Netherlands History Timeline
The Netherlands is a country in Western Europe. The country consists of the 7 northern provinces of the historic Netherlands, whereas the 10 southern provinces seceded as Belgium in 1830. The country forms together with Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten and the special municipality the BES islands ( Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba ), the Kingdom The Netherlands.
According to Computerannals, the country is the most densely populated in Europe except for the small states of Monaco, Vatican City, Malta and San Marino. It is also one of the lowest countries in the world, to which the name Netherlands refers. 26% of the land is reclaimed by embankment and protected by dikes. The Netherlands has 16,677,469 residents called Dutch. (April 2011).
The Netherlands has historically been a strong trading nation, and has therefore for many periods been among the richest countries in the world. It was, among other things, the Dutch who invented the stock market.
Amsterdam is the official capital, while The Hague ( Den Haag ) is the seat of government and parliament consisting of Eerste Kamer and Tweede Kamer. The Hague is also home to the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court.
De Wallen, also known as Walletjes is the largest and most famous red-light district in Amsterdam.
1568-1648 – The Dutch War of Independence breaks out.
1581 – The United Netherlands is a European republic that emerged during the Eighty Years’ War and ended with the French invasion in 1795. It became one of the leading maritime nations and most important economic forces in Europe, with Amsterdam as the new center of world trade. Colonies and trading posts were set up all over the globe, such as the Nieuw Amsterdam trading post, which was later renamed New York, the discovery of Australia, called Nieuw Holland, and the establishment of a large colony in present-day
1890 – On July 29, Vincent van Gogh commits a failed suicide after being insane for the last part of his life. He suffered from manic depressive psychosis. He survived unbelievably when he shot himself in the chest, but died 29 hours later of infection.
1933 – Anne Frank who later became famous for her diaries when her family was forced to flee to Amsterdam, and only from 1940 the family was trapped in the city due to the Nazi occupation of it. When the persecution of Jews escalated in July 1942, the family went underground in hidden rooms in Anne’s father, Otto Frank’s
office building. After two years in hiding, the group’s hiding place was revealed and they were all transported to concentration camps. Anne Frank and her sister, Margot, were later transported to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where they both died of plague in March 1945.
1940 – On May 8, German soldiers in Dutch uniforms cross the Dutch border to take some bridges, as a strategic location in the upcoming campaign – Operation Yellow. Read more here.
1940 – May 10 at 05:35 the Germans invade Holland and Belgium. Four days later, Holland surrenders.
1940 – On September 23, the Dutch collaborator Anton Mussert had his first meeting with Adolf Hitler.
1942 – From 15-16. July the first transports of Dutch Jews to Auschwitz took place. It is estimated that approx. 107,000 Jews were deported from the Netherlands to the concentration camps. Only about 5,000 of the deported Dutch Jews survived the war.
1943 – On June 8, 3,000 Jewish children and their mothers are deported from the Netherlands to Sorbibor and gassed on arrival.
1944 – During Operation Market Garden, Arnhem suffered a heavy fate at the Battle of Arnhem in September, when the city was bombed and almost wiped out.
The residents had to leave the city after the battle, as the Germans cordoned off it completely. The residents were scattered for all winds and were not allowed to return until well after the liberation in May 1945.
1971 – The James Bond film “ Diamonds Are Forever ” records scenes in Amsterdam, where Bond is in town to meet Tiffany Case at Reguliersgracht 36. See a page here with clips from the movie.
2004 – The film Ocean’s Twelv e was shot in these places in Amsterdam: Pulitzer Hotel, Koningsplein, Coffeeshop De Dampkring, Kalverstraat, Heiligeweg, “golden bend” by the Herengracht canal. Read more here about the canals in the city.