1.
Provinces of the Netherlands
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The most populous province is South Holland, with over 3.5 million inhabitants in 2009. With approximately 381,000 inhabitants, Zeeland has the smallest population, in terms of area, Friesland is the largest province with a total area of 5,749 km2. If water is excluded, Gelderland is the largest province in terms of area at 4,972 km2, Utrecht is the smallest at 1,449 km2. In total about 13,000 people were employed by the administrations in 2009. The provinces of the Netherlands are joined in the Association of Provinces of the Netherlands and this organisation promotes the common interests of the provinces in the national government of the Netherlands in The Hague and within the EU in Brussels. The government of each province consists of three parts, The States-Provincial is the provincial parliament elected every four years. The number of members varies between 39 and 55, depending on the number of inhabitants of the province, being a member is a part-time job. The main task of the States-Provincial is to scrutinise the work of the provincial government, the Provincial Executive is a college elected from among the members of the States-Provincial and charged with most executive tasks. Each province has three and seven deputies, each having their own portfolio. The task of the Provincial Executive is the management of the province. The Kings Commissioner is a person appointed by the Crown who presides over the States-Provincial as well as over the Provincial Executive. The Commissioner is appointed for a term of six years, after which reappointment for another term is possible, the members of the States-Provincial are elected every four years in direct elections. To a large extent, the political parties are enlisted in these elections in the national elections. The chosen provincial legislators elect the members of the national Senate within three months after the provincial elections, the elections for the water boards take place on the same date as the provincial elections. The last three elections were held in 2007,2011 and in 2015. The provinces of the Netherlands have 7 core tasks, Sustainable spatial development, also, provinces have income from a part of the Vehicle Excise Duty. Several provinces have made a profit in the past from privatising utility companies originally owned or partly owned by the provinces. An example is Essent, which was owned by six provinces
Provinces of the Netherlands
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Flags of the provinces flown at the
Hofvijver in
The Hague.
Provinces of the Netherlands
2.
Netherlands
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The Netherlands is the main constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a densely populated country located in Western Europe with three territories in the Caribbean. The European part of the Netherlands borders Germany to the east, Belgium to the south, and the North Sea to the northwest, sharing borders with Belgium, the United Kingdom. The three largest cities in the Netherlands are Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague, Amsterdam is the countrys capital, while The Hague holds the Dutch seat of parliament and government. The port of Rotterdam is the worlds largest port outside East-Asia, the name Holland is used informally to refer to the whole of the country of the Netherlands. Netherlands literally means lower countries, influenced by its low land and flat geography, most of the areas below sea level are artificial. Since the late 16th century, large areas have been reclaimed from the sea and lakes, with a population density of 412 people per km2 –507 if water is excluded – the Netherlands is classified as a very densely populated country. Only Bangladesh, South Korea, and Taiwan have both a population and higher population density. Nevertheless, the Netherlands is the worlds second-largest exporter of food and agricultural products and this is partly due to the fertility of the soil and the mild climate. In 2001, it became the worlds first country to legalise same-sex marriage, the Netherlands is a founding member of the EU, Eurozone, G-10, NATO, OECD and WTO, as well as being a part of the Schengen Area and the trilateral Benelux Union. The first four are situated in The Hague, as is the EUs criminal intelligence agency Europol and this has led to the city being dubbed the worlds legal capital. The country also ranks second highest in the worlds 2016 Press Freedom Index, the Netherlands has a market-based mixed economy, ranking 17th of 177 countries according to the Index of Economic Freedom. It had the thirteenth-highest per capita income in the world in 2013 according to the International Monetary Fund, in 2013, the United Nations World Happiness Report ranked the Netherlands as the seventh-happiest country in the world, reflecting its high quality of life. The Netherlands also ranks joint second highest in the Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index, the region called Low Countries and the country of the Netherlands have the same toponymy. Place names with Neder, Nieder, Nether and Nedre and Bas or Inferior are in use in all over Europe. They are sometimes used in a relation to a higher ground that consecutively is indicated as Upper, Boven, Oben. In the case of the Low Countries / the Netherlands the geographical location of the region has been more or less downstream. The geographical location of the region, however, changed over time tremendously
Netherlands
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The Netherlands in 5500 BC
Netherlands
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Flag
Netherlands
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The Netherlands in 500 BC
Netherlands
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An oak figurine found in
Willemstad, North Brabant (4500 BC).
3.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
Geographic coordinate system
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Longitude lines are perpendicular and latitude lines are parallel to the equator.
4.
Assen
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Assen is a municipality and a city in the northeastern Netherlands, and is the capital of the province of Drenthe. It received city rights in 1809, Assen is known for TT Circuit Assen, the motorcycle racing circuit, where on the last Sunday in June the Dutch TT is run, and also for the annual Assen Dance Festival. Anreep, Assen, De Haar, Graswijk, Loon, Rhee, Schieven, Ter Aard, Ubbena, Witten, Zeijerveen and his successor ordered the nunnery to be built as a penalty. As it was located in a barren area, which also happened to flood from time to time. A better and especially drier spot for the Cistercian abbey was found in a known as Witten. Around it were village communities like Deurze, Witten and Peelo, the latter has a history which goes back to the times from when Dolmens were built, but it is now situated between two new districts of Assen. The relocated abbey probably was erected in the 1260s, and over the centuries Assen developed around it, the abbey was built at what now is the Brink of Assen. On the abbey now stands the Drents Museum, which was built in 1882 as provinciehuis. Only the abdijkerk, the grounds, and bits and pieces of walls remind us of the beginnings of the city. The coat of arms is borrowed from the seal of the abbey. It is just like the coat of arms of the province of Drenthe - in both cases Mary with child - but Jesus switches to the other knee, the history of the city is connected with the provincial governing board, around 1600 the abbey property was secularised. Marienkamp no longer existed, but the buildings did, Assen was not a municipality yet, not even ecclesiastical sense. Even though there was a church, Assen fell ecclesiastically and administratively under Rolde. In 1615 Assen got its own preacher, in 1807 Assen administratively freed itself from the control of Rolde when the village got to establish its own municipal authorities. A municipal authority which moreover in most cases operated in the shadow of the provincial government, the municipal authority mainly got there because of matter of provincial governors like Governor Petrus Hofstede, to which the city also thanks its uniquely located park. From that time Assen also obtained its nickname het Herenbolwerk, Assen has been an official city since 1809. After Coevorden, then a village of about sixteen hundred people, Assen became the place in Drenthe with city rights, granted by King Louis Napoleon. A plan to make it a city was set up at the time, but the Kingdom of the Netherlands was incorporated into Napoleon Bonapartes French Empire, as an administrative centre, Assen attracted well-to-do inhabitants and with that also new enterprises and initiatives
Assen
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Drents Museum in Assen
Assen
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Typical monumental building in Assen park "De Eerste Steen", a former estate.
Assen
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Topographic map of Assen, Sept. 2014
5.
