The Netherlands, small country, big deeds

The Netherlands is located in North West Europe. It is located on the North Sea and borders Germany on the east and Belgium on the south. The Netherlands is divided into 12 provinces. The Netherlands has an area of over 41,000 km2. The area of the Netherlands has grown in recent years due to reclamation. Yet the Netherlands is one of the most densely populated areas in the world. The Netherlands became an independent country after the 80 Years War and is one of the oldest kingdoms. NB! This article is written from the personal view of the author and may contain information that is not scientifically substantiated and/or in line with the general view.

Dutch flag

Monarchy

In the Netherlands we have a constitutional monarchy. It is a kingdom, but the functions of the king or queen are gradually becoming fewer and fewer. What is celebrated every year by the Dutch is King’s Day.

The House of Representatives is elected once every four years, after which a new government is formed. Together with the Senate, the House of Representatives forms the parliament. On the one hand, the Dutch Constitution is quite complicated, but it is very clear for those who understand it.

This is what the Netherlands would look like if there were no dikes. The area in blue is below NAP. Nieuw Amsterdams Peil / Source: Jan Arkesteijn, Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

Polderland

The Netherlands is located in a river delta. The Meuse, Rhine and Scheldt flow into the sea in the Netherlands. The Dutch are very good at managing water flows. A large part of the Netherlands is below sea level. Land reclamation began at the end of the Middle Ages. After the polder mill was invented, water was sucked from a lake. The first polder mill was installed in 1407. The reclamation took place as follows: first dikes were built around a pool of water. The water can then no longer flow away and water can no longer flow in within this piece of land. The water surrounded by dikes was pumped empty using mills that stood on a dike. The dikes were then made stronger and the dry land was cultivated. For example, the Dutch structured the river delta into agricultural areas and residential areas. The phenomenon of polders is taught in schools worldwide.

Delta Works

In 1953 there was a major flood disaster in Zeeland. 1800 people died. This disaster set politicians in motion to start the delta works. Spectacular exponents of the delta works are the storm surge barriers Oosterscheldekering and the Maeslantkering. The delta works were devised before the flood disaster by Johan van Veen. The disaster significantly accelerated construction. The main idea behind this barrier is that the land is protected but not closed off with sea dikes. Shipping is still possible. The Oosterscheldedam closes during a major storm. The arm of the Scheldt that goes to Antwerp is never closed because Antwerp is an important port city. The sea dikes along the Scheldt have been considerably raised.

The Dutch colony in the US / Source: Nicolaes Visscher, Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

Colonial past

The Netherlands was much larger a few hundred years ago. It had colonies in North America, South America, Africa, Asia and Oceania. The Netherlands is currently tiny and has little international presence on the political stage. In the 17th century, on the other hand, the Netherlands was the largest world power on earth for 100 years. An important condition for this was the invention of the sawmill, which made the Dutch the first to saw wood mechanically. This made it possible to build up a shipping fleet more quickly. During its colonial period, the Netherlands was not so much interested in gaining territory but more in conducting trade. The Netherlands sold its American colonies for next to nothing, but was then able to continue trading with American plantation owners. The Netherlands has left traces all over the world in the form of architecture, culture and folk customs. The Dutch diaspora in the US is clearly present in the form of language and culture. Thousands of American words come from Dutch. The Dutch diaspora can be found all over the world.

Distance colonies

After the Second World War, the Netherlands relinquished its colonies. The way in which this happened was not always neat. Suriname was abandoned quite suddenly because Dutch politicians no longer had much support for a colony. But the Surinamese would have preferred to remain Dutch at that time and slowly prepare for independence. Until 1963, the Dutch were active in the colony of Dutch New Guinea. West Papua was guided towards a process of independence, but the Netherlands, under political pressure from the US, abandoned that path and placed it in the lap of Indonesia. As a result, West Papua has become a wing of Indonesia and the Indonesians in West Papua have committed more atrocities in 50 years than the Dutch have committed in 300 years of global colonial history. Indonesia was a colony called the Dutch East Indies and became independent after World War II. Nationalists saw their opportunity when they realized that the Netherlands, weakened by the war, had to help itself up. The Netherlands wanted to start another war against the nationalist separatists. On the advice of Prince Bernhard, Dutch soldiers who had fought for the Germans had been sent to Indonesia. The Dutch soldiers who had fought for the enemy were not welcomed with open arms in the Netherlands and a deployment to the Dutch East Indies would have to straighten out their ties with the enemy. This administrative error has led to a number of unpleasant incidents in which Indonesians have been brutally murdered. The Dutch ex-Nazis were no sweethearts. What is consistently forgotten in the Netherlands is that at that time the Indonesian nationalists committed several much greater war crimes against the Japanese and Dutch for which they were never punished. For example, Indonesian nationalists executed Japanese soldiers while they were already in captivity. Even the Japanese had not been that cruel towards the Dutch.

After WW2

After the Second World War a period of reconstruction began. Everyone had work. Many Dutch people emigrated to Canada or New Zealand. This led to many Dutch influences appearing in Canada. There were too few people to fill all the vacancies. When you left school, you had a job the next day. For some professions for which there were too few people, such as teaching, students did not have to undergo military service. Due to the shortage of workers, Italians, Spaniards, Moroccans and Turks in the Netherlands began to be employed as guest workers. The idea of a guest worker was that he would return to his country of origin. However, that rarely happened. Politics approved what happened to the entire family. This made the Netherlands much more hospitable than other countries. In the 1970s and 1980s, the Netherlands took pride in its tolerance.

Tolerance and the coffee shops

The tolerance also concerned the soft drugs policy. The Netherlands was the first country in the world to tolerate coffee shops so that soft drug users were not dependent on dealers who also offered hard drugs. The cultivation of cannabis has not been legalized, but the existence of coffee shops has been; this is called tolerance policy.

Where a small country can be great

Objective outsiders see the Netherlands as a small country that is great in many matters. The Netherlands is a relatively good sporting country. The Dutch national team regularly performs very well at football tournaments. Another area where the Dutch distinguish themselves is innovative science. Discoveries of world importance are regularly made in the Netherlands. The Netherlands is a small country, but thanks to high-quality technology it can still be self-sufficient. The greenhouses in the west produce many more tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and other products than the Dutch can eat themselves. The Netherlands is a real export country.

The Netherlands is famous for its dance and trance DJs. These are requested worldwide. The Netherlands produces many cut flowers. The Netherlands annually sponsors the Pope by offering flowers during his speeches. The whole world knows Dutch cheese.

The markets of Amsterdam
A day out in Amsterdam
Afrikaans, sister language of Dutch