Netherlands

The Netherlands is the an part of the, which consists of the Netherlands, the  and  in the Caribbean. The Netherlands is a, located in. It is bordered by the to the north and west,  to the south, and  to the east.

The Netherlands is often called . This is formally incorrect as and  in the western Netherlands are only  (for more on this and other naming issues see ).

The Netherlands is a geographically low-lying and country. It is popularly known for its s,, (wooden shoes),  and  pottery, s, s, s, and. A, the country is also known for its somewhat policies toward , , , , and.

The Netherlands has an international outlook; among other affiliations the country is a member of the (EU),, the , and has signed the. Along with and, the Netherlands is also one of three member nations of the  economic union. The country is host to four international courts: the, the , the , and the. All of these courts, as well as the EU's criminal intelligence agency are situated in, which has led to the city being referred to as "the world's legal capital."

Naming Conventions
Various terms have been used in English to refer to the Netherlands and its inhabitants.

(The) Netherlands is the official name of the European part of the. The term  is commonly used as a synonym for the Netherlands as a whole, but it actually only refers to a region in the west of the country, which has long been the most economically powerful part of the country.

The Dutch themselves seldom use the term "Holland" to refer to their country. They usually call their country "Nederland", which is singular. The plural "de Nederlanden" in Dutch (the Netherlands) is never used to refer to the present country located in Western Europe, but is used exclusively either to refer to the historical "" or as part of the rather formal expression "Koninkrijk der Nederlanden" (Kingdom of the Netherlands), which includes the Netherlands Antilles, and Aruba. The country's and  are called Dutch. The word Netherlands is sometimes used as an adjective in place of Dutch (e.g. the ). ' and ' are also sometimes used, though they refer more frequently to the.

Geography
A remarkable aspect of the Netherlands is its flatness. Hilly landscapes can be found only in the south-eastern tip of the country, the central part and where the s pushed up several hilly ridges such as the in Drenthe, the stuwwallen near  and, ,  and the.

Floods
In years past, the Dutch coastline has changed considerably as a result of human intervention and natural disasters. Most notable in terms of land loss are the 1134 storm, which created the of  in the south west, and the 1287 storm, which killed 50,000 people and created the  (now dammed in and renamed the IJsselmeer &mdash; see below) in the northwest, giving Amsterdam direct access to the sea. The of 1421 and the mismanagement in its aftermath destroyed a newly reclaimed, replacing it with the 72 square kilometres (28 )  tidal floodplains in the south-centre. The most recent parts of Zeeland were flooded during the when 1,836 people were killed, after which the  was executed.

The disasters were partially man-made; people drained relatively high lying swampland for use as farmland. This drainage caused the fertile to compress and the ground level to drop, locking the land users in a vicious circle whereby they would lower the water level to compensate for the drop in ground level, causing the underlying peat to compress even more. The problem remains unsolvable to this day. Also, up until the 19th century peat was dug up, dried, and used for fuel, further adding to the problem.

To guard against floods, a series of defences against the water were contrived. In the first millennium, villages and farmhouses were built on man-made hills called terps. Later, these terps were connected by dykes. In the 12th century, local government agencies called "waterschappen" (English "water bodies") or "hoogheemraadschappen" ("high home councils") started to appear, whose job it was to maintain the water level and to protect a region from floods. (The water bodies are still exist today, performing the same function.) As the ground level dropped, the dykes by necessity grew and merged into an integrated system. By the 13th century, windmills had come into use in order to pump water out of the areas below sea level. The windmills were later used to drain lakes, creating the famous polders. In 1932, the  (English "Closure Dyke") was completed, blocking the former Zuiderzee (Southern Sea) off from the North Sea and thus creating the ( Lake). It became part of the larger in which four polders totalling 1,650 square kilometres (637square miles) were reclaimed from the sea.

Delta works
After the, the , a vast construction effort designed to end the threat from the sea once and for all, was launched in 1958 and largely completed in 2002. The official goal of the Delta project was to reduce the risk of flooding in the province of Zeeland to once per 10,000 years. (For the rest of the country, the protection-level is once per 4,000 years.) This was achieved by raising 3,000 kilometres (1,864 s) of outer sea-dykes and 10,000 s (6,200 miles) of inner, canal, and river dikes to "delta" height, and by closing off the sea of the Zeeland province. New risk assessments occasionally show problems requiring additional Delta project dyke reinforcements. The Delta project is one of the largest construction efforts in human history and is considered by the as one of the.

