The Eighty Years' War (1568–1648), was triggered by the Spanish government's policy towards protestantism, which was becoming popular in the Low Countries. The rebellious northern United Provinces (''Belgica Foederata'' in Latin, the "Federated Netherlands") eventually separated from the Southern Netherlands (''Belgica Regia'', the "Royal Netherlands"). The latter were ruled successively by the Spanish (Spanish Netherlands) and the Austrian Habsburgs (Austrian Netherlands) and comprised most of modern Belgium. This was the theatre of several more protracted conflicts during much of the 17th and 18th centuries involving France, including the Franco-Dutch War (1672–1678), the Nine Years' War (1688–1697), the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714), and part of the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–1748).