Lineages of the Hegemon - Constructing Dutch Hegemony, XIV-XVII

It is a study aiming at understanding the historical development of a world power within the capitalist world-system , which is also a would-be general perspective or framework of analysis to fathom how a world hegemon emerges out of the history of its own. In a nutshell: it is to be argued that the hegemon is a regime of accumulation wherein state, capital and society work hand in glove with a particular degree of coherence developed within the legal boundaries of its territorial sovereignty. This internal structure of power breeds hegemony, that is, the projection of power unto and onto world space, and into the international system of states and markets. Hence, this study represents an attempt to glean the connection between the internal composition of a regime of accumulation and the propensity and force of the same regime to expand its scale and scope of operation in world space – what Joshua Goldstein calls «lateral pressure» . However, what will be essayed is not the customary inquiry into the projection of power onto the system which a powerful regime engendered, and whose manifestation is what we call hegemony, but an investigation into the inner source and morphology of power whence such a projection primary feeds off. The nub of this study is the hegemon: to understand its path of development, its composition and how it works. More to the point, we will delve into Dutch history to substantiate historically such a perspective. At the end of the sixteenth century a new state called United Provinces stepped into the limelight of European and world history. It emerged out of the war for the independence from the most powerful Empire of the early modern era, the Spanish world power. This war contributed to shape Dutch history. But the United Provinces were more than a development of the sixteenth century. Their historical complexion, as it is to be argued, originated from a past made of unruly ecology and incipient ecological and human commodification. The historical foundations – not their operational organization – arose during the late middle ages, and more precisely in the span of time that went from the XIV to the XVI century. The Dutch Republic, as it was called, became thereby the first hegemon of the modern era through the organized expansion and sovereign structuring of the medieval space of wealth, accumulation and power. In particular, it was the first hegemon of the modern world-system, a capitalist world-economy, the current world historical-social system . The present study is, in general, a very long-run analysis and synthesis of Dutch history to understand the overall movement of power, wealth and capital that characterized the Northern Low Countries from the XIV century to the XVII. The analysis will focus on the power relations, structures, processes, networks, institutions, agents and agencies which developed, operated and changed during this span of time