Discover Netherlands : History

In prehistoric times

The first human settlements date back to 150,000 BC. To the north, a people built hunebedden, a kind of covered walkway made of huge hieratic blocks reminiscent of dolmens. Around 2100 BC, the use of bronze tools became widespread.

Roman domination

57 BC: Conquest of the Netherlands by Julius Caesar. A road network was set up. Along the rivers, they built the first dykes that they dotted with fortified posts, notably Maastricht, Nijmegen and Utrecht. In the 4th century AD, the Roman Empire was weakened and the Romans withdrew entirely from North-Western Europe.

Feudal period

The Netherlands were part of the Frankish empire where Charlemagne liked to stay. At the death of his son Louis the Pious, the empire is divided by the treaty of Verdun, in 843, between his three sons. Lothar II inherited the region which included the Netherlands, excluding Flanders. The territory was then annexed to both eastern and western France. Henry I, King of Germania, subdued Lotharingia in 925, and the Netherlands were thus formally integrated into the Holy Roman Empire until 1648. The Netherlands consisted of several practically autonomous territories, of which Flanders and Brabant were the most powerful. We speak of the seigniorial era

Burgundian period

In the 15th century, the family of the Dukes of Burgundy extended its authority over various regions of the Netherlands, Belgium and eastern France: it was a golden age for trade, industry and the arts. In 1477, Charles the Bold died on the battlefield; possessions returned to the Habsburgs through marriage. Mary of Burgundy (1457-1482), the only daughter of Charles the Bold, fearing that the Netherlands would disintegrate, convened a general assembly.

Charles V

Charles V successively subdued Friesland (1524), Overijssel and the bishopric of Utrecht (1528), Groningen and Drenthe (1536); finally, in 1543, he succeeded in annexing Guelders. He tried, in vain, to weld the unity of the seventeen provinces.

The rise of the cities and the bourgeoisie, the invention of printing and the need for a religious reorientation prepared the way for the expansion of a movement, the Reformation in the Netherlands. As an opponent of Luther and his followers, Charles V fought the Reformation to preserve the political and religious unity of his empire. However, in 1555, he had to sign the Peace of Augsburg; each German prince could decide on the religion of his subjects, but this implied that the Netherlands remained Catholic. Charles V abdicated in 1555, his brother Ferdinand succeeded him on the throne of the Holy Roman Empire; his only son Philip II received Spain and the seventeen provinces.

The United Provinces revolt

Philippe II becomes in 1555 sovereign of the Netherlands. He feels above all Spanish and knows badly these provinces which are however a more and more important part of his kingdom.

The high nobility of the Netherlands revolted with William of Orange at its head. In August 1566, general fury was unleashed, leading to multiple destructions. This violence was not only dictated by religious motives, but also by social motives; the way in which the rulers governed the country aroused discontent. Philip II had to send an army led by the Duke of Alba who became governor and whose mission was to severely punish all rebels and eradicate heresy. The Prince of Orange fled to Germany.

Many people left the Netherlands. William of Orange, having collected the necessary money, raises an army to invade the Netherlands in different places at the same time and raise the people. In 1568, he entered at the head of an army at Heiligerlee, in Groningen. This was the beginning of a period that lasted until 1648 and was therefore called the Eighty Years War. In 1572, with the support of the French Huguenots, William of Orange prepared new attacks.

In Holland and Zeeland, the long-awaited popular revolt broke out. On their own initiative, the rebel cities convened a meeting of the States in Dordrecht, which again appointed William of Orange as stathouder. He was appointed stathouder and not head of state because it was assumed that the revolt was not against the king, but against his bad advisors. The Duke of Alba then moved north with his army and conquered city after city.

In 1573, the Spaniards managed to take Haarlem, but Alkmaar resisted them. In 1576, the seventeen provinces concluded the Pacification of Ghent, with the aim of driving the Spanish troops out of the country.

On January 6, 1579, Alexander Farnese, appointed governor in 1578, succeeded in uniting in the union of Arras the Catholic provinces that had remained faithful to Philip II, who thus recognized the king's authority once again. Seventeen days later, the rebellious provinces of the north formed the Union of Utrecht. They continue the fight against Spain and promise mutual fidelity.

In 1580, Philip II put a price on the head of the prince of Orange, in whom he sees a fierce adversary. The seven provinces of the union of Utrecht reacted in 1581 by a solemn declaration announcing that they no longer recognized Philip II as their sovereign. They then offered the sovereignty of the Netherlands to the Duke of Anjou, brother of the king of France Henri III, but by limiting his powers to the extreme. William of Orange was assassinated in Delft in 1584. The situation in the revolting provinces worsened rapidly after his death.

