146-630: The International Four Day Marches Nijmegen ( Dutch : Internationale Vierdaagse Afstandsmarsen Nijmegen , pronounced [ˈɪntərnɑ(t)ɕoːˌnaːlə ˈviːrˌdaːxsə ˈʔɑfstɑntsˌmɑrsə ˈnɛimeːɣə(n)] ) is the largest multiple-day marching event in the world, with tens of thousands of participants. It is organised every year in Nijmegen , Netherlands in mid-July as a means of promoting sport and exercise. Participants walk 30 km (19 mi), 40 km (25 mi) or 50 km (31 mi) daily, depending on their age and gender and, on completion, receive
292-578: A common ancestor with languages such as English, German, and the Scandinavian languages . All Germanic languages are subject to the Grimm's law and Verner's law sound shifts, which originated in the Proto-Germanic language and define the basic features differentiating them from other Indo-European languages. This is assumed to have taken place in approximately the mid-first millennium BCE in
438-467: A schwa . The Middle Dutch dialect areas were affected by political boundaries. The sphere of political influence of a certain ruler often also created a sphere of linguistic influence, with the language within the area becoming more homogenous. Following the contemporary political divisions they are in order of importance: A process of standardisation started in the Middle Ages , especially under
584-717: A state of siege , a status immediately below a state of war. There, military authorities ruled under martial law, and non-residents could travel there only with a special permit. The prohibited border areas were expanded during the war to fight espionage and to restrict the access of suspect individuals. The main weapons used by the Dutch army were the Männlicher rifle and the Schwarzlose machine gun , both of which were manufactured in Austria-Hungary. Artillery weaponry
730-601: A synod taking place in Corbridge , England , where the decisions are being written down " tam Latine quam theodisce " meaning "in Latin as well as common vernacular". According to a hypothesis by De Grauwe, In northern West Francia (i.e. modern-day Belgium) the term would take on a new meaning during the Early Middle Ages , when, within the context of a highly dichromatic linguistic landscape, it came to be
876-435: A Dutch cabinet. During that period, the important post of Minister of Foreign Affairs was taken by John Loudon . Although the government as a whole was strictly neutral, each member maintained individual preferences. Some ministers were in favour of France, and Prime Minister Cort van der Linden was privately seen as German-friendly and nicknamed "Kurt Unter der Linden," after Berlin's Unter den Linden boulevard. During
1022-524: A comparison between the West Germanic languages, see the sections Phonology, Grammar, and Vocabulary. Dutch dialects are primarily the dialects that are both related with the Dutch language and are spoken in the same language area as the Dutch standard language . Although heavily under the influence of the standard language, some of them remain diverse and are found in the Netherlands and in
1168-467: A consequence evolve (along with Alemannic , Bavarian and Lombardic ) into Old High German. At more or less the same time the Ingvaeonic nasal spirant law, moving over Western Europe from west to east, led to the development of Old English (or Anglo-Saxon), Old Frisian and Old Saxon . Hardly influenced by either development, Old Dutch probably remained relatively close to the original language of
1314-738: A credible deterrence, the army had to house refugees, guard internment camps for captured soldiers, and prevent smuggling. The government also restricted the free movement of people, monitored spies, and took other wartime measures. Before the First World War, the Netherlands hosted two major international peace conferences. The first, the First Hague Conference , was held in May 1899 on the initiative of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia . Representatives of 26 nations conferred on
1460-582: A minority language in Germany and northern France's French Flanders . Though Belgium as a whole is multilingual, three of the four language areas into which the country is divided ( Flanders , francophone Wallonia , and the German-speaking Community ) are largely monolingual, with Brussels being bilingual. The Netherlands and Belgium produce the vast majority of music , films , books and other media written or spoken in Dutch. Dutch
1606-670: A minority) and the province of Walloon Brabant . Brabantian expands into small parts in the west of Limburg while its strong influence on the East Flemish of East Flanders and eastern Zeelandic Flanders weakens towards the west. In a small area in the northwest of North Brabant ( Willemstad ), Hollandic is spoken. Conventionally, the Kleverlandish dialects are distinguished from Brabantian, but there are no objective criteria apart from geography to do so. Over 5 million people live in an area with some form of Brabantian being
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#17327907676961752-492: A neutral stance in public. Her German husband, the prince-consort Duke Henry of Mecklenburg-Schwerin , was openly pro-German. His nephew, Frederick Francis IV , served in the German Army. On 29 August 1913, a centrist liberal minority cabinet was appointed under the leadership of the independent liberal Prime Minister Pieter Cort van der Linden . His cabinet governed until 9 September 1918, an unusually-long period for
1898-420: A number of closely related, mutually intelligible dialects spoken in the former Old Dutch area. Where Old Dutch fragments are very hard to read for untrained Modern Dutch speakers, the various literary works of Middle Dutch are somewhat more accessible. The most notable difference between Old and Middle Dutch is in a feature of speech known as vowel reduction , whereby vowels in unstressed syllables are leveled to
2044-579: A political border, because the traditional dialects are strongly influenced by the national standard varieties. While a somewhat heterogeneous group of Low Franconian dialects, Limburgish has received official status as a regional language in the Netherlands and Germany, but not in Belgium. Due to this official recognition, it receives protection by chapter 2 of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages . Afrikaans , although to
2190-588: A position that existed only in wartime. Snijders was the first non-aristocratic Dutch general to become commander-in-chief, which until then had been reserved for senior princes of the House of Orange . The Dutch military strategy was purely defensive and rested on three pillars. First, there was the Dutch Water Line , a defensive ring of rivers and lowland surrounding the core Dutch region of Holland that could be inundated. An older version had existed since
2336-413: A result, Nederduits no longer serves as a synonym for the Dutch language. In the 19th century, the term " Diets " was revived by Dutch linguists and historians as well, as a poetic name for Middle Dutch and its literature . Old Dutch can be discerned more or less around the same time as Old English (Anglo-Saxon), Old High German , Old Frisian , and Old Saxon . These names are derived from
2482-509: A result, when West Flemings try to talk Standard Dutch, they are often unable to pronounce the g-sound, and pronounce it similar to the h-sound. This leaves, for example, no difference between " held " (hero) and " geld " (money). Or in some cases, they are aware of the problem, and hyper-correct the "h" into a voiced velar fricative or g-sound, again leaving no difference. The West Flemish variety historically spoken in adjacent parts in France
2628-406: A royally approved medal (Vierdaagsekruis) . The participants are mostly civilians, with a few thousand military participants as well. Military participants' distance is 40 km, in uniform, carrying at least 10 kg (22 lb) marching weight for men aged 18–49; for women, the weight is optional. The Vierdaagse ( pronounced [ˌviːrˈdaːxsə] , lit. ' four-day event ' )
