Transcript Kingdom of the Netherlandscountry of heritage and future.

Kingdom of the Netherlands
country of heritage and future.
The Kingdom of the Netherlands is a state with
territory in Western Europe (the Netherlands)
and in the Caribbean (Aruba and the
Netherlands Antilles).
The Netherlands borders the North
Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the
south, and Germany to the east. The capital
is Amsterdam and the seat of government
is The Hague.
The Netherlands is a geographically
low-lying country, with about 27% of
its area and 60% of its population
located below sea level.
The Netherlands is a densely populated country well
known for its traditional values and civil virtues such
as its social tolerance.
The Netherlands has one of the most free
market capitalist economies in the world, ranking
12th of 157 countries according to the Index of
Economic Freedom.
The Netherlands has been a constitutional
monarchy since 1815 and a parliamentary
democracy since 1848.
Stereotypes about Netherlands:
windmills, tulips, clogs, delftware, Gouda
cheese, visual artists, bicycles, polders and
canals.
(1) Groningen
(2) Friesland
(3) Drenthe
(4) Overijssel
(5) Gelderland
(6) Utrecht
(7) Noord-Holland
(8) Zuid-Holland
(9) Zeeland
(10) Noord-Brabant
(11) Limburg
(12) Flevoland
in the past:
The Dutch Republic grew to
become one of the major
seafaring and economic powers
of the 17th century during
so-called Dutch Golden Age.
nowadays:
Rotterdam has the largest port in
Europe with the rivers Meuse and
Rhine providing excellent access to
the hinterland upstream reaching to
Basel, Switzerland and into France.
in the past:
By the 13th century, windmills
had come into use in order to
pump water out of areas below
sea level. The windmills were later
used to drain lakes, creating the
famous polders.
nowadays:
Windmills are still in use today.
These modern windmills are used
to generate electricity in an
environmentally friendly manner.
in the past:
Clogs symbol of old
manufacture.
nowadays:
Philips of the largest electronics
companies in the world with
headquarters in Amsterdam is a
mark of modern times.
Caring for the environment
The Netherlands is known as a clean
country. The Dutch care about the
environment. They even separate their
rubbish. Paper goes into a separate bin,
and kitchen scraps and glass are collected
separately for recycling.
Almost every Dutch person
has a bicycle and there are
twice as many bikes as cars.
The government encourages
people to use their bicycles
as much as possible or to take
the bus or train to work.
Sports
Skating is one of the most popular
sports in the Netherlands. Every winter
Dutch hope that it will be very cold. As
soon as the canals and lakes are
frozen over, lots of Dutch people take
out their skates.
Soccer is very popular. If an important
match is being shown on television,
there’s hardly anybody on the street.
When the Dutch national soccer team goes abroad,
thousands of fans travel along to watch them play.
You can easily recognise them by their orange hats
and clothes.
The Netherlands has had many well-known painters. The 17th century, when
the Dutch republic was prosperous, was the age of the "Dutch Masters", such
as Rembrandt van Rijn, Johannes Vermeer, Jan Steen, Jacob van Ruysdael
and many others. Famous Dutch painters of the 19th and 20th century were
Vincent van Gogh and Piet Mondriaan.
Delta Works
The Delta Works are a series of
constructions built between 1950 and
1997 in the southwest of the
Netherlands to protect a large area of
land around the Rhine-Meuse-Scheldt
delta from the sea. The works consist
of dams, sluices, locks, dikes, and
storm surge barriers. The aim of the
dams, sluices, and storm surge
barriers was to shorten the Dutch
coastline, thus reducing the number of
dikes that had to be raised.
Did you know that you'll find flowers in
almost every Dutch living room?
by Ewa
Antonowicz
(Vb)
with little help of her father and
www.discoverthenetherlands.org
www.government.nl
www.wikipedia.org