Why the Netherlands and Taiwan are the Hinge of the Contemporary World?
Taiwan and the New Global Geopolitics
For centuries, geopolitics was organized around physical territories: plains, straits, mountains, or land routes that allowed or blocked the advance of empires. However, in the contemporary world, the hinges of power are no longer defined solely by geography, but by the control of critical infrastructures, strategic technologies, and global supply chains. In this new map, two seemingly disparate spaces—Taiwan and the Netherlands—concentrate disproportionate relevance: not because of their size or military power, but because of their position in the system that sustains the digital economy and the current geopolitical balance.
To understand this shift, it is useful to start from the previous model. The destiny of nations was played out on the ground, and few territories were as decisive as the plain we know today as Poland. Its location—in the center of Europe, between Germany and Russia, between the Baltic and the Black Sea—turned it into a geopolitical hinge, an open strip where empires, ideologies, and armies clashed.
Unlike other European regions protected by mountains or seas, Poland is a large plain without natural barriers. The Mongols advanced through it in the 13th century, Swedish and Ottoman troops in the 17th, Napoleon on his way to Moscow, and later, German and Soviet armies. For some, it was a corridor of conquest; for others, a shield of defense.
In the 18th century, after a series of internal weaknesses, Poland was divided between Russia, Prussia, and Austria. It disappeared from the map for more than a century but remained key: whoever controlled that strip gained access to the heart of Europe and the Slavic steppes.
In 1939, Germany and the USSR signed a pact to partition Poland. The Nazi invasion from the west and the Soviet invasion from the east marked the beginning of World War II. During the conflict, Poland was the epicenter of the Holocaust, a scene of mass exterminations and forced displacements. At the end of the war, Poland was moved to the west, lost territories to the USSR, and received others from eastern Germany. In the Cold War, it again became a friction zone between the Soviet bloc and NATO.
Today, as a member of the EU and NATO, Poland is a backbone of Western support for Ukraine, a critical border facing Russia, and a logistical defense platform. Its geography keeps it at the center of history, but now with an active role.
The history of Poland shows how geography defined the destiny of Europe. It was the scene of empires in dispute, collapsing systems, and continental reconfigurations. Today, its strategic location maintains its role in the 21st-century European geopolitical landscape.
Semiconductors: The Nerve Center of Global Power
In the 21st century, the axis of power is no longer in transit territories, but in a tiny and ubiquitous component: the semiconductor. These chips are the core of practically all modern technology. Without them, there are no computers, phones, cars, satellites, communications, or defense. Global dependence is such that their absence can paralyze entire economies. From medicine to artificial intelligence, everything depends on these silicon blocks, whose complexity makes them strategic assets.
Although they have existed since the mid-20th century, their centrality consolidated in the last two decades. With the expansion of the internet, big data, mobile networks, automation, AI, and cloud computing, chips went from being a technical component to an invisible infrastructure.
The development of technologies such as 5G, autonomous vehicles, robotics, quantum computing, and smart weapons depends on access to increasingly smaller, more powerful, and efficient chips. In this context, semiconductors have become as strategic a resource as oil was in the last century.
ASML and the Technological Power of the Netherlands
In this new order, the Netherlands occupies a key position thanks to a single company: ASML (Advanced Semiconductor Materials Lithography). From its headquarters in Veldhoven, it produces the world's only extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines, essential for manufacturing the most advanced chips.
These machines contain more than 100,000 components, thousands of sensors, atomically polished mirrors, and a light source that reproduces the heat of the sun in a single focal point. Each unit costs more than 150 million euros. There is no substitute: whoever wants to manufacture cutting-edge chips needs ASML.
This technological monopoly has turned the Netherlands into an unexpected geopolitical actor. In 2019, the US pushed to curb the export of these machines to China, fearing a loss of technological and military advantage. In 2023, the Dutch government limited these exports, even of more accessible technologies, in coordination with the US and Japan.
Thus, a small, traditionally neutral country found itself at the center of a global dispute over silicon control. ASML has transformed into a strategic actor of the 21st century, and the Netherlands into its custodian.
Taiwan's Critical Position in the Global Semiconductor Economy
If the Netherlands controls the technology, Taiwan leads the production. It manufactures more than 60% of global semiconductors and more than 90% of the most sophisticated ones, those of 5 nanometers or less. The majority belong to a single company: TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company).
Founded in 1987, TSMC pioneered an innovative model: manufacturing chips designed by third parties. This approach allowed companies like Apple, Nvidia, and AMD to outsource the most expensive part of the process. Today, TSMC produces the processors that underpin most of the world's digital infrastructure.
But its leadership is based on an island with a history of conflict. Taiwan was part of the Qing Empire, a Japanese colony between 1895 and 1945, and a refuge for the Chinese nationalist government after the civil war. Since 1949, it has functioned as a de facto sovereign state, with democracy and a market economy. However, most countries—including the US and the EU—do not officially recognize it due to the “one-China” policy.
This policy, promoted by Beijing, states that there is only one legitimate government for all of China, including Taiwan. As a diplomatic condition, it requires countries to break official ties with the island. China considers it a rebellious province and does not rule out its “reunification” by force.
Taiwan defends its autonomy, while the US maintains an ambiguous stance: it does not formally recognize Taiwan but supports it militarily and economically. The island, located opposite the main geopolitical rival of the West, has become a global flashpoint. A conflict there would interrupt the global semiconductor supply chain, affecting key industries worldwide.
The New Global Hinge in the 21st Century
Taiwan occupies a central position in the global balance. Its geography, political history, and technological specialization make it a focal point of tensions where strategic and industrial interests converge. This is not an exclusively territorial dispute. The architecture of global power today depends on critical technologies produced by two private companies—TSMC and ASML—without majority shareholders, subject to market decisions but immersed in a highly sensitive geopolitical chessboard.
The world's hinge is no longer just geographical: it is technological, economic, and structural. It is played out in factories, logistical routes, trade agreements, and semiconductor-based architectures. Just as Poland was for centuries the point where empires collided for the domination of Europe, today the Netherlands and Taiwan concentrate in their productive infrastructure the tension between powers disputing control of the global system. There, more than in traditional borders, the present and future of the contemporary world are defined.