History of the Netherlands
| History of the Benelux countries | ||
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Franconian Empire ≈ 800–843 |
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Middle Kingdom (Lotharii Regnum) 843–855 |
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Lotharingia 855-977 |
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| various noble possessions 977–1384 |
 Diocese of Liège 985–1795 |
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Burgundian Netherlands (House of Burgundy) 1384–1477 |
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Burgundian Netherlands (House of Habsburg) 1477–1556 |
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 Spanish Netherlands 1556–1581 |
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 Republic of the Seven United Provinces 1579 / 1581–1795 |
Spanish Netherlands 1581–1713 |
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 Austrian Netherlands 1713–1795 |
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 Batavian Republic 1795–1806 |
 France ( First Republic ) 1795–1805 |
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 Kingdom of Holland 1806–1810 |
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French Empire (First Empire) 1805–1815 |
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United Kingdom of the Netherlands (House of Orange-Nassau) 1815–1830 |
 Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (House of Orange-Nassau) 1815–1890 |
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Kingdom of the Netherlands (House of Orange-Nassau) from 1830 |
 Kingdom of Belgium (House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha) from 1830 |
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Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (House Nassau-Weilburg) from 1890 |
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The History of the Netherlands deals with the history of the region that is now the state of the Netherlands and, up to their split in the 19th century, the history of Belgium and Luxembourg . Human settlement dates back to the Ice Age. With the melting of the glaciers at the end of the Vistula glacial period , a relatively marshy land was created that was only inhabited on the higher land points, mainly due to the threat from the sea. The Romans conquered from around 50 BC. The land. The first settlements followed. The Rhine formed a natural land border. The land north of it remained under Frisian rule. All attempts to conquer the land of the Frisians failed. From the year 355, the influence of the Franks increased. After the fall of the Roman Empire , the Franks took over the south of the country. The north and the coastal regions remained Frisian, the east initially belonged to the Saxon area. The Christianization of the country began with the rule of the Franks. Through the division of the Franconian Empire in the Treaty of Verdun in 843, the area east of the Scheldt around Maas and Lower Rhine came to the Middle Kingdom of Lothar I and in 925 to the emerging Holy Roman Empire . In 843, Flanders fell to the western empire of Charles II the Bald , later France.
In the period that followed, the Netherlands experienced a rapid upswing. Cities and with them trade and handicrafts developed, and against the background of the ducal power of Lorraine becoming ever weaker, relatively solid and independent territories emerged in the 12th century: In the north, today's Netherlands, Holland , Zealand, Geldern and the diocese of Utrecht , in the south the diocese of Liège , Flanders, Hainaut, Brabant, Namur and Limburg. With the exception of Flanders, the Netherlands was nominally part of the Holy Roman Empire, but the political ties were very loose. In the 15th century the land came into the possession of the Habsburgs. During his reign from 1500–1558, Emperor Charles V united the “Low Countries” with Belgium and Luxembourg. Now the “Lower Lands” were part of the great Burgundian-Habsburg empire .
Philip II found himself confronted with heavy resistance in 1568. Rebels from the northern Dutch territories took the restriction of religious freedom and absolutist tendencies as the cause of the Eighty Years War . In 1579 the seven northern provinces merged to form the Republic of the Seven United Provinces . After the victory over the Spaniards, the territories gained their independence in the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 and from then on bore the name Republic of the United Netherlands. The southern Netherlands remained with Spain and initially formed the Spanish Netherlands and later the Austrian Netherlands . The United East India Company (VOC), founded in 1602, and the West India Company (WIC) helped the Netherlands to become extremely wealthy in the 17th century and during the golden age through trade with Southeast Asia, West Africa and America .
After several wars against England and France , the Netherlands lost its great power status after the War of the Spanish Succession . The resources and the size of the country were no longer sufficient to fulfill this role. The time of the Republic of the United Netherlands ended with the French Revolution. The country was henceforth called the " Batavian Republic ". The southern Netherlands, then Austrian, fell to France. In 1813 the Netherlands regained its independence. The capital was still Amsterdam, but the seat of government moved to The Hague. In 1815 the Northern and Southern Netherlands merged to form the Kingdom of the United Netherlands and Wilhelm Friedrich became king. The southern Netherlands proclaimed its independence as early as 1830 and from then on bore the name Belgium . The Netherlands had now reached today's borders.
During World War II , the Netherlands, despite being neutral, was attacked by Germany. The Netherlands was occupied by Germany for five years. The American Marshall Plan initiated the reconstruction of the Netherlands after the war. With the loss of the Dutch East Indies in 1949, the country slowly reoriented itself in terms of foreign policy: the neutral sea power became a partner in NATO .
From prehistory to the early Middle Ages
prehistory
The area of today's Netherlands, i.e. the westernmost part of the north German lowlands , has been inhabited since the last cold period at the latest . In 2001, off the coast of Zeeuws Vlaanderen in the province of Zeeland , in an area that was only above sea level during the cold periods, a remnant of a Neanderthal man known as Krijn was discovered, estimated to be 50,000 to 60,000 years old .
The best-known remains or finds from prehistoric times are the hunebedden ( megalithic tombs ), large stone grave monuments from the Neolithic period in the province of Drenthe .
Roman times
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From 50 BC The Romans conquered the southern Netherlands and founded the first cities here (including Utrecht , Nijmegen and Maastricht ); the area became part of the Roman provinces Germania inferior and Belgica .
The Rhine formed the natural border with the rest of Germany. The northern part of today's Netherlands, the land of the Frisians and other tribes, therefore remained outside the Roman Empire for most of the time.
From around 290 AD, the Germanic Franks , coming from the southeast, invaded the area south of the Rhine, especially the Scheldt area. The Romans tried several times, in vain, to drive the Franks out. In 355 Julianus, who later became Emperor Julian , finally granted them an area, namely south of the Rhine (the Lower Franconian area of today's Netherlands, Flanders and Germany) on condition that he serve him as foederati (allies).
The Franks
A period of unrest followed after the fall of the Roman Empire . The Frisians lived on the coast, the Saxons in the east and the Franks in the south.
In 486 AD the Franks defeated their Roman neighbors under Syagrius and under Clovis extended their empire south to the Loire . The main area of the Franconian Empire lay in what is now Belgium and northern France ; the later Hauptpfalz (capital) was Aachen . After that, around 700, the Franks also subjugated their Frisian neighbors. Around 800, Emperor Charlemagne defeated the Saxons (roughly in what is now Lower Saxony and the eastern Netherlands), had their pagan shrines destroyed and their leaders murdered. After the conquest, Friesland and Saxony were Christianized.
- Geology of the Netherlands until 800 AD
Netherlands 5500 BC Chr.
Netherlands 3850 BC Chr.
Netherlands 2750 BC Chr.
Netherlands 500 BC Chr.
Netherlands 50 AD
Netherlands 800 AD
Holy Roman Empire
After the death of Louis the Pious , the son of Charlemagne, the Frankish empire was divided among his sons. In the Treaty of Verdun in 843, Lothar I received the Middle Kingdom. After the Prüm division of the Middle Kingdom in 855 under Lothar II , in 870 in the Treaty of Meerssen and 880 in the Treaty of Ribemont , Lotharingia came to the eastern part of the Frankish Empire, the later Holy Roman Empire .
