NETHERLANDS, THE

Windmills at Kinderdijk, The Netherlands. officially Kingdom of The Netherlands, Dutch Nederland or Koninkrijk der Nederlanden, byname Holland country located in northwestern Europe. The name Holland (from Houtland, or Wooded Land) was originally given to one of the medieval cores of what later became the modern state and is still used for 2 of its 12 provinces (Noord-Holland and Zuid-Holland). The irregular outline of The Netherlands, not unlike a piece of a jigsaw puzzle, encloses some 16,164 square miles (41,864 square kilometres) of mostly flat land, which lies between the North Sea on the north and west, Germany on the east, and Belgium on the south. Large parts of the total area consist of water, however. Excluding the territorial waters, the land area amounts only to about 13,255 square miles. A parliamentary democracy under a constitutional monarch, the kingdom includes the former colonies of the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba. The capital is Amsterdam and the seat of government The Hague. Some 2,500 square miles of The Netherlands consist of reclaimed land, the result of a process of careful water management dating to medieval times. Along the coasts, land was reclaimed from the sea, and, in the interior, lakes and marshes were drained. All of this new land was turned into polders, usually surrounded by dikes. Initially, manpower and horsepower were used to drain the land, but they were later replaced by windmills. The largest schemes were carried out in the second half of the 19th century and in the 20th century, when steam pumps and, later, electric or diesel pumps came into use. Despite government-encouraged emigration after World War II, which sent some 500,000 persons out of the country, The Netherlands is today one of the world's most densely populated nations. Partly as a result of this emigration, more than one-tenth of the citizens in the late 20th century were over 65 years of age. Amsterdam, nevertheless, has become one of the liveliest centres of the international counterculture of Western youth. This independence of outlook has strong roots in the 16th and 17th centuries, when Dutch merchant ships sailed the world and helped lay the foundations of a great trading nation characterized by a vigorous spirit of enterprise. In later centuries, burgeoning trade and commercial growth further stimulated development of the country. With Belgium and Luxembourg, The Netherlands is a member of the economic union known as Benelux, in which capital, goods, and people can freely circulate; this union, in fact, served as a model for the larger European Economic Community (EEC; now within the European Communities ), of which the Benelux nations are members. The country is also a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). officially Kingdom of the Netherlands, Dutch Nederland, or Koninkrijk der Nederlanden, byname Holland country located in northwestern Europe. Extending 175 miles (282 km) from north to south and 110 miles (177 km) from east to west, the country is bounded on the north and west by the North Sea, on the east by Germany, and on the south by Belgium. The national capital is Amsterdam and the seat of government is The Hague. Area 16,163 square miles (41,863 square km), of which almost 20 percent is inland water. Pop. (1992 est.) 15,163,000. Additional reading General works An extensive source of information on all aspects of the country is The Kingdom of The Netherlands, a collection of 17 short booklets published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and updated frequently. Further resources may be found in Peter King and Michael Wintle (comps.), The Netherlands (1988), an annotated bibliography. Geography H. Meijer, Compact Geography of The Netherlands, 5th rev. ed. (1985), is a brief survey of geographic conditions. Informative atlases include R. Tamsma, The Netherlands in Fifty Maps (1988); and Atlas of the Netherlands (196377). Audrey M. Lambert, The Making of the Dutch Landscape, 2nd ed. (1985), provides a historical geography. Modern Dutch society is explored in Johan Goudsblom, Dutch Society (1967); Gerald Newton, The Netherlands: An Historical and Cultural Survey, 17951977 (1978); Hans van Amersfoort (J.M.M. van Amersfoort), Immigration and the Formation of Minority Groups: The Dutch Experience, 19451975 (1982; originally published in Dutch, 1974); and William Z. Shetter, The Netherlands in Perspective: The Organizations of Society and Environment (1987). Dutch economic history and conditions are addressed by Marc de Smidt and Egbert Wever (eds.), A Profile of Dutch Economic Geography (1984); Richard T. Griffiths (ed.), The Economy and Politics of the Netherlands since 1945 (1980); and Herman Van Der Wee and Eddy Van Cauwenberghe (eds.), Productivity of Land and Agricultural Innovation in the Low Countries, 12501800 (1978). History Petrus Johannes Blok, History of the People of the Netherlands, 5 vol. (18981912, reprinted 1970; originally published in Dutch, 8 vol., 18921908), is a classic history of the northern territories, although now outdated, particularly so on the history of the Middle Ages. Henri