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The Eighty Years' War, or Dutch Revolt from 1568 to 1648 was the secession war in which the proto- Netherlands first became an independent country. During the war, the Dutch Republic became a world power for a short time (mainly through its naval strength) and experienced a period of unprecedented economic, scientific and cultural growth.
1 Background to the War
The Dutch provinces did not decide to secede from the Spanish empire all at the same time, and some, mainly in what is now Belgium, never did.
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, was born in Ghent in 1500, and raised in the Netherlands. He abdicated in 1556, in favour of his son Philip II of Spain who was mainly interested in the Spanish side of the empire. Calvinism had been becoming prevalent in the Netherlands. In 1566 many Calvinists stormed the churches to destroy statues and images of Catholic saints ('beeldenstorm' in Dutch), which they felt were heretical. As a counter measure, Philip II sent the Duke of Alva, nicknamed the Iron Duke, to the Netherlands with an army.
2 The War
In 1568, William I of Orange (William the Silent), stadtholder of the provinces HollandThis article is about the region in the Netherlands. For other uses, see Holland (disambiguation). Holland is the name of a region in the central-western part of the Netherlands. Holland is a former county of the Holy Roman Empire and later the leading me, ZeelandFor the U. towns of the same name see Zeeland, Michigan and Zeeland, North Dakota respectively. Netherlands Zeeland is a province of the Netherlands. The province, located in the south-west of the country, consists of a number of islands (hence its name ' and UtrechtUtrecht is the smallest province of the Netherlands, and is located in the center of the country. It is bordered by the IJsselmeer in the north, Gelderland in the east, the river Rhine in the south, South Holland in the west, and North Holland in the nort, tried to drive the highly unpopular Alva from BrusselsBrussels ( French: Bruxelles Dutch: Brussel German: Brussel is a major city in Belgium and its capital. Overview Brussels is first of all a city located in the middle of Belgium and its capital, but it sometimes also refers to the main municipality of the. He did not see this as an act of treason against Philip II, and his view is reflected in the today's Dutch national anthemFor the novel by Ayn Rand, see Anthem (novel). An anthem is a choral composition to an English religious text sung in church services. The term has evolved to mean a song of celebration, usually acting as a symbol for a certain group of people, as in the, the Wilhelmus, in which the last lines of the first stanza read: de koning van Spanje heb ik altijd geëerd (I have always honoured the king of Spain).
William received little support, and he had to flee. His co-conspirators, the counts of EgmontLamoral, Count of Egmont ( November 18, 1522 June 5 1568) was a general and statesman in Flanders just before the start of the Eighty Years' War. The Count of Egmont descended from one of the richest and most influential families in the Low Countries. and Horne, remained, and Alva had them beheaded. Alva also introduced an unapproved tax (tiende penning in Dutch).
2.1 Unions of Atrecht and Utrecht
On January 6 1579, prompted by the new Spanish governor Alexander Farnese ( Duke of Parma), the southern states (mostly today in Belgium) signed the Union of Atrecht, expressing their loyalty to the Spanish king. Over the following ten years he restored the Roman Catholic religion to much of the area.
On January 23, 1579, in response, William united the northern protestant states of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Gelderland and the province of Groningen in the Union of Utrecht. This union later ( 1581) led to independence from Spain, forming the United Provinces of the Netherlands (also known as the States General or sometimes as the Dutch Republic).
