Ralf Goergens

Last month fellow Chicagoboy demimasque posted about babies dying from abuse or neglect in Europe. While shocking, this isn’t representative for Europe, or Germany and France as whole, but rather there are certain areas where this kind of thing happens much more frequently than elsewhere (and even there not frequently enough to affect demographics even marginally).

For example, this kind of thing happens three times as often per 100,000 people in in Eastern Germany than in Western Germany, and the particular instance demimasque cited unfortunately became an election issue:

Conservative candidate for chancellor Angela Merkel was forced to reprimand Brandenburg state interior minister Jörg Schönbohm after he argued that “forced proletarianization” by the communist regime had led to a lasting breakdown in traditional values and a prevalence of violence.

“Such a horrible crime cannot and must not be explained with generalizations of this kind,” said Merkel, who is the first major contender for the chancellery to come from the depressed east, where Schönbohm’s comments drew a hail of criticism.

“I spoke with Jörg Schönbohm (who belongs to Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union party) and expect him to end this discussion as soon as possible.”

Such a huge disparity in incidents is a legitimate issue for debate, but it is counterproductive to make the point in a way that makes 15 million people feel accused for the actions of a few. And to do that in the month before a election when you want those peoples’ votes you have to be really special.

Even worse, that this didn’t remain the last serious insult to those 15 million:

Bavarian state premier Edmund Stoiber, who ran on the Christian Union ticket against Chancellor Gerhard Schröder in 2002 and narrowly lost, told a small group of supporters and journalists that the east had too much power over the poll’s outcome.

“I do not accept that the east will again decide who will be Germany’s chancellor. It cannot be allowed that the frustrated determine Germany’s fate,” Stoiber said, in comments made last week and first reported late Wednesday.

Stoiber stepped up the attack at a campaign rally Wednesday night, leaving Christian Union leaders scrambling to control the damage Thursday.

“If only everywhere else were like Bavaria, we would not have any problems at all. But unfortunately, ladies and gentlemen, we do not have such intelligent members of the population everywhere like we have in Bavaria,” he said.

“The strong must sometimes carry the weak a bit. That’s the way it is… I do not want the election to be decided in the east yet again.”

He neglected to mention that a better candidate than himself would easily have beaten Schröder in 2002, though. Either way, those two gaffes weren’t decisive in themselves, but without them the Christian Democrats would have had a more comfortable lead over the Social Democrats, making them the party with the most members in the new parliament. As it is, the final tally of the so-called ‘overhang mandates’ might make the Social Democrats the strongest party instead.

In 2001, an interviewer asked Vincente Fox’ Foreign Minister Jorge Castaneda:

Q: What about the Spanish model? Joining the European Union gave Spain a boost.

The answer is pretty obvious, if you think about it:

A: That’s what Fox essentially wants, the type of resource transfers that occurred in Spain and, before Spain, in Ireland, and, after Spain, in Portugal and Greece. The Germans were willing to build highways in Spain. Somebody else has to build our highways. We don’t have the money.

So, hop to it, you yanqui imperialists. :)

Just to clarify, when I wrote in my post below that

… for the rise of England and later the United States very likely wouldn’t have been possible if the Netherlands hadn’t destroyed the Spanish naval dominance in the mid 1600s …

I didn’t mean to say that there was much harmony between these countries, especially not in the period mentioned in my quote.

Indeed not:

1652-1654 The first of three Anglo-Dutch commercial wars fought to control maritime markets ended in stalemate. The Dutch Republic had been the dominant commercial power for over a century, controlling the commerce of the East Indies, as well as western trade in slaves, sugar, and furs. Much of England’s mercantilist strategy over the next 20 years was designed to expand English trade and profits at the expense of the Dutch. The Navigations Acts imposed by the British government in the two decades that followed directly incited conflict between London and Amsterdam, and placed the American colonies at the center of a global war over trade.

…

1664 In the second of three Anglo-Dutch commercial wars, the English annexed the only Dutch outpost in North America, New Amsterdam (renaming it New York), and effectively drove the Dutch from the continent.

…

1673 …

In the third of three Anglo-Dutch commercial wars, the English Navy succeeded in usurping Dutch supremacy in world trade, and effectively ended their dominance of the West African slave trade. Subsequently, English merchants were free to expand their private fleets and gain a dominant position in Atlantic Commerce. The Navigations Acts played a central role in enhancing Britain’s world position.

Etc, etc, but the fact remains, without the Dutch the English would likely had taken a lot longer to overcome the Habsburgs’ Spanish empire. Spain would have fallen eventually, for the steady flow of gold and silver from the New World led to ruinous inflation, bleeding the country’s economy dry, but in the meantime some other players might have grown powerful enough to become serious rivals.

Lex has written two fascinating posts about the Dutch origins of New York, to be found here and here.

I think that this is of interest in this context: The Rise of the Dutch Republic (Complete 1555-84) by John Lothrop Motley

From Motley’s preface to his work:

The rise of the Dutch Republic must ever be regarded as one of the
leading events of modern times. Without the birth of this great
commonwealth, the various historical phenomena of: the sixteenth and
following centuries must have either not existed; or have presented
themselves under essential modifications.–Itself an organized protest
against ecclesiastical tyranny and universal empire, the Republic guarded
with sagacity, at many critical periods in the world’s history; that
balance of power which, among civilized states; ought always to be
identical with the scales of divine justice. The splendid empire of
Charles the Fifth was erected upon the grave of liberty. It is a
consolation to those who have hope in humanity to watch, under the reign
of his successor, the gradual but triumphant resurrection of the spirit
over which the sepulchre had so long been sealed. From the handbreadth of
territory called the province of Holland rises a power which wages eighty
years’ warfare with the most potent empire upon earth, and which, during
the progress of the struggle, becoming itself a mighty state, and binding
about its own slender form a zone of the richest possessions of earth,
from pole to tropic, finally dictates its decrees to the empire of
Charles.

Read more

The German election system is pretty complicated, those interested can find a primer here.