Emmen, Netherlands
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Emmen is a municipality and a town in the northeastern Netherlands. A prime example of a city, Emmen arose from several small farming and peat-harvesting communities which have dotted the province of Drenthe since the Middle Ages. The expansion of the town did not happen until after the Second World War, construction of the last suburb, called Delftlanden, is already well underway with a large number of homes already built and people living in the area. In the towns environs an earthwork by Robert Smithson, Broken Circle/Spiral Hill, the prime economic booster since the 1980s has been the zoo, the Dierenpark Emmen. Begun in the 1930s, it was almost completely redesigned in the 1970s and it attracts over 1.5 million visitors per year. Important industries include Teijin Aramid, DSM Engineering Plastics, Wellman, there are extensive glasshouse complexes for horticulture, especially in the Klazienaveen-Erica area. The municipality offers some 38,000 jobs, Emmen is the second most populous urban area of Drenthe. The municipality of Emmen is one of the largest in area in the Netherlands, the only villages of importance are Emmer-Compascuum, Klazienaveen, Nieuw-Amsterdam and Schoonebeek. The population centres, The municipality of Emmen has some 104,000 inhabitants, compared to some 3,000 inhabitants in the nineteenth century, this illustrates the rapid growth of Emmen in the past 150 years. The towns football club FC Emmen plays their games in JenS Vesting. They play in the Eerste Divisie, every year a big cycle racing criterium called Gouden Pijl, where all the big names in bicycle sport come to Emmen for this event. Besides the bicycle race itself the Gouden Pijl also includes events like pop-concerts etc. In 2008 the comeback concert of The Schizos, the infamous local punk-band from the 1980s, was organized during the Gouden Pijl, Emmen is served by one train connection with Zwolle, which in turn leads to the rest of the country. By car, the town is accessible via the N34 from Zwolle to Groningen, the N381 to Drachten, the N391 to Veendam, the nearest airport is Groningen Airport Eelde at a distance of 50 kilometers. Furthermore, there are inland shipping connections via Nieuw-Amsterdam to Coevorden, Hoogeveen, official website Emmen travel guide from Wikivoyage
Emmen, Netherlands
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Emmen
Emmen, Netherlands
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Emmen landscape
Emmen, Netherlands
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Emmen, church: Grote of Pancratiuskerk
Emmen, Netherlands
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Dutch Topographic map of Emmen (town), March 2014
6.
Jacques Tichelaar
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Jacques Tichelaar is a Dutch politician and former trade union leader and educator. He is a member of the Labour Party, since 1 May 2009 he has been the Kings Commissioner in the province of Drenthe. He resigned on March 1st 2017, previously he was a teachers trade union leader from 1994 to 2002 and a MP from 2002 to 2009. He acted as a Parliamentary group leader from 2007 to 2008, in 2002 he received an honorary doctorate in business administration at Kingston University. In 1973 Tichelaar finished his havo and enrolled at the Pedagogische Academie in Heerenveen, since the 2002 election he was a member of the Tweede Kamer. He focused on education and agriculture and he was also chair of the committee for finance. During the 2006–2007 Dutch cabinet formation, Tichelaar was secondant of Wouter Bos during the confidential negotiations and he was unexpectedly chosen over MPs like Nebahat Albayrak, the PvdAs second candidate on the list, because of his experience with negotiations from his union years. Since 1 May 2009 he was the Queens Commissioner in the province of Drenthe and he resigned on March 1st 2017, after first denying, and than admitting, to have favoured the companies of close relatives more than once. Evidence emerged that he had put forward the company of his sister in law, for a project in one of the provinces buildings, pushing aside the already accepted proposition of a third party. In 2013 he had interfered in favour of his brother in law, a hotel interpreneur, list of Dutch politicians Parlement. com biography
Jacques Tichelaar
–
Jacques Tichelaar (
Drenthe)
7.
Labour Party (Netherlands)
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The Labour Party is a social-democratic political party in the Netherlands. The party was founded in 1946 as a merger of the Social Democratic Workers Party, the Free-thinking Democratic League, Prime Ministers from the Labour Party have been Willem Drees, Joop den Uyl, and Wim Kok. Since 2012, the PvdA is the partner in the Second Rutte cabinet with the Peoples Party for Freedom. Since 2016, Lodewijk Asscher has been Leader of the Labour Party, the party won 9 seats in the House of Representatives in the 2017 general election. The Labour Party is a member of the European Party of European Socialists, in the European Parliament, where the Labour Party has 3 seats, it is part of the parliamentary group Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats. They were joined by individuals from Catholic resistance group Christofoor and the Protestant parties Christian Historical Union, the founders of the PvdA wanted to create a broad party, breaking with the historic tradition of Pillarisation. This desire to come to a new system was called the Doorbraak. The party combined socialists with liberal democrats and progressive Christians, however, the party was unable to break Pillarisation. Instead the new party renewed the ties that SDAP had with other socialist organisations. In 1948 some conservative members, led by former VDB leader Pieter Oud, together with the Freedom Party, they formed the Peoples Party for Freedom and Democracy, a conservative-liberal party. Between 1946 and 1958, the PvdA formed coalition governments with the Catholic Peoples Party, the KVP and the PvdA together had a large majority in parliament. Since 1948, these cabinets were led by PvdA Prime Minister Willem Drees, under his leadership the Netherlands recovered from the war, began to build its welfare state and Indonesia became independent. After the cabinet crisis of 1958, the PvdA was replaced by the VVD, the PvdA was in opposition until 1965. The electoral support of PvdA voters began to decline, in 1965 a conflict in the KVP-ARP-CHU-VVD cabinet made continuation of the government impossible. The three confessional, Christian-influenced parties turned towards the PvdA, together they formed the Cals cabinet. This cabinet was also lived and conflict ridden. The conflicts culminated in the fall of the Cals cabinet over economic policy, meanwhile, a younger generation was attempting to gain control of the PvdA. A group of young PvdA members, calling themselves the New Left, prominent New Left members were Jan Nagel, André van der Louw and Bram Peper
Labour Party (Netherlands)
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Willem Drees, co-founder and party leader from 1946 until 1958,
Prime Minister from 1948 until 1958.
Labour Party (Netherlands)
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Joop den Uyl, leader from 1966 until 1986,
Prime Minister from 1973 until 1977.
Labour Party (Netherlands)
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Wim Kok, party leader from 1986 until 2001,
Prime Minister from 1994 until 2002.
Labour Party (Netherlands)
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Job Cohen, party leader from 2010 until 2012.
8.
