PRESENTATION

National anthems tend to provoke pride and patriotism. The feeling of oneness among the
people binds them together into a nation.

English translation of Dutch national anthem

William of Nassau
am I of German blood.
Loyal to the fatherland
I will remain until I die.
A prince of Orange,
I am, free and fearless.
The king of Spain
I have always honoured

Een merkwaardige tekst voor een volkslied van Nederland. Een Duitser uit
Nassau, prins van het Franse Oranje zegt dat hij de Spaanse koning altijd
geëerd heeft? Hoe zit dat?

RESEARCH QUESTION

CLAIM

1.Introduction

The Dutch Republic underwent explosive economic growth during the first half od the
seventeenth century, benefitting from the domestic problems which beset its potential
trading rivals, France and England. The Republic’s wealth also fostered a cultural life that
reached unprecedented heights of achievement. (van Deursen, 1999).

Unfortunately, the Dutch past has not always been that glorious. The country has been eyewitness of
many violent crusades, religious wars and revolts. Nevertheless, there are additional factors which
have contributed to the formation of the present-day Netherlands. For this reason, this paper covers
the nation- and state-building from the Middle Ages until the outbreak of the First World War. To be
more specific, it answers the following research question: How has the Dutch ‘state’ evolved to what
it is nowadays?
To answer the question properly and to avoid confusions, I will first define the key terms. I refer to
Roberts’ definition of the modern state:

The presence of a supreme authority, ruling over a defined territory, who is recognized as
having power to make decisions in matters of government and is able to enforce such
decisions and generally maintain order within the state. (Roberts)
There are a variety of definitions concerning the ‘nation’. I adapt Smith’s (1994, p. 154) definition: “a
named population sharing an historic territory, common myths and historical memories, a mass
public culture, a common economy and common legal rights and duties for its members ”.
To answer my research question properly, I have divided my research question in a couple of sub
topics. Firstly, I start to discuss the medieval politics, focusing on feudalism, the Church and the
Empire. Then I cover the Dutch attempt at centralization, keeping Charles V and his son Philip II
in mind. Section three examines the period of the rise and shine of the Dutch Republic. The last
part concerns the unification and decline of the Netherlands. My hypothesis is that feudalism
and religious conflicts are the most important influencing state- and nation-formation of the
Netherlands.

1.Medieval politics

Feudalism is derived from the medieval latin feodum, meaning cattle or property (Opello & Rosow,
2004). According to Graeme Fill feudalism is the set of mutual obligations between vassal & lord. The
lord, which is often the king, gives his vassals rights over the land, also known as fief, and jurisdiction
over the peasants who lived on that land. The vassal retained control over the land as long as he
provided military support to the king.

Charlemagne was driven by the ambition to restore and idealise the Roman past. He considered
feudalism to be the solution to administer and unite the Holy Roman Empire, since he was unable to
travel through the whole empire.

Charlemagne saw feudalism as the system to administer his people in a significant way, since he was
unable to travel through the whole empire. Hall states that : the feudal system, a system of social
relations, centralized and unified the fragmented states of Western Christendom in a new Holy
Roman Empire.(Hall, 1984, p. 5).

According to Opello and Rosow feudalism was responsible for the establishment of “political,
economic, and social conditions form which the modern territorial state emerged”.
Charlemagne longed for the old empire, but simultaneously continued the Germanic tradition of
dividing the kingdom among sons. As a consequence, the kingdom was repeatedly reunited and
redivided, which made a strong government quite impossible.

A state in the Middle Ages?

There was no state in the Middle Ages because there is no supreme authority and no territoriality
(political relations between persons or groups).

Roman Church : True heir of Roman civilization in the West

Empire

State of the estates

Staten-Generaal

No secular or religious power able to impose its sovereign will.

3. Attempt at centralization

4. Unification and decline

Highlights of Dutch History

Roman period
Before the Christian era, the country we now call the Netherlands was inhabited by Germanic
and Celtic tribes. Until the early fifth century, the area south of the Rhine was part of the
Roman Empire.

Middle Ages
Throughout the Middle Ages, the Netherlands consisted of many separate feudal entities. The
most influential monarch of the mediaeval period was Charlemagne, who in the eighth
century ruled an area that extended over much of present-day Europe.

These feudal territories were eventually united, under Emperor Charles V (1500-1558), with
the rest of the ‘Low Countries’ (present-day Belgium and Luxembourg) as part of the Holy
Roman Empire.

Eighty Years War

In 1568, a number of northern Dutch provinces united under Prince William of Orange and
revolted against Charles V’s son and heir, Philip II. The uprising – a result of widespread
resentment at restrictions on religious freedom and the King’s absolutist aspirations – marked
the start of what the Dutch call the Eighty Years’ War.

The war ended in 1648 with the Peace of Westphalia, which recognised the Republic of the
United Provinces (the seven sovereign provinces of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Friesland,
Groningen, Overijssel and Gelderland) as an independent state. The republican form of
government retained one remnant of feudalism in the powerful position of Stadholder
(provincial governor), held in Holland by the descendants of William of Orange.

The Golden Age

During the 17th century, also called the ‘Golden Age’, the Republic became increasingly
prosperous, thanks largely to the Dutch East India Company (VOC). The VOC, established in
1602 to coordinate shipping and trade with Southeast Asia, was for a long time the largest
commercial enterprise in the world. Around the same time, the Dutch West India Company
(WIC) was trading with West Africa and the Americas.

Conflicting trading interests led to several wars with England, but the ties with that country
were nonetheless close. Stadholder William II and his son William III both married English
princesses and in 1689, William III was asked by the English Parliament to accept the crown.

The Kingdom of the Netherlands

The French Revolution signalled the end of the Republic of the United Provinces. In 1795, the
country was invaded and occupied by French revolutionary forces, who turned it into a vassal
state named the Batavian Republic. In 1806 Napoleon installed his brother Louis Napoleon
Bonaparte as king of what now came to be called the Kingdom of Holland. Four years later,
France again annexed the whole of the Netherlands. Louis Napoleon proclaimed Amsterdam
as the capital.

In 1813, the French Empire collapsed and the Low Countries regained their independence. In
the northern Netherlands, there was a power struggle between monarchists and republicans,
which the monarchists won. Willem Frederik, Prince of Orange-Nassau and the son of the last
Stadholder, returned from exile in England. The government moved to The Hague, although
Amsterdam remained the official capital. And instead of returning to the old Republic’s
system of sovereign provinces, the newly independent state retained the unitary structure
introduced by the French. In 1815, the northern and southern Netherlands – today’s
Netherlands and Belgium – were combined to form the Kingdom of the Netherlands, with
Willem Frederik as King. This marked the introduction of the Dutch hereditary monarchy.

Constitutional reform
The constitution was radically revised in 1848, making ministers accountable to an elected
parliament rather than the King. The new constitution was the basis for a constitutional
monarchy with a parliamentary system.

In 1830, the southern Netherlands seceded from the Kingdom to form the independent state of
Belgium, and in doing so gave the Netherlands its present-day borders. The male line of
succession ended with the death of Willem III in 1890, as did the personal union with
Luxembourg (of which the King had also been Grand Duke). Although Queen Wilhelmina
(1880-1962) came to the throne that year, her mother, Queen Emma, acted as regent until
1898, when the young Wilhelmina turned 18 and was able to assume the monarch’s duties.

Universal suffrage
During the First World War (1914-1918), the Netherlands remained neutral, but nonetheless
suffered greatly from the period’s economic woes. Despite the close proximity of the war, a
1917 amendment to the constitution introduced universal suffrage for men. Women got the
vote two years later