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Which political party did Takeo Miki belong to in 07/01/1953?
|
January 07, 1953
|
{
"text": [
"Kaishintō"
]
}
|
L2_Q317675_P102_3
|
Takeo Miki is a member of the Kaishintō from Jan, 1952 to Jan, 1954.
Takeo Miki is a member of the National Democratic Party (Japan) from Jan, 1950 to Jan, 1952.
Takeo Miki is a member of the National Cooperative Party from Jan, 1947 to Jan, 1950.
Takeo Miki is a member of the Liberal Democratic Party from Jan, 1955 to Jan, 1988.
Takeo Miki is a member of the Japan Democratic Party from Jan, 1954 to Jan, 1955.
Takeo Miki is a member of the Cooperative Democratic Party from Jan, 1946 to Jan, 1947.
|
Takeo MikiBorn in Awa, Tokushima, Miki graduated from Meiji University in Tokyo. He attended the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, and was awarded an honorary doctorate in law from the institution in 1966.During 1937 Miki was elected to the Diet; he remained there for the rest of his life, winning re-election no fewer than 19 times over 51 years. In the 1942 general election he openly voiced opposition to the military government under Hideki Tojo and still managed to win a seat; his efforts at this time were assisted by Kan Abe, the grandfather of Prime Minister Shinzō Abe.Miki took over from Kakuei Tanaka as Prime Minister on 9 December 1974, following the latter's implication in the corruption concerning real-estate and construction companies. The attractiveness of Miki to the LDP bosses was chiefly due to his personal integrity, and his weak power base from his small faction. In fact, Miki had neither expected nor wanted to be prime minister at all, as was reflected when upon his election he murmured "a bolt from the blue".While Miki was at the funeral of ex-PM Eisaku Sato in 1975, he was assaulted by a right-wing extremist: Hiroyoshi Fudeyasu, the secretary-general of the Great Japan Patriotic Party with foreign dignitaries nearby. This caused criticism of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police over not doing enough to ensure his safety.After being elected, Miki attempted to reform the LDP, relentlessly investigating the Lockheed bribery scandals, which made him a large number of enemies within the party. A campaign literally called "Down with Miki" ("Miki oroshi") was started by influential faction leaders. Despite Miki's personal popularity with the public, the Lockheed scandal reflected poorly on the party, which lost its overall majority in the 1976 election to the Diet and had to make deals with minor parties to remain in power. Embarrassed by the result, Miki resigned and was succeeded on 24 December 1976, by Takeo Fukuda.In Mao Zedong's final days, he took a great interest in Miki's political condition, as Miki was suffering a coup d'état from amongst his own party. Mao had never shown any interest in Miki before, or even mentioned him.He held many other posts during his career in addition to being prime minister.NFL player Takeo Spikes was named after Miki.During his time in Seattle, Miki spent a period as a dishwasher at noted Japanese restaurant Maneki.To commemorate the ties of Japan to America, and Seattle in particular, Miki gave 1,000 cherry trees to Seattle to commemorate the United States Bicentennial in 1976. This gift gave birth to the , still running annually.In Hong Kong, the name "Takeo Miki" (三木武夫) is sometimes used to describe actors or actresses with wooden or no emotional expressions during movies or TV dramas. Some have said that the origin for the slang term stems from Miki's wooden expression during his appearance in news reports.
|
[
"National Democratic Party (Japan)",
"Cooperative Democratic Party",
"Japan Democratic Party",
"Liberal Democratic Party",
"National Cooperative Party"
] |
|
Which political party did Takeo Miki belong to in Jan 07, 1953?
|
January 07, 1953
|
{
"text": [
"Kaishintō"
]
}
|
L2_Q317675_P102_3
|
Takeo Miki is a member of the Kaishintō from Jan, 1952 to Jan, 1954.
Takeo Miki is a member of the National Democratic Party (Japan) from Jan, 1950 to Jan, 1952.
Takeo Miki is a member of the National Cooperative Party from Jan, 1947 to Jan, 1950.
Takeo Miki is a member of the Liberal Democratic Party from Jan, 1955 to Jan, 1988.
Takeo Miki is a member of the Japan Democratic Party from Jan, 1954 to Jan, 1955.
Takeo Miki is a member of the Cooperative Democratic Party from Jan, 1946 to Jan, 1947.
|
Takeo MikiBorn in Awa, Tokushima, Miki graduated from Meiji University in Tokyo. He attended the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, and was awarded an honorary doctorate in law from the institution in 1966.During 1937 Miki was elected to the Diet; he remained there for the rest of his life, winning re-election no fewer than 19 times over 51 years. In the 1942 general election he openly voiced opposition to the military government under Hideki Tojo and still managed to win a seat; his efforts at this time were assisted by Kan Abe, the grandfather of Prime Minister Shinzō Abe.Miki took over from Kakuei Tanaka as Prime Minister on 9 December 1974, following the latter's implication in the corruption concerning real-estate and construction companies. The attractiveness of Miki to the LDP bosses was chiefly due to his personal integrity, and his weak power base from his small faction. In fact, Miki had neither expected nor wanted to be prime minister at all, as was reflected when upon his election he murmured "a bolt from the blue".While Miki was at the funeral of ex-PM Eisaku Sato in 1975, he was assaulted by a right-wing extremist: Hiroyoshi Fudeyasu, the secretary-general of the Great Japan Patriotic Party with foreign dignitaries nearby. This caused criticism of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police over not doing enough to ensure his safety.After being elected, Miki attempted to reform the LDP, relentlessly investigating the Lockheed bribery scandals, which made him a large number of enemies within the party. A campaign literally called "Down with Miki" ("Miki oroshi") was started by influential faction leaders. Despite Miki's personal popularity with the public, the Lockheed scandal reflected poorly on the party, which lost its overall majority in the 1976 election to the Diet and had to make deals with minor parties to remain in power. Embarrassed by the result, Miki resigned and was succeeded on 24 December 1976, by Takeo Fukuda.In Mao Zedong's final days, he took a great interest in Miki's political condition, as Miki was suffering a coup d'état from amongst his own party. Mao had never shown any interest in Miki before, or even mentioned him.He held many other posts during his career in addition to being prime minister.NFL player Takeo Spikes was named after Miki.During his time in Seattle, Miki spent a period as a dishwasher at noted Japanese restaurant Maneki.To commemorate the ties of Japan to America, and Seattle in particular, Miki gave 1,000 cherry trees to Seattle to commemorate the United States Bicentennial in 1976. This gift gave birth to the , still running annually.In Hong Kong, the name "Takeo Miki" (三木武夫) is sometimes used to describe actors or actresses with wooden or no emotional expressions during movies or TV dramas. Some have said that the origin for the slang term stems from Miki's wooden expression during his appearance in news reports.
|
[
"National Democratic Party (Japan)",
"Cooperative Democratic Party",
"Japan Democratic Party",
"Liberal Democratic Party",
"National Cooperative Party"
] |
|
Which political party did Takeo Miki belong to in 01/07/1953?
|
January 07, 1953
|
{
"text": [
"Kaishintō"
]
}
|
L2_Q317675_P102_3
|
Takeo Miki is a member of the Kaishintō from Jan, 1952 to Jan, 1954.
Takeo Miki is a member of the National Democratic Party (Japan) from Jan, 1950 to Jan, 1952.
Takeo Miki is a member of the National Cooperative Party from Jan, 1947 to Jan, 1950.
Takeo Miki is a member of the Liberal Democratic Party from Jan, 1955 to Jan, 1988.
Takeo Miki is a member of the Japan Democratic Party from Jan, 1954 to Jan, 1955.
Takeo Miki is a member of the Cooperative Democratic Party from Jan, 1946 to Jan, 1947.
|
Takeo MikiBorn in Awa, Tokushima, Miki graduated from Meiji University in Tokyo. He attended the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, and was awarded an honorary doctorate in law from the institution in 1966.During 1937 Miki was elected to the Diet; he remained there for the rest of his life, winning re-election no fewer than 19 times over 51 years. In the 1942 general election he openly voiced opposition to the military government under Hideki Tojo and still managed to win a seat; his efforts at this time were assisted by Kan Abe, the grandfather of Prime Minister Shinzō Abe.Miki took over from Kakuei Tanaka as Prime Minister on 9 December 1974, following the latter's implication in the corruption concerning real-estate and construction companies. The attractiveness of Miki to the LDP bosses was chiefly due to his personal integrity, and his weak power base from his small faction. In fact, Miki had neither expected nor wanted to be prime minister at all, as was reflected when upon his election he murmured "a bolt from the blue".While Miki was at the funeral of ex-PM Eisaku Sato in 1975, he was assaulted by a right-wing extremist: Hiroyoshi Fudeyasu, the secretary-general of the Great Japan Patriotic Party with foreign dignitaries nearby. This caused criticism of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police over not doing enough to ensure his safety.After being elected, Miki attempted to reform the LDP, relentlessly investigating the Lockheed bribery scandals, which made him a large number of enemies within the party. A campaign literally called "Down with Miki" ("Miki oroshi") was started by influential faction leaders. Despite Miki's personal popularity with the public, the Lockheed scandal reflected poorly on the party, which lost its overall majority in the 1976 election to the Diet and had to make deals with minor parties to remain in power. Embarrassed by the result, Miki resigned and was succeeded on 24 December 1976, by Takeo Fukuda.In Mao Zedong's final days, he took a great interest in Miki's political condition, as Miki was suffering a coup d'état from amongst his own party. Mao had never shown any interest in Miki before, or even mentioned him.He held many other posts during his career in addition to being prime minister.NFL player Takeo Spikes was named after Miki.During his time in Seattle, Miki spent a period as a dishwasher at noted Japanese restaurant Maneki.To commemorate the ties of Japan to America, and Seattle in particular, Miki gave 1,000 cherry trees to Seattle to commemorate the United States Bicentennial in 1976. This gift gave birth to the , still running annually.In Hong Kong, the name "Takeo Miki" (三木武夫) is sometimes used to describe actors or actresses with wooden or no emotional expressions during movies or TV dramas. Some have said that the origin for the slang term stems from Miki's wooden expression during his appearance in news reports.
|
[
"National Democratic Party (Japan)",
"Cooperative Democratic Party",
"Japan Democratic Party",
"Liberal Democratic Party",
"National Cooperative Party"
] |
|
Which political party did Takeo Miki belong to in 07-Jan-195307-January-1953?
|
January 07, 1953
|
{
"text": [
"Kaishintō"
]
}
|
L2_Q317675_P102_3
|
Takeo Miki is a member of the Kaishintō from Jan, 1952 to Jan, 1954.
Takeo Miki is a member of the National Democratic Party (Japan) from Jan, 1950 to Jan, 1952.
