History

istory

Main article: History of the Netherlands

Prehistory (before 500 BC)

The Netherlands in 5500 BC

The Netherlands in 500 BC

An oak figurine found in Willemstad, North Brabant (4500 BC)

The prehistory of the area that is now the Netherlands was largely shaped by the sea and the rivers that constantly shifted the low-lying geography. The oldest human (Neanderthal) traces in the Netherlands were found in higher soils, near Maastricht, from what is believed to be about 250,000 years ago. After the end of the Ice Age, various Paleolithic groups inhabited the area, and around 8000 BC Mesolithic tribes resided in Friesland and Drenthe, where the oldest canoe in the world was recovered.^[28] Autochthonous hunter-gatherers from the Swifterbant culture are attested from around 5600 BC onwards.^[29] They are strongly linked to rivers and open water and were related to the southern Scandinavian Ertebølle culture (5300–4000 BC). To the west, the same tribes might have built hunting camps to hunt winter game. People made the switch to animal husbandry sometime between 4800 BC and 4500 BC. Agricultural transformation took place very gradually, between 4300 BC and 4000 BC.^[30] The farming Funnelbeaker culture extended from Denmark through northern Germany into the northern Netherlands, and erected the dolmens, large stone grave monuments found in Drenthe (built between 4100 BC and 3200 BC). To the southwest, the Vlaardingen culture (around 2600 BC), an apparently more primitive culture of hunter-gatherers survived well into the Neolithic period. Around 2950 BC there was a quick and smooth transition from the Funnelbeaker farming culture to the pan-European Corded Ware pastoralist culture.^[31] The Bell Beaker culture, also present in the Netherlands, apparently rose out of the Corded Ware culture.^[32][33]
Discoveries of copper artifacts imply trade with other parts of Europe, as the metal is not normally found in Dutch soil. The Bronze Age probably started somewhere around 2000 BC and lasted until around 800 BC. The many finds in Drenthe of rare and valuable objects, suggest that it was a trading centre in the Bronze Age. The Bell Beaker cultures (2700–2100 BC) locally developed into the Bronze Age Barbed-Wire Beaker culture (2100–1800 BC). In the second millennium BC, the region was the boundary between the Atlantic and Nordic horizons, roughly divided by the course of the Rhine. In the north, the Elp culture (c. 1800 BC to 800 BC)^[34] was a Bronze Age archaeological culture having earthenware pottery of low quality as a marker. The initial phase was characterised by tumuli (1800–1200 BC) that were strongly tied to contemporary tumuli in northern Germany and Scandinavia, and were apparently related to the Tumulus culture (1600–1200 BC) in central Europe. This phase was followed by a subsequent change featuring Urnfield (cremation) burial customs (1200–800 BC). The southern region became dominated by the Hilversum culture (1800–800 BC), which apparently inherited cultural ties with Britain of the previous Barbed-Wire Beaker culture.
The Iron Age brought a measure of prosperity. Iron ore was available throughout the country, including bog iron extracted from the ore in peat bogs in the north, the natural iron-bearing balls found in the Veluwe and the red iron ore near the rivers in Brabant. Smiths travelled from small settlement to settlement with bronze and iron, fabricating tools on demand, including axes, knives, pins, arrowheads and swords. Some evidence even suggests the making of Damascus steel swords using an advanced method of forging that combined the flexibility of iron with the strength of steel. The King's grave of Oss dating from around 500 BC was found in a burial mound, the largest of its kind in western Europe and containing an iron sword with an inlay of gold and coral.