Pirenne, Histoire de Belgique, 7 vol. (190032), a brilliantly written history extending to 1914 by the famous Belgian historian, covers for the period of the Middle Ages the northern as well as the southern parts of the Low Countries, although emphasis is on the south (the post-Revolt period is covered only for the south). George Edmundson, History of Holland (1922), is an excellent general work, although better for the republican than the modern period. Ivo Schffer, A Short History of the Netherlands, 2nd rev. ed. (1973), provides a useful history of the northern Netherlands. An excellent general synthesis written by expert authors is J.A. Bornewasser et al. (eds.), Winkler Prins Geschiedenis der Nederlanden, 3 vol. (197778). Pieter Geyl, Geschiedenis van de Nederlandsche stam, rev. ed., 3 vol. (194858), is a monumental work in which the linguistic-ethnic unity of the Dutch-speaking Low Countries is emphasized. D.P. Blok et al. (eds.), Algemene Geschiedenis der Nederlanden, 15 vol. (197783), is an extensive history of both the northern and southern Low Countries from Roman times to the present day, with detailed bibliographies. The Dutch-speaking part of actual Belgium is considered in Max Lamberty et al. (eds.), Twintig Eeuwen Vlaanderen, 15 vol. (197279). Other works concerning the same area include Rene Doehaerd et al. (eds.), Histoire de Flandre: des origines nos jours (1983), an excellent and up-to-date general synthesis; and A.G.H.A. Baart and J. Louage (eds.), Culturele geschiedenis van Vlaanderen, 10 vol. (198283), a more popular version by good scholars of the general history of art, literature, and daily life. The French-speaking regions have been competently dealt with by mile Coornaert, La Flandre franaise de langue flamande (1970); Louis Trenard (ed.), Histoire des Pays-Bas franais (1972, reissued 1984); and Herv Hasquin et al. (eds.), La Wallonie: le pays et les hommes, 6 vol. (197581).Pieter Geyl, The Revolt of the Netherlands, 15551609, 2nd ed. (1958, reissued 1980), and The Netherlands in the Seventeenth Century, 2nd ed., 2 vol. (196164), are complementary works. J. Huizinga, Dutch Civilisation in the Seventeenth Century, and Other Essays, comp. by Pieter Geyl and F.W.N. Hugenholtz (1968), is a masterpiece of condensation. C.R. Boxer, The Dutch Seaborne Empire, 16001800 (1965, reissued 1977), is a vigorously written and well-informed account. Charles Wilson, The Dutch Republic and the Civilisation of the Seventeenth Century (1968), is written by an outstanding English historian of The Netherlands. Herbert H. Rowen, The Princes of Orange: The Stadholders in the Dutch Republic (1988), surveys the period of the house of Orange. Simon Schama, The Embarrassment of Riches: An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age (1987), and Patriots and Liberators: Revolution in the Netherlands, 17801813 (1977), are brilliant, innovative studies. E.H. Kossmann, The Low Countries, 17801940 (1978), offers a penetrating comparison of the history of Holland and Belgium. Henri Grimal, Decolonization: The British, French, Dutch, and Belgian Empires, 19191963 (1978; originally published in French, 3rd ed., 1975), includes useful documents, maps, and case studies. Arend Lijphart, The Politics of Accommodation: Pluralism and Democracy in the Netherlands, 2nd ed., rev. (1975), provides a sociological study of pillarization, fundamental for the contemporary period. Marcus Willem Heslinga Henk Meijer Leendert P. Louwe Kooijmans Wim Blockmans Herbert H. Rowen Administration and social conditions The Kingdom of The Netherlands is a constitutional monarchy. The monarchy is hereditary in both the male and female lines. Government The constitution, which dates from 1814, declares that the head of state, the monarch, is inviolable and thereby embodies the concept of ministerial responsibility. It further provides that no government may remain in power against the will of Parliament. The States-General (Staten-Generaal), as Parliament is officially known, consists of two houses, a First Chamber, whose 75 members are elected by the members of the councils of the provinces, and a directly elected Second Chamber of 150 members. Both houses share legislative power with the government, officially known as the Crown (Kroon), defined as the head of state acting in conjunction with the ministers. The two houses control government policy. The First Chamber can only approve or reject legislation but does not have the power to propose or amend it. Every four years, after elections to the Second Chamber have been held, the government resigns, and a process of bargaining starts between elected party leaders aspiring to form a government that will be assured of the support of a parliamentary majority. It usually takes a few months of maneuvering before a formateur, as the main architect of such a coalition is known, is ready to accept a royal invitation to form a government. The head of state then formally appoints the ministers. In the event of political crises resulting in the fall of the government before the end of a four-year period, the same process of bargaining takes place. The monarch, acting on the advice