Seriously what the fuck went wrong? >Literally an unmatc

>Cant even qualify for the Euros

Good question desu

they were a tad bit unethical
nobody liked them

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>gets invaded by England
>becomes King of England a decade later

>>2285763
After they got their independence from Spain they didn't have much use for France and England anymore so they bullied them

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>>2285763
Don't forget that it bankrupted itself fighting for the eternal ang*o because Will*am III needed to LARPing as king of England.

>>2285946
Willy wasnt really to blame - as he never was King of Holland to begin with. Sure it had an impact, but the system was bloated and redundant - giving rise to revolutionairy sentiment. The continued struggle between the Orangists and the Patriots didnt further stability at all. The schism between these two groups and the heavy handed meddling by France and Prussia didnt exactly help either.

Willy did what a royal in all but name would do; go for the title. It was the Republic's own fault for allowing him the power to shift the focus of Dutch capital to London.

The system was a mess and the resulting wars and coups were the result of it.

>>2285763

They matured as a nation.

"Hurr-durr must be stronk, be power!" Ceased to be important and "It would be nice to be a pleasant place to live" gained import.

It happens to most nations eventually.

>>2285763
Mercantilism. The Netherlands couldn't possibly consume that much pepper and spice themselves but couldn't export it to competetive prices because of tariffs. They tried to increase wages and purchasing power but there were still too much pepper in amsterdam rotting up in warehouses.

>>2286106
I think it has more to do with the nature of making a profit. Wars ceased to be that much more profitable when your bigger neighbours could put aside their differences just to fuck you over. Combined with the neglect of defences in Holland itself due to tensions between rivaling political forces, one could come to the conclusion that the projection of power into the wider world as a means of making a killing and weakening political rivals, openend the country up for an eventual decline.

The army was neglected in favour of the navy not because it was more profitable, but because the Stadhouders feared that a strong and competent national army could dislodge their power within the Republic and rightfully so. At the centre of the army were the Schutterijen which were basically militias and very much Patriot oriented.

Instead of fixing this situation they just continued with it - which eventually weakened the state enough for others (in this case revolutionairies and the French) to take advantage of.

The resulting mess of it all gave rise to the post-Napoleonic kingdom we all know and love.

It is no wonder that the Dutch are still taught that the rule of Louis Napoleon I set a precedent for stability that was eventually hailed with the ascension of the house of Orange Nassau