Takeo Miki is a member of the National Cooperative Party from Jan, 1947 to Jan, 1950.
Takeo Miki is a member of the Liberal Democratic Party from Jan, 1955 to Jan, 1988.
Takeo Miki is a member of the Japan Democratic Party from Jan, 1954 to Jan, 1955.
Takeo Miki is a member of the Cooperative Democratic Party from Jan, 1946 to Jan, 1947.
|
Takeo MikiBorn in Awa, Tokushima, Miki graduated from Meiji University in Tokyo. He attended the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, and was awarded an honorary doctorate in law from the institution in 1966.During 1937 Miki was elected to the Diet; he remained there for the rest of his life, winning re-election no fewer than 19 times over 51 years. In the 1942 general election he openly voiced opposition to the military government under Hideki Tojo and still managed to win a seat; his efforts at this time were assisted by Kan Abe, the grandfather of Prime Minister Shinzō Abe.Miki took over from Kakuei Tanaka as Prime Minister on 9 December 1974, following the latter's implication in the corruption concerning real-estate and construction companies. The attractiveness of Miki to the LDP bosses was chiefly due to his personal integrity, and his weak power base from his small faction. In fact, Miki had neither expected nor wanted to be prime minister at all, as was reflected when upon his election he murmured "a bolt from the blue".While Miki was at the funeral of ex-PM Eisaku Sato in 1975, he was assaulted by a right-wing extremist: Hiroyoshi Fudeyasu, the secretary-general of the Great Japan Patriotic Party with foreign dignitaries nearby. This caused criticism of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police over not doing enough to ensure his safety.After being elected, Miki attempted to reform the LDP, relentlessly investigating the Lockheed bribery scandals, which made him a large number of enemies within the party. A campaign literally called "Down with Miki" ("Miki oroshi") was started by influential faction leaders. Despite Miki's personal popularity with the public, the Lockheed scandal reflected poorly on the party, which lost its overall majority in the 1976 election to the Diet and had to make deals with minor parties to remain in power. Embarrassed by the result, Miki resigned and was succeeded on 24 December 1976, by Takeo Fukuda.In Mao Zedong's final days, he took a great interest in Miki's political condition, as Miki was suffering a coup d'état from amongst his own party. Mao had never shown any interest in Miki before, or even mentioned him.He held many other posts during his career in addition to being prime minister.NFL player Takeo Spikes was named after Miki.During his time in Seattle, Miki spent a period as a dishwasher at noted Japanese restaurant Maneki.To commemorate the ties of Japan to America, and Seattle in particular, Miki gave 1,000 cherry trees to Seattle to commemorate the United States Bicentennial in 1976. This gift gave birth to the , still running annually.In Hong Kong, the name "Takeo Miki" (三木武夫) is sometimes used to describe actors or actresses with wooden or no emotional expressions during movies or TV dramas. Some have said that the origin for the slang term stems from Miki's wooden expression during his appearance in news reports.
|
[
"National Democratic Party (Japan)",
"Cooperative Democratic Party",
"Japan Democratic Party",
"Liberal Democratic Party",
"National Cooperative Party"
] |
|
Who was the head of Netherlands in Dec, 1927?
|
December 29, 1927
|
{
"text": [
"Dirk Jan de Geer"
]
}
|
L2_Q55_P6_2
|
Dries van Agt is the head of the government of Netherlands from Dec, 1977 to Nov, 1982.
Hendrikus Colijn is the head of the government of Netherlands from Aug, 1925 to Mar, 1926.
Wim Kok is the head of the government of Netherlands from Aug, 1994 to Jul, 2002.
Victor Marijnen is the head of the government of Netherlands from Jul, 1963 to Apr, 1965.
Jo Cals is the head of the government of Netherlands from Apr, 1965 to Nov, 1966.
Willem Drees is the head of the government of Netherlands from Aug, 1948 to Dec, 1958.
Jan Peter Balkenende is the head of the government of Netherlands from Jul, 2002 to Oct, 2010.
Joop den Uyl is the head of the government of Netherlands from May, 1973 to Dec, 1977.
Dirk Jan de Geer is the head of the government of Netherlands from Mar, 1926 to Aug, 1929.
Barend Biesheuvel is the head of the government of Netherlands from Jul, 1971 to May, 1973.
Louis Beel is the head of the government of Netherlands from Jul, 1946 to Aug, 1948.
Jelle Zijlstra is the head of the government of Netherlands from Nov, 1966 to Apr, 1967.
Ruud Lubbers is the head of the government of Netherlands from Nov, 1982 to Aug, 1994.
Jan de Quay is the head of the government of Netherlands from May, 1959 to Jul, 1963.
Charles Ruijs de Beerenbrouck is the head of the government of Netherlands from Sep, 1918 to Aug, 1925.
Wim Schermerhorn is the head of the government of Netherlands from Jun, 1945 to Jul, 1946.
Mark Rutte is the head of the government of Netherlands from Oct, 2010 to Dec, 2022.
Piet de Jong is the head of the government of Netherlands from Apr, 1967 to Jul, 1971.
Pieter Sjoerds Gerbrandy is the head of the government of Netherlands from Sep, 1940 to Jun, 1945.
|
NetherlandsThe Netherlands ( ), sometimes informally Holland, is a country located in Western Europe with territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. In Europe, the Netherlands consists of twelve provinces, bordering Germany to the east, Belgium to the south, and the North Sea to the northwest, with maritime borders in the North Sea with those countries and the United Kingdom. In the Caribbean, it consists of three special municipalities: the islands of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba. The country's official language is Dutch, with West Frisian as a secondary official language in the province of Friesland, and English and Papiamento as secondary official languages in the Caribbean Netherlands. Dutch Low Saxon and Limburgish are recognised regional languages (spoken in the east and southeast respectively), while Dutch Sign Language, Sinte Romani and Yiddish are recognised non-territorial languages.The four largest cities in the Netherlands are Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht. Amsterdam is the country's most populous city and nominal capital, while The Hague holds the seat of the States General, Cabinet and Supreme Court. The Port of Rotterdam is the busiest seaport in Europe, and the busiest in any country outside East Asia and Southeast Asia, behind only China and Singapore. Amsterdam Airport Schiphol is the busiest airport in the Netherlands, and the third busiest in Europe. The country is a founding member of the EU, Eurozone, G10, NATO, OECD and WTO, as well as a part of the Schengen Area and the trilateral Benelux Union. It hosts several intergovernmental organisations and international courts, many of which are centred in The Hague, which is consequently dubbed 'the world's legal capital'."Netherlands" literally means "lower countries" in reference to its low elevation and flat topography, with only about 50% of its land exceeding above sea level, and nearly 26% falling below sea level. Most of the areas below sea level, known as "polders", are the result of land reclamation that began in the 14th century. Colloquially or informally the Netherlands is occasionally referred to by the pars pro toto "Holland". With a population of 17.4 million people, all living within a total area of roughly —of which the land area is —the Netherlands is the 16th most densely populated country in the world and the 2nd most densely populated country in the European Union, with a density of . Nevertheless, it is the world's second-largest exporter of food and agricultural products by value, owing to its fertile soil, mild climate, intensive agriculture and inventiveness.The Netherlands has been a parliamentary constitutional monarchy with a unitary structure since 1848. The country has a tradition of pillarisation and a long record of social tolerance, having legalised abortion, prostitution and human euthanasia, along with maintaining a liberal drug policy. The Netherlands abolished the death penalty in Civil Law in 1870, though it was not completely removed until a new constitution was approved in 1983. The Netherlands allowed women's suffrage in 1919, before becoming the world's first country to legalise same-sex marriage in 2001. Its mixed-market advanced economy had the eleventh-highest per capita income globally. The Netherlands ranks among the highest in international indexes of press freedom, economic freedom, human development and quality of life, as well as happiness. In 2020, it ranked eighth on the human development index and fifth on the 2021 World Happiness Index.The Netherlands' turbulent history and shifts of power resulted in exceptionally many and widely varying names in different languages. There is diversity even within languages. In English, the Netherlands is also called Holland or (part of) the Low Countries, whereas the term ""Dutch"" is used as the demonym and adjectival form.The region called the Low Countries (comprising Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg) have the same toponymy. Place names with "Neder", "Nieder", "Nedre", "Nether", "Lage(r)" or "Low(er)" (in Germanic languages) and "Bas" or "Inferior" (in Romance languages) are in use in low-lying places all over Europe. They are sometimes used in a deictic relation to a higher ground that consecutively is indicated as "Super(ior)", "Up(per)", "Op(per)", "Ober", "Boven", "High", "Haut" or "Hoch". In the case of the Low Countries / Netherlands the geographical location of the "lower" region has been more or less downstream and near the sea. The geographical location of the upper region, however, changed tremendously over time, depending on the location of the economic and military power governing the Low Countries area. The Romans made a distinction between the Roman provinces of downstream Germania Inferior (nowadays part of Belgium and the Netherlands) and upstream Germania Superior (nowadays part of Germany). The designation 'Low' to refer to the region returns again in the 10th century Duchy of Lower Lorraine, that covered much of the Low Countries. But this time the corresponding "Upper" region is Upper Lorraine, in nowadays Northern France.The Dukes of Burgundy, who ruled from their residence in the Low Countries in the 15th century, used the term "les pays de par deçà" ("the lands over here") for the Low Countries, as opposed to "les pays de par delà" ("the lands over there") for their original homeland: Burgundy in present-day east-central France. Under Habsburg rule, "Les pays de par deçà" developed in "pays d'embas" ("lands down-here"), a deictic expression in relation to other Habsburg possessions like Hungary and Austria. This was translated as "Neder-landen" in contemporary Dutch official documents. From a regional point of view, "Niderlant" was also the area between the Meuse and the lower Rhine in the late Middle Ages. The area known as "Oberland" (High country) was in this deictic context considered to begin approximately at the nearby higher located Cologne.From the mid-sixteenth century on, the "Low Countries" and the "Netherlands" lost their original deictic meaning. They were probably the most commonly used names, besides Flanders, a "pars pro toto" for the Low Countries, especially in Romance language-speaking Europe. The Eighty Years' War (1568–1648) divided the Low Countries into an independent northern Dutch Republic (or Latinised "Belgica Foederata", "Federated Netherlands", the precursor state of the Netherlands) and a Spanish controlled Southern Netherlands (Latinised "Belgica Regia", "Royal Netherlands", the precursor state of Belgium). The Low Countries today is a designation that includes the countries of the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, although in most Romance languages, the term "Low Countries" is used as the name for the Netherlands specifically. It is used synonymously with the more neutral and geopolitical term Benelux.The Netherlands is also referred to as Holland in various languages, including English. However, Holland proper is only a region within the country that consists of North and South Holland, two of the nation's twelve provinces. Formerly they were a single province, and earlier the County of Holland, a remnant of the dissolved Frisian Kingdom which also included parts of present-day Utrecht. Following the decline of the Duchy of Brabant and the County of Flanders, Holland became the most economically and politically important county in the Low Countries region. The emphasis on Holland during the formation of the Dutch Republic, the Eighty Years' War, and the Anglo-Dutch Wars in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, made Holland serve as a "pars pro toto" for the entire country, which is now considered informal or incorrect. Nonetheless, the name "Holland" is still widely used for the Netherlands national football team, including in the Netherlands, and the Dutch government's international websites