The Netherlands   from en.wikipedia.org

The prehistory of what is now the Netherlands was largely shaped by its constantly shifting, low-lying geography. The oldest human (Neanderthal) traces are the remains of a camp of hunter-gatherers from 250,000 years ago. After the end of the ice age, various paleolithic and mesolithic tribes inhabited the area. Autochthonous hunter-gatherers from the swifterbant culture are attested from around 5600 BC onwards. 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. The funnelbeaker culture was a farming culture. In this period, the first notable remains were erected: large stone grave monuments, and were probably built between 4100 BC and 3200 BC. The bronze age probably started somewhere around 2000 BC and lasted until around 800 BC. The iron age brought a measure of prosperity to the people living in the area.

Deteriorating climate might have triggered migration of the Germanic tribes. By the time this migration was complete, around 250 BC, a few general cultural and linguistic groupings had emerged. During the Gallic Wars, the area was conquered by Roman forces under Julius Caesar from 57 BC to 53 BC.

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. To the north of the Franks, the abandoned land of the ancient Frisii got resettled again, mostly by Saxons. The Frankish empire would eventually include much of Western Europe.

The Holy Roman Empire ruled much of the Low Countries in the 10th and 11th century. Around 1100, farmers began draining and cultivating uninhabited swampy land and made the emergence of the County of Holland as center of power possible.

Most of the Imperial and French fiefs in what is now the Netherlands and Belgium were united in a personal union by Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy in 1433. The House of Valois-Burgundy and their Habsburg heirs would rule the Low Countries in the period from 1384 to 1581.

Under Charles V, ruler of the Holy Roman Empire and King of Spain, the current Netherlands region was part of the Seventeen Provinces of the Low Countries, which also included most of present-day Belgium, Luxem­bourg, and some land in France and Germany.

In 1568, the Eighty Years' War between the Provinces and Spain began, under leadership of William I, Prince of Orange, also widely known as William the Silent, or simply William of Orange. In 1579, the northern half of the Seventeen Provinces forged the Union of Utrecht, a treaty in which they committed to support each other in their defence against the Spanish army. The Union of Utrecht is seen as the foundation of the modern Netherlands. In 1581, the northern provinces adopted the Act of Abjuration, the declaration of independence in which the provinces officially deposed Philip II of Spain as reigning monarch in the northern provinces.

War continued until 1648, when Spain under King Philip IV finally recognised the independence of the seven north-western provinces in the Peace of Münster. Parts of the southern provinces became de facto colonies of the new republican-mercantile empire.

After declaring their independence, the provinces of Holland, Zeeland, Groningen, Friesland, Utrecht, Overijssel, and Gelderland formed a confederation. All these provinces were autonomous and had their own government, the "States of the Province". The States-General, the confederal government, were seated in The Hague and consisted of representatives from each of the seven provinces. The sparsely populated region of Drenthe, mainly consisting of poor peatland, was part of the republic too, although Drenthe was not considered one of the provinces; it had its own States, but the landdrost of Drenthe was appointed by the States-General.

The Dutch Empire grew to become one of the major seafaring and economic powers of the 17th century. In the Dutch Golden Age, colonies and trading posts were established all over the world. Dutch settlement in North America began with the founding of New Amsterdam, on the southern part of Manhattan in 1614. In South Africa, the Dutch settled the Cape Colony in 1652. By 1650, the Dutch owned 16000 merchant ships.

On 19 January 1795, one day after the stadtholder, William V of Orange, fled to England, the Bataafse Republiek (Batavian Republic) was proclaimed, rendering the Netherlands a unitary state. From 1795 to 1806, the Batavian Republic designated the Netherlands as a republic modelled after the French Republic.

From 1806 to 1810, the Kingdom of Holland was set up by Napoleon Bonaparte as a puppet kingdom governed by his brother Louis Bonaparte in order to control the Netherlands more effectively. The name of the leading province, Holland, was used for the whole country. The Kingdom of Holland covered the area of the present day Netherlands, with the exception of Limburg and parts of Zeeland, which were French territory. In 1807, Prussian East Frisia and Jever were added to the kingdom. In 1809, however, after a failed British invasion, Holland had to hand over all territories south of the Rhine to France. The Netherlands remained part of the French Empire until the autumn of 1813, when Napoleon was defeated in the Battle of Leipzig and forced to withdraw his troops from the country.

William Frederick, son of the last stadtholder, returned to the Netherlands in 1813 at the invitation of the provisional government formed after the withdrawal of the French. Although it comprised mostly the same men who had driven out his father 18 years earlier, all parties agreed that William was the only choice to head any new government. On 6 December, he proclaimed himself Sovereign Prince of the Netherlands.

On 16 March 1815, the Sovereign Prince raised the Netherlands to the status of a kingdom and proclaimed himself William I.

In 1815, the Congress of Vienna formed the United Kingdom of the Netherlands by adding the southern Nether­lands to the north in order to create a strong country on the northern border of France. In addition, William became hereditary Grand Duke of Luxembourg.

The Southern Netherlands had been culturally separated from the north since 1581, and rebelled against William's attempt to create a single culture. It gained independence in 1830 as Belgium, while the personal union between Luxembourg and the Netherlands was severed in 1890, when William III died with no surviving male heirs.

The Netherlands have been a constitutional monarchy since 1815 and a parliamentary democracy since 1848. The monarch is the head of state, at present King Willem-Alexander.