Netherlands - nĕthˈərləndz, Dut. Nederland or Koninkrijk der Nederlanden, officially Kingdom of the Netherlands, constitutional monarchy (1994 est. pop. 15,341,600), 15,963 sq mi (41,344 sq km), NW Europe. It is bounded by the North Sea on the north and west, by Belgium on the south, and by Germany on the east. It is popularly known as Holland. Amsterdam is the constitutional capital; The Hague is the administrative and governmental capital. The kingdom includes two overseas territories, the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba in the Caribbean Sea. Both are self-governing parts of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Land and People

The Netherlands has 12 provinces: Zeeland, South Holland, North Holland, Friesland, and Groningen, all of which border on the North Sea; and North Brabant, Limburg, Utrecht, Gelderland, Overijssel, Drenthe, and Flevoland. The country is mostly low-lying. About 40% of it is situated below sea level and comprises territory (mostly in the western part of the country) reclaimed from the sea since the 13th cent. and guarded by dunes and dikes. The land is crossed by drainage canals, and the main rivers, the Scheldt, Maas (Fr., Meuse), IJssel, Waal, and Lower Rhine, are canalized and interconnected by artificial waterways, linked with the river and canal systems of Belgium and Germany. The Scheldt estuary includes the former islands of Walcheren, North Beveland, and South Beveland. The West Frisian Islands are located off the northern coast of the Netherlands.

The Netherlands is extremely densely populated. The maritime provinces include many of the famous cities of the Netherlands—Amsterdam and Rotterdam (the chief ports) and The Hague, Leiden, Delft, Utrecht, Dordrecht, Schiedam, and Vlissingen (Flushing). In addition, Alkmaar, Gouda, and Edam are internationally known as cheese markets, and Haarlem is the center of the flower-raising district. The inland provinces have generally poor and sandy soil. Leading cities include Breda, 's Hertogenbosch, Eindhoven, and Tilburg in North Brabant; Maastricht and Heerlen in Limburg; and Arnhem and Nijmegen in Gelderland.

Linguistic conformity to Dutch, the official language, is complete except in Friesland, where Frisian is spoken in places. After the Netherlands obtained independence in the late 16th cent., it became largely Protestant. By the mid-1990s, however, Roman Catholics, concentrated in the southern provinces, made up the largest religious group (33%), while 25% were Protestant. Muslims are a small but growing minority; almost 40% of the population claims no religious affiliation. The archbishop of Utrecht is the Roman Catholic primate of the Netherlands.

The country's principal public universities are at Leiden, Utrecht, Groningen, Rotterdam, and Amsterdam. There are also Catholic universities at Nijmegen and Tilburg and a Calvinist university at Amsterdam. Specialized higher education is offered by Erasmus Univ., technical schools at Delft, Eindhoven, and Enschede, and by the schools of economics at Rotterdam and Tilburg.

Economy

The Netherlands is heavily industrialized. The chief manufactures are textiles, electrical machinery, electronics, transport equipment, iron and steel, refined petroleum, ships, processed foods, plastics, and chemicals. Agriculture is specialized, mechanized, and efficient, and yields per acre are high. Dairy farming is also important and the country is known for its cheese industry. Cattle and poultry are raised. The major crops are truck-farm commodities, beets, and potatoes; relatively little grain is raised. Horticultural production (especially bulbs) and fishing are also important. The country's few natural resources include coal, natural gas, and petroleum.

A considerable amount of the country's wealth is contributed annually by financial and transportation services. Amsterdam is one of the world's major financial centers, and Rotterdam is one of the world's busiest ports. The Dutch merchant marine is well developed, and tourism is a substantial industry. The Netherlands has a large foreign trade; the main exports are machinery, textiles, petroleum products, fruits and vegetables, and meat. The Netherlands belongs to the European Union and numerous regional and global economic organizations.

Government

The Netherlands is a constitutional monarchy. Executive power rests formally with the crown and in practice with the premier and the cabinet. Legislative power is vested in the bicameral States-General. The deliberative upper, or first, chamber is elected by the 12 provincial estates, and the more powerful lower, or second, chamber is chosen by direct universal suffrage. The royal succession is settled on the house of Orange (see Nassau), which adheres to the Dutch Reformed Church.

