History of the Netherlands - Definition by WordIQ

The Conspiracy of Julius Civilis, completed in 1661 by Rembrandt, the best-known painter of the Dutch Golden Age. It depicts an Batavian oath to Gaius Julius Civilis, the head of the Batavian rebellion against the Romans in 68 AD. It was to be hung in the city hall of Amsterdam, as an display of heroism analoguous to that of the recent Eighty Years' War, that had led to independence from Spain. However, it was rejected because Rembrandt did not paint the figures as idealisations, but as real people.

If one takes the oldest signs of human acitivity as a starting point for the history of the Netherlands, then such a history would span a hundred thousand years. However, it is not until the arrival of the Romans, who annexated the southern part of the present-day country, that written sources on its inhabitants become abundant. At the time of the Roman occupation, the country is inhabited by various Germanic tribes, who merge with newcomers from other Germanic tribes during the Völkerwanderung following the fall of the Roman empire. In the medieval period, the Low Countries (roughly present-day Belgium and the Netherlands) consist of various countships and duchies belonging to the Holy Roman Empire. These are united into one state under Habsburg rule in the 16th century. The Counter-Reformation following the success of Calvinism in the Netherlands, and the attempts to centralise government, led to a revolt against Philip II of Spain. In 1581, independence is declared, and finally recognized after the Eighty Years' War (1568-1648). The years of the war also mark the beginning of the Dutch Golden Age, a period of great commercial and cultural prosperity rougly spanning the 17th century.
After the French occupation at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century, the Netherlands started out as a monarchy, governed by the House of Orange. However, strong liberal sentiments could no longer be ignored, and the country became a parliamentary democracy with a constitutional monarch in 1848. It remains so until this day, with a brief interruption during the occupation by Nazi Germany. The Netherlands is now a modern, industrialised nation and a large exporter of agricultural products.

Pre-history era

The Netherlands have been inhabited since the last ice age; the oldest remnants that have been found are a hundred thousand years old. During the last ice age, the Netherlands had a tundra climate with very scarce vegetation. The first inhabitants were hunter-gatherers that lived during the last ice age. After the end of the ice age, the area was inhabited by various paleolithic groups. From a much earlier age are the first notable remains of Dutch prehistory: the dolmens, large stone grave monuments. They can be found in the province of Drenthe, and were probably built by people of the farming Funnelbeaker culture between 3400 and 3200 BC Agriculture arrived in the Netherlands around 5000 BC, but was at first practised only on the loess plateau in the very south (Zuid-Limburg).
At the time of the Roman arrival, the Netherlands were inhabited by various Germanic tribes who had settled there around 600 BC, such as the Batavii, the Tubanti, the Canninefates and the Frisians. In nationalistic views, the Batavii were sometimes regarded as the "true" forefathers of the Dutch.

Roman era

In the 1st century BC, the Romans conquerered the southern part of the Netherlands where they built the first cities and created the Roman province of Germania Inferior. For the majority of the Roman occupation, the boundary of the Roman Empire lay along the Rhine. Romans built the first cities in the Netherlands, most importantly Utrecht, Nijmegen, and Maastricht. The northern part of the Netherlands, outside the Roman Empire, where the Frisians lived (and still do), was also heavily influenced by its strong southern neighbour. The Romans also introduced the script.
The relationship with the orginal inhabitants was on the whole quite good; some Batavians even served in the Roman cavalry. However, this could not prevent the Batavian rebellion of 69 AD, an unsuccesful revolt under the leadership of Batavian Gaius Julius Civilis. The Roman civilisation in the area was eventually overrun in the mass migration of Germanic peoples — later known as the Völkerwanderung — which created three new cultures in the Netherlands: Frisians on the coast, the Saxons in the east, and the Franks in the south.

Holy Roman empire

After the fall of the Roman Empire and the subsequent period of turmoil, the Netherlands was divided in three parts, the Frisians living by the coast, the Saxons in the east, and the Franks in the south. The Franks managed to overcome their neighbours. Under Charlemagne, a Frankish empire was built, having its heartland in the future Belgium and northern France, and spanning France, Germany, northern Italy, and several other regions. The Frankish empire divided and re-united several times, in the end giving rise to two major powers, France and the Holy Roman Empire in Germany. The Netherlands formed part of the latter.

The Holy Roman Empire, however, did not retain political unity. Local vassals made their countships and duchies into private kingdoms and felt not much obliged to the emperor, who over large parts of the nation governed only in name. Large parts of what now comprise the Netherlands were governed by the count of Holland, the duke of Gelre, the duke of Brabant and the bishop of Utrecht, but Friesland and Groningen in the north kept their independence, being governed by the lower nobility. Most of what is now the Netherlands and Belgium was united by the duke of Burgundy.

