The 80 Years War: The Dutch Revolt

3.4. The Eighty Years' War – (The Dutch Revolt) (1568-1648)
The difference of the Dutch Revolt from other contemporaneous revolutions is that the revolt extended over a longer period of time. Its origin traces back to the second half of the 16 ͭ ͪ century and it undergoes the most vicious phase in the first half of the 17 ͭ ͪ century. If we look at the nature of the Dutch Revolt, it is possible to mention that it was mainly comprised of a series of revolts rather than the perpetual war. Since it has a long past, the 80 years period, we have to touch upon its early phases to be able to historically contextualize it. The administrative units of the Netherlands had never experienced such a tight centralization until the late 16 ͭ ͪ century. The

Therefore, the Spanish troop revolted and terrorized most of the territories. This situation prompted the some provinces to collaborate with each other. Dimension of terror was so immense that even proponents of Philip leaned towards them and both sides agreed on the common defensive arrangement by leaving aside their own different religious tendencies. As a result of talks, ‘’Pacification of Ghent’’ came into existence. However, we should say that above-mentioned arrangement would not solve the disunity problems of the Netherlands. We see that Don Juan of Austria was installed by Philip as a governor of Low Countries in that period. In spite of seeming to be neutral, he did not surprise William of Orange and his fellows and he endeavored to neutralize the institutions as well as adopting the rigid policies. When experiencing the military stalemate, he recalled Philip to these regions to bring under the control. After achieving victory over Turks in the Battle of Lepanto, Philip directed attention to the Netherlands and he overpowered it through his duke of Parma, Alexander Farnese. All of these elements, including the above-mentioned military-political conflicts and infighting among the provinces prevented them from uniting. Ultimately, whereas the northern provinces (Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Friesland, Gelderland, and Ommelanden) found the Union of Utrecht, creating the United Provinces, the southern provinces such as Hainault and Artois established the Union of Arras in 1579. The northern provinces repudiated the sovereignty of Philip II of Spain in Netherlands in the Act of Abjuration in 1581, but when William of Orange was assassinated in 1584, they would lack a strong