for tourism and trade are "holland.com" and "hollandtradeandinvest.com". In 2020, however, the Dutch government announced that it would only communicate and advertise under the name "the Netherlands" in the future.The term Dutch is used as the demonymic and adjectival form of the Netherlands in the English language. The origins of the word go back to Proto-Germanic "*þiudiskaz", Latinised into Theodiscus, meaning "popular" or "of the people"; akin to Old Dutch "Dietsch", Old High German "duitsch", and Old English "þeodisc", all meaning "(of) the common (Germanic) people". At first, the English language used (the contemporary form of) Dutch to refer to any or all speakers of West Germanic languages (e.g. the Dutch, the Frisians, and the Germans). Gradually its meaning shifted to the West Germanic people they had most contact with, because of their geographical proximity and for the rivalry in trade and overseas territories. The derivative of the Proto-Germanic word "*þiudiskaz" in modern Dutch, "Diets", can be found in Dutch literature as a poetic name for the Dutch people or language, but is considered very archaic. Although it had a short resurgence after World War II to avoid the reference to Germany. It is still used in the expression "diets maken" – to put it straight to him/her (as in a threat) or, more neutral, to make it clear, understandable, explain, say in the people's language (cf. the Vulgate (Bible not in Greek or Hebrew, but Latin; the folks' language) in meaning vulgar, though not in a pejorative sense).In Dutch, the names for the Netherlands, the Dutch language and a Dutch citizen are "Nederland", "Nederlands" and "Nederlander", respectively. Colloquially the country is also by the Dutch often referred to as Holland, although to lesser extent outside the two provinces North and South Holland, where it may even be used as a pejorative term, e.g. Hollènder (dialect) in Maastricht.The plural "Nederlanden" is used in many different connotations in the past, but since 1815 it has been used in the official name "Koninkrijk der Nederlanden" ("Kingdom of the Netherlands"). In many other languages the plural stuck, for example "Niederlande" (German), "Pays-Bas" (French) and "Países Bajos" (Spanish). In Indonesian (a former colony) the country is called "Belanda", a name derived from 'Holland'.The prehistory of the area that is now the Netherlands was largely shaped by the sea and the rivers that constantly shifted the low-lying geography. The oldest human (Neanderthal) traces were found in higher soils, near Maastricht, from what is believed to be about 250,000 years ago. At the end of the Ice Age, the nomadic late Upper Paleolithic Hamburg culture (c. 13.000–10.000 BC) hunted reindeer in the area, using spears, but the later Ahrensburg culture (c. 11.200–9500 BC) used bow and arrow. From Mesolithic Maglemosian-like tribes (c. 8000 BC) the oldest canoe in the world was found in Drenthe.Indigenous late Mesolithic hunter-gatherers from the Swifterbant culture (c. 5600 BC) were related to the southern Scandinavian Ertebølle culture and were strongly linked to rivers and open water. Between 4800 and 4500 BC, the Swifterbant people started to copy from the neighbouring Linear Pottery culture the practise of animal husbandry, and between 4300 and 4000 BC the practice of agriculture. The Funnelbeaker culture (c. 4300–2800 BC), which is related to the Swifterbant culture, erected the dolmens, large stone grave monuments found in Drenthe. There was a quick and smooth transition from the Funnelbeaker farming culture to the pan-European Corded Ware pastoralist culture (c. 2950 BC). In the southwest, the Seine-Oise-Marne culture — which was related to the Vlaardingen culture (c. 2600 BC), an apparently more primitive culture of hunter-gatherers — survived well into the Neolithic period, until it too was succeeded by the Corded Ware culture.Of the subsequent Bell Beaker culture (2700–2100 BC) several regions of origin have been postulated, notably the Iberian peninsula, the Netherlands and Central Europe. They introduced metalwork in copper, gold and later bronze and opened international trade routes not seen before, reflected in the discoveries of copper artifacts, as the metal is not normally found in Dutch soil. The many finds in Drenthe of rare bronze objects, suggest that it was even a trading centre in the Bronze Age (2000–800 BC). The Bell Beaker culture developed locally into the Barbed-Wire Beaker culture (2100–1800 BC) and later the Elp culture (c. 1800–800 BC), a Middle Bronze Age archaeological culture having earthenware pottery of low quality as a marker. The initial phase of the Elp culture was characterised by tumuli (1800–1200 BC) that were strongly tied to contemporary tumuli in northern Germany and Scandinavia and was apparently related to the Tumulus culture in central Europe. The subsequent phase was that of cremating the dead and placing their ashes in urns which were then buried in fields, following the customs of the Urnfield culture (1200–800 BC). The southern region became dominated by the related Hilversum culture (1800–800 BC), which apparently inherited cultural ties with Britain of the previous Barbed-Wire Beaker culture.From 800 BC onwards, the Iron Age Celtic Hallstatt culture became influential, replacing the Hilversum culture. Iron ore brought a measure of prosperity and was available throughout the country, including bog iron. Smiths travelled from settlement to settlement with bronze and iron, fabricating tools on demand. The King's grave of Oss (700 BC) was found in a burial mound, the largest of its kind in western Europe and containing an iron sword with an inlay of gold and coral.The deteriorating climate in Scandinavia around 850 BC further deteriorated around 650 BC and might have triggered migration of Germanic tribes from the North. By the time this migration was complete, around 250 BC, a few general cultural and linguistic groups had emerged. The North Sea Germanic Ingaevones inhabited the northern part of the Low Countries. They would later develop into the Frisii and the early Saxons. A second grouping, the Weser-Rhine Germanic (or Istvaeones), extended along the middle Rhine and Weser and inhabited the Low Countries south of the great rivers. This group consisted of tribes that would eventually develop into the Salian Franks. Also the Celtic La Tène culture (c. 450 BC up to the Roman conquest) had expanded over a wide range, including the southern area of the Low Countries. Some scholars have speculated that even a third ethnic identity and language, neither Germanic nor Celtic, survived in the Netherlands until the Roman period, the Iron Age Nordwestblock culture, that eventually was absorbed by the Celts to the south and the Germanic peoples from the east.The first author to describe the coast of Holland and Flanders was the Greek geographer Pytheas, who noted in c. 325 BC that in these regions, "more people died in the struggle against water than in the struggle against men." During the Gallic Wars, the area south and west of the Rhine was conquered by Roman forces under Julius Caesar from 57 BC to 53 BC. Caesar describes two main Celtic tribes living in what is now the southern Netherlands: the Menapii and the Eburones. The Rhine became fixed as Rome's northern frontier around 12 AD. Notable towns would arise along the Limes Germanicus: Nijmegen and Voorburg. In the first part of Gallia Belgica, the area south of the Limes became part of the Roman province of Germania Inferior. The area to the north of the Rhine, inhabited by the Frisii, remained outside Roman rule (but not its presence and control), while the Germanic border tribes of the Batavi and Cananefates served in the Roman cavalry. The Batavi rose against the Romans in the Batavian rebellion of 69 AD but were eventually defeated. The Batavi later merged with other tribes into the confederation of the Salian Franks, whose identity emerged at the first half of the third century. Salian Franks appear in Roman texts as both allies and enemies. They were forced by the confederation of the Saxons from the east to move over the Rhine into Roman territory in the fourth century. From their new base in West Flanders and the Southwest Netherlands, they were raiding the English Channel. Roman forces pacified the region, but did not expel the Franks, who continued to be feared at least until the time of Julian the Apostate (358) when Salian Franks were allowed to settle as "foederati" in Texandria. It has been postulated that after deteriorating climate conditions and the Romans' withdrawal, the Frisii disappeared as "laeti" in c. 296, leaving the coastal lands largely unpopulated for the next two centuries. However, recent excavations in Kennemerland show clear indication of a permanent habitation.After Roman government in the area collapsed, the Franks expanded their territories in numerous kingdoms. By the 490s, Clovis I had conquered and united all these territories in the southern Netherlands in one Frankish kingdom, and from there continued his conquests into Gaul. During this expansion, Franks migrating to the south eventually adopted the Vulgar Latin of the local population. A widening cultural divide grew with the Franks remaining in their original homeland in the north (i.e. the southern Netherlands and Flanders), who kept on speaking Old Frankish, which by the ninth century had evolved into Old Low Franconian or Old Dutch. A Dutch-French language boundary hence came into existence.To the north of the Franks, climatic conditions improved, and during the Migration Period Saxons, the closely related Angles, Jutes and Frisii settled the coastal land. Many moved on to England and came to be known as Anglo-Saxons, but those who stayed would be referred to as Frisians and their language as Frisian, named after the land that was once inhabited by Frisii. Frisian was spoken along the entire southern North Sea coast, and it is still the language most closely related to English among the living languages of continental Europe. By the seventh century a Frisian Kingdom (650–734) under King Aldegisel and King Redbad emerged with Traiectum (Utrecht) as its centre of power, while Dorestad was a flourishing trading place. Between 600 and around 719 the cities were often fought over between the Frisians and the Franks. In 734, at the Battle of the Boarn, the Frisians were defeated after a series of wars. With the approval of the Franks, the Anglo-Saxon missionary Willibrord converted the Frisian people to Christianity. He established the Archdiocese of Utrecht and became bishop of the Frisians. However, his successor Boniface was murdered by the Frisians in Dokkum, in 754.The Frankish Carolingian empire modelled itself on the Roman Empire and controlled much of Western Europe. However, in 843, it was divided into three parts—East, Middle, and West Francia. Most of present-day Netherlands became part of Middle Francia, which was a weak kingdom and subject of numerous partitions and annexation attempts by its stronger neighbours. It comprised territories from Frisia in the north to the Kingdom of Italy in the south. Around 850, Lothair I of Middle Francia acknowledged the Viking Rorik of Dorestad as ruler of most of Frisia. When the kingdom of Middle Francia was partitioned in 855, the lands north of the Alps passed to Lothair II and subsequently were named Lotharingia. After he died in 869, Lotharingia was partitioned, into Upper and Lower Lotharingia, the latter part comprising the Low Countries that technically became part of East Francia in 870, although it was effectively under the control of Vikings, who raided the largely defenceless Frisian and Frankish towns lying on the Frisian coast and along the rivers. Around 879, another Viking expedition led by Godfrid, Duke of Frisia, raided the Frisian lands. The Viking raids made the sway of French and German lords in the area weak. Resistance to the Vikings, if any, came from local nobles, who gained in stature as a result, and that laid the basis for the disintegration of Lower Lotharingia into semi-independent states. One of these local nobles was Gerolf of Holland, who assumed lordship in Frisia after he helped to assassinate Godfrid, and Viking rule came to an end.The Holy Roman Empire (the successor state of East Francia and then Lotharingia) ruled much of the Low Countries in the 10th and 11th century but was not able to maintain political unity. Powerful local nobles turned their cities, counties and duchies into private kingdoms that felt little sense of obligation to the emperor. Holland, Hainaut, Flanders, Gelre, Brabant, and Utrecht were in a state of almost continual war or in paradoxically formed personal unions. The language and culture of most of the people who lived in the County of Holland were originally Frisian. As Frankish settlement progressed from Flanders and Brabant, the area quickly became Old Low Franconian (or Old Dutch). The rest of Frisia in the north (now Friesland and Groningen) continued to maintain its independence and had its own institutions (collectively called the "Frisian freedom"), which resented the imposition of the feudal