2774-522: A significant degree mutually intelligible with Dutch, is usually not considered a dialect but instead a separate standardised language . It is spoken in South Africa and Namibia. As a daughter language of 17th-century Dutch dialects, Afrikaans evolved in parallel with modern Dutch, but was influenced by various other languages in South Africa. West Frisian ( Westerlauwers Fries ), along with Saterland Frisian and North Frisian , evolved from
2920-419: A somewhat different development since the late Middle Ages. Two dialect groups have been given the official status of regional language (or streektaal ) in the Netherlands. Like several other dialect groups, both are part of a dialect continuum that continues across the national border. The Dutch Low Saxon dialect area comprises the provinces of Groningen , Drenthe and Overijssel , as well as parts of
3066-424: A source language, mainly for law and history students. In Indonesia this involves about 35,000 students. Unlike other European nations, the Dutch chose not to follow a policy of language expansion amongst the indigenous peoples of their colonies. In the last quarter of the 19th century, however, a local elite gained proficiency in Dutch so as to meet the needs of expanding bureaucracy and business. Nevertheless,
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#17327907676963212-430: A total of 862 Dutch fishermen lost and 96 to 175 fishing boats sunk. The majority was due to German attacks, with around 150 merchant and fishing ships sunk by U-boats, the largest being the passenger steamer SS Tubantia on 16 March 1916. Sea mines accounted for 19 deaths in Dutch waters, with some sea mines washing ashore and killing civilians or military specialists tasked with disarming them. In February 1917
3358-516: A total population of six million fled their country to the Netherlands. The first wave consisted of Belgians of German descent, German-speaking East Europeans, and Jews, who fell victim to the Belgian public's outrage directly after the invasion. Many chose to leave because their businesses and homes were raided by angry mobs. The second wave was caused by the German Army's invasion and war crimes against civilians. Most of these refugees returned when
3504-552: A unique prestige dialect and has a large dialectal continuum consisting of 28 main dialects, which can themselves be further divided into at least 600 distinguishable varieties. In the Netherlands, the Hollandic dialect dominates in national broadcast media while in Flanders Brabantian dialect dominates in that capacity, making them in turn unofficial prestige dialects in their respective countries. Outside
3650-622: A vierdaagse based in Nijmegen. Preparation for the July event included publication of the official rules, which forbade any political display, including uniforms and flags. In spite of this, the march was banned by the German authorities. A number of small scale four-day walking events did however take place in 1941, including a number of less formal evening walks. With unauthorised gatherings increasingly restricted, no further events were organised before
3796-585: A war declaration between two sovereign nations . During August, the Dutch declaration of neutrality had to be repeated regularly. The declaration consisted of 18 articles. The most important article stated that hostilities were not allowed within the territory and the waters of the Dutch Empire ; no nation was allowed to use the territory and the waters as a base for military operations; and that foreign soldiers who, for whatever reason, crossed into Dutch territory would be interned in prisoner-of-war camps for
3942-537: Is kantor , handdoek "towel" in Indonesian is handuk , or bushalte "bus stop" in Indonesian is halte bus . In addition, many Indonesian words are calques of Dutch; for example, rumah sakit "hospital" is calqued on the Dutch ziekenhuis (literally "sickhouse"), kebun binatang "zoo" on dierentuin (literally "animal garden"), undang-undang dasar "constitution" from grondwet (literally "ground law"). These account for some of
4088-517: Is Sranan Tongo , spoken natively by about a fifth of the population. The Netherlands in World War I The Netherlands remained neutral during World War I , a stance that arose partly from a strict policy of neutrality in international affairs that started in 1830, with the secession of Belgium from the Netherlands. Dutch neutrality was not guaranteed by the major powers in Europe and
4234-466: Is a calque of the aforementioned Roman province Germania Inferior and an attempt by early Dutch grammarians to give their language more prestige by linking it to Roman times. Likewise, Hoogduits ("High German") and Overlands ("Upper-landish") came into use as a Dutch exonym for the various German dialects used in neighboring German states. Use of Nederduytsch was popular in the 16th century but ultimately lost out over Nederlands during
4380-544: Is a monocentric language , at least what concerns its written form, with all speakers using the same standard form (authorised by the Dutch Language Union ) based on a Dutch orthography defined in the so-called " Green Booklet " authoritative dictionary and employing the Latin alphabet when writing; however, pronunciation varies between dialects. Indeed, in stark contrast to its written uniformity, Dutch lacks
4526-537: Is also an official language of several international organisations, such as the European Union , Union of South American Nations and the Caribbean Community . At an academic level, Dutch is taught in about 175 universities in 40 countries. About 15,000 students worldwide study Dutch at university. In Europe, Dutch is the majority language in the Netherlands (96%) and Belgium (59%) as well as
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4672-434: Is an annual walk that has taken place since 1909. Based at Nijmegen since 1925, it now takes place in the third week of July. In 2016 it celebrated the 100th edition (reflecting that the marches were curtailed during the two world wars). Originally a military event with a few civilians, it now is a mainly civilian event. Numbers have risen in recent years, with over 40,000 taking part annually, including about 5,000 military, and
4818-587: Is found in the Salic law . In this Frankish document written around 510 the oldest Dutch sentence has been identified: Maltho thi afrio lito ("I say to you, I free you, serf") used to free a serf. Another old fragment of Dutch is Visc flot aftar themo uuatare ("A fish was swimming in the water"). The oldest conserved larger Dutch text is the Utrecht baptismal vow (776–800) starting with Forsachistu diobolae ... ec forsacho diabolae (litt.: "Forsake you
4964-522: Is mostly Germanic; it incorporates slightly more Romance loans than German, but far fewer than English. In Belgium, the Netherlands and Suriname, the native official name for Dutch is Nederlands (historically Nederlandsch before the Dutch orthographic reforms ). Sometimes Vlaams (" Flemish ") is used as well to describe Standard Dutch in Flanders , whereas Hollands (" Hollandic ")
5110-487: Is occasionally used as a colloquial term for the standard language in the central and northwestern parts of the Netherlands. English uses the adjective Dutch as a noun for the language of the Netherlands and Flanders. The word is derived from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz . The stem of this word, *þeudō , meant "people" in Proto-Germanic, and *-iskaz was an adjective-forming suffix, of which -ish
5256-514: Is so distinct that it might be considered as a separate language variant, although the strong significance of language in Belgian politics would prevent the government from classifying them as such. An oddity of the dialect is that, the voiced velar fricative (written as "g" in Dutch) shifts to a voiced glottal fricative (written as "h" in Dutch), while the letter "h" becomes mute (like in French). As
5402-585: Is sometimes called French Flemish and is listed as a French minority language . However, only a very small and aging minority of the French-Flemish population still speaks and understands West Flemish. Hollandic is spoken in Holland and Utrecht , though the original forms of this dialect (which were heavily influenced by a West Frisian substratum and, from the 16th century on, by Brabantian dialects ) are now relatively rare. The urban dialects of