The eastern Franconian Empire, the land of the German language (lingua Teutonica) , however, did not remain a political unit. Local vassals , rulers of counties and duchies, strengthened their positions of power over the emperor. The area of today's Netherlands was divided into various noble estates, the Count of Holland , the Duke of Geldern and the Duke of Brabant , as well as the Bishop of Utrecht . In Friesland and Groningen in the north, however, the lower nobility ruled.
Burgundian Netherlands
By marriage in 1384 Flanders and the cities of Antwerp and Mechelen came into the possession of Philip the Bold of Burgundy. In the following years, Burgundy acquired Holland (1428), Namur (1429), Brabant and Limburg (1430). From then on, the Netherlands formed the northern part of this state. From then on they were called the “Low Countries” of the House of Burgundy in contrast to the French ancestral land, the Bourgogne. Under Philip the Good (1419–1467), the loose territories were integrated more institutionally. The Duke countered the resistance of the estates to the centralization policy by regularly summoning a full representation of his Dutch territories. From 1478 these were called the Estates General . The political and economic focus was still in the south of the country, in Flanders and Brabant. The court language was also French. In contrast, the northern Netherlands lagged behind. The south consisted of an outstanding urban landscape at the time. By 1500 Ghent and Antwerp had more than 40,000 inhabitants, Bruges and Brussels over 30,000, while the four leading Dutch cities of Leiden, Amsterdam, Haarlem and Delft had no more than 15,000 inhabitants each. Accordingly, the large Flemish cities put up the strongest resistance to integration into the Burgundian state. Interventions by the ducal bailiff in the city's powers led to the Bruges uprising from 1436 to 1438, which ended with the punishment of Bruges.
Charles the Bold (1467–1477), the son and successor of Philip the Good, wanted to realize his father's dream of an independent Kingdom of Burgundy between France and the Holy Roman Empire. Charles pursued an anti-French policy, including his marriage to Margaret of York , the sister of the English king in 1468. Although the conquest of Lorraine, an imperial fief, opened a connection between his Burgundian and Dutch territories, Charles failed across the board in terms of foreign policy. After the unsuccessful siege of Neuss (1474/75) and the heavy defeats against the Swiss cantons at Grandson and Murten in 1476, he fell on the battlefield on January 5, 1477 while attempting to recapture the Lorraine capital Nancy .
With the loss of Lorraine and the French occupation of Bourgogne and Picardy , the center of gravity of the Burgundian Empire shifted to the Netherlands. Besides France, Maximilian von Habsburg (1508–1519), who succeeded in the Burgundian War of Succession (1477–1493) - enshrined in the Treaty of Senlis (23 May 1493) - Flanders and the other Dutch provinces , the Artois , benefited from the disaster of Charles . to claim the county of Charolais , the county of Noyers and the formerly in the Treaty of Arras the French crown as a dowry for his daughter Margarete guaranteed free county of Burgundy against France.
Through the marriage of the future emperor Maximilian to the duke's daughter Maria of Burgundy and her early death, the Netherlands came to the Habsburg dynasty, which ruled the southern Netherlands until 1794. For the Netherlands, anchoring in the emerging Habsburg Empire, in which the sun did not set, was initially of little importance. First of all, Maria von Burgund and Maximilian von Habsburg had to defend their rule against the centrifugal forces of the province. Maria was able to appease the opposition of the cities of Bruges, Ghent, Ypres, Brussels, Antwerp, Maastricht etc. through the great privilege of 1477 alone . This privilege gave the representatives of the provinces, henceforth called States General , the right to meet at any time as required. In addition, wars were no longer allowed and taxes could no longer be raised without the consent of the estates. Even after the death of Mary, the political revolt of the estates in the Flemish and Brabant cities continued. After Maximilian was temporarily held captive by the Flemish cities in Bruges, Maximilian gained the upper hand as the conflict continued. The surrender of Ghent in 1492 ended the rebellion. In the Netherlands, such as Friesland or Geldern, which had not yet become Habsburg, the rebellion continued to smolder. Only Charles V was able to incorporate Tournai (1521), Friesland (1524), Overijssel and Utrecht (1528), Drente , Groningen and the Ommelande (1536) as well as Geldern and Zutphen (1543) into the Netherlands and thus the seventeen provinces for the first time and for a short time Unite time in one state.
Eighty Years War and Independence
The age of the Reformation triggered by Martin Luther had dawned and parts of the population in the Lower Lands converted to Protestantism . Charles V and his son and successor Philip II of Spain , both devout Catholics, persecuted the Protestants and tried to recatholize them. The first victims were the Augustinian monks Hendrik Vos and Johannes van Esschen , who were burned in 1523 on the market square in Brussels. The imperial repression policy initially prevented Protestant community structures from developing in the Netherlands. Protestantism in the Netherlands remained an underground religion that was subject to many influences. The relentless persecution of heretics in the Netherlands repeatedly set off streams of refugees to England and Germany. There, Dutch exile communities arose, which came under Zwinglian- Calvinist influence. In the 1550s these refugee centers became Calvinist centers of incursion into the Netherlands. In the Netherlands, Calvinism gave the various Protestant groups a worldview that was clearly delimited from Catholicism. The dissemination was also specifically promoted and controlled from Geneva by Calvin . Through the creation of organizational structures and the dissemination of the Confessio Belgica (1561 ) written by Guy de Bray (1522–1567) as a binding doctrine of the faith, the Calvinists became the dominant Protestant force and thus also a political and denominational alternative to the Catholics and the Catholic occupation regime Spaniards. Despite their small number, the government persecuted the Calvinists relentlessly. In addition to the existing dioceses, new dioceses were created which, equipped with two inquisitors, hunted down alleged heretics. The urge to practice one's religion unhindered was ultimately also an occasion that led to the Dutch uprising against Spanish rule. The period on the eve of the uprising was marked by the attempt to intensify rule by Philip II (1555–1598) and by the latent resistance of the nobility and the cities to this policy. In addition to rejecting the increasing Hispanization of the Brussels court, the nobility and the cities also rejected religious persecution. Most cities, for example, were unwilling to persecute and execute heretics because it disrupted public order. In addition, the heavy financial burden on the Dutch since the wars of Charles V, which had recently been increased by the conflict between the Habsburgs and France , contributed significantly to the conflict. The population of the cities was burdened with excise taxes on wine and beer, a value added tax on commercial transactions and, above all, forced loans.
In April 1566, the nobility demanded in a petition the final suspension of the persecution of heretics and a new regulation of the open religious question. Religious tensions erupted in an iconoclasm in September . In many cities in Flanders and Brabant, monasteries and churches were destroyed. The Catholic service was discontinued. Under the pressure of events, Landvögtin Margarethe von Parma initially showed herself willing to compromise and tolerated the Protestant sermon. In return, she received the support of the nobility, who, under the leadership of William of Orange , tried to prevent the worst outbreaks of violence - such as the murder of the clergy in Gorkum in 1572. King Philip II sent Duke Alba (1507–1582) into the country with an army, a blood court and a tightened inquisition . All concessions were canceled. Alba's uncompromising approach also drove the previously moderate forces into an uprising. So took William I of Orange , actually Philipps governor in the counties of Holland, Zeeland and Utrecht, the leadership of the insurgents. However, given the military successes of the Spaniards, only the Geusen succeeded in wresting some cities in Holland and Zealand from Spanish rule and maintaining them permanently as bases.
