Misplaced Pages

#102897

104-455: Edegem ( Dutch pronunciation: [ˈeːdəɣɛm] , first mentioned as Buizegem in 1173) is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Antwerp . The municipality only comprises the town of Edegem proper. In 2021, Edegem had a total population of 22,244. The total area is 8.65 km². The old Sint-Antoniuskerk (church of Saint Anthony) is no longer open to the public. It

208-539: A pars pro toto for the entire country. Many Dutch people object to the country being referred to as Holland instead of the Netherlands , on much the same grounds as many Welsh or Scottish people object to the United Kingdom being referred to as England. In particular, those from regions other than Holland find it undesirable or misrepresentative to use the term Holland for the whole country, as

312-458: A Spanish prisoner, nailed it on a vessel's prow, and invited the townsmen to come and fasten their teeth in it, which many did with savage satisfaction. The Duke of Alba attempted to suppress the Protestant movement in the Netherlands. Netherlanders were "burned, strangled, beheaded, or buried alive" by his " Blood Council " and Spanish soldiers. Bodies were displayed along roads to terrorise

416-684: A distinct governmental structure of their own. They were utilized as a buffer zone between the Republic and the Spanish-controlled Southern Netherlands . In the Dutch Golden Age , spanning much of the 17th century, the Dutch Empire grew to become one of the major seafaring and economic powers. Science, military and art (especially painting ) were among the most acclaimed in the world. By 1650,

520-502: A law carried by special majorities can change the language status of any municipality, these arrangements have prevented some small municipalities with facilities to be merged in the 1970s, and thus the most minute Belgian municipalities are still found in this group, notably Herstappe with only 84 inhabitants (in 2006). Lucien Harmegnies, Minister of the Interior in the government of Gaston Eyskens (1968–1972) decided to continue

624-515: 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 eleventh-highest per capita income globally. The Hague holds the seat of the States General , Cabinet , and Supreme Court . The Port of Rotterdam

728-551: A mercantile middle class began to develop in these urban areas, especially in Flanders, and later Brabant. Wealthy cities started to buy certain privileges for themselves from the sovereign. Around 1100 AD, farmers from Flanders and Utrecht began draining and cultivating uninhabited swampy land in the western Netherlands, making the emergence of the County of Holland as the centre of power possible. The title of Count of Holland

832-456: A recreational playground. In the playground there is a forest, a large skatepark, a basketball court and three bowls areas. There is also a restaurant with a terrace where they serve simple meals, and a bar. The old building was completely restored. All the toys in the playground were renewed. Now there is also a water playground and an adventure playground. Municipalities of Belgium Here are three lists of municipalities for each one of

936-834: A result, there are several differences between the municipal institutions in Flanders, in Wallonia and in Brussels. Wallonia has also further devolved part of its responsibilities to the German-speaking Community with regards to its 9 municipalities. The three Regions can amend or replace the existing legislation on the municipalities, most notably the New Municipal Law. In the Flanders the Municipal Decree of 15 July 2005 applies. In Wallonia

1040-433: A state of almost continual war or paradoxically formed personal unions. As Frankish settlement progressed from Flanders and Brabant, the area quickly became Old Low Franconian (or Old Dutch). Around 1000 AD, due to several agricultural developments, the economy started to develop at a fast pace, and the higher productivity allowed workers to farm more land or become tradesmen. Towns grew around monasteries and castles , and

1144-497: A total area of 41,543 km (16,040 sq mi), including water bodies, and a land area of 33,481 km (12,927 sq mi). The Caribbean Netherlands has a total area of 328 km (127 sq mi) It lies between latitudes 50° and 54° N , and longitudes 3° and 8° E . The Netherlands is geographically very low relative to sea level and is considered a flat country, with about 26% of its area and 21% of its population below sea level. The European part of

SECTION 10

#1732786875103

1248-472: 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 . Netherlands literally means "lower countries" in reference to its low elevation and flat topography, with 26% below sea level . Most of the areas below sea level, known as polders , are the result of land reclamation that began in

1352-625: Is a country in Northwestern Europe , with overseas territories in the Caribbean . It is the largest of the 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 shares maritime borders with the United Kingdom , Germany, and Belgium. The official language

1456-417: Is also responsible for the maintenance of public order in their municipality. They chair the college of mayor and aldermen or the municipal college, depending on the region , as well. In the Flanders and Brussels , the mayor is appointed by the regional government, on the nomination of the municipal council, for a term of office of six years. In Wallonia , the mayor is the municipal councillor who received

1560-410: Is not sure when it was first built (some sources go back as far as the 16th century). The absence of heavy industry makes Edegem a typical commuter town . Despite its location next to the metropolis of the city of Antwerp , Edegem is not fully urbanized. The Sint-Antoniuskerk is a gothic church that was built between the 16th and 17th century. In 1884 a cave was built, after the cave present at

