Portal:Netherlands
Welcome to the Netherlands Portal
Welkom bij het Nederlandportaal!
The Netherlands, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the 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 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 (separation of citizens into groups by religion and political beliefs) 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 eleventh-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 in Europe. Schiphol is the busiest airport in the Netherlands, and the fourth busiest in Europe. Being a developed country, 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 intergovernmental organisations and international courts, many of which are in The Hague. (Full article...)
Selected biography
Various media outlets have noted him as a rising star in Dutch football, being named Dutch Football Talent of the Year and Ajax "Player of the year" in 2006. Due to his goal-scoring ability he has earned the nickname "The Hunter", a play on his last name. He was a part of the Dutch side that won the 2006 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship, where he became the tournament's leading goal-scorer. He was also named in the UEFA Team of the Tournament. He is the all-time highest goal-scorer for the Netherlands U21 squad with 18 goals in 22 matches. In domestic football he was Eredivisie's top scorer in the 2005–06 season with 33 goals in 31 games. He also became the top scorer in the 2007–08 season with 33 goals in 34 appearances.
Did you know (auto-generated)
- ... that Tobie Goedewaagen, a minister under the Nazi occupation government, fled the Netherlands with his belongings in a bedspread?
- ... that Dutch rabbi Meijer de Hond, who grew up in poverty, was known as the Volksrebbe ('people's rabbi') for his popularity among the Jewish poor of Amsterdam?
- ... that the 1961 Indonesian census was the country's first since 1930 and the first since gaining independence from the Netherlands?
- ... that despite losing almost one thousand men capturing Malacca in 1641, the Dutch East India Company did not invest much time or energy into it afterward?
- ... that Femke is the most common feminine given name of West Frisian origin in the Netherlands?
- ... that Dutch designer Sabine Marcelis was a semi-professional snowboarder in New Zealand before she decided to pursue a career in the arts?
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