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Netherlands
| Kingdom of the Netherlands National name: Koninkrijk der
Nederlanden Sovereign: Queen Beatrix
(1980) Prime Minister: Jan Peter
Balkenende (2002)
Current government officials
Land area: 13,104 sq mi (33,939 sq km);
total area: 16,033 sq mi (41,526 sq km) Population (2007 est.): 16,570,613 (growth
rate: 0.5%); birth rate: 10.7/1000; infant mortality rate: 4.9/1000;
life expectancy: 79.1; density per sq mi: 1,265
Capital and largest city (2003 est.):
Amsterdam (official), 737,900; The Hague
(administrative capital), 465,900 Other large cities: Rotterdam, 600,700;
Utrecht, 263,900; Eindhoven, 206,900 Monetary unit: Euro (formerly guilder)
Languages:
Dutch, Frisian (both official)
Ethnicity/race:
Dutch 83%, other 17% (9% of non-Western origin,
mainly Turks, Moroccans, Antilleans, Surinamese, and Indonesians)
(1999 est.)
Religions:
Roman Catholic 31%, Dutch Reformed 13%,
Calvinist 7%, Islam 6%, none 41% (2002) Literacy rate: 99% (2003 est.) Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2007 est.):
$639.5 billion; per capita $38,500. Real growth rate: 3.5%.
Inflation: 1.6%. Unemployment: 3.2%. Arable land:
22%. Agriculture: grains, potatoes, sugar beets, fruits,
vegetables; livestock. Labor force: 7.5 million; agriculture
2.2%, industry 24%, services 73.8% (2007 est.). Industries:
agroindustries, metal and engineering products, electrical
machinery and equipment, chemicals, petroleum, construction,
microelectronics, fishing. Natural resources: natural gas,
petroleum, arable land. Exports: $465.3 billion f.o.b. (2007
est.): machinery and equipment, chemicals, fuels; foodstuffs.
Imports: $402.4 billion f.o.b. (2007 est.): machinery and
transport equipment, chemicals, fuels, foodstuffs, clothing. Major
trading partners: Germany, Belgium, UK, France, Italy, U.S.,
Russia, China (2006). Communications:
Telephones: main lines in use: 7.6 million (2005); mobile
cellular: 15.834 million (2005). Radio broadcast stations: AM
4, FM 246, shortwave 3 (2004). Radios: 15.3 million (1996).
Television broadcast stations: 21 (plus 26 repeaters) (1995).
Televisions: 8.1 million (1997). Internet Service Providers
(ISPs): 11.17 million (2007). Internet users: 14.544
million (2006). Transportation: Railways:
total: 2,811 km (2006). Highways: total: 34,000 km
(includes 3,270 km of expressways) (2004). Waterways: 6,183 km
(navigable for ships of 50 tons). Ports and harbors: Amsterdam,
Delfzijl, Dordrecht, Eemshaven, Groningen, Haarlem, Ijmuiden,
Maastricht, Rotterdam, Terneuzen, Utrecht, Vlissingen.
Airports: 27 (2007). International
disputes: none.
Major sources and definitions
Netherlands Autonomous Countries
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Geography
The Netherlands, on the coast of the North Sea, is twice the size of
New Jersey. Part of the great plain of north and west Europe, the
Netherlands has maximum dimensions of 190 by 160 mi (360 by 257 km) and is
low and flat except in Limburg in the southeast, where some hills rise up
to 322 m (1056 ft). About half the country's area is below sea level,
making the famous Dutch dikes a requisite for the use of much of the land.
Reclamation of land from the sea through dikes has continued through
recent times. All drainage reaches the North Sea, and the principal
rivers—Rhine, Maas (Meuse), and Schelde—have their sources outside the
country.
Government
Constitutional monarchy.
History
Julius Caesar found the low-lying Netherlands inhabited by Germanic
tribes—the Nervii, Frisii, and Batavi. The Batavi on the Roman frontier
did not submit to Rome's rule until 13 B.C.,
and then only as allies.
The Franks controlled the region from the 4th to the 8th century, and
it became part of Charlemagne's empire in the 8th and 9th centuries. The
area later passed into the hands of Burgundy and the Austrian Hapsburgs
and finally in the 16th century came under Spanish rule.
When Philip II of Spain suppressed political liberties and the growing
Protestant movement in the Netherlands, a revolt led by William of Orange
broke out in 1568. Under the Union of Utrecht (1579), the seven northern
provinces became the United Provinces of the Netherlands. War between the
United Provinces and Spain continued into the 17th century but in 1648
Spain finally recognized Dutch independence.
The Dutch East India Company was established in 1602, and by the end of
the 17th century Holland was one of the great sea and colonial powers of
Europe.
The nation's independence was not completely established until after
the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648), when the country's rise as a commercial
and maritime power began. In 1688, the English parliament invited William
of Orange, stadtholder, and his wife, Mary Stuart, to rule England as
William III and Mary II. William then used the combined resources of
England and the Netherlands to wage war on Louis XIV's France. In 1814,
all the provinces of Holland and Belgium were merged into one kingdom, but
in 1830 the southern provinces broke away to form the kingdom of Belgium.
A liberal constitution was adopted by the Netherlands in 1848. The country
remained neutral during World War I.
In spite of its neutrality in World War I, the Netherlands was invaded
by the Nazis in May 1940, and the Dutch East Indies were later taken by
the Japanese. The nation was liberated in May 1945. In 1948, after a reign
of 50 years, Queen Wilhelmina abdicated and was succeeded by her daughter
Juliana.
In 1949, after a four-year war, the Netherlands granted independence to
the Dutch East Indies, which became the Republic of Indonesia. The
Netherlands also joined NATO that year. The Netherlands joined the
European Economic Community (later, the EU) in 1958. In 1999, it adopted
the single European currency, the euro.
In 1963, it turned over the western half of New Guinea to Indonesia,
ending 300 years of Dutch presence in Asia. Attainment of independence by
Suriname on Nov. 25, 1975, left the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba as the
country's only overseas territories.
The Netherlands has extremely liberal social policies: prostitution is
legal, and it became the first nation in the world to legalize same-sex
marriage (2000) and euthanasia (2002).
Wim Kok's government resigned in April 2002 after a report concluded
that Dutch UN troops failed to prevent a massacre of Bosnian Muslims by
Bosnian Serbs in a UN safe haven near Srebrenica in 1995. Explaining his
action, the popular prime minister said, “The international community is
big and anonymous. We are taking the consequences of the international
community's failure in Srebrenica.”
The country's normally bland political scene was further rocked with
the May 2002 assassination of Pim Fortuyn, a right-wing anti-immigrant
politician. Days later, his party, Lijst Pim Fortuyn, placed second in
national elections, behind Jan Peter Balkenende's Christian Democrats.
Leading the country into a marked shift to the right, Balkenende formed a
three-way center-right coalition government with his Christian Democrats,
Lijst Pim Fortuyn, and the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy.
Balkenende became prime minister in July 2002.
In 2005, just days after French voters rejected the EU constitution in
a referendum, the Netherlands followed suit.
See also Dutch dependencies.
See
also Encyclopedia: The Netherlands
U.S. State Dept. Country Notes:
Netherlands
Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) www.cbs.nl/en .
Information Please® Database, © 2007 Pearson Education,
Inc. All rights reserved.
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