Sea beggars seize the town of Brill and raise the flag of William of Orange (also known as William the Silent)

William of Orange declares himself a Calvinist and assumes the leadership of the united provinces of the Netherlands

The city of Alkmaar is saved when the Dutch breach their own dikes, threatening the Spanish troops with death by drowning

England's queen Elizabeth sends 6000 troops to support the Dutch rebels against Spain

The House of Orange becomes the leading family of the new Dutch republic

The Dutch West India Company is chartered to trade and found colonies anywhere along the entire American coast

A clash at sea between English and Dutch fleets begins the first of three Anglo-Dutch wars

Michiel de Ruyter sails up the Thames to destroy much of the English fleet at its base in the Medway

English grandees invite William III of Orange and his wife Mary, daughter of James II, to claim the British throne

The French commander Maurice de Saxe succeeds in occupying the entire Austrian Netherlands

After their success at Valmy, French republican armies overrun much of the Austrian Netherlands

Napoleon announces that Holland is to be a kingdom, with his 28-year-old brother Louis Bonaparte on the throne

The head of the house of Orange becomes, for the first time, the sovereign prince of the Netherlands

The English and Prussian generals Wellington and Blücher defeat Napoleon in a closely fought battle at Waterloo

Leopold II hosts a conference in Brussels on the subject of opening up the African continent

International outrage at Congo atrocities forces Belgium to annexe King Leopold's private colony

German troops move into Luxembourg and demand passage through neutral Belgium

German troops invade Belgium, violating her guaranteed neutrality

A Germany army reaches and enters the Belgian capital, Brussels

The British Expeditionary Force fights a rearguard action to escape encirclement by the Germans at Mons

from September - the German and French armies, attempting to outflank each other, engage in a race to the sea

from October - there are heavy casualties on both sides, and a small advantage to the Allies, in the fighting round Ypres during the 'race to the sea'

British troops are driven to the western front in London Transport double-deckers

from November - with the battle lines stablized to the coast, the German and Allied armies settle in for years of gruesome trench warfare

The Germans attempt an advance on the western front, launching the second battle of Ypres