1664-706: Is now the southern Netherlands: the Menapii and the Eburones . Under Augustus , the Roman Empire would conquer the entirety of the modern day Netherlands, incorporating it into the province of Germania Antiqua in 7 BC, but would be repelled back across the Rhine after the Battle of Teutoburg Forest in 9 AD, with the Rhine becoming fixed as Rome's permanent northern frontier around 12 AD. Notable towns would arise along

1768-454: Is responsible for the daily administration of the municipality. It is also responsible for the preparation and implementation of the decisions of the municipal council. The municipal council ( Dutch : gemeenteraad ; French : conseil communal ; German : Gemeinderat ) is the representative assembly of the municipality and consists of members directly elected for a term of office of six years. The number of municipal councillors depends on

1872-703: Is the busiest in Europe . Schiphol is the busiest airport in the Netherlands , and the fourth busiest in Europe . Being a developed country , 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 intergovernmental organisations and international courts , many of which are in The Hague. The countries that comprise

1976-739: The Batavian rebellion of 69 AD but were eventually defeated. The Batavi later merged with other tribes into the confederation of the Salian Franks, whose identity emerged in the first half of the third century. Salian Franks appear in Roman texts as both allies and enemies. They were forced by the confederation of the Saxons from the east to move over the Rhine into Roman territory in the fourth century. From their new base in West Flanders and

2080-517: The Eighty Years' War between the Provinces and their Spanish ruler began. The level of ferocity exhibited by both sides can be gleaned from a Dutch chronicler's report: On more than one occasion men were seen hanging their own brothers, who had been taken prisoners in the enemy's ranks... A Spaniard had ceased to be human in their eyes. On one occasion, a surgeon at Veer cut the heart from

2184-640: The European Economic Community and European Atomic Energy Community . In 1993, the former two were incorporated into the European Union . Government-encouraged emigration efforts to reduce population density prompted some 500,000 Dutch to leave the country after the war. The 1960s and 1970s were a time of great social and cultural change, such as rapid de- pillarisation . Students and other youth rejected traditional mores and pushed for change in matters such as women's rights , sexuality , disarmament and environmental issues . In 2002

SECTION 20

#1732786875103

2288-581: The Hilversum culture . Iron ore brought a measure of prosperity and was available throughout the country. Smiths travelled from settlement to settlement with bronze and iron, fabricating tools on demand. The King's grave of Oss (700 BC) was found in a burial mound, the largest of its kind in Western Europe. The deteriorating climate in Scandinavia from 850 BC and 650 BC might have triggered

2392-683: The Holland region only comprises two of the twelve provinces, and 38% of Dutch citizens. As of 2019, the Dutch government officially has preferred the Netherlands instead of Holland when talking about the country . Often Holland or Hollanders is used by the Flemish to refer to the Dutch in the Netherlands, and by the Southern Dutch (Dutch living " below the great rivers ", a natural cultural, social and religious boundary formed by

2496-753: The Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies . In 1944–45, the First Canadian Army liberated much of the Netherlands. Soon after VE Day , the Dutch fought a colonial war against the new Republic of Indonesia . In 1954, the Charter for the Kingdom of the Netherlands reformed the political structure as a result of international pressure to carry out decolonisation . The Dutch colonies of Surinam and Curaçao and Dependencies and

2600-787: The Limes Germanicus : Nijmegen and Voorburg . In the first part of Gallia Belgica , the area south of the Limes became part of the Roman province of Germania Inferior . The area to the north of the Rhine, inhabited by the Frisii, remained outside Roman rule, while the Germanic border tribes of the Batavi and Cananefates served in the Roman cavalry . The Batavi rose against the Romans in

2704-662: The Netherlands and another 119 municipalities became the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (see the article Communes of Luxembourg for details). New municipalities were created until 1928. There were 2,528 municipalities in 1850, 2,572 in 1875, 2,617 in 1900 and a maximum of 2,675 in 1929. This also includes the municipalities of the East Cantons that were added to Belgium following the First World War . In 1961,

2808-680: The Nordwestblock culture. The first author to describe the coast of Holland and Flanders was the geographer Pytheas , who noted in c. 325 BC that in these regions, "more people died in the struggle against water than in the struggle against men." During the Gallic Wars , the area south and west of the Rhine was conquered by Roman forces under Julius Caesar from 57 BC to 53 BC. Caesar describes two main Celtic tribes living in what

2912-467: The Rhine - Meuse river estuary . In the east of the Netherlands, remains are found of the last ice age , which ended approximately ten thousand years ago. As the continental ice sheet moved in from the north, it pushed moraine forward. The ice sheet halted as it covered the eastern half of the Netherlands. After the ice age ended, the moraine remained in the form of a long hill-line. The cities of Arnhem and Nijmegen are built on these hills. Over

