Wars in Early Modern News: Dutch News Media and Military Conflicts

In the early modern era the supply of news changed considerably due to the appearance of various new newsmedia. Already in the sixteenth century news reports no longer reached the population just through the spoken word, songs or manuscript texts. Printed news tidings and pamphlets, engravings and cartographic material began to diversify the availability of traditional oral and manuscript media. From the seventeenth century onwards the printed newspaper increasingly satiated demands for coverage of current affairs. A substantial part of early modern news was devoted to coverage of the wars that plagued the European continent. The Dutch Republic was involved in numerous wars, sometimes as a protagonist, at other times as a mediating neutral power. News of military confrontations was important. Regents, merchants and ordinary citizens wished to know the latest developments and outcomes of conflicts for a variety of reasons. Many were curious about the strength and size of armies and fleets, the courage or cowardice of allied or enemy troops, the tensions between allied partners, terms of surrender, peace treaties and many other military facts and figures. Such interest is universal, but the means to satisfy this curiosity are of course bound to their time, and are closely connected with technological and infrastructural developments. The publication of newspapers and other printed news media fostered an expanding reading public and made ever more information available. For potentates and princes this development was a double-edged sword. Their political actions were influenced by the media, even if they did not have to justify their decisions.The authorities hoped to exercise control over themedia by regulating the activities of news writers and publishers, implementing censorship and manipulating the news itself. But they could rarely prevent or restrict the emergence of political unrest or an independent public opinion, especially in threatening conditions.