The longer the war dragged on, the more important the rebel center, which was concerned with balancing, gained in importance. A mutiny by the Spanish troops and the death of the governor Don Luis Requesens (1573–1576) created a power vacuum. The States General urged peace and enforced it in the Ghent pacification in 1576 . According to this agreement, the breakaway provinces of Holland and Zealand were to return to the union of the 17 Dutch provinces and to keep peace with them, while the foreign troops were to be driven out of the country. Peace seemed to be within reach. In 1577 the States General forced the new governor Don Juan (1576–1578), the king's half-brother, to withdraw the Spanish troops. But after the Spanish signed a peace treaty with the Ottoman Sultan and the American silver fleet landed enough precious metals to finance the war, the governor don Juan resumed the fight against the Protestant provinces. The battle ended with the defeat of the States General in the Battle of Gembloux and finally ushered in the division of the 17 provinces.
In January 1579 the Walloon provinces united to form the Union of Arras and concluded a separate peace with the Spanish king. Almost simultaneously the seven Dutch provinces ( Holland , Zeeland , Groningen , Utrecht , Friesland , Gelderland and Overijssel ) merged to form the Union of Utrecht , founded the Republic of the Seven United Provinces in 1581 and deposed the Spanish king as sovereign. This initiated the split in the country.
In the core provinces of Flanders and Brabant, Calvinist forces had taken power in the cities of Ghent, Bruges, Ypres, Antwerp and Brussels and forbade the practice of the Catholic faith. Until 1585 these cities were conquered by Spanish troops under Alessandro Farnese and thus formed the borders between the north and south of the Netherlands. Attempts by the Orange to win back Antwerp failed. The status quo has remained untouched since the end of the 16th century. On May 15, 1648 the actual birth and thus independence of the United Provinces of the Netherlands came through the Peace of Westphalia in Münster and Osnabrück.
Golden age
The Netherlands emerged from the Eighty Years' War as a great power and leading trading nation. This was preceded by fundamental upheavals in the European system of power. The economic and political center shifted from southern Europe to the North Sea and the Atlantic. Against this background, economic, social and artistic changes took place in the Netherlands.
By the middle of the 17th century, the Dutch had by far the largest merchant fleet in Europe, with more ships than any other nation combined. The "moedercommercie", the mother of the Dutch economy, was the trade with the Baltic Sea region: the Dutch transported Baltic grain and Scandinavian wood to England, France and Spain and from there wine, salt and herring to the Baltic countries. The Dutch were almost unrivaled after a shipbuilder from Hoorn had developed the Fleute in 1595 , a cargo ship that managed with a smaller crew thanks to its simple sail construction.
The next step on the way to economic dominance was the conquest of the international spice trade, which until then had been in the hands of the Portuguese. Since 1595, Dutch trading companies equipped fleet associations to the Southeast Asian Spice Islands (now Indonesia). In 1602 these trading companies merged to form the United East India Company (VOC), the first public company in history. It was able to activate far more capital than the Portuguese crown and therefore conquered almost all Portuguese trading bases in Southeast Asia within a few decades. Following the example of the VOC, the West India Company was founded in 1621 , which in the meantime rose to become the world's largest slave trader , but was less successful overall. Important institutions for promoting Dutch trade were the Wisselbank , founded in 1609 , the first large public bank outside Italy, and the Amsterdam Stock Exchange , which had resided in its own representative building since 1611. “The Dutch can claim more than most other nations to have invented globalization - and all the excesses that go with it”.
In addition to trade, the Dutch economy relied on the other two economic sectors , such as herring fishing, whaling and brewing . The city of Leiden was considered the most important European location for the textile industry ; flourishing agriculture was glorified in paintings by Paulus Potter and Albert Cuyp . Painting provided a livelihood for around 700 professional painters. Many Dutch people enjoyed a certain wealth at that time; the 17th century was later called the Golden Age ( gouden eeuw ) in Dutch historiography .
The republic was ruled by a patriciate ( regent ) - consisting of wealthy citizens and nobles who immigrated to the cities in the late Middle Ages - and not by a king or high nobles. In doing so, the Netherlands took a different path than the absolutist ruled southern Netherlands. In principle, each city and province had its own government and laws and was ruled by related rulers. The cities and districts were largely independent; on the other hand, the southern, Catholic areas such as Brabant and Limburg were under central authority. This aristocratic-bourgeois and federal system was retained by the republic, even if it seemed old-fashioned in the 17th century compared to the growing power of the absolutist states. This confederation of states worked well and was able to cope with the demands of the European wars of that time. Nevertheless, domestic political tensions arose in the 17th century. The governors , who possessed a great deal of power especially in times of war, had voted for the continuation of the conflict in the course of the Eighty Years' War. In 1648 , Willem II opposed the acceptance of the Peace of Westphalia and tried, in secret negotiations with France, to place his territory under a central government. To this end, he also resorted to the coup d'etat in 1650. When he died unexpectedly in 1650 after only three years in reign and had no successor (his son Willem , who later became King of England, was born after his death), the Estates General took the opportunity and managed, under the leadership of Johan de Witt , Gaspar Fagel , Gillis Valckenier and Andries de Graeff from the position of governor. The Eeuwig edict ( decree of the century) included the overthrow of the House of Orange . Later this time should be called het Eerste Stadhouderloos Tijdperk - the first period without governor . During this time Johan de Witt , the Dutch pensioner , was the most influential Dutch politician. With the help of his powerful relatives, he ruled the Dutch government apparatus.
Anglo-Dutch Wars
The Netherlands, which rose to a great power from the power vacuum of the early 17th century, then had to defend this position in the second half of the 17th century against the growing strength of England and France, which challenged Dutch supremacy. The first threat came from England. In 1651, the English Parliament passed the Navigational Act , a law that was directed against Dutch middlemen without explicitly naming the Netherlands. The law stipulated that imported goods could only be brought to England by ships from the respective country of origin of the goods. However, the Dutch mainly shipped goods from third countries. The battle for the files ended in the First Anglo-Dutch War , which lasted from 1652 to 1654 and, after an unfavorable course for the Dutch fleet under Admiral Maarten Tromp, ended in the Peace of Westminster , in which the navigation file had to be recognized. However, the trade disputes between the two nations were not settled with this peace agreement. The hostilities between the English and Dutch trading companies, which themselves had troops and warships, continued particularly in the extensive overseas colonies. The Dutch launched a major shipbuilding program to compensate for their disadvantage in the ships of the line, which they had felt in the sea battles of Kentish Knock, Gabbard and Scheveningen.