3016-510: The States General , was headquartered in The Hague and comprised representatives from each of the seven provinces. The sparsely populated region of Drenthe was part of the republic, albeit not considered a province in its own right. Moreover, during the Eighty Years' War , the Republic came to occupy a number of Generality Lands located in Flanders , Brabant and Limburg . These areas were primarily inhabited by Roman Catholics and lacked

3120-478: The United Kingdom of the Netherlands , only a number of smaller municipalities were merged. In 1831, Belgium was divided into 2,739 municipalities, a number which remained more or less constant until 1961. The law of 30 March 1836 regulated municipalities and their governing bodies. The number of municipalities was reduced to 2,508 when the Belgian borders were recognised in 1839, as 124 municipalities were ceded to

3224-682: The euro was introduced as fiat money , and in 2010 the Netherlands Antilles was dissolved . Referendums were held on each island. As a result, Bonaire , Sint Eustatius and Saba (the BES islands) were incorporated as special municipalities upon the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles. The special municipalities are collectively known as the Caribbean Netherlands . The European Netherlands has

Edegem - Misplaced Pages Continue

3328-435: The regular elections of 14 October 2018 , and the change took effect on 1 January 2019. The mayor ( Dutch : burgemeester ; French : bourgmestre ; German : Bürgermeister ) is not only the head of the municipality but also the representative of the regional and the federal government at the local level. In that capacity, they are responsible for the execution of laws , decrees , ordinances and orders. The mayor

3432-404: The "Netherlands" lost their original deictic meaning . In most Romance languages , the term "Low Countries" is officially used as the name for the Netherlands. The term Holland has frequently been used informally to refer to the whole of the modern country of the Netherlands in various languages, including Dutch and English. In some languages, Holland is used as the formal name for

3536-642: The 14th century . In the Republican period , which began in 1588, the Netherlands entered a unique era of political, economic, and cultural greatness, ranked among the most powerful and influential in Europe and the world; this period is known as the Dutch Golden Age . During this time, its trading companies, the Dutch East India Company and the Dutch West India Company , established colonies and trading posts all over

3640-549: The 490s, Clovis I had conquered and united all these territories in the southern Netherlands in one Frankish kingdom , and from there continued his conquests into Gaul . During this expansion, Franks migrating to the south (modern territory of France and Walloon part of Belgium) eventually adopted the Vulgar Latin of the local population. A widening cultural divide grew with the Franks remaining in their original homeland in

3744-625: The Code of Local Democracy and Decentralization applies. In Brussels several provisions of the New Municipal Law have been modified by ordinance , such as the Ordinance of 17 July 2003. The legal framework in the three Regions is still relatively similar, but that could change in the future. Since 1970, the Belgian Constitution includes the possibility to create agglomerations and federations of municipalities by law. This possibility

3848-623: The Dutch Republic was attacked by France, England and three German Bishoprics simultaneously, in what would become known as the Franco-Dutch War . At sea , it could successfully prevent the English and French navies from blockading the western shores. On land, however, it was almost taken over by the advancing French and German armies from the east. It managed to turn the tide by inundating parts of Holland . From 1672 to 1712,

3952-661: The Dutch established a presence in India , the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia ), Formosa (now Taiwan ), and the only western trading post in Japan, Dejima . During the period of Proto-industrialisation , the empire received 50% of textiles and 80% of silks import from the India's Mughal Empire . Many economic historians regard the Netherlands as the first thoroughly capitalist country. In early modern Europe, it had

4056-670: The Dutch owned 16,000 merchant ships. The Dutch East India Company and the Dutch West India Company established colonies and trading posts all over the world. The Dutch settlement in North America began with the founding of New Amsterdam in 1614. In South Africa, the Dutch settled the Cape Colony in 1652. Dutch colonies in South America were established along the many rivers in the fertile Guyana plains, among them Colony of Surinam (now Suriname ). In Asia,

4160-699: The European country all became countries within the Kingdom, on a basis of equality. Indonesia had declared its independence in August 1945. Suriname followed in 1975. The Netherlands was one of the founding members of Benelux and NATO . In the 1950s, the Netherlands became one of the six founding countries of the European Communities , following the 1952 establishment of the European Coal and Steel Community , and subsequent 1958 creations of

4264-736: The Frisians were defeated after a series of wars . With the approval of the Franks, the Anglo-Saxon missionary Willibrord converted the Frisian people to Christianity and established the Archdiocese of Utrecht . However, his successor Boniface was murdered by the Frisians in 754. The Frankish Carolingian empire controlled much of Western Europe. In 843, it was divided into three parts— East , Middle , and West Francia . Most of present-day Netherlands became part of Middle Francia, which

