The Netherlands is Controlling China, And Trying To Takeover The World Economy...

this is the town of veldhoven in the Netherlands it's a fairly modest town with a population of about 45 000 people but what if I told you that the entire world economy is based around this town because what is happening here in veldhoven has been catching the attention of the world's superpowers in fact something that is happening here quietly in the background just by dramatically change the world for the better of humanity it might cause a full economic collapse or maybe just maybe it might make an old Empire rise once again this is the rote River around the year 980 a few dozen people lived here along this River however over the next few hundred years those few dozen people grew into a village with over 500 people but just as the village seemed to be reaching New Heights a massive flood of the river came and wiped out most of the infrastructure and for the next 100 years because of the flooding this area did not recover little did everyone know at the time that this area would become one of the most important economic project areas in history in the mid-1200s Zarate River had a Dam built along it which helped reclaim a lot of the flooded land that the river destroyed a century earlier soon after King William IV of Holland officially made the village a part of Holland and named it Rotterdam after the river and the dam which allowed the village to exist King William then announced Canal project for Rotterdam which would allow ships to enter and leave the city fairly easily and it was this canal project which would accidentally change the world as we know it today you see the canal in the 1300s did help a bolster the local economy of Rotterdam but at the time ship technology and international trade were pretty limited so for the time being this port and Canal were pretty much only used for trade between nearby countries but then a strange thing happened a race to become the new great Empire of the world was underway Spain Portugal and Britain All Began investing in new ship Technologies to expand their Empires throughout the world and over the next several centuries globalization and colonization became rampant throughout the world and all of a sudden because a Rotterdam was so close to all of these Empires the port of Rotterdam became one of the largest Trading hubs in the world however something else started happening you see in the 1600s as other Empires like the British Spanish and Portuguese were focused on expanding their empire and seeing how much land they could conquer the Dutch focused on controlling a few select countries they created trading posts around the world they had a few select areas of resource exploitation they created some Forts and they did all of this rather than just trying to expand their empire to cover as much land as possible but also during this time the Netherlands transitioned their economic policy towards having free markets property rights for all and they significantly increased their investments into Agriculture and just general technology research and because of all of this from the ports to the trading post to the New Economic Policy the Netherlands soon became known as the Dutch Empire now the Dutch Empire at the time had a crazy control over global trade they were also able to dictate which nations were able to have access to Key Resources like spices rye and luxuries in fact by 1670 half of All European trade came from Dutch ships and flowed through the ports of Rotterdam and Amsterdam think about that at the time of some of the largest empires in history the Netherlands who had a population of only about 2 million people at the time dominated world trade and I know what you're probably asking what happened to this trade Empire well it actually never really went anywhere you see even after the decolonization of its Empire a Dutch quietly had been one of the biggest trading nations in the world if you were to take a look at the top exporters of goods in the world you would see something that might catch your eye well the top exporters may seem obvious as they are China the United States Germany and Japan those Nations have been the king of exports for decades they all have very large populations so that all makes sense but who do you think is the next largest exporter of goods is it an old Power like the UK or France how about our large populist country like Brazil or India maybe it's an upcoming manufacturing Powerhouse like Indonesia well as it turns out the Netherlands is still one of the top exporters of goods in the world despite having a population of only 19 million people today the Dutch are still vital to global trade and for more reasons than you might think you see the port of Rotterdam is still the busiest port in Europe and the second busiest port outside of Asia European trade still flows through the port of Rotterdam in the same way that it has since the peak of the Dutch Empire but there is something that happened recently which may be able to show just how strong the Netherlands is in regard to its power you see in 1984 a company called Advanced semiconductor material lithography opened its doors the company was started as a joint venture between two other Dutch companies called ASM International and Phillips and eventually this company set its headquarters to the town of veldhoven in the Netherlands now this company's main purpose at the time was to create the equipment that creates computer chips essentially they build the tools for which other companies used to make the computer chips and then those companies would send those chips to companies like apple where they would go and eventually make computers that would change the world essentially if you wanted to make a computer it all started with asml but for a while asml was just one small player in a large Market of equipment makers then something miraculous happened for the company you see computer chips have become a lot more complicated to make over the last 60 years so not every company can do it a computer is mostly made of things called transistors and they used to be about one centimeter in length or about the same size as a p but over the course of the last six decades transistors got smaller and smaller which made computers more efficient every single year that's actually where the term Moore's Law comes from essentially our computing power has grown so quick only because we have been able to