I know what you're thinking. I should buy a boat. But what kind of boat do you need?
I know, you're looking for something old, a classic. Something small, maneuverable, good to get around in, but not super gigantic. You want a Caravelle.
No? Alright, alright, okay. You're looking for something big. Right? Something that could go over long distances.
You're looking to do a little trading. You want a Carrack. No, no. I got you. You're a man of means.
Am I right? You need a massive secure boat. I'm talking like 400 cannons to protect your- your precious silver. No?
Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool. I think I got you figured out. You want something large enough to ship tons of cargo over long distances, but not wasting space with tons of crew and tons of guns.
You're the kind of man that needs a shallow hole in the bottom of the ship so that you can sail up river in shallow water. In fact, this bad boy's on sale. It's half the price of the other ships, carries twice the cargo with less crew.
Today's illustrative example is your boat, the Dutch Flout. What up? I'm Ben Freeman from Freemanpedia.com, where I try to decipher AP World History Modern to people like you all over the world.
But when I can't find resources on a certain topic, I have to turn to the good people here at Illustrative Examples. This week, we stretch out our sea legs and head out into the open seas. But it's way too early for me to be throwing words at you like float ship and veringity oostendish compagny.
Let's get some context. You can't randomly start talking to someone about ship designs, hull drafting, and cargo tonnage. Bring me into the world where these Dutch ships exist.
Put the Dutch flout in the global historical context. It's the Star Wars crawl. You know that thing in Star Wars where at the beginning of the movie you may not know what's going on in the movie itself so they give you that ...rundown that just kind of goes up the screen, eases you into the story, kind of lets you know what's going on around the Star Wars universe so that you have an idea as to what your specific movie is gonna be about. You need to do this in your essays.
Hook the reader by describing the broader historical context relevant to the topic of the question. One minute on the clock. Okay, gotta be methodical here.
Don't get Tupac down and ship specifications. Just take this specific illustrative example, the flout, and put it in the global historical context. It's not rocket science, it's nautical science.
AP World History's second period spans from 1450 to 1750, and within that time period they break it down into these two units. We're going to skip right past the land empires of unit three. and focus today on Unit 4. Unit 4 is called Transoceanic Interconnections.
It's all about the methods, events, and outcomes of the Age of Exploration and colonization in the period 1450 to 1750. But which maritime empires are they talking about? I found five. Portuguese, Spanish, British, Dutch, French.
Which of these should you focus on the most? According to the College Board, it's the British. They're mentioned 12 times more than the Dutch. But the Portuguese were the granddaddy of them all, kicking off this whole exploration thing in the last period with Prince Henry sailing around the coast of Africa.
The Spanish Empire was the fifth largest empire of all time. So where does that leave the Dutch and the French? But the French are the weakest of these five empires, so just skip them.
The Dutch were the most profitable of these empires. The reason? The VOC. Your teacher probably just called it the Dutch East India Trading Company, but let's speak a little Dutch, shall we?
VOC stands for Vringery Oost Indisch. Compagnie. It was a mega corporation created by the Dutch government by combining all the top trading companies into one all-powerful trading conglomerate. So the Dutch Empire wasn't massive It was 20% of the Spanish Empire and less than 10% of the British Empire side, but its profits were astronomical.
The VOC dominated the ultra lucrative spice trade of South and Southeast Asia. They sent over 1 million voyagers from the Netherlands around Africa into the Indian Ocean Trade Network. That's more than the rest of Europe combined. In fact, modern economists have placed the value of the VOC at around $8 trillion.
Today, that's like the entire GDP of Germany and Japan combined. So how did this massively lucrative trading company ship all of these things from one side of the planet to the other and around continents? They used the innovative design and cargo capacity of the Dutch Flout Ship, better known today as the Flout. Boom.
Nailed it. What? I didn't?
I spent too much time talking about Dutch trade profits. I should have just focused on how the boat was used in the empire. Anyways, keep it short and make sure you're exploring the greater historical context of your topic.
Today, that's the flow. Enough context. Let's go to the example. So the Dutch Empire is the least mentioned, but that doesn't mean that they're not important. In fact, when you're thinking of the Dutch Maritime Empire, you're really not thinking of an empire.
You're thinking of a company. That company, the VOC, or the Verenigde Oost-in-Diesch Compagnie, was THE trading company. In fact, it was the most successful company of all time, and in this period, that means they were traders.
