Encyclopedia
The Netherlands is the
European part of the
Kingdom of the Netherlands , which is formed by the Netherlands, the
Netherlands Antilles and
Aruba. The Netherlands is a
constitutional monarchy, located in northwestern
Europe. It is bordered by the
North Sea to the north and west,
Belgium to the south, and
Germany to the east. The current borders were established in 1839.
The Netherlands is often referred to by the name
Holland. This is not terminologically precise, since the provinces of North and South Holland in the western Netherlands are only two of the country's twelve provinces.
The Netherlands is a
densely populated and geographically low-lying country and is popularly known for its windmills, clogs , dikes,
tulips,
bicycles, social
tolerance. Its policies are
liberal towards
drugs,
prostitution,
same-sex marriage,
abortion and
euthanasia. The country is host to the
International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, the
International Court of Justice and the
International Criminal Court at
The Hague.
Capital
Amsterdam is the capital city , and
The Hague is the Netherlands' seat of government , the home of the monarch , and the location of most foreign embassies.
History
Under
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, and king of
Spain, the region was part of the
Seventeen Provinces of the Netherlands, which also included most of present-day
Belgium,
Luxembourg, and some land of
France and
Germany. 1568 saw the start of the
Eighty Years' War between the provinces and Spain. In 1579, the northern half of the Seventeen Provinces declared itself independent from Spain, and they formed the
Union of Utrecht, which is seen as the foundation of the modern Netherlands.
Philip II, the son of
Charles V, was not prepared to let them go that easily and war continued until 1648 when Spain finally recognised Dutch independence.
Republic
After gaining formal independence from the
Spanish Empire under
King Philip IV, the Dutch grew to become one of the major seafaring and economic powers of the 17th century during the period of the
Republic of the Seven United Netherlands. In the era, referred to as the
Dutch Golden Age, colonies and trading posts were established all over the globe.
Many economic historians regard the Netherlands as the first thoroughly
capitalist country in the world. In early modern Europe it featured the wealthiest trading city and the first full-time
stock exchange. The inventiveness of the traders led to insurance and retirement funds as well as such less benign phenomena as the boom-bust cycle, the world's first asset-inflation bubble, the
tulip mania 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
Kingdom
After briefly being incorporated in the
First French Empire under
Napoleon, the Kingdom of the Netherlands was formed in 1815, consisting of the present day Netherlands,
Belgium and
Luxembourg. In addition, the king of the Netherlands became hereditary Grand Duke of Luxembourg. Belgium rebelled and gained independence in 1830, while the personal union between
Luxembourg and the Netherlands was severed in 1890 as a result of ascendancy laws which prevented
Queen Wilhelmina from becoming Grand Duke.
The Netherlands possessed several colonies, most notably the
Dutch East Indies and
Suriname . These 'colonies' were first administered by the
Dutch East India Company and the Dutch West India Company, 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 . Only then did they become official colonies.
During the 19th century, the Netherlands was slow to industrialise compared to neighbouring countries, mainly due to its unique infrastructure of waterways and reliance on wind power. 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. Subsequently the Netherlands joined the Anglo-French alliance, asking them for help. The country was quickly overrun and surrendered after the
bombing of Rotterdam. although a British expeditionary force held Zeeland for a while. During the occupation over 100,000 Dutch
Jews were murdered in the
Holocaust along with significant numbers of Dutch
Roma . The allied 21st Army Group was given the task to conduct military operations to liberate The Netherlands after the breakout from
Normandy. British, Canadian, Polish and American soldiers fought on Dutch soil beginning in September 1944 culminating in the operation
Market-Garden. Allied focus now shifted to the German heartland and the country was only liberated on 5 May 1945 . The disrupted infrastructure, due to allied advances, and German confiscation of many goods made the winter of 1944-1945 one in which malnutrition and starvation were rife among the Dutch population.
From Benelux to EU
After the war, the Dutch economy prospered by, after leaving behind an era of neutrality, thorough bonding with neighbouring states. The Netherlands became member of the
Benelux cooperation. Furthermore, the Netherlands was among the twelve founding members of the
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and among the six founding members of the
European Coal and Steel Community, which would later evolve into the
European Union.
Naming conventions
Various terms have been used in English to refer to the Netherlands and its inhabitants.
' Netherlands' is the official name of the European part of the 'Kingdom of the Netherlands'. The term '
Holland' is commonly used as a synonym for the Netherlands, but the word Holland derives from a region in the west of the country , which has long been most economically powerfull part of the country. The prominece of this region meant that the whole country is often known as 'Holland' all over the world. The country's
people and
language are called 'Dutch'. To add yet another layer of confusion, the word Dutch formerly meant the same as
German in English usage, a fact which must be borne in mind when reading older literature, and also accounts for the name Pennsylvania Dutch, whose ancestral origins are in Southern Germany and not near The Netherlands at all.
The term '
Low Countries' is used sometimes to refer to the Netherlands, but technically it refers to a bigger region in Western Europe, including Belgium, Luxembourg and a part of France.
