Netherlands: timeline and key events
1st century
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War
Batavian revolt
The Batavian leader Julius Civilis led the peoples of the Rhine delta in revolt against Rome. The uprising was crushed in 70, but the Batavians later became a founding figure of the Dutch national story.
16th century
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Politics
Pragmatic Sanction of the Seventeen Provinces
Charles V made the Seventeen Provinces of the Netherlands an indivisible whole, to be passed on as a single inheritance. These lands, covering today's Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, went to his son Philip II of Spain in 1555.
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War
Start of the Eighty Years' War
The rebel victory at Heiligerlee opened the revolt of the Netherlands provinces against Philip II, led by William of Orange. The conflict, both religious and political, lasted until 1648.
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Politics
Union of Utrecht
The northern provinces, including Holland and Zeeland, joined forces in the Union of Utrecht to continue the fight against Spain together. The treaty became the founding act of the Dutch Republic.
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Politics
Act of Abjuration
Through the Act of Abjuration, the States General of the rebel provinces declared Philip II deposed as their sovereign. The text, which justified removing a tyrannical prince, is often seen as a forerunner of modern declarations of independence.
17th century
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Economy
Founding of the Dutch East India Company (VOC)
The States General granted the VOC a monopoly on trade with Asia. Often regarded as the first modern joint-stock company, it made Amsterdam the heart of the world economy during the Dutch Golden Age.
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Culture
Rembrandt completes The Night Watch
Rembrandt delivered his most famous painting to an Amsterdam civic militia company; it now hangs in the Rijksmuseum. With Vermeer and Frans Hals, he embodies the golden age of Dutch painting.
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Politics
Peace of Münster: independence recognised
Concluded during the Westphalian peace negotiations, the Treaty of Münster ended the Eighty Years' War: Spain recognised the sovereignty of the Dutch Republic.
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War
The Disaster Year (Rampjaar)
Attacked at once by Louis XIV's France, England and the prince-bishops of Münster and Cologne, the Republic was saved only by deliberately flooding the Dutch Water Line. Grand Pensionary Johan de Witt and his brother Cornelis were lynched in The Hague.
18th century
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Politics
Proclamation of the Batavian Republic
French revolutionary armies, aided by Dutch Patriots, overran the frozen country, and Stadtholder William V fled to England. The Batavian Republic, an ally of France, replaced the Dutch Republic.
19th century
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Politics
Birth of the Kingdom of the Netherlands
After Napoleon's fall, William I of Orange-Nassau was proclaimed king. The Congress of Vienna also gave him the former Austrian Netherlands, joined to the north in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands until the Belgian Revolution of 1830.
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Politics
Thorbecke's liberal constitution
Under pressure from the European revolutions of 1848, William II accepted a constitutional revision drafted by Johan Rudolf Thorbecke. Ministers became accountable to Parliament, turning the Netherlands into a parliamentary monarchy.
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Society
Abolition of slavery in the colonies
The Netherlands abolished slavery in Suriname and its Caribbean colonies, among the last European states to do so. Former slaves in Suriname still had to work for ten years under state supervision; the date is marked every year by the Keti Koti festival.
20th century
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War
German invasion and bombing of Rotterdam
Germany invaded the neutral Netherlands. After the bombing of central Rotterdam on 14 May, the army surrendered; Queen Wilhelmina and the government continued the fight from London.
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War
Deportation of Dutch Jews begins
A first train left Westerbork camp for Auschwitz. About 102,000 of the roughly 140,000 Jews in the Netherlands were murdered in the Holocaust; the diary of Anne Frank, who hid in Amsterdam until 1944, became its best-known testimony.
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War
Liberation of the Netherlands
German forces in the Netherlands surrendered at Wageningen to the Allies, mostly Canadian troops. Liberation ended the “Hunger Winter” of 1944-1945, which had killed some 20,000 people in the west of the country.
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Politics
Independence of Indonesia
After four years of war, the Netherlands transferred sovereignty to Indonesia, which had declared independence in 1945. The country thus lost most of its colonial empire.
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Other
North Sea flood and the Delta Works
A storm combined with a spring tide broke the dykes of Zeeland and South Holland, killing 1,836 people. The disaster launched the Delta Works, a network of dams and storm surge barriers completed in 1997.
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Economy
Founding member of the EEC
The Netherlands signed the Treaty of Rome with Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg and West Germany. Already linked to its neighbours in Benelux, the country was one of the six founders of the European Economic Community.
21st century
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Society
First country to allow same-sex marriage
The Netherlands became the first country in the world to allow same-sex marriage; the first weddings took place in Amsterdam just after midnight on 1 April 2001. The same year, Parliament also passed the world's first law regulating euthanasia.
