Why Spain failed to defeat the Dutch? The Netherlands is mostly

>>3310919
what were they going to do? they drove themselves into an early inflation grave with the excess silver, and protestantism was blowing up everywhere northern europe. there's nothing they could do... fight and massacre the dutch revolting population for no resource or strategic advantage?

be real, holland wasn't worth it, everyone hated them and nothing was valuable enough to fight for

>>3310928
>be real, holland wasn't worth it,
For Castille, yes, it wasn't. But it was a matter of prestige and right for the Habsburgs. It probably was pointless for Spain, but I just want to know why the best armies in the world failed to conquer the Netherlands.

>>3310943
There were only 3,000 spanish soldiers at its peak and having France and England cockblocking and supporting the rebels didn't make it easy. The guy in charge of Flandes had to literally beg to sruvive because Spain didn't have any money to send to him. Also, for Spain the eternal turk was always the real menace,

>>3310919
>Spanish mutts taking on superior Dutch giant genes
>Why did they lose?
Isn't it obvious? [spoiler]It's because of all the help from France and England and the failure of the Spanish Armada[/spoiler]

war is expensive
what usually happened is the monarch have a small standing army for occupying forts and other guard duties and muster an army for a campaign

a country in state of constant rebellion costs just too much money, too far away, next to the channel and the frogs

its just not worth fighting for it on the long run

>>3310928
The Seventeen United Provinces were a commercial hub and a very urbanized and densely populated, akin to Northern Italy. The Spanish crown imposes taxes on literally anything imaginable to extract as much wealth as possible to fuel the empire. To say it was not worth it is ridiculous considering it was a money milk cow.

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>>3310928
>>3311182
They made it into an allegorical painting with the Low Countries being the cow surrounded by all big shots of the time.

>>3311172
Dutch were among the shortest europeans till 19th century.

>>3310919

they feared the Orange warrior

>>3311214
From the 17th-18th century.

By the 16th century they were still among the taller ones in Europe.

>>3311314
A lot of people emigrated to the republic in those days. Coincidence?

>>3311197
Ok i can recognize Elizabeth and William of Orange to the right, but who are the others?
I guess the milkman might be Frederick II of Denmark and the "milking" is symbolic of the sound dues.

>>3310919
French and English were support given to the Dutch rebels making it harder for Spain to defeat the rebels. Spain eventually tried to get rif of the English meddling in their affairs with the attempted Spanish Armada which didn't work out that well.

>>3312159
nvm i found out:

Philips II on the milk cow in the Netherlands

Alva melks the cow

on behalf of France draws the Duke of Alencon to the tail

Queen Elisabeth carries straw

Willem de Zwijger tries to keep calm

http://www.engelfriet.net/Alie/Aad/plakkaat.htm

>>3310919
If you are actually curious, read "The Army of Flanders and the Spanish Road". Actually putting soldiers in Netherlands was tough, and they basically fought proto-trench-warfare and guerrilla warfare there even when they could. Moreover the system of organisation that made Spanish successful initially got very corrupt later, even when still Spanish soldiers were considered the best in Europe. They were successful for majority of the war too, they just lost rest of Netherlands later but kept Belgium until War of Spanish Succession.

>>3312179
Its a nice painting isn't it?

Too much Dutch courage.

>>3311182
Southern low countries, now what is Belgium was, specifically port of Antwerp.

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>it's a Netherlands thread
>mfw Dutch Golden Age

>>3312252
Importantly, the HRE also refused to get involved despite being technically obligated too by the connection of the German and Spanish crowns. So Spain couldn't rely on German troops.

>>3310919
Well spain was busy with the ottomans so they couldn't send as much soldiers as they wanted also the netherlands were an urbanized and pretty rich place at the time there is a reason the dutch golden age started pretty quickly after its independance.

>>3312386
imagine what the netherlands could have been had they kept all the 1579 land as well

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>>3313450
Hnnnnnnnggggg Grooter

>>3314943
>>3313450
Less aesthetic borders, but richer.

>>3312386
>>3313450
>>3314943

Kys dutchies

All your country did was sabotage international Catholicism and torment hordes of innocent niggers

An ulcer on the face of Europe, I can hardly wait until the dams stove in tbqh