Daylight saving time
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Daylight saving time is the practice of advancing clocks during summer months by one hour so that evening daylight lasts an hour longer, while sacrificing normal sunrise times. Typically, regions that use Daylight Savings Time adjust clocks forward one hour close to the start of spring, American inventor and politician Benjamin Franklin proposed a form of daylight time in 1784. New Zealander George Hudson proposed the idea of saving in 1895. The German Empire and Austria-Hungary organized the first nationwide implementation, starting on April 30,1916, many countries have used it at various times since then, particularly since the energy crisis of the 1970s. The practice has both advocates and critics, DST clock shifts sometimes complicate timekeeping and can disrupt travel, billing, record keeping, medical devices, heavy equipment, and sleep patterns. Computer software often adjusts clocks automatically, but policy changes by various jurisdictions of DST dates, industrialized societies generally follow a clock-based schedule for daily activities that do not change throughout the course of the year. The time of day that individuals begin and end work or school, North and south of the tropics daylight lasts longer in summer and shorter in winter, with the effect becoming greater as one moves away from the tropics. However, they will have one hour of daylight at the start of each day. Supporters have also argued that DST decreases energy consumption by reducing the need for lighting and heating, DST is also of little use for locations near the equator, because these regions see only a small variation in daylight in the course of the year. After ancient times, equal-length civil hours eventually supplanted unequal, so civil time no longer varies by season, unequal hours are still used in a few traditional settings, such as some monasteries of Mount Athos and all Jewish ceremonies. This 1784 satire proposed taxing window shutters, rationing candles, and waking the public by ringing church bells, despite common misconception, Franklin did not actually propose DST, 18th-century Europe did not even keep precise schedules. However, this changed as rail transport and communication networks came to require a standardization of time unknown in Franklins day. Modern DST was first proposed by the New Zealand entomologist George Hudson, whose shift work job gave him time to collect insects. An avid golfer, he also disliked cutting short his round at dusk and his solution was to advance the clock during the summer months, a proposal he published two years later. The proposal was taken up by the Liberal Member of Parliament Robert Pearce, a select committee was set up to examine the issue, but Pearces bill did not become law, and several other bills failed in the following years. Willett lobbied for the proposal in the UK until his death in 1915, william Sword Frost, mayor of Orillia, Ontario, introduced daylight saving time in the municipality during his tenure from 1911 to 1912. Starting on April 30,1916, the German Empire and its World War I ally Austria-Hungary were the first to use DST as a way to conserve coal during wartime, Britain, most of its allies, and many European neutrals soon followed suit. Russia and a few other countries waited until the year
Daylight saving time
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Ancient
water clock that lets hour lengths vary with season.
Daylight saving time
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G. V. Hudson invented modern DST, proposing it first in 1895.
Daylight saving time
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Retailers generally favor DST.
United Cigar Stores hailed a 1918 DST bill.
Daylight saving time
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William Willett independently proposed DST in 1907 and advocated it tirelessly.
9.
Central European Summer Time
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It corresponds to UTC + two hours. Other names which have been applied to Central European Summer Time are Middle European Summer Time, Central European Daylight Saving Time, and Bravo Time. Since 1996 European Summer Time has been observed between 1,00 UTC on the last Sunday of March and 1,00 on the last Sunday of October, the following countries and territories use Central European Summer Time. In addition, Libya used CEST during the years 1951–1959, 1982–1989, 1996–1997, European Summer Time Other countries and territories in UTC+2 time zone Other names of UTC+2 time zone
Central European Summer Time
–
light blue
10.
Overijssel
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Overijssel is a province of the Netherlands in the central-eastern part of the country. The provinces name translates to across the IJssel, from the perspective of the bishopric of Utrecht by which it was held until 1528, the capital city of Overijssel is Zwolle and the largest city is Enschede. The province has a population of 1,113,529 inhabitants, Overijssel comprises three regions, Kop van Overijssel in the northwest, Salland in the centre of the province, and Twente in the east. Besides the capital Zwolle, other cities are Almelo, Deventer, Enschede. To the southeast, the surface is mostly sandy, interspersed with small rivers such as the Regge and Dinkel. In the northwest, the geology is dominated by sediments from the Overijsselse Vecht, the northern parts were once covered by veen which separated the dryer and more arable south from Drenthe and which have been exploited as fuel to a large degree. Only small patches survive today (Engbertsdijksvenen near Tubbergen, Witteveen, the extreme northwest is dominated by a system of lakes formed by former peat-mining, the Weerribben, which is a valuable wetland. The highest point in Overijssel is the summit of the Tankenberg, the lowest point is in the Mastenbroek Polder near Kampen at 2 metres below sea level. However, winters tend to be less mild than the rest of the Netherlands, Overijssel was formerly known as Oversticht and also included most of the modern-day province of Drenthe. In 1336, it was part of Guelders, though it was ceded to the Bishopric of Utrecht in 1347. e. The other side of the river IJssel, the people joined with the other Dutch and rebelled against Charles heir Philip II. Overijssel became governed by the most powerful mayors and lords in the province, after a brief occupation by the forces of the Bishop of Münster, Overijssel received a new form of government which granted the stadtholders more power. Widespread resistance against the power throughout the provinces eventually led to the formation of the Batavian Republic in 1795. A centralist government arose and the Netherlands was organised into a series of départements, at first organised into its own département, it was merged with Drenthe in 1798 to form Ouden IJssel, which was renamed Overijssel in 1801. The French annexed the Batavian Republic in 1810, and Overijssel was organised into the new French département of Bouches-de-lYssel, after the defeat of Napoleon in 1814, the kingdom of the Netherlands and the former province of Overijssel were recreated. Overijssel was occupied by Nazi Germany during World War II from May 1940 until its liberation in April 1945. The Noordoostpolder, a territory which had been laid dry in 1942, was part of Overijssel from 1962 until 1986. The Kings Commissioner of Overijssel is Ank Bijleveld and she is the chairwoman of the States-Deputed and the States-Provincial of Overijssel
Overijssel
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Map of Overijssel (2012)
Overijssel
Overijssel
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The
Enschede railway station.
Overijssel
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The
municipalities of Overijssel
11.
Friesland
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Friesland or Frisia is a province in the northwest of the Netherlands. It is situated west of Groningen, northwest of Drenthe and Overijssel, north of Flevoland, northeast of North Holland, in 2010, the province had a population of 646,000 and a total area of 5,749 km2. The capital and seat of the government is the city of Leeuwarden. Since 2017, Arno Brok is the Kings Commissioner in the province, a coalition of the Labour Party, the Christian Democratic Appeal, and the Frisian National Party forms the executive branch. The province is divided into 24 municipalities, the area of the province was once part of the ancient, larger region of Frisia. The official languages of Friesland are West Lauwers Frisian and Dutch, a proto-Frisian culture slowly began to emerge around 400–200 BC known for its artificial dwelling hills as a defence against the sea. The Roman claim on Frisia began in 12 BC with the campaign of Nero Claudius Drusus in Germania, after a series of costly battles against the Frisians, the Romans were suddenly sworn fealty. The de facto independence they later enjoyed as a Roman vassal shows that this might have been a mostly diplomatic decision based on the temporary favourable bargaining position. Together with other Germanic tribes such as the Salians and the Batavii they managed to keep the north of the Lower Rhine mostly free from Roman influence. The early eighth-century AD is known for the Frisian Kingdom, king Redbad, after incorporation into the Frankish empire, Friesland was divided into three parts. The westernmost part developed at the start of the second millennium into the County of Holland, while the remainder of Frisia had no feudal overlord and that ended when Charles V added Frisia to the Habsburg Netherlands as Lordship of Frisia. Under Napoleon, the department was named Frise, after Napoleon was defeated in 1813, the department became part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands as the province of Friesland. Friesland is the largest province of the Netherlands if one includes areas of water, in terms of land area only, the provinces highest point is at 45 metres above sea level, on the island of Vlieland. There are four parks, Schiermonnikoog, De Alde Feanen, Lauwersmeer. The ten urban areas in Friesland with the largest population are, The province is divided into 24 municipalities, the province of Friesland has an oceanic climate. In 2010, Friesland had a population of 646,305, the years 1880–1900 show slower population growth due to a farm crisis in which 20,000 Frisians emigrated to the United States of America. Since the late Middle Ages, Friesland has been renowned for the height of its inhabitants. Friesland is mainly an agricultural province, the black and white Frisian cattle, black and white Stabyhoun and the black Frisian horse originated here
Friesland
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Satellite image of Friesland
Friesland
Friesland
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Map of Friesland (2012)
Friesland
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View of the
Wadden Sea to the north of Friesland
12.
