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COPYRIGHT 2000 Gale Group, COPYRIGHT 2005 Thomson Gale, a part of The Thomson Corporation
DUTCH AMERICANS
OVERVIEW
Located in northwestern Europe, the Netherlands is bounded to the east by Germany, to the south by Belgium, and to the north and west by the North Sea. The Netherlands has about 16,000 square miles of landmass, making the country roughly equal in size to New Jersey and Maryland combined. The nation supports a population density of about 1,000 people per square mile. A coastal region, incorporating two major harbors (Rotterdam and the Hudson Bay), the Netherlands' economy is heavily dependent upon shipping.
During the New Stone Age (c. 8000-3500 B.C.), the Netherlands' landmass roughly equaled its current 16,000 square miles, but by 55 B.C., when Rome's legions gained hegemony in the area, rising sea levels and erosion from winds, tides, and rivers reduced the coastal areas by at least 30 percent. Since then, the Dutch have employed various strategies to regain the land lost to the sea. Simple earthen hills (village sites) linked by dikes long preceded the complex drainage systems that drain the enclosed lowlands today with electrically powered pumps.
Windmills, preserved currently as historic monuments, pushed water up and out of the Netherlands for some five centuries (1400-1900) because viable habitation of the western provinces (South Holland, Zeeland, and North Holland) required flood control along the Rhine River delta and along the North Sea's shifting shoreline. The massive Delta Works,stretching across the islands of South Holland and Zeeland, was constructed following disastrous floods in 1953 to protect the Netherlands from storms and high water. Because the most productive farm land together with the most populous commercial and industrial districts lie as much as 20 feet below sea level, hydrological science has become a hallmark of Dutch achievement.
HISTORY
While historians believe that nomadic peoples hunted and fished in the Netherlands as early as 16,000 B.C., the area was not settled until about 4000 B.C. Around 60 B.C., Roman armies under Julius Caesar conquered the Saxon, Celtic, and Frisian groups occupying the Netherlands at that time. The Romans built roads and made improvements to existing dikes in the lowlands. In the A.D. 400s, as Rome weakened, the Germanic Franks conquered the area and later introduced the Dutch to Christianity.
From the 700s to the 1100s, the Dutch were subjected to violent raids by Viking sailors from Scandinavia. During this unstable period, power passed to local nobles, whose arms and castles offered protection in return for rent, labor, and taxes. This system gradually declined when, beginning in the 1300s, much of the Netherlands was taken by the dukes of Burgundy, a powerful French feudal dynasty. In the early 1500s, Charles V, Duke of Burgundy, inherited the thrones of both Spain and the Holy Roman Empire. While he was well-liked by the Dutch, his successors were not. In 1568 the Dutch prince, William the Silent (1533-1584), led a rebellion against the Spanish Habsburgs (Phillip II, 1527-1621), initiating the Eighty Years' War (1568-1648). Although William was assassinated in 1584, his efforts eventually resulted in Dutch independence. For this reason, he is often regarded as the Father of the Netherlands.
Resistance to the Spanish united the lowlanders, who previously had local (rather than national) loyalties. In 1579 the Union of Utrecht unified the seven northern lowland provinces. (Their 1580 agreement, essentially a defensive alliance, served as a national constitution until 1795.) Two years later (1581), those provinces declared the Netherlands an independent country. Meanwhile, Dutch exploration and trade had flourished and by the 1620s, the Dutch shipping fleet was the world's largest. This "Golden Age" lasted until the 1700s, after which the Netherlands underwent a gradual decline as the balance of colonial power shifted in favor of England. The beginning of this change can be traced to the 1664 sale of New Netherland (New York) to England.
MODERN ERA
The Netherlands was occupied by the French during the Napoleonic Era (1795-1813). Afterwards, in 1814, descendants of the House of Orange established a monarchy, which was reformed successively in 1848, 1896, and 1919 to create a broadly based democracy. Today, the Netherlands has a constitutional monarchy with a bicameral, multi-party system administered by a premier and a coalition cabinet of ministers. Queen Beatrix (1938– ), the titular head of state, performs largely ceremonial duties.
THE FIRST DUTCH SETTLERS IN AMERICA
Following English explorer Henry Hudson's 1609 exploration of the Hudson River, a new joint stock company, the Dutch West India Company (1621), gained colonization rights in the Hudson River area and founded New Netherland (New York). The Dutch West India Company was chartered specifically to trade in the New World, where the Dutch had acquired colonies in Brazil, the Caribbean, and the east coast of North America. Pursuing its commercial interest in New Netherland, the company established Fort Orange (Albany), Breuckelen (Brooklyn), Vlissingen (Flushing), and in Delaware, Swanendael (Lewes). In 1624 the company also established the Dutch Reformed Church (the Reformed Church in America) which has exercised a significant influence in the Dutch American community.
In New Amsterdam (New York City) Governor Peter Stuyvesant (1592-1672) attempted to eliminate all worship apart from that of the Dutch Reformed Church, but his governing board in Amsterdam opposed the policy as detrimental to commerce. Like Amsterdam itself, New Amsterdam did not enforce rules which prohibited worship to Jews, Catholics, and others. Thus, New Amsterdam flourished and, as New York City, it continues to host a diverse populace with widely varying religious expressions.
After the British captured New Netherland in 1664, Dutch immigration virtually ceased but England imposed no severe restraints on the Dutch and the vast majority remained in New York. By 1790 they numbered about 100,000 and, in addition to New York City, they clustered in towns...
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