THE PIOUS PIRATES
SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
Whereas the whole of the once prosperous German industry disappeared in
the course of the Thirty Years’ War, leaving a convenient vacancy for
English production to fill; this was by no means the case with the
Netherlands. After the separation of the latter from Spain, their
industry and commerce reached an unprecedented height of development.
Colonies were acquired in East India, in the Indian Ocean, in North
America, and in South Africa. During the German wars of religion, the
Netherlands offered a place of refuge to many of the best elements of
the German population, and also convenient and profitable investments
for their money. Emigrants and investments contributed very largely to
the growing prosperity of the little country. If the German Empire had
evolved normally, Holland would have become its “window” opening on to
the North Sea and the Channel. Nature would certainly seem to have
destined the Netherlands, including Belgium, to play this part. But the
German Empire had been turned into a desert, and its commercial
importance had ceased to exist.
The fact that Holland was able to become, in the seventeenth century,
the greatest Sea Power in Europe, is all the more remarkable in view of
the circumstances. And inevitably the question arises: what would have
happened if only the Netherlands could have been amalgamated with the
German Empire, as Nature intended them to be?
The Netherlands were everywhere in England’s way: whether as maritime
Power or commercial Power, in European or in British waters, on the high
seas or in the colonies. This could not be tolerated. Least of all could
the Dutch be forgiven for having acquired rights of property there where
the English had so far only claims—in North America and India, and
especially on the high road between India and China. England saw at once
that she must have recourse to those weapons which had already proved so
successful in the case of Spain and Portugal: the roots of Dutch sea
power must be cut off, so that the fruit might then fall without further
effort into the hands waiting to gather it. Unfortunately the majority
of the Dutch were not Catholics, so that the war of destruction against
their commerce could not conveniently be carried on under the pretence
of defending the Protestant faith. England understood this, and chose
another pretext accordingly.
Puritanism was now dominant in England. The pious regicide Cromwell had
uttered the significant words: “Pray and keep your powder dry.” It is
certain that the carrying out of this last recommendation entailed
considerably more work than did the praying! The Germans have been in
the habit of searching in English Puritanism for ideals which it never
contained. The mainspring of Puritanism was the fanatical belief that
the English people constitutes a divinely chosen race, which is destined
to reign over all other nations and to monopolise the world’s commerce.
The “religious enthusiasm” of which it boasted did, in the long run, but
serve the ends of egotism. As a matter of fact, Puritanism never got
beyond the Ego; and it was fundamentally irreligious. It believed itself
to be entrusted with the mission of founding the Kingdom of God on
earth. But this Kingdom of God was nothing if not a world-empire
dominated by England; and its realisation further implied that the
Chosen People of God should have the entire trade of humanity
exclusively in their hands. Here we have the real spirit of Puritanism;
and it is neither an exaggeration nor a misrepresentation to describe it
as we have done. The pharisaical creed of a greedy and thieving race
which, living in the security of an island fortress, cast, like unto a
pack of vultures, its lustful glances over seas and continents—this
hypocritical creed could not possibly recognise the Protestantism of
other nations to be anything like as pure as that of its own adherents.
A Christian people which should be stupid and criminal enough not to
grovel in the dust before the Chosen Nation—which should even push such
criminal folly to the extent of competing with that Chosen Nation on the
sea: such a people deserves nothing else but annihilation. The God of
the English commands it!
It was not a mere accident that precisely those pious men should have
waxed ever more indignant at the spectacle of Holland’s prosperity, who
were always ready to commit every crime calculated to ensure the glory
of God and of England. Their indignation was justified; during the first
half of the seventeenth century, at the very moment when a certain
reaction was visible in England after the “heroic age,” Holland had
risen to the first rank alike as a trading Power, a maritime Power, and
a colonial Power. By means of indomitable energy the Dutch had
succeeded, if not in monopolising the oversea trade, at least in
acquiring the lion’s share of it. Their trading ships sailed along every
coast, and did a very considerable carrying trade to and from English
ports. Dutch industry flourished, and proved a serious competitor for
English manufacturers on the Continental markets. The Chosen People on
the other side of the Channel could not possibly tolerate such a state
of affairs. The Puritan Cooper proclaimed that “_delenda est Carthago_.”
Carthage must be destroyed, Protestant Holland must be crushed, for she
is in our way!
This was Cromwell’s view. In 1651 he caused the celebrated Navigation
Act to be passed. Henceforth it was forbidden to carry foreign freights
to English ports on other than English ships, or else ships belonging to
the nation exporting the freights in question. It was a death-blow dealt
at Holland’s carrying trade. England likewise required all foreign ships
to salute in future the English flag whenever they should meet it. The
Chosen People thus demanded that all other seafaring nations should
recognise its claim to rule the seas—and this was 250 years ago! But
this was not all. Cromwell demanded further for English warships in war
time the right of searching all trading vessels belonging to neutral
nations, in order to see whether or not the latter had goods on board
which belonged to the enemy. We have already said that the Dutch ships
were very numerous, and that they often had very valuable freight on
board; as one may imagine, it was a splendid opportunity for the pious
and morally pure English pirates to satisfy their greed under the
pretext of the “right of search.” Innumerable neutral vessels were
captured, brought to English harbors, there to await the decisions of
the English Prize Courts. The latter had already in the seventeenth
century—just like they have in 1915—the inestimable advantage of always
condemning a captured ship, provided the latter and its freight be of
some value. The Dutch declined to submit to the convenient English
custom. This angered the English so much, that Cromwell gave orders to
Admiral Black suddenly to attack the Dutch fleet in the midst of peace,
under the pretext that the Dutch Admiral Van Tromp had refused to salute
the English flag. Thus began the great war between Holland and England,
which lasted, with interruptions, until 1674.