But don't think of a bunch of corporate dudes in suits in a boardroom. They had their own currency, their own army. their own colonies. They even negotiated with other countries. So that stuff is super important, and honestly it's what you should be spending the bulk of your time on when you're studying the Dutch Empire.
These hosers didn't walk to Indonesia. You're not gonna see any Dutch camel caravan. The Dutch sailed to the Indian Ocean.
The Portuguese started in with caravels. These are small, they're highly maneuverable, but you're not gonna be doing a ton of trading with these things. For example, the Nina and Pinta. Those were caravans.
The Portuguese quickly moved on to the Carrick. These were larger with more cargo capacity and better suited for long voyages. For example, the Santa Maria. That was a Carrick. The Portuguese and later the Spanish up the ante with the galleon.
This was a tricked out Carrick that was armed to the teeth. In fact, the Manila galleons that shipped the Spanish silver from Mexico across the Pacific to the Philippines. And these bad boys had up to 400 cannons per boat and it worked over 250 years.
They were captured one time, but these boats are all small time. We're here to talk about the workhorse of the maritime empires. And that's not some tiny Portuguese ship. And that's not some massive Spanish warship.
I'm talking about the float. Am I saying that right? Flout.
Flout. Yeah, flouts. Unlike those other boats, the flout was designed to be a cargo vessel from the beginning.
Guns take up space, people take up space, that space should be reserved for nutmeg. And look, I'm sure you're a nice person, but there's no way you're worth your weight in 17th century nutmeg. The Dutch built them in specialized VOC shipyards.
And since it was being overseen by the greatest trading company of all time, they were cheaper to build, could carry twice the cargo, and manned by a minimal crew. The flout gave the Dutch the competitive advantage over all the other empires. In 1670, towards the end of this era, Dutch flouts shipped over 580,000 tons from the Indian Ocean to Europe. That's half of all the European trade.
Flouts are easy to spot. They have this pear-shaped hull. It allows them to go up shallow rivers to markets your galleon could never reach. And they had some speed. The masts were taller than your average ship at the time, allowing for more speed.
So if the Nina and the Pinta were caravels and the Santa Maria was a Carrick and the Manila galleons were galleons, are there any famous flouts you might know? This Thanksgiving, when you're celebrating the greatest holiday in the world, raise a glass to the flout. That's right, the Mayflower was a flout.
America would be very different if those buckle hat Puritans had hopped in a caravelle and tried to get over here. Check out this painting of the Puritans landing at Plymouth Rock. Ah, you can feel the nationalism flowing through your veins.
Wait, what's that in the background? You can see that pear-shaped hull from here. It's a float.
One of the puritanical sailors on board said this of the trip, quote, On September 26, 1620, the gallant little craft slipped out to sea. In proportion to her cubic feet of space, no heavier cargo had ever been shipped across the Atlantic. The entirety of a new church, a new commonwealth, a new nation, all of which were to bless the world, were confined within the limits of the Mayflower's hold.
The course of empire was moving westward indeed."End quote. So when your teacher asks, what are some innovations in ship designs that made transoceanic trade possible? You better talk about the pear-shaped shipping vessel that 400 years ago brought the pilgrims to the Americas and the spices to Europe and made the Dutch. VOC into a global economic powerhouse. All right, enough votes. Let's talk about the exam. Finally, an example that has been used. These illustrative examples that I'm picking are often so obscure that they never show up on a test, but you're in luck. Maritime empires are all over the AP exam. So do flouts show up by name? No, they don't. In fact, neither does the Dutch empire. But like I said, maritime empires are all over this exam. In fact, Unit 4 is weighted up to 15% of the entire exam. That's a big chunk, so something along these lines will be on there, and hopefully it's on an essay where you can throw down your flout knowledge. So if they're talking innovations, you better be talking flouts. Too long? Didn't watch? Let me wrap up for you. I was in the market for a new boat for spice trading. I epic failed the contextualization again. We focused on 4.1 and the ship innovations, specifically the Dutch Flout. The Flout was a ship built at half the price and could carry twice the cargo of the Dutch competitors. Were there examples on past exams? Maritime Empire questions? Plenty. Dutch Flout questions? No. Okay, thanks for watching. Once again, I'm Ben Freeman from Freemanpedia.com. If you Hosers have any suggestions or comments, please write them down below. Click subscribe, that helps me out. Hoser means like dude in Dutch, I think. Alright, good luck on the exam in May and I will see you next time! Flout chip,