In 1585, Farnese conquered the main city of the Netherlands, Antwerp. Thousands of people took refuge in the north, especially in Amsterdam, which gradually took over Antwerp's role as a trading metropolis.

The Republic of the United Provinces

Seven provinces: Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Friesland, Groningen, Overijssel and Gelderland, united in 1579 on the basis of the Union of Utrecht. Holland was the most powerful and wealthiest province. This federation called itself the republic of the United Provinces because it had no monarch as head of state. Most provinces chose William of Orange as their stathouder. In 1588, the States General decided not to look for a new ruler and to assume sovereignty themselves. This is how the republic of the United Provinces was born.

In 1588, the famous Spanish fleet, the invincible Armada, was decimated in British waters, swallowing the ambitions of Philip II. The luck of arms also turned in favor of the Netherlands; Maurice de Nassau (1567-1625), one of the sons of William of Orange, conquered several important cities in the name of the Republic and forced the Spaniards to remain on the defensive. 1609 saw the de facto recognition of the Republic of the United Provinces as an independent state, thanks to the conclusion, that year, with Spain, of the Twelve Year Truce.

XVIIIth century

The Republic was gradually supplanted by England and France. On the military and political levels, it suffered several defeats. In 1747, the War of the Austrian Succession broke out, with the Habsburgs' authority over various territories at stake. The Republic supported Austria. French troops crossed the country's borders in the south and, as in 1672, the people demanded a leader. William IV, stathouder of Friesland, was asked by the provinces to become their stathouder. The stathuderate was declared hereditary and William was given wide powers. The American Revolution of 1776 did not go unnoticed and the Republic was one of the first countries in the world to recognize the United States as an independent state. The fourth war against England broke out in 1780. The Republic lost several of its colonies and its fleet suffered setbacks. Political and economic setbacks led to unrest. Differences of opinion arose between the hereditary stathouder and many citizens, whose social ideas were based on those of the Enlightenment and who placed the freedom of thought and criticism of the individual in the foreground. The regents, mostly from merchant families, formed a very closed clan. They had always shared the most important and best-paid positions. Groups spontaneously organized themselves under the name of patriots. Although the political reforms advocated by the majority of the patriots involved an attack on the power of the stathouder, they were not in principle aimed at eliminating the house of Orange. The patriots organized themselves into corps francs, or small armies, in the towns and villages, and became a threat to the authority of the stathouder. In The Hague, the situation had become untenable, and William V left his residence in 1785 with his wife Wilhelmine. She found the situation unacceptable and went to The Hague in June 1787 to incite the prince's supporters to take up arms against the patriots. At Goejanverwellesluis, a patriot corps forced her to turn back. Vexed, she complained to her brother, the king of Prussia, who sent in 1787 an expeditionary force to restore order in the Republic. Several leaders of the patriots fled to France and the Habsburg Netherlands. William V was reinstated as hereditary stathouder.

Domination from France

The French Revolution of 1789 gave hope to the Dutch patriots. French troops invaded the country and were defeated before finally succeeding in occupying the Republic in 1795. William V took refuge in England and entrusted the English with the administration of the Dutch colonies.

The patriots came to power and wanted to make Liberty, Equality and Fraternity the ideals of the Dutch Republic. A National Assembly was created, and in 1796 a constitution was drafted.

Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) seized power in France in 1804. Then he appointed his brother, Louis Napoleon (1778-1846), king in June 1806: the Republic became the Kingdom of Holland. The new king did his best to understand the mentality of his subjects and to defend their interests. In the cultural field, he was responsible for some important events, such as the foundation of the Royal Institute of Sciences, Letters and Arts and the creation of the future Rijksmuseum. He transformed the town hall on Dam Square into a royal palace and today the palace houses the largest collection of Empire furniture outside France. In 1810, Napoleon annexed the Southern Netherlands. A few months later, King Louis abdicated. The kingdom of Holland was then in turn annexed to France. French legislation was introduced into the Netherlands, but the majority of the population was not happy with the arrival of the French. These hostile feelings increased even more after the introduction of military service.

A kingdom is born

The failure of Napoleon's campaign in Russia marked the end of foreign domination in the Netherlands. William Frederick, Prince of Orange, son of the last Stathouder William V, accepted to be sovereign in 1814 under the name of William I and proclaimed himself King of the Netherlands. The Kingdom of the Netherlands was one of the kingdoms created to contain French expansionism. The union of the North and the South raised objections, however, especially in the South. Many Catholics, who still considered the northern Calvinists heretics, did not accept the constitution of the kingdom. The new state had a two-chamber parliament, but its influence on the government of the country was minimal. During the French period, Dutch was considered an inferior dialect, spoken by the peasants. The southern elite was entirely French-speaking, and when William I wanted to gradually introduce Dutch as an official language in the Flemish provinces in 1819, the French-speaking elite reacted with a particularly violent rejection. Fortunately, on the positive side, the two regions complemented each other economically: the North had colonies and a rich commercial tradition, and the South had important industries.

