Ten Minute History - The Dutch Revolt (Short Documentary)

1563 in the Habsburg Netherlands also known as the seventeen provinces looks like this its ruler at this time was a man could philippe ii the king of spain who also ruled all of these territories across europe the seventeen provinces were very wealthy and so in Philippe's previous war with France had been taxed heavily much to the annoyance of everyone there something that caused greater conflict was Philippe's religious policy enacted by Cardinal Antoine paranoid a Granville Granville brought with him the Spanish Inquisition who sought to crack down on the increase in Protestantism in the south this particular branch of Protestantism was Calvinism named after its french leader Jean Calvin whose views had spread from Switzerland through France and into the southern provinces Graham Bell wasn't well liked by the nobility of the seventeen provinces who were used to being able to run their own affairs after some religious conflicts broke out a group of nobles demanded that he be removed which Philippe agreed to the religious issues persisted as Calvinism began to grow many nobles argued for religious tolerance because they themselves harbored Calvinist beliefs or simply felt that it was the best way to ensure peace the most notable of these Nobles were William of Orange also known as William the silent the moral the counter vague Mont and Philippe de Montmorency the count of horn in 1566 many nobles across the seventeen provinces came together to agree on a petition which demanded a halt to the persecution of Calvinists for the governor of the Netherlands Margaret of Parma this petition was backed by Catholics and Protestants alike since many felt that the persecutions would lead to rebellion and also that these matters were for local Lords and not the king of Spain Margaret agreed to temporarily halt the persecutions until she heard from King Philippe this was supposed to secure peace but instead it led to Calvinists openly worshipping outside of cities in what is called hedge preaching this upset the Catholics and so tensions rose and it wasn't long before violence erupted many of these hedge preachers who traveled the countryside attempting to convert people and giving Protestant sermons denounced the use of images in the church as idolatry in the south many of those who listen to these sermons began to take action and started destroying images in churches known as iconoclasm this violence known as the iconoclastic fury spread north and the resulting violence shattered any chance of a lasting peace a Margaret decided to crush any dissenters the division saw egmont and Horne side with a king whereas William stood against them restoring order was fairly easy for the well-trained Catholic forces who were reinforced in 1567 by 10,000 men led by Fernando Alvarez de Toledo the Duke of Alba Alber established the Council of Troubles to restore order those who had rebelled he had horn and Egmont arrested and executed for their earlier proposal of religious toleration whereas William managed to flee to the Holy Roman Empire in 1568 William started a campaign of armed resistance against the Spanish rulers at the seventeen provinces thus beginning the Dutch Revolt in the eighty Years War William's campaign was fairly unsuccessful with few notable victories or losses on land on sea however his revolt was much more successful he made great use of privateers known as sea beggars whom he tasked with raiding Spanish shipping in the ports along the coast Alber who was now the governor of the Netherlands was not too concerned with Willem and much more with restoring Catholicism and increasing tax revenue for Spain he did this by raising a new tax the temp any attempt ascent tax on all transactions which upset literally everyone particularly the merchant class in France their own Protestant rebels could hygge knows were gaining greater influence in the French Court and Alba was worried about an invasion as such he moved his army south leaving some of the cities in the north completely undefended the sea beggars who had been kicked out of English ports by Elizabeth the first in early 1572 took the ports of brilliant fleecing him which led to many of the towns in the province of Holland declaring themselves for the rebels the notable exception was Amsterdam which remained loyal to the Spanish crown in the Catholic Church the province of Zeeland also sided with the rebels whom were now centred at the city of dordrecht it was here the rebels Metzen declared william both stadt holder of holland and the leader of the rebellion alba counter-attacked in late 1570 to in it was after his troops retook the city of Nod and hid that they slaughtered its entire population the Spanish were successful early on but their Avance Loden in 1573 a Boers replaced by Louis the requisites spain's primary issue here was money specifically the lack of it spain had recently declared bankruptcy and sir requisites couldn't fund his troops and so their mutant eat sack in the town of antwerp in what is known as the spanish fury this turned pretty much everyone catholic and protestant against the spanish army records ends died in 1576 achieving little and spanish troops were still rioting up and down the country the Spanish soldiers currently setting fire to everything made everyone in the seventeen provinces nervous and so they came to a compromise this compromise could the pacification of Ghent created a defensive alliance against the rioting Spanish soldiers but was not a call for independence from Spain the next year William of Orange returned to the Netherlands and was welcomed as a hero he wasn't the only one who had made their way to the seventeen provinces though John of Austria represents basement as governor was now there to John of Battle of Lepanto fame took the liberty of dying the next year 'm was succeeded as governor by alejandro f on SEO the unity bill by the pacification of ghent was starting to break down since there was less unruly spanish troops and religious tensions were rising again amsterdam had up until this point remained firmly Catholic but his ruling council was overthrown by Calvinists in 1578 across many of the northern provinces the rights of Catholics were being whittled away in Calvinists were ceasing any opportunity they could to secure religious change by 1579 the Concord had essentially broken down and two new unions had formed in the south the union of harass which declared its loyalty to the Spanish throne and denounced Protestantism in the north the union of Utrecht which wish to end what they considered to be Spanish despotism and allow for