Germanic groups and Romans (500 BC – 410 AD)

Main articles: Celts, Germanic peoples, and Romans in the Netherlands

Germanic dialects around 1 AD

  North Germanic

  North Sea Germanic

  Weser-Rhine Germanic

  Elbe Germanic

  East Germanic

  Diachronic distribution of Celtic peoples from 500 BC

  expansion into the southern Low Countries by 270 BC

The deteriorating climate in Scandinavia around 850 BC, that further deteriorated around 650 BC, might have triggered migration of Germanic tribes from the North. By the time this migration was complete, around 250 BC, a few general cultural and linguistic groups had emerged.^[35][36] The North Sea Germanic Ingvaeones inhabited the northern part of the Low Countries. They would later develop into the Frisii and the early Saxons.^[36] A second grouping, the Weser-Rhine Germanic (or Istvaeones), extended along the middle Rhine and Weser and inhabited the Low Countries south of the great rivers. This group consisted of tribes that would eventually develop into the Salian Franks.^[36] Also the Celtic La Tène culture (c. 450 BC up to the Roman conquest) had expanded over a wide range, including the southern area of the Low Countries. Some scholars have speculated that even a third ethnic identity and language, neither Germanic nor Celtic, survived in the Netherlands until the Roman period, the Iron Age Nordwestblock culture,^[37][38] that eventually was being absorbed by the Celts to the south and the Germanic peoples from the east.

Rhine Frontier of around 70 AD

During the Gallic Wars, the area south of the Oude Rijn and west of the Rhine was conquered by Roman forces under Julius Caesar from 57 BC to 53 BC.^[38] Caesar describes two main tribes living in what is now the southern Netherlands: the Menapii and the Eburones. The Rhine became fixed as Rome's northern frontier around 12 AD. Notable towns would arise along the Limes Germanicus: Nijmegen and Voorburg. At first part of Gallia Belgica, the area south of the Limes became part of the Roman province of Germania Inferior. The area to the north of the Rhine, inhabited by the Frisii, remained outside Roman rule (but not its presence and control), while the border tribes Batavi and Cananefates served in the Roman cavalry.^[39] The Batavi rose against the Romans in the Batavian rebellion of 69AD, but were eventually defeated. The Batavi later merged with other tribes into the confederation of the Salian Franks, whose identity emerged at the first half of the third century.^[40] Salian Franks appear in Roman texts as both allies and enemies. The Salian Franks were forced by the confederation of the Saxons from the east to move over the Rhine into Roman territory in the fourth century. From their new base in West Flanders and the Southwest Netherlands, they were raiding the English Channel. Roman forces pacified the region, but did not expel the Franks, who continued to be feared at least until the time of Julian the Apostate (358), when Salian Franks were allowed to settle as foederati in Toxandria.^[40] After deteriorating climate conditions and the Romans withdrawal, the Frisii disappeared from the northern Netherlands, probably forced to resettle within Roman territory as laeti in c. 296. Coastal lands remained largely unpopulated for the next two centuries.^[41]

Early Middle Ages (411–1000)

Main articles: Frankish Kingdom and Frisian Kingdom

Franks, Frisians and Saxons (c. 716 AD)

After Roman government in the area collapsed, the Franks expanded their territories in numerous kingdoms. By the 490s, Clovis I had conquered and united all these territories in the southern Netherlands in one Frankish kingdom, and from there continued his conquests into Gaul. During this expansion, Franks migrating to the south eventually adopted the Vulgar Latin of the local population.^[36] A widening cultural divide grew with the Franks remaining in their original homeland in the north (i.e. southern Netherlands and Flanders), who kept on speaking Old Frankish, which by the ninth century had evolved into Old Low Franconian or Old Dutch.^[36] A Dutch-French language boundary came into existence.^[36][42]

Frankish expansion (481 to 870 AD)

