achieved the naval supremacy, they were able to take over the Portuguese’s raiding routes, and this gave them the upper hand in conquering most nations during that era.
The other reason why the Netherlands is the most successful European country is that their government system is different from the other countries. They have a parliamentary system which is different from Spain and France who have the absolute monarchy which has all the power and can make all the rules without any questioning (Lucier, 2017). A group of people in parliament make the laws in the Netherlands, and this allows them to keep their king in check with any decision he makes.
Since the Netherlands has a parliamentary system and religious tolerance, it gives them a massive platform to become the wealthiest country in Europe since they can have joint stock companies. This fact means that they can allow investors to put their resources together for economic ventures. When there is the absence of the absolute monarchy, taxes tend to be very low, and this is the case in the Netherlands.
When France and Spain pay twenty percent of the taxes to the queen in every economic venture, Netherlands do not have to do that since the parliament set laws in favor of these economic ventures. Most of the people making the laws in the parliament are involved in the joint stock companies, and this factor gives them more reason to make laws that allow these companies to thrive; this fact allows the Netherlands to surpass France and Spain with regard to business. The primary motivation Netherlands has for business is the profits they make, unlike France and Spain who care more about conversion into their religions.
Since the Netherlands was only interested in profits, then they overlook the moral barriers while doing business. The Portuguese, Spanish and French have very high moral standards in whatever they do since religion binds them (Lucier, 2017). For this reason, Netherlands have an easy time when they facilitate, participate and take over the slave trade. The slaves were set to work endlessly in the sugar and cotton plantations, and since they did not receive any payments, then the Netherlands made more profits which made them more productive than France, Spain or Portugal.
In conclusion, this paper elaborates the main reasons why the Netherlands is more successful as compared to the other countries in Europe. They mostly value profits above anything else, and they understand their tools of the trade. They do not have religious limitations, and so any individual has a free pass to do business, and this attracts people from all over the world.
References
Lucier, B. (2017). ITV-New Netherlands. YouTube . Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8Lr4_xpIzI