freedom of conscience the union of Utrecht also known as the United Provinces whose capital was Antwerp acted as a single entity pulling its resources and creating a common army Willem had also appealed to the English for help and had received John Norris in the small English army to aid them Norris wasn't particularly successful but he did take the city of Mechelen which he promptly sacked in what is known as the English fury in 1581 at the hague hear the placate fun filartiga or the act of abjuration was signed which declared the United Provinces free an independent state and Philippe the second deposed as King William then invited Francis the Duke of Anjou the broad for an heir of the French King and a Catholic to become sovereign of the Netherlands most of the provinces basically ignored him because he had no real power and some refused to acknowledge him at all like Antwerp and Shue attempted to take Antwerp by deceit in 1583 but his men were massacred in what is known as the French fury and so he fled to France this wasn't ideal for William but things would get better for him the next year by better I mean worse because he was assassinated by gunshot how modern so over the previous few years the war had turned in spain's favor because Finizio who became the Duke of Parma in 1585 was a talented general by 1584 he had recaptured this territory in the next year he captured the United Provinces capital of Antwerp and in the wake of this a hundred thousand Calvinists fled to the north this left Amsterdam as the first city of the United Provinces and the capital of resistance against Spain in the immediate aftermath of Williams death the leadership of the United Provinces was somewhat troubled Robert Dudley a close friend of Elizabeth the first took the position of Governor of the Netherlands which was basically a declaration of war against Spain he had a tendency of interfering in the affairs of the Dutch which was kind of why they revolted in the first place Dudley had two major opponents Maurice of Nassau William son and Johan Van Alden Barneveld by 1587 Dudley had suffered a series of military defeats in his authority lay in ruin so he left the United Provinces and returned to England the problems were finding a monarch emboldened and legitimized those calling for an end to the monarchy as such in 1588 the United Provinces were declared a confederation and a republic it was also in this year that philippe ii launches armada against Elizabeth of England the next year saw a Protestant Henry the fourth take the French throne whom Philippe promptly intervened against this relieves some of the pressure on the Dutch who were now under the leadership of johanna maurice johann was quick to streamline the government and improve trade whereas maurice was crucial in reforming and professionalizing the dutch army by 1598 the year of philippe the second death the Duchy retaken this territory the Dutch Republic wanted to increase its trade to fund the war and so sent ships far and wide to find markets across the Indian Ocean which led to the very lucrative spice trade in 1602 to reduce the risk that came with this trade and to help increase profits Dutch merchants form the VO see the Dutch East India Company which would have a monopoly on trade in the right to wage war and make treaties furthermore banking reforms and an efficient system of funding the army meant that the Republic started to become much wealthier the Spanish forces were led by Ambrogio Spinola who like Maurice was a very capable gem mother managed to push the Dutch back to here by 1607 even though Spain had made peace with France and England by this time the war's financial burden was starting to hurt so Spain asked for a truce which was finalized in 1609 this truce basically acknowledged the Dutch Republic's independence and even reopen trade between it in Spain it's valuable spice trade combined with its near dominance of the baltic sea trade meant that without the financial burdens of war the dutch became rich very rich this was aided by the educated and skilled Calvinists who fled north in the previous decades bringing valuable trade and manufacturing expertise with them with peace established only one major issue remained religion both Catholics and Protestants had fought against the Spanish but Catholics found themselves quickly sidelined the main religious division was between the Calvinists and the remonstrance the remonstrance were led by old and Parliament and a man called Hugo Grotius and when anti remonstrance riots broke out in Holland they raised troops to crush it this was seen as a step too far and so Maurice had them arrested Bertie's was imprisoned and Oldham Bonneville was beheaded in 1619 the truce was only meant to last twelve years and wasn't renewed meaning war broke out again in 1621 they soon became part of the broader 30 Years War and it ended with Spain finally acknowledging the Dutch Republic's independence in 1648 for Spain the most powerful states in the world at this time losing to the Dutch was a great embarrassment and the Dutch Revolt is seen by some as the beginning of its decline for the Dutch it was only the beginning of their complicated and often bumpy rise to prominence a prominence which would attract many jealous enemies and require the New Republic to fight continuously for his independence for many centuries to come perhaps one of the greatest legacies of the Dutch Revolt is that a major European power was now a republic an idea that would have a profound effect on the rest of global history I hope you enjoyed this episode and thank you for watching and a special thanks to James Bissonnette I'm hoping I'm pronouncing that correctly for supporting the channel you

Channel: History Matters

Views: 1,382,225

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Id: WQ3pH3S1fk8

Length: 9min 59sec (599 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 28 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/klaus84]

Dat stukje over remonstranten op het eind klopt niet helemaal. Hij stelt dat de strijd ging over remonstranten tegen "calvinisten", maar remonstranten zijn zélf ook calvinisten. Gomaristen (of contraremonstranten) vs arminianen (of remonstranten) was correcter geweest. Ook waren Van Oldenbarnevelt en Hugo de Groot niet "de leiders" van de remonstranten.

[u/barandor]

Dit is 1 van mijn favoriete channels. Mooi dat er eindelijk wat aandacht is voor de 80 jarige oorlog.

[u/RPofkins]

Meshelen

:)

[u/Silydeveen]

Well done and in an incredible short amount of time.

[u/Kikker_G]

Geweldige video en ik hou van dit kanaal. Zeker een aanrader als van geschiedenis houdt of niet heel erg