Editing History of the Netherlands (section)

==Batavian Republic (1795–1806)==
{{Main|Batavian Republic}}
[[File:Feest_der_Vrijheid_op_de_Dam_te_Amsterdam,_4_maart_1795_Vreugde-Feest,_ter_inwyding_van_de_Vryheids-boom_in_Amsterdam,_Gevierd_den_4.den_Maart_1795._het_eerste_Jaar_der_Bataafsche_Vrijheid_(titel_op_object),_RP-P-OB-86.446.jpg|thumb|Liberty tree erected in Dam Square in Amsterdam, 1795 by H. Numan]]
The [[French Revolution]] was popular, and numerous underground clubs were promoting it when in January 1795 the [[Low Countries theatre of the War of the First Coalition|French army invaded]]. The underground rose up, overthrew the municipal and provincial governments, and proclaimed the [[Batavian Republic]] ({{Langx|nl|Bataafse Republiek}}) [[Batavian Revolution in Amsterdam|in Amsterdam]]. Stadtholder William V fled to England and the States General dissolved itself. The new government was virtually a puppet of France.<ref>C. Cook & J. Stevenson, ''The routledge companion to European history since 1763'' (Abingdon: Routledge, 2005), p. 66; J. Dunn, ''Democracy: A history'' (NY: Atlantic Books, 2005), p. 86.</ref> The Batavian Republic enjoyed widespread support and sent soldiers to fight in the French armies. The 1799 [[Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland]] was repulsed by Batavian–French forces. Nevertheless, Napoleon replaced it because the regime of [[Grand Pensionary]] [[Rutger Jan Schimmelpenninck]] (1805–1806) was insufficiently docile.<ref>[[R.R. Palmer|Palmer, R.R.]] "Much in Little: The Dutch Revolution of 1795", ''Journal of Modern History'' (1954) 26#1 pp. 15–35 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1874870 in JSTOR]</ref>

The confederal structure of the old Dutch Republic was permanently replaced by a unitary state. The 1798 constitution had a genuinely democratic character, though a coup d'état of 1801 put an authoritarian regime in power. Ministerial government was introduced for the first time in Dutch history and many of the current government departments date their history back to this period.

The exiled stadholder [[Kew Letters|handed over the Dutch colonies]] in "safekeeping" to Great Britain and ordered the colonial governors to comply. This permanently ended the colonial Dutch empire in Guyana, Ceylon and the Cape Colony. The Dutch East Indies was returned to the Netherlands under the [[Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Tarling |first=Nicholas |date=1978 |title="A Vital British Interest": Britain, Japan, and the Security of Netherlands India in the Inter-War Period |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20062724 |journal=Journal of Southeast Asian Studies |volume=9 |issue=2 |pages=180–218 |issn=0022-4634}}</ref>