system.Around 1000 AD, due to several agricultural developments, the economy started to develop at a fast pace, and the higher productivity allowed workers to farm more land or to become tradesmen. Towns grew around monasteries and castles, and a mercantile middle class began to develop in these urban areas, especially in Flanders and later also Brabant. Wealthy cities started to buy certain privileges for themselves from the sovereign. In practice, this meant that Bruges and Antwerp became quasi-independent republics in their own right and would later develop into some of the most important cities and ports in Europe.Around 1100 AD, farmers from Flanders and Utrecht began draining and cultivating uninhabited swampy land in the western Netherlands, making the emergence of the County of Holland as the centre of power possible. The title of Count of Holland was fought over in the Hook and Cod Wars () between 1350 and 1490. The Cod faction consisted of the more progressive cities, while the Hook faction consisted of the conservative noblemen. These noblemen invited the Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy — who was also Count of Flanders — to conquer Holland.Most of the Imperial and French fiefs in what is now the Netherlands and Belgium were united in a personal union by Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, in 1433. The House of Valois-Burgundy and their Habsburg heirs would rule the Low Countries in the period from 1384 to 1581. Before the Burgundian union, the Dutch identified themselves by the town they lived in or their local duchy or county. The Burgundian period is when the road to nationhood began. The new rulers defended Dutch trading interests, which then developed rapidly. The fleets of the County of Holland defeated the fleets of the Hanseatic League several times. Amsterdam grew and in the 15th century became the primary trading port in Europe for grain from the Baltic region. Amsterdam distributed grain to the major cities of Belgium, Northern France and England. This trade was vital because Holland could no longer produce enough grain to feed itself. Land drainage had caused the peat of the former wetlands to reduce to a level that was too low for drainage to be maintained.Under Habsburg Charles V, ruler of the Holy Roman Empire and King of Spain, all fiefs in the current Netherlands region were united into the Seventeen Provinces, which also included most of present-day Belgium, Luxembourg, and some adjacent land in what is now France and Germany. In 1568, under Phillip II, the Eighty Years' War between the Provinces and their Spanish ruler began. The level of ferocity exhibited by both sides can be gleaned from a Dutch chronicler's report:The Duke of Alba ruthlessly attempted to suppress the Protestant movement in the Netherlands. Netherlanders were "burned, strangled, beheaded, or buried alive" by his "Blood Council" and his Spanish soldiers. Severed heads and decapitated corpses were displayed along streets and roads to terrorize the population into submission. Alba boasted of having executed 18,600, but this figure does not include those who perished by war and famine.The first great siege was Alba's effort to capture Haarlem and thereby cut Holland in half. It dragged on from December 1572 to the next summer, when Haarlemers finally surrendered on 13 July upon the promise that the city would be spared from being sacked. It was a stipulation Don Fadrique was unable to honour, when his soldiers mutinied, angered over pay owed and the miserable conditions they endured during the long, cold months of the campaign. On 4 November 1576, Spanish tercios seized Antwerp and subjected it to the worst pillage in the Netherlands' history. The citizens resisted, but were overcome; seven thousand of them were mowed down; a thousand buildings were torched; men, women, and children were slaughtered in a delirium of blood by soldiers crying, "Santiago! España! A sangre, a carne, a fuego, a sacco!" (Saint James! Spain! To blood, to the flesh, to fire, to sack!)Following the sack of Antwerp, delegates from Catholic Brabant, Protestant Holland and Zeeland agreed, at Ghent, to join Utrecht and William the Silent in driving out all Spanish troops and forming a new government for the Netherlands. Don Juan of Austria, the new Spanish governor, was forced to concede initially, but within months returned to active hostilities. As the fighting restarted, the Dutch began to look for help from the Queen of England, but she initially stood by her commitments to the Spanish in the Treaty of Bristol of 1574. The result was that when the next large-scale battle did occur at Gembloux in 1578, the Spanish forces easily won the day, killing at least 10,000 rebels, with the Spanish suffering few losses. In light of the defeat at Gembloux, the southern states of the Seventeen Provinces (today in northern France and Belgium) distanced themselves from the rebels in the north with the 1579 Union of Arras, which expressed their loyalty to Philip II of Spain. Opposing them, the northern half of the Seventeen Provinces forged the Union of Utrecht (also of 1579) in which they committed to support each other in their defence against the Spanish army. The Union of Utrecht is seen as the foundation of the modern Netherlands.Spanish troops sacked Maastricht in 1579, killing over 10,000 civilians and thereby ensuring the rebellion continued. In 1581, the northern provinces adopted the Act of Abjuration, the declaration of independence in which the provinces officially deposed Philip II as reigning monarch in the northern provinces. Against the rebels Philip could draw on the resources of Spain, Spanish America, Spanish Italy and the Spanish Netherlands. The Protestant Queen Elizabeth I of England sympathised with the Dutch struggle against the Spanish and sent an army of 7,600 soldiers to aid the Dutch in their war with the Catholic Spanish. English forces under the Earl of Leicester and then Lord Willoughby faced the Spanish in the Netherlands under the Duke of Parma in a series of largely indecisive actions that tied down significant numbers of Spanish troops and bought time for the Dutch to reorganise their defences. The war continued until 1648, when Spain under King Philip IV finally recognised the independence of the seven north-western provinces in the Peace of Münster. Parts of the southern provinces became "de facto" colonies of the new republican-mercantile empire.After declaring their independence, the provinces of Holland, Zeeland, Groningen, Friesland, Utrecht, Overijssel, and Gelderland formed a confederation. All these duchies, lordships and counties were autonomous and had their own government, the States-Provincial. The States General, the confederal government, were seated in The Hague and consisted of representatives from each of the seven provinces. The sparsely populated region of Drenthe was part of the republic too, although it was not considered one of the provinces. Moreover, the Republic had come to occupy during the Eighty Years' War a number of so-called Generality Lands in Flanders, Brabant and Limburg. Their population was mainly Roman Catholic, and these areas did not have a governmental structure of their own, and were used as a buffer zone between the Republic and the Spanish-controlled Southern Netherlands.In the Dutch Golden Age, spanning much of the 17th century, the Dutch Empire grew to become one of the major seafaring and economic powers, alongside Portugal, Spain, France and England. Science, military, and art (especially painting) were among the most acclaimed in the world. By 1650, the Dutch owned 16,000 merchant ships. The Dutch East India Company and the Dutch West India Company established colonies and trading posts all over the world, including ruling the northern parts of Taiwan between 1624–1662 and 1664–1667. The Dutch settlement in North America began with the founding of New Amsterdam on the southern part of Manhattan in 1614. In South Africa, the Dutch settled the Cape Colony in 1652. Dutch colonies in South America were established along the many rivers in the fertile Guyana plains, among them Colony of Surinam (now Suriname). In Asia, the Dutch established the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), and the only western trading post in Japan, Dejima.During the period of Proto-industrialization, the empire received 50% of textiles and 80% of silks import from the India's Mughal Empire, chiefly from its most developed region known as Bengal Subah.Many economic historians regard the Netherlands as the first thoroughly capitalist country in the world. In early modern Europe, it had the wealthiest trading city (Amsterdam) and the first full-time stock exchange. The inventiveness of the traders led to insurance and retirement funds as well as phenomena such as the boom-bust cycle, the world's first asset-inflation bubble, the tulip mania of 1636–1637, and the world's first bear raider, Isaac le Maire, who forced prices down by dumping stock and then buying it back at a discount. In 1672 – known in Dutch history as the Rampjaar (Disaster Year) – the Dutch Republic was at war with France, England and three German Bishoprics simultaneously. At sea, it could successfully prevent the English and French navy from entering the western shores. On land, however, it was almost taken over internally by the advancing French and German armies coming from the east. It managed to turn the tide by inundating parts of Holland but could never recover to its former glory again and went into a state of a general decline in the 18th century, with economic competition from England and long-standing rivalries between the two main factions in Dutch society, the republican "Staatsgezinden" and the supporters of the stadtholder the "Prinsgezinden" as main political factions.With the armed support of revolutionary France, Dutch republicans proclaimed the Batavian Republic, modelled after the French Republic and rendering the Netherlands a unitary state on 19 January 1795. The stadtholder William V of Orange had fled to England. But from 1806 to 1810, the Kingdom of Holland was set up by Napoleon Bonaparte as a puppet kingdom governed by his brother Louis Bonaparte to control the Netherlands more effectively. However, King Louis Bonaparte tried to serve Dutch interests instead of his brother's, and he was forced to abdicate on 1 July 1810. The Emperor sent in an army and the Netherlands became part of the French Empire until the autumn of 1813 when Napoleon was defeated in the Battle of Leipzig.William Frederick, son of the last stadtholder, returned to the Netherlands in 1813 and proclaimed himself Sovereign Prince of the Netherlands. Two years later, the Congress of Vienna added the southern Netherlands to the north to create a strong country on the northern border of France. William Frederick raised this United Netherlands to the status of a kingdom and proclaimed himself as King William I in 1815. In addition, William became hereditary Grand Duke of Luxembourg in exchange for his German possessions. However, the Southern Netherlands had been culturally separate from the north since 1581, and rebelled. The south gained independence in 1830 as Belgium (recognised by the Northern Netherlands in 1839 as the Kingdom of the Netherlands was created by decree), while the personal union between Luxembourg and the Netherlands was severed in 1890, when William III died with no surviving male heirs. Ascendancy laws prevented his daughter Queen Wilhelmina from becoming the next Grand Duchess.The Belgian Revolution at home and the Java War in the Dutch East Indies brought the Netherlands to the brink of bankruptcy. However, the Cultivation System was introduced in 1830; in the Dutch East Indies, 20% of village land had to be devoted to government crops for export. The policy brought the Dutch enormous wealth and made the colony self-sufficient.The Netherlands abolished slavery in its colonies in 1863. Slaves in Suriname would be fully free only in 1873, since the law stipulated that there was to be a mandatory 10-year transition.The Netherlands was able to remain neutral during World War I, in part because the import of goods through the Netherlands proved essential to German survival until the blockade by the British Royal Navy in 1916. That changed in World War II, when Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands on 10 May 1940. The Rotterdam Blitz forced the main element of the Dutch army to surrender four days later. During the occupation, over 100,000 Dutch Jews were rounded up and transported to Nazi extermination camps; only a few of them survived. Dutch workers were conscripted for forced labour in Germany, civilians who resisted were killed in reprisal for attacks on German soldiers, and the countryside was plundered for food. Although there were thousands of Dutch who risked their lives by hiding Jews from the Germans, over 20,000 Dutch fascists joined the Waffen SS, fighting on the Eastern Front. Political collaborators were members of the fascist NSB, the only legal political party in the occupied Netherlands. On 8 December 1941, the Dutch government-in-exile