The United Provinces of the Netherlands was formed on January 23, 1579, a union of provinces each ruled by a ‘stadholder’, with one often ruling the whole. In November 1747 the office of the Friesland stadholder became hereditary and responsible for the whole republic, creating a practical monarchy under the house of Orange-Nassau.
After an interlude caused by the Napoleonic Wars, when a puppet regime ruled, the modern monarchy of the Netherlands was founded in 1813, when William I (of Orange-Nassau) was declared Sovereign Prince. His position was confirmed when the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, which included Belgium, was recognized as a monarchy at the Congress of Vienna in 1815 and he became King. While Belgium has since become independent, the royal family of the Netherlands/Holland has remained. It is an unusual monarchy in that an above average proportion of rulers have abdicated.
There was no General Stadholder from 1650–1672 and 1702–1747.
beguinage: Establishment of, or house for, Beguines, members of a lay sisterhood formed in the 12th c. in the Netherlands.
plate-bande: Border of a parterre de broderie, either a planted strip of soil edged with box, or a double-strip, one of sand and the other planted (e.g. Het Loo, The Netherlands).
polder: Area of low-lying land reclaimed from sea, lake, or river, protected by dikes, especially in The Netherlands. 2. Pollarded tree.
Amsterdam School: Group of Netherlands architects influenced by E.G.H.H. Cuijpers, Berlage, and F.L.L. Wright…
Restoration: The re-establishment (1660) of the Stuart Monarchy in Great Britain and Ireland, so the period following this event, later in the reign of King Charles II (1660-85) referred to as the Carolean period. Restoration architecture was strongly influenced by Continental fashion, the dominant style being Baroque derived from French and Netherlandish precedents…
stadhuis: In the Netherlands, a town house or a city hall.
speklagen: Polychrome consisting of red-brick with courses of white stone, so resembling streaky bacon, found in much 19th c. architecture in The Netherlands and Belgium, particularly associated with the Neo-Flemish Renaissance style.
crow-steps: Corbel-, cat-, craw-, or corbie-steps forming the stepped tops of a gable, the crow-stone being the topmost stone at the apex. Crow-stepped (or cat-stepped) gables were common in Flemish, Netherlandish, North-German, and Scandinavian architecture, and influenced the design of buildings in East Anglia and Eastern Scotland.
Flemish gable: A gable with stepped and occasionally multicurved sides, derived from 16th-century Netherland prototypes.
mouse tooth gable: Dutch term referring to the infilling in the steps of a crowstep gable. Brick is laid at an angle perpendicular to the slope of the gable within the steps, and the gable is finished off with a smooth brick or stone coping or sill; an adaptation widely used in New Netherlands and Virginia.mouse toothing: Dutch term referring to the infilling in the steps of a crowstep gable. Brick is laid at an angle perpendicular to the slope of the gable within the steps, and the gable is finished off with a smooth brick or stone coping or sill; an adaptation widely used in New Netherlands and Virginia.
onion-dome: Pointed bulbous structure on top of a tower, resembling an onion, common in Central- and Eastern-European architecture as well as in The Netherlands. It is usually an ornamented top, made of a timber substructure covered with lead, copper, or tiles, and is not a true dome.
Dutch stoep: A small wooden porch, covered by a cantilevered hood, with a wood bench on both sides. Also see Dutch stoep.
stoep: Dutch or South-African verandah.
kammer: Bedroom of the Dutch dwelling.
gang: Connecting hall between rooms of the Dutch dwelling.kamertje: Small storeroom in the Dutch dwelling.
Dutch garden: Adapted from an influenced by French formal gardens, Dutch manifestations were flat, compact, enclosed, with emphases on canals, raised beds, hedges, topiary, lead statuary, flowering bulbs, and shrubs…
New Perennials: Style of planting using hardy grasses, developed by Dutch landscape-gardeners from pioneering work by German plant-breeders…
Delft School: Group of Dutch architects associated with the Technishe Hogeschool, Delft, and especially with Granpré Moliére, who objected, like Berlage, to the dogma and pretensions of unprincipled Nieuwe Zakelijkheid and the International style with its obsessions about industrial processes…
SAR: For Sichting Architecten Research. Dutch foundation for architectural design that sought to give the inhabitants of urban housing a collective and individual say in its control and evolution…
Dutch style: Adapted from an influenced by French formal gardens, Dutch manifestations were flat, compact, enclosed, with emphases on canals, raised beds, hedges, topiary, lead statuary, flowering bulbs, and shrubs…
Dutch Wave Planting: Style of planting using hardy grasses, developed by Dutch landscape-gardeners from pioneering work by German plant-breeders…
Flemish Revival: See Pont-street Dutch.