of the ministries, has the right to dissolve one or both chambers, at which time new elections are held. In local government, the most important institutions are the municipalities (gemeenten). Since World War II their number has been reduced to about 670 as a result of redivisions. Each municipality is run by a directly elected council of from 7 to 45 members, depending on the size of the population. This council is presided over by a burgemeester (mayor), who is appointed by the government and serves as chairman of the executive, the members of which are elected by and from the council. In those areas to which the councils' own ordinances are applicable, the municipalities are autonomous. In many instances, national legislation or provincial ordinances provide for the cooperation of municipal authorities. The country is divided into 12 provinces: Groningen, Friesland, Drenthe, Overijssel, Flevoland, Gelderland, Utrecht, Noord-Holland, Zuid-Holland, Zeeland, Noord-Brabant, and Limburg. Their administrative system has the same structure as the municipal one: directly elected councils (staten) which elect the members of the executive, except for the chairman, who is appointed by the government. The main functions of the provinces include controlling the municipalities within their borders and controlling the district water-control boards (waterschappen). Cultural life Restored farmhouse interior at the Open Air Museum (Openluchtmuseum) at Arnhem, The Netherlands. The cultural life in The Netherlands is varied and lively. Dutch painting and crafts are world-renowned, and Dutch painters are among the greatest the world has ever known. The Dutch themselves take great pride in their cultural heritage, and the government is heavily involved in subsidizing the arts, while not involving itself directly in artistic control of cultural enterprises. Indeed, the long-enduring tradition of Dutch freedom of expression has undoubtedly played a significant role in the flowering of Dutch culture through the ages. The arts Painting and sculpture The history of Dutch painting offers such a deep, rich lode of names that only a few can be touched on here. Certainly among the most revered are those of Rembrandt and Vincent van Gogh. Rembrandt, painting in the 17th century, became a master of light and shadow, a technique reflected in his landscapes as well as such portraits as his monumental The Night Watch. Van Gogh, born in the 19th century, was a powerful influence in the development of modern art. Among other great painters of the Low Countries are Jan van Eyck, the founder of the Flemish school; the allegorical Hironymus Bosch; the portraitist Frans Hals and landscapists Aelbert Cuyp and Jacob van Ruisdael; still-life artists such as Jan Vermeer, Willem Heda, and Willem Kalf; and the geometrically inclined Piet Mondrian. For a broader discussion of Dutch painting, see painting, history of. History This section surveys the history of the Kingdom of The Netherlands from its founding in 1579 to the present. For a discussion of the period prior to that date, see Low Countries, history of the. The Union of Utrecht On Jan. 23, 1579, the agreement at Utrecht was concluded, forming a closer union within the larger union of the Low Countries led by the States-General sitting in Brussels. Included in the Union were the provinces and cities committed to carrying on resistance to Spanish rule: Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Gelderland (Guelders), and Zutphen (a part of Overijssel) as the first signatories, followed in the next year by the whole of Overijssel, most of Friesland, and Groningen, all in the north; and in the south by the cities of Antwerp and Breda in Brabant, and Ghent, Brugge, and Ypres in Flanders. Designed to establish a league for conduct of the war of independence and ultimately to strengthen the central government in Brussels, the Union of Utrecht became in fact the foundation of a separate state and a distinct nation in the northern Netherlands. The new state was named the United Provinces of the Netherlands, or, more briefly, the Dutch Republic, and was known in the international community as the States-General. The people of the northern Netherlands began to be distinguished from the inhabitants of the south (to whom the name of Flemings continued to cling) by the appellation Hollanders (French: Hollandais; Italian: Olandese; German: Hollnder; and so forth), after their principal province. The English, however, came to apply exclusively to the Hollanders the term Dutch, which previously they had applied to all German speakers (from German Deutsch, Dutch Duits). The name Netherlanders, which remained in use in the Low Countries for the inhabitants of the United Provinces specifically and for all those, north or south, who spoke Dutch (Nederlands), passed out of currency in most foreign countries or came to be restricted to the northerners. The transformation had a price: the erosion of the bond of historical identity between northerners and southerners, Dutchmen and Belgians as they would be called in the 19th and 20th centuries. The treaty that formed the basis of the new northern