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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Unseen World and Other Essays by John Fiske: in the fifteenth century the Netherland provinces were the most
highly civilized portion of Europe north of the Alps. For several
generations they had enjoyed, and had known how to maintain,
civic liberties, and when Charles and Philip attempted to fasten
upon them their "peculiar institution," the Spanish Inquisition,
they were ripe for political as well as theological revolt.
Natural laws were found to operate on the Rhine as well as on the
Tagus, and at the end of the great war of independence, Holland
was not only better equipped than Spain for a European conflict,
but was rapidly ousting her from the East Indian countries which
she had in vain attempted to colonize.
The Unseen World and Other Essays |
