Utrecht, Lordship of

The name 'Belgium' is derived from Gallia Belgica, a Roman province in the northernmost part of Gaul that before Roman invasion in 100 BCE, was inhabited by the Belgae, a mix of Celtic and Germanic peoples.

A gradual immigration by Germanic Frankish tribes during the fifth century brought the area under the rule of the Merovingian kings.

A gradual shift of power during the eighth century led the kingdom of the Franks to evolve into the Carolingian Empire.

The Treaty of Verdun in 843 divided the region into Middle and West Francia and therefore into a set of more or less independent fiefdoms which, during the Middle Ages, were vassals either of the King of France or of the Holy Roman Emperor.

Many of these fiefdoms were united in the Burgundian Netherlands of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

Emperor Charles V extends the personal union of the Seventeen Provinces in the 1540s, making it far more than a personal union by the Pragmatic Sanction of 1549 and increases his influence over the Prince-Bishopric of Liège.

All fiefs in the current Netherlands region are united under Habsburg Charles V, ruler of the Holy Roman Empire and King of Spain, into the Seventeen Provinces, which also includes most of present-day Belgium, Luxembourg, and some adjacent land in what is now France and Germany.

In 1568, the Eighty Years' War between the Provinces and their Spanish ruler begins.

In 1579, the northern half of the Seventeen Provinces forge the Union of Utrecht in which they commit to support each other in their defense against the Spanish army.

The Union of Utrecht is seen as the foundation of the modern Netherlands.

In 1581, the northern provinces adopt the Act of Abjuration, the declaration of independence in which the provinces officially depose Philip II of Spain as reigning monarch in the northern provinces.

The Protestant Queen Elizabeth I of England sympathizes with the Dutch struggle against the Spanish, and sends an army of seventy-six hundred soldiers to aid the Dutch in their war with the Catholic Spanish.

The English army, under command of Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester is of no real benefit to the Dutch rebellion.

Philip II, the son of Charles V, is not prepared to let them go easily, and war continues until 1648, when Spain under King Philip IV finally recognize the independence of the seven north-western provinces in the Peace of Münster.

Parts of the southern provinces become de facto colonies of the new republican-mercantile empire.

The provinces of Holland, Zeeland, Groningen, Friesland, Utrecht, Overijssel, and Gelderland form a confederation after declaring their independence.

All these duchies, lordships and counties are autonomous and have their own government, the States-Provincial.

The States General, the confederal government, are seated in The Hague and consist of representatives from each of the seven provinces.

The sparsely populated region of Drenthe is part of the republic too, although it is not considered one of the provinces.

Moreover, the Republic has come to occupy during the Eighty Years' War a number of so-called Generality Lands in Flanders, Brabant and Limburg.

Their population is mainly Roman Catholic.

These areas do not have a governmental structure of their own, and are used as a buffer zone between the Republic and the Spanish-controlled Southern Netherlands.

The Peace of Utrecht stipulates that "because of the great danger which threatened the liberty and safety of all Europe, from the too close conjunction of the kingdoms of Spain and France, [...] one and the same person should never become King of both kingdoms."

Some historians view this as a key point in the evolution of the modern nation state.

Britain is usually seen as the main beneficiary, Utrecht marking its rise to becoming the primary European commercial power.

It establishes naval superiority over its competitors, controls the strategic Mediterranean ports of Gibraltar and Menorca, and gains commercial access to Spanish America.

France accepts the Protestant succession, ensuring a smooth inheritance by George I in August 1714 and will end support for the Stuarts under the 1716 Anglo-French Treaty.

Lastly, the war has left all the participants with unprecedented levels of government debt but only Britain successfully has financed it.

Philip is confirmed as King of Spain, which retains its independence and the majority of its Empire but cedes the Spanish Netherlands and most of their Italian possessions.

The 1707 Nueva Planta decrees had transferred powers to Madrid and largely abolished regional political structures.

These reforms have enabled Spain to recover remarkably quickly and only British naval power will prevent them regaining Naples and Sicily in 1718.

Despite its failure in Spain, Austria has secured its position in Italy and Hungary and acquired the bulk of the Spanish Netherlands.

Even after reimbursing the Dutch for most of the expenses associated with their Barrier, the increased tax revenues will help fund a significant expansion of Austrian military forces.

The acquisition of maritime territories in the Netherlands and Italy increases the potential for conflict in an area where Austria has traditionally relied on others, and Spain will recapture Sicily and Naples during the War of the Polish Succession in 1734.

Wider implications include the beginning of the rise of Prussia and Savoy, while many of the participants are involved in the Great Northern War, with Russia becoming a European power for the first time as a result.

Finally, while colonial conflicts had been relatively minor and largely confined to the North American theater or the so-called Queen Anne's War, they are to become a key element in future wars.