If that war had taken place in our days, Dutch statesmen would probably
have said, on the eve of its outbreak: “Not a single question can arise
between Holland and England, capable of causing a war between two
civilised nations who are also bound to each other by links of blood.” A
crowd of people unable to form a judgment of their own would have
accepted such cheap wisdom with enthusiasm, and would have abundantly
denounced all those who held different opinions as jingoes,
super-patriots, and so forth. It is all the more important for us, in
judging the part played by England in the present war, that we should
understand how Elizabethan England waged war on sea, simply because
jealous of other people’s prosperity; and how Cromwellian England, and
the England of later times, waged wars under different forms, but with
the same underlying purpose. Englishmen and Anglophile Germans have
called the war of destruction carried on by England against Holland a
“commercial war”—thinking thereby to justify it. Let us for a moment
examine the question as to what a so-called “commercial war” means. By
dint of hard work, enterprise, and skill, a nation has acquired a high
position as a commercial and maritime Power. Another nation, less clever
and less capable, becomes filled with jealousy at the sight, and
declares: “It is contrary to our dignity and to God’s commandments,
therefore must the criminal be destroyed.” About twenty-five years ago
an English review, alarmed by the first signs of a development of German
trade, wrote: “If Germany were extinguished to-morrow, the day after
to-morrow there is not an Englishman in the world who would not be the
richer. Nations have fought for years over a city or a right of
succession; must they not fight for two hundred and fifty million pounds
of yearly commerce?” At the time there were many, in Germany, who were
of opinion that no importance was to be attached to such utterances as
this, seeing that the England of modern times is a civilised Power
loving peace. It is to be presumed that these simple minds have learnt
something in the meantime!
It would be a pity not to mention, while we are about it, a significant
passage which we found in the work of a British naval officer some
half-dozen years ago. (The work in question had obtained a prize.)
“We—i. e. England—do not go to war for sentimental reasons. I doubt if
we ever did. War is the outcome of commercial quarrels; it has for its
aims the forcing of commercial conditions by the sword on our
antagonists, conditions which we consider necessary to commercially
benefit us. We give all sorts of reasons for war, but at the bottom of
them all is commerce. Whether the reason given be the retention or
obtaining of a strategical position, the breaking of treaties, or what
not, they come down to the bed-rock of commerce, for the simple and
effective reason that commerce is our life-blood.”
The above quotation should be inserted as a preface to every history of
England, and to every discussion of English politics. The passages
reproduced here are in truth classical by reason of their brevity and
clearness; and they were not written by some obscure scribbler, but by a
British naval officer to whom a prize was awarded for his work by a
committee composed of politicians, economists, and naval men.
England assisted Holland in the latter’s struggle against Spain, under
the pretext of serving the cause of Protestant freedom. During the war
of destruction subsequently waged by her against Protestant Holland,
England relied for help on Catholic France. While England had, in the
sixteenth century, given herself out as the “champion of political
freedom,” and had in this capacity come to the help of the Netherlands,
she allied herself, in the seventeenth century, just as enthusiastically
with the absolutist French monarchy, in order to destroy republican
Holland.
During the war with Holland, the typical insular policy of England
assumed definite shape. This policy consists in regarding the European
Continent exclusively as a means to an end; and in taking sides for or
against a Power, or group of Powers, according as English interests
shall dictate it. It may be objected that English interests do not
necessarily remain identical in each succeeding century; and that the
point of view from which they must be judged will consequently differ.
But to this, we may reply: English interests have always remained the
same throughout the centuries, and their basis has invariably been a
commercial one. And experience, which every century in succession has
confirmed, shows that English commerce develops, and that England grows
ever richer, in the measure that the Continent is impoverished. The
impoverishment of the Continent, in turn, grew in the measure that the
nations inhabiting it were divided among themselves. With regard to the
war between England and Holland, it must be observed that the latter had
never aspired towards territorial expansion, and had never been one of
the great European Powers. England could not even allege, as a pretext
for the war, that Holland had disturbed the peace of the Continent, and
must therefore be destroyed in the interests of that peace. None the
less did England proclaim: _Carthaginem esse delendam_.
We must not overlook the immense historical importance of the fact that
the two first wars of robbery and destruction waged by England were
directed against Spain and Holland: against the former, on account of
her position at the junction of the Atlantic and the Mediterranean;
against the latter, on account of her position on the shores of the
North Sea and the Channel. Both these parts of the European Continent
have ever since had the greatest strategical and commercial importance
for England.
