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Victory in the Dutch War of Independence
The “Twelve-Year Armistice Agreement” signed by the Netherlands and Spain lasted until 1621. Spain and France negotiated again to extend the truce period, but they restarted the war because they did not reach an agreement. Siege of Breda in 1625, the Spanish army occupied the city after besieging Breda for six months.
Maurice of Nassau on the Dutch side was old and feeble, and the struggle was not fought vigorously until his brother Frederick Henry succeeded him in 1625. In the early days of the war, the Netherlands launched several sieges, gaining the city of s-Hertogenbosch (1629), the city of Wesel, and parts of the Maas river valley. Then in 1634, the Holy Roman Emperor combined with the Spanish army to defeat the Swedish army in Nordlingen, placing the Republic under the combined attack of the Holy Roman Empire and the Spanish army. So Holland made an alliance with France; France went to war against both the Holy Roman Empire and Spain.
The Spanish Netherlands was divided between the Republic and France, but Frederick Henry met a talented rival, Prince Ferdinand and Cardinal; the Dutch Provincial Council was very stingy in providing the necessary funds, which made him very embarrassed . It was not until 1637 that he captured the city of Breda and won a great victory. However, due to Amsterdam’s bold supply of food and equipment to aid Antwerp, Frederick Henry was frustrated under the city. He made several subsequent attempts to invade Antwerp, the last time in 1646, without success.
The Dutch achieved their greatest victories at sea: the Battle of Matanzas Gulf in 1628, capturing a fleet of Spanish treasures in the port of Matanzas (Cuba); Channel between) the Dutch fleet launched a night attack on the Spanish fleet in Antwerp, annihilating the Spanish fleet in the port.
After that, Spain switched from offensive to defensive; in 1639 Admiral Marton Tropp and Prince Condé teamed up to besiege the port of Dunkirk and won a landslide victory over Admiral Okundo’s fleet. The victory marked the crushing of the last major attempt of the Spanish fleet and the confirmation of the Netherlands as the number one maritime power. But in 1646, the Netherlands attacked the Spanish Philippines and lost in the Battle of Manila.
The Battle of the Downs meant a shattering of hopes at sea for Spain; four years later, the Battle of Rocroix discredited his infantry, Portugal merged into Spain in 1580, re-separated in 1640, and from then on the colonial struggle become purposeless. Brazil and the Spice Islands, which the Dutch plundered, were in fact Portuguese territories.
Exhausted, Spain decided to make peace; and the Dutch began to fear that France would become a dangerous neighbor. Rather than have a thriving France in the South Netherland, it is better to have a weakened Spain. In addition, the war was in favor of the Dutch ruler, Frederick Henry, and the parliamentarians wanted to end it. Peace talks began in the same year as the Battle of Rocroix. Negotiations dragged on for a long time, and Frederick Henry took advantage of this time to seize some more places, especially in the south of the Selder.
Finally Frederick Henry died in 1647, but thanks to his efforts, the Netherlands finally achieved a treaty with Spain that gave it the right to fight for so long. A year later, on January 30 and October 24, 1648, the signing of the Peace of Munster and the Peace of Westphalia heralded the end of the Eighty Years’ War.
