The development of the Netherlands over the centuries has been a remarkable one. Situated at the end of Europe, between land and water, its people have, for more than three thousand years fought to make the best of a country unfavoured by nature. They have shaped it into one of the world's foremost economic powers but also, and even more importantly, into a society that prides itself on having reached a fair balance between material and social well being. The history of this achievement is a fascinating one. Since time immemorial, it is the history of the struggle against the sea, of man seeking to dominate the forces of water. It is the history of the early medieval Dutch traders, who travelled all over Europe to sell their wares. It is the history of the activities of the world's first multinationals, the Dutch East and West India Companies, that spanned the entire globe. It i also the history of the loss of colonial emoire and of the triumphant rebuilding of a manily commercial economy into a manily industrial one, whose activities, once again, span the globe. It is, of course, also the history of a coulture to match, of common sense and realism, of the wonderful works of art produced by the Dutch golden age of the seventeenth century and of the many attainments of Dutch civilization in more recent years.