hi folks, i was watching the map of the spanish empire, why mostly of belgium is included in this map? it shouldn't count as spanish possesion since the low countries were property of the house of habsburg and not of Spain imo, even when the king of spain inherited these lands were still under the rule of habsburgs .weren't they? they never conquered "belgium" just inherited it right?
hi folks, i was watching the map of the spanish empire, why mostly of belgium is included in this map? it shouldn't count as spanish possesion since the low countries were property of the house of habsburg and not of Spain imo, even when the king of spain inherited these lands were still under the rule of habsburgs .weren't they? they never conquered "belgium" just inherited it right?
The king of Spain at the time, Philip II (the revenge of Philip) was a Habsburg and ruled Belgium as a Spanish possession. And yes it was inherited rather than conquered. The Flemings and Walloons stuck with Philip when the Dutch flipped the Spanish king the bird. The territory was later lost to the Austrian branch of the Habsburgs at the conclusion of the Spanish War of Succession when a Bourbon took the throne of Spain instead of a Habsburg.
Actually "Belgium" should count as spanish possesion coz spaniards reconquered "Belgium" with Alexander Farnese in 1577 after the alliance of all the provinces expelling from the low countries every Spanish troop (Pacification of Ghent(1576)).
Then "Belgium", was reconquered by Spanish troops and by Alexander Farnese fighting against the dutch rebels of William the silent.They reconquered the Southern Provinces/Spanish Netherlands (Belgium,Luxembourg and a part of France), also:
"Belgium" was protected by spanish troops for more than one hundred years against the protestants.
"Belgium" always was ruled by the Spanish kings.
"Belgium" was governed by Spanish officials.
"Belgium" is not a part of the netherlands thanks to the spaniards (union of Utrecht)
i hope it helps
Last edited by hanssen; November 24th, 2008 at 02:18 AM.
It is good to know that the revolt started in modern day Belgium. More exactly in the Walloon, French speaking regions, that were influenced by the preachings of the French Jean Calvin (Calvinism). The Iconoclasm that followed never even reached the Northern Netherlands. Philips of Spain sent troops to crush the rebellion and make the Netherlands once more Catholic. Because of the harsh repression by the Duke of Alva, many moderate thinking inhabitants were driven into the arms of the extreme protestant thinkers and the rebellion grew stronger. It is true that Alexander Farnesse (1578-92) booked great succes at reconquering the Netherlands.
Rebel city after rebel city fell back into Spanish hands. But in 1589 he was pulled back to fight in France. The French king Henry III was assassinated and Farnese was ordered to support the Catholic opposition to the protestant Henry IV of France (Henry of Navarra). The Rebels in the Northern Netherlands grew stronger again and reconquered cities like Breda. After this, the Northern Netherlands were never reconquered and the Southern Netherlands (Belgium, luxemburg) stayed under Spanish rule untill 1714.
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