Netherlands, also known unofficially as Holland, constitutional monarchy of
northwestern Europe, bordered on the north and west by the North Sea, on the
east by Germany, and on the south by Belgium. With Belgium and
Luxembourg, the Netherlands forms the Low, or Benelux, Countries. The
Netherlands Antilles and Aruba, islands in the Caribbean, are part of the
Netherlands. The European portion of the Netherlands has a total area of
41,526 sq km (16,033 sq mi), of which 33,939 sq km (13,104 sq mi) is land
surface. The country’s capital and largest city is Amsterdam.
In the late 16th century a Dutch revolt against the authority of the king of Spain,
at the time ruler of what now constitutes the Low Countries, succeeded in the
northern provinces, which later became the Netherlands. The Dutch Republic,
officially established in 1648, fell in 1795 when the armies of Revolutionary
France imposed a pro-French government. In 1810, France annexed the
Netherlands, but with the defeat of Napoleon in 1814 to 1815, the present
Dutch state, officially called the Kingdom of the Netherlands, came into being.
Originally Belgium was part of this new kingdom, but it seceded in 1830 and
formed an independent country. The present boundaries of the Netherlands are
essentially those established after the secession of Belgium, although they are
similar to the borders of the Dutch Republic.
Land and Resources
The Netherlands, as its name suggests, is a low-lying country. About half of
the country’s landmass lies below sea level. This amount would increase
should the polar ice caps melt and slowly raise the level of the sea due to
global warming. Much of the western part, situated below sea level, is covered
with clay and peat soils interspersed with canals, rivers, and arms of the sea.
Farther to the east the land lies slightly above sea level and is flat to gently
rolling. The elevation rarely exceeds 50 m (164 ft). Most of the land is devoted
to agriculture; only small areas of forest and heath remain.
Physiographic Regions
The North Sea coastline of the Netherlands consists mostly of dunes. In the
southwest are gaps in the dunes formed by river mouths, creating a delta of
islands and waterways. In the north, the dunes were broken through by the sea,
thereby creating the West Frisian Islands and behind them a tidal sea called the
Waddenzee. Adjacent to the narrow strip of dunes is an area lying below sea
level that is protected by dikes and kept dry by continuous mechanical
pumping. The former Zuider Zee, a large arm of the sea, is being reclaimed. A
dike separating it from the sea was completed in 1932, when work was begun
to drain about 225,000 hectares (about 556,000 acres) to form reclaimed land
known as polders, such as Flevoland and the Northeast Polder. About threequarters of the area had been reclaimed by the early 1980s. The remaining
freshwater lake is called the IJsselmeer.
On February 1, 1953, the spring tide severely flooded the delta region in the
southwest and about 1800 people died. The Delta Plan, launched in 1958 and
completed in 1986, was implemented to prevent such flooding. Under the plan,
the Dutch shortened the coastline by about 700 km (about 435 mi); developed
a system of dikes; and built dams, bridges, locks, and a major canal. The dikes
created freshwater lakes and joined some islands.
Most of the eastern half of the Netherlands consists of low-lying land covered
by sandy soil deposited by glaciers and rivers. Hilly country (the foothills of the
Ardennes) and loam soils are found only in the southern part of Limburg
Province. Vaalserberg (321 m/1053 ft), the nation’s highest point, is in this area.
Rivers and Lakes
The major rivers of the Netherlands are the Rhine, flowing from Germany, and
its several arms, such as the Waal and Lek rivers; and the Maas (a branch of
the Meuse) and the Schelde (Escaut), flowing from Belgium. These rivers and
their arms form the delta with its many islands. Together with numerous canals,
the rivers give ships access to the interior of Europe.
In the northern and western portions of the Netherlands are many small lakes.
Nearly all the larger natural lakes have been pumped dry, but the delta
redevelopment program and the reclamation of the Zuider Zee have created
numerous new freshwater lakes, the largest being the IJsselmeer.
Climate
The Netherlands shares the temperate maritime climate common to much of
northern and western Europe. The average temperature range in Vlissingen in
the coastal region is 1° to 5° C (34° to 41° F) in January and 14° to 21° C (57°
to 69° F) in July. In De Bilt, in the densely populated central region of the
country, the average range is -1° to 4° C (31° to 40° F) in January and 13° to
22° C (55° to 72° F) in July. Annual precipitation averages 690 mm (27 in) in
Vlissingen and 770 mm (30 in) in De Bilt. Cloudless days are uncommon, as is
prolonged frost. Because the Netherlands has few natural barriers, such as
high mountains, the climate varies little from region to region.
Vegetation and Animal Life
The natural landscape of the Netherlands has been altered by humans in
many ways over the centuries. Because land is scarce and fully exploited,
areas of natural vegetation are not extensive. The tall grasses of the dunes and
the heather of the heaths continue to provide habitats for rabbits, but larger
wildlife, such as deer, have disappeared except in parks. The remnants of oak,
beech, ash, and pine forests are carefully managed. Land reclamation projects
have created new habitats for many species of migratory birds.
