![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/04\/Netherlands-on-the-Globe-300x252.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>The four largest cities in the Netherlands are Amsterdam<\/a>, Rotterdam<\/a>, The Hague<\/a> and Utrecht<\/a>. 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, and the busiest in any country outside East Asia and Southeast Asia, behind only China and Singapore. Amsterdam Airport Schiphol is the busiest airport in the Netherlands, and the third busiest in Europe. The country is a founding member of the EU<\/a>, Eurozone<\/a>, G10<\/a>, NATO<\/a>, OECD<\/a> and WTO<\/a>, as well as a part of the Schengen Area<\/a> and the trilateral Benelux Union<\/a>. It hosts several intergovernmental organizations and international courts, many of which are centered in The Hague, which is consequently dubbed ‘the world’s legal capital’.<\/p>\n Netherlands literally means “lower countries” in reference to its low elevation and flat topography, with only about 50% of its land exceeding 1 meter (3 ft 3 in) above sea level, and nearly 26% falling below sea level. Most of the areas below sea level, known as polders<\/a>, are the result of land reclamation that began in the 14th century<\/a>. With a population of 17.4 million people, all living within a total area of roughly 41,800 square kilometers (16,100 sq mi)\u2014of which the land area is 33,500 square kilometers (12,900 sq mi)\u2014the Netherlands is the 12th most densely populated country in the world and the 2nd most densely populated country in the European Union, with a density of 521 per square kilometer (1,350\/sq mi). Nevertheless, it is the world’s second-largest exporter of food and agricultural products, owing to its fertile soil, mild climate, intensive agriculture and inventiveness.<\/p>\n The Netherlands has been a parliamentary constitutional monarchy with a unitary structure since 1848. The country has a tradition of pillarization and a long record of social tolerance, having legalized 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 legalize 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 indexes of press freedom, economic freedom, human development and quality of life, as well as happiness. In 2019, it ranked tenth on the human development index and fifth on the 2019 World Happiness Index.<\/p>\n 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<\/a>) traces were found in higher soils, near Maastricht<\/a>, from what is believed to be about 250,000 years ago.<\/p>\n The area that is now the Netherlands would be home to numerous successive groups, tribes, and other hunter-gatherer cultures well into the Bronze Age<\/a>.<\/p>\n Iron ore brought a measure of prosperity and was available throughout the country, including bog iron<\/a>. Smiths travelled from settlement to settlement with bronze and iron, fabricating tools on demand. The King’s grave of Oss (700 BC)<\/a> was found in a burial mound, the largest of its kind in western Europe and containing an iron sword with an inlay of gold and coral.<\/p>\n The deteriorating climate in Scandinavia around 850 BC further deteriorated around 650 BC and might have 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.<\/p>\n During the Gallic Wars,<\/a> the area south and west of the Rhine<\/a> was conquered by Roman forces under Julius Caesar<\/a> from 57 BC to 53 BC. Caesar describes two main Celtic tribes living in what is now the southern Netherlands: the Menapii<\/a> and the Eburones<\/a>. The Rhine became fixed as Rome’s northern frontier around 12 AD.<\/p>\n After Roman government in the area collapsed, the Franks expanded their territories in numerous kingdoms. By the 490s, Clovis I<\/a> had conquered and united all these territories in the southern Netherlands in one Frankish kingdom<\/a>, and from there continued his conquests into Gaul<\/a>.<\/p>\n To the north of the Franks, climatic conditions improved, and during the Migration Period<\/a> Saxons<\/a>, the closely related Angles<\/a>, Jutes<\/a> and Frisii<\/a> settled the coastal land. By the seventh century a Frisian Kingdom<\/a> (650\u2013734) under King Aldegisel<\/a> and King Redbad<\/a> emerged with Utrecht as its center of power, while Dorestad<\/a> was a flourishing trading place.<\/p>\n In 734, at the Battle of the Boarn<\/a>, the Frisians were defeated by the Franks after a series of wars<\/a>. With the approval of the Franks, the Anglo-Saxon missionary Willibrord<\/a> converted the Frisian people to Christianity.<\/p>\n The Frankish Carolingian<\/a> empire modeled itself after the Roman Empire and controlled much of Western Europe. However, as of 843, it was divided into three parts\u2014East<\/a>, Middle<\/a>, and West<\/a> Francia. Most of present-day Netherlands became part of Middle Francia, which was a weak kingdom and subject of numerous partitions and annexation attempts by its stronger neighbors.