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- Haarlem and the province North Holland
- Discover Haarlem, the capital of the province North Holland
- About paintings and the Dutch coutryside
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Europe seen by satelite |
Holland is located in Europe, the old
continent at the eastern side of the Atlantic Ocean. In the days of Julius Caesar Holland
was the northern border of the Roman empire, populated with the German and Frisian tribes,
with their blonde hair and lots of pride, difficult to conquer (as Livius states in his
history).
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| The map of Europe with Haarlem marked red |
Holland was far away from Rome, cold and wet, and rather dangerous for the Roman invaders. Under the reign of Carolus Magnus (Charles the Great) in the 9th century Europe was unified again in the Holy Roman Empire, which lasted for ages. In the 16th century, Charles V, one of the last Habsburger Holy Roman emperors, had his residence in Brussels, the capital of Belgium and nowadays also the capital of the European Community. It was against Charles V and his son Phillips II the Dutch fought their 80-years war, which ended in the declaration of the Dutch Republic in 1648.
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Holland with its many islands |
The kingdom of the Netherlands (Holland was only a province of the Seven United Provincies, which formed the Republic) has a population of over 15 million and it is one of the most crowded areas in the world, about the size of the state of New York.
In the west of the country many
'polders' are below sealevel, some well over 10 meters.In the 17th century the famous
engineer Leeghwater designed windmills to pump the water out of the polders. Sometimes
three stages of windmills were required to extend the pumping capacity. See the windmills
at Kinderdijk. Nowadays electric punping stations
have replaced the windmills and the old windmills are operated by enthousiastic groups of
amateurs.
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The map of the Netherlands (with the city of Krefeld in Germany for my family) |
Haarlem is in the western part of Holland, it is the capital of the province of North Holland. Amsterdam - also in the province of North Holland - is the capital of the Netherlands, but the city of Den Haag (The Hague) is the residence of the Dutch gouvernement (this is a bit confusing, but it is part of history).
In the south is located the city of Maastricht.
It was in Maastricht the treaty was signed by the 12 European countries to constitute the
European Community in 1995, the Maastricht Treaty. The
Dutch banker Wim Duisenberg is the first chief executive of the European Comunity
Bank at Franfurt, Germany. From the start of 1999 all over Europe the Euro has been
chosen as the EC currency. Euro coins and banknotes will be introduced in 2002.
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