Georgian Revival style: Georgian Revival is sometimes referred to as Colonial Revival (1870-1920). The English Georgian style was the most prevalent type of Colonial buildings, but certainly not the only one. Two obvious exceptions are styles that were used by the Dutch and French.
New American landscape: Late-20th c. style developed in America involving more sustainable, ecologically sound landscapes, and rejecting ‘passive vegetative architecture’ in favor of bold massing of perennials and wild grasses, responding to light, wind, and seasonal change: it was paralleled by New Perennials or Dutch Wave planting…
Oleaginous style: A 17th century precursor of Rococo, called Auricular, Cartilaginous, Dutch Grotesque, Kwabornament, or Lobate style, a branch of Mannerism. It consisted of smooth flowing lines, folding in on each other, like human ears, intestines, or marine plants…
buitenplaats: Literally ‘outside place’, Dutch for a small country house or retreat. Common in the 17th c., buitenplaatsen or buitenhuizen were summer homes for merchants/burghers, easily accessible from towns and often sited along the banks of rivers such as the Amstel, Becht, etc. By the end of the 18th c. many buitenplaatsen had been built, set in gardens (often with ‘stiff parterres’, as Beckford described them).
narra: Also called sena and angsena; a wood from the Dutch East Indies and the Philippines, in a red variety and a yellow variety; moderately hard and heavy, of limited strength, fairly easy to work, takes a good polish; it is a popular cabinet wood in the Philippines.
angelique: A heavy wood, resembling teak, from British, French, and Dutch Guiana, red-brown in color, clean and even in grain, moderately hard, tough, strong, elastic, and not difficult to work.
hatchet door: Same as Dutch door.
stable door: Also see Dutch door.
dwarf door: One 3 or 4 feet high, whether complete, or forming the lower part of a divided or Dutch door.
half door: One-half of a Dutch door; a door that is shorter than its opening, with open space above and below.
corbie step: The step-like decoration along the upper edge of a gable in Flemish, Dutch, Scottish and Art Nouveau designs. The uppermost step is called the crow-stone. See also Ziggurat.
corbie-step: The step-like decoration along the upper edge of a gable in Flemish, Dutch, Scottish and Art Nouveau designs. The uppermost step is called the crow-stone. See also Ziggurat.
corbie-steps: The step-like decoration along the upper edge of a gable in Flemish, Dutch, Scottish and Art Nouveau designs. The uppermost step is called the crow-stone. See also Ziggurat.
crow step: The stepped parapet gables commonly used in Dutch urban architecture from at least the 16th century, once a familiar sight on New York City streets.
crowstep: The stepped parapet gables commonly used in Dutch urban architecture from at least the 16th century, once a familiar sight on New York City streets.
crowstep gable: A masonry gable extended above the roof line with a series of setbacks; often found in Northern European medieval architecture, especially Dutch architecture.
fractable: A decorated gable end carried above the roofline, a coping that covers the slope of the roof and provides an ornamental silhouette. These were very popular in both Dutch and Muslim architecture.
muizetanden: The mousetooth edging of a gable end wall in which bricks at the edge of the gable are set at right angles to the slope. It is also called Dutch cross bond, diapering (in England) and tumbling (in Virginia).
roof styles: The external upper covering of a building, including the frame for supporting the roofing. Some varieties include barrel, bell, candle-snuffer, conical, cupola, Dutch gable, flat, gable, gambrel, hexagonal, hipped, Mansard, onion, pyramidal/pavilion, shed, spire, and tent.
roofs: Gabled; roof sloping downward in two parts from a central ridge; the gable is the part of an outside wall in the shape of a triangle between the sloping roofs; gambrel; a ridged roof with two different slopes on each side of the ridge, the lower slope having a steeper pitch (sometimes called a Dutch roof); hipped; a roof with four uniformly pitched or sloping sides; mansard; two slopes on each of its four sides; one part very steep and curved, often with dormers.
