The
history of the Netherlands is the history of seafaring people thriving on a lowland
river delta on the
North Sea in northwestern Europe. Records begin with the four centuries during which the region formed a militarized border zone of the
Roman empire. This came under increasing pressure from
Germanic peoples moving westwards. As Roman power collapsed and the
Middle Ages began, three dominant
Germanic peoples coalesced in the area,
Frisians in the north and coastal areas,
Low Saxons in the northeast, and the
Franks in the south.