Netherlands

B

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 Saxons, and converted them to Christianity. By 800 the entire territory of the Netherlands was part of Charlemagne’s realm. After Charlemagne died, his empire disintegrated, and in 843 the Treaty of Verdun trisected it. The Netherlands initially became part of Lotharingia (Lorraine) and then, 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, including present-day Belgium, came to be called the Low Countries, or Netherlands.

During the 9th and 10th centuries Scandinavian raiders, called Vikings, frequently invaded the coastal areas, sailing far up the rivers in search of booty. The need for a stronger system of defences 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 defences. 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 centre. Under the leadership of wealthy merchants, the towns began to challenge the power of the nobles who ruled the countryside. The merchants often supported regional rulers in their campaigns against unruly vassals, at the same time exacting from them privileges designed to promote commerce and to strengthen the towns 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.

C

Renaissance

Through marriage, war, and political manoeuvring, most of the region comprising the present-day Netherlands—Holland, Utrecht, North Brabant, and Gelderland—came into the hands of the dukes of Burgundy during the 15th and early 16th centuries. By the mid-16th century this area, including the land of the Frisians, was under the benevolent control of the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, who was a member of the Spanish branch of the Habsburgs and also King of Spain. In 1555, however, Charles resigned both Spain and the Netherlands to his son, Philip II of Spain, who was Spanish by birth and education and had little liking for his northern European territories. His oppressive rule led to the epochal wars of independence waged from 1568 to 1648 by the Dutch against Spain, then the most powerful nation in Europe.

D

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 in the Low Countries established a well-organized Church that was prepared to challenge the power of the Roman Catholic Church, and in particular the Inquisition. In 1566 riots, in which mobs destroyed images in Catholic churches, spread across the country. In response, a wrathful Philip sent Spanish troops to the Netherlands 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. The revolt was led by William I, the Silent, Prince of Orange, and one of the region’s principal noblemen. 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. In addition to its political implications, the union signified the final divergence of the northern part of the Low Countries, which came under Protestant domination and later became the Netherlands, from the southern part, which was overwhelmingly Roman Catholic and later became Belgium. 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 favour 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. 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 Dutch thus severed all theoretical ties with Spain and the Holy Roman Empire and became one of the great powers on mainland Europe, a republic in the midst of monarchies.

E

Golden Age

In the early 17th century, when eventual Dutch independence was assured, an era of great commercial prosperity began, as did the so-called Golden Age of Dutch art, led by 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 centre of the Continent.

E

1

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 geographical 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, south-eastern Asia, and the Americas.

In 1602 the Dutch parliament granted the Dutch East India Company a charter giving 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 upon the company, including the right to wage war and to conclude peace. The 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 centre of the company’s enterprises. These enterprises were devoted mostly to trade and to the establishment of trading posts, and did not generally take on governmental responsibilities. Subsequently, pressed by the necessity of maintaining a peaceful trading environment, Dutch rule was imposed on the Netherlands Indies, the territories now called Indonesia.