History History

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.

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 completely from North-Western Europe.

At the death of Louis the Pious, son of Charlemagne, the Frankish empire was divided by the Treaty of Verdun, in 843, between his three sons. Lothar II inherited the region that included the Netherlands, excluding Flanders

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 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.

William of Nassau, Prince of Orange (Dutch: Willem van Oranje), Count of Nassau, also known as William the Silent(Willem de Zwijger), was born on April 24, 1533 in Dillenburg and died at the Prinsenhof in Delft on July 10, 1584.

The high nobility of the Netherlands revolts, led by William of Orange. The revolt was a response to the king's desire for administrative centralization, to the persecution of heretics, which was poorly accepted by the Dutch, and to the economic crisis. Trade in the Netherlands was handicapped by the war against the English, and this was particularly discontented among the bourgeoisie and the lower nobility. In August 1566, general fury broke out, leading to widespread destruction. This violence was not only driven by religious motives, but also by social ones, as the persecutions had seriously disrupted society.

Many people left the Netherlands under Spanish rule. Some of the most rebellious emigrants, whose property had been confiscated and who had nothing left, took to the sea and joined the revolt. They call themselves the Gueux de Mer. Guillaume d'Orange made contact with them and with other emigrants in Germany and England.

Having gathered the necessary funds, he raised an army to invade the Netherlands from different parts at the same time, thus stirring up the people.

In 1580, Philip II put a price on the head of the Prince of Orange, whom he saw as a bitter adversary. The seven provinces of the Utrecht Union responded in 1581 with a solemn declaration that they no longer recognized Philip II as their sovereign. They offered the sovereignty of the Netherlands to the Duke of Anjou, brother of the French king Henri III, but limited his powers to the extreme. William of Orange was assassinated in Delft in 1584. The situation in the rebellious provinces rapidly worsened after his death.

In 1585, Farnese conquered the Netherlands' main city, Antwerp. Thousands fled to the north, mainly to Amsterdam, which gradually took over Antwerp's role as a trading metropolis.

Seven sovereign provinces, Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Friesland, Groningen, Overijssel and Gelderland, joined together in 1579 on the basis of the Union of Utrecht. Holland was the most powerful province, because it was the richest at the time. This federation called itself the Republic of the United Provinces. It chose the term "republic" because it was the only group of countries in Europe that did not have a monarch as head of state. The office of stathouder remained, however, even though the king had been deposed in 1581. The stathouder therefore became the servant of the states (and no longer of the king), but remained powerful. Most provinces chose William of Orange as stathouder and later his descendants. The reign of the Duke of Anjou being a failure, the States General offered the sovereignty of the Netherlands first to King Henry II of France, who refused, and then to Queen Elizabeth of England. The latter sent Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, to the Netherlands to assume the role of Governor General. He was elected governor in 1586, but failed to gain the confidence of the provincial leaders. In 1588, the States General decided to stop looking for a new ruler and to assume sovereignty themselves. Thus was born the republic of the United Provinces.

The year 1588 is important for more than one reason. The famous Spanish fleet, the invincible Armada, was decimated in British waters, swallowing up 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.

It is the beginning of the golden century, a period of global prosperity of the city. The great belt of canals was dug to accommodate the great patrician residences

Birth of the world's first stock exchange, in Amsterdam. The city becomes the world's financial capital.

In 1602, the East India Company (VOC) was created. This company set up the immense prosperity of the Netherlands in the whole area

At the end of the Twelve Years' Truce, in 1621, the Republic of the United Provinces took up arms again against Spain. It succeeded in definitively conquering several important cities. Fighting intensified at sea too, but the battle against Spain was suspended. The Dutch states found the war too costly.

With the Treaty of Munster, the independence of the Republic of the United Provinces was definitively recognized. The official link with the German Empire and the King of Spain was dissolved. The Peace of Munster, which put an end to eighty years of war with Spain, was also the official ratification of a de facto situation that had existed since around 1590.

However, England, which had supported the Republic in its fight against Spain, took a dim view of the growth of Dutch trade. In 1651, the English Parliament passed the Navigation Act, which proclaimed in general terms England's hegemony over the seas - especially the North Sea - but was in fact directed against Dutch trade. Four wars were fought between the Republic and England, leading to a relaxation of the Act of Navigation.