Mineral Resources
The Netherlands was long thought to be poor in mineral resources. Peat, used
as fuel, was dug in several regions, and southern Limburg Province was known
to contain coal deposits. Salt also was produced. In the 1950s and 1960s great
natural-gas reserves were discovered in Groningen Province. Smaller deposits
of crude petroleum are located in the northeastern and western parts of the
country.
Environmental Protection
The natural environment of the Netherlands is vulnerable to pollution and
destruction. A number of national parks and nature preserves have been
established to preserve portions of the natural landscape. The Netherlands is
active in international efforts to clean the waters of the Rhine River, and some
citizens seek to prevent land reclamation and the building of dikes in an effort to
preserve natural environments.
Population
The great majority of inhabitants of the Netherlands are Dutch. They are
mainly descended from Franks, Frisians, and Saxons. Most residents of
Friesland Province are Frisian, a distinct cultural group with its own language.
Fearing overpopulation, the government encouraged Dutch emigration after
World War II (1939-1945), and some 500,000 people left. But an even larger
number of people entered the Netherlands—Europeans and Asians from the
former Netherlands Indies dependency (now part of Indonesia); industrial
workers from Turkey, Morocco, and other Mediterranean countries; and, more
recently, residents of Suriname, also a former Dutch dependency, and the
Netherlands Antilles. Consequently, the country’s population, particularly in the
large cities, now includes several ethnic minorities.
Population Characteristics
According to a 1995 estimate, the Netherlands has a population of about
15,499,000. The overall population density is about 373 persons per sq km
(about 967 per sq mi), making the Netherlands one of the most densely
populated countries in the world. The nation is heavily urbanized, with about 89
percent of the population living in urban areas. The largest cities are
Amsterdam (population, 1993 estimate, 719,856), the country’s capital;
Rotterdam (596,023), one of the world’s leading seaports; The Hague
(444,661), the nation’s seat of government; and Utrecht (234,170), a
manufacturing hub. Sixteen other cities had between 100,000 and 200,000
inhabitants. Many of these cities are concentrated in the western provinces of
Noord-Holland (North Holland), Zuid-Holland (South Holland), and Utrecht,
comprising the large urban region called Randstad.
Language
The official language of the Netherlands is Dutch, which is spoken throughout
the country. In the province of Friesland, however, a large percentage of the
population speaks another Germanic language, Frisian, as its first language.
See Dutch Language; Frisian Language.
Religion
Roman Catholics constitute about 33 percent and Protestants 23 percent of the
Dutch population. About 3 percent are adherents of Islam, and the country also
has a small Jewish community. About 39 percent of the people do not belong to
a religious body. The Roman Catholics are concentrated in the southern part of
the country. The Protestants are divided among several denominations, the
largest being the Dutch Reformed church. The Netherlands has no official
religion, but the Reformed church has had a close association with the Dutch
state since the founding of the Dutch Republic. All the country’s monarchs have
been members of the Reformed church.
Education and Cultural Activity
The organization of cultural activity and social life in the Netherlands began to
change significantly in the 1960s. Until then, most facets of Dutch life were
organized systematically in what are called pillars, or groups. In education,
politics, the communications media, medicine, the trade unions, and other
segments of Dutch life, institutions were specifically Protestant, Roman
Catholic, or public (nondenominational) and were represented on committees at
all levels of government. As the country underwent change, socialist and liberal
nonsectarian pillars joined the denominational pillars, and some institutions
became independent of the pillar system. By the 1980s most people had
become less firmly attached to a specific pillar.
Education
From the time of the Reformation in the 16th century, the Netherlands has
enjoyed a high level of basic education and comparatively high literacy rates. In
the 19th century efforts were made to systematize education and to secure
adequate financing for schools. As the state became more deeply involved in
education, a dispute arose concerning the fate of nonpublic, mainly churchrelated, schools. The so-called school struggle became a major political issue
and was not fully settled until 1917, when a constitutional amendment
guaranteed equal, tax-paid financial support for both public and nonpublic
schools. Today, about one-third of the elementary and secondary schools are
public, and about two-thirds are nonpublic, mainly Roman Catholic or
Protestant. School attendance is compulsory for children aged 5 through 16
years. Pupils attend a primary school for six years and then enter one of
several types of secondary schools, which offer training for entering a university
or other advanced institution or for pursuing a vocation. Instruction is in Dutch,
except in Friesland, where classes are also taught in Frisian. In the early 1990s
about 1.4 million pupils attended primary schools, about 673,600 students were
enrolled in general secondary schools, and 505,300 attended vocational
secondary schools.
The number of students enrolled in institutions of higher education increased
dramatically in the 1960s, and by the early 1990s some 180,000 students
attended colleges and universities and 204,400 were engaged in third-level
non-university training. Major institutions include the University of Amsterdam
(1632) and the state universities of Groningen (1614), Leiden (1575), and
Utrecht (1636). The Netherlands has several technical universities and schools
of fine arts.