5548-584: Is spoken in Limburg (Belgium) as well as in the remaining part of Limburg (Netherlands) and extends across the German border. West Flemish ( Westvlaams ) is spoken in West Flanders , the western part of Zeelandic Flanders and also in French Flanders , where it virtually became extinct to make way for French. The West Flemish group of dialects, spoken in West Flanders and Zeeland ,
5694-595: Is taught in various educational centres in Indonesia, the most important of which is the Erasmus Language Centre (ETC) in Jakarta . Each year, some 1,500 to 2,000 students take Dutch courses there. In total, several thousand Indonesians study Dutch as a foreign language. Owing to centuries of Dutch rule in Indonesia, many old documents are written in Dutch. Many universities therefore include Dutch as
5840-662: Is the Modern English form. Theodiscus was its Latinised form and used as an adjective referring to the Germanic vernaculars of the Early Middle Ages . In this sense, it meant "the language of the common people". The term was used as opposed to Latin , the non -native language of writing and the Catholic Church . It was first recorded in 786, when the Bishop of Ostia writes to Pope Adrian I about
5986-404: Is the case with the ( standardised ) West Frisian language . It is spoken alongside Dutch in the province of Friesland . Dutch dialects and regional languages are not spoken as often as they used to be, especially in the Netherlands. Recent research by Geert Driessen shows that the use of dialects and regional languages among both Dutch adults and youth is in heavy decline. In 1995, 27 percent of
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6132-448: Is the native language of the majority of the population of Suriname , and spoken as a second or third language in the polyglot Caribbean island countries of Aruba , Curaçao and Sint Maarten . All these countries have recognised Dutch as one of their official languages, and are involved in one way or another in the Dutch Language Union . The Dutch Caribbean municipalities ( St. Eustatius , Saba and Bonaire ) have Dutch as one of
6278-530: Is the sole official language, and over 60 percent of the population speaks it as a mother tongue . Dutch is the obligatory medium of instruction in schools in Suriname, even for non-native speakers. A further twenty-four percent of the population speaks Dutch as a second language . Suriname gained its independence from the Netherlands in 1975 and has been an associate member of the Dutch Language Union since 2004. The lingua franca of Suriname, however,
6424-402: Is the world's largest walking event. Due to possible congestion on the route, since 2004 the organisers have limited the number of participants. Many take part every year, including several who have taken part in over 60 annual marches. The record is held by Bert van der Lans, who completed his seventy-first march in 2018, at the age of 86. Each day of the marches is named for the biggest town on
6570-531: The 2006 New Zealand census , 26,982 people, or 0.70 percent of the total population, reported to speak Dutch to sufficient fluency that they could hold an everyday conversation. In contrast to the colonies in the East Indies , from the second half of the 19th century onwards, the Netherlands envisaged the expansion of Dutch in its colonies in the West Indies . Until 1863, when slavery was abolished in
6716-578: The Bergakker inscription , found near the Dutch city of Tiel , which may represent a primary record of 5th-century Frankish. Although some place names recorded in Roman texts such as vadam (modern Dutch: wad , English: "mudflat"), could arguably be considered as the oldest single "Dutch" words, the Bergakker inscription yields the oldest evidence of Dutch morphology. However, interpretations of
6862-455: The Brussels and Flemish regions of Belgium . The areas in which they are spoken often correspond with former medieval counties and duchies. The Netherlands (but not Belgium) distinguishes between a dialect and a streektaal (" regional language "). Those words are actually more political than linguistic because a regional language unites a large group of very different varieties. Such is
7008-679: The Dogger Bank to the North Sea , which both the British and Germans pledged to keep safe. Nevertheless, Dutch sailors suffered from war-related incidents and neutrality violations. While both the initial German submarine campaign and the British did not formally target neutral trade, several Dutch ships were damaged or sunk by German U-boats and occasional stray Allied sea mines. 220 ships, 1189 sailors and fishermen were lost overall. The fishing town of Scheveningen lost 300 fishermen, out of
7154-554: The High German consonant shift , does not use Germanic umlaut as a grammatical marker, has largely abandoned the use of the subjunctive , and has levelled much of its morphology , including most of its case system . Features shared with German, however, include the survival of two to three grammatical genders – albeit with few grammatical consequences – as well as the use of modal particles , final-obstruent devoicing , and (similar) word order . Dutch vocabulary
7300-493: The Low Countries , its meaning being largely implicitly provided by the regional orientation of medieval Dutch society: apart from the higher echelons of the clergy and nobility, mobility was largely static and hence while "Dutch" could by extension also be used in its earlier sense, referring to what today would be called Germanic dialects as opposed to Romance dialects , in many cases it was understood or meant to refer to
7446-591: The Low Franconian languages, paired with its sister language Limburgish or East Low Franconian. Its closest relative is the mutually intelligible daughter language Afrikaans. Other West Germanic languages related to Dutch are German , English and the un-standardised languages Low German and Yiddish . Dutch stands out in combining some Ingvaeonic characteristics (occurring consistently in English and Frisian and reduced in intensity from west to east over
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#17327907676967592-531: The Randstad , which are Hollandic dialects, do not diverge from standard Dutch very much, but there is a clear difference between the city dialects of Rotterdam , The Hague , Amsterdam and Utrecht . In some rural Hollandic areas more authentic Hollandic dialects are still being used, especially north of Amsterdam. Another group of dialects based on Hollandic is that spoken in the cities and larger towns of Friesland , where it partially displaced West Frisian in
7738-543: The Southern Netherlands (now Belgium and Luxembourg), developments were different. Under subsequent Spanish , Austrian and French rule , the standardisation of Dutch language came to a standstill. The state, law, and increasingly education used French, yet more than half the Belgian population were speaking a variety of Dutch. In the course of the 19th century, the Flemish Movement stood up for
7884-497: The antonym of *walhisk (Romance-speakers, specifically Old French ). The word, now rendered as dietsc (Southwestern variant) or duutsc (Central and Northern Variant), could refer to the Dutch language itself, as well as a broader Germanic category depending on context. During the High Middle Ages " Dietsc / Duutsc " was increasingly used as an umbrella term for the specific Germanic dialects spoken in
8030-471: The continental West Germanic plane) with dominant Istvaeonic characteristics, some of which are also incorporated in German. Unlike German, Dutch (apart from Limburgish) has not been influenced at all by the south to north movement of the High German consonant shift and had some changes of its own. The cumulation of these changes resulted over time in separate, but related standard languages with various degrees of similarities and differences between them. For
8176-434: The differences in vocabulary between Indonesian and Malay. Some regional languages in Indonesia have some Dutch loanwords as well; for example, Sundanese word Katel or "frying pan" origin in Dutch is " ketel ". The Javanese word for "bike/ bicycle " " pit " can be traced back to its origin in Dutch " fiets ". The Malacca state of Malaysia was also colonized by the Dutch in its longest period that Malacca