The Republic was also at war with France. In 1672, France's King Louis XIV concluded an alliance with the King of England and two German bishops. The Republic was attacked to the south by the French and to the east by the bishops' armies, while at sea the Franco-English fleet posed a permanent threat. Only Holland, Zeeland and the city of Groningen remained free. The people called William III to power, and the Estates General agreed that he should become Stathouder. Under the command of William III, the army succeeded in driving back the French.

Prince William III was a shrewd politician. Through alliances, he sought to preserve balance in Europe and contain the expansionism of Louis XIV. In 1677, he married Marie Stuart (1662-1694), whose father became King of England in 1685 as James II.

The King of England's Catholic views and absolutist tendencies displeased the English Parliament, which in 1688 asked William and Mary to become King and Queen of England. William crossed the North Sea at the head of an army, and James II took refuge in France. This Glorious Revolution had one important political outcome: the establishment of a constitutional monarchy in England. William promulgated several laws guaranteeing tolerance and freedom of religion, two principles already widely respected in the United Provinces.

Rembrandt van Rijn painted The Night Watch, probably the most emblematic painting of the century. This painting is the highlight of the Rijksmuseum and is located at the end of the fabulous Galerie d'honneur. The painting was reduced in size to fit the walls of the Town Hall (on the Dam). The painting has been moved several times to guarantee its survival, notably during the Second World War, when it found refuge in the caves of Saint Peter's Mountain in Maastricht. The painting was recently studied and cleaned under the public eye in a glass cage specially created for the purpose. The museum has installed a special trapdoor under the painting to protect it and transport it if necessary.

View of Delft is probably Vermeer's best-known painting, along with The Girl with the Pearl. The painter lived and worked in Delft all his life and depicted the town in this painting and also in the painting The Lane. These are the only paintings by the artist that do not depict an interior. The painting is on show at the Mauritshuis in The Hague. Marcel Proust described Vue de Delft as "the most beautiful painting in the world", having discovered it himself at the Musée du Jeu de paume. The painting is one of the best-known in the world, and is likely to feature prominently in the exhibition-event planned for 2023 at the Rijksmuseum.

William III died in 1702 without leaving any children, and this was the beginning of the second period without a stathouder. With the exception of Friesland, which kept its own stathouder, no province had appointed one.

The Republic was gradually supplanted by England and France. It suffered several military and political defeats. In 1747 the War of the Austrian Succession broke out, which was about the Habsburgs' authority over various territories. 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

Numerous works by French and international philosophers and thinkers were published in the Netherlands, a land of welcome and freedom, when this was not possible in their own countries. For example, Jean-Jacques Rousseau published Emile ou De l'éducation in Amsterdam, the same year his work Julie ou la Nouvelle Héloïse was published, and the following year, Le Contrat Social was published. The works of Descartes, for example, were first published in the Netherlands, as were those of Voltaire.

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, 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.

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. However, the union of the north and south raised objections, 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.

From the beginning, the regime of William I was authoritarian. The king ruled preferably by decree. The Council of Ministers rarely met: the king gave instructions to his ministers.

William I was a hard worker. He invested a large part of his large personal fortune in new projects and was responsible for the establishment of the Bank of the Netherlands. Perceptive, he noticed that the industry of the south and the trade of the north were complementary. He even went so far as to hold consultations, during which his subjects could share their grievances with him. Criticism of the king, however, was not tolerated. Thus, prosecutions for press offences were numerous. Popular discontent with the king's authoritarian rule increased after the separation of Belgium in 1830. The large army, which he kept on a war footing, cost the public treasury dearly. Only in 1839 the king resigned himself to the loss of Belgium. This disappointment and the criticism of his plan to marry a Catholic woman led him to abdicate in 1840. He died on 12 December 1843.

The Netherlands had retained a huge colonial empire, although it was smaller than in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Today's Indonesia, then the Dutch East Indies, was its 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..

In 1848, when all of Europe was in turmoil, William II, who had no desire to see his power weakened, feared that the winds of revolt would spread to the Netherlands and agreed to a constitutional amendment. Johan Rudolf Thorbecke (1798-1872), a spokesman for the reformist political leaders, advocated a constitutional monarchy with a lesser role for the king.

