Dutch History in One Timeline: From the Romans to the Euro

The Rhine forms the northern border of the Roman Empire: the Lower Germanic Limes, now a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The region is part of the Frankish empire and regularly raided by Vikings.

Dikes, polders and the first water boards; towns grow on trade.

The Low Countries are united under the Burgundian dukes, then inherited by the Habsburgs.

William of Orange leads the revolt against Spanish rule. The national anthem, the Wilhelmus, is about him.

The northern provinces join forces, the foundation of the Republic.

The Dutch East India Company, often called the first listed company.

Amsterdam becomes the centre of world trade. Rembrandt, Vermeer and Frans Hals paint; Spinoza and Huygens think and write.

Under the VOC, most inhabitants of the Banda Islands are killed or driven out. Dutch traders are also deeply involved in the transatlantic slave trade.

Spain recognises Dutch independence.

France, England and two German bishoprics attack at once; the Republic barely survives.

French revolutionary troops arrive; the stadtholder flees.

Napoleon makes his brother Louis king; from 1810 the country is part of France.

William I becomes the first king, of a country that includes today's Belgium.

The Belgian Revolution; the Netherlands recognises Belgium in 1839.

Ministers become responsible to parliament instead of the king: the basis of today's democracy.

Slavery ends in Suriname and the Antilles on 1 July, remembered as Keti Koti. Enslaved people had to keep working on plantations for ten more years.

Two years after universal male suffrage.

After the bombing of Rotterdam on 14 May, the Netherlands surrenders.

About 102,000 of the roughly 140,000 Jews in the Netherlands are murdered. Anne Frank's diary is written in hiding in Amsterdam.

Around 20,000 people die of starvation in the occupied west.

Remembered each year on 4 May (remembrance) and 5 May (Liberation Day).

Indonesia declares independence in 1945; the Netherlands transfers sovereignty in 1949 after years of violent conflict.

1,836 people die. The Delta Works start in 1954 and are completed with the Maeslantkering in 1997.

One of the six founders of what became the European Union.

The law takes effect on 1 April 2001.

€1 = ƒ2.20371.

Queen Beatrix abdicates; the first king in 123 years.

Shares in the VOC were traded in Amsterdam.

Spectacle maker Hans Lipperhey applied for the first patent on a telescope.

Cornelis Drebbel demonstrated a rowed submarine in the Thames.

Christiaan Huygens made timekeeping far more accurate. He also discovered Saturn's moon Titan.

Antonie van Leeuwenhoek saw bacteria with his own microscopes, founding microbiology.

Willem Einthoven, Nobel Prize 1924.

Willem Kolff built the first dialysis machine during the war.

Developed at Philips by Lou Ottens.

Developed by Philips together with Sony.

Vic Hayes led the Wi-Fi standard work; Jaap Haartsen designed Bluetooth at Ericsson.