Cultural Life
The Dutch humanist Desiderius Erasmus had wide influence in the 16th
century, and the country’s cultural life as a whole achieved an international
reputation in the 17th century, which is often called its Golden Age. Among the
influential Dutch figures of that time were the jurist Hugo Grotius, the scientists
Christiaan Huygens and Anton van Leeuwenhoek, the cartographers Willem
Janszoon Blaeu and Jodocus Hondius, the writers Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft
and Joost van den Vondel, the philosopher Baruch Spinoza, and numerous
theologians. In addition, foreigners lived in Holland to enjoy its tolerant
atmosphere, the most famous being the French philosopher and mathematician
René Descartes and the English philosopher John Locke. Well-known figures
of the Golden Age include the great 17th-century Dutch artists, such as
Rembrandt, Jan Vermeer, Frans Hals, and Jan Steen. The Dutch artistic
tradition continued to be vigorous in more recent centuries—producing such
noted and influential painters as Vincent van Gogh, Piet Mondrian, and Karel
Appel—and lives on today, particularly in Amsterdam, where artists from many
countries work. See Baroque Art and Architecture; Dutch Literature; Frisian
Literature; Renaissance Art and Architecture.
Cultural Institutions
The Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam has an international reputation,
and another major Dutch symphony orchestra is in Rotterdam. The main
libraries of the Netherlands are those of the State University of Leiden and the
University of Amsterdam and the Royal Library in The Hague. In addition, the
country has many public libraries. Of the country’s numerous museums the
most famous are those displaying the work of Dutch painters. These include the
Rijksmuseum, the Rembrandt-Huis Museum, the Van Gogh Museum, and the
Stedelijk Museum, all in Amsterdam; the Royal Picture Gallery (Mauritshuis), in
The Hague; the Boymans-van Beuningen Museum, in Rotterdam; and the
Kröller-Müller National Museum, in Hoge Veluwe National Park in Otterlo.
Economy
The Netherlands has played a special role in the European economy for many
centuries. Since the 16th century, shipping, fishing, trade, and banking have
been leading sectors of the Dutch economy, and trade with the country’s
colonial empire was important in the 19th and the first half of the 20th centuries.
Since the independence of Indonesia in the late 1940s, the Dutch economy has
been redirected from colonial trade to that with European nations; a diversified
manufacturing base was created as employment in agriculture fell; and the
country became a major energy exporter as large deposits of natural gas were
discovered. In all these changes the national government played a major role,
particularly by its economic planning. The government’s influence is great even
though most firms are privately owned, because it distributes nearly half the
Dutch national income. Also important in the economic growth of the
Netherlands are the activities of a number of large private firms.
National Output
In 1993 the gross domestic product (GDP) of the Netherlands was measured at
$309.2 billion. Between 1980 and 1992, the country’s GDP in real currency
grew at an average yearly rate of 2.2 percent. About 30 percent of GDP is
produced by manufacturing, construction, and energy-related activities;
agriculture contributed 4 percent, and the service sector was also a major
contributor.
Labor
Of the approximately 6.6 million employed workers, about 60 percent work in
trade and services. One quarter are employed in manufacturing and industry,
11 percent are in business and finance, and 4 percent work in agriculture,
forestry, and fishing. Approximately one-third belong to labor organizations, the
largest of which are the Netherlands Trade Union Confederation and the
Christian National Federation of Trade Unions in the Netherlands. The
government systematically enters into negotiations between employers and
unions in order to secure collective bargaining agreements that are consistent
with its economic plans.
Agriculture
Despite the small size and dense population of the Netherlands, agriculture is
highly productive and a major generator of exports. The export value of meat,
flowers, vegetables, butter, cheese, and other dairy products substantially
exceeds the value of imported grain, tropical products, and animal fodder. This
specialized agriculture occurs mainly on small family farms. Meadows and
pastures occupy about 32 percent of the nation’s land area, while 27 percent is
devoted to cultivation. Annual crop production in the early 1990s (in metric
tons) included potatoes, 7.7 million; sugar beets, 7.5 million; vegetables and
fruits, 4.4 million; wheat, 1 million; and other cereals, 323,000. There were 4.8
million cattle, 15 million pigs, and 96 million chickens. The Netherlands became
famous for its tulip breeders in the 18th century, and today flowers and bulbs
are important exports. The need to increase yields on limited tracts of land has
made Dutch farmers heavy users of chemical fertilizers, which can contaminate
groundwater. To combat this problem, the government has promoted efforts to
reduce pollutants.
Forestry and Fishing
Because little of the Netherlands is covered by forest, timber production is of
minor importance. Fishing, however, is a traditional activity that continues to be
significant despite the reduction of the stock resulting partly from water pollution
in the North Sea. Atlantic horse mackerel, Atlantic herring, European plaice,
blue mussel, Atlantic mackerel, common sole, Atlantic cod, blue whiting, and
shrimp are leading components of the annual catch, which totaled 443,100
metric tons in the early 1990s.
Manufacturing
The Dutch manufacturing sector is highly diversified, and much of it is of recent
origin; industrial production was relatively unimportant until after World War II
(1939-1945). Heavy industry, such as the manufacture of steel, transportation
equipment, and large machinery, is much less important in the Netherlands
than in neighboring countries. The rapid post-1945 growth of manufacturing has
been led by the chemical and electronics industries. Also important to the
manufacturing sector are the production of processed food, beverages, and
tobacco products, machinery, transportation equipment (particularly merchant
ships), metal products, and printed material.
