Countries in Europe
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The Netherlands (Dutch: Nederland [neːdərˌlɑnt] (Listen) is a participating country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, consisting of twelve provinces in Northwest Europe, and three islands in the Caribbean. The Dutch word in Indonesian is a defective loan from the Portuguese vocabulary: holanda, olanda, wolanda, bolanda, and lastly a dutch. The Netherlands is bordered by the North Sea to the north, and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders with Belgium, Germany and the United Kingdom. The Netherlands embraces parliamentary democracy which is structured as a unitary state. The capital is Amsterdam, while the center of government, and its monarchic position are in The Hague. The Netherlands as a whole is often called "Holland", though North Holland, and the South are just two of its twelve provinces.
The Netherlands is geographically a low-lying country, with approximately 20% of its territory, and 21% of its population submarine, and 50% of the land less than a meter above sea level. This unique fact is enshrined in its name: Nederland (Dutch), which means "low-landed lands"; this name was used with some variations in other European languages. Most of the land under sea level is the result of human intervention, due to widespread peat extraction, and lack of control over the centuries, and lowered the surface to several meters. Even in the flood areas the peat extraction is continued through dredging. Since the end of the 16th century land reclamation began; then the vast polder area is preserved by elaborating a drainage system involving several embankments, canals, and pumping stations. Most of the Dutch territory was formed by the estuaries of three important rivers of Europe, which together with their tributaries formed the Rhein-Maas-Schelde delta. Much of the country's territory is very flat, with the exception of the foothills of the far-east, and several rows of hills in the center.
Reference: https://id.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belanda