Groningen (province)
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Groningen is the northeasternmost province of the Netherlands. It borders on Friesland to the west, Drenthe to the south, the German state of Niedersachsen to the east, in 2014, it had a population of 582,640 and a total area of 2,960 km2. The area was part of Frisia, the Frankish Empire, the Holy Roman Empire, and the Dutch Republic. In the 14th century, the city of Groningen became a member of the Hanseatic League, the capital of the province and the seat of the provincial government is the city of Groningen. Since 2016, René Paas has been the Kings Commissioner in the province, a coalition of the Labour Party, Peoples Party for Freedom and Democracy, Democrats 66, and ChristianUnion forms the executive branch. The province is divided into 23 municipalities, the land is mainly used for agriculture. There are sea ports in Delfzijl and Eemshaven, the Groningen gas field was discovered in 1959. The province is home to the University of Groningen and Hanze University of Applied Sciences, Groningen was originally a part of Frisia. It became a part of the Frankish Empire around 785, charlemagne assigned the Christianization of this new possession to Ludger. In the 11th century, the city of Groningen was a village in Drenthe that belonged to the Bishopric of Utrecht, during the Middle Ages, central control was remote, and the city of Groningen acted as a city-state, exerting a dominating influence on the surrounding Ommelanden. In the 14th century, Groningen became one of the towns within the Hanseatic League, in the years after, Groningen expanded its influence. At its peak almost all of the current province Friesland was under the influence, shortly before 1498, Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor gave Groningen and Friesland to Albert III, Duke of Saxony, who could however not establish permanent control. In 1514/15 Groningen came to the Duchy of Guelders, and in 1536 as the Lordship of Groningen to the Habsburg Netherlands, in 1594, Groningen was conquered by the Republic of the Seven United Provinces, precursor state of the Netherlands, to which it belonged henceforth. During World War II, the Netherlands were occupied by Nazi Germany, in May 1945, another 3,000 German soldiers were captured in the Battle of Delfzijl by the 5th Canadian Division, after which all of the northern provinces were liberated. East Groningen was the scene of a particularly fierce class struggle in the 19th and 20th centuries, perhaps not coincidentally, Groningen boasts the only municipality where the Communist Party of the Netherlands has ever had a mayor. The northernmost point of the Netherlands is on Rottumerplaat at 53°33′18″N 6°28′41″E, Groningen is the 7th largest province of the Netherlands. It has an area of 2,960 km2, with 2,325 km2 of land and 635 km2 of water. About 80% of the land or 1,876 km2 is used for agriculture
Groningen (province)
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1652 map of the city of
Groningen and the surrounding
fortifications
Groningen (province)
Groningen (province)
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Canadian soldiers during the
Battle of Groningen in April 1945
Groningen (province)
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Satellite image of Groningen
13.
Germany
–
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres, with about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular destination in the world. Germanys capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while its largest conurbation is the Ruhr, other major cities include Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Leipzig. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity, a region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period the Germanic tribes expanded southward, beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation, in 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic, the establishment of the national socialist dictatorship in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After a period of Allied occupation, two German states were founded, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, in 1990, the country was reunified. In the 21st century, Germany is a power and has the worlds fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP. As a global leader in industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled. It upholds a social security and universal health system, environmental protection. Germany was a member of the European Economic Community in 1957. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999, Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world, the English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz popular, derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- people, the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a mine in Schöningen where three 380, 000-year-old wooden javelins were unearthed
Germany
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The
Nebra sky disk is dated to c. 1600 BC.
Germany
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Flag
Germany
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Martin Luther (1483–1546) initiated the
Protestant Reformation.
Germany
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Foundation of the
German Empire in
Versailles, 1871.
Bismarck is at the center in a white uniform.
14.
Emsland
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Landkreis Emsland is a district in Lower Saxony, Germany named after the river Ems. It is bounded by the districts of Leer, Cloppenburg and Osnabrück, the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, the district of Bentheim, for a long time the region of the Emsland was extremely sparsely populated, due to the fens on both sides of the river. Small villages were established in medieval times along the river and on the Hümmling, in the 13th century the bishops of Münster gained control over the region, the Emsland remained property of the bishop until 1803, when the clerical states were dissolved. It came under rule of Prussia and Arenberg, but after the Napoleonic Wars the Congress of Vienna decided to hand the territory over to the Kingdom of Hanover, the Duchy of Arenberg continued to exist as a fief of the Hanoverian kings. When Hanover was annexed by Prussia, the dukes were deposed soon after, the now Prussian Province of Hanover was subdivided into districts in 1885, four districts were established on the territory of what is now the Landkreis Emsland. The districts were merged in 1977 to form the present district, a memorial of these camps, the Dokumentations- und Informationszentrum Emslandlager, is located at Papenburg. The well known resistance song Peat Bog Soldiers was composed by political prisoners at one of these camps, in 1950 a governmental plan for the development of Emsland was adopted. Its aim was to turn the region into an industrial location and this was accomplished by draining the fens and establishing projects like the test track of the maglev Transrapid and several large shipyards such as the Meyer-Werft in Papenburg. Although the Landkreis Emsland lost much of its character, some areas retain their natural character. 1977 district reforms in Lower Saxony unite the districts of Lingen, Meppen and Aschendorf-Hümmling in the district of Emsland. The Emsland remains a very Roman Catholic region compared to parts of Lower Saxony. The district is located on the Dutch border and it is named after the Ems river, which crosses the region from south to north. It is a plain countryside, which was once full of fens. The only elevations are in the Hümmling, which is a hilly forest area east of the Ems
Emsland
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Memorial at the site of the entry to the former concentration camp "Börgermoor"
Emsland
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Emsland
Emsland
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Transrapid test track
15.
Bishopric of Utrecht
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The Bishopric of Utrecht was a civil principality of the Holy Roman Empire in the Low Countries, in present Netherlands, which was ruled by the bishops of Utrecht as princes of the Holy Roman Empire. From 1024 until 1528, it was one of the Prince-Bishoprics of the Holy Roman Empire, constituting, in addition to its ecclesiastical aspect, in 1528, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, secularized its civil authority and territorial possessions. The Diocese of Utrecht was established in 695 when Saint Willibrord was consecrated bishop of the Frisians at Rome by Pope Sergius I, with the consent of the Frankish ruler, Pippin of Herstal, he settled in an old Roman fort in Utrecht. After Willibrords death the diocese suffered greatly from the incursions of the Frisians, whether Willibrord could be called the first bishop of Utrecht is doubtful, as James Palmer points out, there was no real concept of a well-defined bishopric until at least the days of Alberic. Better times appeared during the reign of the Saxon emperors, who summoned the Bishops of Utrecht to attend the imperial councils. In 1024 the bishops were made Princes of the Holy Roman Empire, the secular territory over which it ruled was known as Sticht Utrecht or Het Sticht. This territory was divided into the Nedersticht and Oversticht, in 1122, with the Concordat of Worms, the Emperors right of investiture was annulled, and the cathedral chapter received the right to elect the bishop. It was, however, soon obligated to share this right with the four other chapters in the city. The Counts of Holland and Guelders, between whose territories the lands of the Bishops of Utrecht lay, also sought to acquire influence over the filling of the episcopal see and this often led to disputes and consequently the Holy See frequently interfered in the election. After the middle of the 14th century the popes repeatedly appointed the bishop directly without regard to the five chapters. The chapters transferred their right of electing the bishop to Charles V and his government, the Prince-Bishopric of Utrecht became the Lordship of Utrecht in 1528. Gosses, Izaak H. De Bisschop van Utrecht, het Domkapittel en de Groninger Prefect, bijdragen voor vaderlandsche geschiedenis en oudheidkunde. Apostolisch vicarissen van de Hollandse Zending Budde, Paul, archived from the original on 2014-01-18
Bishopric of Utrecht
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Flag
16.