In 1665 the English declared war on the Dutch again ( Second Anglo-Dutch War ). They had previously attacked Dutch settlements in Nieuw Nederland . With the support of the French (who had meanwhile invaded the Spanish Netherlands - now Belgium), the Dutch gained the upper hand. After the Dutch admiral Michiel de Ruyter destroyed a large part of the English fleet on the Thames , the English and Dutch concluded the peace of Breda in 1667 . The war had ended on the part of the United Netherlands at a time when they were in the most advantageous position because political developments in the Spanish Netherlands forced them to do so. The peace treaty therefore represented a compromise. The British war aim of destroying Dutch trade and taking part of it had failed. But the fact that on the one hand the Netherlands had withdrawn from North America and on the other hand England had withdrawn from Suriname and Indonesia resulted in a real relaxation. The United Netherlands remained the leading supplier of nutmeg and received a new colony with Dutch Guiana . The navigation file was also modified in favor of the Netherlands. However, the moderation on the Dutch side did not prevent the next war with England, which began a few years later.
Rampjaar
1672 is known in the Netherlands as the Rampjaar , the disaster year: one after the other, England ( Third Anglo-Dutch War ), France , Munster and Kurköln , who had formed an alliance against the Netherlands, declared war on the republic ( Dutch War ). France, Kurköln and Munster invaded the republic, while the landing of the English on the coast could only be barely prevented.
This was preceded by a diplomatic change in the relationship between the Netherlands and France. After France had long supported the Netherlands in the fight against Spain, the two powers finally formed a defensive alliance in 1662. Louis XIV was anxious to get the support of the United Netherlands for a conquest of the Spanish Netherlands and therefore tried to negotiate. In the States General there was fear that England and France would merge if the French offers were not accepted. The influential Dutch pensioner Johan de Witt (1625–1672) proposed that the Spanish Netherlands should be divided up together. Such plans have been discussed since 1663. But the share that Louis XIV demanded for himself deterred de Witt and the contract was never concluded. Then in 1667/68 the French King Louis XIV single-handedly waged the so-called war of devolution against Spain in order to conquer parts of the Spanish Netherlands . The French troops operated so successfully that in January 1668 a coalition of England, Sweden and the Netherlands, the so-called Triple Alliance , was formed, which France had threatened with a joint declaration of war if France did not stop the conquest. The United Netherlands had been very concerned about the rapid French advance. They too were actually enemies of the Spanish monarchy, but “an inactive and tired Spain was a better neighbor for them than a powerful and aggressive France.” They wanted the Spanish Netherlands as a kind of “buffer state”. As a result, King Louis XIV had to reluctantly sign the Peace of Aachen on May 2, 1668 . Since the French king blamed the United Netherlands in particular for the formation of the Triple Alliance and felt personally betrayed by the former ally, his policy in the following years was directed primarily against them.
The French advanced almost unhindered via Liège and Kleve to Gelderland and took Utrecht. Wilhelm III, who was appointed General Captain at the beginning of the war . of Orange could only prevent a complete defeat by opening locks and dams in order to flood the country and stop the advance of the French. Holland's formerly almighty council pensioner Johan de Witt and his brother Cornelis were lynched by a crowd in The Hague incited by Orange party members . With the help of other German states, the Dutch were able to drive back the invaders, whereupon peace was concluded with Kurköln and Münster in 1674, after England also agreed to the conclusion of peace in the Second Peace of Westminster after several defeats. In 1678, peace was also made with France with the Treaty of Nijmegen , although the Spanish and German allies felt betrayed by the peace signed in Nijmegen .
William III. not only ended the war, but also married Maria , a niece of the English king , in 1677 , thus initiating a Dutch-English defense alliance. When his father-in-law, James II (1685–1688), who had meanwhile been crowned king, promoted the re-Catholicization of England, the English parliament called William III. to help and offered him the royal crown in the Glorious Revolution . From now on England and the Netherlands became the center of the anti-French coalitions.
During the peace treaties of Nijmegen (1678) and of Rijswijk (1697) , which ended the Nine Years War , Dutch foreign policy reached its climax.
From the War of the Spanish Succession (1700–1713), the Dutch Republic emerged as a medium-sized power that had to limit itself to preserving what was already there. Although the Netherlands had borne the brunt financially and the Dutch troops a significant part of the losses, it became clear that the Netherlands was too small to play the role of a sea or land power on a permanent basis. In economic terms, the Netherlands lost some of the foreign markets for its products. Internally, a political power vacuum gave rise to the particular powers. The 18th century is often referred to as the period of standstill or the political and economic decline of the republic. By adopting a strict course of neutrality, she managed to stay out of most of the conflicts of the 18th century.
The mutiny on the Nijenburg broke out in 1736.
French rule since 1795
At the end of the 18th century there was growing unrest in the Netherlands. Fighting arose between the Orange , who wanted to give William V of Orange more power, and the Patriots, who, under the influence of the American and French Revolutions, called for a more democratic government. The Netherlands was the first country to recognize the United States of America . Britain declared war before it could join the group of neutrals who vowed mutual support. The fourth Anglo-Dutch War (1780–1784) was again a disaster for the Netherlands, especially economically. In 1785 a democratic (" patriotic ") revolt broke out, but the House of Orange enlisted its Prussian relatives to help put down the revolt. Many patriots fled the country to France.
After the French Revolution, the French army marched into the Netherlands and helped the Batavian Republic (1795–1806) to its short existence. The French influence was strong, and after Napoleon came to power, he united the Netherlands and a small part of Germany ( East Frisia , Jever ) under the Kingdom of Holland, which he had his brother Louis Bonaparte rule as king. This kingdom did not last long either, as Napoleon complained that his brother put Dutch interests before French ones, whereupon he incorporated the Netherlands into the French Empire in 1810. French interests required the Kingdom of Holland to participate in the continental blockade , but this was often undermined by smuggling in the Netherlands, as in other coastal areas.
The House of Orange signed a treaty with Great Britain in 1796 in which it placed its colonies in 'preventive custody' and instructed the governors of the colonies to bow to British rule. With that the Netherlands lost a large part of their colonial empire: Guyana and Ceylon became British; Although the Cape Colony was returned to the Netherlands on paper, it was taken over again by the British in 1806, now for good. The remaining colonies, including Indonesia, reverted to the Netherlands under the British-Dutch Treaty of 1814 . Three years earlier there had been a military conflict between the two nations over the island of Java.
Constitutional monarchy in the 19th century
After the Napoleonic era, the Netherlands came back as a state on the map of Europe. The country has always played a role as a buffer to put a stop to the French urge to expand. The Russian Tsar in particular wanted the Netherlands to resume this role, and also wanted the colonies to be returned. A compromise was reached with the British at the Congress of Vienna in 1815, according to which only the Dutch East Indies were reproduced, but the north and south of the Netherlands should be reunited.
On December 2, 1813, the Netherlands proclaimed their independence from French rule and Wilhelm Friedrich, Prince of Orange-Nassau , who had returned on November 30, as sovereign prince. He was the son of the last governor Wilhelm V. The country became a monarchy in 1814/15. The Prince of Orange became king as William I. His kingdom of the United Netherlands had consisted since 1815 of the countries that today form the Netherlands and Belgium; in addition there was Luxembourg , of which William was Grand Duke.