8322-642: The pre-Roman Northern European Iron Age . The Germanic languages are traditionally divided into three groups: East (now extinct), West , and North Germanic. They remained mutually intelligible throughout the Migration Period . Dutch is part of the West Germanic group, which also includes English, Scots , Frisian , Low German (Old Saxon) and High German . It is characterised by a number of phonological and morphological innovations not found in North or East Germanic. The West Germanic varieties of
8468-518: The 14th to 15th century onward, its urban centers ( Deventer , Zwolle , Kampen , Zutphen and Doesburg ) have been increasingly influenced by the western written Dutch and became a linguistically mixed area. From the 17th century onward, it was gradually integrated into the Dutch language area. Dutch Low Saxon used to be at one end of the Low German dialect continuum . However, the national border has given way to dialect boundaries coinciding with
8614-538: The 16th century and is known as Stadsfries ("Urban Frisian"). Hollandic together with inter alia Kleverlandish and North Brabantian , but without Stadsfries, are the Central Dutch dialects . Brabantian is named after the historical Duchy of Brabant , which corresponded mainly to the provinces of North Brabant and southern Gelderland , the Belgian provinces of Antwerp and Flemish Brabant , as well as Brussels (where its native speakers have become
8760-620: The 16th century. The second line of defence was formed by a circle of 19th-century fortresses and further inundations around the capital of Amsterdam . The third pillar was the Veldleger , or mobile field army, which would operate outside the Waterline in the rural eastern and southern provinces. In August 1914, the field army had an operational strength of 88,770 soldiers. During the war, militarily sensitive border areas and places considered essential to national defense were declared to be in
8906-467: The 2022 march becoming a three-day event. Dutch language Dutch ( endonym : Nederlands [ˈneːdərlɑnts] ) is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family , spoken by about 25 million people as a first language and 5 million as a second language and is the third most spoken Germanic language. In Europe, Dutch is the native language of most of
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#17327907676969052-688: The 7th century. It was replaced in France by Old French (a Romance language with a considerable Old Frankish influence). However, the Old Franconian language did not die out at large, as it continued to be spoken in the Low Countries, and subsequently evolved into what is now called Old Low Franconian or Old Dutch in the Low Countries. In fact, Old Frankish could be reconstructed from Old Dutch and Frankish loanwords in Old French. The term Old Dutch or Old Low Franconian refers to
9198-487: The Allies requisitioned 132 ships, and they were returned in spring 1919. As punishment for allowing the seizure of the vessels, German leader Erich Ludendorff compelled the Dutch to allow the use of their railways and canals as "military highway". The Allies agreed to be more lenient towards the Netherlands while Germany declared that it would no longer recognise the neutrality of Dutch ships, and would sink them even outside
9344-722: The Allies with intelligence concerning German troops behind the Western Front. The German secret services also used Rotterdam as a base for espionage in Britain. From Rotterdam, spies were sent by ferry to spy on the Royal Navy . Dutch citizens were in demand as spies, as they could travel freely throughout Europe. Some of the spies were executed for espionage. Haicke Janssen and Willem Roos , two unemployed Dutch sailors, were executed in 1915. The exotic dancer and courtesan Mata Hari , convicted of spying for Germany in France,
9490-715: The Austro-Hungarian, Bulgarian or Ottoman armies. Some immigrants from the Netherlands to Canada and a few who lived in the United States served with various regiments of the Canadian Expeditionary Force . About 80 of those who served have been identified through the personnel records of the First World War that are held at Library and Archives Canada . After the German invasion of Belgium on 4 August 1914, one million Belgians out of
9636-417: The Dutch adult population spoke a dialect or regional language on a regular basis, but in 2011, that was no more than 11 percent. In 1995, 12 percent of children of primary school age spoke a dialect or regional language, but in 2011, that had declined to four percent. Of the officially recognised regional languages Limburgish is spoken the most (in 2011 among adults 54%, among children 31%) and Dutch Low Saxon
9782-490: The Dutch government remained reluctant to teach Dutch on a large scale for fear of destabilising the colony. Dutch, the language of power, was supposed to remain in the hands of the leading elite. After independence, Dutch was dropped as an official language and replaced by Indonesian , but this does not mean that Dutch has completely disappeared in Indonesia: Indonesian Dutch , a regional variety of
9928-415: The Dutch standard language is largely absent, and speakers of these Dutch dialects will use German or French in everyday speech. Dutch is not afforded legal status in France or Germany, either by the central or regional public authorities, and knowledge of the language is declining among younger generations. As a foreign language , Dutch is mainly taught in primary and secondary schools in areas adjacent to
10074-466: The Dutch standard language, it is not mutually intelligible with Dutch and considered a sister language of Dutch, like English and German. Approximate distribution of native Dutch speakers worldwide: Dutch is an official language of the Netherlands proper (not enshrined in the constitution but in administrative law ), Belgium, Suriname, the Dutch Caribbean municipalities (St. Eustatius, Saba and Bonaire), Aruba , Curaçao and Sint Maarten . Dutch
10220-402: The Dutch were falsely accused by Belgian and French newspapers at the time of supporting the German invasion of Belgium. Both Allied and German military aircraft violated Dutch airspace. On several occasions, Allied and German pilots mistakenly dropped bombs on Dutch towns. The deadliest incident occurred on 30 April 1917, when a Royal Naval Air Service pilot mistakenly dropped eight bombs on
10366-408: The Dutch, was still spoken by about 500,000 half-blood in Indonesia in 1985. Yet the Indonesian language inherited many words from Dutch: words for everyday life as well as scientific and technological terms. One scholar argues that 20% of Indonesian words can be traced back to Dutch words, many of which are transliterated to reflect phonetic pronunciation e.g. kantoor "office" in Indonesian
10512-495: The Four Days Marches became international, with teams taking part from Germany, Great Britain and Norway. Non-Dutch participation continued, with the first Swiss group taking part in 1933. From the 1920s the numbers of walkers increased significantly. In 1920 under 500 had taken part, compared with 1,155 in 1928. In 1931 numbers exceeded 2,000 for the first time, with over 3,000 in 1935 and over 4,000 in 1937. The increase
10658-602: The Franks. However, the language did experience developments of its own, such as very early final-obstruent devoicing . In fact, the find at Bergakker indicates that the language may already have experienced this shift during the Old Frankish period. Attestations of Old Dutch sentences are extremely rare. The language is mostly recorded on fragmentary relics, and words have been reconstructed from Middle Dutch and loan words from Old Dutch in other languages. The oldest recorded
10804-774: The German danger zone. In April 1917 the USA declared war against the Central Powers . The US adopted a hard line, restricting its own exports to neutrals. By June 1917, US authorities were detaining Dutch merchant ships in US ports. The Allies demanded the confiscation of such vessels in allied ports in return for loosening trade restrictions. After lengthy negotiations the Dutch allowed an Allied ultimatum to lapse on 18 March 1918. The United States Customs Service seized 89 Dutch ships under angary , including 46 in New York . 31 of
