After the fall of the Charlemagne Empire (he died in 814) theterritory was divided into smaller states with by dukes and counts. At the same time, already in the Middle Ages, a strong economical development made the Netherlands one of the richest areas in Europe. They set up trade links and did were in the right direction. Then, Dukes of Burgundy and later the Habsburgs (after 1477, the marriage of Mary of Burgundy to Archduke Maximilian Habsburg) tried to dominate the Netherlands and introduce its taxation there. …show more content…
Philip was a Catholic and the Dutch was protestant and the Dutch resisted not only the new taxation, and the Spanish way of adminaration . A war began and national identity developed in the Netherlands during this war.
In 1581, the Union of Utrecht proclaimed independence from Spain but finally in 1648 the Spanish recognized the independence.
Despite all the war destructions and hardships, the Dutch started to rise. They were good sailors and traders, setting up trading links everywhere. The Dutch however slowly started to fall, and they were less as great, but still were rich and going good. Growth of the liberal and republican ideas all over the world and resistance to these ideas by the people who ruled the Dutch Republic, lead at the end of the 18th century to the creation of The Kingdom of the Netherlands, which after the fall of Napoleon included also the territories of the today’s Belgium and Luxemburg.
However inn1830, Belgium revolted and became the kingdom of Belgium. The Dutch in the 1870s were another normal European