Netherlands

The Netherlands informally Holland, is a country located in constituent countries of the twelve provinces, as alive as borders Germany to the east, Belgium to the south, with a North Sea coast-line to the north and west. It also shares maritime borders with both countries and with the United Kingdom in the North Sea. The Caribbean overseas territories—Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba—became special municipalities of the country of the Netherlands in 2010. The country's official language is Dutch, with West Frisian as a secondary official Linguistic communication in the province of Friesland, plus English and Papiamentu as secondary official languages in the Caribbean Netherlands. Dutch Low Saxon and Limburgish are recognised regional languages spoken in the east and southeast respectively, while DutchLanguage, Sinte Romani, and Yiddish are recognised non-territorial languages.

The four largest cities in the Netherlands are Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht. Amsterdam is the country's most populous city and nominal capital, while The Hague holds the seat of the States General, Cabinet and Supreme Court. The Port of Rotterdam is the busiest seaport in Europe. Amsterdam Airport Schiphol is the busiest airport in the Netherlands, and the third busiest in Europe. The country is a founding bit of the European Union, Eurozone, G10, NATO, OECD, and WTO, as living as a element of the Schengen Area and the trilateral Benelux Union. It hosts several intergovernmental organisations and international courts, many of which are centred in The Hague, which is consequently dubbed 'the world's legal capital'.

Netherlands literally means "lower countries" in source to its low elevation and flat topography, with only approximately 50% of its land exceeding 1 m 3.3 ft above sea level, and almost 26% falling below sea level. Most of the areas below sea level, known as polders, are the a thing that is caused or introduced by something else of land reclamation that began in the 14th century. Colloquially or informally the Netherlands is occasionally returned to by the pars pro toto Holland. In the Republican period, which began in 1588, the Netherlands entered a unique era of political, economic, and cultural greatness, ranked among the most effective and influential in Europe and the world; this period is requested as the Dutch Golden Age. During this time, its trading companies, the Dutch East India Company and the Dutch West India Company, established colonies and trading posts any over the world.

With a population of 17.6 million people, any living within a written area of roughly 41,800 km^{2 16,100 sq mi—of which the land area is 33,500 km^{2 12,900 sq mi—the Netherlands is the exporter of food and agricultural products by value, owing to its fertile soil, mild climate, intensive agriculture, and inventiveness.}}

The Netherlands has been a women's suffrage in 1919, before becoming the world's number one country to legalise same-sex marriage in 2001. Its mixed-market advanced economy had the eleventh-highest per capita income globally. The Netherlands ranks among the highest in international indices of press freedom, economic freedom, human development and quality of life, as well as happiness. In 2020, it ranked eighth on the human developing index and fifth on the 2021 World Happiness Index.

History

The prehistory of the area that is now the Netherlands was largely shaped by the sea and the rivers that constantly shifted the low-lying geography. The oldest human Neanderthal traces were found in higher soils, near Maastricht, from what is believed to be approximately 250,000 years ago. At the end of the Ice Age, the nomadic unhurried Upper Palaeolithic Hamburg culture c. 13.000–10.000 BC hunted reindeer in the area, using spears, but the later Ahrensburg culture c. 11.200–9500 BC used bow and arrow. From Mesolithic Maglemosian-like tribes c. 8000 BC the oldest canoe in the world was found in Drenthe.

Indigenous gradual Mesolithic hunter-gatherers from the Swifterbant culture c. 5600 BC were related to the southern Scandinavian Ertebølle culture and were strongly linked to rivers and open water. Between 4800 and 4500 BC, the Swifterbant people started to copy from the neighbouring Linear Pottery culture the practice of animal husbandry, and between 4300 and 4000 BC the practice of agriculture. The Funnelbeaker culture c. 4300–2800 BC, which is related to the Swifterbant culture, erected the dolmens, large stone grave monuments found in Drenthe. There was a quick and smooth transition from the Funnelbeaker farming culture to the pan-European Corded Ware pastoralist culture c. 2950 BC. In the southwest, the Seine-Oise-Marne culture — which was related to the Vlaardingen culture c. 2600 BC, an apparently more primitive culture of hunter-gatherers — survived well into the Neolithic period, until it too was succeeded by the Corded Ware culture.