10950-526: The Germans announced a renewed campaign of unrestricted submarine warfare with neutral ships bound for Britain now deliberately targeted. This meant that Dutch vessels proceeding to British ports for inspection were now under threat. As a result the majority of Dutch shipping was left idle in port while the NOT attempted to negotiate with the Allies to relax the inspection requirement and allow their trade to bypass
11096-1053: The March was cancelled, with the 2022 march becoming a three-day event. Originally primarily a military training event for the Dutch infantry, since 1928 the Vierdaagse has attracted armed forces personnel from other countries, when Germany and Norway sent army teams. Military teams increased greatly after 1945. The U.S. Army first took part in 1947, the United Kingdom in 1950 and Canada in 1952, with service contingents now also regularly travelling from Germany, Scandinavia, Switzerland and others. In recent years military participants, including Dutch personnel, have numbered approximately five thousand, most marching in teams of between eleven and thirty members. They are required to carry at least 10 kilogrammes of dead weight (if they are over 18 years of age), although this requirement can be waived when temperatures get too high, as happened in 2006 and
11242-493: The Netherlands Oversea Trust Company (NOT) to attempt to reduce this, by offering to buy a share of Dutch agricultural product, to initially mixed success. The Dutch agreed that vessels bound to the Netherlands would first dock in Britain and submit to an inspection. Large amounts of smuggling and fraud meant much goods reached Germany regardless. Dutch vessels used a channel from their coast via
11388-524: The Netherlands and Flanders . In French-speaking Belgium , over 300,000 pupils are enrolled in Dutch courses, followed by over 23,000 in the German states of Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia , and about 7,000 in the French region of Nord-Pas-de-Calais (of which 4,550 are in primary school). At an academic level, the largest number of faculties of neerlandistiek can be found in Germany (30 universities), followed by France (20 universities) and
11534-412: The Netherlands and Belgium, the dialect spoken in and around the German town of Kleve ( Kleverlandish ) is historically and genetically a Low Franconian variety. In North-Western France, the area around Calais was historically Dutch-speaking (West Flemish), of which an estimated 20,000 are daily speakers. The cities of Dunkirk , Gravelines and Bourbourg only became predominantly French-speaking by
11680-419: The Netherlands by mistake, which occurred most frequently at the beginning of the war, as the border between the Netherlands and Belgium was confusing. The German prisoner-of-war camp was at Bergen , in the province of North Holland . Deserters were not considered foreign soldiers when they entered neutral territory if they were unarmed, removed badges from their uniforms, and proclaimed themselves deserters to
11826-539: The Netherlands, although there are recognisable differences in pronunciation, comparable to the pronunciation differences between standard British and standard American English. In 1980 the Netherlands and Belgium concluded the Language Union Treaty . This treaty lays down the principle that the two countries must gear their language policy to each other, among other things, for a common system of spelling. Dutch belongs to its own West Germanic sub-group,
11972-579: The Saturday before the marches, and ends on the Friday. There is free music during the week, and special events on each day, such as a firework display on Sunday night. Amongst the festivities is the annual rock festival , Valkhof Festival , that takes place every day during the Vierdaagsefeesten . * Due to predicted extreme heat on Tuesday 19 July, the first march day was cancelled, with
12118-599: The St. Annastraat, is for that reason called Via Gladiola during the event. As far as a week ahead of that Friday, people will reserve spaces alongside the Via Gladiola by placing chairs and even couches. The finish is broadcast on Dutch television. The marching event has three different types of awards: In April 1908 the Dutch League for Physical Education , ( Nederlandsche Bond Voor Lichamelijke Opvoeding , or NBVLO )
12264-669: The UK frequently violated Dutch airspace because of weather conditions such as wind or fog. It is unclear whether Dutch fire was responsible for the downing of the Zeppelin LZ 54 , which came down in the North Sea and led to the King Stephen incident , in which the captain of the British fishing trawler King Stephen , William Martin, refused to rescue the crew of LZ 54 , resulting in them drowning. A key aspect of Dutch neutrality
12410-470: The UK. Two thousand soldiers were called in to break up the riot. The revolt was ended when soldiers opened fire on the crowd. In total 9 were killed. Later, fearing a revolution led by socialist leader Pieter Jelles Troelstra , Dutch would adopt a strongly pro-Allied policy under the September 1918 Beerenbrouck government. The Allies permitted the export to the Dutch of large quantities of grain, relieving
12556-610: The United Kingdom (5 universities). Despite the Dutch presence in Indonesia for almost 350 years, as the Asian bulk of the Dutch East Indies , the Dutch language has no official status there and the small minority that can speak the language fluently are either educated members of the oldest generation, or employed in the legal profession such as historians, diplomats, lawyers, jurists and linguists/polyglots, as certain law codes are still only available in Dutch. Dutch
12702-621: The West Indies, slaves were forbidden to speak Dutch, with the effect that local creoles such as Papiamento and Sranan Tongo which were based not on Dutch but rather other European languages, became common in the Dutch West Indies. However, as most of the people in the Colony of Surinam (now Suriname ) worked on Dutch plantations, this reinforced the use of Dutch as a means for direct communication. In Suriname today, Dutch
12848-605: The area known as the Low Countries goes back further in time, with the Romans referring to the region as Germania Inferior ("Lower" Germania). It is a reference to the Low Countries' downriver location at the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta near the North Sea . From 1551, the designation Nederlands received strong competition from the name Nederduytsch (literally "Low Dutch", Dutch being used in its archaic sense covering all continental West Germanic languages). It
12994-406: The army; and prisoners-of-war who had escaped from German camps, mostly Russians, Ukrainians, and Poles. According to international law, soldiers of the warring nations who entered a neutral country were to be interned for the duration of the war. Of the soldiers who entered the Netherlands on purpose or by mistake, 33,105 were Belgians, 1,751 British, 1,461 Germans, 8 French and 4 Americans. Among
13140-624: The borders of other standard language areas. In most cases, the heavy influence of the standard language has broken the dialect continuum . Examples are the Gronings dialect spoken in Groningen as well as the closely related varieties in adjacent East Frisia (Germany). Kleverlandish is a dialect spoken in southern Gelderland , the northern tip of Limburg , and northeast of North Brabant (Netherlands), but also in adjacent parts of North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany). Limburgish ( Limburgs )
13286-479: The case with the Gronings dialect , which is considered a variety of the Dutch Low Saxon regional language, but it is relatively distinct from other Dutch Low Saxon varieties. Also, some Dutch dialects are more remote from the Dutch standard language than some varieties of a regional language are. Within the Netherlands, a further distinction is made between a regional language and a separate language, which