History

The Rise of the Netherlands

One of the Low Countries, the Netherlands did not have a unified history until the late 15th cent. The region west of the Rhine formed part of the Roman province of Lower Germany and was inhabited by the Batavi; to the east of the Rhine were the Frisians. Nearly the entire area was taken (4th–8th cent.) by the Franks, and with the breakup of the Carolingian empire, most of it passed (9th cent.) to the east Frankish (i.e., German) kingdom and thus to the Holy Roman Empire.

The counts of Holland emerged as the most powerful medieval lords of the region, next to their southern neighbors, the dukes of Brabant and the counts of Flanders. In the 14th and 15th cent., Flanders, Holland, Zeeland, Gelderland, and Brabant passed to the powerful dukes of Burgundy, who controlled virtually all the Low Countries. Though the Dutch towns and ports were slower in economic development than the flourishing commercial and industrial centers of Flanders and Brabant, they began to rival them in the 15th cent. They nearly all belonged to the Hanseatic League and enjoyed vast autonomous privileges.

In 1477, Mary of Burgundy by the Great Privilege restored all the liberties deprived by her predecessors. Her marriage to the Archduke Maximilian (later Emperor Maximilian I) brought the Low Countries into the house of Hapsburg. Emperor Charles V gave them (1555) to his son Philip II of Spain. By that time the northern provinces (i.e., the present Netherlands) had reached economic prosperity.

Revolt in the Netherlands

The inroads of Calvinism were helping to distinguish the Low Countries from Catholic Spain; the nobles, supported by many of the people for economic and religious reasons, demanded greater autonomy for the provinces in addition to the removal of Spanish officials. Philip's attempt, first through Cardinal Granvelle and then through the duke of Alba, to introduce the Spanish Inquisition and reduce the Low Countries to a Spanish province met determined opposition from among all classes of the population—Catholics and Protestants alike.

The struggle for the Low Countries' independence began (1562–66) in Flanders and Brabant. The northern provinces, under the leadership of William the Silent, prince of Orange, succeeded (1572–74) in expelling the Spanish garrisons. The Low Countries united under William in their struggle against Spain in the Pacification of Ghent (1576).

Alessandro Farnese, who in 1578 succeeded John of Austria as Spanish governor, reconquered the southern provinces, which remained in Spanish possession (see Netherlands, Austrian and Spanish) and were gradually reconverted to Catholicism. The river barriers were crucial in protecting the rebellion and the Protestant religion of the north. The seven northern provinces—Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Gelderland, Overijssel, Friesland, and Groningen—formed (1579) the Union of Utrecht and declared (1581) their independence.

William the Silent, assassinated in 1584, was succeeded as stadtholder (chief of state) by his son, Maurice of Nassau, who was at first guided by Johan van Oldenbarneveldt. An English expedition under Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester, to aid the Dutch against Farnese was ineffectual; later Maurice won important successes, and in 1609 a 12-year truce was concluded with Spinola, the Spanish commander.

The United Provinces

Fighting with Spain was resumed in the Thirty Years War (1618–48), after which the independence of the United Provinces—as the independent Netherlands was then called—was recognized in the Peace of Westphalia (1648). Spain also ceded North Brabant, with Breda, and part of Limburg, with Maastricht. Still struggling for independence and involved in religious contention between Calvinists and Remonstrants, the Dutch laid the foundation of their commercial and colonial empire.

The Dutch East India Company (see East India Company, Dutch) was founded in 1602, the Dutch West India Company in 1621. The decline of Antwerp under Spanish rule and the right (awarded to the Dutch in the Peace of Westphalia) to control the Scheldt estuary gave supremacy to the Dutch ports, particularly Amsterdam. Dutch merchants traded in every continent (including exclusive privileges in Japan), and captured the major share of the world's carrying trade. The United Provinces opened their doors to religious refugees, notably to Portuguese and Spanish Jews and to French Huguenots, which contributed vastly to the prosperity of 17th-century Holland.

With material wealth came a cultural golden age. Rembrandt, Vermeer, Jacob van Ruisdael, Frans Hals, and others carried Dutch art to its peak. The Univ. of Leiden won world acclaim; the philosophers Descartes and Spinoza and the jurist Grotius were active in the United Provinces.

Prince Frederick Henry, who had succeeded his brother Maurice in 1625 as stadtholder, was in turn succeeded by his son, Prince William II, in 1647. His death in 1650 signaled the opponents of the house of Orange to reassert the rights of the provinces and the States-General. Jan de Witt, the