The son of William V of Orange, William of the Netherlands, returned to the Netherlands in 1813 to become a sovereign prince of the Netherlands. On March 16, 1815, the Sovereign Prince became King of the Netherlands. In 1815, the Congress of Vienna formed the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, expanding the Netherlands with Belgium to create a strong state in the north corner of France. In addition, William became Grand Duke of Luxembourg for inheritance. The Congress of Vienna gave Luxembourg to William as personal property in exchange for his German possessions of Nassau-Dillenburg, Siegen, Hadamar and Diez. Belgium rebelled and gained independence in 1830, while the personal union between Luxembourg and the Netherlands was separated in 1890, when William III of the Netherlands died without male offspring. The Salic law prevented her daughter Wilhelmina and the Netherlands became Grand Duchess. Then the throne of Luxembourg passed the House of Orange-Nassau in the House of Nassau-Weilburg, another branch of the House of Nassau.

New Amsterdam in 1664, before it was changed to the British for Suriname. Under the British became the New York City. The largest settlement overseas Dutchman was the Cape Colony. It was created by Jan van Riebeeck on behalf of the Holland East India Company in Cape Town in 1652. The Prince of Orange consented occupation and control of the British Cape Colony in 1788. The Netherlands also possessed other colonies, but the Dutchmen settlements in these territories were limited. The most important were those of the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) and Suriname (Suriname was exchanged with the British for the city of New Amsterdam, now New York City). These colonies were first administered by the East India Company of Holland and Holland East India Company, both collective private enterprises. Three centuries later these companies had financial problems and in the territories where they operated control was assumed by the Dutch government. So officially became colonies. During the colonial period the Netherlands is actively involved in the slave trade.

During the nineteenth century, the Netherlands industrialized slowly compared with its neighboring countries, mainly due to the great complexity meant to modernize its infrastructure, consisting of large waterways and great confidence that the industry had in wind energy. Although the Netherlands remained neutral during World War I, in fact he played a leading role. Count Schlieffen had planned to invade the Netherlands while advancing into France. This plan was changed by Helmuth von Moltke the Younger with the intention of maintaining the neutrality of Holland. This was essential to German survival up to lock the United States and Britain of 1916 when the import of goods through the Netherlands was no longer possible. However, in neutral Netherlands followed the Countess, because of its diplomacy and its ability for trade

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Dutch Links. Over the centuries the coastline of the Netherlands has changed considerably as a result of human intervention or natural disasters. The most notable in terms of land loss was the storm of 1134 that led to the creation of the archipelago of Zeeland in the southwest. The flood St. Elizabeth 1421 and the subsequent mismanagement destroyed the polder flooding large parts of the center-south. More recently, parts of Zeeland are flooded during the North Sea flood of 1953, as a result of which will execute the work of the "Delta Plan". These disasters were strengthened in part by human influence. People had drained upland swamps in order to be used as a crop. This drainage caused the fertile peat to compress and the ground level down. To protect themselves from flooding the building of a series of defenses against water. As the ground level dropped, the dikes had to grow into an integrated system. In the thirteenth century, windmills were used to remove water from areas below sea level. The windmills were later used to drain lakes, creating the famous polders. In 1932, the Afsluitdijk was concluded, closing the former Zuiderzee (South Sea) North Sea, creating the IJsselmeer lake. He was part of the work called the Zuiderzee polders where four were robbed at sea with a total of 2,500 km2.