Franco-Dutch War - 1678, Peace and Consequences

1678, Peace and Consequences

In 1678 Louis continued his conquests at the expense of the Spanish Netherlands, capturing Ghent and Ypres (March 25). The United Provinces again, so to feel pressure on their territory. The talks progressed in Nijmegen, but were thwarted by the French decision to protect Swedish interests. But with a new French victory in July, the United Provinces signed the Peace of Nijmegen in August 1678. Other peace treaties are signed with the other contenders in the coming months, where the decadent Spain would come out as the big loser, losing to France the Franche-Comté and various cities of the Spanish Netherlands. The United Provinces, which ran the risk of being wiped out in 1672, could celebrate the reduction of some tariffs in its trade with France. Sweden, whose military tradition was not sufficient to stop the rise of Berlin, managed to leave the conflict with territorial losses negligible. Although the outcome was at first glance inconclusive, it would have great importance for the events of the next 40 years. France, which in the final years of the war fought almost alone against a powerful coalition, left the episode as a great military power of continental Europe. The United Provinces had started to show signs of decay and its pre-eminence as a naval power would eventually be ceded to England, which, ruled by William of Orange after the Glorious Revolution, was to become the sworn enemy of France. Spain and Sweden, shy participants in this conflict, lost importance and would suffer great territorial losses in the following decades.

The song "Auprès de ma blonde" or "Le Prisonnier de Hollande" ("The Prisoner of Holland"), in which a French woman grieves for her beloved who is held prisoner by the Dutch, appeared during or soon after the Franco-Dutch War - reflecting the contemporary situation of French sailors and soldiers being imprisoned in the Netherlands - and remains an enduring part of French culture up to the present.