Netherlands

State · 1815–2026 CE · at its largest around 1815 CE

The Kingdom of the Netherlands, established after Napoleon's defeat under the House of Orange-Nassau; its southern provinces broke away as Belgium in 1830.

Its battles, in Battle View

Battle of Waterloo (1815 CE)

On its lands while it lasted

Bank of Amsterdam (1609–1820 CE): The city of Amsterdam founded this exchange bank in 1609 to give merchants reliable money. Its bank money became a standard for international payments, making it a forerunner of modern central banks.
Battle of Waterloo (1815 CE): On 18 June 1815 Wellington's Anglo-allied army and Blücher's Prussians defeated Napoleon near Waterloo in present-day Belgium, ending the Napoleonic Wars.
Brussels (c. 1830 CE): Capital of Kingdom of Belgium (1830–today).
The Communist Manifesto (1848 CE): Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote this political pamphlet while Marx lived in Brussels; it was published in London in February 1848.
Aspirin (1897 CE): Chemist Felix Hoffmann at Bayer in Elberfeld synthesised a pure, stable form of acetylsalicylic acid in 1897. Bayer marketed it as Aspirin from 1899.
World War I (1914–1918 CE): A global war from 1914 to 1918 between the Allies and the Central Powers, fought largely in trenches on Europe's Western and Eastern Fronts. Around 9 million soldiers died, and four empires collapsed.
Battle of the Somme (1916 CE): British and French offensive against German lines on the Somme from July to November 1916. The first day alone cost the British Army about 57,000 casualties.
Anne Frank (1929 CE – 1945 CE): German-born Jewish girl who hid with her family in Amsterdam from 1942 to 1944. She died in Bergen-Belsen; her diary became one of the best-known books of the Holocaust.
Battle of the Bulge (1944–1945 CE): Germany's last major offensive in the west, launched through the Ardennes in December 1944. American troops held Bastogne, and the offensive failed by January 1945.
Bonn (c. 1950 CE): Capital of Federal Republic of Germany (1950–1990), Federated Republic of Germany (1991–1999).
North Sea flood of 1953 (1953 CE): A storm surge in January 1953 flooded large parts of the Netherlands, Belgium and eastern England, killing more than 2,500 people. It led to the Dutch Delta Works.
Maastricht Treaty (1992 CE): Signed in Maastricht in February 1992, the treaty founded the European Union and set the path to a single currency, the euro.
EU enlarges, 2004 (2004 CE): On 1 May 2004 ten countries, eight of them formerly communist, joined the European Union, its largest single expansion.