Spanish Hapsburgs. One consequence of the peace treaty was the division of Holland into two separate areas, in which "the northern half, roughly the present-day Netherlands, became a Protestant republic; the southern half, now Belgium, remained a province of a Roman Catholic monarchy."2 It is important to note that even though the war officially continued until 1648, "a temporary truce was signed in 1609, and Holland was never again threatened by the Spanish armies. For all practical purposes, the United Provinces were free to develop as an independent nation from the first years of the century."3
This period, then, was characterized not only by the overthrow of royal rule, but specifically of foreign royal rulership of the area, and furthermore, because the war had centered on the question of religious freedom, it also was a time in which the Dutch people freed themselves from authority of the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church. The move toward independence was thus closely tied to the shift toward the Protestant religion, particularly Calvinism. Both of these things were indicative of the growing power of new philosophical ideas regarding individualism, which had a strong impact on the development of Dutch art during the time by giving artists greater freedom of self-expression than ever before in history. The major social and political changes which took place occurred conjointly with the development of capitalism in Holland, and the affluent populace supported a burgeoning art scene.
As the power of the Roman Catholic Church and the Hapsburg dynasty declined, Calvinism started to become an important religious movement in Holland at this time. Calvinism, which is a Protestant faith, stressed the idea that man was inferior to God and could be redeemed through hard work and clean living. This was a critical influence on the developing ideas of free market capitalism. The growth of capitalism created a large and wealth...