Netherlands

The **Kingdom of the Netherlands**, also known as **Holland**, is a country located in northern Europe's Low Countries region, with a few colonies in the Caribbean Sea. The Netherlands was once a great colonial empire that controlled the present-day countries of Belgium, Luxembourg, Indonesia, Suriname, southern Ghana, and the Netherlands Antilles, but by the mid-20th century, they only had the Netherlands Antilles as colonies. Today, the Netherlands is one of the most densely-populated countries.

## History

The Kingdom of the Netherlands was founded on 16 March 1815, following the end of the Napoleonic Wars, during which the First French Empire of Napoleon ruled the Netherlands as the Batavian Republic (1795-1806) and the Kingdom of Holland (1806-1814). The Netherlands' first monarch was Willem I of the Netherlands of the House of Orange-Nassau, and its borders were almost exactly the same as their predecessors, although the Netherlands lost South Africa to the United Kingdom as a part of an 1814 treaty.

The Netherlands ruled over Belgium at one point, following their acquisition of the former Austrian Netherlands (occupied by France from 1794 to 1814) from the First French Empire. However, from 25 August 1830 to 14 July 1831, Belgium (with the assistance of King Louis-Philippe I of France) fought against the Netherlands in the Belgian Revolution, during which they became an independent kingdom. The Netherlands attempted to restore order to the Belgian provinces several times, but the United Kingdom intervened on Belgium's side and repulsed the Dutch attacks. The 1839 Treaty of London, signed by the Netherlands, Belgium, the United Kingdom, and the great powers of Europe, guaranteed that Belgium would be independent, and the Dutch forfeited all of their claims to the Low Countries.

Elsewhere, the Dutch were ambitious to expand their colonial empire. The 1837 Pará Crisis erupted when the Dutch declared war on the Brazilian Empire, hoping to annex the Pará state of northern Brazil to Dutch Guyana. However, after one month, they were convinced to give up their claims, preventing a large South American war. The Dutch later tried to reinforce their claims with the help of the Russian Empire, their satellite of Luxembourg, and Sweden in mid-1843, but again, they were forced to make peace after the Brazilians defeated the Republic of New Granada (present-day Colombia) in the Brazilian War of Colombian Amazonas.

In 1858, the Dutch proved their power by subduing Bali, an independent kingdom ruled by the Sultanate of Lombok. From 25 May to 18 December, they occupied Bali and Lombok, destroying the Balian army at the Battle of Bali on 13 June. The Sultan of Lombok was forced to cede his lands to the Netherlands as a protectorate, ending the Acquisition of Dutch Bali. From 24 February 1859 to 29 January 1860, the Netherlands also conquered the Atjeh Sultanate despite having to fight both the Atjehnese sultan and anarcho-liberals, and their empire settled down.

The Netherlands sold off Dutch Ghana to the United Kingdom in 1872, and proceeded to maintain their empire for another 50 years. They were neutral during World War I, but in 1940, Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands during World War II as a part of their plan to invade France through the Low Countries. The Netherlands was occupied until 1944, when the Dutch Resistance, British Army, and Canadian Army liberated the country from the Nazis. The Netherlands' monarchy was restored, but their colony of Indonesia broke free of their rule in the Indonesian National Revolution of 1946-1949. They were later forced to release Suriname in 1975, and in 2010 the Netherlands Antilles broke up into the constituent countries of Curacao and Sint Maarten and the special municipalities of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba.

Today, the Netherlands is only the European country and its few island colonies. However, it is densely-populated, with 16,912,640 people, the 63rd largest population on Earth.

## Culture

Because of their large colonial empire, the Netherlands had a very large and ethnically, religiously, and culturally-diverse population. In 1836, the Netherlands had a population of 4,080,000. 48.7% of them were Javans, 18.2% Dutch, 11.7% Moluccans, 11.6% Malays, 3.3% Asian Minor, 2.9% Melanesians, 2.1% Yue, and 1.6% other, including Akan, Belgians, Afro-Antilleans, and others. 63.1% of the population were Sunni, 18.5% Protestants, 15.7% Animists, and 2.1% Mahayana. As a large empire, the Netherlands had a large range of jobs. 61.9% were farmers, 27.5% laborers, 7.1% artisans, 1.3% soldiers, 1% aristocrats, .8% clergymen, .3% slaves, and .1% bureaucrats.

By December 26, 1858, the Dutch population was 4,860,000 people. 43.9% were Javans, 17.7% Dutch, 15.6% Malays, 11.9% Moluccans, 3% Asian Minor, 2.8% Melanesians, 2% Yue, 1.3% Maghrebis, and 1.8% other (including Afro-Caribbeans). 44% were Protestant, 43% were Sunni, 8.1% were Animist, 2.5% were Hindu, and 2% Mahayana. By this time, 72.3% of the ideology was conservative, 25.6% liberal, and 2.1% reactionary; there was no voting, as the Netherlands was an absolute monarchy.