Netherlands

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Netherlands

Flag Coat of arms
Motto: "Je maintiendrai"  (French)
"Ik zal handhaven"  (Dutch)
"I shall endure"[2]
Anthem: "Het Wilhelmus"


Capital
(and largest city) Amsterdam[3]
05°33′E / 52.317°N 5.55°E / 52.317; 5.55
Official language(s) Dutch[4]
Ethnic groups  80.9% Ethnic Dutch
19.1% various others
Demonym Dutch
Government Parliamentary democracy and Constitutional monarchy
 -  Monarch HM Queen Beatrix
 -  Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende (CDA)
Independence through the Eighty Years' War from the Spanish Empire 
 -  Declared 26 July 1581 
 -  Recognized 30 January 1648[5] 
EU accession 25 March 1957
Area
 -  Total 41,526 km² (135th)
16,033 sq mi 
 -  Water (%) 18.41
Population
 -  2010 estimate 16,597,500[1] (61st)
 -  Density 399.7/km² (28th)
1,035.2/sq mi
GDP (PPP) 2008 estimate
 -  Total $677.490 billion[2] (20th)
 -  Per capita $40,558[2] (9th)
GDP (nominal) 2008 estimate
 -  Total $876.970 billion[2] (16th)
 -  Per capita $52,499[2] (9th)
HDI (2007) ▲ 0.964[3] (very high) (6th)
Currency Euro (€)[6] (EUR)
Time zone CET (UTC+1)
 -  Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2)
Internet TLD .nl[7]
Calling code 31
¹ ^ The literal translation of the motto is "I will maintain," the latter word meaning "to stand firm."
² ^ While Amsterdam is the constitutional capital, The Hague is the seat of the government.
³ ^ West Frisian is an official language in the Province of Friesland. Dutch Low Saxon and Limburgish are officially recognised as regional languages.
⁴ ^ Peace of Westphalia
⁵ ^ Before 2002: Dutch guilder.
⁶ ^ The .eu domain is also used, as it is shared with other European Union member states.

The Netherlands (pronounced /ˈnɛðərləndz/ ( listen); Dutch: Nederland, pronounced [ˈneːdərlɑnt]  ( listen)) is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located in North-West Europe. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east. The capital is Amsterdam and the seat of government is The Hague.

The Netherlands is often called Holland, a pars pro toto, as North and South Holland are actually two of its twelve provinces (see terminology of "the Netherlands"). The word Dutch is used to refer to the people, the language, and anything pertaining to the Netherlands. This lexical difference between the noun and the adjective is a peculiarity of the English language and does not exist in the Dutch language. The adjective 'Dutch' is derived from the language that was spoken in the area, called 'Diets', which equals Middle Dutch.

The Netherlands was one of the first parliamentary democracies. Among other affiliations the country is a founding member of the European Union (EU), NATO, OECD and WTO. With Belgium and Luxembourg it forms the Benelux economic union. The country is host to five international courts: the Permanent Court of Arbitration, the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, the International Criminal Court and the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. The first four are situated in The Hague as is the EU's criminal intelligence agency Europol and judicial co-operation agency Eurojust. This has led to the city being dubbed "the world's legal capital".[4] The Netherlands has a capitalist market-based economy, ranking 15th of 157 countries according to the Index of Economic Freedom.[5]

The Netherlands is a geographically low-lying country, with about 20% of its area and 21% of its population located below sea level[6] with 50% of its land lying less than 1 metre above sea level [7] Significant land area has been gained through land reclamation and preserved through an elaborate system of polders and dikes. Much of the Netherlands is formed by the estuary of three important European rivers, which together with their distributaries form the Rhine-Meuse-Scheldt delta. Most of the country is very flat, with the exception of foothills in the far southeast and several low-hill ranges in the central parts.

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. The Eighty Years' War between the provinces and Spain began in 1568. In 1579, the northern half of the Seventeen Provinces formed the Union of Utrecht, a treaty in which they promised to support each other in their defense against the Spanish army.[8] The Union of Utrecht is seen as the foundation of the modern Netherlands. In 1581 the northern provinces adopted the Act of Abjuration, the declaration of independence in which the provinces officially deposed Philip II of Spain.[9] Queen Elizabeth I of England sympathized with the Dutch struggle against the Spanish, and in 1585 she concluded a treaty with the Dutch whereby she promised to send an English army to the Netherlands to aid the Dutch in their war with the Spanish.[10] In December 1585, 7,600 soldiers were sent to the Netherlands from England under the command of Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester.[11] However, the English army was wasted away in fruitless military campaigns in the Netherlands and had no real effect of helping the Dutch rebellion.[11] Robert Dudley returned to the Netherlands in November 1586 with another army.[12] However, the result was no better than it had been in 1585. Philip II, the son of Charles V, was not prepared to let them go easily, and war continued until 1648, when Spain under King Philip IV finally recognised the independence of the seven northwestern provinces in the Peace of Münster. Parts of the southern provinces became de facto colonies of the new republican-mercantile empire.