The Dutch Republic (1588 - 1795)

state whose area comprised approximately that of the present Kingdom of the Netherlands and which achieved a position of world power in the 17th century. The republic consisted of the seven northern Netherlands provinces that won independence from Spain from 1568 to 1609. As the southern provinces (later Belgium and Luxembourg) were recovered by Spain, however, the provinces bound by the Utrecht pact became a new, independent state.
 
For the next two centuries political control of the decentralized state shifted repeatedly between the province of Holland and the princes of Orange, who held the office of stadtholder and represented a greater degree of centralization. .