Struggle for independence and the Golden Age

Eighty Years' War

Flag of the revolt — orange, white, blue

Through inheritance and conquest, all of the Low Countries became possessions of the Habsburg dynasty under Charles V in the 16th century, who united them into one state. However, in 1548, eight years before his abdication from the throne, Emperor Carlos V granted the Seventeen Provinces of the Netherlands status as an entity separate from both the Empire and from France. This Pragmatic Sanction of 1548 was not full independence, but it allowed significant autonomy.

Charles was succeeded by his son Philip II of Spain. Unlike his father, who had been raised in Ghent (Belgium), Philip had little personal attachment to the Low Countries (where he only stayed for four years), and thus was perceived as detached by the local nobility. A devout Catholic, Philip was appalled by the success of the Reformation in the Low Countries, which had led to an increasing number of Calvinists. His attempts to enforce religious persecution of the Protestants and his endeavours to centralise government, justice and taxes made him unpopular and led to a revolt.

Taxation

During the fifteenth century, the Netherlands became an entrepreneurial and wealthy region in the Hapsburg empire. Charles V and Philip II would tax the Dutch when they needed to raise funds for military expeditions, leading a Dutch perception of Spain as exploitative. Before Lepanto, the Habsburg's taxed the Netherlands to finance war against the Turks. After Lepanto, Philip II used the Dutch to finance new wars in the Atlantic. Dutch noblemen objected to these wars against some of their most important trading partners. These noblemen were not landed aristocrats, but had risen through trade and finance. They were alienated by Philip II's actions, putting their fortunes at risk.

Protestantism

The Dutch nobles were not Protestants at first. However, Dutch demands for freedom of conscience were added to their grievances. As the Habsburg empire was informed by a politicized Catholicism, Dutch demands grew increasingly repugnant to Philip II. Ruthless Count Alva was thus sent to suppress the Dutch rebellion. By 1570 however, the Netherlands were in open revolt against the Catholic absolutism in Spain. The Dutch resented Spanish taxation, and feared the methods of the Inquisition. The resentments fuelled Dutch protests about their rights, liberties, and religious toleration upon which their wealth from free trade relied.

The Dutch compared their Calvinist values favorably with the luxurious habits of Spains Catholic nobility. Symbolic stories from the New Testament, featuring fisherman, shipbuilders and simple occupations resonated among the Dutch. The Calvinist movement emphasized Christian virtues of modesty, cleanliness, frugality and hard work. By the seventeenth century, Dutch society was religious, urban, literate and wealthy. It was sustained by cooperation and social cohesion based on the values of the urban merchants and artisans.

Notably, Dutch Protestantism was compatible with secular values: trade, commerce, education, and sovereignty. The United Provinces emerged as the first "trading state," as well as becoming an intellectual center for seventeenth-century Europe. The Protestant and Calvinist elements of the rebellion represented a moral challenge to the Spanish empire.

Struggle

William of Orange, a nobleman from whom every Dutch monarch descends (including the present Queen), led the Dutch during the first part of the war. The very first years were a success for the Spanish troops, during which they recaptured Antwerp and other Flemish and Dutch cities. However, subsequent sieges in Holland were countered by the Dutch, and the developments in the following part of the war largely favored the Republic, that recaptured most of the territory in the Netherlands (but not in Flanders, leading to the historical split between The Netherlands and Flanders). The Peace of Westphalia, signed on January 30, 1648, confirmed the independence of the United Provinces from Spain.

Golden Age

During the Eighty Years' War the Dutch also started large-scale overseas trade: they hunted whales near Svalbard, traded spices with India and Indonesia (via the Dutch East India Company, the first company that issued shares of stock) and started colonies in Brazil, New Amsterdam (now New York), South Africa and the West Indies. The nation prospered, and the economy blossomed. Due to these developments the 17th century is often called the golden age (de gouden eeuw) of the Netherlands. As the Netherlands were a republic, they were largely governed by an aristocracy of city-merchants, called regenten (literally: regents), rather than by a king. Every city and province had its own government and laws, and a large degree of autonomy. After unsuccessful attemps to find a competent sovereign, it was decided that the sovereignty would lie with the Staten (Estates), the body of government of a province, which was very exceptional. The Staten-Generaal (Estates-General), with its representatives from all provinces, would decide on matters important to the Republic in its entirety. However, at the head of each province was the stadtholder of that province, and usually (but not always), the head of the most important provinces was the same single descendant of the House of Orange.