Edegem - Misplaced Pages Continue

4368-636: The Low Countries from 1384 to 1581. The new rulers defended Dutch trading interests. The fleets of the County of Holland defeated the fleets of the Hanseatic League several times. Amsterdam grew and in the 15th century became the primary trading port in Europe for grain from the Baltic region . Amsterdam distributed grain to the major cities of Belgium, Northern France and England. This trade

4472-413: The Low Countries south of the great rivers. These tribes would eventually develop into the Salian Franks . The Celtic La Tène culture (c. 450 BC to the Roman conquest) expanded over a wide range, including the southern area of the Low Countries . Some scholars have speculated that even a third ethnic identity and language, neither Germanic nor Celtic, survived in the Netherlands until the Roman period,

4576-409: The Meuse. These rivers functioned as a natural barrier between fiefdoms and hence historically created a cultural divide, as is evident in some phonetic traits that are recognisable on either side of what the Dutch call their "Great Rivers" ( de Grote Rivieren ). Another significant branch of the Rhine, the IJssel river, discharges into Lake IJssel , the former Zuiderzee ('southern sea'). Just like

4680-454: The Netherlands are Amsterdam , Rotterdam , The Hague and Utrecht . Amsterdam is the country's most populous city and the nominal capital , though the primary national political institutions are located in the Hague. The Netherlands has been a parliamentary constitutional monarchy with a unitary structure since 1848. The country has a tradition of pillarisation (separation of citizens into groups by religion and political beliefs) and

4784-476: The Netherlands to the brink of bankruptcy. However, the Cultivation System was introduced in 1830; in the Dutch East Indies, 20% of village land had to be devoted to government crops for export. The policy brought the Dutch enormous wealth and made the colony self-sufficient. The Netherlands abolished slavery in its colonies in 1863. Enslaved people in Suriname would be fully free only in 1873. The Netherlands remained neutral during World War I, in part because

4888-415: The Netherlands) and upstream Germania Superior . Thus, in the case of the Low Countries and the Netherlands, the geographical location of this lower region is more or less downstream and near the sea, compared to that of the upper region of Germania Superior. The designation 'Low' returned in the 10th-century Duchy of Lower Lorraine , which covered much of the Low Countries. The Dukes of Burgundy used

4992-432: The Netherlands. However, Holland is a region within the Netherlands that consists of the two provinces of North and South Holland . Formerly these were a single province, and earlier the County of Holland , which included parts of present-day Utrecht . The emphasis on Holland during the formation of the Dutch Republic , the Eighty Years' War , and the Anglo-Dutch Wars in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, made Holland

5096-407: The Northern Netherlands in 1839 as the Kingdom of the Netherlands was created by decree), while the personal union between Luxembourg and the Netherlands was severed in 1890, when William III died with no surviving male heirs. Ascendancy laws prevented his daughter Queen Wilhelmina from becoming the next Grand Duchess. The Belgian Revolution and the Java War in the Dutch East Indies brought

5200-428: The Republic, led by William III of Orange and Anthonie Heinsius would regularly clash with France in what some historians have come to call the Forty Years' War . In the Nine Years' War and the War of the Spanish Succession , the Republic was at the centre of anti-French coalitions. The Dutch ultimately successfully defended the Spanish Netherlands , established a barrier there, and their troops proved central to

5304-454: The Silent in driving out Spanish troops and forming a new government for the Netherlands. Don Juan of Austria , the new Spanish governor, was forced to concede initially, but within months returned to active hostilities. The Dutch looked for help from the Protestant Elizabeth I of England, but she initially stood by her commitments to the Spanish in the Treaty of Bristol of 1574. When the next large-scale battle occurred at Gembloux in 1578,

SECTION 50

#1732786875103

5408-432: The Southwest Netherlands, they were raiding the English Channel . Roman forces pacified the region but did not expel the Franks, who continued to be feared at least until the time of Julian the Apostate (358) when Salian Franks were allowed to settle as foederati in Texandria . After the Roman government in the area collapsed in roughly the year 406, the Franks expanded their territories into numerous kingdoms. By

5512-406: The Spanish forces won easily. In light of the defeat at Gembloux , the southern states of the Seventeen Provinces distanced themselves from the rebels in the north with the 1579 Union of Arras . Opposing them, the northern half of the Seventeen Provinces forged the Union of Utrecht in which they committed to support each other against the Spanish. The Union of Utrecht is seen as the foundation of

5616-431: The Spanish in the Netherlands under the Duke of Parma in a series of largely indecisive actions that tied down significant numbers of Spanish troops and bought time for the Dutch to reorganise their defences. The war continued until 1648, when Spain under King Philip IV recognised the independence of the seven north-western provinces in the Peace of Münster . Parts of the southern provinces became de facto colonies of

5720-429: The United Provinces consistently possessed one of Europe's largest and most capable armies. However, following the conclusion of the War of the Spanish Succession , other major powers such as Prussia, Austria, Britain, and Russia significantly expanded their military forces. The Republic struggled to match these developments, and gradually assumed the status of a mid-tier power. However, historians have sometimes overstated

