1600 - 1800
One of the terms signed by the Peace of Westphalia was that the Scheldt estuary be closed to shipping, to destroy the trade and prosperity of Antwerp. By this act, the commercial expansion and pre-eminence of Amsterdam was assured and the Golden Age began. Around 1670 the Republic had some 15,000 vessels (five times the number in the English fleet). This gave it a virtual monopoly over the transport of goods around the world. The sciences and the arts flourished in the robust and economic climate. The Dutch East India Company was formed in 1602 and quickly became the world's first multinational corporation. The company was almost a sovereign state as it was permitted to raise its own armed forces and to establish colonies. It even had its own navy.

The company became a colonial power, governing Malaya, Ceylon and parts of modern day Indonesia. In 1621 The West Indies Company was inaugurated to protect Dutch interests in the Americas and Africa. It was dismantled in 1674, ten years after its small colony of New Amsterdam had been captured by the British and renamed New York. Java and Sumatra remained under Dutch control until 1949. Culturally the United Provinces flourished. The wealth of the merchant class supported scores of artists. Among the most renowned were Jan Vermeer, Jan Steen, Frans Hals and Rembrandt van Rijn. Politically it faced internal governmental struggles between those who hankered for a central, unified government (house of Orange-Nassau) and those who championed provincial autonomy. In 1672 King Louis XIV's army marched across the Netherlands.

Unfortunately for the Dutch, the country had devoted most of its resources to its navy, instead of its army, leaving the country practically helpless against the French invasion. By marrying his cousin Mary, daughter of king James II in England, William III became king of England and hence improved relations with the English. Using his strong diplomatic skills, he created the Grand Alliance that joined England, the United Provinces, Spain, Sweden and several German states to fight the expansionist ambitions of France's Louis XIV. After defeating the French several times successfully in 1713 the War of Spanish Succession ended with the Treaty of Utrecht. However the wars had exhausted the Dutch both politically and economically and the treaty marked the beginning of the country's decline as an economic and political power. A series of political struggles between the House of Orange and its opponents the Patriots, which favored democratic reforms, led to a civil war in 1785.