union established a military league to resist the Spaniards but on a perpetual basis, and it provided for closer political arrangements among the provinces than those of allies in the ordinary sense. The provinces united for all time as if they were a single province; each remained sovereign in its internal affairs, but all acted as a body in foreign policy. Decisions on war and peace and on taxation could be made only unanimously. The union did not throw off the formal sovereignty of the king of Spain, but it confirmed the effective powers of the provincial stadtholders (formally the lieutenants, or governors, of the king) as their political leaders (there was no stadtholder of the United Provinces, as foreigners often assumed). The union moved away from the religious settlement embodied in the Pacification of Ghent of two years before (see above) and toward a predominance of the Calvinists and their monopoly of public practice of religion in the key provinces of Holland and Zeeland. The immediate political significance of the union was that it dovetailed with the Union of Arras, concluded earlier in the month, which began the reconciliation of the southerners with King Philip II of Spain. The two unions, parallel but opposite, thus undermined the policy of Prince William of Orange of collaboration between Roman Catholics and Calvinists throughout the Low Countries in resistance to the Spanish domination, which required mutual toleration among the religions. But it took some time before the general union, with its base in the States-General at Brussels, fell apart irrevocably. For another half decade the prince struggled to keep intact the broader union and at the same time to assure its military and political support from abroad. Although Archduke Matthias of Habsburg, named governor-general by the States-General in 1577 after the deposition of Don Juan, remained the formal head of state until 1581, the prince continued to exercise his leadership. That the prince was the head and heart of the rebellion was recognized by Philip II in 1580 when he put him under the ban of outlawry. William's Apology in defense of his conduct was followed in 1581 by the Act of Abjuration (Akte van Afzwering) by which the States-General declared that Philip had forfeited his sovereignty over the provinces by his persistent tyranny. This was a declaration of independence for the whole of the Low Countries, but the military and political events of the next decade limited its permanent effect to the northern provinces under the closer union of Utrecht. The economy Flower cultivation in the polders of South Holland near the border with North Holland in The Since World War II The Netherlands has become a highly industrialized nation occupying a central position in the economic life of western Europe. Although agriculture accounts for a small percentage of the national income and labour force, it remains a highly specialized contributor to Dutch exports. Because of the scarcity of mineral resourceswith the important exception of natural gasthe country is dependent on large imports of basic materials. The Netherlands has a market economy, but the state is a major participant in such corporations as The Netherlands Railways, the Dutch State Mines, The Royal Netherlands Blast Furnaces and Steel Works, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, and The Netherlands Natural Gas Company. The state thus has a direct, continuous influence on the management of some sectors of the economy and especially on investment policy. The government also employs a substantial percentage of the total labour force. The Dutch economy nevertheless remains basically in private hands. Postwar industrial development has been consciously stimulated by government policy, and state subsidies have been granted to attract industry toward the relatively underdeveloped northern provinces, as well as Limburg and certain other pockets of economic stagnation. Despite these subsidies, the western provinces remain the centre of new industry, especially in the services sector. Dutch employers are organized mainly in separate but closely cooperating organizations: one Roman Catholic and Protestant and one nondenominational. The labour force had a tripartite organization before the Socialist and Roman Catholic unions merged, leaving the Protestant union and a few small independent organizations far behind in membership. Employer organizations and labour unions are represented on the Joint Industrial Labour Council, established in 1945 for collective bargaining, and on the Socio-Economic Council, which serves mainly to advise the government. Energy With the increasing use of oil and natural gas, coal mining (concentrated in southern Limburg) was discontinued in 1974 because of the rising cost of production. The Netherlands imports several million tons of coal annually to meet domestic and industrial needs, including those of such industrial installations as the steel works of IJmuiden at the mouth of the North Sea Canal. The production of crude oil, of which there are minimal deposits, covers only a small part of Dutch requirements. The wells are located