Good day Hivers and Book-clubbers,
In my last article I started with my review of the book pictured above, titled 'The history of the Netherlands'. The book is quite massive in its scope, trying to summarize about 2000 years of history, and I found that to tell even a small part of it would require more than one article. Hence this article, as a part two.
Towards Dutch Independence
We start at the point where the last article left off, which is the year 1477. The Habsburg Archduke Maximilian marries the last member of the Burgundian dynasty, Mary, which means that the entire Netherlands (basically modern-day Netherlands and Belgium) falls under Habsburg control.
The Habsburgs were at this point the most powerful dynasty in Europe, as Holy Roman Emperor, and Maximilian further increased this by a double marriage of his children with the Castilian dynasty. Spain would thus also be added to their wide range of lands.
Habsburg policy, gaining power through marriages, was quickly threatening the French position; surrounded by the now Habsburg Netherlands in the north, the Holy Roman Empire in the east, and the Spanish to the south. Something had to give in order for Europe to prevent a complete take-over by the Habsburgs in the long run.
The 'solution' came out of Germany itself, when Martin Luther and his critiques on the Catholic Church and its practices in 1517 eventually led to the Protestant Reformation. The Reformation was a headache for the Habsburgs, then personified in Charles V, to say the least. The Reformation found traction among many German subjects and princedoms in the form of Lutheranism. In the Netherlands, another iconic Reformer, John Calvin, had a great influence on the Dutch. Spain, however, was militantly Catholic: as a frontier civilisation against Islam in the Iberian Peninsula for over 700 years, it kept very strictly to its Catholic identity.
This put the stability of Charles V's empire in jeopardy, but it was under his son, Philip II, that things really started to escalate in the case of the Netherlands. First of all, Charles V was very familiar with the Netherlands; born and raised in Ghent (modern-day Flanders), he spoke the language and was seen as 'one of us' by the Dutch. Philip II, on the other hand, was a Spaniard through and through, and also resided in Spain most of the time.
This put a distance between the Habsburg dynasty and the Dutch, both in language, culture, and literal distance. Regents were appointed to oversee the Netherlands, who slowly lost approval and control in the 1550s and 1560s. The last regent, the Duke of Alva, appointed in 1567, brought 10.000 Spanish troops with him to Brussels to keep order. This overt militarization and occupation would become the match that started the fire.
Revolt
The duke of Alva was a hard-liner in many ways: Spanish through and through and a militant Catholic, he was the wrong man at the wrong time to keep the Dutch calm. As mentioned, Calvinist Protestantism had spread quickly in the Netherlands, and because of this, the Dutch nobles led by William of Orange petitioned for religious toleration in the Netherlands.
This idea was flatly rejected, and Alva went further the other way by bringing the Inquisition to the Netherlands: the Counts of Egmont and Horne were beheaded for treason due to their Protestant sympathies, even though they had sworn fealty to the Spanish king shortly before. This turned the opinion of many nobles against Spain, and William of Orange fled the country towards his estates in Germany. From here, he gathered troops and invaded Brabant (south Netherlands/northern Belgium today) in October of 1568: the official start of the Eighty Years War.
William of Orange is perhaps the most important figure in Dutch history. He is clearly the 'father of the Nation' in many ways, also the writer of the text that is still our national anthem. He was a charismatic leader, a good politician, but something the book mentions is what I'd read before: he was not a good military leader. The Dutch lost quite an amount of battles, cities and terrain in the 1570s and 1580s, and morale seemed to drop to its lowest point when William of Orange was murdered in 1584 by a Catholic sympathizer.
This led to to William being succeeded by his son, Maurice as Stadhouder (literally translated: city holder) of Holland and Zeeland at age 18. Maurice's qualities, as it would turn out, were the reverse of that of his father: a poor politician, but a great leader in battle. And that was sorely needed, since the Dutch were losing large swathes of land in the south to the Spanish. In his Ten Years (1588-1598) he would win many battles and sieges, and secure the vast majority of the territory that consists of the Netherlands today.
But what of the South? Many at this point (that is, the 1590s) were becoming conflicted as to what to pursue next. The country was in a state of war for 30 years now, and it had a strong foothold in the north. The south however, was consolidated by the Spanish, the main cities occupied, and many Protestants had fled from south to north in this time, making the south more Catholic in turn. War weariness took its toll, and a 12-year peace was signed between Dutch an Spain, which was also suffering in the financial department due to this war.
Conclusion
Spain, however, also started to realize that its hold over the entirety of the Netherlands would probably never recovered. It basically compromised by keeping the Southern half, and the historical precedent it set can still be seen today on the map, with Belgium being a distinct nation from the Netherlands, notwithstanding its linguistic and cultural similarities of the Flemish and Dutch. Final peace with the Netherlands would be signed in the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, thus ending the Eighty Years War (which, if you paid attention, contained several years of peace/truces).
I hope you've enjoyed reading, and learned something about this important piece of Dutch history. If there are additions, questions etc, I'd love to (try to) answer them. I'm looking to do more book-reviews in the future, if the book merits talking about. Until the next one,
-Pieter Nijmeijer
(Image self-made of book cover)
Schitterend! Alhoewel ik twaalf jaar in Nederland heb gewoond, heb ik nooit echt begrepen hoe het geschiedenis van Nederland eruit zag, en waarom het zo'n "jonge" land was. En nog onafhankelijkheid van de Spaniaarden krijgen! Dat zou mijn laatste gok zijn :)
Heeft de boek ook gezegd wanneer Maastricht (en Limburg overal) naar Nederland was bijgevoegd?
Limburg was de laatste provincie die definitief toegevoegd werd aan Nederland. Een stad als Venlo werd eerder aangehecht, maar een groot deel v/h hertogdom Limburg deed zelfs nog aan Belgische zijde mee tijdens de Belgische revolutie van 1830. Uiteindelijk wordt volgens mij in 1839 de grens v/h huidige Limburg vastgelegd als zijnde van Nederland, inclusief Maastricht.
Cool, dan weet ik ook een beetje meer over de geschiedenis van mijn provincie :) Ik voelde altijd dat het Maasje-gebied meer Belgs voelt dan Nederlands. Ik geloof dat er ook een andere religieuze voorkeur is in Limburg dan de rest van Nederland, maar weet niet zeker.
Klopt, zowel Limburg als Noord-Brabant zijn overwegend katholiek, terwijl de rest overwegend protestants is
Your content has been voted as a part of Encouragement program. Keep up the good work!
Use Ecency daily to boost your growth on platform!
Support Ecency
Vote for new Proposal
Delegate HP and earn more
Congratulations @pieternijmeijer! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s):
Your next target is to reach 8000 upvotes.
You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPCheck out the last post from @hivebuzz:
Support the HiveBuzz project. Vote for our proposal!