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Why the Netherlands won the War of Independence

The Dutch War of Independence was the first victorious bourgeois revolution and was of great significance. But at the same time, be aware that the leaders of the war were the inexperienced emerging bourgeoisie. How did the Netherlands win the war?

In the half-century-long War of Independence, the Netherlands did not develop a decent military strategy and military policy, and its final victory owed to the following:

Just war

The war fought in the Netherlands was a desperate struggle between the just and progressive forces against the backward and unjust forces. The masses of the people showed their incomparable creativity and heroic revolutionary spirit, and made huge sacrifices.

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.

After Charles V came to the throne in 1516, he began to govern the Netherlands, namely the contemporary Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and northeastern France. 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.

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.

A complex and favorable international environment

The Dutch revolution has a complex but winable international environment that is favorable to itself. In particular, Spain has many contradictions and constant conflicts with other countries on the European continent, which invisibly gave the Dutch revolution a favorable condition for manoeuvre and protracted struggle. . As long as the fire of revolution does not go out and the will to independence does not fade, “persistence to the end is victory.”

Capitalist economic development

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.

The establishment of the Dutch Republic created conditions for the development of the capitalist economy. In the Netherlands in the 17th century, industry, commerce and shipping developed by leaps and bounds, characterized by commerce over industry and international trade over domestic trade. National policy safeguards the interests of the commercial bourgeoisie, and commercial and maritime taxes are low. Amsterdam is the center of domestic and foreign trade and industrial production. The Dutch shipbuilding industry was the most developed, ranking first in the world at that time. Merchant ships account for 3/4 of Europe’s tonnage. Dutch merchant ships are all over the world and are known as “sea coachmen”.

The Baltic trade, the spice trade in the East, was mostly controlled by Dutch merchants. The increase in economic power enabled the Netherlands to build a strong merchant fleet and fleet, conquer many parts of the world, defeat Spain, and become the dominant maritime trade at that time.