Topic summary
Dutch history
Extracted from the Wikipedia article History of the Netherlands.
Batavian Republic (1795–1806)
The confederal structure of the old Dutch Republic was permanently replaced by a unitary state. The 1798 constitution had a genuinely democratic character, though a coup d'état of 1801 put an authoritarian regime in power. Ministerial government was introduced for the first time in Dutch history and many of the current government departments date their history back to this period. British forces repeatedly occupied Dutch colonies during this period, and as a result the Napoleonic Wars Britain acquired permanent control over of Dutch Guiana (excluding Surinam), Ceylon and the Cape Colony. The Dutch East Indies were returned to the Netherlands under the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814.