Skip to main content

A Brief History 1500s - 1600s

Today I'll give a very brief overview of how the Netherlands became an independent country. Only the high points. I'll go into more details on each of these events later.

1519. Charles V the Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain originally ruled the area. Then it was known as the 17 provinces and included not just the Netherlands but Belgium, Luxembourg, and some land in France and Germany.

1568. The start of the 80 years war of independence from Spain. In 1579 the northern provinces formed the Union of Utrecht in which the agreed to support one another in their war against Phillip II of Spain. War continued until 1648 when Phillip IV finally recognised the independence of the 7 northern provinces in the Treaty of Munster.

Those northern provnices were; Holland, Zeeland, Groningen, Friesland, Utrecht, Overijssel, and Gelre. They formed a confederation that came to be known as teh Republic of the Seven United Netherlands. All these provinces were autonomous and had their own governements with the States-General seated at The Hague.

One of the main reasons for independence from Spain was religion. Spain was Catholic and the northern provinces were protestant while the southern provinces stayed Catholic. This is why they did not join the northern provinces in their rebellion. Later the southern provinces too, formed an independent nation thus becoming Belgium.

This post leaves lots of little questions I think. Which is good since I plan on answering all of them with their owns posts. Questions like; Holland? Why are the Netherlands called Holland sometimes? What does the Netherlands mean? Spain ruled the Netherlands originally, how? What happened with Luxembourg? etc. But I thought that before my trip I would establish first why I'm going to the NY area so you would understand. Therefore tomorrow will be brief 1600s -1700s history with Wednesday being something why I'm heading to NY.

Side Note: I've changed how the commenting works so if you have something to add or ask, just leave a comment at any time. Thanks.

Comments

  1. Just noticed that your profile name is de Blau boer, which means blue farmer. very clever and fun. Also while this 1500's reformation was ongoing Bloody Mary in Britain was killing Protestants which could have led to the religious Protestant independence in the Netherlands, which is very close.

    The Purple Panther

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

de Vries, Hans de Vries. Almost.

In 1967 THE James Bond (Sean Connery) decided to step away from the world of James Bond films. EOS studios thus had to find a replacement. It came down to 5 men. 2 Brits, an American, a Australian, and a Dutchman. John Richardson, Anthony Rogers, Robert Campbell, George Lazenby, and Hans de Vries. None of those names ring a bell? George Lazenby won the part for the 6th Bond film, On Her Majesty's Secret Service. A movie that has been lauded both as the worst and one of the best Bond films in the franchise. If you haven't seen it, you should. It was the Bond film that 'Breaks the Fourth Wall', Bond gets married, wears a kilt, and goes skiing. But the reason for this post is instead of this; (Yes, THAT is James Bond) We could of had this. Improvement? Probably not. He looks a wee bit angry. Plus, no one watches OHMSS anyway. So, did de Vries have a movie career after Bond? Ha, no. The only notable movie rolls I can find for him were pre bond. And that was ...

Waffle, Wafel, Walfre, or Wafla?

A post! Due to a dearth of ideas (see what I did there? Wordsmart word) by me or the other author (cough cough); I was hoping a great story would be found using Google. Sadly, no. But I did finish a good book recently (Janson Directive by Robert Ludlum) that included a solid bit set in Amsterdam. The Amsterdam bit had me focused on Houseboats, which is a much bigger thing than I thought, and English Words with Dutch origins again. One I hadn't really thought of in a while that Ludlum referenced. Behold the Mighty Waffle Here in America. When we think Waffle our first thoughts are probably Belgium Waffles or Eggo (the surprising good readymade toaster variety). But did you know that Waffles are very old? The Dutch word Wafel (mid 13th century) and the Frankish word Walfre (1185) both come from the root word walfa which means honeycomb or cake (how about both!). Wikipedia goes into great detail about the origins of the Waffle and Waffle through the years. Fascinating bit compari...

Ray - Forest Boy

Remember around a month ago when the news story hit about Ray the Forest Boy who randomly showed up one day in Berlin, Germany? Well I forgot to post this but it has been found out who Ray the 'Forest Boy' actually is. 20 yr old Robin van Helsum of Hengelo Netherlands (100 miles east of Amsterdam). What allowed the police to finally determine who 'Ray' was? His stepmother. She recognized his picture on the news. He went missing 9 months ago. Now that he has been exposed as a hoax and not the Forest Boy who had been living in the woods for 5 years; Robin may face stiff fines and penalties for the extra police time and work put into his case which could cost as much as $40,000. 'Ray' originally walked into Berlin claiming he had been walking for 5 days after spending 5 years living out of a tent in the 'wild' where he had buried his father. One Berlin police officer said that there were things right from the start that did not match to his story. Lik...