The Eighty Years’ War, also known in the Netherlands as the Dutch Revolt, was a conflict between the Spanish Empire and the emerging Dutch Republic, which was fought in the Low Countries (present-day Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, and part of western Germany and northern France). It began for several reasons including increased centralisation policies, taxation, and religious disputes, and led to the emergence of an independent Dutch Republic and colonial empire which significantly shifted the balance of power in Europe and beyond.

When the Peace of Münster was signed on 15 May 1648, the Habsburg Netherlands were effectively split in two, with a Protestant-dominated north and a Catholic-dominated south. Despite economic struggles in the south, and the internal domestic battles the split gave rise to, the Dutch Republic emerged as a global power, for which reason the period is known as the Dutch Golden Age.