Waterways

Right now I’m reading Tim Blanning’s The Pursuit of Glory, a history of Europe in the early modern period. It covers a great many areas of life across a wide range of countries. For those who think of Europe as somehow one big culture, that’s not true now, and it was even less true back then. This is a period where modern nations are just starting to form, often by the will of one ruler who has enough power to start uniting the lands around him. Even once they were politically united, there was often a great difference from one region to the next, and from one city to the next.

Over the years, I’ve caught parts of the histories of England and France, and to a lesser extent Germany, Italy, and Spain. But what is completely new to me is the Dutch. This is ironic to me as someone who (1) has been told he has some (apparently disputed) Dutch ancestry, (2) has some interest in Dutch theology, and (3) has lived for almost a decade in an area known for its Dutch heritage. I learned in grade school that the Dutch East India company was a big deal, but if they told me why, it didn’t stick. And of course, as the classic They Might Be Giants cover reminds us, “even old New York was once New Amsterdam.” Why? Because the Dutch settled it. They were a big colonial deal once upon a time.

It turns out they were one of the first European nations to modernize in crucial ways. Before England and France and Germany and Spain caught up, there was the Netherlands. What’s really exciting to me is why they were first.

According to Blanning, the Dutch had the best local transportation because they had the best waterways. Why? Because they had to. Because so much of their country is below sea level. Better waterways meant better transportation. Better transportation makes a great many aspects of life easier, considering not only how many things you rely on that you don’t grow or make locally, but also the way all communication relied on it.

Then there’s time. They had to keep a tighter schedule on travel due to the tides. The boat needs to leave at a very specific time, whether you are there or not. This appears to be the beginnings of our modern sense of time and the popularity of keeping personal clocks and watches.

And of course being better at local boating it’s no surprise that they would also have the advantage in shipping between nations. Their trade between European nations naturally grew to include peoples on other continents. (I left that grammatically ambiguous because it works both ways.) What’s more, their advantage at trade also gave them a head start on finance.

I’m sure there’s more to this story than what I have read so far. I know there is more to learn about the great artists, dealings with the Spanish and other nations, connections with their religious background, etc. But I love this part of the story by itself because it seems to me that what made the Netherlands break away from the pack was making what would have been weakness into a strength. Having land below sea level should be a huge handicap in the race. But their hard work in overcoming that problem set them ahead in so many ways. (Maybe you think modern time was a mistake. Ok.)

History is complicated, so I don’t want to press the point too far. But I do find it inspiring that the reason for their early success is so closely tied to overcoming a huge obstacle. It reminds me that sometimes the trials, difficulties, frustrations, and disappointments we face in life aren’t always what they seem. Sometimes the thing that you’re sure will set you back turns into the thing that vaults you ahead.

James says that we should be grateful for our trials, and that can sound a bit obnoxious when you’re in the middle of a trial. But he explains why: because they produce patient endurance (1:3). This tells me that at bare minimum I can trust that simply enduring a trial can be enough to grow something wonderful. Sometimes it produces much more than patient endurance, which is fantastic, but it need not produce less.

I find this a great comfort when I am tempted to look back on parts of life that didn’t go the way I planned. Thankfully a mentor once told me that these things are never a waste; God always uses them. Or in one of my favorite Five Iron Frenzy lyrics: “I’ve heard it said that He wastes nothing / so beautiful to behold / the Author of my hope is writing / the greatest story ever told.”

Sometimes we simply trust this is true and we can’t see how. Sometimes we can see ourselves growing in the ways James described. And every now and then we might see (or at least dare to hope) that the setback becomes an unfair advantage.

You should know that the Dutch didn’t keep their advantage; eventually the other nations pushed to catch up. That doesn’t matter. This isn’t a story about winning. It’s a story about hope.