in southeastern Drenthe, near Schoonebeek, and in Zuid-Holland. Large amounts of crude oil are imported for refining in The Netherlands, and much of the refined petroleum is exported. The discovery of natural gas in 1959 had a tremendous influence on the development of the Dutch economy. The gas fields are in the northeastern Netherlandswith the largest field at Slochteren in the province of Groningenand beneath the Dutch sector of the North Sea. Under the Geneva Convention of 1958, The Netherlands was allocated a 22,000-square-mile block of the continental shelf of the North Sea, an area larger than the country itself. Almost half of the natural gas produced is exported to Germany, Belgium, France, Switzerland, and Italy, helping to improve the balance of payments in the economic sector in which The Netherlands has usually had its largest deficit. The natural gas finds began a trend of Dutch industries toward using the fuel, among them the aluminium smelter at Delfzijl in Groningen. Purchase, transport, and sale of the gas are in the hands of The Netherlands Natural Gas Company, a limited company in which shares are held by Dutch and American firms and the Dutch state. Since it is the government's policy to reserve as much natural gas as possible for domestic use in future decades, the amount of imported coal again increased in the 1980s. The land Relief Urk, once an island of the former Zuiderzee, now part of the Northeast (Noordoost) Polder, The If The Netherlands were to lose the protection of its dunes and dikes, the most densely populated part of the country would be inundated (largely by the sea, but also in part by the rivers). This highly developed part of The Netherlands, which generally does not lie higher than about three feet (one metre) above sea level, covers more than half the total area of the country. About half of this area (some 27 percent of the total area of the country) actually lies below sea level. The Dutch refer to this area in the north and west as the Low Netherlands, while the area covering the south and east is termed the High Netherlands. The Low Netherlands consists mainly of polders, where the landscape not only lies at a very low altitude but is also very flat in appearance. On such land, building is possible only after concrete piles, sometimes as long as 65 feet, have been driven into the sand layer. The Zuiderzee was originally an estuary of the Rhine. By natural action it then became a shallow inland sea, biting deep into the land, and eventually it was hollowed into an almost circular shape by the action of winds and tides. In 1920 work was begun on the Zuiderzee project, of which the IJsselmeer Dam (Afsluitdijk), begun in 1927, was a part. This 19-mile-long dam, or dike, running northeastward to connect the provinces of Noord-Holland and Friesland, was completed in 1932 to finally seal off the Zuiderzee from the Waddenzee and the North Sea. In the IJsselmeer, or IJssel Lake, formed from the southern part of the Zuiderzee, four large polders with a total area of about 650 square miles were constructed around a freshwater basin fed by the IJssel and other rivers and linked with the sea by sluices and locks in the barrier dam. The first two polders createdWieringermeer and North East (Noordoost) Polder, drained before and during World War IIare used mostly for agriculture. The two polders reclaimed in the 1950s and '60sSouth Flevoland Polder (Zuidelijk) and East Flevoland Polder (Oostelijk)are used for residential, industrial, and recreational purposes. Among the cities that have developed there are Lelystad and Almere; the former is the capital of the new province of Flevoland, created in 1986 from the two Flevoland polders and North East Polder. In the southwest, the disastrous gales and spring tide of Feb. 1, 1953, which flooded 400,000 acres (162,000 hectares) of land and killed 1,800 people, accelerated the implementation of the Delta Plan, which aims to close the sea inlets of the southwestern delta, mostly in the province of Zeeland. These delta works were designed to shorten the coastline by 450 miles, combat the salination of the soil, and allow the development of the islands of the area through roads that were constructed over 10 dams and two bridges built between 1960 and 1987. The largest of these dams, crossing the five-mile-wide East Schelde (Oosterschelde) estuary, has been built in the form of a storm-surge barrier incorporating 61 openings that can be closed in the event of flood. The barrier is normally open, allowing salt water to enter the estuary and about 75 percent of the tidal movement to be maintained, limiting damage to the natural environment in the East Schelde. In the interests of the commerce of the ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp, no dams were constructed in the New Waterway, which links Rotterdam to the North Sea, or the West Schelde, an approach to Antwerp, Belg. The dikes along these waterways consequently had to be strengthened. A region with a very specific character has been formed by the great riversRhine, Lek, Waal, and Maas (Meuse)which flow from east to west through the central part of the