There was a decline in the prosperity of Rol land in the first half of the eighteenth century. The stadtholdership had been again set aside, but it was restored in 1747 and made hereditary in William IV. of Nassau-Dietz. There were forty years of peace with the exception of a brief naval war with England, which broke out at the close of 1780. In 1782 the States-General formally rec ognized the United States of America as a sover eign and independent nation. being the second Government in Europe so to do. The Stadthold er's Government was essentially aristocratic, and in 175G the rising democratic tide drove out Wil liam V., who, however, was restored in the follow ing year through the intervention of Prussia. The revolutionary movement in France found an echo in the United Provinces, where the democratic party welcomed the conquests of l'ichegru (q.v.). The stadtholdership was again overthrown, and the Batavian Republic was organized under French sympathizers and in close alliance with France in 1795. Napoleon made the Batavian into the Kingdom of Holland, with his brother Louis as King (1806), but the latter was too faithful to the country to suit his Imperial brother and master, and lie was compelled to abdicate (1810), and the country was annexed to the French Empire. In 1313 the French were expelled and the Ifouse of Orange was restored, and the Congress of Vienna ( 1515) annexed Bel gium to Holland and created the new kingdom of the Netherlands under the sovereignty of William I., the son of the last Stadtholder. Luxemburg (q.v.) was at the same time erected into a grand duchy for the King of the Netherlands. In the course of the Napoleonic wars England seized the Dutch colonial possessions, and at their close was allowed to retain Cape Colony, Ceylon, and a great part of Surinam. The Catholics of the Belgian provinces were not content with the union with Holland, and revolted in and after fruitless attempts by the King to suppress the revolt, the Powers intervened and created the independent Kingdom of Belgium, under a guar antee of neutrality. (See BELGIUM.) A final settlement with Belgium was not effected until 1839, when Limburg and Luxemburg were divided between the countries. William 1. abdicated, in 1840 in favor of his son. William II., who was better able to enter upon harmonious relations with Belgium.
William 11. was succeeded by William IIi. in 18'49. The country for more than half a century has enjoyed a peaceful and prosperous develop ment, untroubled by other problems than those of national finance, internal politics, and colo nial administration. The last is a question of much magnitude. as the Dutch control over 35. 000,000 more or less barbarous subjects, their eolMlia 1i„es?ioliS i.nlbraeing in the N‘lestern Hemisphere, Dutch Guiana and Cur:lean, and in the Eastern, .lava, part of Borneo, Sumatra.
Timor. t :khatteva., the ern half of New Guinea. Theme are rim as com mercial ventures and are kept muter rigid (lor (aliment control. Slavery existed in the Western Dutch colonies until 1862 and a system of oh lie•atory labor under official supervision still obtains in the Dutch East Ladies. The Consti tution. which had been much liberalized under the revolutionary influence of 184S, was further modified in 1sS7, when the suffrage was ex tended. the Upper House of the Statl.s-General, elected by the provincial estates, was to fifty, and the succession to the throne (termed. William III. (lied November 23, 1S90, and was sticeeeded by his Wil helmina I Pauline Maria (q.v.), who was born August 31, 1Sso, and was enthroned on her eighteenth birthday. She married Prince floury of min, February 7, 1901. In IstIS the International Peace Conference. called at the suggestion of the Czar of Russia. was held at 'flue Vague. which Made the seat of the inter national arbitration tribunal established by the conferenee. (See Pt:Act: I 'oNFERENCE. :•ee POLITIC.1L P.urrtes. section \ether/amis. BIBLIOGRAPHY. GENERAL. Craandijk and Schippertis, It'otuicrlingen door .\edrrland met pen en pot loud Ila arlein, It.175-ti : Wood, Hollund ( London, 1877) : Ilavard, In the //eft (-I of llollund I ih., ; flare, Sketches in Holland and Seatillinaria I tit.. I1 S3) : llolland (New York, 1893): lIehlrlitn. Holland and the Hollanders 186A) ; Griffis, The Atm rieun in Holland (Boston, 1899) ; Bernard and others. La Holland(' gt'opraphinue, ( I hnola sliquv. etc. (Paris, 190(1).
Dismal% The most thorough and scholarly history of the Netherlands is that of Blok. Geschicdenis run het .Vcderlandsehe Volk. four N'01 111111t-4 of whieli appeared by 1901, brin=ing the up to I There is on English tion, by Itierstadt and Putnam. History of the l'eople of the A (•1 (New York. IF.9-99 1. Consult also Ilijs(ms, ticselii,denis des Fader lands (Groningen. 18991 ; I?emper. (;esehiedenis ran X, therland an Ani-dertlant, WenZelbl rge r, arseh ich le der .V if•drrhadl' ( Got ha, 1 s79-'(1I; Grattan, The History of the (Philadelphia. 1S35) ; Davies, History of Holland (London. 1551) lase of the Hutch lic I New York. I 55 I : id., ref the United ether/toefs ( London. 1S(1!11; 'Rogers. The Story of Rolland. "Story of the Nations Series” (New.
York, 1 Seignobos. 11 iRicire ! ubfelng dl' l'Europe (-writ-mint/wine (Paris, I597) : and for bibliography, Nijhotr, Hibtio9rophio historiro Nee rlandica (The Hague. Isl9fit ; Thorne, "Beading Lk( on the Netherlands." in York Stote Lihrory Bulletin, Bibliography No. 9 I Albany, Isle; I.