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   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)