5824-408: The alliance which halted French territorial expansion in Europe until a new cycle began in 1792 with the French Revolutionary Wars . However, the wars left them effectively bankrupt, and inflicted permanent damage on the Dutch merchant navy; while they remained the dominant economic power in the Far East, Britain took over as the pre-eminent global commercial and maritime power. Between 1590 and 1713,

5928-500: The armed support of revolutionary France , Dutch republicans proclaimed the Batavian Republic , modelled after the French Republic and rendering the Netherlands a unitary state on 19 January 1795. The stadtholder William V of Orange had fled to England. From 1806 to 1810, the Kingdom of Holland was set up by Napoleon Bonaparte as a puppet kingdom governed by his brother Louis Bonaparte . However, King Louis Bonaparte tried to serve Dutch interests instead of his brother's, and he

6032-411: The castle with the Sint-Anoniuskerk . In the 20th century the castle was inhabited by Baron and Baroness de Roest d'Alkmade . It is a compound of the Brialmontgordel or the National Redoubt , a series of forts built around the city of Antwerp as a defence against foreign armies. During the Franco–Prussian war of 1870 it became clear that, due to innovations in the weapons industry, German artillery

6136-418: The centuries, the Dutch coastline has changed considerably as a result of natural disasters and human intervention. On 14 December 1287, St. Lucia's flood affected the Netherlands and Germany, killing more than 50,000 people in one of the most destructive floods in recorded history. The St. Elizabeth flood of 1421 and the mismanagement in its aftermath destroyed a newly reclaimed polder , replacing it with

6240-416: The city council and the local religious institutions decided to build a new place of worship near the site of the Cave of Our Lady of Lourdes due to the large number of pilgrims visiting the site. The church was designed by architect Louis De Vooght to be a neo-Byzantine basilique. Construction began in September 1931 and ended in the first half of 1933. In 2008, Pope Benedict XVI gave the Basilica of Edegem

6344-487: The country is for the most part flat, with the exception of foothills in the far southeast, up to a height of no more than 322 m (1,056 ft) at the Vaalserberg , and some low hill ranges in the central parts. Most of the areas below sea level are caused by peat extraction or achieved through land reclamation . Since the late 16th century, large polder areas are preserved through elaborate drainage systems that include dikes , canals and pumping stations. Much of

SECTION 60

#1732786875103

6448-424: The country was originally formed by the estuaries of three large European rivers: the Rhine ( Rijn ), the Meuse ( Maas ) and the Scheldt ( Schelde ), as well as their tributaries . The south-western part of the Netherlands is a river delta of these rivers, the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta . The European Netherlands is divided into north and south parts by the Rhine, the Waal , its main tributary branch, and

6552-415: The countryside was plundered for food. Although there were thousands of Dutch who risked their lives by hiding Jews from the Germans, over 20,000 Dutch fascists joined the Waffen SS . Political collaborators were members of the fascist NSB , the only legal political party in the occupied Netherlands. On 8 December 1941, the Dutch government-in-exile in London declared war on Japan, but could not prevent

6656-432: The end of the Ice Age , the nomadic late Upper Palaeolithic Hamburg culture (13,000–10,000 BC) hunted reindeer in the area, using spears. The later Ahrensburg culture (11,200–9,500 BC) used bow and arrow . From Mesolithic Maglemosian-like tribes (c. 8000 BC), the world's oldest canoe was found in Drenthe . Indigenous late Mesolithic hunter-gatherers from the Swifterbant culture (c. 5600 BC), related to

6760-409: The extent of this decline, especially when considering the period up to the 1750s. In the 18th century the Dutch Republic had seen a state of a general decline, with economic competition from England and long-standing rivalries between the two main factions in Dutch society, the republican Staatsgezinden and the supporters of the stadtholder the Prinsgezinden as main political factions. With

6864-449: The federal level to the three regions. This did not instantly have any significant effect on the reorganisation of municipalities, up until the Flemish Bourgeois Government (2014-2019) provided a legal framework and financial incentives for municipalities to consider merging. This led 15 Flemish municipalities to merge into seven, decreasing the total number of Flemish municipalities from 308 to 300. Their municipal councils were elected in

6968-552: The import of goods through the Netherlands proved essential to German survival until the blockade by the British Royal Navy in 1916. That changed in World War II, when Germany invaded the Netherlands on 10 May 1940. The Rotterdam Blitz forced most of the Dutch army to surrender. During the occupation, over 100,000 Dutch Jews were transported to Nazi extermination camps ; only a few survived. Dutch workers were conscripted for forced labour in Germany, civilians who resisted were killed in reprisal for attacks on German soldiers, and

