The Dutch are an ethnic group native to the Netherlands. They share a common ancestral and cultural heritage and speak the Dutch language. Dutch people and their descendants are found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in Aruba, Suriname, Guyana, CuraƧao, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and the United States. The Low Countries were situated around the border of France and the Holy Roman Empire, forming a part of their respective peripheries and the various territories of which they consisted had become virtually autonomous by the 13th century. Under the Habsburgs, the Netherlands were organised into a single administrative unit, and in the 16th and 17th centuries the Northern Netherlands gained independence from Spain as the Dutch Republic. The high degree of urbanisation characteristic of Dutch society was attained at a relatively early date. During the Republic the first series of large-scale Dutch migrations outside of Europe took place.
The conversion of the Frankish king Clovis to Christianity would have great significance in helping shape the identity of the future Dutch people.
The Egmond Gospels contains the oldest known depiction of Dutch individuals, the count Dirk II of Holland and his wife Hildegard of Flanders.
The Act of Abjuration, signed on 26 July 1581, was the formal declaration of independence of the Dutch Low Countries.
Dutch people celebrating the liberation of the Netherlands at the end of World War II on 7 May 1945
An ethnicity or ethnic group is a group of people who identify with each other on the basis of perceived shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include a common nation of origin, or common sets of ancestry, traditions, language, history, society, religion, or social treatment. The term ethnicity is often used interchangeably with the term nation, particularly in cases of ethnic nationalism.
A group of ethnic Bengalis in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The Bengalis form the third-largest ethnic group in the world after the Han Chinese and Arabs.
The Javanese people of Indonesia are the largest Austronesian ethnic group.
The racial diversity of Asia's ethnic groups (original caption: Asiatiska folk), Nordisk familjebok (1904)
Assyrians are one of the indigenous peoples of Northern Iraq.