in London declared war on Japan, but could not prevent the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia). In 1944–45, the First Canadian Army, which included Canadian, British and Polish troops, was responsible for liberating much of the Netherlands. Soon after VE Day, the Dutch fought a colonial war against the new Republic of Indonesia.In 1954, the Charter for the Kingdom of the Netherlands reformed the political structure of the Netherlands, which was a result of international pressure to carry out decolonisation. The Dutch colonies of Surinam and Curaçao and Dependencies and the European country all became countries within the Kingdom, on a basis of equality. Indonesia had declared its independence in August 1945 (recognised in 1949), and thus was never part of the reformed Kingdom. Suriname followed in 1975. After the war, the Netherlands left behind an era of neutrality and gained closer ties with neighbouring states. The Netherlands was one of the founding members of the Benelux, the NATO, Euratom and the European Coal and Steel Community, which would evolve into the EEC (Common Market) and later the European Union.Government-encouraged emigration efforts to reduce population density prompted some 500,000 Dutch people to leave the country after the war. The 1960s and 1970s were a time of great social and cultural change, such as rapid de-pillarisation characterised by the decay of the old divisions along political and religious lines. Youths, and students in particular, rejected traditional mores and pushed for change in matters such as women's rights, sexuality, disarmament and environmental issues. In 2002 the euro was introduced as fiat money, and in 2010 the Netherlands Antilles was dissolved. Referendums were held on each island to determine their future status. As a result, the islands of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba (the BES islands) were to obtain closer ties with the Netherlands. This led to the incorporation of these three islands into the country of the Netherlands as "special municipalities" upon the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles. The special municipalities are collectively known as the Caribbean Netherlands.According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, the European Netherlands has a total area of , including water bodies; and a land area of . The Caribbean Netherlands has a total area of It lies between latitudes 50° and 54° N, and longitudes 3° and 8° E.The Netherlands is geographically very low relative to sea level and is considered a flat country, with about 26% of its area and 21% of its population located below sea level, and only about 50% of its land exceeding one metre above sea level. The European part of the country is for the most part flat, with the exception of foothills in the far southeast, up to a height of no more than 321 metres, and some low hill ranges in the central parts. Most of the areas below sea level are man-made, caused by peat extraction or achieved through land reclamation. Since the late 16th century, large polder areas are preserved through elaborate drainage systems that include dikes, canals and pumping stations. Nearly 17% of the country's land area is reclaimed from the sea and from lakes.Much of the country was originally formed by the estuaries of three large European rivers: the Rhine ("Rijn"), the Meuse ("Maas") and the Scheldt ("Schelde"), as well as their tributaries. The south-western part of the Netherlands is to this day a river delta of these three rivers, the Rhine-Meuse-Scheldt delta.The European Netherlands is divided into north and south parts by the Rhine, the Waal, its main tributary branch, and the Meuse. In the past, these rivers functioned as a natural barrier between fiefdoms and hence historically created a cultural divide, as is evident in some phonetic traits that are recognisable on either side of what the Dutch call their "Great Rivers" ("de Grote Rivieren"). Another significant branch of the Rhine, the IJssel river, discharges into Lake IJssel, the former Zuiderzee ('southern sea'). Just like the previous, this river forms a linguistic divide: people to the northeast of this river speak Dutch Low Saxon dialects (except for the province of Friesland, which has its own language).The modern Netherlands formed as a result of the interplay of the four main rivers (Rhine, Meuse, Schelde and IJssel) and the influence of the North Sea. The Netherlands is mostly composed of deltaic, coastal and eolian derived sediments during the Pleistocene glacial and interglacial periods.Almost the entire west Netherlands is composed of the Rhine-Meuse river estuary, but human intervention greatly modified the natural processes at work. Most of the western Netherlands is below sea level due to the human process of turning standing bodies of water into usable land, a polder.In the east of the Netherlands, remains are found of the last ice age, which ended approximately ten thousand years ago. As the continental ice sheet moved in from the north, it pushed moraine forward. The ice sheet halted as it covered the eastern half of the Netherlands. After the ice age ended, the moraine remained in the form of a long hill-line. The cities of Arnhem and Nijmegen are built upon these hills.Over the centuries, the Dutch coastline has changed considerably as a result of natural disasters and human intervention.On 14 December 1287, St. Lucia's flood affected the Netherlands and Germany, killing more than 50,000 people in one of the most destructive floods in recorded history. The St. Elizabeth flood of 1421 and the mismanagement in its aftermath destroyed a newly reclaimed polder, replacing it with the "Biesbosch" tidal floodplains in the south-centre. The huge North Sea flood of early February 1953 caused the collapse of several dikes in the south-west of the Netherlands; more than 1,800 people drowned in the flood. The Dutch government subsequently instituted a large-scale programme, the "Delta Works", to protect the country against future flooding, which was completed over a period of more than thirty years.The impact of disasters was, to an extent, increased through human activity. Relatively high-lying swampland was drained to be used as farmland. The drainage caused the fertile peat to contract and ground levels to drop, upon which groundwater levels were lowered to compensate for the drop in ground level, causing the underlying peat to contract further. Additionally, until the 19th-century peat was mined, dried, and used for fuel, further exacerbating the problem. Centuries of extensive and poorly controlled peat extraction lowered an already low land surface by several metres. Even in flooded areas, peat extraction continued through turf dredging.Because of the flooding, farming was difficult, which encouraged foreign trade, the result of which was that the Dutch were involved in world affairs since the early 14th/15th century.To guard against floods, a series of defences against the water were contrived. In the first millennium AD, villages and farmhouses were built on man-made hills called "terps". Later, these terps were connected by dikes. In the 12th century, local government agencies called ""waterschappen"" ("water boards") or ""hoogheemraadschappen"" ("high home councils") started to appear, whose job it was to maintain the water level and to protect a region from floods; these agencies continue to exist. As the ground level dropped, the dikes by necessity grew and merged into an integrated system. By the 13th century windmills had come into use to pump water out of areas below sea level. The windmills were later used to drain lakes, creating the famous polders.In 1932 the "Afsluitdijk" ("Closure Dike") was completed, blocking the former "Zuiderzee" (Southern Sea) from the North Sea and thus creating the IJsselmeer (IJssel Lake). It became part of the larger Zuiderzee Works in which four polders totalling were reclaimed from the sea.The Netherlands is one of the countries that may suffer most from climate change. Not only is the rising sea a problem, but erratic weather patterns may cause the rivers to overflow.After the 1953 disaster, the Delta Works was constructed, which is a comprehensive set of civil works throughout the Dutch coast. The project started in 1958 and was largely completed in 1997 with the completion of the Maeslantkering. Since then, new projects have been periodically started to renovate and renew the Delta Works. The main goal of the Delta project was to reduce the risk of flooding in South Holland and Zeeland to once per 10,000 years (compared to once per 4000 years for the rest of the country). This was achieved by raising of outer sea-dikes and of the inner, canal, and river dikes, and by closing off the sea estuaries of the Zeeland province. New risk assessments occasionally show problems requiring additional Delta project dike reinforcements. The Delta project is considered by the American Society of Civil Engineers as one of the seven wonders of the modern world.It is anticipated that global warming in the 21st century will result in a rise in sea level. The Netherlands is actively preparing for a sea-level rise. A politically neutral Delta Commission has formulated an action plan to cope with a sea-level rise of and a simultaneous land height decline of . The plan encompasses the reinforcement of the existing coastal defences like dikes and dunes with of additional flood protection. Climate change will not only threaten the Netherlands from the seaside but could also alter rainfall patterns and river run-off. To protect the country from river flooding, another programme is already being executed. The Room for the River plan grants more flow space to rivers, protects the major populated areas and allows for periodic flooding of indefensible lands. The few residents who lived in these so-called "overflow areas" have been moved to higher ground, with some of that ground having been raised above anticipated flood levels.The predominant wind direction in the European Netherlands is southwest, which causes a mild maritime climate, with moderately warm summers and cool winters, and typically high humidity. This is especially true close to the Dutch coastline, where the difference in temperature between summer and winter, as well as between day and night is noticeably smaller than it is in the southeast of the country.Ice days—maximum temperature below —usually occur from December until February, with the occasional rare ice day prior to or after that period. Freezing days—minimum temperature below —occur much more often, usually ranging from mid-November to late March, but not rarely measured as early as mid-October and as late as mid-May. If one chooses the height of measurement to be above ground instead of , one may even find such temperatures in the middle of the summer. On average, snow can occur from November to April but sometimes occurs in May or October too.Warm days—maximum temperature above —are usually found in April to October, but in some parts of the country these warm days can also occur in March, or even sometimes in November or February (usually not in , however). Summer days—maximum temperature above —are usually measured in from May until September, tropical days—maximum temperature above —are rare and usually occur only in June to August.Precipitation throughout the year is distributed relatively equally each month. Summer and autumn months tend to gather a little more precipitation than the other months, mainly because of the intensity of the rainfall rather than the frequency of rain days (this is especially the case in summer when lightning is also much more frequent).The number of sunshine hours is affected by the fact that because of the geographical latitude, the length of the days varies between barely eight hours in December and nearly 17 hours in June.The following table are based on mean measurements by the KNMI weather station in De Bilt between 1991 and 2020. The highest recorded temperature was reached on 25 July 2019 in Gilze-Rijen.The Netherlands has 20 national parks and hundreds of other nature reserves, that include lakes, heathland, woods, dunes, and other habitats. Most of these are owned by Staatsbosbeheer, the national department for forestry and nature conservation and Natuurmonumenten (literally 'Natures monuments'), a private organisation that buys, protects and manages nature reserves. The Dutch part of the Wadden Sea in the north, with its tidal flats and wetlands, is rich in biological diversity, and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Nature Site in 2009.The Oosterschelde, formerly the northeast estuary of the river Scheldt was designated a national park in 2002, thereby making it the largest national park in the Netherlands at an area of . It consists primarily of the salt waters of the Oosterschelde but also includes mudflats, meadows, and shoals. Because of the large variety of sea life, including unique regional species, the park is popular with Scuba divers. Other activities include sailing, fishing, cycling, and bird watching.Phytogeographically, the European Netherlands is shared between the Atlantic European and Central European provinces of the Circumboreal Region within the Boreal Kingdom. