The foreign policy of the Netherlands is based on four basic commitments: to the Atlantic cooperation, to European integration, to international development and to international law. While historically the Kingdom of the Netherlands was a neutral state, since 1945 it has become a member of NATO, the United Nations, the European Union and many other international organizations. The Dutch economy is very open and relies on international trade. During and after the 17th century—its Golden Age—the Dutch built up a commercial and colonial empire. It was a leading shipping and naval power and was often at war with England, its main rival. Its main colonial holding was Indonesia, which fought for and achieved independence after 1945. The historical ties inherited from its colonial past still influence the foreign relations of the Netherlands. Foreign trade policy is handled by the European Union. The Dutch have been active in international peacekeeping roles.
Willem-Alexander is King of the Netherlands.
Brielle, also called Den Briel in Dutch and Brill in English, is a town and historic seaport in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland, on the north side of the island of Voorne-Putten, at the mouth of the New Maas. The former municipality covered an area of 31.14 km2 (12.02 sq mi) of which 3.59 km2 (1.39 sq mi) was water. In 2021 its population was 17,439.
Barend "Ben" Bril was a Dutch boxer who competed in the 1928 Amsterdam Summer Olympics in Flyweight boxing, and became an accomplished European boxing referee and judge in the 1960s.
Theodoor "Theo" van Gogh was a Dutch film director. He directed Submission: Part 1, a short film written by Somali writer and politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali, which criticised the treatment of women in Islam in strong terms. On 2 November 2004, he was murdered by Mohammed Bouyeri, a Dutch-Moroccan Islamist who objected to the film's message. The last film Van Gogh had completed before his murder, 06/05, was a fictional exploration of the assassination of Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn. It was released posthumously in December 2004, a month after Van Gogh's death, and two years after Fortuyn's death.
Paul Bril was a Flemish painter and printmaker principally known for his landscapes. He spent most of his active career in Rome. His Italianate landscapes had a major influence on landscape painting in Italy and Northern Europe.
Marten Ryckaert or Maerten Ryckaert, was a Flemish landscape painter. He was known for his small, usually imaginary landscapes in an Italianate style.
Dutch dialects are primarily the dialects that are both cognate with the Dutch language and spoken in the same language area as the Dutch standard language. They are remarkably diverse and are found within Europe mainly in the Netherlands and northern Belgium.
The Kingdom of the Netherlands, commonly known simply as the Netherlands, is a sovereign state consisting of a collection of constituent territories united under the monarch of the Netherlands, who functions as head of state. The realm is not a federation; it is a unitary monarchy with its largest subdivision, the eponymous Netherlands, predominantly located in Northwestern Europe and with several smaller island territories located in the Caribbean.
Dutch is a West Germanic language, 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 the population of the Netherlands and Flanders. In South America, it is the native language of the majority of the population of Suriname, and spoken as a second 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. Dutch Caribbean municipalities have Dutch as one of the official languages too. 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.
Adrianus "Aad" Nuis was a Dutch politician of the Democrats 66 (D66) party and political scientist.
Jérôme Louis Heldring was a Dutch journalist. He was columnist (1953–2012) and editor-in-chief (1968–1972) of the newspapers Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant and NRC Handelsblad.
A berenkuil is a type of traffic circle found in the Netherlands. In this construction, automotive traffic is directed around a raised outer circle. This leaves a sunken open space in the center of the circle which is used for bicycle paths.
Matthijs Bril or Matthijs Bril the Younger was a Flemish painter and draughtsman of landscapes. He spent most of his active career in Rome where his drawings of ancient Roman sites played an important role in the development of topographical landscape art. He was also a painter of capricci, with typical rustic hills with a few ruins. He died young and his younger brother Paul Bril, who had joined him in Rome, finished his commissions.
Brabantine Gothic, occasionally called Brabantian Gothic, is a significant variant of Gothic architecture that is typical for the Low Countries. It surfaced in the first half of the 14th century at St. Rumbold's Cathedral in the city of Mechelen.
The Grand Dictation of the Dutch Language was a televised spelling test for adults organized by the Belgian newspaper De Morgen, the Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant and the Dutch public broadcaster NTR. In May 2017 it was announced no more dictations would be held due to the number of viewers strongly receding.
Swaffelen is a Dutch term meaning to hit one's soft or semi-hard penis - often repeatedly - against an object or another person's body. Swaffelen was named as the word of the year in the Netherlands and Belgium in 2008.
A national liberation skirt or national celebration skirt is a style of skirt, handmade of patchwork and embroidery, in celebration of Dutch Liberation Day on 5 May 1945. The style was invented by resistance fighter and feminist Mies Boissevain-van Lennep. The feestrok has been described as "a female mode of political expression ... [which] explicitly linked gender to the reconstruction of a ravaged country and the general striving for 'breakthrough' and social renewal."
Mountainous Landscape with Saint Jerome is an oil on copper painting by Flemish painter Paul Bril. It was painted in 1592, and is currently housed at the Mauritshuis in The Hague. The painting was acquired by the Mauritshuis in March 2013. The painting is signed and dated, and represents the earliest dated cabinet painting by Bril. The painting belongs to the period when Bril associated with Jan Brueghel the Elder in Rome, in the last decade of the 16th century. Bril's work from the 1590s has some affinity to the work by Brueghel from the same period, and in fact the painting was originally considered a Brueghel.
Briltil is a village in the municipality of Westerkwartier in the province of Groningen in the Netherlands, founded around 1600. The name of the village comes from a drawbridge over the Hoendiep to the region of the Bril northwest of the bridge. As of 2021, Briltil had a population of 490. Since about 2004, the village has consisted of a new housing estate on the east side of the Hoendiep and a small number of historic buildings and a marina on the west side. The village of Zuidhorn is right next to Briltil.
