Military history of the Netherlands

Part of a series on the
History of the Netherlands
Early Prehistory of the Netherlands Germanic tribes Frisii, Batavi, Cananefates, Chamavi Roman era Migration Period Frisians, Franks, Saxons
Medieval Frisian Kingdom Frankish Kingdom Middle Francia Lotharingia Lower Lotharingia Holy Roman Empire Burgundian Netherlands Habsburg Netherlands Seventeen Provinces Spanish Netherlands
Republic Eighty Years' War Dutch Golden Age (painting) Dutch colonial empire (evolution) VOC: East Indies, Cape Colony WIC: Americas, Guianas, Brazil List of wars
French period Batavian Revolution Batavian Republic Kingdom of Holland First French Empire
Monarchy Sovereign Principality United Kingdom Modern history World War II Netherlands constituent country within the kingdom
Economic history Economic history of the Netherlands (1500–1815) Dutch guilder Amsterdam Entrepôt Tulip mania Dutch disease Whaling in the Netherlands Polder model
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The Netherlands, as a nation state, dates to 1568,^[1] when the Dutch Revolt created the Dutch Empire. Previously, the Germanic tribes had no written language during the ancient and early medieval periods, so what we know about their early military history comes from accounts written in Latin and from archaeology. This causes significant gaps in the historic timeline. Germanic wars against the Romans are fairly well documented from the Roman perspective; however, Germanic wars against the early Celts remain mysterious because neither side recorded the events. Wars between the Germanic tribes in Northern Belgium and the present day Netherlands, and various Celtic tribes that bordered their lands, are likely due to their geographical proximity.

Belgium, a country with a Dutch-speaking majority, became an independent state in 1830 when it seceded from the Netherlands. Despite the contemporary political boundaries, they share much of the same military history.