Flanders

The territory of what is now Belgium and part of Luxembourg was part of the Spanish Monarchy, under the Habsburg dynasty from 1555 to 1714, when it passed into the hands of Archduke Charles after the War of the Spanish Succession. In 1568 an uprising began against the government of King Philip II (1527-1598), also known as the Eighty Years’ War, which lasted until 1648. The territories that formed the ancient Duchy of Burgundy, part of the Spanish dominions since the time of Charles V (1500-1558), were divided into the southern part, Flanders, predominantly Catholic and loyal to the Habsburgs, and in the north as the United Provinces, of the Calvinist faith which finally was able to gain independence from Spain from 1581. The economic power experienced by Flanders in the sixteenth century, perfectly symbolized by the wealth and the leading role in international markets carried out by the city of Antwerp (photo), gradually disappeared in the seventeenth century, when the political power and trade of the United Provinces emerged.