What the Dutch Empire Reveals About America Today

About this episode

How do you fight a superpower you can’t afford to stop trading with? The Dutch faced that problem at the start of the 17th century in their war against Spain, and their answer was the Dutch West India Company, a business built to wage war. Alexander Bick, a historian who served on the National Security Council under Barack Obama and Joe Biden, joins School of War to discuss his new book, Minutes of Empire. He explains how the company helped secure Dutch independence and why the Dutch kept trading with Spain while fighting it, taxing certain exports to “plow that money back into the military,” and what that reveals about America’s tangled relationship with China. All of which raises a question about Donald Trump’s foreign policy: Is America reviving an older style of empire? 02:52 — The Rise of the Dutch Republic 06:25 — How Dutch Trading Companies Began 09:47 — Shareholder Profits vs. National Strategy 11:59 — Who Invested in the Company? 14:33 — Challenging Spain in the New World 19:19 — The Costs of Conquering Brazil 22:49 — Who Ran the West India Company? 31:58 — Business Failure, Strategic Success 39:36 — The Dutch Legacy in Britain 43:16 — America and Trading with