The Netherlands or Holland have an amazing history of hundreds of years. A territory that has customs and a culture that go back many years in time. It has various periods, wars and historical stages that you should know. At Curio Sfera -Historia.com , we explain the history of the Netherlands and its origin .
Don’t miss the history of the flags
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- 1Origin of the Netherlands
- 2German and Norman invasions
- 3Feudal times of the Netherlands
- 4Burgundian and Spanish periods
- 5Colonial expansion and economic decline
- 618th and 19th centuries
- 7world wars
- 8Postwar and Benelux
- 9Recent history of Holland
- 10History of the Dutch flag
Origin of the Netherlands
To know the history and origin of Holland or the Netherlands (Nederland) you must first know what it is like and its geographical location.
It is one of the most densely populated and developed states in Europe, located on the North Sea coast, between Belgium and Germany.
It is a country whose inhabitants have made working together a fundamental asset of their existence. Thus, they have progressed by uprooting many of the lands that now feed them, to the point that a Flemish proverb says that God has created the whole world except Holland , which has been created by the Dutch.
Out of this age-old quest for progress has emerged a people of adventurers, merchants, sailors, discoverers, philosophers and artists, whose works have left their mark all over the world.
It is the country that founded New York , the one that assembled the ships that took Tasman to the lands of Oceania, the one that gave birth to geniuses such as Bosco, Rembrandt, Vermeer or Van Gogh.
And, as if this weren’t enough, Holland adopted the Calvinist principle of freedom of conscience more than three centuries ago , making it the most tolerant nation in the world. The Rhine’s outlet to the sea also makes it a hub for European trade.
- Continent: Europe.
- Surface: 41,500 km2.
- Capital: Amsterdam.
- Population: 17,303,658 inhabitants.
- Currency: Euro.
- Official language: Dutch.
German and Norman invasions
When Caesar arrived in Gaul (1st century BC), the territory that today constitutes the Netherlands was occupied to the south by some peoples ( nervios and menapios , among others) who worked wool, while to the north they lived two peoples of Celtic origin ( Batavians and Friesians ).
The Roman conquest was carried out between 57 a. C. and 50 a. C. and the territory was divided into three provinces: Gemiania Secunda, Belgium Prima and Belgium Secunda . After the German invasions (III century), the Saxons, Franks and Frisians distributed the country.
Charlemagne conquered this region and forced the pagan tribes to convert to Christianity, but he respected its laws and customs, which were compiled in the Lex Frisonum and the Lex Saxonum .
The territory was divided into counties , and various textile and commercial centers developed along the coast and rivers. The Norman invasions of the 9th century ruined the country and paralyzed this economic development.
Feudal times of the Netherlands
In parallel, a mosaic of feudal states was formed , which oscillated between French and German influence. Throughout the 12th and 13th centuries a new period of industrial and commercial development began.
New lands were plowed up, and many nobles sold part of their possessions, at the same time that the peasants were emancipated from their status as serfs.
The cities wrested a series of privileges from the lords, which allowed them to free themselves from feudal tutelage.
At the time of the economic depression of the 14th century , conflicts broke out in many cities between the oligarchy of the big bourgeoisie , which controlled the municipal government, and the lower town, made up mostly of artisans.
Burgundian and Spanish periods
From the end of the 14th century and during the 15th century, the dukes of Burgundy of the Valois dynasty annexed the lands between the Delta of the Rhine and the Scheldt . By then, this entire coastal plain began to be called the Netherlands .
The Dukes of Burgundy at first respected the local autonomies of these territories, but gradually they made an effort to centralize them.
Carlos the Fearless
When the last Duke of Burgundy, Carlos the Bold, died (1477), his daughter Maria married Maximilian of Austria, and the Netherlands became dependent on the sovereignty of the House of Habsburg .
Carlos V annexed several territories north of the Rhine to them . The domination of the Habsburgs coincided with a period of strong economic expansion, based on the textile industry, fishing, cultivating new lands and, fundamentally, trade.
This development mainly affected the areas with better communications. Parallel to this development, the Netherlands became an area of intense intellectual and religious vitality .
Politically, the Habsburgs continued the centralizing attempts of the Dukes of Burgundy and limited the privileges of medieval origin. When the Protestant Reformation was introduced, its supporters were persecuted.
During the reign of Philip II (1556-98) these tendencies towards Catholic absolutism became more acute. The Netherlands did not see the Spanish monarch favorably. They considered him someone foreign and imposed.
Discontent against the “Spanish occupation” spread throughout the country and the nobles gathered at Breda (Breda compromise, 1566 ) called for the suppression of the Inquisition.
King of the Netherlands Philip II
In August of the same year a series of popular riots broke out against the king and the Catholics. To face the situation, Felipe II sent the Duke of Alba , but his repressive policy only served to encourage the monarch’s enemies.
These, led by Guillermo de Orange , started an armed uprising in 1568 and after several years of fighting they managed to expel the Spanish troops from the Northern Provinces.
The Southern Provinces, inhabited by a Catholic majority, accepted the sovereignty of Felipe II ( Unión de Arras, 1579 ). From this union of the southern provinces the nucleus of the future Belgium would emerge.
Around the same time, the Northern Provinces formed the Union of Utrecht (1579) and rejected Spanish rule, continuing the fight against the Hispanic troops, until in 1609 the Twelve Years Truce was signed .