Additionally, the Netherlands is one of the countries that may suffer most from. Not only is the rising sea a problem, but also erratic weather patterns may cause the rivers to overflow.

Rivers
The country is divided into two main parts by three rivers (Rijn),, and  (Maas). These rivers not only function as a natural barrier, but traditionally also as a cultural divide, as is evident in some phonetic traits that are recognizable north and south of these "Large Rivers" (de Grote Rivieren). In addition to this, there was, until quite recently, a clear religious dominance of Catholics in the south and of Calvinists in the north.

The south-western part of the Netherlands is actually one of these rivers and two arms of the  (Westerschelde & Oosterschelde). The one and only important branch of the Rhine flowing northeastward is formed by the river, which flows out into the, the former so called  ('Southern sea'). This river also happens to form a linguistic divide. People to the right of this river speak dialects, except for the province of.

Climate
The predominant wind direction in the Netherlands is south-west, which causes a moderate, with cool summers and mild winters. The average tempurature is 5'C in autumn

History
Under, , and king of , the region was part of the of the Netherlands, which also included most of present-day , , and some land of  and. 1568 saw the start of the between the provinces and Spain. In 1579, the northern half of the Seventeen Provinces formed the, a treaty in which they promised to support each other in their defense against the Spanish army. The Union of Utrecht is seen as the foundation of the modern Netherlands. In 1581 the northern provinces adopted the, the declaration of independence in which the provinces officially deposed. Philip II the son of, was not prepared to let them go easily and war continued until 1648 when Spain under King finally recognized Dutch independence in the Treaty of.

Dutch Republic 1581-1795
Since their independence from Philip II in 1581 the provinces formed the Dutch Republic. The republic was a of the provinces, , , , ,  and. All these provinces were autonomous and had their own governments, the "States of the Province". The, the confederal government, were seated in and consisted of representatives of each of the seven provinces. The very thinly populated region of, mainly consisting of poor peatland, was part of the Republic too, although Drenthe was not considered one of the provinces. Drenthe had its own States but the of Drenthe  was appointed by the States-General. The Republic occupied a number of so-called (Generaliteitslanden in Dutch). These territories were governed directly by the States-General, so they did not have a government of their own and they did not have representatives in the States-General. Most of these territories were occupied during the. They were mainly roman-catholic and they were used as a buffer zone between the Republic and the. The Dutch grew to become one of the major seafaring and economic powers of the 17th century during the period of the. In the so-called, colonies and s were established all over the globe. (See )

Many economic historians regard the Netherlands as the first thoroughly country in the world. In early modern Europe it featured the wealthiest trading city and the first full-time. The inventiveness of the traders led to and retirement funds as well as such less benign phenomena as the boom-bust cycle, the world's first asset-inflation bubble, the  of 1636–1637, and according to Murray Sayle, the world's first bear raider - Isaac le Maire, who forced prices down by dumping stock and then buying it back at a discount. The republic went into a state of general decline in the later 18th century, with economic competition from and long standing rivalries between the two main factions in Dutch society, the Staatsgezinden (Republicans) and the Prinsgezinden (Royalists or Orangists) as main factors.

Batavian Republic 1795-1806
On, , a day after  fled to England, the  (Bataafse Republiek in ) was proclaimed. The proclamation of the Batavian Republic introduced the concept of the unitary state in the Netherlands. From 1795 to 1806, the Batavian Republic designated the Netherlands as a modelled after the.

Kingdom of Holland 1806-1810
The 1806 – 1810 (: Koninkrijk Holland, : Royaume de Hollande) was set up by  as a puppet kingdom for his third brother,, in order to control the Netherlands more effectively. The name of the leading province,, was now taken for the whole country. The kingdom of Holland covered the area of present day Netherlands, with the exception of Limburg, and parts of Zeeland, which were French territory. In 1807 Prussian and  were added to the kingdom. In 1809 however, after an English invasion, Holland had to give over all territories south of the river to France.

King Louis Napoleon did not meet Napoleon's expectations - he tried to serve Dutch interests instead of his brother's - and the King had to abdicate on July 1, 1810. He was succeeded by his five year old son. Napoleon Louis reigned as Louis II for just ten days as Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte ignored his young nephew’s accession to the throne. The Emperor sent in an army to invade the country and dissolved the Kingdom of Holland. The Netherlands then became part of the French Empire.

Part of the French Empire 1810-1813
From 1810 to 1813, when Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated in the, the Netherlands were part of the French Empire.

