They were widely separated geographically, while in history, manners, and politics, they were utterly opposed to each other.

Spain, which had but just assumed the form of a single state by the combination of all its kingdoms, with its haughty nobles descended from petty kings, and arrogating almost sovereign power within their domains, with its fierce enthusiasm for the Catholic religion, which, in the course of long warfare with the Saracens, had become the absorbing characteristic of a whole nation, with its sparse population scattered over a wide and stern country, with a military spirit which led nearly all classes to prefer poverty to the wealth attendant upon degrading pursuits of trade;--Spain, with her gloomy, martial, and exaggerated character, was the absolute contrast of the Netherlands.
These provinces had been rarely combined into a whole, but there was natural affinity in their character, history, and position.

There was life, movement, bustling activity every where.

An energetic population swarmed in all the flourishing cities which dotted the surface of a contracted and highly cultivated country.

Their ships were the carriers for the world;--their merchants, if invaded in their rights, engaged in vigorous warfare with their own funds and their own frigates; their fabrics were prized over the whole earth; their burghers possessed the wealth of princes, lived with royal luxury, and exercised vast political influence; their love of liberty was their predominant passion.