At the start of the Eighty Years' War (1568–1648), the Spaniards had control over Groningen and the passage to Germany through a marshy area.

William, the instigator of the Dutch Revolt, deemed it necessary to seize control of the link between Groningen and Germany.

[1] Fort Bourtange faced another siege in 1672 against invading forces of Christoph Bernhard von Galen the Prince-Bishop of Münster, France's German ally in the Franco-Dutch War.

The fort's governor, Captain Protts, refused, and the Münsters replied with a frontal assault.

Over 100 years later in 1960, the local government decided to stop the decline by restoring the old fort to its 1740–50 appearance and converting into a historical museum.