<\/p>\n Around 1000 AD, due to several agricultural developments, the economy started to develop at a fast pace, and the higher productivity allowed workers to farm more land or to become tradesmen. Towns grew around monasteries and castles, and a mercantile middle class began to develop in these urban areas, especially in Flanders and later also Brabant. Wealthy cities started to buy certain privileges for themselves from the sovereign. In practice, this meant that Bruges<\/a> and Antwerp<\/a> became quasi-independent republics in their own right and would later develop into some of the most important cities and ports in Europe.<\/p>\n Around 1100 AD, farmers from Flanders<\/a> and Utrecht began draining and cultivating uninhabited swampy land in the western Netherlands, making the emergence of the County of Holland as the center of power possible. The title of Count of Holland<\/a> was fought over in the Hook and Cod Wars <\/a>between 1350 and 1490. The Cod faction consisted of the more progressive cities, while the Hook faction consisted of the conservative noblemen. These noblemen invited the Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy<\/a> \u2014 who was also Count of Flanders \u2014 to conquer Holland.<\/p>\n Most of the Imperial and French fiefs in what is now the Netherlands and Belgium were united in a personal union by Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy<\/a> in 1433. The House of Valois-Burgundy<\/a> and their Habsburg<\/a> heirs would rule the Low Countries in the period from 1384 to 1581. Before the Burgundian union, the Dutch identified themselves by the town they lived in or their local duchy or county. The Burgundian period is when the road to nationhood began. The new rulers defended Dutch trading interests, which then developed rapidly. The fleets of the County of Holland defeated the fleets of the Hanseatic League<\/a> several times. Amsterdam grew and in the 15th century became the primary trading port in Europe for grain from the Baltic region<\/a>. Amsterdam distributed grain to the major cities of Belgium, Northern France and England. This trade was vital because Holland could no longer produce enough grain to feed itself. Land drainage had caused the peat<\/a> of the former wetlands to reduce to a level that was too low for drainage to be maintained.<\/p>\n Under Habsburg Charles V, ruler of the Holy Roman Empire<\/a> and King of Spain<\/a>, all fiefs in the current Netherlands region were united into the Seventeen Provinces<\/a>, which also included most of present-day Belgium, Luxembourg, and some adjacent land in what is now France and Germany. In 1568, under Phillip II, the Eighty Years’ War<\/a> between the Provinces and their Spanish ruler began.<\/p>\n The Spanish fought bitterly to hold on to control of the Netherlands, committing atrocities in the process. The struggle raged until 1648, when Spain under King Philip IV finally recognized the independence of the seven north-western provinces in the Peace of M\u00fcnster<\/a>. Parts of the southern provinces became de facto colonies of the new republican-mercantile empire.<\/p>\n After declaring their independence, the provinces of Holland<\/a>, Zeeland<\/a>, Groningen<\/a>, Friesland<\/a>, Utrecht<\/a>, Overijssel<\/a>, and Gelderland<\/a> formed a confederation. All these duchies, lordships and counties were autonomous and had their own government, the States-Provincial. The States General, the confederal government, were seated in The Hague and consisted of representatives from each of the seven provinces.<\/p>\n In the Dutch Golden Age<\/a>, spanning much of the 17th century, the Dutch Empire<\/a> grew to become one of the major seafaring and economic powers, alongside Portugal, Spain, France and England. Science, military, and art (especially painting) were among the most acclaimed in the world. By 1650, the Dutch owned 16,000 merchant ships. The Dutch East India Company<\/a> and the Dutch West India Company<\/a> established colonies and trading posts all over the world, including ruling the northern parts of Taiwan<\/a> between 1624\u20131662 and 1664\u20131667. The Dutch settlement in North America<\/a> began with the founding of New Amsterdam<\/a> on the southern part of Manhattan in 1614. In South Africa, the Dutch settled the Cape Colony<\/a> in 1652. Dutch colonies in South America<\/a> were established along the many rivers in the fertile Guyana<\/a> plains, among them Colony of Surinam (now Suriname<\/a>). In Asia, the Dutch established the Dutch East Indies<\/a> (now Indonesia), and the only western trading post in Japan, Dejima<\/a>.<\/p>\n With the armed support of revolutionary France, Dutch republicans proclaimed the Batavian Republic<\/a>, modelled after the French Republic and rendering the Netherlands a unitary state on 19 January 1795. The stadtholder William V of Orange<\/a> had fled to England. But from 1806 to 1810, the Kingdom of Holland<\/a> was set up by Napoleon Bonaparte<\/a> as a puppet kingdom governed by his brother Louis Bonaparte<\/a> to control the Netherlands more effectively. However, King Louis Bonaparte tried to serve Dutch interests instead of his brother’s, and he was forced to abdicate on 1 July 1810. The Emperor sent in an army and the Netherlands became part of the French Empire until the autumn of 1813 when Napoleon was defeated in the Battle of Leipzig<\/a>.