To address this confusion some solutions have been proposed, for instance, in linguistics, the term
Netherlandic has been coined.
Trivia
The name of
New Zealand has a Dutch origin as it was named after the Dutch province 'Zeeland'.
Politics
The Netherlands has been a
parliamentary democracy since 1848 and a constitutional monarchy since 1815; before that it had been a
republic from 1581 to 1806 and a kingdom between 1806 and 1810 . The
head of state is the monarch . The monarch has today in practice a mainly ceremonial function but the constitution allows for the exertion of real power, should the responsible ministers subordinate themselves; an open conflict between them and the monarch — whose signature is needed for any law or warrant to come into effect — would lead to a constitutional crisis .
Coalition Governments
Dutch governments have since the 19th century always consisted of a coalition, as there was not a single political party large enough to get the majority vote. Formally, the monarch appoints the members of the government. In practice, once the results of parliamentary elections are known, a coalition government is formed , after which the government formed in this way is officially appointed by the monarch. The head of the government is the
Prime Minister, in Dutch
Minister President or
Premier, a primus inter pares who is usually also the leader of the largest party in the coalition. The degree of influence the monarch has on actual government formation is a topic of ongoing speculation.
Parliament
The parliament consists of two houses. The 150 members of the Lower House are elected every four years in direct elections. The provincial assemblies are directly elected every four years as well. The members of the provincial assemblies elect every two years a third of the members of the less important Senate , that can merely reject laws, not propose or amend them. Together, the First and Second Chamber are known as the
Staten-Generaal, the States General.
On February 7, 2006, the
Second Chamber introduced the right of citizens' initiative at the national level.
'Polder Model'
Political scientists consider the Netherlands to be a classic example of a consociational state, traditionally explained by the necessity since the early Middle Ages for different social groups to cooperate in order to fight the water. Better founded hypotheses include a partial failing of
feodalisation and the successful resistance against absolutism. This system of reaching an agreement despite differences is called the polder model in Dutch. Also, the Netherlands has long been a nation of traders, dominated by a freethinking bourgeoisie and for international trade one has to be
tolerant of an other person's culture; at home, despite
calvinism being till the 19th century the
state religion, there was in practice much
religious tolerance shown towards
Catholics and
Jews. Nevertheless Catholics were practically not allowed to hold government functions until the
19th century and in regards to Catholic, but also Jewish, church buildings, Protestant restrictions were observed. Until the middle of the
19th century Catholics were rarely allowed to build new churches which were visibly Catholic. The Netherlands tried between 1839 and 1940 to be a neutral country in most international affairs and thus managed to keep out of
World War I . As a result, the Dutch have a 'friendly' reputation in other countries, to the point that bearers of a Dutch passport often have relatively little difficulty getting into other countries, for visits or even for emigration purposes.
Populism
However, the early years of the 21st century have seen a political upheaval, most clearly illustrated by the quick rise and fall of the LPF.
Pim Fortuyn, its founder, gained massive support by his populist views that previous cabinets were responsible for many problems, noticably the presumed failing integration of immigrants. Just before the election of 2002 he was murdered by an environmentalist activist, the first political murder in roughly 400 years. The elections, which sent the Netherlands into a period of political chaos, were concluded in the emotional aftermath.
Present
The present government is led by the minority cabinet Balkenende III, a short-term continuation of Balkenende II without the smallest coalition party,
D66. Elections are planned for November 22, 2006.
Balkenende II's economic reforms and immigration policies had resulted in a shift in public opinion to the left, showing from political polls and the 2006 municipal elections, in which the government coalition parties faced great losses in favour of the opposition parties, mainly the Labour Party and the Socialist Party . Following the controversial decisions of minister
Verdonk regarding the legal status of immigrant politician
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Dutch cabinet went into crisis on June 29, 2006. Jan-Peter Balkenende presented his temporary minority cabinet to the Queen on July 7.
On June 1, 2005, the Dutch electorate voted in a referendum against the proposed
EU Constitution by a majority of 61.6%, three days after the French had also voted against.
Dutch policies on recreational drugs,
prostitution,
same-sex marriage and
euthanasia are among the most liberal in the world.
Administrative divisions
The Netherlands is divided into twelve administrative regions, called provinces, each under a Governor, who is called
Commissaris van de Koningin , except for the province Limburg where the commissioner is called Gouverneur which underlines the more "non-Dutch" mentality.
- Fryslân - north west; capital and largest city Leeuwarden
- Groningen - north east; capital and largest city Groningen
- Drenthe - south of Groningen; capital Assen
...
, largest city Emmen
- Overijssel - east central, south of Drenthe; capital Zwolle, largest city Enschede
- Glanerbrug [i]
- Lonneker [i]
...
...
...
All provinces are divided into municipalities , 458 in total .
The country is also subdivided in water districts, governed by a water board , each having authority in matters concerning water management. As of 1 January 2005 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.
