ABSTRACT
The Kingdom of the Netherlands was established in 1815 by French Emperor Napoleon, and initially controlled Belgium and Luxembourg. Inhabited since Paleolithic time, the region has been subjected to influences from early Celts, Germanic peoples, and Romans. Before 1790, there was no systematic large-scale mapping in the Netherlands, either national or regional. The first mapping efforts from 1791 to 1794 and 1807 to 1811 were made to support cadastral mapping for taxation. In 1811, Napoleon I decreed that the entire country be surveyed and registered for the establishment of a cadastre. The old triangulation and mapping was cast on the ellipsoidal Bonne projection where the latitude of origin, the central meridian was based on the (then) Prime Meridian at Amsterdam, and the scale factor at origin was unity. The first known elevation benchmark in Europe was the Amsterdam City Watermark.