The first revolt movements took place in Brussels in August 1830, in the form of fights, which quickly turned into a real insurrection. Shortly afterwards, the revolutionaries proclaimed Belgium's independence. During a diplomatic conference held in London, the Belgians received the support of France and England. Prussia, Austria and Russia bowed to the recognition of the secession. After the enthronement of Leopold I, king of the Belgians, William I sent an army south under the command of his son, Crown Prince William. The Belgians were defeated, but a French military intervention prevented William I from re-establishing his authority. The Netherlands nevertheless kept a part of Limburg and Flanders. William did not accept the separation of the northern and southern Netherlands, however, and kept a large army on a war footing until 1839. In that year, a treaty was signed that broke the deadlock. Belgium became a neutral kingdom, with the guarantee of the great powers.

XIXth century

William I did much for the economy of the Netherlands, which earned him the name of merchant king. He introduced modern industrial methods in both parts of his kingdom, especially in the future Belgium, where a modern mining and metallurgical industry had already developed before the separation from the North. The cotton industry in Ghent had a boom period. The king also concentrated on expanding the infrastructure: he had roads built and canals dug, he supported plans to clear land and the creation of shipping companies. Towards the end of his reign, the first railroad line in the Netherlands was inaugurated, linking Amsterdam to Haarlem.

The Netherlands had retained a gigantic colonial empire, although it was smaller than in the 17th and 18th centuries. Today's Indonesia, then the Dutch East Indies, was the main colony.

From 1825 to 1830, a revolt against the Netherlands broke out in Java. It was put down in blood. The government realized that the colony was costing money instead of bringing in money. The introduction of the cultivation system was intended to remedy this situation. The new system included a series of measures that obliged the Javanese population to cultivate certain prescribed crops, especially coffee and sugar, on part of their land and to deliver them for a sum fixed by the government. These products were then transported to the Netherlands and marketed by them. The system of cultivation was to make the colony profitable very quickly..

Social evolution and political life during the century

Between 1840 and 1890, Dutch society changed from a predominantly agricultural society to an industrial society. The sometimes disastrous conditions under which workers had to live and work gradually gave rise to opposition.

The workers joined forces to demand an improvement in their working conditions. Although there were strikes, the Dutch unions generally preferred dialogue.

The Netherlands benefited greatly from the rapid industrial development of the Ruhr region of Germany. Rotterdam became an important port. However, poverty became increasingly important, especially in the growing industrialized cities and regions. Increased prosperity improved the living conditions of the middle classes, but accentuated the bourgeois character of Dutch society and its inequalities. Relations between workers and government remained very conflictual, and strikes in the early 20th century were harshly repressed. Around 1870, the Netherlands equipped itself with the infrastructure it needed to develop its industry. The railway network was greatly expanded, and Amsterdam and Rotterdam were connected by modern canals to the North Sea. Following the early Belgian industrial revolution with delay, Dutch society finally changed radically. It enters the modern era, followed by the inevitable emergence of a dominated class, the proletariat. A Socialist Party was created in the 1880s, but it remained rather weak. The Sociaal-Democratische Arbeiderspartij (SDAP), founded in 1894, was more successful. It still exists today under the name Partij van de Arbeid.

In 1909, the radical Marxists left the SDAP to form the Communist Party. Male suffrage was widely extended in 1887 and 1896. In 1922, Dutch women went to the polls for the first time.

Interbellum and World War II

The Netherlands remained neutral in the First World War and democracy remained stable in the 1920s and 1930s. A few large projects symbolize this period, such as the Zuiderzee or the reclamation of large parts of the lake that was formed. For decades, a large part of the public resources was spent on the construction of dikes and the reclamation of polders. The Dutch territory expanded considerably.

During this period, the Netherlands was a pillar of the League of Nations, established in 1920 and the forerunner of the United Nations.

The world economic crisis of 1929 hit the Netherlands and the Netherlands Indies hard

Faced with an increasingly threatening Germany, the Netherlands relied on its policy of neutrality to stay out of a possible conflict. When the Second World War broke out, the Dutch army did not expect a confrontation.

