Historian, writer and illustrator Jean-Denis G.G. Lepage is the author of numerous books. His interests include World War II and medieval and French history. He lives in Groningen, Netherlands.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Low Countries, Netherlands, Belgium, and Holland

Geography of the Netherlands

Water

Chapter [...] Romans in the Netherlands

Historical Background

Limes

Roman Fortifications

Urban Fortifications

End of Roman Rule

Chapter [...] Middle Ages ca. 500-1500

The Netherlands in the Early Middle Ages

Fortifications in the Early Middle Ages

Medieval Castles

Medieval Cities

Urban Medieval Fortifications

Medieval Siege Warfare

Conclusion

Chapter 3.Renaissance

The Burgundian Period

Habsburg and Spanish Rules

Firearms

Transitional Fortification

Italian Bastioned Fortification

Early Italian Bastioned Fortifications in the Netherlands

Coastal Fortification

Siege Warfare with Firearms

Chapter [...] Eighty Years' War

War with Spain

The Old Dutch System

Dutch Engineers

Defensive Waterlines

The Influence of Dutch ONS Fortifications in Northern Europe

Dutch Fortifications in the Colonies

Chapter [...] Golden 17th Century

A Blossoming Era

Dutch Fortifications in the Latter 17th Century

Siege Warfare

Menno van Coehoorn

New Dutch System

Menno Van Coehoorn's Works

Menno van Coehoorn's Influence

Chapter [...] 18th Century and the French Era

The 18th Century

The French Era

French Napoleonic Fortifications

French Realizations in the Netherlands

Chapter [...] 19th Century

The Industrial Revolution

The United Kingdom of the Netherlands

Dutch Fortifications in the Period 1830-1860

The New Holland Waterline

The Rifled Artillery Crisis, ca. 1860

Vestingwet 1874

The Polygonal System

Crisis in the 1880s

The Stelling of Amsterdam, 1880-1920

The Forts in the Stelling

Fortifications in the Colonies

Chapter [...] Period 1914-1940

The First World War, 1914-1918

Dutch Fortifications in the Interbellum, 1918-1939

Fortifications of the Afsluitdijk (Ijsselmeer Dam)

Lines of Defense, 1937-1940

Interwar Standardized Pillboxes

Assessment

Chapter [...] Second World War, 1939-1945

Defeat and Occupation

The German Atlantic Wall, 1940-1945

The Atlantic Wall in the Netherlands

Liberation

Chapter [...] Fortifications in the Cold War

Cold War

Dutch Postwar Reconstruction

Dutch Fortifications During the Cold War

Remnants of Dutch Fortifications Today

Conclusion

Bibliography

Index