• The Netherlands, also commonly called Holland in English, is a European country, bordering Germany to the east and Belgium to the south.
• The people, language, and culture of the Netherlands is referred to as “Dutch”.
• The population of The Netherlands is over 16 million.
• Amsterdam is the capital of The Netherlands.
• The national language in the Netherlands is Dutch. Officially, the Netherlands is bilingual, as Frisian is also an official language. Frisian is the second closest living language to English.
• The geography of the Netherlands is dominated by water features. The country is crisscrossed with rivers, canals and dikes, and the beach is never far away.
• The western coast of the Netherlands has beautiful North Sea beaches.
HISTORY
• The Dutch United Provinces declared their independence from Spain in 1579.
• After a 20 year French occupation, a Kingdom of the Netherlands was formed in 1815. In 1830 Belgium seceded and formed a separate kingdom.
• The Netherlands remained neutral in World War I.
• In 1940, the Nazis invaded the Netherlands and 5 years after, the nation was liberated. The Netherlands then joined the European Economic Community (now the European Union) in 1958.
INTERESTING FACTS
• There are around 16 million bicycles in Holland, which supposedly means almost one for every inhabitant.
• The highest point in the country is called the ‘mountain’ and it is as much as 323 meters high.
• Hollanders usually have a bunch of flowers in their living rooms.
• Holland has the highest museum density in the world, with almost 1000 museums.
• The Van Gogh Museum and the Kröller-Müller Museum of Holland house the largest Van Gogh collections in the world.
• The landscape of Holland is dotted with windmills, which have become its hallmark.
• A consistent drainage is necessary to save Holland from flooding. For the purpose, windmills were used in the previous centuries.
• Other uses of windmills in Holland are corn milling and saw milling. Over the years, the use of windmills has changed. Though still used for drainage, they are predominantly considered as tourist attractions.
• Holland makes up roughly 13 percent of The Netherlands.
• As many as 300 castles in the country are open to the public.