To the north of the Franks, climatic conditions on the coast improved, and during the Migration Period the abandoned land was resettled again, mostly by Saxons, but also by the closely related Angles, Jutes and ancient Frisii.^[43] Many moved on to England and came to be known as Anglo-Saxons, but those who stayed would be referred to as Frisians and their language as Frisian, named after the land that was once inhabited by Frisii.^[43] Frisian was spoken along the entire southern North Sea coast, and it is still the language most closely related to English among the living languages of continental Europe. By the seventh century a Frisian Kingdom (650–734) under King Aldegisel and King Redbad emerged with Utrecht as its centre of power,^[43][44] while Dorestad was a flourishing trading place.^[45][46] Between 600 and around 719 the cities were often fought over between the Frisians and the Franks. In 734, at the Battle of the Boarn, the Frisians were defeated after a series of wars. With the approval of the Franks, the Anglo-Saxon missionary Willibrord converted the Frisian people to Christianity. He established the Archdiocese of Utrecht and became bishop of the Frisians. However, his successor Boniface was murdered by the Frisians in Dokkum, in 754.

Geography of the Netherlands c. 800AD

Rorik of Dorestad, Viking ruler of Friesland (romantic 1912 depiction)

The Frankish Carolingian empire modeled itself after the Roman Empire and controlled much of Western Europe. However, as of 843, it was divided into three parts—East, Middle, and West Francia. Most of present-day Netherlands became part of Middle Francia, which was a weak kingdom and subject of numerous partitions and annexation attempts by its stronger neighbours. It comprises territories from Frisia in the north to the Kingdom of Italy in the south. When the middle kingdom was partitioned, the lands north of the Alps passed to Lothair II and consecutively were named Lotharingia. After he died in 869, Lotharingia was partitioned, into Upper and Lower Lotharingia, the latter part comprising the Low Countries that technically became part of East Francia in 870, although it was effectively under the control of Vikings, who raided the largely defenceless Frisian and Frankish towns lying on the Frisian coast and along the rivers. Around 850, Lothair I acknowledged the Viking Rorik of Dorestad as ruler of most of Frisia.^[47] Around 879, another Viking raided the Frisian lands, Godfrid, Duke of Frisia. The Viking raids made the sway of French and German lords in the area weak. Resistance to the Vikings, if any, came from local nobles, who gained in stature as a result, and that lay the basis for the disintegration of Lower Lotharingia into semi-independent states. One of these local nobles was Gerolf of Holland, who assumed lordship in Frisia after he helped to assassinate Godfrid, and Viking rule came to an end.

High Middle Ages (1000–1384)

Main article: History of urban centers in the Low Countries

The Holy Roman Empire (the successor state of East Francia) ruled much of the Low Countries in the 10th and 11th century, but was not able to maintain political unity. Powerful local nobles turned their cities, counties and duchies into private kingdoms, that felt little sense of obligation to the emperor. Holland, Hainaut, Flanders, Gelre, Brabant, and the Utrecht were in a state of almost continual war or paradoxically formed personal unions. The language and culture of most of the people who lived in the County of Holland were originally Frisian. As Frankish settlement progressed from Flanders and Brabant, the area quickly became Old Low Franconian (or Old Dutch). The rest of Frisia in the north (now Friesland and Groningen) continued to maintain its independence and had its own institutions (collectively called the "Frisian freedom") and resented the imposition of the feudal system.
Around 1000 AD, due to several agricultural developments, the economy started to develop at a fast pace, and the higher productivity allowed workers to farm more land or to become tradesmen. Towns grew around monasteries and castles, and a mercantile middle class began to develop in these urban areas, especially in Flanders and later also Brabant. Wealthy cities started to buy certain privileges for themselves from the sovereign. In practice, this meant that Brugge and Antwerp became quasi-independent republics in their own right and would later develop into some of the most important cities and ports in Europe.
Around 1100 AD, farmers from Flanders and Utrecht began draining and cultivating uninhabited swampy land in the western Netherlands, and made the emergence of the County of Holland as center of power possible. The title of Count of Holland were fought over in the Hook and Cod Wars (Dutch: Hoekse en Kabeljauwse twisten) between 1350 and 1490. The Cod faction consisted of the more progressive cities, while the Hook faction consisted of the conservative noblemen. These noblemen invited the Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy – who was also Count of Flanders – to conquer Holland.