<\/p>\n William Frederick<\/a>, son of the last stadtholder, returned to the Netherlands in 1813 and proclaimed himself Sovereign Prince of the Netherlands. Two years later, the Congress of Vienna<\/a> added the southern Netherlands to the north to create a strong country on the northern border of France. William Frederick raised this United Netherlands<\/a> to the status of a kingdom and proclaimed himself as King William I in 1815.<\/p>\n The Netherlands were able to remain neutral during World War I, in part because the import of goods through the Netherlands proved essential to German survival until the blockade by the British Royal Navy in 1916. That changed in World War II, when Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands<\/a> on 10 May 1940. The Rotterdam Blitz<\/a> forced the main element of the Dutch army to surrender four days later. During the occupation, over 100,000 Dutch Jews were rounded up and transported to Nazi extermination camps; only a few of them survived. Dutch workers were conscripted for forced labor in Germany, civilians who resisted<\/a> were killed in reprisal for attacks on German soldiers, and the countryside was plundered for food. Although there were thousands of Dutch who risked their lives by hiding Jews from the Germans, over 20,000 Dutch fascists joined the Waffen SS<\/a>, fighting on the Eastern Front<\/a>. Political collaborators were members of the fascist NSB<\/a>, the only legal political party in the occupied Netherlands. On 8 December 1941, the Dutch government-in-exile in London declared war on Japan, but could not prevent the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia)<\/a>. In 1944\u201345, the First Canadian Army, which included Canadian, British and Polish troops, was responsible for liberating much of the Netherlands. Soon after VE Day, the Dutch fought a colonial war against the new Republic of Indonesia<\/a>.<\/p>\n In 1954, the Charter for the Kingdom of the Netherlands reformed the political structure of the Netherlands, which was a result of international pressure to carry out decolonization. The Dutch colonies of Surinam and Cura\u00e7ao<\/a> and Dependencies and the European country all became countries within the Kingdom, on a basis of equality. Indonesia had declared its independence in August 1945 (recognized in 1949), and thus was never part of the reformed Kingdom. Suriname followed in 1975. After the war, the Netherlands left behind an era of neutrality and gained closer ties with neighboring states. The Netherlands was one of the founding members of the Benelux, the NATO, Euratom<\/a> and the European Coal and Steel Community<\/a>, which would evolve into the EEC (Common Market)<\/a> and later the European Union.<\/p>\n Government-encouraged emigration efforts to reduce population density prompted some 500,000 Dutch people to leave the country after the war. The 1960s and 1970s were a time of great social and cultural change, such as rapid de-pillarization<\/a> characterized by the decay of the old divisions along political and religious lines. Youths, and students in particular, rejected traditional mores and pushed for change in matters such as women’s rights, sexuality, disarmament and environmental issues. In 2002, the euro was introduced as fiat money and in 2010, the Netherlands Antilles<\/a> was dissolved. Referendums were held on each island to determine their future status. As a result, the islands of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba (the BES islands) were to obtain closer ties with the Netherlands. This led to the incorporation of these three islands into the country of the Netherlands as special municipalities upon the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles. The special municipalities are collectively known as the Caribbean Netherlands.<\/p>\n According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, the European Netherlands has a total area of 41,545 km2 (16,041 sq mi), including water bodies; and a land area of 33,481 km2 (12,927 sq mi). The Caribbean Netherlands has a total area of 328 km2 (127 sq mi).<\/p>\n The Netherlands is geographically very low relative to sea level and is considered a flat country, with about 26% of its area and 21% of its population located below sea level, and only about 50% of its land exceeding one meter above sea level. The European part of the country is for the most part flat, with the exception of foothills in the far southeast, up to a height of no more than 321 meters, and some low hill ranges in the central parts. Most of the areas below sea level are man-made, caused by peat extraction or achieved through land reclamation. Since the late 16th century, large polder areas are preserved through elaborate drainage systems that include dikes, canals and pumping stations. Nearly 17% of the country’s land area is reclaimed from the sea and from lakes.<\/p>\n Much of the country was originally formed by the estuaries of three large European rivers: the Rhine (Rijn), the Meuse<\/a> (Maas) and the Scheldt<\/a> (Schelde), as well as their tributaries. The south-western part of the Netherlands is to this day a river delta of these three rivers, the Rhine-Meuse-Scheldt delta<\/a>.