Bates and Tilley give these complicated stories about why the Dutch and Swiss didn’t develop big, powerful military states in the 17th & 18th centuries, while France and Britain did. But… like… the population of the Dutch Republic in 1795 was 1.9 Million. The swiss were about the same time. In contrast, the Isle of Britain had, at that time, a population of 10.7 Million. Ireland had another 4 million inhabitants. France had a population of 28.1 million.
… Why do you need a more complicated story than that?
How were the Dutch and Swiss possibly going to compete as world powers? Why bother to build a big centralized state that can wage world war? The Dutch gave it a good shot through ~1680, but obviously that was going to end.
Indefensible Expectations 