Countries / Europe
22 notable historical events in Netherlands, in chronological order.
Successive crop failures caused by bad weather bring mass famine to northern Europe, killing a significant share of the population.
The Dutch provinces revolt against Spanish rule; the war ends with Spain recognising the independence of the Dutch Republic.
Dutch captain Willem Janszoon aboard the Duyfken charted the west coast of Cape York Peninsula, the first recorded European landing in Australia.
Beginning with a revolt in Bohemia, the conflict spreads across Central Europe, drawing in the major European powers and causing enormous loss of life.
Jan Pieterszoon Coen of the Dutch East India Company seizes Jayakarta and founds Batavia (now Jakarta), the hub of Dutch power in Asia.
The Dutch navigator Abel Tasman became the first known European to reach Tasmania and New Zealand.
The treaties of Westphalia end the Thirty Years' War and lay foundations for the modern concept of state sovereignty.
After besieging Fort Zeelandia, Koxinga forces the Dutch East India Company to surrender and establishes the Kingdom of Tungning.
Using microscopes of his own making, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek describes single-celled organisms in water and reports them to the Royal Society.
James II is deposed and William III and Mary II take the throne; the Bill of Rights of 1689 limits royal power and strengthens Parliament.
European powers fight over the succession to the Spanish throne after the death of Charles II; the war ends with the treaties of Utrecht and Rastatt.
Carl Linnaeus publishes his system for classifying living things, the basis of modern binomial nomenclature.
Britain and the Netherlands divide their spheres in the Malay world, roughly creating today's Malaysia–Indonesia divide.
Prince Diponegoro leads a major uprising against Dutch colonial rule in Central Java; the war ends with his capture.
The Post-Impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh dies at Auvers-sur-Oise, France, little recognised in his lifetime.
Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murder some six million European Jews, along with millions of other victims.
The United States enacts a large-scale economic aid programme to rebuild Western European economies after the Second World War.
Twelve North American and Western European countries sign the North Atlantic Treaty in Washington, creating the NATO collective defence alliance.
Following the Hague Round Table Conference, the Netherlands formally transfers sovereignty to the United States of Indonesia, ending the Indonesian National Revolution.
Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands sign the treaty creating the European Economic Community, forerunner of the European Union.
The Maastricht Treaty enters into force, formally establishing the European Union and laying the groundwork for a single currency.
Euro cash enters circulation in twelve European Union countries, replacing national currencies such as the franc, the Deutsche Mark and the lira.