Energy and Mining
The industrial structure of the Netherlands is closely related to the country’s
sources of energy. For centuries the Dutch relied heavily on windmills and peat
for energy. As these became outmoded, coal increased in importance. Deposits
in Limburg Province supplied a part of Dutch needs, but most coal was
imported. Petroleum and natural gas became increasingly important after World
War II; these fuels also were imported, and the port of Rotterdam became a
leading center for receiving and refining petroleum. In the 1950s and 1960s the
Dutch discovered large reserves of natural gas in Groningen Province.
Production rose rapidly, permitting the last domestic coal mines to be closed in
1973 and making the Netherlands a major exporter of natural gas. In the early
1990s the annual output of crude petroleum was 19.5 million barrels, and of
natural gas, 82 billion cu m (2.9 trillion cu ft), making the Netherlands the
world’s fifth largest producer. Installed electricity-generating capacity was 22.2
million kilowatts; the output of electricity totaled 63.5 billion kilowatt-hours.
Currency and Banking
The Dutch currency unit is the guilder, or gulden (1.71 guilders equal U.S. $1;
1996). It is issued and regulated by De Nederlandsche Bank (1814), the Dutch
central bank. The exchange rate of the guilder is closely tied to that of other
major Western European currencies, particularly the German mark. Amsterdam
is the leading center of Dutch banking and insurance and the home of the
country’s principal stock exchange. The international commodity exchange for
petroleum operates in Rotterdam.
Foreign Trade
The Dutch economy is extremely open to world trade. Much of the flow of
goods into its ports is intended for transshipment to other countries, mainly
other members of the European Union. Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s
the value of Dutch exports generally exceeded that of its imports; in 1992, for
example, the country’s imports cost about $130.3 billion, and its exports earned
about $139 billion. Leading exports are basic manufactures; food products,
chiefly fruit and vegetables, dairy products and eggs, and meat; machinery;
chemicals and chemical products, including organic chemicals and plastics;
transportation equipment; petroleum products; and natural gas. Major imports
are machinery; basic manufactured items, principally paper goods, textiles, and
metals; food and live animals; chemicals; transportation equipment; and
petroleum and petroleum products. Fellow members of the European Union
account for the majority of Dutch imports and exports. Germany is the most
important single trading partner, accounting for more than 27 percent of Dutch
trade. Other leading purchasers of exports are Belgium and Luxembourg,
France, Great Britain, Italy, the United States, and Spain. Principal sources for
imports in addition to Germany are Belgium and Luxembourg, Great Britain,
France, the United States, Italy, and Japan. Natural-gas exports have helped
increase Dutch foreign exchange earnings, as has the influx of tourists. More
than 3.9 million foreigners visit the Netherlands every year, attracted by its
sandy beaches, by boating on its rivers and lakes, and by historical sites and
cultural activities. The Dutch are themselves fond of traveling, however, and
they generally spend at least twice as much money abroad as foreigners spend
in the Netherlands.
Transportation
Because the Dutch economy is internationally oriented, good transportation
facilities have long been essential to its prosperity. Rotterdam is one of the
world’s leading seaports, and Amsterdam also is a major port. Both ports owe
their importance to canals and rivers that provide easy access to the sea as
well as to the interior of Europe.
The New Waterway links Rotterdam to the North Sea, which is connected to
Amsterdam by the North Sea Channel. Dutch canals and rivers navigable by
vessels of more than 1000 gross registered tons have a total length of about
2398 km (about 1490 mi) and reach almost every part of the country. The
Dutch oceangoing merchant fleet comprised 2.8 million gross registered tons in
the early 1990s, and some 5500 Dutch commercial vessels plied inland
waterways.
The government-owned railroad network of some 2753 km (some 1711 mi) of
operated track, about 72 percent of which is electrified, densely covers the
Netherlands and provides frequent passenger train service. Barge competition
prevents the railroads from being major freight carriers.
About 2118 km (about 1316 mi) of limited-access highways and numerous
bridges, tunnels, and ferries help to speed the flow of Dutch motor-vehicle
traffic. The number of automobiles in the early 1990s was 5.8 million, or nearly
one for every three inhabitants. Bicycles are an important means of local travel,
and many roads have separate bicycle lanes.
The busiest international airport of the Netherlands is Schiphol, near
Amsterdam, and smaller airports serve Groningen, Maastricht, Rotterdam, and
other cities. Domestic air travel is of little importance. Royal Dutch Airlines
(KLM) is the country’s leading air carrier.
Communications
In addition to the many dozens of regional and local newspapers, the
Netherlands has several nationally distributed newspapers, each tending to be
associated with a particular political or social position. For example, the NRCHandelsblad (published in Rotterdam) is liberal and nonsectarian, the
Volkskrant (Amsterdam) has Roman Catholic ties, Trouw (Amsterdam) is close
to the Reformed church, and Het Vrije Volk (Rotterdam) is linked to the
Socialist Party. The daily with the largest circulation is the independent
Telegraaf of Amsterdam. Under the Media Act of 1988, two national
organizations coordinate radio and television broadcasting: an independent
consortium provides production facilities, while a firm representing both
government and the private sector transmits general-interest programming.
