Day of Empire_ How Hyperpowers Rise to Global Dominance--And Why They Fall - Amy Chua [77]
Perhaps he was just posturing, but Ferdinand himself seemed to be aware of the self-destructiveness of the Jewish expulsion he ordered. In a letter sent on the same day the decree was issued, Ferdinand wrote that he had been persuaded by the Holy Office of the Inquisition to expel the Jews “despite the great harm to ourselves, seeking and preferring the salvation of souls above our own profit and that of individuals.”14
In any case, by 1640 Spain was on the brink of collapse, no longer even one of Europe's premier powers. It continued to decline thereafter, becoming increasingly marginal on the world stage. While it is by no means clear that a tolerant Spain could have become a hyperpower—to reiterate my thesis, tolerance is a necessary but not sufficient condition of world dominance—there is no question that imperial Spain's intolerance stymied its ascent and precipitated its downward spiral.
Although Spain “specialized in expulsions,” it was certainly not the only European power consumed by religious zeal. On the contrary, in pre-Enlightenment Europe, religious persecution and warfare were the rule, not the exception. In Germany in 1524, for example, peasants spurred by the Reformation slaughtered scores of Roman Catholics, who retaliated with even greater atrocities, triggering the so-called Peasants’ War in which an estimated 100,000 ultimately died. In Italy in 1569, Pope Pius V expelled all Jews from the Papal States. In France in 1572, as many as 10,000 Huguenots were slaughtered in celebration of St. Bartholomew's Day. In Poland over 50,000 Jews were massacred between 1648 and 1654.
Nor was the Spanish monarchy alone in attempting to force religious uniformity on its subjects. In the German states, ruling princes vied to impose either absolute Calvinism or absolute Lutheranism on their territories. In Sweden, there was a single state church; nonattenders were fined and religious education was mandatory. Catholic Bohemia expelled its entire Protestant nobility in 1627. In Hungary, there was coercive Catholicization. In England, where Catholics were frequently attacked, the Anglican Church was established by law, with criminal penalties for nonconformity.15
At the dawn of the seventeenth century, the population of France was roughly 16 million. Spain and Portugal combined could boast about 10 million. Taken together, the various principalities of Germany had a population of perhaps 20 million.16 Smaller than all these was the Netherlands, with a population of no more than two million. Yet it would be the tiny Dutch Republic that, within a half century, would eclipse all the other powers of Europe.
SIX
Diamonds, Damask, and Every
“Mongrel Sect in Christendom”
So, Amsterdam has risen through the hand of God to the peak of prosperity and greatness…The whole world stands amazed at its riches and from east and west, north and south they come to behold it.
— DUTCH AUTHOR, 1662
This Citty is nott divided in to parishes as with us, butt every one goes to what church hee pleases, there beeing only 8 or 9 publicise churches besides the English, French, Lutherans, Anabaptists, etts., and Jewish Sinagogues…Organs they have in some of them, butt are nott played til the people depart, soe thatt itt seemes they serve to blowe them outt off church…Few hol-idaies observed, Christmas, Easter, Whitesontide and Sondaies excepted; the latter butt badly kept. A Tolleration here off all sects [of] religion.
— ENGLISHMAN PETER MUNDY ON AMSTERDAM, 1640
The Dutch are famous for many things—clogs, windmills, tulips, Rembrandt, Vermeer—but these days it's often forgotten that the Dutch once presided over the world's preeminent maritime trading empire, the immediate predecessor to Britain's. It's often forgotten too that the Dutch were once the