Spain, in turn, was being run by the House of Habsburg-royal Austrians who also controlled the Holy Roman Empire for nearly 400 years. The Netherlands were, for a time, owned entirely by Spain. The short version is that, originally, the “Netherlands” just referred to the Germanic lowlands, and the area was populated by various counties and duchies that each had their own way of doing things. I don’t mean to be pedantic, but I’m going to explain the context as if you don’t know anything about how the Netherlands became a country: In this case, the belligerents were the Northern Netherlands and the Southern Netherlands. Hence the reason we say “lieutenant,” as opposed to the English-er “leftenant.” But I digress. That’s why the United States military is modeled primarily after the French military. The French, believe it or not, enjoyed a reputation for military prowess before they were blitzkrieged by the German war machine in the 20th century. The superior attacking force promptly decided “f**k this, not worth it,” then surrendered. The defenders fired a single shot which completely annihilated the enemy flagship’s. That’s what happened in 1784, when four warships converged in a fight for control over the Scheldt River. Sometimes compulsion can bring us to war’s doorstep, but for whatever reason-maybe humanity’s just having an off day-we just can’t bring war to its traditional, horrific conclusions. That said, humans aren’t always great at following through, even with the things we are hopelessly wont to do. War, particularly, has shaped so much of human history that I suspect it might be an inextricable part of human nature.
We don’t necessarily like these things, but humans just can’t stop doing them. Things change all the time, but there are certain patterns of weird behavior that transcend generations and cultures. I tend to think that’s what history tells us about human nature. Me? I can’t stop buying Fabergé eggs (it’s a $1,500-a-day habit). The context was intelligence gathering: if you want to catch or blackmail a foreign official, another spy, etc., you learn their compulsions. I once heard a thing, which I’ll paraphrase here: people are what they can’t stop doing.