The Netherlands (principality) 1813-1815
In 1795 the last stadtholder fled to England. His son returned to the Netherlands in 1813 to become, Sovereign Prince of the Netherlands. On March 16, 1815 the Sovereign Prince became King of the Netherlands.

Kingdom of the Netherlands


In 1815 the formed the, by expanding the Netherlands with  in order to create a strong country on the northern border of France. In addition, William became hereditary. The Congress of Vienna gave Luxembourg to William personally in exchange for his German possessions,, , and.

Belgium rebelled and gained independence in 1830, while the between  and the Netherlands was severed in 1890, when  died with no surviving male heirs. prevented his daughter  from becoming the next Grand Duchess. Therefore the throne of Luxembourg passed over from the to the, another branch of the.

Colonies
The largest Dutch settlement abroad was the Cape Colony. It was established by Jan van Riebeeck on behalf of the Dutch East India Company at in 1652. The Prince of Orange acquiesced to British occupation and control of the Cape Colony in 1788. The Netherlands also possessed several other colonies, but Dutch settlement in these lands was limited. Most notable were the vast (now ) and  (the latter was traded with the British for, now known as ). These 'colonies' were first administered by the and the, both collective private enterprises. Three centuries later these companies got into financial trouble and the territories in which they operated were taken over by the Dutch government (in 1815 and 1791 respectively). Only then did they become official colonies.

Industrialization
During the 19th century, the Netherlands was slow to industrialise compared to neighbouring countries, mainly due to the great complexity involved in the modernizing of the infrastructure consisting largely of waterways and the great reliance its industry had on windpower.

World War II
The Netherlands remained neutral in World War I and intended to do so in World War II. However, Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands in 1940 in the Western European campaign of the Second World War. The country was quickly overrun and the army main force surrendered on May 14 after the, although a Dutch and French allied force held the province of Zeeland for a short time after the Dutch surrender. The Kingdom as such continued the war from the colonial empire; the resided in London. During the occupation over 100,000 Dutch s were rounded up to be transported to Nazi concentration camps in Germany, Poland and where they were murdered in the. Dutch workers were conscripted for labour in German factories, civilians were killed in reprisal for attacks on German soldiers, and the countryside was plundered for food for German soldiers in the Netherlands and for shipment to Germany. Although there are many stories of Dutch people risking their lives by hiding Jews from the Germans, like in the diary of Anne Frank, there were also Dutch people who collaborated with Nazi occupiers in hunting down and arresting hiding Jews, and some joined the to form the, fighting on the. After a first liberation attempt by the Allied stalled, much of the northern Netherlands was subject to the, caused by the disrupted transportation system, caused by German destruction of dikes to slow allied advances, and German confiscation of much food and livestock made the "Hunger Winter" of 1944-1945 one in which malnutrition and starvation were rife among the Dutch population. German forces held out until the surrender of, , in Wageningen at Hotel De Wereld.

After the war
After the war, the Dutch economy prospered by leaving behind an era of neutrality and gaining closer ties with neighbouring states. The Netherlands became a member of the (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg) cooperation. Furthermore, the Netherlands was among the twelve founding members of the (NATO) and among the six founding members of the, which would later evolve into the.

Government
The Netherlands has been a since 1815 and a  since 1848; before that it had been a  from 1581 to 1806 and a kingdom between 1806 and 1810 (it was part of  between 1810 and 1813). The Netherlands is described as a. Dutch politics and governance are characterized by an effort to achieve broad consensus on important issues, within both the political community and society as a whole. In 2007, ranked The Netherlands as the third.

The is the, at present. Constitutionally the monarch still has considerable powers, but in practice it has become a ceremonial function. The monarch can exert most influence during the of a new cabinet, where he/she serves as neutral arbiter between the political parties.

In practice the is formed by. Because of the no party has ever held a majority in parliament since the 19th century, therefore  have to be formed. The cabinet consists usually of around thirteen to sixteen ministers of which between one and three, and a varying number of. The is the, who is often, but not always, the leader of the largest party in the coalition. In practice the Prime Minister has been the leader of the largest coalition party since 1973. He is a, meaning he has no explicit powers that go beyond those of the other ministers.

The cabinet is to the , the  which also has. The 150 members of the, the are elected in s, which are held every four years or after a cabinet crisis. The are directly elected every four years as well. The members of the provincial assemblies elect the 75 members of the, the , which has less legislative powers, as it can merely reject laws, not propose or amend them.

Both s and s are consulted beforehand in policymaking in the financial, economic and social areas. They meet regularly with government in the. This body advises government and its advice cannot be put aside easily.

