Eighty Years' War, 1621–1648

Although the Dutch and Spanish were both involved in opposite sides of the War of the Jülich Succession (June 1609 – October 1610; May–October 1614) in Jülich-Cleves-Berg, they carefully avoided each other, and thus the hostilities never spread back into the Habsburg Netherlands, and the truce held firm.

[2] Essentially, it became a side theatre of the wider Thirty Years' War that had already broken out with the Bohemian Revolt in 1618 in eastern parts of the Holy Roman Empire (Bohemia and Austria), pitting Central Europe's Protestant Union against the Catholic League, although the two conflicts never fully merged.

[6] The resulting stalemate and financial troubles, plus Spanish military exhaustion and Dutch desire for formal political recognition, eventually convinced both sides in the mid-1640s to hold peace talks.

The Dutch used their navy to enlarge their colonial trade routes to the detriment of Spain (primarily concentrating on capturing Philip's Portuguese possessions, since Portugal had not signed the truce).

His father-in-law had sought to restrain him from doing this, warning that he could not count on English aid, but Maurice encouraged him in every way, providing a large subsidy and promising Dutch armed assistance.

[11] Though civil war had been avoided in the Republic, national unity had been bought with much bitterness on the losing Remonstrant side, and Maurice for the moment had to garrison several former Remonstrant-dominated cities to guard against insurrection.

Archduke Albert of Austria, who had first become Governor General of the Habsburg Netherlands, then its sovereign (following his marriage to Isabella Clara Eugenia, the daughter of Philip II), was in favour of a renewal, especially after Maurice falsely gave him the impression that a peace would be possible on the basis of a token recognition by the Republic of the sovereignty of the king of Spain.

When Albert sent the chancellor of Brabant, Petrus Peckius, to The Hague to negotiate with the States General on this basis, he fell into this trap and mentioned this recognition, instantly alienating his hosts.

The Spaniards demanded Dutch evacuation of the West and East Indies; lifting of the restrictions on Antwerp's trade by way of the Scheldt; and toleration of the public practice of the Catholic religion in the Republic.

The truce had also given further impetus to the Dutch penetration of the East Indies, and in 1615 a naval expedition under Joris van Spilbergen had raided the west coast of Spanish South America.

Finally, the economic advantages had given the Republic the financial wherewithal to build a large navy during the truce and to enlarge its standing army to a size where it could rival the Spanish military might.

[18] Despite the unfortunate impression the opening speech of chancellor Peckius had made at the negotiations about the renewal of the truce, the objective of Spain and the regime in Brussels was not a war of reconquest of the Republic.

The strategic import of this humiliating experience was that the Spanish government now concluded that besieging the strong Dutch fortresses was a waste of time and money and decided to henceforth concentrate on economic warfare.

[23] Realizing that the local authorities often sabotaged the embargo, the Spanish crown built up an elaborate enforcement apparatus, the Almirantazgo de los países septentrionales (Admiralty of the northern countries) in 1624 to make it more effective.

The Dutch victory in the Battle in the Bay of Matanzas in 1628, in which a Spanish treasure fleet was captured by Piet Pieterszoon Hein, contributed even more to the improving fiscal situation, at the same time depriving Spain of much-needed money.

Finally, in 1632, Frederick Henry was allowed to deliver a significant strike by launching a Meuse campaign, in a pincer move to prepare for the conquest of the major cities of the Southern Netherlands.

The initial move in his offensive was to have a reluctant States General publish (over the objections of the radical Calvinists) a proclamation promising that the free exercise of the Catholic religion would be guaranteed in places that the Dutch army would conquer that year.

However, Philip and Olivares secretly cancelled this authorisation, as they considered the initiative of the southern States General an "usurpation" of royal power, and did not intend to honour any agreement that might ensue.

[43] If the inhabitants would rise against Spain, the Southern Netherlands would be afforded independence[43] on the model of the cantons of Switzerland, though with the Flemish seacoast, Namur and Thionville annexed by France, and Breda, Geldern and Hulst going to the Republic.

[46] Finally, either deliberately or accidentally, a great fire broke out that destroyed most of the city (including a desecration of Catholic churches and cloisters[47]), as well as costly food supplies and munitions that the French and Dutch needed for the rest of their campaign.

This operation, which engaged his forces for a full season, was to be his last success for a long time, as the peace party in the Republic, over his objections, managed to cut war expenditure and shrink the size of the Dutch army.

The outbreak of the Franco-Spanish War (1635) closed the alternate trade route through France for Flemish exports, forcing the South to pay the heavy Dutch wartime tariffs.

After the invasion of Portuguese Brazil by a WIC amphibious force in 1630, the extent of New Holland, as the colony was called, grew gradually, especially under its governor-general Johan Maurits of Nassau-Siegen, in the period 1637–44.

Beginning in 1637 with the conquest of Portuguese Elmina Castle, the WIC gained control of the Gulf of Guinea area on the African coast, and with it of the hub of the slave trade to the Americas.

The reason, as often in the Republic's history, was money: the Holland regents were increasingly disinclined, in view of the diminished threat from Spain, to finance the huge military establishment the stadtholder had built up after 1629.

It was an important development in the context of the general peace negotiations which the main participants in the Thirty Years' War (France, Sweden, Spain, the Emperor, and the Republic) started in 1641 in Münster and Osnabrück.

The Dutch demands that were eventually agreed upon were: While the peace negotiations were progressing at a snail's pace, Frederick Henry managed a few final military successes: in 1644 he captured Sas van Gent and Hulst in what was to become States Flanders.

According to Nolan, the troops were usually owed months - if not years - of back pay and, "as a result, they fought with less enthusiasm and mutinied dozens of times during the eight decades of war.

[75] The chaotic and dramatic early decades of the Eighty Years' War, which were filled with civil revolts and large-scale urban massacres, largely ended for the provinces north of the Great Rivers after they proclaimed the Republic in 1588, expelled the Spanish forces and established peace, safety and prosperity for their population.

[76] The upper and middle classes of the Republic, especially in the provinces of Holland, Zeeland and Utrecht, prospered during this time and experienced the so-called Dutch Golden Age, with a relatively high quality of life on average.