7072-439: The largest number of preferential votes of the majority party that received the largest number of votes in the municipal elections. Hence, it is also possible that the mayor is not a member of the largest party, as the largest party is not always part of the governing coalition. It is also possible in Wallonia for the municipal council to adopt a constructive motion of no confidence in the municipal college. The executive organ of

7176-427: The migration of Germanic tribes from the North. By the time this migration was complete, around 250 BC, a few general cultural and linguistic groups had emerged. The North Sea Germanic Ingaevones inhabited the northern part of the Low Countries . They would later develop into the Frisii and the early Saxons . The Weser–Rhine Germanic (or Istvaeones ) extended along the middle Rhine and Weser and inhabited

7280-450: The modern Netherlands. Spanish troops sacked Maastricht in 1579, killing over 10,000 civilians. In 1581, the northern provinces adopted the Act of Abjuration , the declaration of independence in which the provinces officially deposed Philip II. Against the rebels Philip could draw on the resources of the Spanish Empire . Elizabeth I sympathised with the Dutch struggle and sent an army of 7,600 soldiers to aid them. English forces faced

7384-422: The municipalities of Berchem , Borgerhout , Deurne , Hoboken , Ekeren , Merksem and Wilrijk in 1983 finally reduced the number of municipalities in Belgium to 589 and was the last reorganization of the municipalities for several decades because the merger of the 19 municipalities of Brussels was postponed indefinitely. The fifth state reform (2001) transferred the responsibility over municipalities from

7488-426: The municipality is known as the college of mayor and aldermen ( Dutch : college van burgemeester en schepenen ; French : collège des bourgmestre et échevins ), commonly referred to as the college of aldermen ( Dutch : schepencollege ; French : collège échevinal ), in Flanders and Brussels, and as the municipal college ( French : collège communal ; German : gemeindekollegium ) in Wallonia. This college

7592-490: The new republican-mercantile empire. Following the declaration of independence, the provinces of Holland , Zeeland , Groningen , Friesland , Utrecht , Overijssel , and Gelderland entered into a confederation . All these duchies, lordships and counties enjoyed a significant degree of autonomy and was governed by its own administrative body known as the States-Provincial . The confederal government, known as

7696-646: The north (i.e. the southern Netherlands and Flanders), who kept on speaking Old Frankish , which by the ninth century had evolved into Old Low Franconian or Old Dutch. A Dutch-French language boundary hence came into existence. To the north of the Franks, climatic conditions improved, and during the Migration Period Saxons , the closely related Angles , Jutes , and Frisii settled the coast. Many moved on to England and came to be known as Anglo-Saxons , but those who stayed would be referred to as Frisians and their language as Frisian . Frisian

7800-536: The north to create a strong country on the northern border of France. William Frederick raised this United Netherlands to the status of a kingdom and proclaimed himself as King William I in 1815. William became hereditary Grand Duke of Luxembourg in exchange for his German possessions. However, the Southern Netherlands had been culturally separate from the north since 1581, and rebelled . The south gained independence in 1830 as Belgium (recognised by

7904-530: The number of inhabitants of the municipality, and can vary from 7 to 55. It is responsible for all matters that are of municipal interest. Following the Fifth State Reform in 2001, the responsibility for the composition, the organization, the competences and the activities of the municipal institutions were devolved to the Regions , as well as the responsibility for the provincial institutions . As

8008-530: The number of municipalities in Belgium from 2,359 to 596. Because of the specific nature of the reorganization in Antwerp , the law of 30 December 1975 did not enter into force for Antwerp until 1 January 1983. The formerly-independent municipalities were called districts and were given an advisory function. However, on 1 January 2001 they were given an administrative function again. The merger of Antwerp with

8112-483: The official status of basilica minor . Kasteel Hof Ter Linden is a Neoclassical villa in Edegem. Its origins can be traced back to the early 15th century. In 1587–88 the estate was destroyed by Irish soldiers, reconstruction began in 1607. In 1725 it became a Hof van Plaisantie (Court of Pleasures) and in 1770–1773 the current Neoclassical facade was built. An impressive alley of Lindentrees, planted in 1756, connects

8216-512: The people", akin to Old Dutch Dietsch or Old English þeodisc , meaning "(of) the common ( Germanic ) people". At first, the English language used Dutch to refer to any or all speakers of West Germanic languages . Gradually its meaning shifted to the West Germanic people they had the most contact with. The oldest human ( Neanderthal ) traces in the Netherlands, believed to be about 250,000 years old, were found near Maastricht . At

8320-406: The population into submission. Alba boasted of having executed 18,600; this figure does not include those who perished by war and famine. The first great siege was Alba's effort to capture Haarlem and thereby cut Holland in half. It dragged on from December 1572 to the next summer, when Haarlemers finally surrendered on 13 July upon the promise that the city would be spared from being sacked. It