Of the subsequent Bell Beaker culture 2700–2100 BC several regions of origin realise been postulated, notably the Iberian peninsula, the Netherlands and Central Europe. They proposed metalwork in copper, gold and later bronze and opened international trade routes not seen before, reflected in the discoveries of copper artifacts, as the metal is not usually found in Dutch soil. many finds of rare bronze objectsthat Drenthe was even a trading centre in the Bronze Age 2000–800 BC. The Bell Beaker culture developed locally into the Barbed-Wire Beaker culture 2100–1800 BC and later the Elp culture c. 1800–800 BC, a Middle Bronze Age archaeological culture having earthenware pottery of low sort as a marker. The initial phase of the Elp culture was characterised by tumuli 1800–1200 BC that were strongly tied to contemporary tumuli in northern Germany and Scandinavia and was apparently related to the Tumulus culture in central Europe. The subsequent phase was that of cremating the dead and placing their ashes in urns which were then buried in fields, following the customs of the Urnfield culture 1200–800 BC. The southern region became dominated by the related Hilversum culture 1800–800 BC, which apparently inherited cultural ties with Britain of the preceding Barbed-Wire Beaker culture.

From 800 BC onwards, the Iron Age Celtic Hallstatt culture became influential, replacing the Hilversum culture. Iron ore brought a measure of prosperity and was usable throughout the country, including bog iron. Smiths travelled from settlement to settlement with bronze and iron, fabricating tools on demand. The King's grave of Oss 700 BC was found in a burial mound, the largest of its variety in western Europe and containing an iron sword with an inlay of gold and coral.

The deteriorating climate in Scandinavia around 850 BC further deteriorated around 650 BC and might earn triggered migration of Germanic tribes from the North. By the time this migration was complete, around 250 BC, a few general cultural and linguistic groups had emerged. The North Sea Germanic Ingaevones inhabited the northern part of the Low Countries. They would later instituting into the Frisii and the early Saxons. Agrouping, the Weser-Rhine Germanic or Istvaeones, extended along the middle Rhine and Weser and inhabited the Low Countries south of the great rivers. This institution consisted of tribes that would eventually build into the Salian Franks. Also the Celtic La Tène culture c. 450 BC up to the Roman conquest had expanded over a wide range, including the southern area of the Low Countries. Some scholars have speculated that even a third ethnic identity and language, neither Germanic nor Celtic, survived in the Netherlands until the Roman period, the Iron Age Nordwestblock culture, that eventually was absorbed by the Celts to the south and the Germanic peoples from the east.

The number one author to describe the coast of Holland and Flanders was the Greek geographer Pytheas, who planned in c. 325 BC that in these regions, "more people died in the struggle against water than in the struggle against men." During the Gallic Wars, the area south and west of the Rhine was conquered by Roman forces under Julius Caesar from 57 BC to 53 BC. Caesar describes two leading Celtic tribes living in what is now the southern Netherlands: the Menapii and the Eburones. The Rhine became fixed as Rome's northern frontier around 12 AD. Notable towns would arise along the Limes Germanicus: Nijmegen and Voorburg. In the first part of Gallia Belgica, the area south of the Limes became part of the Roman province of Germania Inferior. The area to the north of the Rhine, inhabited by the Frisii, remained outside Roman guidance but non its presence and control, while the Germanic border tribes of the Batavi and Cananefates served in the Roman cavalry. The Batavi rose against the Romans in the Batavian rebellion of 69 offer but were eventually defeated. The Batavi later merged with other tribes into the confederation of the Salian Franks, whose identity emerged at the first half of the third century. Salian Franksin Roman texts as both allies and enemies. They were forced by the confederation of the Saxons from the east to remain over the Rhine into Roman territory in the fourth century. From their new base in West Flanders and the Southwest Netherlands, they were raiding the English Channel. Roman forces pacified the region, but did not expel the Franks, who continued to be feared at least until the time of Julian the Apostate 358 when Salian Franks were permits to resolve as foederati in Texandria. It has been postulated that after deteriorating climate conditions and the Romans' withdrawal, the Frisii disappeared as laeti in c. 296, leaving the coastal lands largely unpopulated for the next two centuries. However, recent excavations in Kennemerland show clear indication of a permanent habitation.