XPost: alt.usage.english
From: peter@pmoylan.org

On 05/07/24 06:28, J. J. Lodder wrote:
> bertietaylor  wrote:
>
> [on the Dutch]
>> Amazing lot, going to the ends of the Earth to grab whatever they could.
>> Active!
>
> As far as Nagasaki, anyway.
> The Dutch didn't grab anything there, they traded.
> They were succesful in that, precisely because
> they did not try to grab anything.
> (that's what the Spanish and the Portugese were kicked out for)

That was part of the reason. Another important part was that the Spanish
and Portuguese tried to convert people to Christianity.

One bit of information that the Dutch brought to Japan was the fact that
there was more than one Christian religion, and that the Christians did
not agree amongst themselves on religious questions.

(In the long term, the accumulation of more and more religions is a path
to atheism.)

--
Peter Moylan       peter@pmoylan.org    http://www.pmoylan.org
Newcastle, NSW

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