[Figment]

Let's see. Lately I've been seeing a lot of ignorance from Americans regarding the "outside world", "foreigners" and especially done in a rather denegrating tone. That includes my people, the Dutch. Who are actually at the very core of the establishment of America, including its core principles and values.

It may be hard to believe for the anglo-centric worldview of the majority of Americans (gee, wonder why that is after a prolonged anglosaxon rule).

But let's look at the influence of the dutch on US society, past and present.


Let's start with the colonies. New Netherlands was a dutch colony that comprised the area today known as New York and surrounding states (yes, states).



I'll just quote thise from the Wiki

Legacy

The original settlement has grown into the largest metropolis in North America
In addition to founding the largest metropolis on the North American continent, New Netherland has left a profoundly enduring legacy on both American cultural and political life, "a secular broadmindedness and mercantile pragmatism",[9] greatly influenced by social and political climate in the Dutch Republic at the time as well as by the character of those who immigrated to it.[48] It was during the early British colonial period that the New Netherlanders actually developed the land and society that would have an enduring impact on the Capital District, the Hudson Valley, North Jersey, western Long Island, New York City, and ultimately the United States.[9]

Political culture

Manifested, and occasionally embraced, as multiculturalism in late twentieth-century United States, the concept of tolerance was the mainstay of province's mother country. The Dutch Republic was a haven for many religious and intellectual refugees fleeing oppression as well as home to the world's major ports in the newly developing global economy. Concepts of religious freedom and free-trade (including a stock market) were Netherlands imports. In 1682, the visiting Virginian William Byrd commented about New Amsterdam that "they have as many sects of religion there as at Amsterdam".

The Dutch Republic was one of the first nation-states of Europe where citizenship and civil liberties were extended to large segments of the population. The framers of the U.S. Constitution were influenced by the Constitution of the Republic of the United Provinces, though that influence was more as an example of things to avoid than of things to imitate.[49] In addition, the Act of Abjuration, essentially the declaration of independence of the United Provinces from the Spanish throne, is strikingly similar to the later American Declaration of Independence[50] though concrete evidence that the former directly influenced the latter is absent. John Adams went so far as to say that “the origins of the two Republics are so much alike that the history of one seems but a transcript from that of the other.”[51] The Articles of Capitulation (outlining the terms of transfer to the English) in 1664,[46] provided for the right to worship as one wished, and were incorporated into subsequent city, state, and national constitutions in the USA, and are the legal and cultural code that lies at the root of the New York Tri-State traditions.

Many prominent US citizens are Dutch American directly descended from the Dutch families of New Netherland.[52] The Roosevelt family, which produced two Presidents, are descended from Claes van Roosevelt, who emigrated around 1650.[53] The Van Buren family of President Martin Van Buren also originated in New Netherland.[3]

The Prince's Flag
Lore

The colors of the flag of New York City, of Albany and of Nassau County are those of the old Dutch flag. The blue, white and orange are also seen in materials from New York's two World's Fairs and the uniforms of the New York Mets baseball club, New York Knicks basketball club, and New York Islanders hockey club. Hofstra University, founded in 1935, takes its flag from the original.

The seven arrows in the lion's left claw in the Republic's coat of arms, representing the seven provinces, was a precedent for the thirteen arrows in the eagle's left claw in the Great Seal of the United States.[54]

Any review of the legacy of New Netherland is complicated by the enormous impact of Washington Irving’s satirical A History of New York and its famous fictional author Diedrich Knickerbocker. Irving’s romantic vision of an enlightened, languid Dutch yeomanry dominated the popular imagination about the colony since its publication in 1809.[55] To this day, many mistakenly believe that Irving’s two most famous short stories "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" are based on actual folk tales of Dutch peasants in the Hudson Valley.[citation needed]

The tradition of Santa Claus is thought to have developed from a (gift-giving) celebration of the feast of Saint Nicholas on December 6 each year by the settlers of New Netherland.[17][56] The Dutch Sinterklaas was Americanized into "Santa Claus", a name first used in the American press in 1773,[57] when, in the early days of the revolt, Nicholas was used as a symbol of New York's non-British past.[56] However, many of the "traditions" of Santa Claus may have simply been invented by Irving in his 1809 Knickerbocker's History of New York from The Beginning of the World To the End of The Dutch Dynasty.[56]

Pinkster, the Dutch celebration of Spring is still celebrated in the Hudson Valley.

Language

Pidgin Delaware developed early in the province as a vehicular language to expedite trade. A dialect known as Jersey Dutch was spoken in and around rural Bergen and Passaic counties in New Jersey until the early 20th century.[58] Mohawk Dutch, spoken around Albany, is also now extinct.[59]


"Main Street" for the province, the Noort Rivier, was one of the three main rivers in New Nederland. In maritime usage, North River is still the name for that part of the Hudson between Hudson County and Manhattan.
Many words of Dutch origin came into American vernacular directly from New Netherland. For example, the quintessential American word Yankee may be a corruption of a Dutch name, Jan Kees. [nb 2][60] Knickerbocker, originally a surname, has been used to describe a number of things, including breeches, glasses, and a basketball team. Cookie is from the Dutch word koekje or (informally) koekie. Boss, from baas, evolved in New Netherland to the usage known today.

Another interesting article can be found here:
http://www.godutch.com/newspaper/index.php?id=212


Alright, so basically, the Netherlands have largely been responsible if not a model for American core principles and concepts of freedoms: such as freedom of speech, freedom of suffrage, freedom of press and freedom of religion.

