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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 (2008 est.): 16,645,313 (growth
rate: 0.4%); birth rate: 10.5/1000; infant mortality rate: 4.8/1000;
life expectancy: 79.2; density per sq km: 491
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)
National Holiday:
Queen's Day, April 30 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 .
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