cat-step: The step-like decoration along the upper edge of a gable in Flemish, Dutch, Scottish and Art Nouveau designs. The uppermost step is called the crow-stone. See also Ziggurat.
fract table: A decorated gable end carried above the roofline, a coping that covers the slope of the roof and provides an ornamental silhouette. These were very popular in both Dutch and Muslim architecture.
mouse tooth gable: Dutch term referring to the infilling in the steps of a crowstep gable. Brick is laid at an angle perpendicular to the slope of the gable within the steps, and the gable is finished off with a smooth brick or stone coping or sill; an adaptation widely used in New Netherlands and Virginia.
mouse toothing: Dutch term referring to the infilling in the steps of a crowstep gable. Brick is laid at an angle perpendicular to the slope of the gable within the steps, and the gable is finished off with a smooth brick or stone coping or sill; an adaptation widely used in New Netherlands and Virginia.
stepped gable: The masonry end (usually) that covers a pitched roof’s triangular profile, rising above it in rectilinear steps; a Dutch device that presented itself to the street (English gables ran parallel).
Dutch stoop: A small wooden porch, covered by a cantilevered hood, with a wood bench on both sides. Also see Dutch stoep.
bent: A rigid transverse frame assembly used in series such as the anchor-bent Dutch barn framing system. 2. A braced or rigid frame designed to carry vertical and lateral loads transverse to the length of a framed structure.
1505
The Portuguese establish a presence in Sri Lanka, trading in the island’s crop of cinnamon
1512
The Portuguese make treaties in the Moluccas (or Spice Islands), to trade in cloves and nutmeg
William of Orange (1579—1584)
Having inherited estates around the area which became Holland, the young William was sent to the region and educated as a Catholic on the orders of Emperor Charles V. He served Charles and Philip II well, being appointed stadholder in Holland. However, he refused to enforce religious laws attacking Protestants, and became a loyal opponent and then an outright rebel. In the 1570s William had great success in his war with the Spanish powers, becoming Stadholder of a United Provinces. William was assassinated by a Catholic attacker.
Maurice of Nassau (1584—1625)
The second son of William of Orange, he left university when he father was killed and he was appointed stadholder. Aided by the British he consolidated the union against the Spanish and took control of military affairs. Fascinated by science, he reformed and refined his forces until they were some of the finest in the world, and was successful in the north, but had to agree to a truce in the south. It was his execution of the statesman and former ally Oldenbarnevelt which affected his posthumous reputation. He left no direct heirs.
1595
The first Dutch expedition round the Cape reaches Java and secures trading agreements
1602
The Dutch East India Company is founded, with a tax-free monopoly of the eastern trade for twenty-one years
amboyna burl: A wood from the East Indies, used for fine veneers, having a rich brown color streaked with red or yellow.
marblewood: An East Indian tree also known as Macassar ebony; its reseate gray-and-black wood is prized for cabinetwork and veneer.
narra: Also called sena and angsena; a wood from the Dutch East Indies and the Philippines, in a red variety and a yellow variety; moderately hard and heavy, of limited strength, fairly easy to work, takes a good polish; it is a popular cabinet wood in the Philippines.
Ceylon satinwood: An East Indian tree valued for use in fine cabinetwork and veneer; pale golden color with lighter ripple.
teak: An East Indian tree, the wood of which is dark, heavy, and durable; used chiefly for fine flooring, decking, greenhouses, furniture, and interior finish.
lac: A resinous exudation of an East Indian insect, used as a base of shellacs, varnishes, and lacquers.
ardish: An East Indian form of decoration, achieved by embedding bits of glass in the plaster or walls or ceiling.
dak-bungalow: A travelers’ rest house of East India.
1619
Jan Pieterszoon Coen destroys the town of Jakarta, on the coast of Java, and rebuilds it as a Dutch trading centre under the name Batavia
1621
The Dutch West India Company is chartered to trade and found colonies anywhere along the entire American coast
Creole: Originally a person of European ancestry born in the West Indies or Louisiana during the French Colonial period. Soon expanded to include the descendants of French soldiers and African-West Indian women. Finally, it came to distinguish one likely to be of mixed racial and cultural background who, unlike strangers and foreigners, spoke the Creole language and was well acclimated to the complex culture and difficult environment of the New Orleans area.
