Netherlands: Difference between revisions

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The Netherlands literally means ''"lower countries"'' in reference to its low elevation and flat topography, with only about 57% of its land exceeding 1 meter (3ft 3 in) above sea level, and nearly 26% falling below sea level. Most of the areas below sea level, known as polders, are the result of land reclamation that began in the 14th century. Colloquially, the Netherlands is occasionally referred to by the pars ''pro toto Holland''. With a population of 26.4 million people, all living within a total area of roughly (insert square kilometers) —of which the land area is (insert number) square kilometers —the Netherlands is the 10th most densely populated country in the world and the 2nd most densely populated country in Europe, with a density of (insert people per square km). Nevertheless, it is one of the world's largest exporters of agricultural products (in terms of value), owing to its fertile soil, mild climate, intensive agriculture, and strong agriculture-technology sector.
 
The Netherlands has been a parliamentary constitutional monarchy with a unitary structure since 1848. The country has a tradition of pillarisation and a long record of social tolerance, having legalised abortion, prostitution and human euthanasia, along with maintaining a liberal drug policy. The Netherlands abolished the death penalty in Civil Law in 1870, though it was not completely removed until a new constitution was approved in 1983. The Netherlands allowed women's suffrage in 1919, before becoming the world's first country to legalise same-sex marriage in 1983. Its mixed-market advanced economy has one of the highest levels of per capita income in the world. The Netherlands from its inception and well into the modern day is known as a country of freedom where the press is respected, where religions are tolerated and diversity is embraced. This is most notable in the large influx of immigrants from the Dutch East Indies in the 1970s that reshaped the country her demographic forever. The country is sometimes seen as the least European country due its diversity and strange customs compared to the norm. Despite all that nobody can deny that the Netherlands stands at the center of a complex network of a cultural, economic & political sphere that has and to this day is influential far beyond what its size would suggest. Despite its small stature it is thus to this day seen as one of the greater nations and even the world being a leader in many fields and ready for the future.
 
== Etymology ==
The Netherlands' turbulent history and shifts of power resulted in exceptionally many and widely varying names in different languages. There is diversity even within languages. In English, the Netherlands is also called Holland or (part of) the Low Countries, whereas the term ''"Dutch"'' is used as the demonym and adjectival form.
 
=== The Netherlands and the Low Countries ===
The region called the Low Countries (Largely the Netherlands yet the Walloon region of France) and the Country of the Netherlands, have the same toponymy. Place names with ''Neder'', ''Nieder'', ''Nedre'', ''Nether'', ''Lage(r)'' or ''Low(er)'' (in Germanic languages) and ''Bas'' or ''Inferior'' (in Romance languages) are in use in low-lying places all over Europe. They are sometimes used in a deictic relation to a higher ground that consecutively is indicated as ''Super(ior)'', ''Up(per)'', ''Op(per)'', ''Ober'', ''Boven'', ''High'', ''Haut'' or ''Hoch''. In the case of the Low Countries / Netherlands the geographical location of the ''lower'' region has been more or less downstream and near the sea. The geographical location of the upper region, however, changed tremendously over time, depending on the location of the economic and military power governing the Low Countries area. The Romans made a distinction between the Roman provinces of downstream Germania Inferior (nowadays part of Belgium and the Netherlands) and upstream Germania Superior (nowadays part of Germany). The designation 'Low' to refer to the region returns again in the 10th century Duchy of Lower Lorraine, that covered much of the Low Countries. But this time the corresponding ''Upper'' region is Upper Lorraine, in nowadays Northern France.
 
The Dukes of Burgundy, who ruled from their residence in the Low Countries in the 15th century, used the term ''les pays de par deçà'' ("the lands over here") for the Low Countries, as opposed to ''les pays de par delà'' ("the lands over there") for their original homeland: Burgundy in present-day east-central France. Under Habsburg rule, ''Les pays de par deçà'' developed in ''pays d'embas'' ("lands down-here"), a deictic expression in relation to other Habsburg possessions like Hungary and Austria. This was translated as ''Neder-landen'' in contemporary Dutch official documents. From a regional point of view, ''Niderlant'' was also the area between the Meuse and the lower Rhine in the late Middle Ages. The area known as ''Oberland'' (High country) was in this deictic context considered to begin approximately at the nearby higher located Cologne.
 
From the mid-sixteenth century on, the "Low Countries" and the "Netherlands" lost their original deictic meaning. They were probably the most commonly used names, besides Flanders, a ''pars pro toto'' for the Low Countries, especially in Romance language-speaking Europe. The Eighty Years' War (1568–1648) divided the Low Countries into an independent northern Dutch Republic (or Latinised ''Belgica Foederata'', "Federated Netherlands", the precursor state of the Netherlands) and a Spanish controlled Southern Netherlands (Latinised ''Belgica Regia'', "Royal Netherlands", the precursor state of Belgium). The Low Countries today is a designation that includes the countries of the Netherlands and parts of France, although in most Romance languages, the term "Low Countries" is used as the name for the Netherlands specifically.
 
=== Holland ===
The Netherlands is also referred to as Holland in various languages, including English. The region of Holland proper consisted of current Holland province and large parts of Utrecht, currently provinces of the Netherlands. Following the decline of the Duchy of Brabant and the County of Flanders, Holland became the most economically and politically important county in the Low Countries region. The emphasis on Holland during the formation of the Dutch Republic, the Eighty Years' War, and the Anglo-Dutch Wars in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, made Holland serve as a ''pars pro toto'' for the entire country, which is now considered informal or incorrect. Nonetheless, the name "Holland" is still widely used for the Netherlands national football team, including in the Netherlands, and the Dutch government's international websites for tourism and trade are "holland.com" and "hollandtradeandinvest.com". In 2020, however, the Dutch government announced that it would only communicate and advertise under the name "the Netherlands" in the future.
 
=== Dutch ===
The term Dutch is used as the demonymic and adjectival form of the Netherlands in the English language. The origins of the word go back to Proto-Germanic ''*þiudiskaz'', Latinised into Theodiscus, meaning "popular" or "of the people"; akin to Old Dutch ''Dietsch'', Old High German ''duitsch'', and Old English ''þeodisc'', all meaning "(of) the common (Germanic) people". At first, the English language used (the contemporary form of) Dutch to refer to any or all speakers of West Germanic languages (e.g. the Dutch, the Frisians, and the Germans). Gradually its meaning shifted to the West Germanic people they had most contact with, because of their geographical proximity and for the rivalry in trade and overseas territories. The derivative of the Proto-Germanic word ''*þiudiskaz'' in modern Dutch, ''Diets'', can be found in Dutch literature as a poetic name for the Dutch people or language, but is considered very archaic. Although it had a short resurgence after World War II to avoid the reference to Germany. It is still used in the expression "diets maken" – to put it straight to him/her (as in a threat) or, more neutral, to make it clear, understandable, explain, say in the people's language (cf. the Vulgate (Bible not in Greek or Hebrew, but Latin; the folks' language) in meaning vulgar, though not in a pejorative sense).
 
 
== History ==
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