Provinces" dates its rise from the middle of the 16th century, when,
after a long and sanguinary struggle, they succeeded in emancipating
themselves from the yoke of Spain; and in the following century it
received considerable development in consequence of the wars they had
to maintain against Louis XIV. In 1702 they had in their pay upwards
of 100,000 men, including many English and Scottish regiments, besides
30,000 in the service of the Dutch East India Company. But the
slaughter of Malplaquet deprived the republic of the flower of the
army. Its part in the War of the Austrian Succession was far from
being as creditable as its earlier deeds, a Prussian army overran
Holland in 1787 almost without opposition, and at the beginning of the
wars of the French Revolution the army had fallen to 36,000 men. In
1795 Holland was conquered by the French under Pichegru, and in the
course of the changes which ensued the army was entirely reorganized,
and under French direction bore its share in the great wars of the
empire.
With the fall of Napoleon and the reconstitution of the Netherlands,
the Dutch-Belgian army, formed of the troops of the now united
countries, came into existence. The army fought at Waterloo, but was
not destined to a long career, for the revolution of 1830 brought
about the separation of Belgium. A Dutch garrison under Baron Chasse,
a distinguished veteran of the Napoleonic wars, defended Antwerp
against the French under Marshal Gerard, and the Netherlands have been
engaged in many arduous colonial wars in the East Indies. The Belgian
army similarly has contributed officers and non-commissioned officers
to the service of the Congo Free State.