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 third 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
Van Dijk started as a speed skater and undertook cycling as part of cross-training in summer. She excelled at both, competing nationally at junior level. After becoming a national cycling champion for the fifth time in 2007, she quit speed skating and became a full-time cyclist. Along with her world title successes, Van Dijk has also twice been European track champion, twice European time trial champion and has won five world cup races. In 2012 she competed in three disciplines at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, where she helped Marianne Vos win the gold medal in the road race, finished eighth in the time trial and sixth in the team pursuit.
Did you know (auto-generated)

- ... that stamp collecting gave Johnny Van Haeften the eye for detail that is essential in dealing in old master Dutch paintings?
- ... that a song of God's presence, written in 1965 in Dutch by Huub Oosterhuis, became part of the first common German Catholic hymnal, and was retained in the second by popular demand?
- ... that two American officers bribed Japanese troops with their watches to have Dutch medical officer Henri Hekking allocated to their prisoner of war camp?
- ... that the first landing during the Dutch invasion of Saint Helena was defeated by English settlers throwing rocks?
- ... that during the 1960s and 1970s, American artist Robert Bauer painted figures that were a mixture of 20th-century avant-garde funk and 17th-century Dutch realism?
- ... that the USA team at the 2007 World Cup of Pool wore orange shirts after both home-nation Dutch teams had been eliminated?
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The Dutch Wikiportal is currently under construction. Help would be greatly appreciated!
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