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In The Dutch Wars of Independence, Marjolein 't Hart assesses the success of the Dutch in establishing their independence through their eighty years struggle with Spain. The volume investigates thoroughly the economic profitability of warfare in the early modern period and shows how smaller, commercialized states could sustain prolonged war violence common to that period. It moves beyond traditional explanations of Dutch success in warfare focusing on geography, religion, diplomacy while presenting an up-to-date overview and interpretation of the Dutch Revolt, the Anglo-Dutch Wars and the Guerre de Hollande.
List of contents
Timeline of major events. Introduction – The Dutch Revolt, the Military Revolution, and the global context. Chapter 1 – Military events: from the Dutch Revolt to ‘la Guerre de Hollande’, c. 1570-c.1680. Chapter 2 – The making of a professional army. Chapter 3 – The Dutch ‘Schoole of War’: drill, tactics, and siege warfare. Chapter 4 – Garrisons and civic communities: strengthening the local bonds. Chapter 5 – Warfare in the countryside and the threat to farming communities. Chapter 6 – Admiralties, privateers and the colonial connection. Chapter 7 – War and the strength of Dutch public finance. Chapter 8 – Warfare’s new economic opportunities. Conclusion: The advantages of military discipline and commercialized warfare. Bibliography.
About the author
Marjolein ’t Hart is head of the research department on the history of the Netherlands at the Huygens Institute (Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences) in The Hague and Professor History of State Formation in Global Perspective at VU University Amsterdam. She has published extensively on the early modern history of the Netherlands (in comparative perspective), including books on warfare and state formation (1993) and financial history (1997).