<\/p>\n The European Netherlands is divided into north and south parts by the Rhine, the Waal<\/a>, its main tributary branch, and the Meuse. In the past, these rivers functioned as a natural barrier between fiefdoms and hence historically created a cultural divide, as is evident in some phonetic traits that are recognizable on either side of what the Dutch call their “Great Rivers” (de Grote Rivieren). Another significant branch of the Rhine, the IJssel<\/a> river, discharges into Lake IJssel<\/a>, the former Zuiderzee<\/a> (‘southern sea’). Just like the previous, this river forms a linguistic divide: people to the northeast of this river speak Dutch Low Saxon dialects (except for the province of Friesland, which has its own language).<\/p>\n The Netherlands has a developed economy and has been playing a special role in the European economy for many centuries. Since the 16th century, shipping, fishing, agriculture, trade, and banking have been leading sectors of the Dutch economy. The Netherlands has a high level of economic freedom.<\/p>\n As of 2020, the key trading partners of the Netherlands were Germany, Belgium, the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Italy, China and Russia. The Netherlands is one of the world’s 10 leading exporting countries. Foodstuffs form the largest industrial sector. Other major industries include chemicals, metallurgy, machinery, electrical goods, trade, services and tourism. Examples of international Dutch companies operating in Netherlands include Randstad<\/a>, Unilever<\/a>, Heineken<\/a>, KLM<\/a>, financial services (ING<\/a>, ABN AMRO<\/a>, Rabobank<\/a>), chemicals (DSM<\/a>, AKZO<\/a>), petroleum refining (Royal Dutch Shell<\/a>), electronical machinery (Philips<\/a>, ASML<\/a>), and satellite navigation (TomTom<\/a>).<\/p>\n The Dutch location gives it prime access to markets in the UK and Germany, with the Port of Rotterdam being the largest port in Europe. Other important parts of the economy are international trade (Dutch colonialism started with co-operative private enterprises such as the Dutch East India Company), banking and transport. The Netherlands successfully addressed the issue of public finances and stagnating job growth long before its European partners. Amsterdam is the 5th-busiest tourist destination in Europe with more than 4.2 million international visitors. Since the enlargement of the EU large numbers of migrant workers have arrived in the Netherlands from Central and Eastern Europe.<\/p>\n With a total road network of 139,295 km, which includes 2,758 km of expressways, the Netherlands has one of the densest road networks in the world\u2014much denser than Germany and France, but still not as dense as Belgium.<\/p>\n As part of its commitment to environmental sustainability, the Government of the Netherlands initiated a plan to establish over 200 recharging stations for electric vehicles across the country. The rollout will be undertaken by Switzerland-based power and automation company ABB<\/a> and Dutch startup Fastned<\/a>, and will aim to provide at least one station within a 50-kilometre radius (30 miles) from every home in the Netherlands.<\/p>\n About 13% of all distance is travelled by public transport, the majority of which by train. Like in many other European countries, the Dutch rail network of 3,013 km route is also rather dense. The network is mostly focused on passenger rail services and connects all major towns and cities, with over 400 stations. Trains are frequent, with two trains per hour on lesser lines, two to four trains per hour on average, and up to eight trains an hour on the busiest lines. The Dutch national train network also includes the HSL-Zuid<\/a>, a high-speed line between the Amsterdam metropolitan area and the Belgian border for trains running from Paris and London to the Netherlands.<\/p>\n Cycling is a ubiquitous mode of transport in the Netherlands. Almost as many kilometers are covered by bicycle as by train. The Dutch are estimated to have at least 18 million bicycles, which makes more than one per capita, and twice as many as the circa 9 million motor vehicles on the road. In 2013, the European Cyclists’ Federation<\/a> ranked both the Netherlands and Denmark<\/a> as the most bike-friendly countries in Europe, but more of the Dutch (36%) than of the Danes (23%) list the bike as their most frequent mode of transport on a typical day. Cycling infrastructure is comprehensive. Busy roads have received some 35,000 km of dedicated cycle tracks, physically segregated from motorized traffic. Busy junctions are often equipped with bicycle-specific traffic lights. There are large bicycle parking facilities, particularly in city centers and at train stations.<\/p>\n The Port of Rotterdam<\/a> is the largest port in Europe, with the rivers Meuse and Rhine providing excellent access to the hinterland upstream reaching to Basel<\/a>, Switzerland, and into Germany and France. As of 2013, Rotterdam was the world’s eighth largest container port handling 440.5 million metric tons of cargo annually. The port’s main activities are petrochemical industries and general cargo handling and transshipment. The harbor functions as an important transit point for bulk materials and between the European continent and overseas. From Rotterdam goods are transported by ship, river barge, train or road. The Volkeraksluizen between Rotterdam and Antwerp are the biggest sluices for inland navigation in the world in terms of tonnage passing through them.