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TheNetherlands, informallyHolland, is a country inNorthwestern Europe, withoverseas territories in theCaribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of theKingdom of the Netherlands. The Netherlands consists oftwelve provinces; it bordersGermany to the east andBelgium to the south, with aNorth Sea coastline to the north and west. It sharesmaritime borders with theUnited Kingdom, Germany, and Belgium. The official language isDutch, withWest Frisian as a secondary official language in the province ofFriesland. Dutch,English, andPapiamento are official in theCaribbean territories. People from the Netherlands are referred to asDutch.
The Netherlands has been a parliamentaryconstitutional monarchy with aunitary structure since 1848. The country has a tradition ofpillarisation (separation of citizens into groups by religion and political beliefs) and a long record ofsocial tolerance, having legalisedprostitution andeuthanasia, along with maintaininga liberal drug policy. The Netherlands allowedwomen's suffrage in 1919 and was the first country to legalisesame-sex marriage in 2001. Itsmixed-marketadvanced economy has theeleventh-highest per capita income globally. The Hague holds the seat of theStates General,cabinet, andSupreme Court. ThePort of Rotterdam is thebusiest in Europe.Schiphol is thebusiest airport in the Netherlands, and thefourth busiest in Europe. Being adeveloped country, the Netherlands is a founding member of theEuropean Union,eurozone,G10,NATO,OECD, andWTO, as well as a part of theSchengen Area and the trilateralBenelux Union. It hostsintergovernmental organisations andinternational courts, many of which are in The Hague. (Full article...)




Enchanted by his new homeland of New Netherland, Van der Donck made detailed accounts of the land, vegetation, animals, waterways, topography, and climate. Van der Donck used this knowledge to actively promote immigration to the colony, publishing several tracts, including his influentialDescription of New Netherland. Charles Gehring, Director of theNew Netherland Project, has called it "the fullest account of the province, its geography, the Indians who inhabited it, and its prospects…It has been said that had it not been written inDutch, it would have gone down as one of the great works ofAmerican colonial literature."

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