Creole architecture: That of peoples of European descent in tropical and subtropical America – French, Spanish, English, etc., in the West Indies; French and Spanish in New Orleans, and the like. The term Creole differs in its special application, but means always, born in the new country of pure European stock; and this applies to cattle, poultry, etc., as well as to mankind.
guapinol: Or West Indian locust, a cabinet wood from South and Central America, somewhat resembling both cherry and mahogany; used for veneer, construction, and furniture.
lignumvitae: Very heavy woods of great strength, with white or yellowish sapwood and olive to dark brown heartwood, originating in the coastal regions of Central America and the West Indies. They are used for propeller-shaft bearings of ships and other machinery, pulley sheaths, caster wheels, and mallet heads.
macaya: Also called moca or mocha; a wood from Central and South America and the West Indies which is considered one of Mexico’s potentially valuable species; coarse-textured, hard, strong, and durable, it is described as yellowish, reddish, or brown, sometimes very dark; light-colored specimens suggest hard pine, others palm wood, and some are compared to English oak; used for interior woodwork and furniture.
moca: Also called moca or mocha; a wood rom Central and South America and the West Indies which is considered one of Mexico’s potentially valuable species… Also see mocha, macaya.
mocha: Also called moca or mocha; a wood rom Central and South America and the West Indies which is considered one of Mexico’s potentially valuable species… Also see mocha, macaya.
San Domingo harewood: A wood from San Domingo and the West Indies resembling San Domingo satinwood; yellow in color with a satiny luster; used for veneer.
yacca: Woods from the West Indies, Mexico, Central and South America; whitish or yellowish in color; fine-textured; used for flooring, furniture, and cabinetwork.
yaqua: The royal palm, as it is called in the West Indies, used for roof thatching.
American ebony: A wood from the West Indies; its yellow to dark-brown background is variegated or finely striped; it is exceedingly hard and takes a high polish.
mahogany: Widely regarded as the premier cabinet wood of the world, based on its use through centuries. Attractive appearance of its very pale to very dark reddish brown color, ease of working, strength, and low shrinkage are outstanding properties. Commercially, three species are important: mahagoni of the West Indies; humilis of the west coast of Mexico and Central America; and macrophylla of Central and South America. The last named species produces the bulk of mahogany in the world’s markets.
paldao: A wood from the Philippines, Indo-China, and the West Indian Archipelago, possessing a great variety of grain and figure and a wide range of color, from grayish to greenish yellow with irregular, concentric, dark brown bands; used for veneer.
conch house: Natives of the West Indies – many immigrating to America to work in Florida’s cigar industry – brought the Conch house to Miami and Key West in the late 19th century. (Native Bahamians were colloquially called “Conchs” at that time.) This simple one- or two-story building form was raised on piers and featured a porch or two-story gallery, often decorated with gingerbread trim, to catch cool breezes. The earliest examples are said to have been crafted by ships’ carpenters using a cross-braced timber system based on shipbuilding techniques, but the vast majority are actually balloon frame structures sheathed with clapboards.Creole house: Originally a person of European ancestry born in the West Indies or Louisiana during the French Colonial period. Soon expanded to include the descendants of French soldiers and African-West Indian women. Finally, it came to distinguish one likely to be of mixed racial and cultural background who, unlike strangers and foreigners, spoke the Creole language and was well acclimated to the complex culture and difficult environment of the New Orleans area.
c. 1625
The Dutch gradually exclude the Portuguese from the immensely lucrative trade in cloves from the Spice Islands (or Moluccas)
Frederick Henry (1625—1647)
Youngest son of William of Orange, third hereditary stadholder and Prince of Orange, Frederick Henry inherited a war against the Spanish and continued it. He was excellent at sieges and did more to create the border of Belgium and the Netherlands that anyone else. He established a dynastic future, kept the peace between himself and the lower government, and died a year before peace was signed.
