Portal:Netherlands
Welcome to the Netherlands Portal
Welkom bij het Nederlandportaal!
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The Netherlands (Dutch: Nederland [ˈneːdərlɑnt] ⓘ), informally Holland, is a country located in northwestern Europe with overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The Netherlands consists of twelve provinces; it borders Germany to the east, and Belgium to the south, with a North Sea coastline to the north and west. It also has a border with France on the split island of Saint Martin in the Caribbean. It shares maritime borders with the United Kingdom, Germany and Belgium. The official language is Dutch, with West Frisian as a secondary official language in the province of Friesland. Dutch, English and Papiamento are official in the Caribbean territories.
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 prostitution and euthanasia, along with maintaining a liberal drug policy. The Netherlands allowed women's suffrage in 1919 and was the first country to legalise same-sex marriage in 2001. Its mixed-market advanced economy has the thirteenth-highest per capita income globally. The Hague holds the seat of the States General, Cabinet and Supreme Court. The Port of Rotterdam is the busiest seaport in Europe. Schiphol is the busiest airport in the Netherlands, and the fourth busiest in Europe. The Netherlands is a founding member of the European Union, Eurozone, G10, NATO, OECD, and WTO, as well as a part 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. (Full article...)
Selected biography
Did you know (auto-generated)

- ... that Iskaq Tjokrohadisurjo decided against working for the Dutch colonial government because he was treated well in the Netherlands?
- ... that former Dutch rugby union player Sylke Haverkorn served as head coach of the Turkey women's national team before securing the same position at her country's women's national team?
- ... that Sungai Selan hosted the first Catholic mission under the Dutch East Indies outside of Java?
- ... that five years after Ihsan Gürz died while in Dutch police custody, his father was convicted of swearing at a police officer who had been present at his arrest?
- ... that during World War II, Helena Kuipers-Rietberg helped create a national underground network that supported Dutch Jews, downed airmen, and people conscripted for forced labor in Nazi Germany?
- ... that some of the most celebrated Dutch Golden Age artists who worked in glass engraving were women?
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