where is the netherlands located on the world map
Netherlands The Netherlands (/ˈnɛðərləndz/ ( listen); Dutch: Nederland [ˈneːdərˌlɑnt] ( listen); West Frisian: Nederlân), also known informally as Holland, is a densely populated country in Western Europe, also incorporating three island territories in the Caribbean.[nb 1] It is the main constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The European portion of the Netherlands borders Germany to the east, Belgium to the south, and the North Sea to the northwest, sharing maritime borders in the North Sea with Belgium, the United Kingdom, and Germany.[10] The four largest cities in the Netherlands are Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht. Amsterdam is the country's capital,[11] while The Hague holds the Dutch seat of parliament and government.[12] The port of Rotterdam is the largest port in Europe and the world's largest outside east Asia.[13] Utrecht is a central node for road and railway communications, commerce, and cultural events.
Dutch people The Dutch (Dutch:  Nederlanders (help·info)), occasionally referred to as Netherlanders—a term that is cognate to the Dutch word for Dutch people, "Nederlanders"—are a Germanic[15][16][17] ethnic group native to the Netherlands.[18][19] They share a common culture and speak the Dutch language. Dutch people and their descendants are found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in Aruba, Suriname, Guyana, Curaçao, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Canada,[20] Australia,[21] South Africa,[3] New Zealand, and the United States.[22]
List of former European colonies Britain and United Kingdom
Dutch people The origins of the word Dutch go back to Proto-Germanic, the ancestor of all Germanic languages, *theudo (meaning "national/popular"); akin to Old Dutch dietsc, Old High German diutsch, Old English þeodisc and Gothic þiuda all meaning "(of) the common (Germanic) people". As the tribes among the Germanic peoples began to differentiate its meaning began to change. The Anglo-Saxons of England for example gradually stopped referring to themselves as þeodisc and instead started to use Englisc, after their tribe. On the continent *theudo evolved into two meanings: Diets (meaning "Dutch (people)" (archaic)[57] and Deutsch (German, meaning "German (people)"). At first the English language used (the contemporary form of) Dutch to refer to any or all of the Germanic speakers on the European mainland (e.g. the Dutch, the Frisians and the -various- Germans). Gradually its meaning shifted to the Germanic people they had most contact with, both because of their geographical proximity, but also because of the rivalry in trade and overseas territories: the people from the Republic of the Netherlands, the Dutch.[58]