NETHERLANDS  aka Holland and the Dutch people Like our other countries, the early inhabitants of Holland were hunter-gatherers. Agriculture arrived around 5000 BC and around 2400 BC the first evidence of the use of the wheel is found. Around 2000 BC bronze items start appearing and they seem to be quite valuable until about 800 BC. The low countries were conquered by Julius Caesar in 58 BC and they built the first cities and introduced writing. By the time the Romans arrived the Netherlands had been settled by Germanic tribes including the Tubanti, Canninefates and Frisians, who had arrived around 600 BC. Celtic tribes settled the South, among them the Euborones and Menapii. Several Germanians settled south of the Rhine at the beginning of the Roman settlement and formed the Germanic tribe of the Batavians. They were replaced or absorbed later by the Salian Franks from which the Dutch language later emerged. Historical accounts of the Netherlands date from the 1st century BC, when Roman forces conquered Germanic and Celtic tribes inhabiting the area. Under Roman rule, peace and prosperity prevailed for more than 250 years. About AD 300 German tribes invaded from the east. The Franks, the most powerful of the invaders, subjugated local tribes and converted them to Christianity. By 800 the territory was ruled by Charlemagne, who conquered them in 785, the greatest of the Frankish kings. When the Frankish empire was split three ways, the Netherland went with the German empire who ruled them into the 11th century. During the 9th and 10th centuries, Scandinavian Vikings frequently raided the coastal areas and sailed far up the rivers. These raids led to the emergence of fortified towns. In the 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries, the area became an important trading center, and wealthy merchants in the towns challenged the power of the nobles who ruled the countryside. Finally in 1433 much of what we consider the Netherlands and Belgium were united by the Duke of Burgundy.The Netherlands and the surrounding area, known as the Low Countries, passed from the control of the dukes of Bourgogne during the early 16th century into the hands of the Habsburg emperor Charles V, who held territories throughout Europe. In 1555 Charles granted control of Spain and the Netherlands to his son, Philip II, whose oppressive rule led to a war of independence waged by the Dutch from 1568 to 1648.
A well-organized Protestant church movement developed in the Netherlands, and the disaffection with Catholic Spain coincided with the Protestant revolt against the Roman Catholic church. In 1566 anti-Catholic riots spread across the country. Philip sent Spanish troops, whose harsh actions resulted in open revolt. William I, prince of Orange, led the revolt and eventually took control of most northern towns. In 1579 the Union of Utrecht, an alliance of all northern and some southern territories, was formed. The provinces that joined the union would become the Netherlands; those that did not would become Belgium. In 1581 the Union of Utrecht proclaimed independence from Spain. The new nation suffered a series of reverses in the war with Spain, but eventually the tide turned. In 1648 the Spanish recognized the sovereignty of the Dutch Republic.
About 1600 a merchant expedition of three vessels sailed from Amsterdam to Indonesia, the first of numerous journeys that resulted in lucrative Dutch trading stations throughout the world. Part of the wealth of the Dutch came through slavery. In 1619 they started with the slave trade between Africa and America and by 1650 they were the pre-eminent slave trading country in Europe. In 1700 England overtook that position. 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. Inevitably, the Dutch and the English, the leading maritime trading nations, came into conflict. Two Anglo-Dutch Wars were waged during the 1650s and 1660s. Other wars, costly in lives and money, followed against England and France.
Eventually the Dutch Republic was overshadowed by the expanding power of Great Britain at sea and France on land. In the late 18th century a struggle broke out between conservatives and those who desired democratic reforms. The conflict became moot after Napoleon I incorporated the Low Countries into the French Empire in 1810. After the fall of Napoleon, the Kingdom of the Netherlands was restored, with the addition of the territory that is now Belgium, but the union was short-lived. In 1830 the Belgians revolted and established their independence.
The second half of the 19th century witnessed a liberalization of government. Suffrage was gradually extended, the administration of the colonies was reformed, and agitation for social reform increased. From about 1880 to 1914 the Netherlands enjoyed an era of economic expansion. During World War I (1914-1918), the nation suffered hardship through loss of trade as a result of the Allied blockade of the Continent. During World War II (1939-1945), the Netherlands was occupied by the Germans and suffered heavy destruction. The years following the war were marked by intensive efforts to rebuild the country and to restore trade and industry. In the colonies, the Netherlands lost a war against nationalists in Indonesia, which gained its independence in 1949. Netherlands New Guinea gained its independence in 1962; Suriname in 1975. Since the 1960s coalition governments have ruled the Netherlands, led in the 1960s by the Roman Catholic People's Party, from 1973 to 1977 by the Labor Party, and from 1977 to 1994 by the Christian Democratic Party. The Labor Party assumed control of the Dutch government again in 1994. In 1995 the Dutch battled serious flooding when rivers throughout northwestern Europe overflowed. Damages and evacuation expenses were estimated at more than $1 billion. 
bronze age torc | 
bronze age axe |
Today we think of the Dutch people as growers of tulips and builders of dikes. The history of the Netherlands is that of a patient and industrious people struggling against obstacles of nature and winning. A majority of Dutch land is reclaimed from the sea and they work very hard to keep it that way. Tulips and windmills - typical images of Holland 
Rembrandt, self portrait done 1661 | 
Christ in the Storm on the Lake of Galilee 1633 Rembrandt painting missing after a robbery in 1990 | 
The Three Crosses 1653 etching by Rembrandt |
Vincent Van Goh self portrait done 1887 | 
Still Life: Vase with Twelve Sunflowers Van Goh 1888 |
DUTCH IMMIGRATION TO AMERICA Most people know that the British came to America in 1607 and settled Jamestown. We celebrate their courage and applaud their strength as they carved a new nation in the swamps of Virginia. But few can tell you that just two years after the British started their struggles in the south, the Dutch sailed a little ship up the bay below the island of modern day Manhattan which eventually led to the establishment of New Amsterdam. On September 3, 1609, the ship called "De Halve Maen" (the Half Moon) entered the area now known as New York. The ship was owned by the Dutch East India Company. The merchants of Holland, and other countries, were trying to find a shorter way to the East Indies and China. They asked Henry Hudson from England to help them since he had already made two voyages for an English company attempting to find that passage and he was supposed to know more about it than anyone else. 
