Carl Sagan's Cosmos: Dutch Golden Age (1/3)

"The world is my country, science my religion" - Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695)
Excerpt from Carl Sagan's legendary 'Cosmos' series.
Sagan discusses the period in Dutch history that is known as the "Dutch Golden Age" (roughly spanning the 17th century). During and after the war of independence ('the Eighty Years' War' (1568-1648)) against the Spanish empire, the Dutch Republic experienced its own Enlightenment which left a profound mark on modern civilization. Amongst the countless revolutionary Dutch inventions from this period are the microscope, telescope, the stock exchange, and the first publicly traded multinational corporation (Dutch East India Company). This period also produced some of the world's most famous painters like, e.g., Rembrandt and Vermeer.
Great books on the Dutch Republic are Jonathan Israel's 'The Dutch Republic' and 'Radical Enlightenment'. Simon Schama's 'The Embarrassment of Riches' is also a fantastic read.