Many Belgians felt they were second-rate subjects for the following reasons:
- Denomination: the predominantly Catholic south versus the predominantly Protestant north;
- Economy: the south was industrially more advanced, the north traditionally a trading nation;
- Language: not only Wallonia was French-speaking, the upper class in the Flemish north also spoke French, while the rest of the Flemish population spoke Dutch or a Dutch dialect.
In 1830 the situation escalated; the south rose in the Belgian Revolution and declared itself independent from the north. Wilhelm sent an army, which had to withdraw after only a few days after France had mobilized her army. However, he did not recognize Belgium until 1839.
In 1848, unrest broke out in many parts of Europe . The result was also significant in the Netherlands. The liberal constitutional lawyer Johan Rudolf Thorbecke was commissioned by the king to reform the constitution of the Netherlands . The introduction of ministerial responsibility - or more precisely: the government's duty to provide information to parliament - enabled the parliamentary system that later became established. Parliamentarism - the de facto parliament elects the members of the government - was finally established in 1866/68.
When the constitution was amended in 1848 , Catholics in the Netherlands were given the right to free church organization. In 1853 the historic Catholic dioceses were restored.
The Netherlands until World War II
At the end of the 19th century, when many states claimed colonies for themselves, the Netherlands expanded their holdings in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). Max Havelaar by Eduard Douwes Dekker , one of the most famous books in Dutch literary history, reports on the exploitation of the country and its inhabitants by Dutch people and local rulers.
After a constitutional amendment in 1884, the right to vote could be expanded. In another constitutional amendment in 1917, all men were given the right to vote. At the same time, majority voting in single-electoral districts was replaced by a list system with proportional representation . The first election under these new conditions took place on July 3, 1918. On July 5, 1922, women were also allowed to vote for the first time .
First World War
After the First World War broke out in August 1914, the Netherlands struggled to maintain neutrality . They were not occupied like Belgium. The Netherlands was enclosed by Germany on land, and the Royal Navy ruled the North Sea . Germany's incursion into Belgium , which is also neutral , led to a wave of several hundred thousand refugees to the Netherlands, 100,000 of whom remained permanently in the country. The German occupying forces in Belgium erected deadly electric fences on the border with the Netherlands from 1915 . The Netherlands was in a difficult position: deliveries of goods to one party were easily seen by the other as a violation of neutrality. Also because civil shipping on the North Sea had become unsafe, a lot of food was scarce and only given out in exchange for food cards. A mistake in the food allocation caused the so-called Aardappeloproer (potato riot ) in Amsterdam (June 28 to July 5, 1917) when civilians looted food supplies for soldiers . The country offered refuge for thousands of French, English, German and also some Russian prisoners of war who had fled the combat zone.
Interwar period
In November 1918, the leader of the Sociaal-Democratische Arbeiders Partij (SDAP, Social Democratic Workers' Party), Pieter Jelles Troelstra, called for a socialist revolution, which failed, however, and for a long time excluded the socialists from political participation. Despite the introduction of proportional representation , relatively little has changed in political life: confessional parties continued to dominate. It was considered significant news that in 1918 the first Catholic became Prime Minister. The socialists first came into government in 1939.
Communists ( Communist Partij van Holland ) and National Socialists ( National Socialist Movement ) remained weak in an international comparison.
After the National Socialists came to power in neighboring Germany, around 50,000 people who were persecuted politically or as Jews fled to the Netherlands between 1933 and 1939, around half of whom stayed there.
Second World War
May 1940 - German occupation
After the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939 and the subsequent declarations of war by Great Britain and France on Germany, the neutral Netherlands had hoped not to be drawn into the war , as in the First World War . Since Hitler came to power, the governments of the Netherlands had expressed some understanding for the aggressive German foreign policy, because they too had found the provisions of the Versailles Treaty to be too harsh on Germany. They had concentrated on developing economic relations and maintaining good relations with the German Reich. In the 1930s, the Netherlands had made several declarations that they wanted to remain neutral in a conflict and expected warring parties to respect this attitude. The Dutch apparently did not realize that the conduct of war between states had changed as a result of modern air warfare. The Dutch territory was a possible base for both Great Britain and Germany for air strikes against the other state.
On November 7, 1939, Queen Wilhelmina , together with Leopold the Third of Belgium, proposed a peace mediation that Great Britain and France had not taken seriously. Germany even considered it disturbing, because at the same time as the planned attack against France and England on October 13, 1939, Hitler initiated the associated attack on the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg as the "Yellow Case" for the first time.
On 10 May 1940 raided the Wehrmacht , the Netherlands and Belgium and occupied most of the Netherlands in a few days. The small and poorly equipped Dutch army could offer little resistance. A German plan to arrest the Dutch government, the commander in chief of the armed forces Henri Winkelman and the Queen Wilhelmina in a commando operation failed. Fearing defeat, the Dutch government sent Dutch Foreign Minister Eelco van Kleffens and Colonial Minister Charles Welter to London on May 10th on behalf of the Prime Minister to prepare for the exile of the royal house and government. On May 13, the royal family and the rest of the government emigrated. The executive authority had previously been transferred to General Henri Winkelman.
On May 14th there were only a few theaters of war left, including Rotterdam . The Wehrmacht leadership decided to force the surrender of the Netherlands with an air raid on Rotterdam . The bombers started during negotiations between a Dutch and German delegation to end the fighting . When the Dutch negotiating delegation agreed, it was already too late to order the bomber pilots to stop the attack. 800 people died in the attack. 25,000 homes were destroyed and 78,000 residents were left homeless. Then the Netherlands capitulated. A Dutch government-in-exile was formed in Great Britain under Pieter Gerbrandy , who succeeded his predecessor Dirk Jan de Geer in September 1940 . Without control by the Dutch parliament, Wilhelmina's influence on government affairs increased. Just one day after the start of her exile in London, she turned to her people on the official government broadcaster Radio Oranje with a proclamation in which she called on the Dutch to continue resistance against the occupying power and expressed her conviction that the country would soon be liberated again would be. In the absence of parliamentary legitimacy, the government-in-exile was unable to pass actual laws. Instead, only royal resolutions, the so-called wetsbesluiten (literally: "legal acts") were passed, which dealt primarily with the resistance against Germany and the warfare against Japan in Asia as well as with the reconstruction of society after the liberation of the Netherlands. Most of the most important decisions were signed by the Queen and all ministers.
General Friedrich Christiansen was from May 29, 1940 to April 7, 1945 Wehrmacht Commander in Chief in the occupied Netherlands and from November 10, 1944 to January 28, 1945 also Commander in Chief of the 25th Army deployed there . Christiansen was captured after the war and sentenced in August 1948 to 12 years imprisonment by a special court in Arnhem in the Putten criminal case for a war crime (burning down a village and deporting 602 men). In December 1951 he was pardoned.
German occupation and persecution of the Jews
On May 18, 1940, Hitler appointed Arthur Seyss-Inquart as Reich Commissioner for the Netherlands. He introduced a domestic obligation to work, contrary to the Hague Land Warfare Regulations , to enable civilians to use military structures such as B. to build the Atlantic Wall . Around 475,000 Dutch were brought to the German Reich for forced labor and were viewed as collaborators when they returned home . With the Dutch bureaucracy he organized the exclusion, concentration, the deprivation of property ( Aryanization in favor of German banks and corporations) and the deportation of the racially persecuted Jews , Sinti and Roma as part of the final solution .
