Losgo, those of Felipe II of Spain to reinforce the religious persecution of the Protestants and his efforts to centralize the government, justice and taxes made him unpopular and led to a revolt. The Dutch fought for their independence from Spain, which led to the Eighty Years War (1568 – 1648). Seven rebellious provinces were united in the Union of Utrecht in 1579 and formed the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands.
Dutch Republic (1581-1795)
William I of Orange, the founder of the Dutch royal family, led the Dutch during the early part of the war. The first years were a success for the Spanish troops. However, subsequent sieges in Holland were countered. The King of Spain lost control of the Netherlands after mutinous soldiers of Philip II’s troops sacked Antwerp and killed a considerable number of its residents.
While eventually most of the territory in the Netherlands would be subtracted from the domain of the Spanish branch of the Habsburgs, the same did not happen in Flanders, resulting in the historic separation between the Netherlands and Flanders). Many flamingos fled to Holland, including half the population of Antwerp, 3/4 of Bruges and Ghent and the entire population of Nieuwpoort, Dunkirk and the countryside.
The war continued uninterrupted for a further 60 years, but the main confrontation was over. Peace of Westphalia, signed on 30 of January of 1648, confirmed the independence of the United Provinces of Spain and Germany.
Dutch ships hunted whales off the Svalbard coast, traded spices in India and Indonesia, and founded colonies in New Amsterdam (now New York), South Africa, and the Dutch East Indies. The largest Dutch settlement abroad was the Cape Colony. It was established by Jan van Riebeeck, on behalf of the Dutch East India Company, in Cape Town in 1652. The Prince of Orange acquired control of the Cape Colony in 1788.
Kingdom of the Netherlands
As a country located in Europe according to ESTATELEARNING, the territory of the Netherlands was incorporated into the First French Empire under Napoleon I from 1810 to 1814. Later a Kingdom of the Netherlands was formed that included present-day Belgium and Luxembourg. The Congress of Vienna brought about two important changes: colonial control over Indonesia was lost and the north and south of the Netherlands were unified.
The tensions between the north and the south among other causes due to the religious difference, caused the Belgians to declare independence in 1830 and although King William I sent troops a year later, the mobilization of French troops in favor of the cause Belgian, made him desist from any confrontation. Only eight years later, in 1839, the independence of Belgium was officially recognized.
The accession of Queen Wilhelmina to the throne in 1890 meant the separation of these and Luxembourg, because the title of Grand Duke cannot be inherited by a woman. [7] During the 19th century the country was slow to industrialize compared to Germany or France.
World wars
Despite the fact that the Netherlands mobilized their troops in August 1914, they remained neutral during the First World War. [8] The German invasion of Belgium that same year led many Belgian refugees (around one million) to seek refuge in the country. Since the Dutch were surrounded by countries at war and the North Sea was not safe for civil navigation, food became scarce and rationing became necessary. With the end of the conflict in 1918, the situation returned to normal.
At the outbreak of World War II in 1939, they declared their neutrality once again. However, the October of maypole of 1940 the Germans launched an attack on the Netherlands and Belgium and conquered most of the country soon. The ill-equipped Dutch troops could do very little; on May 14, only a few pockets of resistance remained. However, that day the Luftwaffe (German air force) bombed Rotterdam, the second largest city in the country, killing 800 people and destroying much of the city, leaving 78,000 people homeless.
After this bombardment and the German threats to carry out a similar one in Utrecht, the Netherlands capitulated on May 15 (except for the province of Zeeland). The royal family and some troops fled to the UK. Some members of the royal family lived in Ottawa (Canada) until the allied liberation.
Recent history
After the war, the Dutch economy prospered and the country was a founding member of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) in 1951 which eventually led to the founding of the European Economic Community in 1957.
In 1953 the country suffered one of the largest natural disasters in its history. On the night of February 2, multiple levees broke in the south-west of the country, flooding large areas of the Zeeland province, causing the death of nearly 1,800 people and the loss of millions. [9] From then on, the Delta Plan began, which planned the construction of large dams and civil works to retain the shocks of the North Sea waters. But the works that should protect the province of Zealand were not finished until almost the end of the 20th century.