Most programs are produced by nonprofit associations that are given funds
raised by taxing radio and television owners and are allocated air time
according to the number of members they have. The major producers include
VARA (socialist), NCRV (Protestant), KRO (Roman Catholic), and AVRO and
TROS (both nonsectarian). The country has many smaller producers, making
Dutch radio and television pluralistic. In the early 1990s some 12 million radios
were in use and 5.6 million television sets were licensed.
Government
The Netherlands is a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system of
government. It is governed under an 1814 constitution, as amended.
Executive
The head of state of the Netherlands is the hereditary monarch, who has had
little power in running the government since the constitution was revised in
1848. The principal executive official of the country is the prime minister, who is
appointed by the monarch and heads a cabinet that is responsible to the
parliament, called the States-General.
Legislature
The States-General consists of a First Chamber, composed of 75 members
elected to terms of four years by the provincial legislatures, and a Second
Chamber, made up of 150 members popularly elected to terms of up to four
years under a system of proportional representation. Either or both chambers
may be dissolved by the monarch on condition that new elections be held within
40 days. The Second Chamber is by far the more important of the two; the First
Chamber has little more than a rarely exercised veto power over the legislative
process.
Judiciary
The judicial system of the Netherlands includes four main levels of courts. The
highest tribunal is the High Court of the Netherlands, which sits in The Hague.
Other major judicial bodies are courts of appeal, district courts of justice, and
canton courts. All Dutch judges are appointed for life by the monarch.
Local Government
The Netherlands is made up of 12 provinces—Drenthe, Flevoland, Friesland,
Gelderland, Groningen, Limburg, Noord-Brabant, Noord-Holland, Overijssel,
Zuid-Holland, Utrecht, and Zeeland. The political identity of each province can
be traced back to the Middle Ages. Today each is governed by a commissioner
appointed by the monarch and a popularly elected legislature (Provincial
States). The country is further divided into nearly 650 municipalities, ranging
from the largest city to the smallest village. Each is governed by a popularly
elected council and a burgemeester (mayor) appointed by the government.
These lower levels of government have only limited taxing power and depend
on the central government for most of their finances. The Netherlands has
universal suffrage for all citizens beginning at age 18.
Political Parties
The Netherlands uses systems of proportional representation in electing
municipal, provincial, and national assemblies. This allows even small political
parties to win representation. In the 1994 Second Chamber elections, for
example, 12 parties won seats. On the national level, the Netherlands has
always been governed by coalitions of parties, the formation of which has often
proved difficult.
In the early 1990s, the largest parties were the Christian Democratic Appeal, a
moderate group; the Labor Party, a socialist organization; the People’s Party for
Freedom and Democracy, a liberal, business-oriented party; and Democrats
66, a relatively new party seeking greater direct citizens’ participation in the
political system. Of the many smaller parties, most are extremely liberal or
extremely conservative.
Social Services
The Dutch government administers one of Europe’s most comprehensive
welfare states. Taxes and social security premiums together give the
government command over nearly half the national income. Much of this
revenue is spent on education, health, employment stimulation, and social
welfare. To reduce a growing budget deficit, however, the government has
trimmed social services in recent years. Participation in the health insurance
system is compulsory for everyone earning less than a certain wage (about 70
percent of the population). The Dutch are also protected by unemployment
benefits; sick pay; a guaranteed income for those physically unable to work;
pensions for widows, orphans, and the elderly; minimum-wage regulations; and
family allowances.
Defense
The military defense of the Netherlands is secured by the participation of its
army, navy, and air force in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). All
males must serve nine months in the armed forces. In 1993 conscripts made up
almost half the 74,600 members of the Dutch armed forces.
International Organizations
The Netherlands has long advocated European integration and international
cooperation. Consequently, it joined the Council of Europe in 1949; the
European Community (now called the European Union) in 1957; the Benelux
Economic Union, which links the country with Belgium and Luxembourg, in
1960; and other European organizations. It is also a charter member of the
United Nations and is a major contributor to programs furthering the economic
development of poor countries. The Netherlands is also a founding member of
both NATO and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
History
Historical accounts of the Netherlands date from the 1st century BC, when
Roman forces led by Julius Caesar conquered most of the present area of the
country. At the time the region was inhabited by Frisians, a Germanic tribe that
lived in the north, and by other Germanic and minor Celtic tribes.
The Roman Era
Before the conquest, the Romans had annexed lands to the southeast
extending beyond the Rhine River. They penetrated the Netherlands region
mainly to control the several mouths of the Rhine, which were then farther to
the north than they are now. Under Roman rule, general peace and prosperity
prevailed for more than 250 years. Roman traders entered the area freely,
selling products from Italy and Gaul. The Romans built temples, established a
number of large farms, and introduced their civilization to the region.
About AD 300 the hold by the Romans began to weaken, and nonindigenous
German tribes pushed into the area from the east. The Frisians, in the north,
held their ground, but Saxons occupied the eastern part of the region, and the
Franks moved into the west and south.