<\/p>\n Schiphol Airport<\/a>, just southwest of Amsterdam, is the main international airport in the Netherlands, and the third busiest airport in Europe in terms of passengers. Schiphol is the main hub for KLM, the nation’s flag carrier and the world’s oldest airline. In 2016, the Royal Schiphol Group<\/a> airports handled 70 million passengers. Smaller international airports in the country include Eindhoven Airport<\/a>, Maastricht Aachen Airport<\/a> and Groningen Airport Eelde.<\/a><\/p>\n The flag of the Netherlands is a horizontal tricolour of red, white, and blue.<\/p>\n The current design originates as a variant of the late 16th century orange-white-blue Prinsenvlag (“Prince’s Flag”), evolving in the early 17th century as the red-white-blue Statenvlag (“States Flag”), the naval flag of the States-General of the Dutch Republic, making the Dutch flag perhaps the oldest tricolour flag in continuous use. It has inspired the Russian<\/a> and French<\/a> flags. During the economic crisis of 1930s the old Prince’s Flag with the colour orange gained some popularity among some people. To end the confusion, the colours red, white and blue and its official status as the national flag of the Kingdom of the Netherlands were reaffirmed by royal decree on 19 February 1937.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The flag of the Netherlands is a horizontal tricolour of red, white, and blue. The current design originates as a variant of the late 16th century orange-white-blue Prinsenvlag (“Prince’s Flag”), evolving in the early 17th century as the red-white-blue Statenvlag (“States Flag”), the naval flag of the States-General of the Dutch Republic, making the Dutch flag perhaps the oldest tricolour flag in continuous use. It has inspired the Russian and French flags. During the economic crisis of 1930s the old Prince’s Flag with the colour orange gained some popularity among some people. To end the confusion, the colours red, white and blue and its official status as the national flag of the Kingdom of the Netherlands were reaffirmed by royal decree on 19 February 1937.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7830,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[66,59,26,5,6,7,60],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7645"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7645\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/04\/Aerial-View-of-Flevopolder-the-Netherlands-212x300.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>History:<\/h2>\n
Prehistory (before 800 BC):<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/04\/Oak-Figurine-Found-in-Willemstad-4500-BC-168x300.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Celts, Germanic Tribes and Romans (800 BC\u2013410 AD):<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/04\/Reconstruction-of-a-Menapian-Dwelling-at-Destelbergen.-300x225.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Early Middle Ages (411\u20131000):<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/04\/Frisian-Kingdom-291x300.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>High Middle Ages (1000\u20131384):<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/04\/Philip-the-Good-211x300.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Burgundian, Habsburg and Spanish Habsburg Netherlands (1384\u20131581):<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/04\/William-I-Prince-of-Orange-Leader-of-the-Dutch-Revolt-217x300.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Dutch Republic (1581\u20131795):<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/04\/Map-of-the-Dutch-Empire-300x139.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Batavian Republic and Kingdom (1795\u20131890):<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/04\/King-William-I-199x300.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>World Wars and Beyond (1890\u2013present):<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/04\/Rotterdam-After-German-Air-Raids-300x227.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/04\/5-Former-and-Current-Prime-Ministers-300x211.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Geography:<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/04\/Relief-Map-of-the-Netherlands-262x300.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/04\/Map-of-the-Delta-300x244.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Economy:<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/04\/Treemap-of-Netherlands-Exports-300x300.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Transportation:<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/04\/A1-Motorway-in-Gelderland-300x225.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/04\/Regional-Train-300x169.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Flag of the Netherlands:<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/04\/Flag-of-the-Netherlands-300x200.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>