8424-461: The previous, this river forms a linguistic divide: people to the northeast of this river speak Dutch Low Saxon dialects (except for the province of Friesland , which has its own language). The Netherlands is mostly composed of deltaic , coastal and aeolian derived sediments during the Pleistocene glacial and interglacial periods. Almost the entire west Netherlands is composed of

8528-512: The process of territorial reorganization of Belgium. In 1971, the provisions of the Unity Law were extended and modified to apply to large agglomerations, which were initially excluded from its provisions. It was another Minister of the Interior, Joseph Michel, who managed the process. On 30 December 1975 the law regarding the merger of the municipalities was adopted. The merger became effective on 1 January 1977. The merger of 1977 further reduced

8632-644: The region called the Low Countries (Netherlands, Belgium , and Luxembourg ) all have comparatively the same toponymy . Place names with Neder , Nieder , Nedre , Nether , Lage(r) or Low(er) (in Germanic languages ) and Bas or Inferior (in Romance languages ) are in use in low-lying places all over Europe. The Romans made a distinction between the Roman provinces of downstream Germania Inferior (nowadays part of Belgium and

8736-611: The rivers Rhine and Meuse ) to refer to the Northern Dutch (Dutch living North of these rivers). In the Southern province of Limburg, the term is used for the Dutch from the other 11 provinces. The use of the term in this context by the Southern Dutch is in a derogatory fashion. Dutch is used as the adjective for the Netherlands, as well as the demonym . The origins of the word go back to Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz , Latinised into Theodiscus , meaning "popular" or "of

8840-477: The site of Our Lady of Lourdes, as a pilgrimage site. It became a very popular place of worship when truckloads of Christians came to visit the site. When the population of Edegem grew in the beginning of the 20th century the Sint-Antoniuskerk in the center of town became too small. Thus plans were made to build an expansion. But when World War I broke out in 1914, the expansion was delayed. Afterwards

8944-608: The so-called Unitary Law ( Dutch : Eenheidswet ; French : Loi unique ; German : Einheitsgesetz ), of which the fourth chapter was dedicated to the territorial organisation of the municipalities, was adopted. The authority to abolish municipalities was entrusted to the executive branch for a period of 10 years. Municipalities could be merged on financial grounds or on grounds of a geographical, linguistic, economic, social or cultural nature. In 1964 and in 1969 and 1970, roughly 300 municipalities ceased to exist and were subsumed into other municipalities. The number of municipalities

9048-519: The southern Scandinavian Ertebølle culture , were strongly linked to rivers and open water. Between 4800 and 4500 BC, the Swifterbant people started to adopt from the neighbouring Linear Pottery culture the practice of animal husbandry , and between 4300 and 4000 BC agriculture. The Funnelbeaker culture (4300–2800 BC) erected the dolmens , large stone grave monuments found in Drenthe . There

9152-470: The term les pays de par deçà ("the lands over here") for the Low Countries. Under Habsburg rule , this became pays d'embas ("lands down-here"). This was translated as Neder-landen in contemporary Dutch official documents. From a regional point of view, Niderlant was also the area between the Meuse and the lower Rhine in the late Middle Ages. From the mid-sixteenth century, the "Low Countries" and

9256-542: The three regions: The municipalities, as an administrative division , were officially created in 1795, when the Directoire reorganised the structures of the Ancien Régime . The municipalities with less than 5,000 inhabitants were grouped in so-called canton municipalities. In 1800, these canton municipalities were abolished again and the number of autonomous municipalities became 2,776. Not much changed during

9360-520: The wealthiest trading city in Amsterdam , and the first full-time stock exchange . The inventiveness of the traders led to insurance and retirement funds as well as phenomena such as the boom-bust cycle , the world's first asset-inflation bubble , the tulip mania of 1636–1637, and the world's first bear raider , Isaac le Maire . In 1672 – known in Dutch history as the Rampjaar (Disaster Year) –

9464-559: The world. With a population of over 18 million people, all living within a total area of 41,850 km (16,160 sq mi)—of which the land area is 33,500 km (12,900 sq mi)—the Netherlands is the 33rd most densely populated country, with a density of 535 people per square kilometre (1,390 people/sq mi). Nevertheless, it is the world's second-largest exporter of food and agricultural products by value, owing to its fertile soil , mild climate, intensive agriculture , and inventiveness . The four largest cities in

9568-491: Was Gerolf of Holland , who assumed lordship in Frisia, and Viking rule came to an end. The Holy Roman Empire ruled much of the Low Countries in the 10th and 11th century but was not able to maintain political unity. Powerful local nobles turned their cities, counties and duchies into private kingdoms that felt little sense of obligation to the emperor. Holland , Hainaut , Flanders , Gelre , Brabant , and Utrecht were in