13432-553: The close of the 18th century, with (Hoog)Duytsch establishing itself as the Dutch exonym for German during this same period. In the 19th century Germany saw the rise of the categorisation of dialects, with German dialectologists terming the German dialects spoken in the mountainous south of Germany as Hochdeutsch ("High German"). Subsequently, German dialects spoken in the north were designated as Niederdeutsch ("Low German"). The names for these dialects were calqued by Dutch linguists as Nederduits and Hoogduits . As
13578-413: The course of fifteen centuries. During that period, they forced Old Frisian back from the western coast to the north of the Low Countries, and influenced or even replaced Old Saxon spoken in the east (contiguous with the Low German area). On the other hand, Dutch has been replaced in adjacent lands in present-day France and Germany. The division into Old, Middle and Modern Dutch is mostly conventional, since
13724-514: The daily route. Tuesday is the day of Elst , Wednesday the day of Wijchen , Thursday the day of Groesbeek and Friday the day of Cuijk . The routes always remain the same unless there is a specific need to change. This happened in 2007 when the walkers went along the Waalkade, beside the River Waal , on Wednesday for the first time due to congestion on the original route. The 2006 march was
13870-540: The declaration of independence of Indonesia, Western New Guinea , the "wild east" of the Dutch East Indies , remained a Dutch colony until 1962, known as Netherlands New Guinea . Despite prolonged Dutch presence, the Dutch language is not spoken by many Papuans, the colony having been ceded to Indonesia in 1963. Dutch-speaking immigrant communities can also be found in Australia and New Zealand. The 2011 Australian census showed 37,248 people speaking Dutch at home. At
14016-603: The development of a separate Dutch language. It was spoken by the descendants of the Salian Franks who occupied what is now the southern Netherlands , northern Belgium , part of northern France, and parts of the Lower Rhine regions of Germany. The High German consonant shift, moving over Western Europe from south to west, caused a differentiation with the Central and High Franconian in Germany. The latter would as
14162-474: The devil? ... I forsake the devil"). If only for its poetic content, the most famous Old Dutch sentence is probably Hebban olla vogala nestas hagunnan, hinase hic enda tu, wat unbidan we nu ("All birds have started making nests, except me and you, what are we waiting for"), is dated to around the year 1100, written by a Flemish monk in a convent in Rochester , England . Since the sentence speaks to
14308-481: The duration of the war. At the beginning of the war, the German Army marched near the Dutch–Belgian border in the province of Limburg . For a stretch of 500 metres (550 yd) between border markers 42 and 43, the road was half Belgian and half Dutch territory. Dutch border guards made clear which part of the road was Dutch territory, and as a consequence, the German Army avoided it on its westward march. However,
14454-489: The end of the 19th century. In the countryside, until World War I , many elementary schools continued to teach in Dutch, and the Catholic Church continued to preach and teach the catechism in Dutch in many parishes. During the second half of the 19th century, Dutch was banned from all levels of education by both Prussia and France and lost most of its functions as a cultural language. In both Germany and France,
14600-546: The end of the war, their wives and children often sought accommodation in the vicinity. Most British prisoners-of-war were members of the 1st Royal Naval Brigade . They were interned in Groningen , where they were held captive under a mild regime, which allowed for trips into the city. Some British soldiers formed a cabaret group, named the Timbertown Follies, which toured throughout the country. The proceeds were donated to charities. Many German soldiers entered
14746-555: The end of the war. Despite Nijmegen suffering considerable war damage , the Vierdaagse recommenced in Nijmegen in 1946 with over 4,000 participants. The popularity of the Four Days Marches continued to increase, breaking the 10,000 barrier in 1954. The participation in 1967 of Prince Claus , husband of Queen Beatrix, helped to boost the event's popularity yet further, with over 20,000 taking part in 1982 and 30,000 by 1988. The number of participants now regularly exceeds 40,000. Due to this growth, since 2004 there has been an upper limit on
14892-401: The first day after two participants died and many others required medical attention. Given the hot weather forecast for the following days, the organisers decided to cancel the final three days of the walk, with a special badge awarded to participants instead of the cross. On 17 July 2014, flight MH17 was shot down, with 192 people from the Netherlands onboard. In memory of the crash, no music
15038-432: The first to be cancelled since World War II , after extreme heat caused thousands of drop-outs and two deaths during the first day's march. Following the 2006 cancellation, it was decided that the organising committee would adjust the start time/distance/finish time to manage the event, instead of outright cancellation. The 2016 centenary event responded to unusually hot conditions by adjusting starting times and/or increasing
15184-662: The focus of military action became concentrated on the Western Front, but others moved on to the UK or France. An estimated 100,000 Belgians stayed in refugee camps during the war, the largest of the camps being in Nunspeet . The Dutch-German border was eventually blocked by the German-built Wire of Death . As well as Belgian civilians, there were political refugees from Germany, such as the German-American socialist Carl Minster; Germans escaping conscription into
15330-555: The four days in their local area, thereby avoiding large groups. Even though the full Nijmegen March was organised in 2022, the Alternatieve Vierdaagse continued for those who did not take part in the main march. These walks did not count towards the Vierdaagse Cross, although participants could buy a souvenir medal. In 2022, due to extreme heat with predicted peaks of 39 degrees Celsius, the first day of
15476-524: The houses of Cavell and others in Brussels , where their hosts furnished them with money to reach the Belgium-Netherlands border and provide them with guides. With their false papers, the soldiers were able to evade the Dutch authorities and avoid being interned, and several eventually made their way to Britain. On 3 August 1915, Cavell was arrested by the Germans and court-martialed and sentenced to death for violating German military law , and
15622-415: The imagination, it is often erroneously stated as the oldest Dutch sentence. Old Dutch naturally evolved into Middle Dutch . The year 1150 is often cited as the time of the discontinuity, but it actually marks a time of profuse Dutch writing; during this period a rich Medieval Dutch literature developed. There was at that time no overarching standard language ; Middle Dutch is rather a collective name for
15768-711: The influence of the Burgundian Ducal Court in Dijon ( Brussels after 1477). The dialects of Flanders and Brabant were the most influential around this time. The process of standardisation became much stronger at the start of the 16th century, mainly based on the urban dialect of Antwerp . The 1585 fall of Antwerp to the Spanish army led to a flight to the northern Netherlands, where the Dutch Republic declared its independence from Spain. This influenced
15914-563: The language now known as Dutch. In the Low Countries Dietsch or its Early Modern Dutch form Duytsch as an endonym for Dutch gradually went out of common use and was gradually replaced by the Dutch endonym Nederlands . This designation (first attested in 1482) started at the Burgundian court in the 15th century, although the use of neder , laag , bas , and inferior ("nether" or "low") to refer to
16060-444: The last day of the 2014 march. Military teams have their own route, (40 km), starting in the military camp Heumensoord, just south of Nijmegen, which is built for the event every year. During the week of the Vierdaagse the accompanying festivities (known as the Vierdaagsefeesten ) always draw a large crowd. It is known as one of the biggest festivities in the Netherlands, drawing a crowd of nearly 1 million visitors. It starts on
