Netherlands
The Franks were the most powerful of the invaders. Their lands extended southward into what
is now northern France and eastward across the Rhine. Eventually, the Frankish kings
subjugated the Frisians and the Saxons and converted them to Christianity. By 800 the entire
territory of the Netherlands was part of the realm of Charlemagne. After Charlemagne died, his
empire disintegrated, and in 843 the Treaty of Verdun divided the empire into three parts. The
Netherlands became part of Lotharingia (Lorraine) and still later, in 925, part of the Holy
Roman Empire. At that time a Dutch nation did not exist, and the immediate loyalties of the
inhabitants were to local lords. Gradually over the next centuries the whole region came to be
called the Low Countries, or Netherlands, including present-day Belgium. (3)
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During the 9th and 10th centuries Scandinavian raiders, called Vikings, frequently invaded the
annaabi.ee 