1626
Peter Minuit purchases the island of Manhattan from local Indians and calls the place New Amsterdam
c. 1630
Rival Dutch, English and French colonies are established in Guiana, the northeast coast of south America
1641
The Dutch expel the Portuguese from their trading posts in Malacca
1642
The Dutch explorer Abel Tasman attempts to land in Golden Bay, New Zealand, resulting in a clash with the Maoris
1647
Peter Stuyvesant begins a 17-year spell as director-general of the Dutch colony of New Netherland in North America
Dutch Colonial architecture: The houses built by Dutch settlers and others in New Netherlands, particularly along the Hudson River, in northern New Jersey, and in eastern Long Island during the Colonial era. 2. Today a vague house style usually having a gambrel roof, possibly with extended eaves in imitation of an actual Colonial house popular in New Jersey and Long Island after 1750.
Dutch Colonial: The houses built by Dutch settlers and others in New Netherlands, particularly along the Hudson River, in northern New Jersey, and in eastern Long Island during the Colonial era. 2. Today a vague house style usually having a gambrel roof, possibly with extended eaves in imitation of an actual Colonial house popular in New Jersey and Long Island after 1750.
bed place: In a Dutch Colonial house, an alcove into which a bed is built.
Colonial architecture : Architecture transplanted from the motherlands to overseas colonies, such as Portuguese Colonial architecture in Brazil, Dutch Colonial architecture in New York, and above all English Georgian architecture of the 18th century in North American colonies.
Dutch Colonial Revival: Of the many forms of the Colonial Revival style, the Dutch cottage variant is among the most distinctive. Adapted from 18th century farmhouses erected by Dutch settlers, the defining characteristic of the style is a gambrel roof, which was introduced to America by the Dutch in the Mid-Atlantic colonies. The double-pitch of the gambrel roof created more space in the upper story, while allowing for the rapid run-off of rainfall, common to the eastern seaboard. Dutch Colonial Revival houses are typically a tall one-and-one-half story building with a large flank-gambrel roof containing the second floor and attic. The lower roof slopes at both front and rear are broken by large full-width shed dormers on the second story level; the dormers usually dominate the roof, and the gambrel form is sometimes evident only on the end walls.
bake oven: An enclosed brick or stone oven built adjacent to a hearth in early Dutch Colonial houses. As a bake oven’s walls are made of solid, insulating materials, it can maintain an even temperature for many hours.
gouge work: Incised woodwork for which the gouge is the principal tool, as in trim and mantels of the so-called Dutch Colonial architecture of New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
overshoot: The wide overhang of roof above first-story windows, as in the Dutch Colonial style. 2. The overhang of second story on the south side of a Pennsylvania barn.
Colonial cottage: From 1870 to 1940 several Colonial Revival houses developed; this section deals with two of them. The fervor for American culture that swept the country after the 1876 Centennial resulted in the revival of two house types, the New England eighteenth-century cottage of English medieval origins, and the Georgian. Well into the twentieth century the vernacular tradition included these in its inventory, as well as the Dutch gambrel, the so-called Cape Cod, and the large hipped and pedimented cottages with colonial motifs, which are all discussed in other sections…
Colonial gambrel cottage: The colonial gambrel cottage is a subtype of the generic model. Throughout most of its history, which includes authentic 18th-century examples as well as several revival-style types, the house has been thought of as Dutch in origin and spirit. The revival style was popular during 1900—1940 and was referred to as Dutch colonial. The shape of the building was strongly dictated by the shape of the roof, which in the Dutch-Flemish tradition frequently had flared eaves. In many models the flare was wide enough to provide some shelter over the entrance. The roof ridge ran parallel to the street, so that the facade was available for a full design treatment. A three-bay front was common, but five-bay units can be found. The second-floor level was outlined by either a long shed dormer that covered most of the roof, or by two or three evenly spaced gable dormers. The dormers were repeated on the rear elevation. The entrance was understated, with only a hood or a pediment to mark the door and the shallow porch. Some pediments evolved into porticoes with slender columns. Fenestration was for the most part symmetrical on all elevations…
William II (1647—1650)
William II was married to the daughter of Charles I of England, and when he succeeded to his father’s titles and positions he was opposed to the peace deal which would end the generational war for Dutch independence, and support Charles II of England in regaining the throne. The parliament of Holland was aghast, and there was great conflict between the two before William died of smallpox after only a few years.
