Netherlands

tulips

Flemish brain drain

>>946325
Capitalism, free trade, de facto freedom of speech and religion, high literacy rates, high labor productivity, high human capital, insane preindustrial urbanization rates, female work force, high age of marriage, innovative shipbuilding, a bunch of great leaders and traders.

I'd say the above mentioned are both symptoms and effects of a good economy and once the ball got rolling it kept going until Napoleon and the industrial revolution.

File: HotDutchwoman.jpg (123KB, 736x954px) Image search: [Google]

123KB, 736x954px

>>946325

Sexy women which I would bang all the time.

Everybody got jealous of our wealth, be it that bishop from Münster, the Brits, the Spanjards, the French...

>>946325
>Could they have ever been a legitimate competitor to Britain's empire building?
Maybe, if they continued their pro-French policy and focused on the Navy rather than wasting resources on the land forces too. That said the French still wanted the Southern Netherlands and it went against the Dutch interests so it's hard to imagine.

>Could the Netherlands become a European hegemon in the future?
Mostly no, their population base is too small, they could've been a great power for longer, but that's it.

>>946325

Not a chance. Too small to compete or survive independently, being neighbors of France, Britain and the HRE.