Here it is
It is the raw version, so dont get your hopes up

:
Assignment History: Rewrite History
Willem of O. never joins the ‘’revolt’’.
This is a report for History. I have to write about the period from roughly the second half of the 16th century to 1813. My assignment is to describe this period, but I have to change something. My change is that Willem of Orange never helped, and neither did his family.
We start in the year 1568, when Willem of O. (in reality) fought at the Slag of Heiligerlee (I know this is not his first fight, but it is the one best known). Here the ''Dutch'' army fought the Spanish, and won their first victory. This was such a big event, because it showed that the Spanish weren´t invincible! However, in my parallel universe, this never happened! People were dissatisfied, but with no strong leader to guide them, and no one willing to spend their hard earned money on a gamble, it led to just a few riots. Because of the dissatisfaction of the Dutch, the Spanish still needed to keep a large force in The Netherlands, especially in the North. In 1576 something changed. Requesens didn’t die (I believe that I your relive history all chances are taken again), and because of the ''Imperial overstretch'' of the Spanish, they had no money to pay their soldiers, causing a number of cities to revolt.
I think that these cities-provinces would have revolted because they were important in that scene, and because the Spaniards were now everywhere in the Low Countries, it caused a total collapse of the Spanish military. Al the marked provinces united, and the cities started buildings a larger defence. The provinces and cities in the south were to scared for the military, as most units were stationed there, so the Spanish still managed to keep a large part of their territory. Phillips II, of course, was outraged, and he needed a new leader to take care of the rebellion. This was Alex Farnese. Because the revolted provinces had no leader, no general, and no clue of what to do, the provinces were, except for the cities of Brussels, Antwerp and of course Amsterdam. We now skip to the year 1588, when Spain built the Spanish Armada. Because more troops were available, they succeeded in attack the English fleet, and it forced a peace between the 2 nations. However, the Spanish still lost more than half of their fleet, and because it cost a lot of money, the fleet was disbanded (the ships remained), and was to be used in times of war, when the nation needed the fleet the most. In 1598, the year Phillips II died, and I will let that event remain.
He was followed by Phillips III, who realised that if he didn’t change anything quickly, he would lose his northern provinces. He lowered taxes, gave the Dutch an own government (under watch of Spain) and withdrew his armies from the countryside, invaded any opposing cities (the 3 mentioned above) and after that he withdrew half of his army from the Netherlands, allowing him to use them in other parts of the world. His last thing was a successful decision, and it allowed Spain to keep its position as a world empire. The people were now satisfied, they were no longer oppressed, but they still had to pay large sums of money to Spain, as they were now a protectorate of Spain. This meant that the Dutch had to (if they wanted it or not) had to pay large sums of money to Spain, but if they were attacked, Spain would assist them. This was a new source of dissatisfaction, and the Dutch began building a new army. After a few years their army was ready, and it was stationed in the capital of The United Provinces, Antwerp (This is logical, because the river Scheldt was never closed, so no Golden Age for the Northern provinces!). In 1621, the Belgium (I will now start referring to the Netherlands as Belgium, because of the new capital, and they were the richest) army was finished, and the United Provinces quickly declared their independence, and also declared that the Protector, Spain, was no longer needed. This of course, angered the Spanish, and they were demanding war. The United Provinces quickly made an alliance with many great neighbours, including France, Great Brittain and Little Germany (all German speaking countries, excluding Austria) (the thing that happened to the Low Countries, the Protectorateship, also applied here). These countries all had ties with Spain, and many liked to see it eliminated.
In 1621, the United Provinces Declared war on Spain, and so did its allies. This caused a massive war, mainly fought out in Europe, in Spain and France. This war ended in 1630 after a few naval defeats on the Spanish side, and after the annexation and liberation of Catalonia and Portugal, in respective order. This caused the 2 new nations (The United Provinces and Little Germany) to acquire large wealth, and a lot of ex-Spanish colonies (all Spanish colonies had to be given to the alliance, in turn for peace). The Belgium and the Dutch people were now so happy, and rich that they made Amsterdam to what it should have been, a new European trade capital: Because of the increased trade, a new port was needed, and Amsterdam had one. It was reconstructed entirely, and it had most modern features a port could have. This caused wealth to finally reach the Northern Provinces. Because both the Catholic and the Protestant religion were tolerated, many religious fugitives from other countries came to the United Provinces, which caused a large growth here. A period of peace entered in the United Provinces, and only in 1750 would it be broken again.
This was when the French declared war on the United Provinces. An early revolution had broken out in France, because of the fact that the United Provinces had such wealth and religious freedom, and the French saw that they didn’t have to be oppressed under a monarchy, but they could be free to elect their leaders, like in ancient Athens. After the revolution, many monarchies declared war on France, including the members of the old Alliance, and Spain and Portugal. Because France was at war with many nations, they decided that they needed a puppet state in the North, to protect them from naval invasions by the Brits, and therefore they declared war on the Netherlands. The Dutch, however, had already adopted military tactics such as mass conscriptions, and having the best men lead the army. This caused the French to be defeated and invaded from all sides, but they managed to keep their grounds. The Pyrenees were heavily fortified, and so were the Ardennes. After a long stalemate(15 years) both sides gathered a large army, but eventually the Alliance, and Champagne was given to the United Provinces, Catalonia was given back to Spain, Alsace was give to Little Germany and Normandy was in English hands.
Another 35 years past and a man rose to the French top. It was the new French President, Napoleon Bonaparte. He quickly took back all of France’s old regions, and even took northern Italy. The danger was clear to all of the old members of the Alliance, and they got up arms again to stop this madman from taking Europe. The war took 10 years, but after those 10 years all of the Alliance, with exception of Spain had either a large Military, or a large navy. All nations started arming themselves, waiting for a ‘’World’’ war, which would take place in almost all regions of the world. The Dutch had almost all of the South American colonies, Germany had a lot of African Colonies, and finally Great Britain had colonies in South-East Asia. This would happen in 1811. The Dutch and the Brits made an Alliance, and so did the French and the Spanish. Germany wanted to keep it’s colonies, so it didn’t enter the war. It was a bloody war, and it resulted in the complete destruction of the English colonies. The Dutch President Pieter P. Led the country in this awful period, and after the war, the Dutch realised that their President had done such a good job, that he was declared King of the Netherlands! In 1813 he was coronated, and the Dutch became a constitutional country, because they weren’t prepared to give away a lot of freedom. The King now had a President-like position, and he had to make many important decisions. When he died the entire nation grieved, as he had greatly decreased the poverty, the unemployment, and had drastically increased the wealth.
Like you see in this report, I am a believer of the ‘’butterfly’’ effect, and I believe that any small change in history will cause a larger effect in the future, even if It was indirect. I have had a lot of fun making this up, and I hope you will read it as a kind of story. I don’t think that everything in this report is very realistic, but if you look at it step by step it seems plausible (to me). I hope you had fun reading it!
EDIT: There were picture, but I cant find the links, sorry