Dutch Declaration of Independence (1581)
Impact
The Dutch Declaration of Independence by no means brought peace to the United Provinces. Through the 1580s, Spain continued to send troops to the Netherlands. Yet Spanish forces were being stretched thin; they continued to fight Islam in the Mediterranean, and the Spanish Armada was defeated by the British navy in 1588—just as the northern provinces of the Netherlands were building up their own navy. Spain was virtually bankrupt, and the Spanish people, burdened with high taxes and war casualties, grew increasingly unwilling to back the war in the Netherlands. Finally, Spain capitulated and agreed to a suspension of hostilities at Antwerp in 1609, a treaty known as the Twelve Years’ Truce. War erupted again, however, in 1621 over issues of religious toleration—of Protestants in the Catholic south and Catholics in the Protestant north—and sea trade routes. In 1639 the Dutch dealt the Spanish a decisive defeat in the last major campaign of the Eighty Years’ War. The war...