While historically the was characterized by, since the  the Netherlands became a member of a large number of international organisations, most prominently the ,  and the. The Dutch economy is very open and relies on.

The Netherlands has a long tradition of. In the 18th century, while the was the,  and  were tolerated. In the late 19th century this Dutch tradition of religious tolerance transformed into a system of, in which religious groups coexisted separately and only interacted at the level of government. This tradition of tolerance is linked to the Dutch policies on, , and , which are among the most liberal in the world.

Since became universal in 1919 the Dutch political system has been dominated by three families of political parties: the strongest family were the  currently represented by the  (CDA), second were the, of which the  (PvdA) is currently the largest party and third were the  of which the  (VVD) is the main representative. These cooperated in coalition cabinets in which the Christian democrats had always been partner: so either a centre left coalition of the Christian democrats and social democrats or a centre right coalition of Christian democrats and liberals. In the 1970s the party system became more volatile: the Christian democratic parties lost seats, while new parties, like the democrat and  , became successful.

In the the CDA lost its dominant position. A "" cabinet was formed by the VVD, D66 and PvdA. In this cabinet lost its majority, due to the rise of, a new political party around the flamboyant populist , who was shot to death a week before the elections took place. The elections also saw increased support for the CDA. A short lived was formed by CDA, VVD and LPF, led by the leader of the Christian democrats,. After the in which the LPF lost almost all its seats, a  was formed by the CDA, the VVD and D66. The cabinet initiated an ambitious program of reforming the, the and  policies.

In June 2006 the cabinet fell, as D66 voted in favour of a motion of no confidence against minister of immigration and integration in the aftermath of the upheaval about the asylum procedure of  instigated by the Dutch immigration minister. A  was formed by CDA and VVD, and  were held on. In these elections the remained the largest party and the  made the largest gains. The started two days after the elections. Initial investigations toward a CDA-SP-PvdA coalition failed, after which a coalition of CDA, PvdA and ChristianUnion was formed.

The results of the elections were:



Administrative divisions
The Netherlands is divided into twelve administrative regions, called s, each under a, who is called Commissaris der Koningin (Commissioner of the Queen), except for the province where the commissioner is called Gouverneur  which underlines the more "non-Dutch" mentality. All provinces are divided into (gemeenten), 458 in total. The country is also subdivided in water districts, governed by a water board (waterschap or hoogheemraadschap), each having authority in matters concerning water management. As of  there are 27. The creation of water boards actually pre-dates that of the nation itself, the first appearing in 1196. In fact, the Dutch water boards are one of the oldest democratic entities in the world still in existence.

Military
Conscription in the Netherlands was suspended in 1996. All military specialities, except the Submarine service and Marine Corps, are open to women. The Dutch Ministry of Defence employs 68,000 personnel, including both civilian and military personnel. The military is composed of four branches, all of which carry the prefix Koninklijke (Royal):


 *  (KL), the Royal Netherlands Army
 *  (KM), the Royal Netherlands Navy, including the Naval Air Service and Marine Corps
 *  (KLu), the Royal Netherlands Air Force
 *  (KMar), the Royal Military Police, tasks include military police and border control

Economy
The Netherlands has a prosperous and in which the government has reduced its role since the 1980s. Industrial activity is predominantly in food-processing (for example and ), chemicals (for example ),  refining (for example ), and electrical machinery (for example ). has one of the largest s in the world, which has so far (2006) resulted in a total revenue of €159 billion since the mid 1970s. still is the largest  world-wide following the global energy-transition of 1963 from coal to gas, coupling oil and gas prices. With just over half of the reserves used up and an expected continued rise in oil prices, the revenues over the next few decades are expected to be at least that much.

The Netherlands has the, and. Between 1998 and 2000 annual economic growth averaged nearly 4%, well above the European average. Growth slowed considerably in 2001-05 due to the global economic slowdown, but the first quarter of 2006 showed promising growth of 2.6%. is 1.3% and is expected to stay low at around 1.5% in the coming years. is at 5.5% of the. By standards however, unemployment in the Netherlands is at only 3.3% - the lowest rate of all  member states. The Netherlands also has a relatively low of 0.326. Despite ranking only 10th in GDP per capita, UNICEF ranked the Netherlands 1st in child well-being, outranking other nations with higher GDP's, such as the United States and the United Kingdom.

