Abstract
The objective of the research project The Netherlands and Germany 1870-2000. Economic interdependence versus sovereignty is to analyse how, when around 1870 a number of countries unified into the German nation-state, the Netherlands could participate economically in this integration process and nonetheless managed to preserve its sovereignty. The central question of the project is, how between 1870 and 2000 the economic relations between these two countries evolved and what consequences these economic ties had for their political relations. The guiding theory is the question ? known from social science interdependence theories ? whether economic interdependence results in peaceful political relations, or, to the contrary, leads to attempts to push the weaker partner into a position of dependency or even to annex it. Because in the last 140 years, the bilateral relations were reshuffled on at least three occasions ? around 1870, and at the end of both world wars ? separate subprojects will focus on these historical junctures.