9672-864: Was a quick transition from the Funnelbeaker farming culture to the pan-European Corded Ware pastoralist culture (c. 2950 BC). In the southwest, the Seine-Oise-Marne culture —related to the Vlaardingen culture (c. 2600 BC)—survived well into the Neolithic period, until it too was succeeded by the Corded Ware culture. The subsequent Bell Beaker culture (2700–2100 BC) introduced metalwork in copper, gold and later bronze and opened new international trade routes, reflected in copper artefacts . Finds of rare bronze objects suggest that Drenthe

9776-571: Was a stipulation Don Fadrique was unable to honour, when his soldiers mutinied, angered over pay owed and the miserable conditions of the campaign. On 4 November 1576, Spanish tercios seized Antwerp and subjected it to the worst pillage in the Netherlands' history. The citizens resisted but were overcome; seven thousand were killed and a thousand buildings were torched. Following the sack of Antwerp , delegates from Catholic Brabant, Protestant Holland and Zeeland agreed to join Utrecht and William

9880-687: Was a trading centre in the Bronze Age (2000–800 BC). The Bell Beaker culture developed locally into the Barbed-Wire Beaker culture (2100–1800 BC) and later the Elp culture (1800–800 BC), a Middle Bronze Age culture marked by earthenware pottery. The southern region became dominated by the related Hilversum culture (1800–800 BC). From 800 BC onwards, the Iron Age Celtic Hallstatt culture became influential, replacing

9984-611: Was a weak kingdom and subject to numerous partitions and annexation attempts by its stronger neighbours. It comprised territories from Frisia in the north to the Kingdom of Italy in the south. Around 850, Lothair I of Middle Francia acknowledged the Viking Rorik of Dorestad as ruler of most of Frisia. When the kingdom of Middle Francia was partitioned in 855, the lands north of the Alps passed to Lothair II and subsequently were named Lotharingia . After he died in 869, Lotharingia

10088-527: Was able to bombard the city of Paris from a distance as close as 7 km. So only four years after the construction of Fort 5 it became almost useless in the plan for the defence of Antwerp. In the 19th century the Brialmontgordel functioned as a prototype for the defense of large European cities. Today Fort 5 is open to the public and it functions as a recreational domain. It also houses all sorts of local organisations. The local authorities have made

10192-523: Was forced to abdicate on 1 July 1810. The Emperor sent in an army and the Netherlands became part of the French Empire until November 1813, when Napoleon was defeated in the Battle of Leipzig . William Frederick , son of the last stadtholder, returned to the Netherlands in 1813 and proclaimed himself Sovereign Prince . Two years later, the Congress of Vienna added the southern Netherlands to

10296-690: Was fought over in the Hook and Cod Wars between 1350 and 1490. The Cod faction consisted of the more progressive cities, while the Hook faction consisted of the conservative noblemen. These noblemen invited Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy to conquer Holland. Most of the Imperial and French fiefs in what is now the Netherlands and Belgium were united in a personal union by Philip the Good in 1433. The House of Valois-Burgundy and their Habsburg heirs would rule

10400-622: Was only used once in 1971 when the Brussels Agglomeration, comprising the 19 municipalities of Brussels , was put into place. It de facto ceased to exist in 1989 when the organs of the Brussels-Capital Region were established. Netherlands – in Europe  (light green & dark grey) – in the European Union  (light green) The Netherlands , informally Holland ,

10504-508: Was partitioned, into Upper and Lower Lotharingia , the latter comprising the Low Countries that became part of East Francia in 870. Around 879, another Viking expedition led by Godfrid, Duke of Frisia , raided the Frisian lands. Resistance to the Vikings, if any, came from local nobles, who gained in stature as a result, and that laid the basis for the disintegration of Lower Lotharingia into semi-independent states. One of these local nobles

10608-433: Was reduced from 2,663 in 1961 to 2,586 in 1965 and to 2,359 in 1971. Article 4 of the constitution states that each municipality must belong to only one of the four official language areas that were established in 1962–63. In the three officially unilingual language areas, a couple of dozen municipalities in the vicinity of another language area must provide limited facilities for speakers of that other language. As only

10712-451: Was spoken along the entire southern North Sea coast. By the seventh century, a Frisian Kingdom (650–734) under King Aldegisel and King Redbad emerged with Traiectum ( Utrecht ) as its centre of power, while Dorestad was a flourishing trading place. Between 600 and around 719 the cities were often fought over between the Frisians and the Franks. In 734, at the Battle of the Boarn ,

10816-513: Was vital because Holland could no longer produce enough grain to feed itself. Land drainage had caused the peat of the former wetlands to reduce to a level that was too low for drainage to be maintained. Under Habsburg Charles V , all fiefs in the current Netherlands region were united into the Seventeen Provinces , which included most of present-day Belgium, Luxembourg, and parts of France and Germany. In 1568, under Phillip II,

#102897