16206-629: The least (adults 15%, children 1%). The decline of the West Frisian language in Friesland occupies a middle position (adults 44%, children 22%). Dialects are most often spoken in rural areas, but many cities have a distinct city dialect. For example, the city of Ghent has very distinct "g", "e" and "r" sounds that greatly differ from its surrounding villages. The Brussels dialect combines Brabantian with words adopted from Walloon and French . Some dialects had, until recently, extensions across
16352-425: The limitation of certain types of weapons, including poison gas , hollow point bullets and aerial bombardment from hot air balloons. The conference was a surprising success, and agreements were reached on the laws of war and on war crimes. The Dutch Queen, Wilhelmina , was known for her fierce patriotism and strong-willed nature. She leaned towards sympathy for France and Belgium but only in private and evinced
16498-437: The modern standard languages . In this age no standard languages had yet developed, while a perfect West Germanic dialect continuum remained present; the division reflects the contingent future contribution dialect groups would have to the later languages. The early form of Dutch was a set of Franconian dialects spoken by the Salian Franks in the 5th century. These happened to develop through Middle Dutch to Modern Dutch over
16644-501: The new administration immediately began negotiations with the Allies, concluding an agreement on 25 November 1918, two weeks after the end of the war. In the aftermath of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand , Austria-Hungary declared war on the Kingdom of Serbia at 11 a.m. on 28 July 1914. The Dutch declared themselves neutral on 30 July. According to international law, neutrality had to be declared in each instance of
16790-484: The newly instituted Vierdaagse Cross . From 1910 the Vierdaagse became an annual event, based in a different town each year, although mobilisation during World War I meant that no marches took place in 1914 or 1915. In 1919 the first woman completed the route. In 1925 the event was held in Nijmegen, and from then this became the permanent centre for the event. With Amsterdam hosting the Olympic Games , in 1928
16936-409: The number taking part, with a record 48,986 registering for the 100th March in 2016. This increase has been boosted by a rising number attending from across the world. In 2019 6,347 non-Dutch walkers from 73 countries took part. In 1972 hot weather led to a shortening of the distances by 10 km (6.2 mi) each day. In 2006, the event was again affected by extreme heat, when it was cancelled after
17082-501: The official languages. In Asia, Dutch was used in the Dutch East Indies (now mostly Indonesia ) by a limited educated elite of around 2% of the total population, including over 1 million indigenous Indonesians, until it was banned in 1957, but the ban was lifted afterwards. About a fifth of the Indonesian language can be traced to Dutch, including many loan words . Indonesia's Civil Code has not been officially translated, and
17228-470: The original Dutch language version dating from colonial times remains the authoritative version. Up to half a million native speakers reside in the United States, Canada and Australia combined, and historical linguistic minorities on the verge of extinction remain in parts of France and Germany. Dutch is one of the closest relatives of both German and English, and is colloquially said to be "roughly in between" them. Dutch, like English, has not undergone
17374-598: The population of the Netherlands and Flanders (which includes 60% of the population of Belgium ). Dutch was one of the official languages of South Africa until 1925, when it was replaced by Afrikaans , a separate but partially mutually intelligible daughter language of Dutch. Afrikaans, depending on the definition used, may be considered a sister language , spoken, to some degree, by at least 16 million people, mainly in South Africa and Namibia , and evolving from Cape Dutch dialects. In South America, it
17520-527: The predominant colloquial language out of the area's 22 million Dutch-speakers. Limburgish , spoken in both Belgian Limburg and Netherlands Limburg and in adjacent parts in Germany, is considered a dialect in Belgium, while having obtained the official status of regional language in the Netherlands. Limburgish has been influenced by the Ripuarian varieties like the Colognian dialect , and has had
17666-471: The prisoners were pilots who had flown into Dutch airspace and crashed. Most Belgian and British internees had fled to the Netherlands after the fall of Antwerp in 1914. Belgian prisoners were held captive in a camp in Amersfoort . The camp initially had a very strict regime, but after a revolt that resulted in the death of seven Belgians, the rules softened. As the prisoners would not be released until
17812-736: The proper authorities. Numbers are unknown, but most deserters by far were German. As deserters had no right to free accommodation or food, some of them were voluntarily interned in prisoner-of-war camps. From 1914 to 1915, English nurse Edith Cavell , who was based in German-occupied Belgium, helped 200 Allied soldiers escape from Belgian soil to the Netherlands. Wounded Allied soldiers as well as Belgian and French civilians of military age were hidden from German occupational troops and provided with false papers by Prince Réginald de Croÿ at Bellignies , his château near Mons, Belgium . From there, they were conducted by various guides to
17958-411: The provinces of Gelderland , Flevoland , Friesland and Utrecht . This group, which is not Low Franconian but instead Low Saxon and close to neighbouring Low German, has been elevated by the Netherlands (and by Germany) to the legal status of streektaal ( regional language ) according to the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages . It is regarded as Dutch for a number of reasons. From
18104-515: The rest of the text lack any consensus. The Franks emerged in the southern Netherlands ( Salian Franks ) and central Germany ( Ripuarian Franks ), and later descended into Gaul . The name of their kingdom survives in that of France. Although they ruled the Gallo-Romans for nearly 300 years, their language, Frankish , became extinct in most of France and was replaced by later forms of the language throughout Luxembourg and Germany in around
18250-423: The rights of Dutch speakers, mostly referred to as "Flemish". However, the dialect variation was a serious disadvantage in the face of the standardised francophony . Since standardisation is a lengthy process, Dutch-speaking Belgium associated itself with the standard language that had already developed in the Netherlands over the centuries. Therefore, the situation in Belgium is essentially no different from that in
18396-647: The same awards, including the Vierdaagse Cross, and the Group Medal . The 1940 Vierdaagse was cancelled after the German invasion , with a local Nijmegen walking club organising an emergency ( nood in Dutch) Four-Days March in August 1940. About 1,000 walkers took part each day, rising to over 2,000 on the final day, with many participants attending from across the country. In 1941 the NBVLO planned
18542-524: The same branch of the West Germanic languages as Old English (i.e. Anglo-Frisian ) and are therefore genetically more closely related to English and Scots than to Dutch. The different influences on the respective languages, however, particularly that of Norman French on English and Dutch on West Frisian, have rendered English quite distinct from West Frisian, and West Frisian less distinct from Dutch than from English. Although under heavy influence of
18688-455: The set of Franconian dialects (i.e. West Germanic varieties that are assumed to have evolved from Frankish ) spoken in the Low Countries during the Early Middle Ages , from around the 5th to the 12th century. Old Dutch is mostly recorded on fragmentary relics, and words have been reconstructed from Middle Dutch and Old Dutch loanwords in French. Old Dutch is regarded as the primary stage in