Even significant influences on law, like the concept of district attorney. Not to mention capitalism in the form of free trade, again a dutch 'invention': the first stock company in the world was formed in the Netherlands, called the VOC.

Some more reading: http://roger-saunders.suite101.com/t...fluence-a35630

Contrasting quite starkly with people like Malorn, who think it is inconceivable for a foreigner to 'understand' these principles. Hey we just invented each and every one of them, but what do we know? Everything is invented by Americans, right? Well no. You were late to the party and simply poorly informed by your patriotic and nationalist education system. All your major advancements regarding civil rights were and are copies of Dutch advancements.

And you're actually still lagging behind. >__>

Constitutional rights

The first chapter of the Dutch constitution codifies the rights of all inhabitants of the Netherlands. These are both negative and positive rights as well as democratic rights. This includes a ban on discrimination (the first article of the Netherlands), the freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of association and freedom of assembly and the right to privacy. These are limitations on government, which citizens can enforce these classical civil rights directly at the judge. Additionally there are social rights such as the right to housing, social security, health care, education and employment. These are duties of the government towards its citizens, but these cannot be enforced by a judge. Democratic rights include the passive and active right to vote. The Netherlands has banned capital punishment during peace time and war time. The Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations is responsible for the constitution.

The Netherlands is signatory to all relevant international human rights instruments such as European Convention on Human Rights, Rome Statute (for the International Criminal Court) and the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, European Convention on Torture and the European Social Charter.

Note that the US is not signatory to all (which for the European ones is logical), but not even to all the non-European ones and still torture exists in places like Guantanamo Bay. Human rights are only conveniencies to the USA government, where many other governments have moved on.

In fact, the US constitution was largely based on the Dutch constitution. And the declaration of abjuration, or our declaration of independence from the Spanish, is also used as a template.

Gee. How about that?

The framers of the U.S. Constitution were influenced by the Constitution of the Republic of the United Provinces.[4] In addition, the Act of Abjuration, essentially the declaration of independence of the United Provinces, is strikingly similar to the later American Declaration of Independence,[5] though concrete evidence that the former directly influenced the latter is absent.

3) The abovementioned perception of the Union of Utrecht can also be considered as the model for the foundation of the United States of America. The United States of America did however perceive that a strong executive was needed in such a confederacy.

But let's continue:

During the American war of Independence the Dutch were active allies of the American rebels. From the island of Sint Eustatius they gave the Thirteen colonies one of the few opportunities to acquire arms. In 1778, British Lord Stormont claimed in parliament that "if Sint Eustatius had sunk into the sea three years before, the United Kingdom would already have dealt with George Washington".

The Dutch were the first to salute the flag, and therefore the first to acknowledge the independence of, the United States on 16 November 1776.

The Louisiana Purchase, also known as the "Great Land Acquisition", of 1803, is often seen as one of the most important events in American history after the Declaration of Independence. At the time it had a total cost of $15.000.000,- and it was financed in three ways. First of all by a down payment of $3.000.000,- in gold by the US government, and then two loans, one by the London-based Barings Bank, and one by the Amsterdam based Hope Bank. The original receipt still exists and is currently property of the Dutch ING Group, which has its headquarters in Amsterdam.

Of equal importance to America’s destiny was the granting of four major loans by the Netherlands from 1782-1788, which probably saved our young nation from bankruptcy and possible economic collapse at the end of the war.

So you kinda desperately needed us for forming your nation and maintaining it on multiple occassions, but who needs us Dutch for anything, right? You may want to read the entire historical article there: http://www.11thpa.org/dutch-arms.html

The Netherlands hosts several international human rights institutions. The Hague is home to the International Criminal Court, the Yugoslavia Tribunal, the International Court of Justice, Rwanda Tribunal.

The reason the International Criminal Court (ICC) is housed in The Hague, governmental seat of the Netherlands, is exactly because of this history. A court of international law in the interest of human rights, which is may I remind you, not ratified by the USA. Quite the opposite, as mentioned earlier, the USA deemed itself qualified to enact a law that makes it "legal" to potentially invade the Netherlands and any other country, to spring the detention of US citizens accused of war crimes.

Many internationaly important tribunals, for instance regarding the Lockerbie disaster, were also performed in the Netherlands.


If we continue to look at modern day dutch influence on human rights, you will note that "new" freedoms, such as gay marriage (Amsterdam is considered the gay capital of the world in that respect), abortion (female rights), euthanasia (right to end ones own life under certain medical conditions), legalised soft drugs and prostitution (as a means to control and reduce related crime) and quite a few other "controversial" topics and ideas spring forth from the Netherlands.

Also, if we look at the foreign investors in America, the second largest European investor (after the UK), is the Netherlands. The investment is as large as the investments of 3/4s of all Asian investments combined.

Furthermore, the human rights and eco-movements are also quite strong in the Netherlands. Eco organisations such as Greenpeace and Shepard have their HQ in the Netherlands for good reason.



So yeah. The idea is that without the Netherlands, the Americas past and present, its concepts, vision and other liberty related things would have looked entirely different. And I mean entirely different. Probably with a certain British queen as your head of state. Quite likely half your country would still speak Spanish or French, since you'd have had to respect Louisianna's borders (or go to war with France) without our money. Which also means you could not have attacked Mexico by land directly and steal your entire western half of the US.



Either way, we butt-in on your political issues whenever the hell we like, for clearly it's in your best interest. Whether you like it or not. :P Besides, freedom of speech also goes for foreigners!