Habsburg Netherlands
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Habsburg Netherlands is the collective name of Holy Roman Empire fiefs in the Low Countries held by the House of Habsburg and later by the Spanish Empire, also known as the Spanish Netherlands. Then known as Seventeen Provinces, they were held by the Spanish Empire from 1556, in 1581, the Seven United Provinces seceded to form the Dutch Republic, the remaining Spanish Southern Netherlands eventually passed on to Habsburg Austria. Finally the Austrian Netherlands were annexed by the French First Republic in 1795, the Habsburg Netherlands was a geo-political entity covering the whole of the Low Countries from 1482 to 1581. The centre of the Burgundian possessions was the Duchy of Brabant, deeply disappointed, he entered into the disastrous Burgundian Wars and was killed in the Battle of Nancy. Upon the death of Mary of Burgundy in 1482, her possessions including the Burgundian Netherlands passed to her son. Through his father Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor from 1493, Philip was a Habsburg scion, the period 1481–1492 saw the Flemish cities revolt and Utrecht embroiled in civil war, but by the turn of the century both areas had been pacified by the Spanish rulers. Philips son Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, born in Ghent, succeeded his father in 1506 and his grandfather Emperor Maximilian I incorporated the Burgundian heritage into the Burgundian Circle, whereafter the territories in the far west of the Empire developed a certain grade of autonomy. Attaining full age in 1515, Charles went on to rule his Burgundian heritage as a native Netherlander and he acquired the lands of Overijssel and the Bishopric of Utrecht, purchased Friesland from Duke George of Saxony and regained Groningen and Gelderland. His Seventeen Provinces were re-organised in the 1548 Burgundian Treaty, whereby the Imperial estates represented in the Imperial Diet at Augsburg acknowledged a certain autonomy of the Netherlands. It was followed by a sanction by the Emperor the next year. By a 1522 inheritance treaty with his younger brother Archduke Ferdinand I of Austria, Emperor Charles V had established the Austrian, upon his abdication in 1556, the Seventeen Provinces fell to the Spanish Crown. Charless son and successor King Philip II of Spain by his despotism and Catholic persecutions sparked the Dutch Revolt, the Spanish hold on the northern provinces was more and more tenuous. In 1579 the northern provinces established the Protestant Union of Utrecht, after the secession of 1581, the southern provinces, called t Hof van Brabant remained with the House of Habsburg until the French Revolutionary Wars. After the extinction of the Spanish Habsburgs and the War of the Spanish Succession, the southern provinces were also known as the Austrian Netherlands from 1715 onwards
Habsburg Netherlands
–
Flag
17.
Dutch Republic
–
It preceded the Batavian Republic, the Kingdom of Holland, the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, and ultimately the modern Kingdom of the Netherlands. Alternative names include the United Provinces, Seven Provinces, Federated Dutch Provinces, most of the Low Countries had come under the rule of the House of Burgundy and subsequently the House of Habsburg. In 1549 Holy Roman Emperor Charles V issued the Pragmatic Sanction, Charles was succeeded by his son, King Philip II of Spain. This was the start of the Eighty Years War, in 1579 a number of the northern provinces of the Low Countries signed the Union of Utrecht, in which they promised to support each other in their defence against the Spanish army. This was followed in 1581 by the Act of Abjuration, the declaration of independence of the provinces from Philip II. In 1582 the United Provinces invited Francis, Duke of Anjou to lead them, but after an attempt to take Antwerp in 1583. After the assassination of William of Orange, both Henry III of France and Elizabeth I of England declined the offer of sovereignty, however, the latter agreed to turn the United Provinces into a protectorate of England, and sent the Earl of Leicester as governor-general. This was unsuccessful and in 1588 the provinces became a confederacy, the Union of Utrecht is regarded as the foundation of the Republic of the Seven United Provinces, which was not recognized by the Spanish Empire until the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. During the Anglo-French war, the territory was divided into groups, the Patriots, who were pro-French and pro-American and the Orangists. The Republic of the United Provinces faced a series of revolutions in 1783–1787. During this period, republican forces occupied several major Dutch cities, initially on the defence, the Orangist forces received aid from Prussian troops and retook the Netherlands in 1787. After the French Republic became the French Empire under Napoleon, the Batavian Republic was replaced by the Napoleonic Kingdom of Holland, the Netherlands regained independence from France in 1813. In the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814 the names United Provinces of the Netherlands, on 16 March 1815, the son of stadtholder William V crowned himself King William I of the Netherlands. Between 1815 and 1890 the King of the Netherlands was also in a union the Grand Duke of the sovereign Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. After Belgium gained its independence in 1830, the state became known as the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The County of Holland was the wealthiest and most urbanized region in the world, the free trade spirit of the time received a strong augmentation through the development of a modern, effective stock market in the Low Countries. The Netherlands has the oldest stock exchange in the world, founded in 1602 by the Dutch East India Company, while Rotterdam has the oldest bourse in the Netherlands, the worlds first stock exchange, that of the Dutch East-India Company, went public in six different cities. Later, a court ruled that the company had to reside legally in a city so Amsterdam is recognized as the oldest such institution based on modern trading principles
Dutch Republic
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Dutch East-India trading ship 1600
Dutch Republic
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Flag
Dutch Republic
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Onrust Island near
Batavia, 1699
Dutch Republic
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Courtyard of the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, 1653
18.