At the beginning of the war, 160,000 people of Jewish descent lived in the Netherlands, including 20,000 Jewish refugees who had immigrated from neighboring countries. From 1942, the Westerbork transit camp , established in 1939, was used by the German occupation as a concentration camp (collective and transit camp), mainly for onward transport to Auschwitz . Other camps on Dutch soil were the Amersfoort transit camp set up in 1941 and the Vught concentration camp south of Herzogenbusch . In Doetinchem and Barneveld , the Villa Bouchina , De Schaffelaar and De Biezen were partly used as internment camps under Dutch collaboration . At the end of the war, only about 30,000 of the Dutch Jews were still alive.
The Jewish refugee girl Anne Frank from Frankfurt am Main was among those murdered ; the " Diary of Anne Frank " later became known worldwide. With 112,000 murdered, around 75 percent of Dutch Jews died, in percentage terms much more than in other Western European countries. Her belongings left behind were brought to the Reich during the M-Action . Art collections and entire libraries such as the Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana and the library of the Sephardic Jewish community as well.
The first large-scale raid took place on February 22 and 23, 1941: more than 400 Jewish men were deported to the Mauthausen concentration camp . The Dutch communists then called a general strike , which went down in the history books as the “ February strike ”. The occupation forces brutally suppressed the strike that was carried out across North Holland.
In July 1940 three men, including the future Prime Minister Jan de Quay , founded a Nederlandse Unie . She accepted the occupation as a fact that could not be changed and promised to cooperate with the occupiers, but was also intended to prevent an influx of the National Socialist Movement (NSB). In 1941, however, the university was banned because it attracted anti-German sentiments. She could not fulfill her self-determined role as a balancing force. As a precaution, she had "recommended" Jews not to become members. She was also accused of collaboration and defeatism after the war .
After all parties were banned in the course of 1941, the influence of the NSB increased slightly. Government power remained in the hands of the occupiers, but popularity with the population was very limited. But the willingness to actively offer resistance was also limited, which is why the historian Chris van der Heijden speaks of a "gray past" instead of the widespread division into a good, resistant majority and a small collaborating minority after the war. Most of the Dutch had to come to terms with the occupation one way or another.
Allied advance and starvation winter
The Allies landed in Normandy in Operation Overlord from June 6, 1944 . The Battle of Caen ended on August 15th ; on August 25, the Battle of Paris . After that, troops pushed very quickly towards the Dutch border. Complex logistics (see Red Ball Express ) made this possible.
Brussels was liberated on September 3, and Antwerp a day later . On September 4th, Prime Minister Pieter Sjoerds Gerbrandy gave a speech on Radio Oranje and announced that the Allies had crossed the border and that the hour of liberation had now come. It was expected that Rotterdam would be captured on September 5th, Utrecht and Amsterdam on September 6th, and the rest of the country would soon be liberated.
Many Dutch prepared to receive the Allies and left their jobs; the streets filled with the expectant population. Panic broke out among many German occupiers and the members of the Nationaal-Socialistische Bewegungsing (NSB); Documents were hastily destroyed, and more than 30,000 NSB members fled with their families from the Netherlands to German territory. That day went down in history as Dolle Dinsdag (Great, Crazy Tuesday).
On September 17th, the Allies launched the daring Operation Market Garden : a quick invasion of the southern Netherlands in order to use airborne troops to conquer bridges over the three main rivers. The bridge from Arnhem over the Rhine could not, however, be conquered; the operation ended in defeat and heavy losses. This military failure was later filmed as The Arnhem Bridge .
In the winter of 1944/45, which was particularly cold, wet and long, many Dutch people, including many city dwellers, had to starve and freeze in the still occupied area; it went down in the collective memory of the Netherlands as " Hongerwinter " (hunger winter) . About 20,000 people starved to death. Older representations assumed that 200,000 were starved; this figure was refuted in 1999 by historian David Barnouw .
On May 5, 1945 the Wehrmacht surrendered near Wageningen ; this date is celebrated as Bevrijdingsdag (Liberation Day). Already on May 4, 1945, a German negotiating delegation led by had Hans-Georg von Friedeburg against the British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery in the tactical headquarters of the British troops on the Timeloberg in Wendisch Evern near Lüneburg the partial surrender of the Wehrmacht for Northwest Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands signed which came into effect on May 5th at 8:00 a.m.
Developments in the Dutch East Indies
After the surrender of the European Netherlands in May 1940, Colonial Governor Tjarda van Starkenborgh began implementing measures to secure the colony. Among other things, this led to the arrest of around 2,800 people who were considered a risk and taken to internment camps. In addition to “Aryan” German citizens, these included NSB members, citizens of other European countries such as Poland, Hungary or Yugoslavia and also Jewish refugees from Germany and Austria. The possessions of those affected were confiscated.
After the Dutch government in exile had declared war on Japan , the Japanese invasion of the Dutch East Indies began on January 11, 1942 . The Dutch armed forces in the region became part of the multinational ABDACOM association founded on January 8, 1942 under the command of British Field Marshal Sir Archibald Wavell . The Dutch Lieutenant General Hein ter Poorten was given command of the ABDACOM's land forces. The ABDACOM was in a rather unpromising position from the start, so the unit's fleet under the command of Rear Admiral Karel Doorman was badly beaten in the battle in the Java Sea and Doorman himself was killed. On February 28, 1942, the Japanese landed on Java and began taking the last island in the region still controlled by the Dutch. The Dutch capitulated a few days later on March 9th.
During the occupation that followed, the Japanese divided the population of the colony into different groups according to their ethnic origin. Dutch residents were captured and interned in labor camps. Some of the prisoners were used for forced labor on the highly dangerous construction of the Thailand-Burma railway , which in Dutch is also known as Dodenspoorlijn (roughly: "Death Railway "). It is estimated that around 13,000 people were killed in the camps and during forced labor.
With the Japanese surrender on August 15, 1945, the Second World War also ended here . It was soon followed by the Indonesian War of Independence ; this ended in 1949 with Indonesian independence .
post war period
Queen Wilhelmina, a symbol of resistance against the German occupiers, resigned in 1948 in favor of her daughter Juliana after fifty years of rule . During the occupation, Wilhelmina's absolutist tendencies increased (she wanted to choose the ministers herself), which she was unable to enforce when she returned to her country. In September 1944, Gerbrandy's government dealt with the regulations and systems enacted by the Germans and their helpers during the occupation and divided them into three categories: Category A comprised regulations that were retrospectively never considered to be legally valid, including anti-Jewish edicts the occupiers fell. Category B included regulations that were retrospectively considered valid, but ended when the exemption occurred, while decisions of category C should continue to apply for the time being.
In 1949 the West German municipality of Elten (near Emmerich ) and its surroundings came under Dutch administration until 1963. The residents there remained formally German citizens, but received Dutch passports and were legally equated with Dutch citizens. A demand made in the Netherlands for the annexation of parts of the Münsterland and the Rhineland near the border (→ Dutch annexation plans after the Second World War ) could not be enforced. The Selfkant was also placed under Dutch administration in 1949 . This was intended in the final declaration of the London Germany Conference . Only after long negotiations and payment of 280 million DM was the Selfkant returned to the Federal Republic of Germany. The N274 leading through this area remained in Dutch ownership until February 25, 2002.