Geography
A remarkable aspect of the Netherlands is the flatness of the country. Hilly landscapes can be found only in the central part and the south-eastern tip of the country.
Below sea level
About half of its surface area is less than 1 metre above
sea level, and large parts of it are actually below sea level. An extensive range of dykes and
dunes protects these areas from flooding. Numerous massive pumping stations keep the ground water level in check. The highest point, the
Vaalserberg, in the south-eastern most point of the country, is 321 metres above sea level. The
Vaalserberg is a foothill of the
Ardennes mountains. A substantial part of the Netherlands, for example, all of the province of
Flevoland and large parts of
Holland, has been reclaimed from the sea. These areas are known as
polders. This has led to the saying "God created the world, but the Dutch created the Netherlands."
Floods
In years past, the Dutch coastline has changed considerably due to human intervention and natural disasters. Most notable in terms of land loss are the 1134 storm, which created the
archipelago of Zeeland in the south west, and the 1287 storm, which killed 50,000 people and created the
Zuyderzee in the northwest, giving Amsterdam direct access to the sea. The St. Elizabeth flood of 1421 and the mismanagement in its aftermath destroyed a newly reclaimed polder, replacing it with the 72 square kilometres
Biesbosch tidal floodplains in the south-centre. The most recent parts of Zeeland were flooded during the North Sea Flood of 1953 and 1,836 people were killed, after which the
Delta Plan was executed.
The disasters were partially man-made; the people drained relatively high lying swampland for use as farmland. This drainage caused the fertile
peat 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 vicious circle is unsolvable and remains to this day. 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 defenses 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 dikes. In the 12th century, local government agencies called
"waterschappen" or
"hoogheemraadschappen" started to appear, whose job it was to maintain the water level and to protect a region from floods. As the ground level dropped, the dikes by necessity grew and merged into an integrated system. In the 13th century, windmills came into use to pump water out of the areas by now below sea level. The windmills were later used to drain lakes, creating the famous
polders. In 1932, the
Afsluitdijk was completed, blocking the former
Zuyderzee off from the North Sea and thus creating the
IJsselmeer . It became part of the larger
Zuiderzee Works in which four polders totalling 1,650 square kilometres were reclaimed from the sea.
Delta Works
After the 1953 disaster, the
Delta project, 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 Holland to once per 10,000 years. This was achieved by raising 3,000 kilometres of outer sea-dikes and 10,000 kilometres of inner, canal, and river dikes to "delta" height, and by closing off the sea
estuaries of the Zeeland province. New risk assessments occasionally incur additional Delta project work in the form of dike reinforcements. The Delta project is
the single largest construction effort in human history and is considered by the American Society of Civil Engineers as one of the
seven wonders of the modern world.
Because of the high cost of maintaining the polders some have argued that maybe some of the deepest polders should be given up. Additionally, the Netherlands is one of the countries that may suffer most from
climatic change. Not only is the rising sea a problem, but also erratic weather patterns may cause the rivers to overflow. These flooded polders might then be used as water catchments to take part of the blow.
Rivers
The country is divided into two main parts by three rivers
Rhine ,
Waal, and
Meuse . The south-western part of the Netherlands is actually one big
river delta of these rivers. These rivers not only function as a natural barrier, but also as a cultural divide, as is evident in the different dialects spoken north and south of these great rivers and the religious dominance of Catholics in the south and Calvinists in the north.
The predominant wind direction in the Netherlands is south-west, which causes a moderate maritime climate, with cool summers and mild winters.
Economy
The Netherlands has a prosperous and open economy in which the government has reduced its role since the 1980s. Industrial activity is predominantly in food-processing , chemicals ,
petroleum refining , and electrical machinery . Slochteren has one of the largest
natural gas fields in the world, which has so far resulted in a total revenue of €159 billion since the mid 1970s. 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.
Third in worldwide agricultural exports
A highly mechanised
agricultural 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
US and
France, with exports earning $46 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 peppers 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 international trade ,
banking and
transport.The Netherlands successfully addressed the issue of public finances and stagnating job growth long before its European partners.
As a founding member of the
Euro, the Netherlands replaced its former currency, the
guilder, on January 1 1999 along with the other adopters of the single European currency, with the actual
Euro coins and
banknotes following on January 1, 2002. However, in the first years of the third millennium, economic and employment growth came to a standstill, which the government tried to resolve by cutting into its expenses.
16th largest economy
At this moment the Netherlands is the 16th largest economy of the world. Between 1998 and 2000 annual economic growth averaged nearly 4%, well above the European average. Growth slowed considerably in 2001-05 as part of the global economic slowdown, but the first quarter of 2006 showed a promising 2.6%. Inflation is 1.3% and is expected to stay low at around 1.5% in the coming years. According to the definition used by the Dutch Statistics Agency CBS,
unemployment is at 5.5% of the labor force. By Eurostat standards however, unemployment in the Netherlands is at only 3.8% - the lowest rate of a