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, the European territory of the Netherlands belongs to the ecoregion of Atlantic mixed forests. In 1871, the last old original natural woods were cut down, and most woods today are planted monocultures of trees like Scots pine and trees that are not native to the Netherlands. These woods were planted on anthropogenic heaths and sand-drifts (overgrazed heaths) (Veluwe). The Netherlands had a 2019 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 0.6/10, ranking it 169th globally out of 172 countries.While Curaçao, Aruba and Sint Maarten have a constituent country status, the Caribbean Netherlands are three islands designated as special municipalities of the Netherlands. The islands are part of the Lesser Antilles and have land borders with France (Saint Martin) and maritime borders with Anguilla, Curaçao, France (Saint Barthélemy), Saint Kitts and Nevis, Sint Maarten, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Venezuela.Within this island group:The islands of the Caribbean Netherlands enjoy a tropical climate with warm weather all year round. The Leeward Antilles are warmer and drier than the Windward islands. In summer, the Windward Islands can be subject to hurricanes.The Netherlands has been a constitutional monarchy since 1815, and due to the efforts of Johan Rudolph Thorbecke became a parliamentary democracy in 1848. The Netherlands is described as a consociational state. Dutch politics and governance are characterised by an effort to achieve broad consensus on important issues, within both the political community and society as a whole. In 2017, "The Economist" ranked the Netherlands as the 11th most democratic country in the world.The monarch is the head of state, at present King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands. Constitutionally, the position is equipped with limited powers. By law, the King has the right to be periodically briefed and consulted on government affairs. Depending on the personalities and relationships of the King and the ministers, the monarch might have influence beyond the power granted by the Constitution of the Netherlands.The executive power is formed by the Council of Ministers, the deliberative organ of the Dutch cabinet. The cabinet usually consists of 13 to 16 ministers and a varying number of state secretaries. One to three ministers are ministers without portfolio. The head of government is the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, who often is the leader of the largest party of the coalition. The Prime Minister is a "primus inter pares", with no explicit powers beyond those of the other ministers. Mark Rutte has been Prime Minister since October 2010; the Prime Minister had been the leader of the largest party of the governing coalition continuously since 1973.The cabinet is responsible to the bicameral parliament, the States General, which also has legislative powers. The 150 members of the House of Representatives, the lower house, are elected in direct elections on the basis of party-list proportional representation. These are held every four years, or sooner in case the cabinet falls (for example: when one of the chambers carries a motion of no confidence, the cabinet offers its resignation to the monarch). The States-Provincial are directly elected every four years as well. The members of the provincial assemblies elect the 75 members of the Senate, the upper house, which has the power to reject laws, but not propose or amend them. Both houses send members to the Benelux Parliament, a consultative council.Both trade unions and employers organisations are consulted beforehand in policymaking in the financial, economic and social areas. They meet regularly with the government in the Social-Economic Council. This body advises government and its advice cannot be put aside easily.The Netherlands has a long tradition of social tolerance. In the 18th century, while the Dutch Reformed Church was the state religion, Catholicism, other forms of Protestantism, such as Baptists and Lutherans, as well as Judaism were tolerated but discriminated against.In the late 19th century this Dutch tradition of religious tolerance transformed into a system of pillarisation, in which religious groups coexisted separately and only interacted at the level of government. This tradition of tolerance influences Dutch criminal justice policies on recreational drugs, prostitution, LGBT rights, euthanasia, and abortion, which are among the most liberal in the world.Because of the multi-party system, no single party has held a majority in parliament since the 19th century, as a result, coalition cabinets had to be formed. Since suffrage became universal in 1917, the Dutch political system has been dominated by three families of political parties: the strongest of which were the Christian Democrats, currently represented by the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA); second were the Social Democrats, represented by the Labour Party (PvdA); and third were the Liberals, of which the right-wing People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) is the main representative.These parties co-operated in coalition cabinets in which the Christian Democrats had always been a partner: so either a centre-left coalition of the Christian Democrats and Social Democrats was ruling or a centre-right coalition of Christian Democrats and Liberals. In the 1970s, the party system became more volatile: the Christian Democratic parties lost seats, while new parties became successful, such as the radical democrat and progressive liberal Democrats 66 (D66) or the ecologist party GroenLinks (GL).In the 1994 election, the CDA lost its dominant position. A "purple" cabinet was formed by the VVD, D66, and PvdA. In the 2002 elections, this cabinet lost its majority, because of an increased support for the CDA and the rise of the right-wing LPF, a new political party, around Pim Fortuyn, who was assassinated a week before the elections. A short-lived cabinet was formed by CDA, VVD, and LPF, which was led by the CDA Leader Jan Peter Balkenende. After the 2003 elections, in which the LPF lost most of its seats, a cabinet was formed by the CDA, VVD, and D66. The cabinet initiated an ambitious programme of reforming the welfare state, the healthcare system, and immigration policy.In June 2006, the cabinet fell after D66 voted in favour of a motion of no confidence against the Minister of Immigration and Integration, Rita Verdonk, who had instigated an investigation of the asylum procedure of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a VVD MP. A caretaker cabinet was formed by the CDA and VVD, and general elections were held on 22 November 2006. In these elections, the CDA remained the largest party and the Socialist Party made the largest gains. The formation of a new cabinet took three months, resulting in a coalition of CDA, PvdA, and Christian Union.On 20 February 2010, the cabinet fell when the PvdA refused to prolong the involvement of the Dutch Army in Uruzgan, Afghanistan. Snap elections were held on 9 June 2010, with devastating results for the previously largest party, the CDA, which lost about half of its seats, resulting in 21 seats. The VVD became the largest party with 31 seats, closely followed by the PvdA with 30 seats. The big winner of the 2010 elections was Geert Wilders, whose right wing PVV, the ideological successor to the LPF, more than doubled its number of seats. Negotiation talks for a new government resulted in a minority government, led by VVD (a first) in coalition with CDA, which was sworn in on 14 October 2010. This unprecedented minority government was supported by PVV, but proved ultimately to be unstable, when on 21 April 2012, Wilders, leader of PVV, unexpectedly 'torpedoed seven weeks of austerity talks' on new austerity measures, paving the way for early elections.VVD and PvdA won a majority in the House of Representatives during the 2012 general election. On 5 November 2012 they formed the second Rutte cabinet. After the 2017 general election, VVD, Christian Democratic Appeal, Democrats 66 and ChristenUnie formed the third Rutte cabinet. This cabinet resigned in January 2021, two months before the general election, after a child welfare fraud scandal. In March 2021, centre-right VVD of Prime Minister Mark Rutte was the winner of the elections, securing 35 out of 150 seats. The second biggest party was the centre-left D66 with 24 seats. Geert Wilders' far-right party lost its support. Prime Minister Mark Rutte, in power since 2010, formed his fourth coalition government.The Netherlands is divided into twelve provinces, each under a King's Commissioner ("Commissaris van de Koning"). Informally in Limburg province this position is named Governor ("Gouverneur"). All provinces are divided into municipalities ("gemeenten"), of which there are 355 (2019).The country is also subdivided into 21 water districts, governed by a water board ("waterschap" or "hoogheemraadschap"), each having authority in matters concerning water management. The creation of water boards actually pre-dates that of the nation itself, the first appearing in 1196. The Dutch water boards are among the oldest democratic entities in the world still in existence. Direct elections of the water boards take place every four years.The administrative structure on the three BES islands, collectively known as the Caribbean Netherlands, is outside the twelve provinces. These islands have the status of "openbare lichamen (public bodies)". In the Netherlands these administrative units are often referred to as "special municipalities".The Netherlands has several Belgian exclaves and within those even several enclaves which are part of the province of North Brabant. Because the Netherlands and Belgium are both in the Benelux, and more recently in the Schengen Area, citizens of respective countries can travel through these enclaves without controls.The history of Dutch foreign policy has been characterised by its neutrality. Since World War II, the Netherlands has become a member of a large number of international organisations, most prominently the UN, NATO and the EU. The Dutch economy is very open and relies strongly on international trade.The foreign policy of the Netherlands is based on four basic commitments: to Atlantic co-operation, to European integration, to international development and to international law. One of the more controversial international issues surrounding the Netherlands is its liberal policy towards soft drugs.During and after the Dutch Golden Age, the Dutch people built up a commercial and colonial empire. The most important colonies were present-day Suriname and Indonesia. Indonesia became independent after the Indonesian National Revolution in the 1940s following a war of independence, international pressure and several United Nations Security Council resolutions. Suriname became independent in 1975. The historical ties inherited from its colonial past still influence the foreign relations of the Netherlands. In addition, many people from these countries are living permanently in the Netherlands.The Netherlands has one of the oldest standing armies in Europe; it was first established as such by Maurice of Nassau in the late 1500s. The Dutch army was used throughout the Dutch Empire. After the defeat of Napoleon, the Dutch army was transformed into a conscription army. The army was unsuccessfully deployed during the Belgian Revolution in 1830. After 1830, it was deployed mainly in the Dutch colonies, as the Netherlands remained neutral in European wars (including the First World War), until the Netherlands was invaded in World War II and defeated by the Wehrmacht in May 1940.The Netherlands abandoned its neutrality in 1948 when it signed the Treaty of Brussels, and became a founding member of NATO in 1949. The Dutch military was therefore part of the NATO strength in Cold War Europe, deploying its army to several bases in Germany. More than 3,000 Dutch soldiers were assigned to the 2nd Infantry Division of the United States Army during the Korean War. In 1996 conscription was suspended, and the Dutch army was once again transformed into a professional army. Since the 1990s the Dutch army has been involved in the Bosnian War and the Kosovo War, it held a province in Iraq after the defeat of Saddam Hussein, and it was engaged in Afghanistan.The military is composed of four branches, all of which carry the prefix "Koninklijke" (Royal):The submarine service opened to women on 1 January 2017. The Korps Commandotroepen, the Special Operations Force of the Netherlands Army, is open to women, but because of the extremely high physical demands for initial training, it is almost impossible for a woman to become a commando. The Dutch Ministry of Defence employs more than 70,000 personnel, including over 20,000 civilians and over 50,000 military personnel. In April 2011 the government announced a major reduction in its military because of a cut in government