The first step towards the establishment of British supremacy in the
Mediterranean was taken by Admiral Blake in the middle of the
seventeenth century. Alleged acts of piracy committed on the coasts of
Tunis, Algeria, and Tripoli furnished the necessary motive. Blake came
to an agreement with the Bey of Tunis, to the effect that no English
ship should in future be held up. The ships of other nations were left
out of consideration as being without any importance. This event is in
itself insignificant, yet it marks the opening of a new epoch in
history. From that time onwards has England’s supremacy in the
Mediterranean, although neither recognised nor absolute, none the less
been a problem of worldwide interest. The same Admiral Blake then went
with his fleet into the Atlantic, where he joined Admiral Montagu’s
squadron, and waited for the Spanish treasure-ships from South America
and the West Indies. They soon captured rich booty, with which Montagu
returned home. But Blake waited for the rest of the Spanish
treasure-ships till the spring of 1657. After more than two years, as
English historians boastfully tell us, his patience was rewarded, and he
attacked the treasure-ships in the harbor of Teneriffe. The
Spaniards—who were criminal enough to defend their property—were
massacred, their ships and port destroyed. We have recounted this little
episode, because it shows us so clearly how the pious and puritan
English, with their eyes lifted up to Heaven, prepared the way for the
Kingdom of God on earth.
In the middle of her war against Holland, the opportunity presented
itself for England to temporarily make peace with her adversary;
whereupon she promptly concluded an alliance with Holland and Sweden
against Louis XIV. of France. We likewise only mention this little
episode in order to furnish a fresh proof of the ease with which England
has always changed her alliances and her enemies according as the
occasion required it. In order to facilitate such changes, it is
customary to periodically shift the men in power. Four years after the
feat accomplished by Blake, an English squadron under Admiral Holmes
attacked a large Dutch trading fleet coming from the Levant, at the
moment when it was entering the Channel. English arrogance has, be it
observed, long since added to the word “Channel” the prefix “English.”
Holmes’ exploit served as introduction to the last and decisive period
of the war. England and France were united. In 1674 Holland recognised,
by the Treaty of Westminster, the British supremacy on the seas.
England’s rival had disappeared from the scene.
Henceforth Holland became England’s ally and protégé; the English nation
and its rulers guarded henceforth jealously the “liberty” of the Dutch,
and showed themselves to be passionate defenders of the rights of the
weak, of the sacredness of treaties, and of the balance of power. In the
course of time the balance of power has not only become a dogma of
British policy; but it has become a practical criterion, according to
which this policy has been systematically applied in every concrete
case. England is in the habit of addressing the world in the following
terms: “Our policy aims at securing a balance of power on the Continent,
in order that peace may reign there, and that no European State may
develop at the expense of another.” In the course of many centuries of
struggle for justice and liberty, Great Britain has acquired the
privilege of styling herself the legitimate protectress of these ideals,
common to the whole of humanity. Such is the English contention! In
reality the English policy of the balance of power means simply the
stirring up of as many European Powers as possible against the nation
which Great Britain, at any given time, considers as her most dangerous
competitor. This nation is, of course, always the one which, thanks to
its strength and prosperity, threatens to destroy the commercial
monopoly of the Chosen People.
As a result of the war with Holland, after which the two countries were
bound by dynastic links, and as a result, likewise, of the further
dynastic connection with Hanover, England established herself once more
on the Continent. The circumstances were far more favorable for her now
than in previous centuries, when she endeavored to conquer France by
force of arms. The new method was cheaper and less risky. Holland and
Hanover became the outposts of Great Britain in Europe; a part of the
coasts of the North Sea and the Channel became de facto British. Such
outposts possessed vast importance for England’s continental trade, and
were also admirable political trump-cards. As for the participation of
England in the continental wars, it was a fundamental principle of
British policy not to allow the precious blood of Albion’s sons to be
shed. But the British Government was consequently all the more generous
with the blood of its continental mercenaries. The latter were allowed
the honor of having their bones broken for the English idea of the
balance of power in Europe. It is evident that the influence on European
politics alike of the English dynasty and of the English Government, was
immensely increased by these new continental connections.
A large part of the Spanish and Dutch colonies fell into English hands,
and the maritime power of Holland was broken during the long war, during
which Dutch trading vessels were captured and destroyed _en masse_. The
neutral countries were obliged to submit to their ships being held up
and searched by English cruisers, during every war which it pleased the
English Government to wage. Such neutral ships generally disappeared
then for good into English harbors. As soon as the Prize Court, with its
usual solemnity and impartiality, had pronounced a ship and its freight
to be lawful booty, both were promptly transferred into English hands,
and the English trading fleet was increased by so much.
This method proved most lucrative. Its steady application paved the way
for England’s future trade monopoly. Foreign flags disappeared
progressively from the high seas, and were replaced by English ones. In
this simple manner did England obtain possession of the thriving Dutch
trade in the Far East.