page_title: History of the Netherlands
section_title: Historical changes to the landscape
hierarchical_section_title: History of the Netherlands / Prehistory (before 800 BC) / Historical changes to the landscape
caption_attribution_description: Palaeography of the Netherlands 2750 BC
context_page_description: The History of the Netherlands is a history of seafaring people thriving on a lowland river delta on the North Sea in northwestern Europe. Records begin with the four centuries during which the region formed a militarized border zone of the Roman Empire. This came under increasing pressure from Germanic peoples moving westwards. As Roman power collapsed and the Middle Ages began, three dominant Germanic peoples coalesced in the area, Frisians in the north and coastal areas, Low Saxons in the northeast, and the Franks in the south.
  During the Middle Ages, the descendants of the Carolingian dynasty came to dominate the area and then extended their rule to a large part of Western Europe. The region nowadays corresponding to the Netherlands therefore became part of Lower Lotharingia within the Frankish Holy Roman Empire. For several centuries, lordships such as Brabant, Holland, Zeeland, Friesland, Guelders and others held a changing patchwork of territories. There was no unified equivalent of the modern Netherlands.
context_section_description: The prehistory of the area that is now the Netherlands was largely shaped by its constantly shifting, low-lying geography.
caption: The Netherlands in 2750 BC
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