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
Kingdom of the Netherlands the Constitution for the Kingdom of the Netherlands. These municipalities resemble ordinary Dutch municipalities in most ways (e.g., they will have mayors, aldermen, and municipal councils) and will have to introduce most laws of the Netherlands. As a transitional measure, only law applicable to the Netherlands that is considered to be necessary to function within the legal system of the Netherlands was introduced, and most laws of the Netherlands Antilles remained in force when the BES islands they joined the Netherlands on 10 October 2010. Since that date, Dutch legislation is projected to slowly replace Netherlands Antilles laws. Nevertheless, some