History of Luxembourg The bombardments ended with the American Army nearing Lampaden on February 22, 1945. Altogether, of a pre-war population of 293,000, 5,259 Luxembourgers lost their lives during the hostilities. After World War II, Luxembourg abandoned its politics of neutrality, when it became a founding member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the United Nations. It is a signatory of the Treaty of Rome, and constituted a monetary union with Belgium (Benelux Customs Union in 1948), and an economic union with Belgium and the Netherlands, the so-called BeNeLux. Between 1945 and 2005, the economic structure of Luxembourg changed significantly. The
Netherlands ruler of the Holy Roman Empire and King of Spain, all fiefs in the current Netherlands region were united into the Seventeen Provinces, which also included most of present-day Belgium, Luxembourg, and some adjacent land in what is now France and Germany. In 1568, the Eighty Years' War between the Provinces and their Spanish ruler began. The level of ferocity exhibited by both sides can be gleaned from a Dutch chronicler's report: The Duke of Alba ruthlessly attempted to suppress the Protestant movement in the Netherlands. Netherlanders were “burned, strangled, beheaded, or buried alive” by his “Blood Council” and his