Capital of the Netherlands Years War, which allowed the city a lot of trade opportunities, but made it unsuitable for the seat of government of the emerging 'rebel' state. Before the institution of the Batavian Republic of 1795 the Netherlands were not a unitary state, but more of a confederation in which the independent provinces and the larger cities and towns were very much politically autonomous. During the seventeenth century, the Prince Stadtholder as official of the States of Holland clashed several times with the city government of Amsterdam about policy, up to the point that the city was beleaguered by the army. Up
Capital punishment in the Netherlands Capital punishment in the Netherlands Capital punishment in the Netherlands (Dutch: "doodstraf in Nederland") was abolished in 1870 in criminal law after the States General recognized it was "cruel and rude". The bill was introduced by liberal-catholic Minister of Justice Franciscus van Lilaar and debated in both the Senate and House of Representatives for seven days before approval. Following the abolition of the death penalty, life imprisonment was made an official punishment in 1878. A few years after gaining independence in 1815, the Kingdom of the Netherlands determined that the death penalty could be carried out through beheading. Between 1945