Ministerial responsibility was introduced: the person of the king became inviolable and the ministers became responsible for the policies pursued.

The constitution also proclaimed a number of civil rights. It recognized freedom of religion, association and assembly and freedom of the press and education.

The 1848 constitution was also of great importance to the development of the Dutch colonies. Previously, authority in colonial matters had rested with the king, who was represented in each colony by a governor general. In 1848, the king was deprived of this political power. Parliament now had authority over the colonies. The liberals wanted to change the system of cultivation and allow free enterprise in Java. Literature gave an unexpected impulse to the debate on the Indies.

Max Havelaar was not an anti-colonial novel, because Douwes Dekker argued for a more active role for the administration in India. In his view, the population had to be protected against exploitation by their own corrupt regents. The influence of the book was such that in 1870 the gradual abolition of the cultivation system was initiated and replaced by a system of free labor.

In the Western Hemisphere, the Netherlands still owned six West Indian islands and Suriname. The West Indies had long been very important for international shipping, but in the 19th century their economies declined. Thanks to the plantations, Suriname remained a profitable colony. However, with slavery losing ground, the decline began. England abolished slavery in 1807. The Netherlands followed in 1814 on paper but did not change anything in reality. It was not until 1863 that the Netherlands finally abolished slavery.

This early date concerns the abolition for common crimes. The death penalty was still provided for in the Military Penal Code for serious offences committed in the army during wartime. The last execution in this context dates from 1952 and the total abolition from 1982.

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.

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.

On May 10, 1940, the German army invaded France, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands. Airborne troops, whose mission was to capture the Queen and the government, parachuted in around The Hague, but they failed in the face of fierce 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. At the end of September 1944, they were blocked in front of the Rhine in Arnhem, 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.

The book Het Achterhuis(The Diary of Anne Frank) is published in the Netherlands. Anne kept her diary between June 12, 1942 and August 1, 1944, a few days before the arrest of the 8 people on August 4. The diary had been retrieved by Miep Gies from the annex just after the arrest. When Otto Frank, the only survivor, returned from the camps in 1945, Miep gave him the manuscript. He decided to have it published. Her work has been translated into over 70 languages, and over 30 million copies have been sold to date. Since 2009, The Diary of Anne Frank has been listed on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register.

Indonesia was conquered by the Japanese who needed the raw materials present for their war. The Dutch military, too few in number, was not a big problem. The Japanese army was defeated at sea, against a Dutch, American, British and Australian coalition. The Japanese capitulated 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 the pressure of world public opinion, particularly that of the United States, the Netherlands had to give in. On December 27, 1949, at 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 now consists of the Netherlands, the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba.

Maria Montessori was an Italian physician and educationalist who revolutionized education by creating the teaching method that bears her name. In 1892, despite a number of obstacles, she entered the Faculty of Medicine in Rome and won a scholarship. She gave lectures to finance her studies. She obtained her medical degree in 1896 and began working with children, particularly the mentally handicapped. She studied pedagogy in France and developed her own teaching materials. In 1901, she turned her attention to children and, a few years later, created her method for very young children. Her method was based on free choice of activity, self-discipline, respect for each pupil's rhythm and learning by doing. Her schools were a great success, and the Italian Fascist regime's hold on them grew. She chose to resign and moved first to Spain and then to the Netherlands, where her method was already in use. She died in 1952 in Noordwijk, where she is buried. Her teaching is widespread in the Netherlands, beyond the establishments that bear her name.

This period saw the rise of the Provo movement, a protest movement. The word comes from provocateur, and the movement had a fierce desire to shake up the very wise Netherlands of the 1960s. The movement claimed to be anarchist, and had strong links with the Cobra cultural movement, notably Constant's theories. It was an anti-authoritarian movement that manifested itself at Princess Beatrix's wedding in 1966. Provo was against institutions and had no desire to become one. The movement dissolved itself in 1967.

Soccer is probably the most popular sport in the Netherlands and Ajax is one of the top clubs alongside PSG and arch-rivals Feyenoord. Its history is prestigious and one of the most beautiful pages of it was written in the 1970's when the club won 3 European Champion Clubs Cups. The star players were Keizer, Neeskens and of course Cruyff. The club won the Champion's League again in 1995 with a dream team including Kluivert, Rijkaard, Litmanen.