expenditure, including a decrease in the number of tanks, fighter aircraft, naval ships and senior officials.The Netherlands has ratified many international conventions concerning war law. The Netherlands decided not to sign the UN treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.The Netherlands has a developed economy and has been playing a special role in the European economy for many centuries. Since the 16th century, shipping, fishing, agriculture, trade, and banking have been leading sectors of the Dutch economy. The Netherlands has a high level of economic freedom. The Netherlands is one of the top countries in the Global Enabling Trade Report (2nd in 2016), and was ranked the fifth most competitive economy in the world by the Swiss International Institute for Management Development in 2017. In addition, the country was ranked the second most innovative nation in the world in the 2018 Global Innovation Index., the key trading partners of the Netherlands were Germany, Belgium, the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Italy, China and Russia. The Netherlands is one of the world's 10 leading exporting countries. Foodstuffs form the largest industrial sector. Other major industries include chemicals, metallurgy, machinery, electrical goods, trade, services and tourism. Examples of international Dutch companies operating in Netherlands include Randstad, Unilever, Heineken, KLM, financial services (ING, ABN AMRO, Rabobank), chemicals (DSM, AKZO), petroleum refining (Royal Dutch Shell), electronical machinery (Philips, ASML), and satellite navigation (TomTom).The Netherlands has the 17th-largest economy in the world, and ranks 11th in GDP (nominal) per capita. Between 1997 and 2000 annual economic growth (GDP) averaged nearly 4%, well above the European average. Growth slowed considerably from 2001 to 2005 with the global economic slowdown, but accelerated to 4.1% in the third quarter of 2007. In May 2013, inflation was at 2.8% per year. In April 2013, unemployment was at 8.2% (or 6.7% following the ILO definition) of the labour force. In February 2019, this was reduced to 3.4%.In Q3 and Q4 2011, the Dutch economy contracted by 0.4% and 0.7%, respectively, because of European Debt Crisis, while in Q4 the Eurozone economy shrunk by 0.3%. The Netherlands also has a relatively low GINI coefficient of 0.326. Despite ranking 11th in GDP per capita, UNICEF ranked the Netherlands 1st in child well-being in rich countries, both in 2007 and in 2013. On the Index of Economic Freedom Netherlands is the 14th most free market capitalist economy out of 180 surveyed countries.Amsterdam is the financial and business capital of the Netherlands. The Amsterdam Stock Exchange (AEX), part of Euronext, is the world's oldest stock exchange and is one of Europe's largest bourses. It is situated near Dam Square in the city's centre. As a founding member of the euro, the Netherlands replaced (for accounting purposes) its former currency, the "gulden" (guilder), on 1 January 1999, along with 15 other adopters of the euro. Actual euro coins and banknotes followed on 1 January 2002. One euro was equivalent to 2.20371 Dutch guilders. In the Caribbean Netherlands, the United States dollar is used instead of the euro.The Dutch location gives it prime access to markets in the UK and Germany, with the Port of Rotterdam being the largest port in Europe. Other important parts of the economy are international trade (Dutch colonialism started with co-operative private enterprises such as the Dutch East India Company), banking and transport. The Netherlands successfully addressed the issue of public finances and stagnating job growth long before its European partners. Amsterdam is the 5th-busiest tourist destination in Europe with more than 4.2 million international visitors. Since the enlargement of the EU large numbers of migrant workers have arrived in the Netherlands from Central and Eastern Europe.The Netherlands continues to be one of the leading European nations for attracting foreign direct investment and is one of the five largest investors in the United States. The economy experienced a slowdown in 2005, but in 2006 recovered to the fastest pace in six years on the back of increased exports and strong investment. The pace of job growth reached 10-year highs in 2007. The Netherlands is the fourth-most competitive economy in the world, according to the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report.Beginning in the 1950s, the Netherlands discovered huge natural gas resources. The sale of natural gas generated enormous revenues for the Netherlands for decades, adding hundreds of billions of euros to the government's budget. However, the unforeseen consequences of the country's huge energy wealth impacted the competitiveness of other sectors of the economy, leading to the theory of Dutch disease.Apart from coal and gas, the country has no mining resources. The last coal mine was closed in 1974. The Groningen gas field, one of the largest natural-gas fields in the world, is situated near Slochteren. The exploitation of this field has resulted in €159 billion in revenue since the mid-1970s. The field is operated by government-owned Gasunie and output is jointly exploited by the government, Royal Dutch Shell, and Exxon Mobil through NAM (Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij). "Gas extraction has resulted in increasingly strong earth tremors, some measuring as much as 3.6 on the Richter magnitude scale. The cost of damage repairs, structural improvements to buildings, and compensation for home value decreases has been estimated at €6.5 billion. Around 35,000 homes are said to be affected." The Netherlands has an estimated 25% of natural gas reserves in the EU. The energy sector accounted for almost 11% of the GDP in 2014. Netherlands' economy, mainly due to the large shares of natural gas reserves, is considered to have "very high" energy intensity rating.The Netherlands is faced with future challenges as the energy supply is forecasted to fall short of the demand by the year 2025 in the gas sector. This is attributed to the depletion of the Netherlands' major gas field, Groningen, and the earthquakes that have hit the Groningen region. In addition, there is ambiguity surrounding the feasibility of producing unconventional gas. The Netherlands relies heavily on natural gas to provide energy. Gas is the main source of heating for households in the Netherlands and represented 35% of the energy mix in 2014. Furthermore, The European Union 2020 package (20% reduction in GHG emissions, 20% renewables in the energy mix and 20% improvement in energy efficiency) enacted in 2009 has influenced the domestic energy politics of Netherlands and pressured non-state actors to give consent to more aggressive energy reforms that would reduce reliance on natural resources as a source of income to the economy. Therefore, a transition towards renewable energy has been a key objective by Netherlands in order to safeguard the energy security of the country from natural resources depletion, mainly gas. Netherlands has set a 14% renewable energy target of the total energy mix by the year 2020. However, the continuation of providing tax breaks to electricity generated by coal and gas, and to the exploration and extraction of gas from fields that are "insufficiently" profitable, renders a successful transition towards renewable energy more difficult to achieve due to inconsistencies in the policy mix. In 2011, it was estimated that the renewable energy sector received 31% (EUR 743MM), while the conventional energy sector received 69% (EUR 1.6B), of the total energy subsidies by the government. Furthermore, the energy market in the Netherlands remains to be dominated by few major corporations Nuon, RWE, E.ON, Eneco, and Delta that have significant influence over the energy policy. Renewable energy share in the energy mix is estimated to reach 12.4% by the year 2020, falling 1.6% short of the 14% target.From a biological resource perspective, the Netherlands has a low endowment: the Netherlands’ biocapacity adds up to only 0.8 global hectares in 2016, 0.2 of which are dedicated to agriculture. The Dutch biocapacity per person is just about half of the 1.6 global hectares of biocapacity per person available worldwide. In contrast, in 2016, the Dutch used on average 4.8 global hectares of biocapacity - their ecological footprint of consumption. This means the Dutch required nearly six times as much biocapacity as the Netherlands contains. As a result, the Netherlands was running a biocapacity deficit of 4.0 global hectares per person in 2016.The Dutch agricultural sector is highly mechanised, and has a strong focus on international exports. It employs about 4% of the Dutch labour force but produces large surpluses in the food-processing industry and accounts for 21% of the Dutch total export value. The Dutch rank first in the European Union and second worldwide in value of agricultural exports, behind only the United States, with agricultural exports earning €80.7 billion in 2014, up from €75.4 billion in 2012. In 2019 agricultural exports were worth €94.5 billion.One-third of the world's exports of chilis, tomatoes, and cucumbers goes through the country. The Netherlands also exports one-fifteenth of the world's apples.Aside from that, a significant portion of Dutch agricultural exports consists of fresh-cut plants, flowers, and flower bulbs, with the Netherlands exporting two-thirds of the world's total.The Netherlands had an estimated population of 17,493,969 as of 30 April 2021. It is the 5th most densely populated country in Europe, and except for the very small city-states like Monaco, Vatican City and San Marino it is the most densely populated country in Europe. And it is the 16th most densely populated country in the world with a density of . It is the 67th most populous country in the world. Between 1900 and 1950, the country's population almost doubled from 5.1 to 10 million. From 1950 to 2000, the population further increased, to 15.9 million, though this represented a lower rate of population growth. The estimated growth rate is 0.44%.The fertility rate in the Netherlands is 1.78 children per woman (2018 estimate), which is high compared with many other European countries, but below the rate of 2.1 children per woman required for natural population replacement, it remains considerably below the high of 5.39 children born per woman in 1879. Netherlands subsequently has one of the oldest populations in the world, with the average age of 42.7 years. Life expectancy is high in the Netherlands: 84.3 years for newborn girls and 79.7 for boys (2020 estimate). The country has a migration rate of 1.9 migrants per 1,000 inhabitants per year. The majority of the population of the Netherlands is ethnically Dutch. According to a 2005 estimate, the population was 80.9% Dutch, 2.4% Indonesian, 2.4% German, 2.2% Turkish, 2.0% Surinamese, 1.9% Moroccan, 0.8% Antillean and Aruban, and 7.4% others. Some 150,000 to 200,000 people living in the Netherlands are expatriates, mostly concentrated in and around Amsterdam and The Hague, now constituting almost 10% of the population of these cities.The Dutch are the tallest people in the world, by nationality, with an average height of for adult males and for adult females in 2009. People in the south are on average about shorter than those in the north.According to Eurostat, in 2010 there were 1.8 million foreign-born residents in the Netherlands, corresponding to 11.1% of the total population. Of these, 1.4 million (8.5%) were born outside the EU and 0.43 million (2.6%) were born in another EU Member State. On 21 November 2016, there were 3.8 million residents in the Netherlands with at least one foreign-born parent ("migration background"). Over half the young people in Amsterdam and Rotterdam have a non-western background. Dutch people, or descendants of Dutch people, are also found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in Canada, Australia, South Africa and the United States. According to the United States Census Bureau (2006), more than 5 million Americans claim total or partial Dutch ancestry. There are close to 3 million Dutch-descended Afrikaners living in South Africa. In 1940, there were 290,000 Europeans and Eurasians in Indonesia, but most have since left the country.The Randstad is the country's largest conurbation located in the west of the country and contains the four largest cities: Amsterdam in the province North Holland, Rotterdam and The Hague in the province South Holland, and Utrecht in the province Utrecht. The Randstad has a population of about 8.2 million inhabitants and is the 5th largest metropolitan area in Europe. According to Dutch Central Statistics Bureau, in 2015, 28 per cent of the Dutch population had a spendable income above 45,000 euros (which does not include spending on health care or education).The official language is Dutch, which is spoken by the vast majority of the inhabitants. Besides Dutch, West Frisian is recognised as a second official language in the northern province of Friesland ("Fryslân" in West Frisian). West Frisian