Agriculture
A highly mechanised sector employs no more than 4% of the labour force but provides large surpluses for the food-processing industry and for exports. The Dutch rank third worldwide in value of agricultural exports, behind the and, with exports earning $55 billion annually. A significant portion of Dutch agricultural exports are derived from fresh-cut plants, flowers, and bulbs, with the Netherlands exporting two-thirds of the world's total. The Netherlands also exports a quarter of all world tomatoes, and one-third of the world's exports of and cucumbers. The Netherlands' location gives it prime access to markets in the UK and Germany, with the port of Rotterdam being the largest port in Europe. Other important parts of the economy are (Dutch colonialism started with cooperative private enterprises such as the ),  and. The Netherlands successfully addressed the issue of public finances and stagnating job growth long before its European partners.

As a founding member of the, the Netherlands replaced (for accounting purposes) its former , the , on , , along with the other adopters of the single European currency. Actual and  followed on,. In the first years of the third millennium, economic and employment growth came to a standstill, which the government tried to resolve by reducing expenses.

Demographics


The Netherlands is the 23rd country in the world, with 395 inhabitants per square kilometre (1,023 sq mi)&mdash;or 484 people per square kilometre (1,254/sq mi) if only the land area is counted, since 18.4% is water. The fertility rate in the Netherlands is 1.7 children per woman, well below the 2.2 rate required for population replacement. It is also one of the most densely cabled countries in the world. Internet distribution is at 73.3% the 5th highest in the world.

The ethnic origins of the citizens of the Netherlands are diverse. A majority of the population, however, still remains  (although the latter notion is also to be relativized strongly). They were: 80.8%, 2.4% , 2.4% n (Indo-Dutch, ), 2.2% , 2.0% se, 1.9% , 1.5% , 0.8% and n, and 6.0% other. However, this does not include the whole Kingdom of the Netherlands (such as the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba, which have a non-Dutch majority community), and only includes the population in the Netherlands itself. The Netherlands also has a resident population of some 800,000 people of (mixed Dutch and n) descent.

The people of the Netherlands are amongst the tallest in the world, with an average height of about 1.81 metres for adult males and 1.68 m for adult females

Languages
The official language is, which is spoken by a majority of the inhabitants, the exception being some groups of immigrants.

Another official language is, which is spoken in the northern province of , called Fryslân in that language. West Frisian is co-official only in the province of Friesland, although with a few restrictions. Several dialects of (Nedersaksisch in Dutch) are spoken in much of the north and east and are recognised by the Netherlands as regional languages according to the, as well as the   varieties in the southeastern province of , here called  language.



There is a tradition of learning foreign languages in the Netherlands: about 70% of the total population have good knowledge of, 55– 59% of and 19% of.

Religion
The Netherlands is one of the more secular countries in the world, with only 39% being religiously affiliated (31% for those aged under 35), although 62% are believers (but 40% of those not in the traditional sense). Fewer than 20% visit church regularly.

According to the most recent 2005, 34% of Dutch citizens responded that "they believe there is a god", whereas 37% answered that "they believe there is some sort of spirit or life force" and 27% that "they do not believe there is any sort of spirit, god, or life force".

In 1950, before the secularization of Europe, and the large settlement of non-Europeans in the Netherlands, most Dutch citizens identified themselves as Christians. In 1950, out of a total population of almost 13 million, a total of 7,261,000 belonged to Protestant denominations, 3,703,000 belonged to the Roman Catholic Church, and 1,641,000 had no acknowledged religion.

However, Christian schools are still funded by the government and three political parties in the Dutch parliament (CDA, ChristianUnion and SGP) base their policy on the Christian belief system.

Culture
The Netherlands has had many well-known painters. The 17th century, when the Dutch republic was prosperous, was the age of the "Dutch Masters", such as, , , and many others. Famous Dutch of the 19th and 20th century were  and. is a well-known graphics artist. was born and trained in, although he is considered to have reached acclaim as an American artist. was an infamous Dutch.

The Netherlands is the country of philosophers and, and all of ' major work was done there. The Dutch scientist (1629–1695) discovered Saturn's moon Titan and invented the.

In the, flourished as well, with  and  as the two most famous writers. In the 19th century, wrote about the bad treatment of the natives in Dutch colonies. Important 20th century authors include, , , , and. 's was published after she died in  and translated from Dutch to all major languages.

Replicas of Dutch buildings can be found in, ,. A similar Holland Village is being built in,.

s, s, s, cheese and pottery are among the items associated with the Netherlands.

Dutch law takes very liberal stances on such controversial issues as abortion, drugs and euthanasia.