Origins

The Dutch are lowlanders, a geographical descriptor which is reflected in the very name of their state, the Netherlands – the Low Lands. Their first settlements were in the marshes that marked the estuary where the Rhine and Maas rivers empty into the North Sea. The water bodies that pervaded and surrounded the Netherlands throughout its history were to have a profound impact on Dutch civilization. On the one hand, from an early date, the many rivers of the Netherlands made transportation relatively easy within the country and provided easy access to the sea. On the other hand, the North Sea has posed a constant threat of floods, limited the amount of habitable land, and periodically destroyed the homes and property of a people who live “under the sea.”

Initially, there was little that distinguished the Germanic-speaking Dutch from their Flemish and German neighbours, and there was little to attract outsiders to their low-lying lands. Roman rule and culture barely penetrated their watery landscape, and Christian missionaries at first had a difficult time converting the Dutch from their pagan worship. By the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the towns in the Netherlands were growing steadily in size and, together with towns in what are present-day Belgium and Luxembourg, were gradually consolidated into a single territorial unit under the rule of the dukes of Burgundy in northeastern France. Commercial life developed, and outside interests became aware of the financial and political potential of the Dutch towns that straddled the outlet of northwestern Europe’s most important rivers. It was also during the first half of the sixteenth century that the Protestant Reformation brought Calvinism to most of the Dutch towns and villages.

As adherents of a new religion and as people who had become accustomed to an advanced level of urban self-government, the Calvinist Dutch found it difficult to function under Spain’s autocratic king, Philip II, who during the second half of the sixteenth century had gained control over all the lowlands that had previously been ruled by Burgundy. The Dutch were particularly opposed to Philip’s centralizing policies and his fierce opposition to Protestantism. As a result, a revolt broke out in the 1560s under the leadership of William of Orange. A long struggle ensued between the northern lowland provinces, where Calvinism was strongest, and Catholic Spain. It culminated in 1609 with the secession of seven provinces north of the Scheldt River. Formally called the United Provinces, the Dutch republic was recognized as an independent state by international treaty in 1648.

The achievement of independence let loose a previously constrained and fettered Dutch nation. The seventeenth century became the Netherlands’ “golden age” as the entrepreneurial spirit manifested itself in the development of a commercial empire that circled the globe. Dutch traders and colonists in Asia, Africa, and the Americas generated enormous wealth for their European homeland which, in turn, was able to experience a rate of material and cultural growth never equalled before or since. Architecture, art, and science all benefited from the infusion of massive amounts of capital from abroad. The Dutch were also known for tolerance, and so many people persecuted for their political or religious beliefs, in particular Jews from southern and eastern Europe, found refuge in the Netherlands. It was from this time that the entire country came to be known as Holland, since that region with its commercial and cultural centre at Amsterdam had become the wealthiest part of the Netherlands.

The success of the Dutch abroad was soon challenged by more powerful neighbours like England and France. The result was a series of wars, the loss of certain colonies, and a decline of revenue which weakened the Netherlands, in particular during the eighteenth century. By 1795 the Netherlands (known at the time as the Batavia Republic) became politically subordinate to France, which at the height of the Napoleonic Wars (1806) annexed the country outright.

Following the defeat of Napoleon, Dutch independence was restored with the creation in 1814 of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Initially, the kingdom also included the ten Catholic lowland provinces to the south, but in 1830 eight of these revolted to form the independent state of Belgium. Two of the southern, largely Catholic, provinces (Limburg and North Brabant) remained in the Netherlands, which otherwise continued to be a Protestant country with an established state church, the Dutch Reformed Church (Hervormde Kerk). The Protestants gradually fractured into contending groups, and, by the twentieth century, they had declined in relation to Roman Catholics and secularists. At present, all three are about equal in number, but the secularists have been growing rapidly as church attendance has declined drastically in the last few decades.

For the rest of the nineteenth century, the Netherlands experienced a period of political stability and a modest economic prosperity that was enhanced by income from its colonial lands, especially in the East Indies (Indonesia). With the outbreak of World War I, battles raged in nearby Belgium and northern France, but the Netherlands was able to remain neutral. The kingdom was transformed into a parliamentary democracy based on universal suffrage. During World War II, the Dutch were less fortunate. Their country was invaded by Germany in May 1940 and ruled by the Nazis for the duration of the conflict. The forced deportations (including the destruction of the Jewish community) and material damage that characterized the wars years contributed to the deep enmity that exists on the part of the Dutch towards their German neighbours to the east.

In the decades after World War II, the Netherlands lost its largest overseas colonies (Indonesia) and instead directed its attention towards Europe. It became a founding member of the European Coal and Steel Community (1951) and the European Community (1957), and it has remained an avid supporter of European political and economic integration.

The great majority of immigrants from the Netherlands in Canada are Dutch-speaking. Although regional dialects abounded among the immigrants in the pre1960 era, all had been schooled in and spoke “High Dutch,” thereby alleviating any significant communication difficulties. Immigrants from the northern province of Friesland, who make up the Frisian national minority, speak a language related to but distinct from Dutch. Unlike in the Netherlands, where many Frisians identify as a nationality distinct from the Dutch, in Canada they identify as an integral or regional component of the Dutch community. On the other hand, while Dutch and German immigrants share common linguistic roots, the Dutch have always been careful to distinguish themselves from the Germans, particularly during and after the two world wars. They have accepted the commonly held Canadian designation of “Dutch” (from Deutsch, or German) but often speak of themselves as Netherlanders or Hollanders, with particular reference to their specific provincial origins.