Early Inhabitants of the Netherlands

No single country "settled" the Netherlands first. The region was originally inhabited by various indigenous tribes, such as the Frisians, Batavians, and Cananefates, before becoming a Roman province (Germania Inferior) in the 1st century BCE. The modern Dutch nation emerged much later, evolving from these early inhabitants through the Middle Ages, the Burgundian and Habsburg periods, and the Dutch Revolt (1568–1648) against Spanish rule.