The Middle Ages
The Franks were the most powerful of the invaders. Their lands extended
southward into what is now northern France and eastward across the Rhine.
Eventually, the Frankish kings subjugated the Frisians and the Saxons and
converted them to Christianity. By 800 the entire territory of the Netherlands
was part of the realm of Charlemagne. After Charlemagne died, his empire
disintegrated, and in 843 the Treaty of Verdun divided the empire into three
parts. The Netherlands became part of Lotharingia (Lorraine) and still later, in
925, part of the Holy Roman Empire. At that time a Dutch nation did not exist,
and the immediate loyalties of the inhabitants were to local lords. Gradually
over the next centuries the whole region came to be called the Low Countries,
or Netherlands, including present-day Belgium.
During the 9th and 10th centuries Scandinavian raiders, called Vikings,
frequently invaded the coastal areas, sailing far up the rivers in search of loot.
The need for a stronger system of defenses against such marauders gradually
led to an increase in the power of the local rulers and their vassals, the nobles,
who were largely a warrior class. Concurrently, the towns began to grow in
importance, as artisans and merchants settled in them and improved their
defenses. The gradual development of powerful towns was a notable feature of
Dutch history during the 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries, and the area became
an important trading center. Under the leadership of wealthy merchants the
towns began to challenge the power of the nobles who ruled the countryside.
The merchants often supported the regional ruler in his campaigns against
unruly vassals, at the same time exacting from him privileges designed to
promote commerce and to strengthen the town and the position of the
merchant class.
In the early Middle Ages such political entities as the counties of Flanders and
Holland, the bishopric of Utrecht, and the duchies of Brabant and Gelderland
were established. In the far north, however, the Frisians did not submit to a
regional ruler but continued to obey their local headmen. The association of the
Netherlands with the Holy Roman Empire remained largely nominal throughout
the Middle Ages. Some trade was conducted with German coastal cities to the
east, such as Bremen and Hamburg, but the major cultural influence came from
France.
The Renaissance
Through marriage, war, and political maneuvering, most of the region
comprising the present-day Netherlands—Holland, Utrecht, Noord-Brabant, and
Gelderland—came into the hands of the dukes of Bourgogne during the 15th
and early 16th centuries. By 1519 this area was under the benevolent control of
Holy Roman emperor Charles V, of the Spanish branch of the house of
Habsburg, who was also king of Spain. In 1555, however, Charles resigned
both Spain and the Netherlands to his son, Philip II, who was Spanish by birth
and education and had little liking for his northern European territories. His
oppressive rule led to the epochal war of independence waged from 1568 to
1648 by the Dutch against Spain, then the most powerful nation in Europe.
The Struggle for Independence
The political disaffection between the Low Countries and Spain coincided with
the Protestant revolt against the Roman Catholic church, which was the state
church of Spain. Calvinism, a Protestant movement, rapidly gained ground
during this period; its adherents established in the Low Countries a wellorganized church that was prepared to challenge the Roman Catholic church,
particularly the Inquisition, a church institution that sought to control heresy. In
1566 riots in which mobs destroyed images in Catholic churches spread across
the country. In response, a wrathful Philip sent to the Netherlands Spanish
troops commanded by Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, duke of Alva. The
excessively harsh policies of the duke and of the Inquisition resulted in open
revolt in the Low Countries. William I, the Silent, prince of Orange, who was
one of the principal noblemen of the region, led the revolt. Initially unsuccessful,
the Dutch then concentrated their efforts in the north. After William’s naval
supporters, called the Sea Beggars, seized the Holland port of Brill (Brielle) in
1572, the rebels took control of most northern towns, which became the bases
of the revolt. William tried to maintain the unity of north and south but was
unable to hold the north against the brilliant campaigns of reconquest led by a
new Spanish commander, Alessandro Farnese.
In 1579 the Union of Utrecht, an anti-Spanish alliance of all northern and some
southern territories, was formed. The union signified the final divergence of the
northern part of the Low Countries, which later became the Netherlands, from
the southern part, which later became Belgium. The Union of Utrecht became
the nucleus of the present Dutch nation. In 1581 the Dutch provinces within the
Union of Utrecht proclaimed their independence from Spain. Subsequently, the
new nation suffered a series of reverses in the war with Spain, sustaining a
major loss when William the Silent was assassinated in 1584. By 1585 the
Spanish had reconquered practically all the south, including the important port
of Antwerp. Eventually, however, the tide of war turned in favor of the Dutch.
From 1585 to 1587 English troops were sent overseas to aid the insurgent
cause, and in 1588 the English destroyed the great Spanish Armada, a victory
that drastically curtailed the ability of Spain to wage war abroad. The seven
provinces in the Union of Utrecht were cleared of Spanish troops by 1600.
From 1609 to 1621 a truce was in effect between the Spanish and the Dutch,
but the war subsequently dragged on until 1648, when the Spanish signed the
Treaty of Münster, by which the sovereignty of the Dutch Republic of the United
Provinces was recognized. The republic thus severed all theoretical ties with
Spain and the Holy Roman Empire and became one of the great powers on the
Continent, a republic in the midst of monarchies.
