Sometimes, I do historical essays to lay out periods of history in Europe, which aren't that well known.
So in the mid-1560s....there is a fair amount of public sentiment building up in the region of Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and northern Germany.
Driving force? King Phillip II of Spain has control over the Netherlands, and has decided to stamp out anti-Spain residents. The sentiment? Basically, if you add up the taxation, the anti-Catholic Church sentiment, and general lack rights of the more wealthy residents of the region....there's going to be a long drawn out 'war'.
In early 1648, after a number of high points and low points in this conflict....it finally ended (after 80 years).
Dead? It's not a tidy or factual situation. Most historians will say that a minimum of 100,000 people were killed in the region over the 80-year period.
What happened after the peace was worked out? Most people will agree that the folks in Belgium (ending up as Spanish-controlled for a while) got the worst part of the economic deal.....while suggesting that the Netherlands became some international trading 'power', and the next two-hundred years are a significant plus period for the Dutch....without religious entanglement.
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