In all European history,  no self-governing, province with an integrated structure of authority ruled by a consensus among its component parts   had existed before  the Dutch Republic.  So  the foundation of the Dutch Republic is  a unique and invaluable  subject for the  historians.
        In the middle ages territories of Belgium and Netherlands where the donimant languages was Netherlandish and French developed institutions such as local parliaments and some of them formed dynastic unions but only under the Dukes of Burgundy, which was a junior branch of the french royal house,  most of the territories formed a while still preserving their separate institutions were joined together under a single ruler.
        Duke Phlip the  Good, third in the Burgindian line, established a number of unitary institutions for his Low country possessions  including a parliement or Soverign court and a States General to which each of the provincial states or parliements
 sent its deputies. When the last of her  family , Mary  of Burgundy died, Burgijndian Nethyerlands passed to her husband and successor Maximillian I of Habsburg leaving a foreign prince to rule provinces that were  already hostile to pretentions of centralized authority.
        When Charles V ascended the spanish throne in 1516,  the Netherlands  with its seventeen separate provinces  became an economic linchpin of the Spanish empire. Charles V attemted to unify the provinces by removing then from the authority of the Roman Empire and establishing separate regency under his son, Phlip II. The Spanish Empire exploited its colonies in both Old and New world to finance wars. Especially in the northern low contries, this burden joined with administrative inefficiency, unemployement and religious repression to create conditions tat sparkled the first succesful bourgeois revolition in history. A band of Calvinists minority  aggressively challenged Spanish Power founding sea raids. In response to these riots in 1560s, Philip
tried to exporte the Spanish Inquisition to Netherlands and by sending   an enourmous army under the duke of Alba. Leading protestants and a thousand people  were killed by the Coincil of blood and thousands fled. Protestants  rebelled against Alba's policies and soon  the loyal provinces too were in revolt because of taxtation and local autonomy. Led by the William the Silent, head of the Orange Dynasty, the seven northern provinces ( Holand, Zeeland, Utrecht, Gelderland, Overijssel, Friesland and Groningen) joined in the union of Utrecht in 1579. This determined resistance  and the serious economic weakness of the Spanish Empire, eventually produced unexpected success.The house of Orange provided a certain exacutive authority since members of this family often held the antiquated title of stadholder in various provinces. But this title had to be granted by the provincial states , and there were long periods when the state  of Holland, the most influencial provience chose not to do so. Finally  William ruled the north and the States general ruled the South. By 1609, the seven northern provinces were effectively free of Spanish Monachy and loosely tied together under a republican form of government. In 1609 Spain and Netherlands concluded the Twelve year's truce which tacitly recognized the  indipendence of Holand . In 1648  with the treaty of Wesphalia Spain recognized Dutch Republic as an independent nation.
        During their way to independence, Dutch meet capitalism and protestanism to do the work of princes; the Dutch state was
without absolute monarchy and in opposition to it.  By that experience, the Dutch oligarchy  retained a deep distrust of hereditary monarchy and the exact position of the House of orange remained a harassing constituional question until  the eighteenth century.
        The Dutch achievement come in other areas. Calvinism had provide the idoology of revolution and national identity. Capital
created a unique cultural  environment in the Dutch urban centers of Amsterdam, Roterdam, Utrecht and The Hague.
        What was the originality of the  Netherlands compared to other European contries that it evolved such a unique system of
ruling system and emerged as a great power and independent nation? In contrast with other countries, in Europe, religious diversity and tolerance in the Dutch Republic were persistant rather than transient aspect of culture. Unlike elites in England,
regenten in the Dutch republic never subscribed to the idea of establishing by law a single, all emracing church. In adition Dutch
made several important innovations which developed and consolidated their economy.  For example, " Holland saw the establisment of a long term public debt in a wy and on a scale that had never practised before, namely by the sale of annuities on the open market for which the provincial States assumed full responsibility by funding them with revenues from provincial taxes."  They developed convertible husbandry and the new techniques used all the land every year and provided a more diversified agriculture. Consequently, the fallowing four important distinguishing features can be added. Firstly, the structurally
weak position of the monarchy in the Netherlands due to circumstance that the Low Countries were part of the sprawling "Spanish" Habsburg composite empire. Secondly, the place of the cities in the Netherlands: their independence, their insistence on their privilages, their economic significances, their rich heritage of radical action, and the political experience and maturity of the urban elites. Thirdly, the unwillingness of the Catholics in the Netherlands to defend their religion. And, finally, the different relationships between the moderates and the monarchy.