History

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History

In prehistoric times reindeer hunters roamed the tundra of the Lowlands.

In 57 BC Julius Caesar's troops conquer what is now Belgium and the southern part of the Netherlands.

In the early Middle Ages the Franks - a Germanic Tribe - conquered the Low Countries overthrowing Roman rule.

Louis the Pious (778-840) succeeded his father Charlemagne in 814.

By the late fourteenth century the political situation in the Low Countries was fairly stable.

When King Philip II of Spain submitted new laws to suppress Protestant sympathies from spreading and introduced the inquisition, the Dutch rebelled.

One of the terms signed by the Peace of Westphalia was that the Scheldt estuary be closed to shipping, to destroy the trade and prosperity of Antwerp.

The arrival of the French revolutionary forces in the mid-1790s caused the collapse of the United Provinces and the area was renamed the Batavian Republic.

Despite German promises to respect Dutch neutrality and the fact that no ultimatum or declaration of war had been issued, German troops crossed the border on May 10th 1940.