This book offers a comprehensive yet compact history of this surprisingly little-known but fascinating country, from pre-history to the present.

The development of the Netherlands over the centuries has been a remarkable one. Situated at "the end of Europe," between land and water, its people have, for m

In 1598 a fleet of five East India ships from the Nether-lands landed on the uninhabited island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, which they claimed as a Dutch

Books offering an overview of Dutch history are few and far between in the English-speaking world. Friso Wielenga's A History of the Netherlands: From the Sixte

The Netherlands is known among foreigners today for its cheese and its windmills, its Golden Age paintings and its experimentation in social policies such as ca