17th and 18th Centuries
During the 17th century, Antwerp was a major European center for commerce, industry and art. The Brueghels, Peter Paul Rubens and Van Dyck's baroque paintings were created during this period. See also:
- Gerardus Mercator
- Jodocus Hondius
- War of Devolution, Franco-Dutch War, War of the Reunions, Nine Years War, War of the Spanish Succession
The Belgian and Luxembourgish territories (except the Bishopric of Liège) were transferred to the Austrian Habsburgs (1713–1794) after the War of the Spanish Succession when the French Bourbon Dynasty inherited Spain at the price of abandoning many Spanish possessions. They were thus called the Austrian Netherlands from 1713 to 1794.
Read more about this topic: History Of Belgium
Famous quotes containing the word centuries:
“How marvellous it all is! Built not by saints and angels, but the work of men’s hands; cemented with men’s honest blood and with a world of tears, welded by the best brains of centuries past; not without the taint and reproach incidental to all human work, but constructed on the whole with pure and splendid purpose. Human, and yet not wholly human—for the most heedless and the most cynical must see the finger of the Divine.”
—Archibald Philip Primrose, 5th Earl Rosebery (1847–1929)