Royal Netherlands Army

The Royal Netherlands Army (Dutch: Koninklijke Landmacht (KL), "Royal Army") is the land forces element of the military of the Netherlands.

The Royal Netherlands Army was raised on 9 January 1814—however, its origins date back to 1572, when the so-called Staatse Leger was raised. Therefore, the Netherlands has one of the oldest standing armies in the world, dating back to the 16th century. It fought during the Napoleonic Wars, World War II, the Indonesian War of Independence, Korean War, and served with NATO on the Cold War frontiers in Germany from the 1950s to the 1990s.

Since 1990, the army has deployed to the Iraq War from 2003 and the War in Afghanistan (2001-present), as well as a number of United Nations peacekeeping deployments, notably with UNIFIL in Lebanon, and UNPROFOR in Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1992–1995.

Short history

Republic and French period, 1572 to 1814

The Royal Netherlands Army was raised on 9 January 1814, but its origins date back to 1572, when the so-called Staatse Leger was founded. Therefore, the Netherlands operates one of the world's oldest standing armies, dating back to the 16th century. This army of the Dutch Republic was one of the less organised, and not well trained armies of the 17th and early 18th century, and saw actions in the Eighty Years War, the Dano-Swedish War (1658–1660), the Franco-Dutch War, the Nine Years War, the War of Spanish Succession, the War of Austrian Succession, and the French Revolutionary Wars until the French conquered the Netherlands in early 1795.