The Golden Age
In the early 17th century, when eventual Dutch independence was assured, an
era of great commercial prosperity opened, as did the so-called Golden Age of
Dutch art, with such painters as Rembrandt and Jan Vermeer. By the mid-17th
century the Netherlands was the foremost commercial and maritime power of
Europe, and Amsterdam was the financial center of the Continent.
Exploration and Colonization
About 1600 a Dutch merchant expedition of three vessels sailed from
Amsterdam to Java. This was the first of numerous journeys that left Dutch
geographic names scattered over the globe, from Spitsbergen to Cape Horn
and from Staten Island to Tasmania. These voyages resulted in the
establishment or acquisition of many trading stations in Africa, Southeast Asia,
and America.
In 1602 the Dutch parliament granted to the Dutch East India Company a
charter that gave it a trading monopoly with all countries east of the Cape of
Good Hope in Africa and west of the Strait of Magellan in South America. The
charter also conferred many sovereign powers on the company, including the
right to wage war and to conclude peace. The West India Company (see Dutch
West India Company), founded in 1621, established colonies in the West
Indies, Brazil, and North America.
The East India Company established itself first in the Moluccas, or Spice
Islands, and later on West Java, where Batavia (modern Jakarta) became the
center of the company’s enterprises. These enterprises were devoted mostly to
trade and to the establishment of trading posts. Their functions generally did
not include governing. Subsequently, pressed by the necessity of maintaining
peace among the native rulers, the Dutch began to govern the territories (now
called Indonesia) in order to maintain trade.
Internal Developments
William the Silent had been succeeded in the position known as stadtholder
and as military commander by his son Maurice, who in turn was followed by his
brother Frederick Henry. These men governed in conjunction with the StatesGeneral, an assembly composed of representatives of each of the seven
provinces but usually dominated by the largest and wealthiest province,
Holland. The stadtholder’s power varied, depending on his personal qualities of
leadership, and the office eventually became hereditary in the house of Orange.
Under Maurice, the republic was divided by a religio-political conflict between
two factions within the Reformed (Calvinist) church, over predestination. The
Arminian, or Remonstrant, cause was championed by Holland under its leader,
Jan van Olden Barneveldt; the other provinces and Maurice sided with the
Gomarists, or High Calvinists, who prevailed. The dispute ended with
Barneveldt’s execution for treason in 1619.
Frederick Henry’s son, William II of Orange, became involved in a bitter quarrel
with the province of Holland, and after his death no stadtholder was appointed
in Holland and four other provinces for more than 20 years. William III of
Orange, who was stadtholder from 1672 until his death in 1702, was also king
of England after 1689.
The Decline of the Dutch Republic
Inevitably, the Dutch and the English, the leading maritime trading nations of
the world, came into sharp commercial rivalry and military conflict. The issues
between the two countries were contested, but not settled, by the two AngloDutch Wars, the first waged from 1652 to 1654 and the second from 1664 to
1667. As a result of the latter conflict the Dutch lost New Amsterdam in North
America but acquired Dutch Guiana (now Suriname). Other wars, costly in lives
and money, followed against England and France.
After the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714), in which the Dutch were
allies of the British against the French, the economic and political power of the
Netherlands began to decline. Eventually the Dutch Republic was
overshadowed by the expanding power of Great Britain on the sea and France
on the land.
When William III died without heirs in 1702, a distant relative of his, John
William Friso, successfully claimed the Orange title. In 1747 his son became
stadtholder in all seven provinces as William IV.
In the late 18th century a struggle broke out between the party of the house of
Orange, which had become conservative, and the Patriot Party, which desired
democratic reforms. The Orange Party enjoyed a brief triumph with the help of
an invading Prussian army in 1787, but in 1795 French troops and a force
consisting of self-exiled Dutch citizens replaced the republic of the seven
United Provinces with the Batavian Republic, which was modeled on the
revolutionary French Republic.
The Napoleonic Era and the Union with Belgium
The Batavian Republic survived only until 1806, when Napoleon transformed
the country into the kingdom of Holland. In 1810 he incorporated it into the
French Empire. While the Dutch were under French rule, the British seized
Dutch colonial possessions. After the fall of Napoleon, the independence of the
Netherlands was restored in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna. In addition, the
territory now comprising Belgium was made part of the kingdom of the
Netherlands.
The reunion of the two regions was not a happy one, for they had become
widely disparate in political background, tradition, religion, language, and
economy. In 1830 the Belgians revolted and established their independence as
a sovereign state. A conference in London of the major European powers
formulated the conditions of separation in 1831. The stipulations were accepted
by the Dutch king under pressure from France and Great Britain. But when they
were later revised by the conference in favor of the Belgians, a Dutch army
invaded Belgium and routed the opposing forces. The conditions of separation
were again revised and were finally accepted by both countries in 1839.
The Development of Parliamentary Democracy
The second half of the 19th century was marked by a liberalization of the
Netherlands government under the impact of the revolutions that had swept
Europe during the 1840s. The seeds of reform were contained in the new
constitution of 1848, which became the foundation of the present democracy.