make transistors smaller but anyways researchers from the United States Department of energy noticed in the late 1990s that eventually Moore's Law would stop because we couldn't make chips any smaller therefore computing power would stop getting better over time and this was a pretty big problem so the researchers at the department of energy got to work and eventually they discovered a new way to make computer chips called Extreme ultraviolet lithography essentially it was an extremely complicated and theoretical way to make a computer chip but on paper it seemed to work and strangely enough only one company checked all the boxes for licensing creating testing and building this new technology and that company was asml so from the early 2000s until 2018 asml kept refining and perfecting this technology and then a breakthrough happened in 2018. asml successfully produced the best computer chip making machine in the world by a landslide remember how transistors used to be one centimeter in length in the 1960s well now asml makes them at three nanometers about the same size as a strand of DNA this invention put asml so far ahead of its competition that some experts have suggested that the next closest competitor is about five years behind asml but most of its competitors are actually 10 years behind in terms of their chip making ability this success and revolutionary technology has given asml one of the first new monopolies of the modern era essentially they have full control over who is able to get and utilize the newest chip making technology and that is why asml is under the spotlight right now for good and bad reasons one positive thing that asml has seen is that since 2018 its stock price has risen by well over 300 percent making it one of the most valuable tech companies in the world and the most valuable tech company in Europe it has also been able to grow quickly as it took advantage of the global chip shortage that started in 2020 that has been persisting ever since however asml as you might have assumed is actually in the middle of a geopolitical and technological war between two superpowers the USA and China you see having the ability to make the best computer chips in the world also means you probably have a significant Edge over other nations in terms of technological and economic power if one nation is an entire generation behind in terms of technological capabilities than its economy and advancements in things like AI military Tech productivity and efficiency will also lag behind therefore making that country less of a threat and that is a key reason why the United States recently enacted a deal with the Netherlands and Japan to limit China's ability to access any advanced chip making technology and even though this deal seemed to have taken a backseat to a lot of other news stories in the last week it will be one of the most impactful stories of this year you see this deal is essentially a way to try to keep China's technology one generation behind the Western world and it also means that large corporations who want to use newer computer chips must set up their factories anywhere outside of China however this deal was seen coming by China a few years in advance which is why China had already begun research and development into their own ship making technology but many experts believe that they could be a decade away or more from catching up to the Netherlands and asml but still in response to the Netherlands trade deal with USA and Japan China's foreign minister responded by saying such bullying and hegemonic practices seriously violate Market rules and disrupt the international trade order and to top things off the United States announced a 76 billion dollar program to bring back chip manufacturers to the United States in hopes of decreasing its Reliance upon foreign Nations like China for not just its computer chips but for all sorts of technology and almost immediately after that announcement ship makers from all over the world began announcing major projects in the United States many of whom will be using asml's newest technology and so when you think about it asml is really the key player in the computer chip war between the United States and China as asml gets to decide who gets the most advanced chips and as of right now they are siding with the United States now if you remember at the beginning of the video how we were talking about ports and trade there is one important thing that China is doing to counteract at least some of these trade deals against them you see the Netherlands May side with the United States on chip making but they also seem to be siding with China in regards to shipping that's because the port of Rotterdam gets about 50 percent of its business from China they've also taken large investments from Costco the Chinese shipping company and essentially China considers the port of Rotterdam as a key part of its new Silk Road I as they try to gain more control over the most important port in Europe so let's think about this who would have thought that the Battleground between China and the United States might actually be taking place in the Netherlands and not necessarily just in the Netherlands but a small town of veldhoven in the Netherlands a town with just 45 000 people where one third of them work for asml may have the most sway in deciding the future superpowers of the world whether it's controlling them through technology or trade the Netherlands and the town of veldhoven has once again created a secret superpower on the world stage and if you enjoyed this video I have a ton of other videos just like this on the documentaries playlist on my channel so make sure to click on that but for now thank you for watching make sure to click on my next video and I will see you there in just a few seconds

Channel: Jack Chapple

Views: 4,374,058

Keywords: Jack, Chapple, Canada, Netherlands, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Netherlands ASML, ASML EUV, port of rotterdam, Netherlands Economy, Canada Economy, China, United states, china economy, usa economy, netherlands trade deal, usa trade deal, china trade deal, video essay, economics explained, Economic superpower, world superpowers, economic videos, netherlands shipping, history netherlands, netherlands geography, netherlands computer chips, computer chips, tsm, computer chip shortage, apple

Id: 7y9M_Wle2hE

Length: 13min 25sec (805 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 09 2023