1650
To protect their market, the Dutch destroy all clove trees in the Moluccas except on two islands, Amboina and Ternate
1652
Jan van Riebeeck establishes a Dutch settlement at the Cape of Good Hope
1656
After a six-month siege, the Dutch capture Colombo from the Portuguese in Sri Lanka
1657
The Dutch in South Africa purchase slaves to do domestic and agricultural work
1658
The Dutch expel the Portuguese from the last of their trading posts in Sri Lanka
1664
Peter Stuyvesant accepts the reality of the military situation and yields New Amsterdam to the British without a shot being fired
1666
New Amsterdam is renamed New York by the recently established English regime
1667
In the treaty of Breda, England keeps New Amsterdam and New Netherland, and Holland keeps the English-held territory of Surinam
Renaissance architecture: An architecture resulting from a rebirth of interest in, and knowledge of, earlier classic forms and from a revolt against medieval forms and habits. Starting in Italy in the 15th century, it spread throughout Europe, strongly affected by regional influences. Characterized by the re-use of the classic orders and emphasis on pictorial impact, Renaissance architecture is a generic term for widely differing design in Italy, England, France, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, and the Americas, up to the end of the 19th century.
Northern Renaissance Revival: Late-19th c. revival (especially in England) of the Renaissance and Mannerist styles of Flanders, The Netherlands, and Northern Germany, notably by Sir Ernest George and other contemporaries, also termed Pont-Street Dutch or Flemish Revival. IT frequently incorporated details made of terracotta.
Pont Street Dutch: English Revival of Flemish and North-German Renaissance architecture (1870s-’80s) featuring high, stepped, shaped and ornamented gables, rubbed and molded brick, terracotta, and other elements derived from a similar revival in Belgium and The Netherlands…
William III (also King of England) (1672—1702)
William III was born just a few days after his father’s early death, and such had been the arguments between the latter and the Dutch government that the former was banned from taking power. Nevertheless, as William grew this order was canceled, and with England and France threatening the area William was appointed Captain-General. Success saw him created stadholder, and he was able to repel the French. William was an heir to the English throne and married to a daughter of an English king, and accepted an offer of the throne when James II caused revolutionary upset. He continued to lead the war in Europe against France and kept Holland intact.
William & Mary: Architectural style of the reigns of King William III (r.1689-1702) and Queen Mary II (r.1689-94) in Great Britain, coming mid-way between the French-inspired Baroque of the Restoration and the Queen-Anne period. It embraced influences from William’s own country, The Netherlands, and was leavened by themes from France brought over by Huguenot refugees after the Revocation (1685) of the Edict of Nantes (1598 – which had given French Protestants equality of citizenship). It also included an exotic thread in that it had a taste for oriental motifs from China which led to the beginnings of Chinoiserie.
1683
Mennonites and other from Germany (later known as the Pennsylvania Dutch) begin to settle in Penn’s liberal colony
c. 1700
Holland and England are now producing the magnificent ocean-going merchant vessels known as East Indiamen
1722
Easter Island is reached by the Dutch, beginning a spate of European discovery in the islands of the Pacific
1746
The French commander Maurice de Saxe succeeds in occupying the entire Austrian Netherlands
William IV (1747—1751)
The position of Stadholder has been vacant since William III died in 1747, but as France fought Holland during the War of the Austrian Succession, popular acclaim bought William IV to the position. He wasn’t particularly gifted but left his son a hereditary office.
William V (Deposed) (1751—1795)
Just three years old when William V died, he grew into a man at odds with the rest of the country. He opposed reform, upset many people, and at one point only remained in power thanks to Prussian bayonets. Having been ejected by France, he retired to Germany.
c. 1775
Dutch nomads, pressing far north from Cape Town, become known as the Trekboers
c. 1795
Dutch Boers begin calling themselves Afrikaners, to emphasize that Africa is their native land
1795
With the Dutch entering the war on the side of the French, Britain seizes their valuable Cape colony in South Africa
Ruled Partly From France, Partly as Batavian Republic (1795—1806)
As the French Revolutionary Wars began, and as calls for natural borders went out, so French armies invaded Holland. The king fled to England, and the Batavian Republic was created. This went through several guises, depending on developments in France.
1802
The Treaty of Amiens restores the Cape of Good Hope to the Netherlands
1806
The British recapture the Cape of Good Hope from the Dutch
Louis Napoleon (King, Kingdom of Holland) (1806—1810)
In 1806 Napoleon created a new throne for his brother Louis to rule but soon criticized the new king for being too lenient and not doing enough to help the war. The brothers fell out, and when Napoleon sent troops to enforced edicts Louis abdicated.