Following the recognition of the independence of the Netherlands, a decline of the wealth of the Dutch set in. In 1650, the stadtholder William II, Prince of Orange died, leaving the nation without a powerful ruler. Since the conception of the Republic, there had been an ongoing struggle for power between the regenten and the House of Orange, whose supporters, or Orangists, were mainly to be found among the common people. For now, the dispute was decided in favor of the regents: there would be no new stadtholder (in Holland) for 22 years to come. In the year 1651, England imposed the 1651 Navigation Act, which severely hurt Dutch trade interests. An incident at sea concerning the Act resulted in the First Anglo-Dutch War, which lasted from 1652 to 1654, ending in the Treaty of Westminster (1654), by which the Navigation Act remained in effect.

Michiel de Ruyter, a famous Dutch admiral, destroyed a large part of the English fleet in 1667, during the Second Anglo-Dutch War. This led to the Treaty of Breda.

The Second Anglo-Dutch War began in 1665 when the English declared war — they had already attacked Dutch settlements in the New Netherlands. Because the Dutch were also troubled by French invasions in the Spanish Netherlands (present-day Belgium), the English and Dutch signed a peace treaty, the 1667 Treaty of Breda, after Dutch admiral Michiel de Ruyter had destroyed a large part of the English fleet on the Thames. It was agreed that the English would keep the Dutch possesions in North America (the area around current New York City), while they would give control of Surinam to the Dutch. Also, the Navigation Act was loosened.

1672 is known in the Netherlands as the Rampjaar (disaster year). England declared war on the Republic, (the Third Anglo-Dutch War), followed by France, Münster and Cologne, which had all signed alliances against the Republic. France, Cologne and Münster invaded the Republic, while an English attempt to land on Dutch shore could only just be prevented. In the meantime, a new stadtholder, William III, was appointed. With the aid of other German nations, the Dutch succeeded in fighting back Cologne and Münster, after which the peace is signed with both of them, and England as well, in 1674 (Second Treaty of Westminster (1674)). In 1678, peace was made with France, although the Spanish and German allies felt betrayed by the treaty signed in Nijmegen.

French rule

Napoléon turned the Netherlands into the Kingdom of Holland in 1806.

At the end of the 18th century, unrest was growing in the Netherlands. There was conflict between the Orangists, wanting stadtholder William V of Orange to obtain more power, and the patriots, who under influence of the American and French Revolutions wanted a more democratic government. Holland was the first country to salute the American flag, and Britain declared war before the country could join a group of neutral countries sworn to mutual assistance. This Fourth Anglo-Dutch War (1780–1784) proved a disaster for the Netherlands, particularly economically. In 1785 there was a democratic ('patriotic') revolt, but the House of Orange called upon their Prussian relatives to put it down. Many patriots fled the country to France.

After the French Revolution, the French invaded the Netherlands and Napoleon made it part of the French empire. The French settled the internal strife in favour of the Patriots, who created the short-lived Batavian Republic. French influence was strong, and Napoleon turned the Netherlands (including a small part of Germany) into the Kingdom of Holland, with his brother Louis (Lodewijk) Bonaparte as king. This also did not last very long, because when Napoleon noticed that his brother put the Dutch interests before the French, he made the Netherlands part of the French empire.

The occupation was ended when the United Kingdom intervened. On May 18 1803, Britain declared war on France after France refused to withdraw from Dutch territory. The House of Orange in the meantime signed a treaty with the UK in which they gave to that country the Dutch colonies in 'safekeeping' and ordered the colonial governors to surrender to the British. This put an end to most of the Dutch colonial empire. Guyana and Ceylon never returned to Dutch rule. The Cape colony was briefly returned to the Batavian Republic but became definitively British after 1806. Other colonies, including Indonesia, were returned following the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814 (there was also an Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824).

Monarchy

After the Napoleonic era the Netherlands were put back on the map of Europe. The country had always been part of the precarious balance of power that had kept France in check. Particularly the Russian tsar wanted the Netherlands to resume this role and wanted the colonies to be returned. A compromise was struck with Britain at the Congress of Vienna, whereby only Indonesia was returned, but the North and South of the Netherlands reunited. In 1815 the country became a monarchy, with the son of the last stadtholder, William V, the Prince of Orange as king William I. William's United Kingdom of the Netherlands originally consisted of what is now the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, but the French-speaking Belgian ruling minority soon began feeling like second-class citizens. The primary factors that contributed to this feeling were religious (the predominantly Catholic South versus the mostly Protestant North), economic (the South was industrialising, the North had always been a merchants' nation) and linguistic (the French-speaking South was not just Wallonia, but also extended to the French-speaking bourgeoisie in the Flemish cities). In 1830 the situation exploded, the Belgians revolted and declared independence from the North. King William sent an army in 1831, but it was forced to retreat after a few days when the French army was mobilised. The North refused to recognise Belgium until 1839.

