At the end of the 16th century, after escaping the Spanish colonial rule, the Netherlands, with its strong shipbuilding capabilities and developed handicrafts, transformed itself into an important commercial empire in the world at that time, and played a major role in the global maritime trade, so it was called "sea coachman".
However, the country now famous for its windmills and tulips also has its own troubles. Because although the country's official name is "the Netherlands", that is, the Netherlands, in the Chinese world, it is often referred to as Holland.
On 8 November 2019, the Netherlands introduced a new national symbol, the "Netherlands" (Netherland) abbreviated letter "NL". The Dutch government also requires all companies, universities, embassies and government agencies to switch to the new official symbol, the Netherlands, at a cost of about 200,000 euros (about $319,000).
The Dutchland literally means "lowlands", that is, lowland countries. The most prominent feature of the country's topography is the "low level", the whole territory is located in the alluvial plain of the lower Rhine, and a quarter of the land in its territory is less than 1 meter above sea level, and a quarter of the land is below the sea level. With the exception of a few hills to the south and east, most of the terrain is low-lying, making it one of the lowest-lying countries in Europe.
The Netherlands in a broad sense includes present-day Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, northeastern France, and parts of northwestern Germany. The first inhabitants here were the Celts. But as the Romans in the south grew, the Roman Republic they established and later the Roman Empire extended their tentacles of expansion here.
In 58 BC, the Romans conquered the Netherlands, but never took full control of it. The area on the south bank of the Rhine came under the jurisdiction of the "Belgian Province of Gaul" and later the "Germanic Province". As a result, the southern part of the Netherlands was influenced by Latin culture, and the local population spoke French in Latin; the northern region was influenced by Germanic culture, and the inhabitants spoke Dutch in the Germanic language family.
Entering the Middle Ages, the Holy Roman Empire occupied it. Due to the frequent marriages of royal families in Various European countries, today's Netherlands was occupied by the Habsburgs in the late Middle Ages. At the beginning of the 16th century, Spain gained the right to rule the Netherlands through the marriage of European royal families and became the de facto ruler.
However, with the opening of new shipping routes, the center of gravity of the trade routes also changed from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic. The Netherlands region is located in the lower reaches of the Rhine River, a golden waterway, with many ports and a vast economic hinterland, and has become an important commodity distribution center in Europe.
At that time, the Netherlands was one of the most economically rich regions in Western Europe. But the development of capitalism represents the need to face oppression from the suzerainty of Spain. In 1568, the Dutch, who could not bear religious oppression, rushed into the churches and temples built here in Spain and threw the statue of the Virgin in the shrine to the ground, and the Dutch Revolution began.
After eighty years of wars and armistices, Spain lost the war with Britain for maritime supremacy. Eventually Spain officially recognized the independence of the United Provinces of the Netherlands, and a new bourgeois state was born in the north-western part of the European continent.
In the 17th century, the United Provinces of the Netherlands monopolized commercial trade in the Mediterranean, Atlantic and Baltic Seas with its well-developed commercial and maritime industries. A number of capitalist banks were also founded, which provided strong capital support for colonial expansion, and the West India Company and the East India Company were established.
By 1669, the Dutch East India Company was the richest private company in the world, with an army of more than 150 merchant ships, 40 warships, 50,000 employees, and 10,000 mercenaries, with a dividend of 40%, one of the best policy blue-chip stocks in human history.
When the United Provinces of the Netherlands squeezed out the traditional colonial powers of Portugal and Spain and became another hegemon on the sea, his name gradually changed from "Netherlands" to "Netherlands".
Nominally a unified state, the united provinces of the Netherlands derive power mainly from the seven provinces of the Netherlands, Zeeland, Utrecht, Helderland, Haute-Ijssel, Friesland and Groningen, each with its own independent parliament.
Among them, the Dutch province is located at the mouth of the sea and has convenient port conditions, becoming the richest and most populous province in the United Provinces of the Netherlands. In the operation of the entire republic, the Dutch province contributed half of the wealth of society and became the de facto dominant of the republic.
And the country's largest cities – Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Leiden, Alkmaar and the capital, The Hague – are all in the Netherlands.
Dutch merchants traveled from important ports in the Dutch province to and from all over Europe, and many Europeans first regarded the United Provinces of the Netherlands as "Netherlands" rather than as a subordinate region of the Netherlands; on a world scale, more people were impressed by the "Netherlands" than in the Netherlands, and they projected their impressions of the Netherlands on the whole republic.
In 1794, when the Netherlands was dealing with the Qing government at that time, the Qianlong Emperor decreed that the country should be called the Netherlands, and since then, the Netherlands has become the official name of the country Chinese.
Today, gone are the days of the sea coachman, but the country still attracts tourists from all over the world with its distinctive business card.