Batavian Republic
–
The Batavian Republic was the successor of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands. It was proclaimed on 19 January 1795, and ended on 5 June 1806, in early 1795, intervention by French revolutionary forces led to the downfall of the old Dutch Republic. The new Republic enjoyed widespread support from the Dutch population and was the product of a popular revolution. Nevertheless, it clearly was founded with the support of the revolutionary French Republic. The political, economic and social reforms that were brought about during the short duration of the Batavian Republic have had a lasting impact. The confederal structure of the old Dutch Republic was permanently replaced by a unitary state, for the first time in Dutch history, the constitution that was adopted in 1798 had a genuinely democratic character. For a while the Republic was governed democratically, although the coup détat of 1801 put an authoritarian regime in power, after another change in constitution, nevertheless, the memory of this brief experiment with democracy helped smooth the transition to a more democratic government in 1848. A type of government was introduced for the first time in Dutch history. The new king, Louis Bonaparte, surprisingly did not slavishly follow French dictates either, the final days of the intermittent constitutional monarchy/republic, the Dutch Republic, which had governed the Netherlands since the late 16th century, were quite eventful. Most Patriots went into exile in France, while Hollands own Ancien Régime strengthened its grip on Dutch government chiefly through the Orangist Grand Pensionary Laurens Pieter van de Spiegel. Only two years later, the French Revolution began, which embraced many of the ideas that the Patriots had espoused in their own revolt. The Stadtholder joined the ill-fated First Coalition of countries in their attempt to subdue the suddenly anti-Austrian French First Republic, however, in many cities revolution broke out even before the French arrived and Revolutionary Committees took over the city governments, and the national government also. William was forced to flee to England on a boat on 18 January 1795. Though the French presented themselves as liberators, they behaved like conquerors, apart from imposing territorial concessions and a huge indemnity, this obligated the Dutch to maintain a French army of occupation of 25,000 men. However, this did not mean that it lost its independence in all respects, the program of reform that the Dutch revolutionaries attempted to put in place was mostly driven by indigenous needs and aspirations. The political events in the Netherlands were mainly derived from Dutch initiative, the French were responsible for at least one of the coups détat, and the French ambassador often acted as a proconsul. At first, the revolutionaries used the constitutional machinery of the old confederal republic and they resumed where they had left off after the purge in 1787 of Patriot regents, taking over the offices of the Orangist regents that were now purged in their turn. Though the political make-up of the States-General changed appreciably because of change in personnel
Batavian Republic
–
William V of Orange-Nassau
Batavian Republic
–
Flag
Batavian Republic
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Flag and pennants of the Batavian Republic. The
canton features the
Netherlands Maiden.
Batavian Republic
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In The first Kiss this Ten Years! —or—the meeting of Britannia & Citizen François (1803),
James Gillray caricatured the peace between France and Britain.
19.
Kingdom of Holland
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The Kingdom of Holland was set up by Napoleon Bonaparte as a puppet kingdom for his third brother, Louis Bonaparte, in order to better control the Netherlands. The name of the province, Holland, was now taken for the whole country. In 1807 Prussian East Frisia and Jever were added to the kingdom but in 1809, after a British invasion, also in 1809, Dutch forces fighting on the French side participated in defeating the anti-Bonapartist German rebellion led by Ferdinand von Schill, at the Battle of Stralsund. It was the first formal monarchy in the Netherlands since 1581, Napoleons brother Louis Bonaparte was installed as King of Holland on 5 June 1806. Originally the arms of the new kingdom were to be like those of the Kingdom of Italy, an eagle bearing a shield, with the arms of the United Netherlands, the lion, now royally crowned. In December 1806, A. Renodi in Paris designed arms quartering the Napoleonic eagle with the lion of the United Netherlands, around the shield was the French Order of the Grand Aigle. Behind the shield are crossed sceptres, typical for Napoleonic heraldry, exemplary for the innovation in Napoleons heraldry are the two hands coming out of clouds from behind the shield holding swords, designating King Louis as Connétable de France. Napoleon felt the Batavian Republic was becoming too independent for his liking and he thus forced the Dutch to accept his brother, Louis Bonaparte, as king. The alternative would have been outright annexation to France, despite these circumstances, many citizens were very happy with his arrival. But there was opposition, because many feared the new King would introduce the dreaded conscription. This Louis would not do, much to the dismay of Napoleon, who demanded that Louis would raise an army to guard the North from British invasion. Apart from the lavishly uniformed Royal Guard, the army of the Kingdom of Holland would always be short of recruits, Napoleon intended for Louis to be little more than the prefect of Holland. The ministers were provided mostly by Napoleon, however, Louis had his own mind, and was determined to be as independent of his elder brother as possible. In addition to refusing to introduce conscription, he declared himself Dutch rather than French and he made a sincere effort to learn the Dutch language, and required his court and ministers to only speak Dutch. He went as far as to adopt the Dutch spelling of his name, due to the economic blockade enforced by Napoleon, the economy of the Kingdom of Holland was further ruined, the smuggling of British goods increased. Louis hesitated to oppose this, which led Napoleon sending units of Douanes Imperiales to Holland, after British troops invaded Walcheren in 1809, Napoleon was fed up with his hesitant brother and decided to make Holland an integral part of France. After annexing the provinces of Holland into the Empire, he forced Louis to abdicate in 1810. Louis son, Napoleon Louis, reigned for a week as Louis II before Napoleon annexed the rest of the kingdom into the French Empire, during that period Queen Hortense acted as Regent of the Kingdom
Kingdom of Holland
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Flag
20.
States-Provincial
–
The States-Provincial is the provincial parliament and legislative assembly in each of the provinces of the Netherlands. It is elected for each province simultaneously once every four years and has the responsibility for matters of sub-national or regional importance, each States-Provincial is directly elected by the electors within the relevant province, and the number of seats in each States-Provincial is proportional to its population. The States-Provincial originated as Estates assemblies in the Middle Ages, hence the name, from 1813 to 1850 the noble members of the ridderschap chose one third of the members of States-Provincial. Johan Rudolf Thorbeckes reforms and his Provinces Law of 1850 brought this privilege to an end, the States-Provincial choose the Gedeputeerde Staten as the executive organ of the province. Originally, the States-Provincial themselves had also executive powers and chose the Gedeputeerde Staten from their own members for daily governance, on 11 March 2003, the two institutions split, in other words, there was a change from fusion of powers to separation of powers. The principal roles of the States-Provincial have become to set policies, represent the people, approve provincial legislation. Both the Gedeputeerde Staten and the States-Provincial are presided over by the Kings Commissioner in the province, the last provincial elections were held 18 March 2015. Three months after their election the combined members of the States-Provincial elect the members of the Senate of the States-General of the Netherlands. The size of a States-Provincial ranges from 39 members for a province with less than 400,000 inhabitants to 55 members for a province with more than 2,000,000 inhabitants. Before 2007, it ranged from 47 members for a province with less than 200,000 inhabitants to 83 members for a province with more than 2,500,000 inhabitants. As a consequence of a change to the Provinciewet, starting at the States-Provincial elections of 7 March 2007, a survey of the change in seats per province, A consequence of this reduction in the number of seats is that the election threshold has risen. Depending on the province, the threshold now lies between 1. 5% and over 2% of the votes, because of this, it has become harder for small parties to win a seat. This may also have consequences for the representation of small parties in the Senate, outcome of the provincial elections calculated at national level, Note *,2003 election calculated for the 2007 number of seats. This table only shows the distribution straight after the elections
States-Provincial
–
Kingdom of the Netherlands
21.
