I recently got an idea for a timeline about 17th century Netherlands. I would like to posit my ideas, so people can tell me if it will work and possibly give me some tips about how to continue or other things I could possibly add.
The premise is basicly this: The Netherlands is slightly more succesful during the last years of the Dutch revolt. My idea is that Don Ferdinand (the Spanish ruler in the southern Netherlands) dies around 1637, leading to a bit of Spanish confusion of wich the Dutch profit and manage to capture Antwerp, while they manage to keep Venlo and Roermond. The war continues as normal and in the end the Dutch manage to capture Bruges just before the war ends. The end result: The Netherlands is slightly bigger and includes Venlo, Roermond, Antwerp and Bruges.
Antwerp is interesting. It is a major port, but within a catholic part of the Netherlands. It will no doubt become part of State-Brabant, meaning it will be ruled by the the Estate-General (Dutch parliament) and have basicly no influence within the Netherlands as opposed to the cities in Holland and Zeeland. Still Antwerp is an excelent port and will be used so. So this catholic city will increase in wealth and although the wealthiest citizens might be protestants (either local possibly converted protestants or protestants from other parts of the Netherlands), the catholic population will become wealthier than most other catholics were in OTL Netherlands.
Anyway, this was not the only thing I thought of. I thought of including other butterflies. One thing will be a short power struggle between the Dutch stadholder Willem II and the rich merchants ruling Holland. In the end the the rich merchant win and renounce the stadholdership of Willem II and basicly banish him to Gelderland/Overijssel/Utrecht who still wish to keep him as stadholder (while Zeeland follows the example of Holland). Also Willem II lives long enough to get a couple of more kids, so his son isn't the only succesor.
This power struggle delays the first (and I am thinking only) Anglo-Dutch war. Because of this when the Dutch colony in Recife revolts, they are able to sent more troops and end the revolt harshly, killing many Portuguese and replacing them with more loyal subjects (like Dutch, Flemish and walloon protestant, Hugenots, Germans, Jews, etc.). So Dutch Brasil remains Dutch (although it isn't all of Brazil, just the area around Recife, north and south of it remains Portuguese).
Anyway, eventually the Anglo-Dutch war will happen. The Dutch are not prepared and lose at the beginning. The English manage to capture Malacca and the Dutch outposts on Sumatra, but they are beaten before they reach Java/Batavia. In the America's the Dutch do better, because they have Brasil as base. The Dutch manage to capture/keep the Virgin Islands (St Thomas, St John, Jost van Dijk, Tortola and Virging Gorda). They manage to keep the New Netherlands/New Amsterdam and capture part of English Guyana (Surinam), but not all of it. At the end of the war the Dutch return Surinam to the English, while the English return the parts of the New Netherlands they captured. The English keep Sumatra and Malacca though (and the Dutch keep the Virgin Islands).
England meanwhile remains a republic (not sure how though, probably a more competent succesor to Cromwell) and tries to become allies with the Netherlands to fight the evil catholic hordes. The Netherlands isn't interested at first, until France starts to become a dangerous foe. Like OTL in 1672 France attack the Netherlands from the east, through Münster and Cologne, but unlike OTL, they don't have the support of England. Republican England decides to help the Netherlands as do other allies, like Brandenburg, Spain and the HRE, who also fear France. Like OTL the Dutch manage to defeat France, but with help of the English they are more succesful as OTL, so they decide to annex the wester half of Münster as a buffer, creating staats-Munsterland out of it. England meanwhile keeps Dunkirk.
Basicly this is what I have. Other ideas I have is giving Portugal the (eastern) lesser Sunda Islands and thus "balkanizing" Indonesia, with Dutch Java and Maluccans, a Portuguese lesser Sunda Islands and a English Sumatra. Furthermore I like the idea of a Dutch Taiwan, so I need a way for the Dutch to recapture it (or not to lose it in the first place).
So any comments?