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Netherlands
Nation, NW Europe. Area: 16,033 sq mi (41,525 sq km). Population (1997 est.): 15,619,000. Capital: Amsterdam; Seat of Government: The Hague. Most of the people are Dutch. Languages: Dutch (official), English. Religions: Roman Catholicism, Protestantism. Currency: guilder. The Netherlands' S and E region consists mostly of plains and a few high ridges; its W and N region is lower and includes the Zuider Zee and the common delta of the Rhine, Meuse, and Scheldt rivers. Coastal areas are almost completely below sea level and are protected by dunes and artificial dikes. The country has a developed market economy based largely on financial services, light and heavy industries, and trade. It is a constitutional monarchy with a parliament comprising two legislative houses; its chief of state is the monarch, and the head of government is the prime minister. Celtic and Germanic tribes inhabited the region at the time of the Roman conquest. Under the Romans trade and industry flourished, but by the mid-3rd cent. AD Roman power had waned, eroded by resurgent German tribes and the encroachment of the sea. A Germanic invasion (406-7) ended Roman control. The Merovingian dynasty followed the Romans, but was supplanted in the 7th cent. by the Carolingian dynasty, which converted the area to Christianity. After Charlemagne's death (814), the area was increasingly the target of Viking attacks. It became part of the medieval kingdom of Lotharingia (see Lorraine), which avoided incorporation into the Holy Roman Empire by investing its bishops and abbots with secular powers, leading to the establishment of an Imperial Church. In the 12th-14th cent. large areas of land in the Holland-Utrecht peat-bog plain were made available for agriculture and dike-building occurred on a large scale; Flanders developed as a textiles center. The dukes of Burgundy gained control in the late 14th cent. By the early 16th cent. the Low Countries were ruled by the Spanish Habsburgs. By this time the Dutch had taken the lead in fishing, shipbuilding, and beer brewing, laying the basis for Holland's remarkable 17th-cent. prosperity. Culturally, it was the period of J. van Eyck, Thomas à Kempis, and D. Erasmus. Calvinism and the Anabaptists' doctrines attracted many followers. In 1581 the seven N provinces, led by Calvinists, declared their independence from Spain, and Spain recognized Dutch independence in 1648, following the Thirty Years' War. The 17th cent. was the golden age of Dutch civilization. B. de Spinoza and R. Descartes enjoyed the country's intellectual freedom, and Rembrandt and J. Vermeer painted their masterpieces. The Dutch E. India Co. secured Asian colonies, and the country's standard of living soared. In the 18th cent., Dutch maritime power declined; the region was conquered by the French during the French Revolutionary Wars and became the kingdom of Holland under Napoleon (1806). The Netherlands remained neutral in World War I and ...

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