Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles
available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. The Treaty of the
Hague of 1641 was a ten-year truce between the Dutch Republic and the
Kingdom of Portugal. It was also a "Treaty of Offensive and Defensive
Alliance" between the two countries. The treaty included a pledge to
form a combined fleet to attack Spain. The truce, which was originally
meant to apply to all of the territories of the two empires, was, in
practice, limited to the European continent.The Dutch declared their
independence from the Habsburg king of Spain in 1579, which resulted in
war. In 1580, the Iberian Union, which combined the kingdoms of Spain
and Portugal, was formed. Subsequently, Spain closed Portuguese ports to
the Dutch and established a ban on trade between the Portuguese-Spanish
colonies and the Dutch Republic. The Dutch attempted to restore the
trade with the Portuguese colonies by occupying the northeast of Brazil
and Angola, which led to conflicts between the Dutch Empire and the
Iberian Union.