During the Thirty Years’ War (1618-48) the conflict between the United Provinces of the North and Spain (1621-48) broke out again. When signing the Peace of Münster (1648) Spain recognized the independence of the Netherlands .
Colonial expansion and economic decline
Since the end of the 16th century, a new period of economic expansion began, favored by trade with America and, especially, with the East Indies.
Amsterdam became the most important commercial emporium in Europe , and the agricultural revolution began in the countryside .
In 1602 the Dutch East India Company was founded, and in 1621 that of the West Indies . At the end of the seventeenth century the prosperity of the country declined and its trade was passing into the hands of England. This decline was fueled by infighting and wars against Louis XIV.
18th and 19th centuries
During the 18th century the economy remained stationary. Through the Enlightenment, democratic ideology penetrated the country. In 1795, the Dutch republicans, with the support of the French army, proclaimed the Batavian Republic .
Napoleon made it a kingdom, whose throne he gave to his brother Louis Bonaparte (1806). In 1810 it was administered directly by France. When Napoleon was defeated in Leipzig (1813) there was an uprising against the French , and a national government was established, which ruled the country by means of a Constitution (1814) .
At the Congress of Vienna (1815) the great powers confirmed the formation of the kingdom of the Netherlands, which included the former Northern Provinces and the Southern Catholic Provinces.
This union lasted until the revolution of 1830 , in which the Southern Provinces separated and formed present-day Belgium .
World wars
During the 20th century, the liberal governments that followed in Holland introduced a series of reforms aimed at democratizing it.
At the same time, the Dutch economy experienced a new period of expansion, due to industrialization and the colonial exploitation of Indonesia. In the First World (1914-1918) War Netherlands remained neutral .
German invasion of the Netherlands in World War II
In 1917 universal suffrage was introduced . The crisis of 1929 also had repercussions in Holland, although Dutch Nazism did not manage to prevail in the country.
The Netherlands declared itself neutral during World War II , but on May 10, 1940 Hitler issued an ultimatum to the Dutch government, requesting free passage for his troops; being denied, he invaded the country.
The Dutch army capitulated while the government and Queen Wilhelmina took refuge in London. Under the leadership of Seyss-Inquart, Reich Commissar in the Netherlands, the Nazis practiced a policy of annexation through the collaborationist Mussert.
In the Nazi concentration camps 100,000 Dutch perished. The liberation of the country by the allied troops took place in the spring of 1945. The ruin of the country was total, since several dikes had been destroyed to fight against the occupier.
Postwar and Benelux
Queen Wilhelmina abdicated her daughter Juliana in 1948. In the colony of Indonesia , occupied during the war by Japanese troops , there was a strong independence movement that the Netherlands tried to suppress.
After three years of fighting, Indonesia achieved independence from the Netherlands (1949) .
Being deprived of much of the benefits of colonial exploitation, it had to proceed with the reconversion of its economy with the development of industry and the intensification of agriculture, a process favored by US aid ( Marshall plan ).
As a consequence of the new ideas of European cooperation, the national economy was adapted to that of Belgium and Luxembourg, which led to the formation of the Benelux (1958) , and, by the Treaty of Paris (1951) and the Treaty of Rome (1957 ) .
Similarly, the Netherlands joined the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and the European Economic Community (EEC) respectively .
The new Dutch politics was dominated since the end of the war by the preponderance of two parties, the Popular Catholic, which groups together Catholics and conservatives and later formed the Christian-Democratic Alliance (CDA), and the Labor Party (PvdA), of a social democratic tendency. In 1967, during a Catholic government, there was a virulent youth protest (provos).
Recent history of Holland
The current history of Holland begins in 1980 when Queen Juliana abdicated her daughter Beatriz .
The Catholic Party and other conservative forces ruled between 1977 and 1982. Its successor, the CDA, also chaired various coalition cabinets until 1994, the year the Labor Party returned to power.
This government promoted a new economic model based on the pact between the social agents , which allowed it to join the monetary union in 1999 (which became effective in January 2002 with the entry into force of the euro), a success that to a large extent it is due to a productive structure with numerous multinational companies.
During the campaign for the May 2002 elections there was a great political upheaval with the assassination of Pim Fortuyn , a candidate of the extreme right.
The alternation between the two parties occurred again after the elections with the return to power of the CDA. During his tenure, the law of active euthanasia and the one that allows marriage and the adoption of children to homosexual couples came into force .
History of the Dutch flag
It was the year 1573 , they were times of struggle for independence in the Netherlands , which at that time were subject to Spanish rule.
It was then that this country, accustomed to seeing the invader coming from the sea, adopted the dynastic colors ( orange, white and blue ).
“I will resist” is the motto of William I of Orange-Nassau, the Taciturn, the father of the Dutch homeland. On the coat of arms of the house of Orange-Nassau and under a lion raising a sword and arrows, this promise can be read in French.
The Prinsenvlag , the prince’s banner, presided over the successful Union of Utrecht in 1579, by which the Republic of the United Provinces of the Netherlands was founded .
For practical reasons, in 1937 the color orange was replaced by red as it was not very resistant to the elements and difficult to distinguish from the sea.
However, since the 19th century and in homage to Guillermo de Orange, an orange banner has flown over the red-white-blue tricolor during the celebration of major national events.