The Dutch Reimagining of the World

Cartography and trading were central to the Netherlands’ growth throughout its Golden Age that spanned almost one hundred years from 1568 to 1672. Beginning with a revolt against the rule of Spanish Habsburgs begun in 1568, the Eighty Years’ War (1568–1648) had been a war of the Netherland’s independence from Spain. By the 1580s, the predominantly Protestant northern provinces of the Netherlands had broken away from Spain and formed a Dutch republic, the United Provinces. The treaty between the Dutch and Spanish had ended the pre-eminence of Antwerp by cutting off its access to the sea and to the mouth of the River Scheldt, which was confirmed to be in Dutch hands.