Although the loss of Indonesia was originally expected to lead to economic ruin, the opposite happened, and the Netherlands grew rapidly in wealth by the 1950s. In 1952, the Netherlands and France, who founded Federal Republic of Germany , Italy , Belgium and Luxembourg , the European Coal and Steel Community . The ECSC (or coal and steel union ) was one of the cornerstones for the later European Union . The country is also one of the founding members of NATO .
In 1953, a severe flood disaster resulted in many deaths in Zeeland and Zuid-Holland (see flood disaster of 1953 ). To forestall such a disaster in the future, which was Deltaplan placed the dike increases and the closure envisaged by the sea arms. The implementation of the ambitious plan took several decades.
Decolonization 1945–1975
Even in the period before World War II, the Netherlands had been confronted with various nationalist movements within the colonies. As early as the 1930s, Japan's aggressive policy of development had caused sharp criticism from the Dutch government.
Immediately after the Japanese surrender on August 15, 1945, the Dutch East Indies declared their independence on August 17, 1945 and henceforth called themselves Indonesia . This date is still considered to be the hour of birth of the republic. The Netherlands fought the Indonesian republic militarily and only gave up under international pressure from the United Nations and the United States of America . The country formally gained independence on December 27, 1949, after the Indonesian War of Independence . Dutch New Guinea did not become independent until 1961/62 and then annexed to Indonesia despite the clear cultural differences.
In 1954, the colonies of the Netherlands Antilles (in the Caribbean) and Suriname (in South America) became equal partners of the Netherlands with the adoption of the Statute for the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Defense and foreign relations remained with the kingdom. In 1975 Suriname became an independent republic. In 1986, the island of Aruba was spun off from the Antilles, making the kingdom of the Netherlands, the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba. Another state reform in 2010 led to the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles. Like Aruba, the islands of Sint Maarten and Curaçao were given the status of their own country within the kingdom, while Sint Eustatius , Saba and Bonaire have since been part of the Netherlands as so-called special municipalities (Dutch bijzondere gemeenten ).
Since the de-columning in the 1960s
Verzuiling reached its peak in the 1960s , after which the ties of the Dutch to their religious or cultural groups weakened. In the 1970s, the three major denominational parties united, while attempts on the left (such as those made by Democrats 66 ) failed. It was not until 1990 that three smaller parties merged to form GroenLinks .
On April 30, 1980 there was a change at the top of the royal family. Queen Beatrix of Orange-Nassau became queen, succeeding Queen Juliana , who abdicated at the age of 71.
The new province of Flevoland emerged in 1986 from the polders of the Nordostpolder and Flevolandpolder, which were diked in 1929 .
From the purple coalition to Mark Rutte
In the election to the Second Chamber on May 3, 1994, the Christian Democrats fell dramatically (from 54 to 34 seats). For the first time since 1918 a cabinet was established without a denominational party ( Cabinet Kok I : Social Democrats, Right and Left Liberals). Prime Minister of the "purple coalition" (until 2002) was the social democrat Wim Kok . The coalition's socio-political innovations included active euthanasia and homohuwelijk , marriage for homosexuals (since April 1, 2001). In 2004 the Queen's parents ( Bernhard and Juliana ) died and in October 2002 her husband ( Claus ) died. The wedding of Crown Prince Willem-Alexander to Máxima Zorreguita in February 2002 caused a sensation - the bride's father was a member of the government during the Videla dictatorship in Argentina. He was not allowed to be present at the wedding. In 2003, a scandal broke out when a daughter of Beatrix's sister Irene , Princess Margarete, accused the Queen and the government of bugging her and her husband. It was confirmed that the husband's financial background had been checked by the security authorities, contrary to the usual regulations. The queen found the husband unsuitable in character for the royal family; In 2006 Margarita separated from him.
The murders of the politician Pim Fortuyn on May 6, 2002 in Hilversum , and of the film director Theo van Gogh , on November 2, 2004 in Amsterdam , shook the Dutch public. They led to heated debates about a multicultural society, coexistence with immigrants and the self-image of Dutch society. After the murder of Theo van Gogh, there were also arson attacks on Islamic and Christian institutions in the Netherlands.
The Evaluation of Pim Fortuyn won in the election on 15 May 2002 (nine days after his murder) from the state 17 percent of the vote, while the ruling parties lost (especially the Social Democrats). Jan Peter Balkenende (CDA) formed a coalition together with right-wing liberals and Fortuynliste ( Cabinet Balkenende I ). In October the coalition broke up, and after the new election, Balkenende replaced the Fortuynists with the left-wing liberals ( Democrats 66 ) ( Cabinet Balkenende II ). The latter left the government in 2006, after the new elections in the same year, Balkenende formed his third cabinet in 2007 , a government made up of Christian Democrats, Social Democrats and fundamental Christian Christian union . Mark Rutte has been Prime Minister since 2010 (see Cabinet Rutte I , II and III ).
See also
- Anarchism in the Netherlands
- Gouden Eeuw
- Political system of the Netherlands
- Republic of the Seven United Provinces
literature
- David Barnouw: The Netherlands in World War II: An Introduction , Agenda Verlag, Münster 2010, ISBN 978-3-89688-427-5 .
- Christoph Driessen : History of the Netherlands. From sea power to trendland , Verlag Friedrich Pustet, Regensburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-7917-2173-6 .
- Michael Erbe : Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg. History of the Netherlands , Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-17-010976-6 .
- History of the Netherlands. Holland, Belgium, Luxemburg by Franz Petri , Ivo Schöffer and Jan Juliaan Woltjer (= Handbook of European History) (dtv Volume 4571). Klett-Cotta in Deutsches Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich 1991, ISBN 3-423-04571-X .
- Katja Happe: The persecution of the Jews in the Netherlands 1940–1945 . On the homepage NetherlandsNe t of the Westphalian Wilhelms University Münster uni-muenster.de .
- Thorsten Holzhauser: Three questions about the state and constitutional system of the United Netherlands in the 17th and 18th centuries (URN: urn: nbn: de: 0289-2011051832 ). In: Scriptum 1, 2011, ISSN 2192-4457 , (article available under Creative Commons license).
- Jan Kuys, Harm Tjalling Waterbolk: Netherlands. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 21, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2002, ISBN 3-11-017272-0 , pp. 164-191.
- Horst Lademacher : History of the Netherlands. Politics - Constitution - Economy . Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1983, ISBN 3-534-07082-8 .
- Horst Lademacher: The Netherlands. Political culture between individuality and adaptation . Propylaen-Verlag, Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-549-05472-6 (= Propylaene history of Europe, supplementary volume) [most comprehensive recent presentation (as of 2013) of Dutch history in German]
- Michael North : History of the Netherlands . CH Beck, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-406-41878-5 . 4th edition 2013, ISBN 978-3-406-65338-4 .
