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Why did the Dutch War of Independence break out?

The Dutch War of Independence was the independence struggle of the Netherlands against Spanish rule, and also the democratic revolution of the bourgeoisie against feudalism, which finally ended with the independence of the Netherlands.

The cause of the incident was the Spanish colonization of the Netherlands, capitalism began to develop, Philip II strengthened the exploitation, and refused to withdraw his soldiers, thus setting off a wave of opposition to the feudal autocracy of Charles V with the nobles and the common people as the main force.

The Netherlands means “lowland” and refers to the area of ​​medieval northwestern Europe located along the Rhine, Meuse, and Selder rivers and along the North Sea coast, including the contemporary Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and a small part of northern France. The Netherlands, once ruled by Rome in ancient times, became part of the Frankish kingdom and the Charlemagne Empire in the early Middle Ages.

From the 11th to the 14th century, the Netherlands was divided into many feudal territories, mostly subordinate to the Holy Roman Empire and France. From the 14th to the mid-16th century, the Netherlands became part of Spain through medieval dynastic marriages and succession to the throne.

The capitalist economy of the Netherlands developed earlier and grew faster. Artisanal workshops for the manufacture of woolen, silk, linen, rugs, soap, glassware, leather and metal products flourished. Bruges and Antwerp became important trading, commercial and international credit centers. Antwerp has more than 1,000 branches of foreign banks and firms, as well as a commodity exchange and a stock exchange. More than 2,000 ships can be berthed in the port at the same time.

In the villages of Flanders and Brabant, peasant land was changed to short-term lease land, and wealthy citizens and some tenant farmers purchased noble land to operate farms, adopting feudal or semi-feudal exploitation methods. The most developed provinces in the northern Netherlands are Holland and Zeeland.

In the 16th century, the wool textile industry, fishing, shipbuilding, rope making, sail making and other industries in these areas were mostly operated in capitalist ways. Beer merchants in Delft, Dordremet and other cities turned peasants into their own targets of exploitation through loan contracts and advance payments. Amsterdam gradually monopolized the Baltic trade. Feudal relations in the northern countryside have always been weak, and soon the aristocracy turned to capitalist land management.

After Charles V came to the throne in 1516, he began to govern the Netherlands, namely the contemporary Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and northeastern France. The main obstacle to the development of capitalism in the Netherlands was the oppression and restraint of the Spanish feudal autocracy. Half of Spain’s treasury revenue comes from the Netherlands.

Philip II suppressed the Dutch capitalist economy by refusing to pay the national debt, raising the export tax of Spanish wool, restricting the entry of Dutch merchants into Spanish ports, and prohibiting them from trading with the Spanish territories, resulting in the closure of handicraft workshops and the unemployment of workers.

Another manifestation of Spanish despotism is church persecution. Carlos I once set up the Inquisition in the Netherlands and issued a “bloody edict” to brutally persecute Protestants. Philip II strengthened the power of the church, ordered the governor of the Netherlands to follow the advice of the church leader Grenville in all major affairs, and refused to withdraw Spanish troops from all parts of the Netherlands.

After the religious reform movement appeared in Europe, Martin Luther, Calvin and other sectarian theories were introduced into the Netherlands, thus setting off a wave of opposition to the feudal autocracy of Charles V with the nobles and the common people as the main force.