By the end of the 19th century, in the New Imperialism wave of colonization, the Netherlands extended their hold on Indonesia. In 1860 Multatuli wrote Max Havelaar, the most famous book in the history of Dutch literature, criticizing the exploitation of the country and its inhabitants by the Dutch.

20th century

World War I

Although its army mobilised when World War I broke out in August 1914, the Netherlands remained a neutral country. The German invasion of Belgium that same year led to a large flow of refugees from that country (about 1 million). It is a little known fact that the German Imperial Army did violate Dutch neutrality at the invasion of Belgium. They entered from Germany and left into Belgium, effectively taking a small "short-cut" over Dutch lands.

The country being surrounded by states at war, and with the North Sea unsafe for civilian ships to sail on, food became scarce; food was now distributed using coupons. An error in food distribution caused the so-called Aardappeloproer (Potato-rebellion) in Amsterdam in 1917, when civilians plundered a food transport intended for soldiers. In November 1918 the leader of the Sociaal Democratische Arbeiders Partij (SDAP, Social-Democratic Labour Party), Pieter Jelles Troelstra, called for a socialist revolution among the workers, but his plan was met with little enthusiasm.

Interbellum

Although both houses of the Dutch parliament were elected by the people, only men with high incomes were eligible for voting. This situation lasted until 1918, when pressure from socialist movements had resulted in elections in which all men were allowed to vote. From 1922 onward, women could vote as well.

The worldwide Great Depression of 1929 and the early 1930s had crippling effects on the Dutch economy, effects which lasted longer than they did in most European countries. The depression lead to large unemployment and poverty, as well as increasing social unrest. Riots in a working class neighbourhood in Amsterdam were put down with army assistance, with fatal consequences for seven people.

The rise of Nazism in Germany did not go unnoticed in the Netherlands, and there was growing concern over the possibility of armed conflict. However, some say the threat of Nazi agression was not fully acknowledged by the government of the time. An ofted mentioned example is a particular statement by prime minister Hendrik Colijn at the end of his radio speech on the occupation of the Rhineland. He stressed that citizens could sleep safely, because there was no reason for concern.

World War II

Anne Frank's diary has been translated into some 60 languages since its publication.

At the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the Netherlands declared their neutrality again. However, on May 10, 1940, Nazi Germany launched an attack on the Netherlands and Belgium and overran most of the country quickly, fighting against a poorly-equipped Dutch army.

By May 14, fighting was only occurring in a few isolated locations, including Rotterdam. That same day, at 10:35am, Nazi Germany demanded, in an ill-formatted ultimatum — it was signed simply "the commanding officer of the troops at Rotterdam", without giving the exact identity of the sender — that the Netherlands surrender the city within two hours, to which the commander in chief, General Henri Winkelman, replied through the garrison commander at 12:15 that only a correctly-signed ultimatum would be considered. Around 13:30 a new ultimatum was handed out to a Dutch officer, and a reply was expected before 16:30. However, at the same time the bombardment of Rotterdam began, killing about 800 people and destroying large parts of the city, leaving 78,000 homeless. Following the bombardment and German threats of the same for Utrecht, general Winkelman capitulated.

However, the capitulation affected only the Royal Netherlands Army — not the Royal Netherlands Navy, the air force or the Netherlands East Indies Army, in the Dutch East Indies. in this way, the Netherlands did not cease to exist, which proved of vital importance for the governing of the overseas territories and for keeping the Navy active against Germany. The royal family and some military forces fled to Britain.

Nazi Germany's civil administration of the Netherlands was headed by Arthur Seyss-Inquart. Persecution of the Jews, of which about 140,000 lived in the Netherlands at the start of the war, including some 20,000 refugees, started immediately after the invasion. In 1942, a transport camp was erected near Westerbork. Concentration camps were built near Vught and Amersfoort. At the end of the war, only about 20,000 of the 140,000 Dutch Jews remained alive. Anne Frank, who later gained world-wide fame when her diary, written in the Achterhuis, while hiding from the Nazis, was found and published, died shortly before the liberation of her camp on May 5, 1945.