18834-686: The ships that the US seized were commissioned into the United States Navy . Most were cargo ships , but they also included the ocean liners Rijndam , Koningin der Nederlanden , and Zeelandia , which the USA converted into troopships . Other Dutch cargo ships were taken over by the United States Shipping Board . The United Kingdom also seized Dutch merchant ships, including Prinses Juliana and Goentoer , which were converted into troopships. In total
18980-545: The time are generally split into three dialect groups: Ingvaeonic (North Sea Germanic), Istvaeonic (Weser–Rhine Germanic) and Irminonic (Elbe Germanic). It appears that the Frankish tribes fit primarily into the Istvaeonic dialect group with certain Ingvaeonic influences towards the northwest, which are still seen in modern Dutch. The Frankish language itself is not directly attested, the only possible exception being
19126-531: The town of Zierikzee , damaged several houses and killed a family of three. After initially denying the incident, the British government apologized and agreed to compensate the Dutch for damage and loss of life. A total of 107 Allied and German airplanes and 24 seaplanes landed in the Netherlands, and 220 crewmen were taken prisoner. Of the crashed planes, 67 were repaired and added to the army's air department. German Zeppelins carrying out bombing raids against
19272-466: The transition between them was very gradual. One of the few moments when linguists can detect something of a revolution is when the Dutch standard language emerged and quickly established itself. The development of the Dutch language is illustrated by the following sentence in Old, Middle and Modern Dutch: Among the Indo-European languages , Dutch is grouped within the Germanic languages , meaning it shares
19418-484: The urban dialects of the province of Holland . In 1637, a further important step was made towards a unified language, when the Statenvertaling , the first major Bible translation into Dutch, was created that people from all over the new republic could understand. It used elements from various, even Dutch Low Saxon , dialects but was predominantly based on the urban dialects of Holland of post 16th century. In
19564-416: The valid finishing time to reflect the difficulty of the course. Due to the coronavirus pandemic , both the 2020 and 2021 Vierdaagse events were cancelled. On Fridays of the event, as participants near the finish, the public presents walkers with gladioli , a symbol of victory since Roman times, when gladiators were likewise showered with these flowers. The entry into the city and towards the finish, along
19710-533: The war zone. Its geographical significance and its international connections made the Netherlands become a hotbed of espionage. The country's neutrality allowed citizens of belligerent countries to travel freely to or from the Netherlands. Most spy agencies had operatives in the country. MI6 had a station in Rotterdam under the command of Richard B. Tinsley , who handled several important spy networks in Belgium, such as La Dame Blanche . The networks provided
19856-579: The war, the Dutch people were generally sympathetic towards the Allies. However, in Dutch Protestant or Neo-Calvinist circles, there was sympathy for the German cause, which was partly inspired by the memory of the Second Boer War (1899-1902), in South Africa . In September 1918, a new Dutch government rose under Charles Ruijs de Beerenbrouck . Noting that Allied victory appeared imminent and fearing revolutionary stirrings at home,
20002-568: The western Allies, Germany, and most neutral powers, but not the US. War conditions, however, did disrupt the Netherlands' food imports (due to U-boat attacks and Allied embargos) and the failure of authorities to prevent food producers from prioritizing the lucrative export trade over domestic consumption led to further shortages. A number of food riots occurred. In June-July 1917 there were food riots in Amsterdam . Rioters broke into warehouses and took potatoes that were intended to be exported to
20148-432: Was executed by firing squad on 12 October. Her execution provoked outrage among both the Allies and neutral countries, and was represented as an act of German barbarism and moral depravity in British propaganda . It has been argued that the Netherlands overall profited from its neutral position during the war. Estimates of per-capita, inflation adjusted economic growth between 1913 and 1921 are 2.4 percent, higher than
20294-562: Was German and French but mostly outdated. The fortifications were also outdated. At the start of the war, there was no air force, only a small aviation department within the army. During the war, foreign planes that crashed in Dutch territory were repaired to serve in the aviation department. Some Dutchmen volunteered for service in the French , British , German or Austro-Hungarian armies, but exact numbers are unknown. The Imperial German Army did not accept foreign volunteers unless they had German nationality, and they were often directed to
20440-665: Was established to promote participation in physical activities across the Netherlands, including organising sports events. In September 1909 the NBVLO organised the first Vierdaagse. Planned primarily as a military training event, fifteen separate four-day routes were prepared across the country, each route totalling 140–150 km (87–93 mi). Four of the routes were however cancelled at short notice, three due to an outbreak of cholera in Rotterdam and one due to poor road conditions. In total, 306 soldiers and ten civilians took part. Military participants who completed all four days received
20586-406: Was executed in 1917. In total, seven Dutch citizens were executed by the British, French and Germans, and many more were imprisoned. On 31 July 1914, the Dutch government ordered the full mobilization of its conscript armed forces of 200,000 men, including reserves and regional militias. The chief of staff, Lieutenant-General Cornelis Snijders , was promoted to full general and commander-in-chief,
20732-528: Was mainly due to greater civilian participation, civilians outnumbering servicemen in all marches from 1932. After a successful trial event in 1935, four-day marches were held annually at various locations across the Dutch East Indies between 1936 and 1939. Organised by the Dutch Indies Athletic Union under the auspices of the NBVLO, these events adhered to the same regulations as the Nijmegen event, with successful participants receiving
20878-476: Was maritime trade. The Netherlands were not included in the allied blockade of Germany , and thus offered a conduit to overseas trade for the Central Powers. The Dutch imported goods from countries such as the US and exported domestic produce to Germany, netting a profit and becoming Germany's biggest food supplier. In the first half of 1916, Dutch food export to Germany was worth around 5 million goldmarks per day. The British negotiated with Dutch representatives in
21024-467: Was not part of the Dutch constitution . The country's neutrality was based on the belief that its strategic position between the German Empire , German-occupied Belgium , and the British guaranteed its safety. The Royal Netherlands Army was mobilized throughout the conflict, as belligerents regularly attempted to intimidate the Netherlands and to place demands on it. In addition to providing
21170-434: Was played on the last day of the marches, and the festivities were subdued. The 100th Four Days Marches took place in July 2016, celebrated by numerous side events, including an optional daily 55 km (34 mi) route—the maximum official distance until 1967. Both the 2020 and the 2021 events were cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic . In both years, an Alternatieve Vierdaagse was organised, with walkers completing
21316-472: Was under foreign control. In the 19th century, the East Indies trade started to dwindle, and with it the importance of Malacca as a trading post. The Dutch state officially ceded Malacca to the British in 1825. It took until 1957 for Malaya to gain its independence. Despite this, the Dutch language is rarely spoken in Malacca or Malaysia and only limited to foreign nationals able to speak the language. After
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