Internationalisering en de Nederlandse Opstand

Abstract

At around 1960 the interpretations of the Dutch Revolt that were propounded in 'grand narratives' of sixteenth-century Europe, differed considerably from those on offer in the 'national' historiography of the Revolt. That this was to change drastically over the following five decades, was only partly due to changes in Dutch historiography. Most impulses to 'internationalise' interpretations of the Dutch Revolt came from outside the Low Countries. While Geoffrey Parker situated the Revolt in its Habsburg context, research into Netherlandish Protestantism also emphasised its international dimensions. Many political developments within the Low Countries, too, can best be understood in a European context. This article offers an analysis of this development, and explores what this might mean for our prospects for a new synthetic study of the Revolt of the Netherlands.