Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 14.djvu/455

* NETHERLANDS. 403 NETHERLANDS. rapid expansion. Tlic Dutili Knst Inciia Company was organized in l(iU2. Following the discovery of tile Hudson Itiver l)y Henry iludson. sailing for tile Uutcli East India t'onipaiiy in KiO',). the Duteli estalilislied liy dejjrees a trading colony in New Xetherlaiid, (lie later New York. The Xew Xetherland foniijany was given a trading charter in lOld, and in 11121 the Dntch West India Coin- jiany came into existence and liegan to people the new colony, which remained a Dutch possession until Hiti4, when it was taken bj' the English, to he recovered in 1G73 for fifteen months, and then finally lost to the Republic. In 1021, the twelve years' truce having expired and the Dutch refusing to acknowledge allegiance to Spain, the war was renewed by Philip IV. The Dutch, led by Prince JIaurice until his death in 162.5, and then by his brother Frederick Henry, with the French as allies, carried on a struggle for the possession of Flanders, the incidents of which served to increase the hostile feeling be- tween the Catholic and Protestant parts of the country. In the meantime the religious dissen- sions in the United Provinces themselves died out and a spirit of toleration arose which made the country the asylum for European Protestant refugees. In 1040 iSpain began negotiations for peace with the Republic, and the Dutch, already sus|iicious of the growing French influence, and themselves wearyof the long struggle. made terms which became a part of the general Peace of West- jdialia in 1648. The United Provinces were now fully recognized as free and sovereign States. The Scheldt was closed to commerce^ and the right of the Dutch to a share in the trade of the Indies was acknowledged. William II., who succeeded Frederick Henry as Stadtholder of the Republic, attempted to become a sovereign with the aid of France, but died at the age of twenty- four, and the danger his ill-advised attempt had shown led the States to hold the stadtholdership in abeyance. Holland, the wealthiest of the provinces, now became the real controlling force, and the executive power in Holland was vested in the Grand Pensionary, an office which from 1050 to 1672 was held "by Jan de Witt (q.v.). This was the golden age of the Republic, when its fleets fought successfully against the English (1652-54 and 1665-67), anil made it the leading sea power of Europe. The prosperity, wealth, and power of the Republic brought it new enemies ]in the place of decadent Spain. Having united in [1608 with England and Sweden to hold Louis (XIV. in check, the Republic found itself, in 1672, Ifacing both France and England, the former at- Itacking by land, the latter by sea. In this Istruggle William III., the young Prince of •Orange, posthumous son of William II.. by his ■generalship and patriotism won the approval of la large party of the nobles and common people, Iwho demanded the restoration of the stadtholder- Iship. France had demanded the restoration of Ithe House of Orange to its authority, but Wil- lliam had declined to receive a gift forced by the lenemies of his country. .Ian and Cornelius de [Witt, who opposed vesting anj' further powers Jin the House of Orange, were murdered by a Imob (1672). and the Prince of Orange became loncc more Stadtholder and the central figure in Ithe United Netherlands. In the shifting Euro- Ipean policies of the succeeding years, the Repuh- llic found itself sometimes with one ally, soine- ftimes with another, sometimes single-handed, but with the calling of the Stadtholder illiani to the English throne (1688) it was brought into the large scheme of the Grand Alliance against Louis XIV. William of Orange and Heinsius Iq.v. ), the Grand Pensionary of Holland, were the soul of the resistance to the schemes of the French King. (See Loris XIV.) By the Peace of Utrecht, in 1713, closing the War of the Span- ish Succession ( see Slccessio.n Wars), the .Span- ish Xcthcrlands were handeil over to Austria. By the Barrier Treaty, concluded with England and Austria in 1715, the Dutch acquired the right of maintaining garrisons in the fortified towns of the Austrian (Belgium) Xcthcrlands. There was a de(dine in the prosperity of Hol- land in the first half of the eighteenth century. The stadtholdership had been again set aside, but it was restored in 1747 and made hereditary in William IV. of Nassau-Dietz. There were forty years of peace with the exception of a brief naval war with England, which broke out at the close of 1780. In 1782 the States-General formally rec- ognized the United States of America as a sover- eign and independent nation, being the second Government in Europe so to do. The Stadthold- er's Government was essentially aristoci"atic, and in 1786 the rising democratic tide drove out Wil- liam v., who, however, was restored in the follow- ing year through the intervention of Prussia. The revolutionary movement in France found an echo in the United Provinces, where the democratic party welcomed the conquests of Pichegru (q.v.). The stadtholdership was again overthrown, and the Batavian Republic was organized under French sympathizers and in close alliance with France in I7!15. Napoleon made the Batavian Piepublic into the Kingdom of Holland, with his brother Louis as King (1806), but the latter was too faithful to the country to suit his Imperial brother and master, and he was compelled to abdicate (1810), and the country was annexed to the French Empire. In 1813 the French were expelled and the House of Orange was restored, and the Congress of Vienna (1815) annexed Bel- gium to Holland and created the new kingdom of the Xcthcrlands under the sovereigntv' of William I., the son of the last Stadtholder. Luxemburg (q.v.) was at the same time erected into a grand duchy for the King of the Xetherlands. In the course of the Xajiolconic wars England seized the Dutch colonial possessions, and at their close was allowed to retain Cape Colony, Ceylon, and a great part of Surinam. The Catholics of the Belgian provinces were not content with the union with Holland, and revolted in 1830, and after fruitless attempts by the King to suppress the revolt, the Powers intervened and created the independent Kingdom of Belgium, under a guar- antee of neutrality. (See BELGir.M.) A final settlement with Belgium was not effected until 1830, when Limburg and Luxeinburg were divided between the countries. William I. abdicated, in 1840 in favor of his son, William II., who was better able to enter upon harmonious relations with Belgium. William II. was succeeded by William III. in 1840. The country for more than half a century has enjoyed a peaceful and prosperous develop- ment, untroubled by other problems than those of national finance, internal politics, and colo- nial administration. The last is a question of much magnitude, as the Dutch control over 35,- 000.000 more or less barbarous subjects, their