The Treaty of Alliance that was signed in Paris, in February 1635, committed the Republic to invade the Spanish Netherlands simultaneously with France later that year. The treaty previewed a partitioning of the Spanish Netherlands between the two invaders. If the inhabitants would rise against Spain, the Southern Netherlands would be afforded independence on the model of the Cantons of Switzerland, though with the Flemish seacoast, Namur, and Thionville annexed by France, and Breda, Geldern, and Hulst going to the Republic. If the inhabitants resisted, the country would be partitioned outright, with the romance-speaking provinces and western Flanders going to France, and the remainder to the Republic. The latter partitioning opened the prospect that Antwerp would be re-united with the Republic, and the Scheldt reopened for trade in that city, something Amsterdam was very much opposed to. The treaty also provided that the Catholic religion would be preserved in its entirety in the provinces to be apportioned to the Republic. This provision was understandable from the French point of view, as the French government had recently suppressed the Huguenots in their strongpoint of La Rochelle (with support of the Republic), and generally was reducing Protestant privileges. It enraged the radical Calvinists in the Republic, however. The treaty was not popular in the Republic for those reasons.