World War II

On 10 May 1940, the German army invaded France, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands. Airborne troops, with the mission to capture the Queen and the government, parachuted in around The Hague, but they failed in the face of stiff Dutch resistance. By May 14, the situation was desperate: the Luftwaffe bombed the center of Rotterdam and threatened to reduce other major cities to ashes. The Netherlands capitulated. Fortunately, the capitulation only applied to Dutch territory in Europe. The cabinet and the queen, exiled in London, governed from there the Dutch Indies, Surinam and the colony of Curaçao. On the continent, the territory of the Netherlands was under the civil administration of Nazi Germany. The Germans, who thought they were close to the Dutch, aimed in the long term to annex the country to the Reich. The first months of the occupation were not too harsh. The Dutch administration operated under German supervision. However, the Occupation became more severe with measures against the Jews who were isolated from the rest of the inhabitants. More than 100,000 of them, some 75 percent of the country's Jewish population, were deported to concentration camps. Only five thousand would return. After the Normandy landings, Allied troops liberated the southern provinces of the Netherlands. They were blocked in front of the Rhine in Arnhem at the end of September 1944, and the northern provinces remained occupied by the Germans. The Allied army did not advance until the spring of 1945. The Canadian and Polish liberators were greeted with delirious enthusiasm. The German troops in the Netherlands surrendered on May 5, 1945. The country was free, but it had paid a heavy price. Approximately 236,000 Dutch people had lost their lives during the Second World War in the Netherlands, Indonesia or elsewhere in the world.

Indonesian question and foreign policy

Indonesia was conquered by the Japanese who needed the raw materials for their war. The Dutch military, too few in number, were not a great difficulty. The Japanese army won at sea, against a Dutch, American, British and Australian coalition. The Japanese surrendered on August 15, 1945. Two days later, Sukarno, inspired by Japan's victory at sea against the Netherlands, proclaimed the Republic of Indonesia. The Netherlands re-established their authority by force and without delay, except in Java and Sumatra. Under pressure from the United States, an agreement was reached in 1947. Sukarno eliminated the communists from his movement, which earned him the confidence of the Americans. And under pressure from world public opinion, especially in the United States, the Netherlands had to give in. On December 27, 1949, in the Royal Palace in Amsterdam, the Netherlands transferred sovereignty over the archipelago of the Netherlands Indies to the Republic of the United States of Indonesia. This transfer of sovereignty, however, did not include the western part of the island of New Guinea. The Netherlands wanted to prepare New Guinea for independence, but Indonesia was against it. In 1962, war threatened to break out between the two countries. The United States acted as mediator and convinced the parties to negotiate. That same year, the Netherlands gave its sovereignty over New Guinea to the United Nations, which transferred it to Indonesia a year later. Suriname and the Netherlands Antilles were given autonomous internal administration. Suriname became an independent republic in 1975. When the Netherlands offered the Netherlands Antilles independence, the latter showed less interest. The Kingdom of the Netherlands currently consists of the Netherlands, the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba. On the diplomatic level, the Netherlands participates in all major international and Western treaties after the war. The Netherlands provided troops to the United Nations army in 1950 to fight the North Koreans and the Chinese. Western Europe also came together economically: the European Coal and Steel Community in 1954 (ECSC), followed in 1957 by the European Economic Community (EEC).

Delta Plan and water control

In February 1953, the southwestern part of the Netherlands was invaded by the sea. The exceptional combination of a northwest storm and a tidal wave was too strong for the dikes. More than 1,800 people died in the floods.

The government decided to close the inlets in the southwest and developed the Delta Plan in 1958. Closing the large inlets was a considerable and difficult task. The Nieuwe Waterweg and the Westerschelde could not be closed by a dam because they had to remain open to navigation. The construction of a movable dam in the IJssel, near Krimpen, was therefore carried out to protect the province of South Holland. This project was completed in 1958. For centuries, the movement of the tides has determined the life of this part of the Netherlands. The dams create a freshwater area and remove a tidal biotope. The plans to close the last arm of the sea, the Oosterschelde, were already in place when protests came from oyster farmers who wanted to keep their oyster beds and from environmentalists who wanted to preserve the ecological value of the Oosterschelde. However, the parties reached a compromise: a dam will be built across the Oosterschelde, but in normal weather it will let the water through. The storm surge barrier consists of gigantic steel gates that can be lowered in case of high water to close the sluices and protect the country. In this way, the Oosterschelde remains subject to the influence of the tides and the safety of Zeeland is nevertheless guaranteed. The Oosterschelde dam, which was completed in 1986, is without doubt one of the largest hydraulic constructions in the world.

