Netherlands

The Netherlands is a country in Europe. More than 16 million people live there. To the north and west of the Netherlands lies the North Sea. To the east is the country Germany and to the south is the country Belgium. The Netherlands were one of the countries that started the European Union. People who live in the Netherlands are called "Dutch".

Name

"The Netherlands" means "the low lands". They are called that way because the land is very flat, and only rises a little bit above the sea level. One third of the land is below sea level. The Netherlands are also sometimes called Holland. Holland was a very rich area in the western part of the Netherlands. Some people who do not live in the western part of the Netherlands do not like it when people call the country Holland. Holland means "wooded land" because the Holland area used to be covered with forests.

History

At the end of the Middle Ages the dukes of Burgundy, a country that is now part of France, united seventeen areas. Those areas were called the Netherlands. When the daughter of a duke married the king of Spain, the Netherlands became part of Spain. In the 16th century many Dutch people became Protestant. The kings of Spain did not like it, they wanted all Dutch to be Roman Catholic. He decided that all protestants should be killed. Of course the Dutch people did not like this, and in 1568 they started a war against Spain. The war lasted until 1648, therefore it is called the Eighty Years' War. An important leader of the Dutch in this war was William the Silent.
Shortly after the war, Indonesia declared its independence. The Dutch sent soldiers to Indonesia. During the war the Dutch realized how it is to be occupied by another country, so some people thought the Dutch should not do the same to the Indonesians. After other countries, including the United States, told the Dutch to leave Indonesia, they finally did so (1949).

After the war the Netherlands became one of the richest countries in the world. In 2004 the United Nations said the Netherlands were the 5th best country to live in.

Geography

In fact a large part of Holland was created by the sand that came from the many rivers flowing through it. Notable Dutch rivers are the Rhine, the Maas, the IJssel and the Scelt. A large part of the Netherlands is below sea level. This is because the Dutch have made many lakes and parts of the sea dry, creating polders. Therefore there is a saying in the Netherlands "God created the earth, except the Netherlands. Because the Netherlands were created by the Dutch themselves." This makes the Netherlands very flat. The highest point in the Netherlands, the Vaalserberg, is 321 metres above sea level.

People

The Netherlands are a small country, but many people live there. It is one of the most densely populated countries of the world.

Most people in the Netherlands speak Dutch. In Friesland about 200,000 people speak Frisian. Frisian is the language with the most similarities to English. Some Dutch people speak dialects. The Saxon dialects spoken in the north eastern part of the Netherlands are somewhat similar to Lower German.

According to a survey done in 2006, 25% of the Dutch people are Christian and 3% believe in an other organised religion, like Judaism, Islam or Hinduism etc. 26% are 'unbounded spiritual' (have their own beliefs and are not tied to a religion). The other 44% are not religious.