Following the refusal of the Netherlands government-in-exile to allow the sale of oil from the Dutch East Indies to Japan, Japanese forces invaded Dutch territory on January 11, 1942. The Dutch surrendered on March 8, after Japanese troops landed on Java. Dutch citizens were captured and put to work in labour camps. However, many Dutch ships and military personnel managed to reach Australia, from where they were able to fight against the Japanese.

In Europe, after the Allies landed in Normandy in June 1944, they proceeded quickly towards the Dutch border. On September 5 most of the Dutch thought the liberation would be very soon; the day is known as Dolle Dinsdag (Mad Tuesday). On September 17 a daring operation, Operation Market Garden, was staged to make a quick incursion into the southern Netherlands and capture bridges across the three main rivers. The bridge at Arnhem, across the Rhine, could however not be captured. The part south of the rivers was liberated in the period September - November 1944. However, for most of the country people would have to wait until May 1945.

The winter 1944–1945 was very harsh, and many Dutch starved, giving the winter the name Hongerwinter (Hunger winter). On May 5, 1945, following Allied victories in Nazi Germany, Nazi Germany finally surrendered, signing the surrender to the Dutch at Wageningen.

Post-war years

, the former , had been a very valuable resource, and the Dutch feared its independence would lead to an economic downfall.

Indonesia, the former Dutch East Indies, had been a very valuable resource, and the Dutch feared its independence would lead to an economic downfall.

Allied forces had liberated parts of the Dutch East Indies in mid-1945. Japan surrendered on August 15, 1945, after the United States had dropped two atomic bombs on Japan. Two days later, the colony declared its independence as Indonesia. A confusing phase followed, known as the Indonesian National Revolution, with the Netherlands recognising the new country on the one hand, while fighting the Indonesian nationalists in two wars, or "police actions". Increasing international pressure from the United Nations, and the United States (which threatened to stop Marshall Plan aid), and Indonesian determination led the Netherlands to accept the new situation. Indonesia formally gained independence on December 27, 1949. Only the western half of New Guinea remained Dutch (until 1961).

Although it was originally expected that the loss of the Indies would lead to an economic downfall, the reverse proved to be true, and in the 1950s and 60s the Dutch economy experienced a near unprecedented growth. In fact, the demand for labor was so strong, that immigration was actively encouraged, first from Italy and Spain; then later on, in larger numbers, from Turkey and Morocco. Combined with the immigration from (former) colonies like Indonesia, Surinam and Netherlands Antilles, this meant that the Netherlands were becoming a multicultural country.

The 60s and 70s were a time of great social and cultural changes. Such as rapid ontzuiling (literally: depillarization), a term that describes the process of the gradual decay of the old divisions along class and religious lines (which had lead to things like separate education and separate tv broadcasts for catholics, protestants, socialists and liberals). Youths, and students in particular, rejected the traditional morale, and pushed for social change in matters like women's rights, sexuality and environmental issues. Today, the Netherlands is regarded as a very liberal country, considering its drugs policy and its legalisation of euthanasia. Same-sex marriage became permitted on 1 April 2001. At that time the Netherlands were the only country where gay marriages were not only allowed, but also considered fully equivalent to heterosexual ones.

In 1952 the Netherlands were among the founders of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) (together with France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium and Luxembourg). The ECSC would over time evolve into the European Union. A modern, industrialised nation, the Netherlands is also a large exporter of agricultural products. The country was a founding member of NATO and participated in the introduction of the euro in 1999. In recent years the Dutch have often been a driving force behind the integration of European countries in the European Union.

For a long time Dutch politics were dominated by the Christian Democrat parties, which have been in every government since the 1910s, sometimes in coalition with the liberal party, sometimes with the social democrats. This changed in 1994, when social-democrats and liberals formed the so-called "Purple Cabinet", which governed till 2002. Currently, the government consists of a center-right coalition of Christian Democrats (CDA), Liberals (VVD), and a small liberal party called Democrats 66.

On 6 May 2002, the murder on Pim Fortuyn, a right-wing populist calling for a very strict policy on immigration, shocked the country. His party became a major political force after the elections, significantly changing the political landscape. However, infighting within the party caused them to lose much of their following in elections the next year. Another political murder took place on 2 November 2004, when film director and publicist Theo van Gogh was assasinated by a Dutch-Moroccan youth with radical islamitic beliefs. This sparked debate on the existence of radical Islam in the Netherlands, and on immigration and integration (or lack thereof) as well.

History of the Netherlands - Definition and Overview