Under its provisions arbitrary personal rule by the monarch was no longer
possible. The members of the first chamber of parliament, who had formerly
been appointed by the king, were thereafter elected by the provincial states
(assemblies). Members of the states and of the second chamber of parliament
were chosen by all people paying taxes in excess of a stipulated sum. The
almost solidly Roman Catholic southern provinces of Limburg and NoordBrabant, treated as conquered territories under the republic, had been given
equal status with other provinces under the monarchy, but it remained for the
constitution of 1848 to remove the religious restrictions against their citizens.
Thus a powerful Roman Catholic political party was able to form and to contend
with the Liberal group and the emerging conservative Protestant parties.
Through the late 19th century, suffrage was gradually extended, and agitation
for social reform increased markedly. The rise of a strong Labor Party and the
organization of workers into labor unions resulted in further social reforms.
Administration of the colonies was also reformed. In Indonesia, the area under
Dutch control was increased, burdensome taxation was gradually abandoned,
and, after 1877, no financial surpluses from that colony were used for the
benefit of the treasury of the Netherlands.
From about 1880 to 1914 the Netherlands enjoyed an era of economic
expansion. This period ended during World War I (1914-1918), when, despite
remaining militarily neutral, the nation suffered hardship through loss of trade
as a result of the Allied blockade of the Continent. The principal postwar
problems of the country were economic, and these were aggravated by the
depression of the 1930s.
World War II and After
At the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the Netherlands again declared its
neutrality, but in 1940 the country was overrun by the Germans, following an
aerial bombardment that destroyed the greater part of Rotterdam. Much
destruction was also wrought in other parts of the country, not only by the
Germans, but also by the Dutch, who opened many dikes as desperate
defense measures, and later by the Allies in aerial assaults on German-held
positions. The Germans occupied the country until they were ousted during
1944 and 1945.
The years following World War II were marked by intensive efforts to rebuild the
country and to restore its trade and industry. In 1945 the Netherlands became a
charter member of the United Nations. In 1948 it received funds through the
European Recovery Program. The Netherlands joined with Belgium, France,
Great Britain, and Luxembourg to form the Brussels Treaty Organization (see
Western European Union) in 1948, and was a founding member of the
European Coal and Steel Community in 1952. The country joined the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949, the European Defense Community Treaty
in 1952, and the London-Paris accords in 1955, thus becoming a full-fledged
member of the Western European multinational defense establishment. The
late 1940s and early 1950s were also a time of rising prices, generally
unfavorable trade balances, and governments dominated by the Labor Party.
Meanwhile, the Netherlands lost a war against Indonesian nationalists in the
East Indies, and in 1949 the Netherlands formally transferred sovereignty in the
East Indies (excluding Netherlands New Guinea) to the Indonesian
government. Netherlands New Guinea remained under Dutch rule until 1962.
Also, in 1954 Suriname and the Netherlands Antilles became equal members of
the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Recent Developments
The Roman Catholic People’s Party came to power in 1959 and retained
pluralities in the lower house in the elections of 1963 and 1967, but the
government coalitions that the party formed in the 1960s proved unstable.
Unrest in the Netherlands Antilles beset the government in 1969, and marines
were dispatched to assist police in riot control. The inflation of the 1960s
continued into the 1970s as a major political problem. Wage and price controls
were imposed in 1970, and taxes increased in 1971. In the elections of 1971
the four-party governing coalition lost its majority, and after two months of
efforts a coalition headed by the Anti-Revolutionary Party formed a
government. This cabinet fell in 1972, however, and a caretaker government
ruled until May 1973, when Joop den Uyl, leader of the Labor Party, was sworn
in as prime minister of a five-party coalition. When Suriname attained full
independence in 1975, hundreds of thousands of Surinamese immigrants
further burdened the Dutch economy.
In 1977, following parliamentary elections in the spring, the governing coalition
of den Uyl fell apart over proposed reforms. A new prime minister, Christian
Democrat Andreas van Agt, was sworn in later in the year. In 1980 Princess
Beatrix succeeded to the throne on the abdication of her mother, Queen
Juliana. Van Agt’s cabinet lost its parliamentary majority in May 1981, but he
formed a new coalition that lasted from September 1981 to May 1982.
Parliamentary elections were held in September 1982, after which van Agt
unexpectedly resigned his party leadership. His successor as head of the
Christian Democratic Party was Ruud Lubbers, who formed a new coalition in
November 1982 and remained in power until 1994. During this period the island
of Aruba reached an agreement with the government of the Netherlands
separating the island from the Netherlands Antilles. In 1993 the Netherlands
became the first governmental body to regulate euthanasia, or mercy killing. In
the May 1994 elections, the Labor Party emerged victorious and assumed
control of the Dutch government for the first time since 1977.
In early 1995, the Dutch battled serious flooding. Rivers throughout
northwestern Europe overflowed their banks as a result of heavy rainfall and
melting snow. The Netherlands declared a state of emergency and about
250,000 people were evacuated. Damages and evacuation expenses were
estimated at more than $1 billion.