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House of Orange

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House of Orange

The Dutch decided that their country needed a single
strong executive, and turned to the House of Orange.

William IV (Prince of Orange) Director-General of the
Dutch East India Company, and his
alliance with the business class deepened while the disparity between rich and poor grew.


William IV agreed to share use of the title "Prince of Orange" (which had accumulated
prestige in the Netherlands and throughout the Protestant world) with Frederick William.

The county of Orange,
Virginia, and the city of Orangeburg, South Carolina, are named after him.
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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. .
 
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