The first same-sex marriage is celebrated in Amsterdam by Mayor Job Cohen. The Netherlands is the first country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage. Once again, the Netherlands leads the way in respect and progress, all in calm and unity. Since then, more than 28,000 unions have been celebrated, and 20,000 are still in progress!

Theo van Gogh, from the family of the famous painter and a direct descendant of his brother Theo, was a writer, director and actor. Voluntarily provocative, he had just directed the film Submission in collaboration with Ayaan Hirsi Ali, highly critical of Islam. He was assassinated in the street in Amsterdam by a Moroccan born in the Netherlands and naturalized Dutch. This highly spectacular murder generated immense emotion throughout the country, and led to a profound crisis linked to the country's immigration policy, just a few years after the murder of the anti-Muslim Pim Fortuyn.

The year 2002 will be remembered as the year of Pim Fortuyn's rise and assassination

Taking up recurrent themes of our time - insecurity, immigration and integration, social security - he knew how to touch 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

Jan Peter Balkenende's government lasted only 87 days and the Prime Minister was forced to resign. The CDA's Christian Democratic 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 (Partij van de Vrijheid), which became the country's^third largest political force. Mark Rutte's Liberals then 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 and demanded that his country end its controversial involvement in the Greek bailout

Against all odds, Mark Rutte's liberal troops and labour won the election in September. The moderates were jubilant and the entire European press saw the 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 message 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. His last election was in March 2021 in the midst of a pandemic.

Willem Alexander becomes the new King of the Netherlands. Beatrix became princess again. If Willem Alexander's reputation wasn't perfect at first, and many questioned his ability to reign, his union with Argentine commoner Maxima Zorreguieta, daughter of an Argentine minister in General Videla's dictatorial government, didn't help matters either. On the contrary, she was the future king's charm and communication asset.

The Dutch players became European champions in a European championship held in the Netherlands. In the final, the Dutch beat Denmark 4-2. The big stars of the team are Vivianne Miedema and Lieke Martens.

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 countries in working towards its establishment.

Over the centuries, the Netherlands, being a small country with a small population compared to its neighbors, has always looked outward and sought contact with other peoples and countries. This openness to the world means that the Dutch willingly share their heritage and cultural achievements with other nations. The current challenges and problems faced by the Netherlands are similar to those faced by many other European countries. Immigration and 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 has been employees on long-term disability; this problem is better managed and prevention in the workplace is better. The Netherlands is very concerned about global warming and in particular about rising sea 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 the up.

The Eurovision Song Contest, originally scheduled for May 2020, is held in Rotterdam following Duncan Laurence's victory with the song Arcade. The Rotterdam edition is won by Italy with Måneskin and their worldwide hit Zitti e Buoni. France took second place. The edition showcases the city's architecture, with numerous performances on the city's rooftops.

In recent years, the Netherlands has been marked by murders in connection with the "macromafia", the Moroccan mafia linked to drug trafficking. In September 2019, lawyer Derk Wiersum, who was defending a key witness in the trial of two criminals accused of murder and drug trafficking, was murdered in the middle of the street in a quiet district of the capital. A major national crisis ensues. The municipality of Amsterdam publishes the report "Het achterkant van Amsterdam" (The Underbelly of Amsterdam), revealing the extent of drug trafficking in the capital. In July 2021, investigative journalist Peter R. de Vries was shot in the head as he left a TV studio. His death, a few days later, shocked the entire country and once again raised the question of Dutch drug policy. To this day, drug trafficking is in the hands of the Moroccan mafia, under the guise of a policy of tolerance. Some are calling for state production to put a stop to it.

It's an important day for the kingdom, as the future queen, Catharina-Amalia, known as Amalia, comes of age. Her childhood was as normal as possible, and she attended public school in Wassenaar, a wealthy town near The Hague. Her privacy was preserved thanks to an agreement with the press not to photograph her during school hours or with her friends. In 2022-2023, she will start studying Political Science, Psychology, Law and Economics at the UvA, the University of Amsterdam, in the English-speaking section.

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 in the back of 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.