Netherlands geographical facts. Map of Netherlands with cities - World atlas

Official name Kingdom of the Netherlands

Form of government Constitutional monarchy with two legislative bodies (First Chamber and Second Chamber)

Capital Amsterdam; The Hague is the seat of government

Area 41,865 sq km (16,164 sq miles)

Time zone GMT + 1 hour

Population 16,068,000

Projected population 2015 16,420,000

Population density 383.8 per sq km (994.1 per sq mile)

Life expectancy 78.6

Infant mortality (per 1,000) 4.3

Official language Dutch

Other languages Frisian

Literacy rate 99 %

Religions Protestant 35%, Roman Catholic 34 °л Muslim 3%, other 2%, unaffiliated 26%

Ethnic groups Dutch 95.8%, Turkish 1.2%, Moroccan 0.9%, other 2.1 %

Currency Euro

Economy Services 71 %, industry 26%, agriculture 3 %

GNP per capita US$ 26,900

Climate Temperate, with cool winters and mild summers

Highest point Mt Vaalserberg 321 m (1,053 ft) Map reference Page 288

Situated in northwestern Europe, with a western and northern coastline on the North Sea, the Netherlands is bordered by Germany to its east and Belgium to its south. About half the area of this low-lying nation is below sea level and the country is saved from inundation only by a series of coastal dikes and sand dunes, heavily planted with marram grass to prevent erosion, and a com-

plex network of canals and waterways, into which excess water is pumped from low-lying areas and then carried to the rivers that flow to the coast. For centuries the Dutch have been engaged in battle with the sea, and have gradually reclaimed huge amounts of land from it. In the last century more than 3,000 sq km (1,160 sq miles) of land were added. The most spectacular reclamation was the Zuiderzee project that began in 1920 and was completed almost 50 years later. Several polders were created in the former bay, the largest of them being Flevoland and the Noordoostpolder. The newly gained areas are important for settling and economy. They substantially relieve the agglomerations in the south of the country.

In the first century вс the Germanic peoples of the Low Countries, which include present-day Belgium and Luxembourg, were colonized by Roman armies. From the fifth century ad the region came under the successive control of Frankish, Burgundian, Austrian, and finally, in the fifteenth century, Spanish rulers. In 1568, William of Orange, outraged by Spain's suppression of a spreading Protestant movement, led a revolt. In 1581 the seven northern provinces of the Low Countries declared their independence as the United Provinces of the Netherlands.

This set the scene for the consolidation and expansion of Dutch power throughout the seventeenth century. Trading posts and colonies were established in the East Indies (now Indonesia), the Caribbean (the Antilles), Africa, and South and North America. This period also saw the emergence of the Netherlands as a great maritime nation and a blossoming of Dutch art, literature, and scientific achievements.

The French, under Napoleon, invaded in 1794. After the defeat of France, the Congress of Vienna united the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg under a Dutch monarch in 1814. Belgium declared itself independent in 1831 and Luxembourg was granted autonomy in 1848. In 1848 a new constitution was introduced reducing the power of the monarch and investing greater authority in the Estates-General, as the parliament is still called. This laid the groundwork for the later emergence of a parliamentary democracy under a monarch with strictly formalized and limited powers.

The Netherlands remained neutral in the First World War and its neutrality was respected by both sides. In the Second World War it was overrun by Nazi forces in 1940, in blatant breach of interntional law. Its East Indies colonies were invaded by Japan. At the end of the war, the Netherlands began an armed conflict with rebel forces in its East Indies colony. It finally granted them independence, as the Republic of Indonesia, in 1949. Suriname, in South America, became independent in 1975, leaving the Antilles and Aruba as the Netherlands' only overseas territories.

After the Second World War the Netherlands joined the NATO alliance and became one of the founder members of the European Economic Community, later the European Community and then the European Union. In 1992 the Treaty on European Union, the Maastricht Treaty, was signed in the southern Dutch city of Maastricht.