Ruled From France (1810—1813)
A large amount of the kingdom of Holland was taken into direct imperial control when the experiment with Louis was over.
William I (King, Kingdom of the Netherlands, Abdicated) (1813—1840)
A son of William V, this William lived in exile during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, having lost most of his ancestral lands. However, when the French were forced from the Netherlands in 1813 William accepted an offer to become Prince of the Dutch Republic, and he was soon King William I of the United Netherlands. Although he oversaw an economic revival, his methods caused rebellion in the south, and he had to eventually concede Belgium independence. Knowing he was unpopular, he abdicated and moved to Berlin.
1815
The congress of Vienna leaves the Cape of Good Hope in British hands
1836
The Portuguese ban the shipping of slaves from the coast of Angola
William II (1840—1849)
As a youth William fought with the British in the Peninsular War and commanded troops at Waterloo. He came to the throne in 1840 and enabled a gifted financier to secure the nation’s economy. As Europe convulsed in 1848 William gave permission for a liberal constitution to be created and died shortly after.
William III (1849—1890)
Having come to power soon after the liberal constitution of 1848 was installed he opposed it but was persuaded to work with it. An anti-Catholic approach further strained tensions, as did his attempt to sell Luxembourg to France; it was made independent in the end. By this time he’d lost much of his power and influence in the nation, and he died in 1890.
1875
Slavery is finally made illegal in the Portuguese empire
Wilhelmina (Abdicated) (1890—1948)
Having succeeded to the throne as a child in 1890, Wilhelmina took power in 1898. She would rule the country through the two great conflicts of the century, being key in keeping Holland neutral in World War One and using radio broadcasts while in exile to keep spirits up in World War Two. Having been able to return to Holland after Germany’s defeat she abdicated in 1948 due to failing health but lived until 1962.
1945
Achmed Sukarno makes a unilateral declaration of Indonesian independence, and leads the subsequent struggle against the Dutch
New-Essentialist architecture: Dutch equivalent of Bauhaus-inspired Functionalism or the International style, 1920-40.
De Stijl: A Dutch geometric abstract movement in the arts between 1917 and 1931 which had a lasting effect on the development of modern architecture and industrial design.
Expressionist style: Expressionist architecture was an architectural movement that developed in Europe during the first decades of the 20th century in parallel with the expressionist visual and performing arts that especially developed and dominated in Germany. The term “Expressionist architecture” initially described the activity of the German, Dutch, Austrian, Czech and Danish avant garde from 1910 until 1930. Subsequent redefinitions extended the term backwards to 1905 and also widened it to encompass the rest of Europe. Today the meaning has broadened even further to refer to architecture of any date or location that exhibits some of the qualities of the original movement such as: distortion, fragmentation or the communication of violent or overstressed emotion.
Juliana (Abdicated) (1948—1980)
The only child of Wilhelmina, Juliana was taken to safety in Ottawa during World War Two, returning when peace was achieved. She was now regent twice, in 1947 and 1948, during the illness of the queen, and when her mother abdicated due to her health became queen. She reconciled the events of the war quicker than many, marrying her family to a Spaniard and a German, and built a reputation for modesty and humility. She abdicated in 1980, dying in 2004.
1949
The Dutch concede independence for Indonesia with Achmed Sukarno as president
1949
Batavia reverts to its original name of Jakarta and becomes the capital of Indonesia
1975
Surinam wins independence from the Dutch, with Johan Ferrier as the first president
Beatrix (1980—2013)
In exile with her mother during World War Two, in peacetime Beatrix studied at university and then married a German diplomat, an event which caused rioting. Things settled down as the family grew, and Juliana established herself as a popular monarch following her mother’s abdication. She too abdicated, in 2013, aged 75.
Calvinist austerity: Sharp, hard-edged late 20th and early-21st century architecture, especially associated with The Netherlands…
Willem-Alexander (2013—Present)
Willem Alexander succeeded to the throne in 2013 when his mother abdicated, having lived a full life as crown prince including military service, university study, tours and sports.
Also see Architecture index.
Sources cited
Historic Rulters of the Netherlands, ThoughtCo