Christian Democratic Appeal
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The Christian Democratic Appeal is a Christian-democratic political party in the Netherlands. Sybrand van Haersma Buma has been the party leader since 18 May 2012, the party suffered severe losses in the 2010 general election, losing half of its seats and falling to fourth place in the House of Representatives. Subsequently, the CDA again lost a number of seats in the 2012 general election. Since 1880 the sizeable Catholic and Protestant parties had worked together in the so-called Coalitie and they shared a common interest in public funding of religious schools. In 1888 they formed the first Christian-democratic government, led by the Anti-Revolutionary Æneas Baron Mackay, the cooperation was not without problems and in 1894 the more anti-papist and aristocratic conservatives left the Protestant Anti Revolutionary Party, to found the Christian Historical Union. The main issues dividing Protestants and Catholics was the position of the Dutch Representation at the Holy See, the General League evolved into the Roman Catholic State Party by 1926, and the Catholic Peoples Party in 1945. From 1918 to 1967, the three Christian Democratic parties had a majority in both houses of the States General, and at least two of them were included in every cabinet, the KVP and its antecedents had been in government without interruption since 1918. In the sixties, the Dutch society became more secularized and the pillars faded, in 1963 general election the three parties held 51% of the vote, whilst in 1972 general election they held only 32%. This decline forced the three parties to work closer together, in 1967 the Group of Eighteen was formed, it was a think-tank of six prominent politicians per party that planned the future cooperation of the three parties. In 1968 the three leaders of the parties (Norbert Schmelzer, Barend Biesheuvel and Jur Mellema made a public appearance. This caused progressive forces within the three parties, especially the ARP and KVP, to regret their political affiliation, in 1968 they founded the Political Party of Radicals, a left-wing party that sought cooperation with the Labour Party. Locally and provincially however the three parties had long cooperated well, in areas they formed one Christian-democratic parliamentary party. In the 1971 general election, the three presented a common political program, which lay the foundation for the first Biesheuvel cabinet. After the disastrous elections of 1972 the cooperation was given new momentum, in 1973 this federation was officially formed, with Steenkamp as chairperson. The cooperation was frustrated by the formation of the Den Uyl cabinet, established by the leader of the social-democratic PvdA, Den Uyl refused to allow members of the CHU in the cabinet that he would lead. This led to a situation where the CHU, ARP and KVP sat as a faction in both houses of parliament, but only the KVP and ARP supplied ministers and junior ministers. The cabinet Den Uyl was riddled with political and personal conflicts, another issue that split the three parties was the place that the Bible would take in the new party. In 1976, the three announced that they would field a single list at the 1977 general election under the name Christian Democratic Appeal
Christian Democratic Appeal
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Piet Steenkamp, co-founder and honorary chair
Christian Democratic Appeal
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Kingdom of the Netherlands
Christian Democratic Appeal
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Piet Bukman, party chair from 1980 until 1986
Christian Democratic Appeal
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Dries van Agt, party leader from 1976 until 1982
22.
Agriculture
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Agriculture is the cultivation and breeding of animals, plants and fungi for food, fiber, biofuel, medicinal plants and other products used to sustain and enhance human life. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of human civilization. The study of agriculture is known as agricultural science, the history of agriculture dates back thousands of years, and its development has been driven and defined by greatly different climates, cultures, and technologies. Industrial agriculture based on large-scale monoculture farming has become the dominant agricultural methodology, genetically modified organisms are an increasing component of agriculture, although they are banned in several countries. Agricultural food production and water management are increasingly becoming global issues that are fostering debate on a number of fronts, the major agricultural products can be broadly grouped into foods, fibers, fuels, and raw materials. Specific foods include cereals, vegetables, fruits, oils, meats, fibers include cotton, wool, hemp, silk and flax. Raw materials include lumber and bamboo, other useful materials are also produced by plants, such as resins, dyes, drugs, perfumes, biofuels and ornamental products such as cut flowers and nursery plants. The word agriculture is a late Middle English adaptation of Latin agricultūra, from ager, field, Agriculture usually refers to human activities, although it is also observed in certain species of ant, termite and ambrosia beetle. To practice agriculture means to use resources to produce commodities which maintain life, including food, fiber, forest products, horticultural crops. This definition includes arable farming or agronomy, and horticulture, all terms for the growing of plants, even then, it is acknowledged that there is a large amount of knowledge transfer and overlap between silviculture and agriculture. In traditional farming, the two are often combined even on small landholdings, leading to the term agroforestry, Agriculture began independently in different parts of the globe, and included a diverse range of taxa. At least 11 separate regions of the Old and New World were involved as independent centers of origin, wild grains were collected and eaten from at least 105,000 years ago. Pigs were domesticated in Mesopotamia around 15,000 years ago, rice was domesticated in China between 13,500 and 8,200 years ago, followed by mung, soy and azuki beans. Sheep were domesticated in Mesopotamia between 13,000 and 11,000 years ago. From around 11,500 years ago, the eight Neolithic founder crops, emmer and einkorn wheat, hulled barley, peas, lentils, bitter vetch, chick peas and flax were cultivated in the Levant. Cattle were domesticated from the aurochs in the areas of modern Turkey. In the Andes of South America, the potato was domesticated between 10,000 and 7,000 years ago, along with beans, coca, llamas, alpacas, sugarcane and some root vegetables were domesticated in New Guinea around 9,000 years ago. Sorghum was domesticated in the Sahel region of Africa by 7,000 years ago, cotton was domesticated in Peru by 5,600 years ago, and was independently domesticated in Eurasia at an unknown time
Agriculture
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Agriculture
Agriculture
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Fields in
Záhorie (
Slovakia) - a typical Central European agricultural region.
Agriculture
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Domestic sheep and a
cow (heifer) pastured together in
South Africa.
Agriculture
–
A
Sumerian harvester's sickle made from baked clay (ca. 3000 BC).
23.
Dolmen
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A dolmen is a type of single-chamber megalithic tomb, usually consisting of two or more vertical megaliths supporting a large flat horizontal capstone, although there are also more complex variants. Most date from the early Neolithic, Dolmens were typically covered with earth or smaller stones to form a tumulus. In many instances, that covering has weathered away, leaving only the skeleton of the burial mound intact. It remains unclear when, why, and by whom the earliest dolmens were made, the oldest known dolmens are in Western Europe, where they were set in place around 7,000 years ago. Archaeologists still do not know who erected these dolmens, which makes it difficult to know why they did it and they are generally all regarded as tombs or burial chambers, despite the absence of clear evidence for this. Human remains, sometimes accompanied by artefacts, have found in or close to the dolmens which could be scientifically dated using radiocarbon dating. However, it has been impossible to prove that these date from the time when the stones were originally set in place. The word dolmen has a confused history, the word entered archaeology when Théophile Corret de la Tour dAuvergne used it to describe megalithic tombs in his Origines gauloises using the spelling dolmin. The name was derived from a Breton language term meaning stone table but doubt has been cast on this. Nonetheless it has now replaced cromlech as the usual English term in archaeology, granja is used in Portugal, Galicia, and Spain. The rarer forms anta and ganda also appear, in the Basque Country, they are attributed to the jentilak, a race of giants. The etymology of the German, Hünenbett, Hünengrab and Dutch, of other Celtic languages, Welsh, cromlech was borrowed into English and quoit is commonly used in English in Cornwall. Great dolmen Passage grave Polygonal dolmen Rectangular, enlarged or extended dolmen Simple dolmen Korean dolmens exhibit a distinct from the Atlantic European dolmen. The largest concentration of dolmens in the world is found on the Korean Peninsula, with an estimated 35,000 dolmens, Korea alone accounts for nearly 40% of the world’s total. Three specific UNESCO World Heritage sites at Gochang, Hwasun and Ganghwa by themselves account for over 1,000 dolmens, the Korean word for dolmen is goindol supported stone. Serious studies of the Korean megalithic monuments were not undertaken until relatively recently, after 1945, new research is being conducted by Korean scholars. In 1981 a curator of National Museum of Korea, Gongil Ji, the boundary between them falls at the Bukhan River although examples of both types are found on either side. Korean dolmens can also be divided into three types, the table type, the go-table type and the unsupported capstone type
Dolmen
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A dolmen on
Ganghwado, South Korea
Dolmen
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A dolmen erected by Neolithic people in
Marayur, India
Dolmen
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Dolmen of
Oleiros, Galicia
Dolmen
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Poulnabrone dolmen in
the Burren,
County Clare, Ireland
24.
