European Civiliization (1648-1945) with John Merriman: 3. Dutch and British Exceptionalism (Yale)

European Civilization, 1648-1945 (HIST 202) Several reasons can be found to explain why Great Britain and the Netherlands did not follow the other major European powers of the seventeenth century in adopting absolutist rule. Chief among these were the presence of a relatively large middle class, with a vested interest in preserving independence from centralized authority, and national traditions of resistance dating from the English Civil War and the Dutch war for independence from Spain, respectively. In