Working replica of "De Halve Maen" used for educational purposes |
So the Halve Maen sailed up the river to Manhattan and Hudson was sure that he had found his route, paying very little attention to the red-skinned natives on the shore. But by the time the ship made it to what is now Albany, New York, Hudson had to give up in despair. Alas, it was only a river! Hudson returned to Holland, made another failed trip to find his passage to India and had his crew mutiny and put him, his son and seven loyal sailors into a small boat and set them adrift into the bay, never to be seen again. Yet after his death Hudson Bay is remembered for him and the Dutch settled the island of Manhattan, thanks to Henry Hudson. Several voyages of exploration were made by the Italians during this time and more by the Dutch East India Company. Competition was underway. October of 1614 merchants from Amsterdam and Hoorn formed The New Netherland Company and received a three year monopoly for fur trading. In 1615 they erected Fort Orange on Castle Island near Albany and began trading with the Indians for furs. Merchants came for business but no colonization happened and the company's monopoly was not renewed. At that point the land was opened to all Dutch traders and the States General of the Netherlands decided to grant a monopoly to a company that would colonize the area. In 1621 a new joint stock company, the Dutch West India Company, was established and gained colonization rights in the Hudson River for twenty four years, including monopoly rights in AFRICA (important for the slave trade). Provincial status was granted in June of 1623 to New Netherland and the company began organizing the first permanent Dutch settlement. On March 29, 1624 the ship, Nieu Nederlandt left Amsterdam with the first wave of settlers. But they were not Dutch! They were Flemish Walloon families. The families were spread out over the entire territory as far as the Connecticut River to the North and to the Delaware River to the South. Some were left on Noten Eylant, now called Governor's Island, at the mouth of the Hudson River, while the remaining families were taken up the Hudson to Fort Orange (Albany). Later in 1624 and 1625 six additional ships sailed for New Netherland with colonists, livestock and supplies. In 1624 the company established the Dutch Reformed Church (the Reformed Church in America) which has significant influence over the Dutch American community. In 1625, to protect the colonists from other interloping European colonial powers and Indian attacks the Directors of the Dutch West India Company formulated a plan to protect the entrance to the Hudson River and to consolidate the trading operations. They built a new fort on Manhattan Island where a citadel to contain Fort Amsterdam was being laid and moved most of the cattle and some settlers from Noten Eylant (Governors Island). By 1630 the total population of New Netherland was about 300, many being French speaking Walloons. It is estimated about 270 lived in the area surrounding Fort Amsterdam, primarily working as farmers, while about 30 were at Fort Orange, the center of the Hudson Valley fur trade with the Mohawk Indians. It should be noted that New Netherland was a company owned and operated business, run on a for profit basis by the directors of the West India Company. The company paid doctors and craftsmen to move to New Netherland and also sent over and paid soldiers for military protection of the settlements. The company built forts and sent provisions for the settlers. laws were made by the company, even the treasury was the company treasury. Taxes, fines and trading profits went to the company and the company paid the bills. By 1664 it's been estimated that about 9,000 lived in the settlement and at least half were NOT Dutch. a significant number were Germans, Swedes and Finns. About 300 to 500 of the Swedes came from the capture of New Sweden on September 24, 1655.. The first governor, Peter Stuyvesant, attempted to eliminate all worship apart from that of the Dutch Reformed Church, but the governing board in Amsterdam opposed the policy as detrimental to commerce. So like Amsterdam itself, New Amsterdam did not enforce rules which prohibited worship to Jews, Catholics, and others. In 1664 the British captured New Netherland and Dutch immigration virtually ceased but England imposed no severe restraints on the Dutch so the vast majority remained in New York. By 1790 there were about 100,000 of them clustered in towns and villages along the Hudson and Mohawk Rivers. In New Jersey they established town along the Hackensack, Passaic, and Raritan Rivers. .png/350px-Blaeu_-_Nova_Belgica_et_Anglia_Nova_(Detail_Hudson_Area).png)
1635 map of Hudson River Valley (north is to the Right) | 
1660 Castello plan of New Amsterdam | 
1664 New Amsterdam |
By 1845 about 200 Dutch people per year were immigrating. In 1845 around 800 immigrated and then that increased to around 1,150 annually over the next decade. Between 1845 and 1930 about 400,000 people from the Netherlands immigrated to the United States, settling mainly in the Midsest. Wisconsin, Michigan and Iowa had colonies of Dutch. Those who hoped to become independent farmers moved West and gained land under the Homestead Act in Iowa, South Dakota, Minnesota, Montana, Washington and California. By 1930 Dutch immigrant communities stretched from coast to coast. For more information see www.amsterdam.info and www.historyofholland.com |
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