country. The landscape in this area is characterized by high dikes along wide rivers, orchards along the levees formed by the rivers, and numerous large bridges over which pass the roads and railways that connect the central Netherlands with the southern provinces. In the High Netherlands, the layers of sand and gravel in the eastern part of the country were pushed sideways and upward in some places by ice tongues of the Saale Glacial Stage, forming elongated ridges, which may reach a height of more than 330 feet. These form a recreational area, Veluwe, which is of national significance. The southern part of Limburg province, in the border zone of the Ardennes, is the only part of the country where altitudes well over 350 feet occur. The Netherlands' highest point, the Vaalserberg, in the extreme southeastern corner, rises to 1,053 feet. Soils Only in the last Pleistocene Ice Age did the Scandinavian ice sheet cover the northern half of The Netherlands. After this period (about 10,000 years ago), a large area in the north of what is now The Netherlands was left covered by moraine (glacial accumulation of earth and rock debris). In the centre and south, the Rhine and Maas unloaded thick layers of sand and gravel transported from the European mountain chains. Later, during the Holocene Epoch, clay was deposited in the sheltered lagoons behind the coastal dunes, and peat soil often subsequently developed in these areas. If the peat soil was washed away by the sea or dug away by humans (for the production of fuel and salt), lakes were created. Many of these were reclaimed in later centuries (as mentioned above), while others now form highly valued outdoor recreational areas. The people Ethnic composition Skaters on a frozen canal, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Popular belief holds that the Dutch are a mixture of Frisians, Saxons, and Franks. In fact, research has made plausible the contention that the autochthonous inhabitants of the region were a mixture of pre-Germanic and Germanic population groups who in the course of time had converged on the main deltaic region of western Europe. There emerged from these groups in the 7th and 8th centuries some major polities based on certain ethnic and cultural unities that then came to be identified as Frisians, Saxons, and Franks. The Dutch Republic originated from medieval statelets, and its legal successor, The Kingdom of The Netherlands, has attracted countless immigrants through the centuries. A strong impetus was the principle of freedom of thought, which engendered the tolerance that developed in the 16th and 17th centuries. These sentiments wereand aremost manifest in the prosperous commercial and industrial centres in the western provinces, which attracted many members of persecuted religious or political minorities. Among these were southern lowlanders, French Huguenots, and Portuguese Jews, along with many people who sought to improve their economic situation, such as Germans and non-Iberian Jews. In the 20th century, immigrants from the former Dutch overseas colonies added to the influx; they include Indonesians and peoples from the Moluccas and from Suriname on the northeast coast of South America. The heritage of Dutch humanism The considerable hospitality exhibited by the Dutch is to a large extent rooted in the spirit of humanism that was typical of the Dutch Republic of the 16th to the 18th centuries. Figures such as Erasmus in the 16th century and Hugo Grotius in the 17th century epitomize that spirit. It can be characterized as an amalgam of religious piety tempered by an awareness of scientific progress. It resulted in a rather pragmatic mode of thinking that has dominated Dutch bourgeois culture from the 16th century onward, coexisting with growing commercial acumen. Evolving Dutch society came to encompass a diversity of religious traditions, from rigid Calvinism and a more tolerant Protestantism to conformist Roman Catholicism. Roughly speaking, the present Dutch population can be divided into three almost equal groups relative to religion: Roman Catholics (predominantly in the provinces of Noord-Brabant and Limburg), Protestants (particularly the Dutch Reformed Church), and the nonreligious. Although religious ardour and church attendance have slackened notably since about 1900, the educational institutions and political parties that evolved in the late 19th and early 20th centuries along denominational lines still play a considerable role vis--vis the more or less secularized parties and institutions that sprang from socialist, liberal, and conservative movements. The most constant factor in the body politic has for years been the so-called Christian Democratscomprising Roman Catholics as well as Protestantswho traditionally dominate the centre of the parliamentary spectrum. These more or less converging societal groupings have not completely obliterated a range of age-old regional cultural distinctions. They are sometimes vividly preserved, as in the case of the northern province of Friesland, which proudly conserves the ancient Frisian culture. With more recent immigration new cultural groups are becoming significant.