Schoonoord, Coevorden
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Schoonoord is a town in the Netherlands and it is part of the Coevorden municipality in Drenthe. It has an altitude of about 20 meters, the population was 2,219 with 970 households in 2004. Schoonoord was founded in 1854 by labourmen from Smilde who dug the Oranjekanaal, later, when the peat in the neighbouring Odoornerveen was being cut, more workers settled in the village. The name of the village was thought up by the peat digger Klijn, due to the 100th anniversary of the village a few turf huts were built. This collection has evolved to the open-air museum Ellert en Brammert, also, there is a megalith called the Papeloze Kerk nearby Schoonoord. A windmill in Schoonoord has been converted to residential accommodation but is missing its cap, media related to Schoonoord at Wikimedia Commons
Schoonoord, Coevorden
–
A bridge in the centre of the village
Schoonoord, Coevorden
–
Schoonoord
25.
Westerbork transit camp
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The Westerbork transit camp was a World War II Nazi refugee, detention and transit camp in Hooghalen, ten kilometres north of Westerbork, in the northeastern Netherlands. Its function during the Second World War was to assemble Romani and Dutch Jews for transport to Nazi extermination camps, since the establishment of the National Socialist regime in Germany in 1933, the Netherlands had been managing a steady flow of Jewish refugees across its border with Germany. In 1939, the Dutch government erected a Central Refugee Camp near Westerbork, the Committee for Jewish Refugees, which had been managing the support of the German refugees since 1933, had been required to underwrite the Camps expenses with a one million guilder fund. The first 22 refugees took up residence at the Camp in October 1939, following the German invasion of the Netherlands, the Nazis took over the camp and turned it into a deportation camp. From this camp,101,000 Dutch Jews and about 5,000 German Jews were deported to their deaths in Occupied Poland. In addition, there were about 400 Gypsies in the camp and, at the end of the War. Between July 1942 and September 1944, almost every Tuesday a cargo train left for the concentration camps Auschwitz-Birkenau, Sobibór, Bergen-Belsen, from 1942 to 1945, a total of 107,000 people passed through the camp on a total of 93 outgoing trains. Only 5,200 of them survived, most of them in Theresienstadt or Bergen-Belsen, anne Frank stayed in the hut shown to the left from August until early September 1944, when she was taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau. She and her family were put on the first of the three trains on 3 September 1944 for Auschwitz, arriving there three days later. The German film actress and cabaret singer Dora Gerson was interned at Westerbork with her family before being sent on a transport to Auschwitz. Etty Hillesum was interned in this camp from 30 July 1942 until 7 September 1943, the Canadian 2nd Infantry Division liberated the several hundred inhabitants that were still at Westerbork on 12 April 1945. The first soldiers to reach the camp were from the 8th Reconnaissance Regiment, the results were published fifteen years later in The Catastrophe. Presser also published a novel, The Night of the Girondins, between 1950 and 1970, the camp was renamed Kamp Schattenberg and used to house refugees from the Maluku Islands. In 1969, the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope was partially constructed on the site of the camp, in the 1970s, the camp was demolished. Near the site there is now a museum, and monuments of remembrance of those transported and killed during World War II, herbstrith, W. Edith Stein, A biography. San Francisco, CA, Harper & Row Publishers, jacob Boas, Boulevard des Misères, the Story of the Transit Camp Westerbork. Hamden, Connecticut, Archon Books,1985 ISBN 0-208-01977-4 Etty Hillesum, new York, Pantheon,1986 ISBN 0-394-55350-0 Cecil Law, Kamp Westerbork, transit camp to eternity, the liberation story. Canadian Peacekeeping Press,2000 ISBN1896551351 Hans-Dieter Arntz, Der letzte Judenälteste von Bergen-Belsen, josef Weiss - würdig in einer unwürdigen Umgebung
Westerbork transit camp
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Kamp Westerbork Judendurchgangslager Westerbork
Westerbork transit camp
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Parts of a rebuilt hut at Westerbork.
Westerbork transit camp
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Model of the Westerbork concentration camp.
26.
Hunebed
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A dolmen is a type of single-chamber megalithic tomb, usually consisting of two or more vertical megaliths supporting a large flat horizontal capstone, although there are also more complex variants. Most date from the early Neolithic, Dolmens were typically covered with earth or smaller stones to form a tumulus. In many instances, that covering has weathered away, leaving only the skeleton of the burial mound intact. It remains unclear when, why, and by whom the earliest dolmens were made, the oldest known dolmens are in Western Europe, where they were set in place around 7,000 years ago. Archaeologists still do not know who erected these dolmens, which makes it difficult to know why they did it and they are generally all regarded as tombs or burial chambers, despite the absence of clear evidence for this. Human remains, sometimes accompanied by artefacts, have found in or close to the dolmens which could be scientifically dated using radiocarbon dating. However, it has been impossible to prove that these date from the time when the stones were originally set in place. The word dolmen has a confused history, the word entered archaeology when Théophile Corret de la Tour dAuvergne used it to describe megalithic tombs in his Origines gauloises using the spelling dolmin. The name was derived from a Breton language term meaning stone table but doubt has been cast on this. Nonetheless it has now replaced cromlech as the usual English term in archaeology, granja is used in Portugal, Galicia, and Spain. The rarer forms anta and ganda also appear, in the Basque Country, they are attributed to the jentilak, a race of giants. The etymology of the German, Hünenbett, Hünengrab and Dutch, of other Celtic languages, Welsh, cromlech was borrowed into English and quoit is commonly used in English in Cornwall. Great dolmen Passage grave Polygonal dolmen Rectangular, enlarged or extended dolmen Simple dolmen Korean dolmens exhibit a distinct from the Atlantic European dolmen. The largest concentration of dolmens in the world is found on the Korean Peninsula, with an estimated 35,000 dolmens, Korea alone accounts for nearly 40% of the world’s total. Three specific UNESCO World Heritage sites at Gochang, Hwasun and Ganghwa by themselves account for over 1,000 dolmens, the Korean word for dolmen is goindol supported stone. Serious studies of the Korean megalithic monuments were not undertaken until relatively recently, after 1945, new research is being conducted by Korean scholars. In 1981 a curator of National Museum of Korea, Gongil Ji, the boundary between them falls at the Bukhan River although examples of both types are found on either side. Korean dolmens can also be divided into three types, the table type, the go-table type and the unsupported capstone type
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A dolmen on
Ganghwado, South Korea
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A dolmen erected by Neolithic people in
Marayur, India
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Dolmen of
Oleiros, Galicia
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Poulnabrone dolmen in
the Burren,
County Clare, Ireland
listen)) is a province of the Netherlands, located in the northeast of the country. It is bordered by Overijssel to the south, Friesland to the west, Groningen to the north, and Germany (districts of Emsland and Bentheim) to the east. In January 2017, it had a population of 491,867 and a total area of 2,683 km2 (1,036 sq mi).
Drenthe travel guide from Wikivoyage
Drenthe
