Brief History of Military Inundations During The Dutch Wars of Independence

The Dutch Wars of Independence was as much a religious civil war as it was a revolt against Spanish Habsburg rule. In this tumultuous period of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century, the rebellious Dutch leaders used the watery landscape to their advantage. Repeatedly throughout the conflict, they used Military Inundations (strategic floods) in order to secure their objectives. Nearly every major encounter, including Brill, Alkmaar, Leiden, and Antwerp involved some form of tactical flooding.