20 years of politics

The year 2002 will be remembered as the year of the rise and assassination of Pim Fortuyn, the leader of the populist party in the Netherlands. Taking up recurrent themes of our time - insecurity, immigration and integration, social security, etc. - under a new angle tinged with discrimination, he set out to find a solution to the problem of the "social security system". -He was able to reach an electorate tired of compromise. His assassination a few days before the elections exposed the strongest emotions in a country that had never known such a poignant drama in its recent history. His party finished second in the elections and was therefore part of the coalition with the Christian Democratic Party.

The government, subsequently formed by Jan Peter Balkenende, lasted only 87 days and the Prime Minister had to resign. The Christian Democratic CDA list won, followed by a PvdA led by Wouter Bos. Balkenende was reappointed and formed a liberal-leaning government.

The June 2010 parliamentary elections confirmed the strength of Geert Wilders' PVV, which became the country's third political power. Mark Rutte's leading Liberals tried to form a cabinet, but all attempts failed, until October 14, when a coalition government was formed, composed of VVD and PVV members and led by Mark Rutte.

Coup de Trafalgar: on April 21, 2012, Geert Wilders toppled the government over an austerity plan. Indeed, the Netherlands is facing a strong recession and a record budget deficit. Faced with this situation, the populist leader demanded that his country end its controversial participation in the Greek bailout... Liberal Prime Minister Mark Rutte submitted his resignation to the Queen on April 23. Against all odds, the September 12 parliamentary elections were won by Mark Rutte's liberal troops and the Labour Party. The moderates were jubilant and the entire European press saw this victory as a reward for the courage and perseverance of the moderate pro-European parties, at the expense of the extreme Eurosceptics. The populists are in disarray. The Netherlands probably wanted to send a signal to its leaders that the political solution in times of crisis lies in the center.

The last few years have been marked by the constant presence of Mark Rutte as Prime Minister... "Mr. Teflon has always survived political crises.

Nowadays

The Netherlands has played an important role as a stimulator in the building of Europe since its foundation. Too small to make its voice heard at the European and world level, it knows that Europe is its opportunity, and it is one of the most active in working towards its establishment.

Over the centuries, the Netherlands, being a small country with few inhabitants compared to its neighbors, has always looked outward and sought contacts with other peoples and countries. This openness to the world means that the Dutch willingly share their heritage and cultural achievements with other nations. They know that they cannot solve their current problems alone, especially in terms of demographics (ageing, high population density...) and that the future must be thought of in European terms at least, if not worldwide. The current challenges and problems faced by the Netherlands are similar to those faced by many other European countries. Immigration and the integration of minorities, for example, and insecurity were widely discussed in recent election campaigns. Housing problems, lack of resources and staff in education and hospitals are also problems on a large scale. A major problem in the country was employees on long-term disability. The WAO, which was abused by companies to get rid of certain employees without firing them, was for a long time the bane of an exhausted welfare state; this problem is now better managed and prevention in the workplace is better. The Netherlands is very concerned by the problems of global warming and in particular by the rise in water levels, which the country would obviously be directly confronted with. In recent years, the country has weathered the crisis rather well, but unpopular austerity measures have been taken: raising the legal retirement age to 67 (instead of 65), reducing childcare subsidies, increasing health insurance contributions and reducing reimbursements... After a few uncertain years, the country seems to have coped well with the crisis, led by a capital city that is on a roll.

The legislative elections of spring 2017 were crucial and confirmed Mark Rutte (Prime Minister) by largely winning his party, the VVD, far outstripping the PVV of populist Geert Wilders, D66 and the CDA. In 2021, after resigning over a scandal, Rutte's VVD won the elections and he was re-elected, with his "Rutte 4" government being inaugurated a few months later.

The murder of Theo Van Gogh by a religious extremist in the east of the capital in 2004 had shaken the capital's certainties and put limits on the principle of multiculturalism. Almost 20 years later, these tensions seem like ancient history in a country naturally marked by the pandemic. The pandemic has left the Netherlands with a lot of wounds: violent riots when the curfew was introduced, political cacophony following the victory of Rutte's VVD in March 2021, and a strong anti-vaccine movement.

The last few years have also highlighted the limitations of the approach to "soft" drugs and the power of the Moroccan mafia

She would have been 93 years old!

Born Annelies Marie Frank in Frankfurt, this German child came to live in Amsterdam in 1933 to escape anti-Semitic persecution. In 1940, when Amsterdam was under German occupation, the family hid in a secret apartment behind the father's business on the Prinsengracht. From there she wrote her diary, which is known throughout the world and covers the period between June 1942 and August 1944. The entire family is deported and Anne dies of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen camp. Anne Frank is probably the most famous person in Amsterdam and many visitors come to see her house, a symbol of modern barbarism.