- Friso Wielenga , Ilona Taute (Ed.): Country report Netherlands. History, economy, society , Waxmann, Münster 2004, ISBN 3-89688-206-6 (parallel edition at Federal Agency for Political Education , Bonn 2004).
- Friso Wielenga:
- The Netherlands, Politics and Political Culture in the 20th Century , Waxmann, Münster 2008, ISBN 978-3-8309-1844-8 .
- History of the Netherlands . Reclam-Verlag, Ditzingen 2012, ISBN 978-3-15-010893-2 .
- Atlas Van Stolk . Collection of prints, maps, photographs and drawings on the history of the Netherlands .
Web links
- The Dutch colonial era
- History of the fall of the United Netherlands from the Spanish government by Friedrich Schiller , full text at Projekt Gutenberg-DE
- Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Dutch History (Summary) ( Memento of November 12, 2010 on the Internet Archive )
- Christoph Strupp : The Netherlands - Developments and Trends in Contemporary History Research , Version: 1.0, in: Docupedia-Zeitgeschichte , March 22, 2011
- Krijn Thijs: Netherlands - black, white, gray. Contemporary history debates since 2000 , Version: 1.0, in: Docupedia-Zeitgeschichte , June 3, 2011
Individual evidence
- ^ Jean-Jacques Hublin , Darlene Weston, Philipp Gunz, Mike Richards, Wil Roebroeks , Jan Glimmerveen, Luc Anthonis: Out of the North Sea. The Zeeland Ridges Neanderthal , in: Journal of Human Evolution 57.6 (2009) 777-785.
- ↑ Michael North: History of the Netherlands , p. 11.
- ↑ Michael North: History of the Netherlands , p. 19.
- ↑ Manfred Hollegger: The Burgundian War of Succession 1477–1493. In: (ders.): Maximilian I. (1459–1519) ruler and man of a turning point. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-17-015557-1 , p. 78 f.
- ↑ Michael North: History of the Netherlands , p. 21.
- ↑ Michael North: History of the Netherlands , p. 28.
- ↑ Michael North: History of the Netherlands , p. 30.
- ↑ Christoph Driessen (2009): History of the Netherlands, From sea power to trend land , p. 65.
- ↑ Christoph Driessen: History of the Netherlands, From the sea power to the trend land , p. 67 ff.
- ↑ Christoph Driessen: History of the Netherlands, From the sea power to the trend land , p. 75 f.
- ↑ Christoph Driessen: History of the Netherlands, From Sea Power to Trendland , updated edition 2016, p. 65.
- ↑ Christoph Driessen: Rembrandt and the women , Regensburg 2011, p. 29.
- ↑ Michael North: History of the Netherlands , p. 40.
- ↑ For a detailed history of the conflict, see: Paul Sonnino: Louis XIV. And the origins of the Dutch War . Cambridge University Press, New York 1988, ISBN 0-521-34590-1 (Cambridge studies in early modern history).
- ↑ John A. Lynn: The Wars of Louis XIV 1667-1714 . Longman, London 2002, ISBN 0-582-05628-4 , p. 109 (reprint of the London 1999 edition).
- ↑ Michael North: History of the Netherlands , p. 67.
- ^ Friso Wielenga : The Netherlands. Politics and Political Culture in the 20th Century , page 21 . Waxmann, 1st edition 2008, ISBN 978-3-8309-1844-8 .
- ↑ www.politiekcompendium.nl
- ^ David Barnouw: The Netherlands in World War II: An Introduction , Agenda Verlag, Münster 2010, ISBN 978-3-89688-427-5 , p. 11. (In the following David Barnouw: Netherlands 2010 + page number)
- ^ David Barnouw: Netherlands. 2010 , p. 11.
- ^ Germans in the Netherlands 1918–1945 , Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, accessed April 30, 2015.
- ^ David Barnouw: The Netherlands in World War II: An Introduction , Agenda Verlag, Münster 2010, ISBN 978-3-89688-427-5 , p. 19.
- ↑ Hans Umbreit: The struggle for supremacy in Europe. In: Klaus A. Maier u. a .: The establishment of hegemony on the European continent (= The German Reich and the Second World War . Vol. 2). DVA, Stuttgart 1979, ISBN 3-421-01935-5 , p. 276.
- ^ Horst Lademacher: The Netherlands and Belgium in the foreign policy of the Third Reich, 1933–1939. An outline. In: Manfred Funke (Ed.): Hitler, Germany and the Powers . Materials on the foreign policy of the Third Reich. Kronberg / Ts. 1978, ISBN 3-7610-7213-9 ? P. 664.
- ↑ David Barnouw : The Netherlands in World War II: An Introduction. Agenda Verlag, Münster 2010, ISBN 978-3-89688-427-5 , pp. 20-30.
- ↑ David Barnouw : The Netherlands in World War II: An Introduction. Agenda Verlag, Münster 2010, ISBN 978-3-89688-427-5 , p. 28 ff.
- ↑ Cees Fasseur: Wilhelmina. Krijgshaftig in a vormeloze yes . 1st edition. Balans, 2001, ISBN 978-90-5018-451-9 , pp. 279-281 .
- ^ Loe de Jong: Het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden in de Tweede Wereldoorlog . tape 9 , no. 2 . Staatsuitgeverij, The Hague 1979, pp. 1184-1187 .
- ^ Raul Hilberg : The annihilation of the European Jews. Fischer Taschenbuch 1982, Volume 2, ISBN 3-596-24417-X , pp. 598 ff.
- ^ Gerhard Hirschfeld : Foreign rule and collaboration - The Netherlands under German occupation 1940–1945 (= studies on contemporary history. 25) Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1984, ISBN 3-421-06192-0 , p. 194.
- ^ Rolf-Dieter Müller: At the side of the Wehrmacht: Hitler's foreign helpers in the "crusade against Bolshevism". P. 142 . 2007, Ch. Links Verlag (Fischer Taschenbuch 2010, ISBN 978-3-596-18150-6 )
- ↑ David Barnouw (1999): De hongerwinter. P. 52 , ISBN 978-90-6550-446-3 .
- ↑ JJP de Jong: De waaier van het fortuin: Van handelscompagnie dead koloniaal imperium. De Nederlanders in Azië en de Indonesian archipelago 1595–1950 . 1st edition. Sdu, The Hague 2000, ISBN 978-90-12-08974-6 .
- ^ Louis Morton: War in the Pacific: Strategy and Command: The first two years . Ed .: United States Army Center of military history. Washington, DC 2000, pp. 166-170 .
- ↑ Herman Burgers: De Garoeda en de ooievaar: Indonesië van colony dead national state . Brill, 2010, ISBN 90-04-25374-2 , pp. 275 ff .
- ↑ Het Koninklijk Besluit Bezettingsmaatregelen. (PDF) In: kb.nl. Retrieved March 22, 2019 (Dutch).
- ^ After Friso Wielenga: The Netherlands. Politics and Political Culture in the 20th Century. P. 296.
- ↑ The Netherlands Antilles no longer exist. In: tagesspiegel.de. October 11, 2010, accessed March 25, 2019 .
- ^ Edwin Karel Willem de Roy van Zuydewijn; the two married on June 19, 2001 in a civil ceremony
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