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Why did Mare Liberum strengthen the Dutch position in negotiations for the Twelve Years’ Truce?

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Oil portrait of Hugo de Groot, also known as Hugo Grotius, by the workshop of Michiel Janszoon van Mierevelt, showing him with a ruffled white collar and dark clothing. — Hugo Grotius Portrait of Hugo de Groot (Hugo Grotius), oil on panel by the workshop of Michiel Janszoon van Mierevelt, 1631; in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

Mare Liberum (The Freedom of the Seas) strengthened the Dutch position during negotiations for the Twelve Years’ Truce by providing a legal defense for free access to the ocean for all nations.12

At the time, Spain and Portugal claimed a monopoly on trade with the East Indies, effectively barring other nations from these routes. By arguing that these powers had deprived the Dutch of their natural trading rights through such monopolies, Hugo Grotius used the work to challenge the concept of territorial sovereignty over the seas. This intellectual framework supported the Dutch East India Company’s interests and bolstered the Dutch diplomatic stance against Spanish claims during the 1609 negotiations.12