has a formal status for government correspondence in that province. In the European part of the kingdom two other regional languages are recognised under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.The first of these recognised regional languages is Low Saxon ("Nedersaksisch" in Dutch). Low Saxon consists of several dialects spoken in the north and east, like Tweants in the region of Twente, and Drents in the province of Drenthe. Secondly, Limburgish is also recognised as a regional language. It consists of Dutch varieties of Meuse-Rhenish Franconian languages and is spoken in the south-eastern province of Limburg. The dialects most spoken in the Netherlands are the Brabantian-Hollandic dialects.Ripuarian language, which is spoken in Kerkrade and Vaals in the form of, respectively, the Kerkrade dialect and the Vaals dialect are legally treated as Limburgish as well - see Southeast Limburgish dialect.English has a formal status in the special municipalities of Saba and Sint Eustatius. It is widely spoken on these islands. Papiamento has a formal status in the special municipality of Bonaire. Yiddish and the Romani language were recognised in 1996 as non-territorial languages. The Netherlands has a tradition of learning foreign languages, formalised in Dutch education laws. Some 90% of the total population indicate they are able to converse in English, 70% in German, and 29% in French. English is a mandatory course in all secondary schools. In most lower level secondary school educations ("vmbo"), one additional modern foreign language is mandatory during the first two years.In higher level secondary schools (HAVO and VWO), the acquisition of two additional modern foreign language skills is mandatory during the first three years. Only during the last three years in VWO one foreign language is mandatory. Besides English, the standard modern languages are French and German, although schools can replace one of these modern languages with Chinese, Spanish, Russian, Italian, Turkish or Arabic. Additionally, schools in Friesland teach and have exams in West Frisian, and schools across the country teach and have exams in Ancient Greek and Latin for secondary school (called Gymnasium or VWO+).The population of the Netherlands was predominantly Christian until the late 20th century, divided into a number of denominations. Although significant religious diversity remains, there has been a decline of religious adherence. The Netherlands is now one of the most secular societies in the world.In 2019, Statistics Netherlands found that 54.1% of the total population declared itself to be non-religious. Groups that represent the non-religious in the Netherlands include Humanistisch Verbond. Roman Catholics comprised 20.1% of the total population, Protestants (14.8%). Muslims comprised 5.0% of the total population and followers of other Christian denominations and other religions (like Judaism, Buddhism and Hinduism) comprised the remaining 5.9%. A 2015 survey from another source found that Protestants outnumbered Catholics.The southern provinces of North Brabant and Limburg have historically been strongly Roman Catholic, and some residents consider the Catholic Church as a base for their cultural identity. Protestantism in the Netherlands consists of a number of churches within various traditions. The largest of these is the Protestant Church in the Netherlands (PKN), a United church which is Reformed and Lutheran in orientation. It was formed in 2004 as a merger of the Dutch Reformed Church, the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands and a smaller Lutheran Church. Several orthodox Reformed and liberal churches did not merge into the PKN. Although in the Netherlands as a whole Christianity has become a minority, the Netherlands contains a Bible Belt from Zeeland to the northern parts of the province Overijssel, in which Protestant (particularly Reformed) beliefs remain strong, and even has majorities in municipal councils.Islam is the second largest religion in the state. In 2012, there were about 825,000 Muslims in the Netherlands (5% of the population). The Muslim population increased from the 1960 as a result of large numbers of migrant workers. This included migrant workers from Turkey and Morocco, as well as migrants from former Dutch colonies, such as Surinam and Indonesia. During the 1990s, Muslim refugees arrived from countries like Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iran, Iraq, Somalia, and Afghanistan.Another religion practised is Hinduism, with around 215,000 adherents (slightly over 1% of the population). Most of these are Indo-Surinamese. There are also sizable populations of Hindu immigrants from India and Sri Lanka, and some Western adherents of Hinduism-oriented new religious movements such as Hare Krishnas. The Netherlands has an estimated 250,000 Buddhists or people strongly attracted to this religion, mainly ethnic Dutch people. In addition, there are about 45,000 Jews in the Netherlands.The Constitution of the Netherlands guarantees freedom of education, which means that all schools that adhere to general quality criteria receive the same government funding. This includes schools based on religious principles by religious groups (especially Roman Catholic and various Protestant). Three political parties in the Dutch parliament, (CDA, and two small parties, ChristianUnion and SGP) are based upon the Christian belief. Several Christian religious holidays are national holidays (Christmas, Easter, Pentecost and the Ascension of Jesus).Upon the country's independence, Protestants were predominant in most of the country, while Roman Catholics were dominant in the south, especially North Brabant and Limburg. In the late 19th century, secularism, atheism and pillarisation gained adherents. By 1960, Roman Catholics equalled Protestants in number; thereafter, both Christian branches began to decline. Conversely, Islam grew considerably as the result of immigration. Since 2000 there has been raised awareness of religion, mainly due to Muslim extremism.The Dutch royal family has been traditionally associated with Calvinism, specifically the Dutch Reformed Church, which has merged into the Protestant Church in the Netherlands. The Dutch Reformed Church was the only major Protestant church in the Netherlands from the Reformation until the 19th century. Denominational splits in 1834 and in 1886 diversified Dutch Calvinism. In 2013, a Roman Catholic became Queen consort.A survey in December 2014 concluded that for the first time there were more atheists (25%) than theists (17%) in the Netherlands, while the remainder of the population was agnostic (31%) or ietsistic (27%). In 2015, a vast majority of the inhabitants of the Netherlands (82%) said they had never or almost never visited a church, and 59% stated that they had never been to a church of any kind. Of all the people questioned, 24% saw themselves as atheist, an increase of 11% compared to the previous study done in 2006. The expected rise of spirituality (ietsism) has come to a halt according to research in 2015. In 2006, 40% of respondents considered themselves spiritual; in 2015 this has dropped to 31%. The number who believed in the existence of a higher power fell from 36% to 28% over the same period.Education in the Netherlands is compulsory between the ages of 5 and 16. If a child does not have a "starting qualification" (HAVO, VWO or MBO 2+ degree) they are still forced to attend classes until they achieve such a qualification or reach the age of 18.All children in the Netherlands usually attend elementary school from (on average) ages 4 to 12. It comprises eight grades, the first of which is facultative. Based on an aptitude test, the eighth grade teacher's recommendation and the opinion of the pupil's parents or caretakers, a choice is made for one of the three main streams of secondary education. After completing a particular stream, a pupil may still continue in the penultimate year of the next stream.The VMBO has four grades and is subdivided over several levels. Successfully completing the VMBO results in a low-level vocational degree that grants access to the MBO. The MBO (middle-level applied education) is a form of education that primarily focuses on teaching a practical trade or a vocational degree. With the MBO certification, a student can apply for the HBO. The HAVO has 5 grades and allows for admission to the HBO. The HBO (higher professional education) are universities of professional education (applied sciences) that award professional bachelor's degrees; similar to polytechnic degrees. An HBO degree gives access to the university system. The VWO (comprising atheneum and gymnasium) has 6 grades and prepares for studying at a research university. Universities offer a three-year bachelor's degree, followed by a one or two-year master's degree, which in turn can be followed by a four or five-year doctoral degree programme.Doctoral candidates in the Netherlands are generally non-tenured employees of a university. All Dutch schools and universities are publicly funded and managed with the exception of religious schools that are publicly funded but not managed by the state even though requirements are necessary for the funding to be authorised. Dutch universities have a tuition fee of about 2,000 euros a year for students from the Netherlands and the European Union. The amount is about 10,000 euros for non-EU students.In 2016, the Netherlands maintained its number one position at the top of the annual Euro health consumer index (EHCI), which compares healthcare systems in Europe, scoring 916 of a maximum 1,000 points. The Netherlands has been among the top three countries in each report published since 2005. On 48 indicators such as patient rights and information, accessibility, prevention and outcomes, the Netherlands secured its top position among 37 European countries for six years in a row.The Netherlands was ranked first in a study in 2009 comparing the health care systems of the United States, Australia, Canada, Germany and New Zealand.Ever since a major reform of the health care system in 2006, the Dutch system received more points in the Index each year. According to the HCP (Health Consumer Powerhouse), the Netherlands has 'a chaos system', meaning patients have a great degree of freedom from where to buy their health insurance, to where they get their healthcare service. The difference between the Netherlands and other countries is that the chaos is managed. Healthcare decisions are being made in a dialogue between the patients and healthcare professionals.Health insurance in the Netherlands is mandatory. Healthcare in the Netherlands is covered by two statutory forms of insurance:While Dutch residents are automatically insured by the government for AWBZ, everyone has to take out their own basic healthcare insurance (basisverzekering), except those under 18 who are automatically covered under their parents' premium. If a person decides not to carry out an insurance coverage, the person may be fined. Insurers have to offer a universal package for everyone over the age of 18 years, regardless of age or state of health – it's illegal to refuse an application or impose special conditions. In contrast to many other European systems, the Dutch government is responsible for the accessibility and quality of the healthcare system in the Netherlands, but not in charge of its management.Healthcare in the Netherlands can be divided in several ways: three echelons, in somatic and mental health care and in 'cure' (short term) and 'care' (long term). Home doctors ("huisartsen", comparable to general practitioners) form the largest part of the first echelon. Being referenced by a member of the first echelon is mandatory for access to the second and third echelon. The health care system is in comparison to other Western countries quite effective but not the most cost-effective.Healthcare in the Netherlands is financed by a dual system that came into effect in January 2006. Long-term treatments, especially those that involve semi-permanent hospitalisation, and also disability costs such as wheelchairs, are covered by a state-controlled mandatory insurance. This is laid down in the "Algemene Wet Bijzondere Ziektekosten" ("General Law on Exceptional Healthcare Costs") which first came into effect in 1968. In 2009 this insurance covered 27% of all health care expenses.For all regular (short-term) medical treatment, there is a system of obligatory health insurance, with private health insurance companies. These insurance companies are obliged to provide a package with a defined set of insured treatments. This insurance covers 41% of all health care expenses.Other sources of health care payment are taxes (14%), out of pocket payments (9%), additional optional health insurance packages (4%) and a range of other sources (4%). Affordability is guaranteed through a system of income-related allowances and individual and employer-paid income-related premiums.A key feature of the Dutch system is that premiums may not be related to health status or age. Risk variances between private health insurance companies due to the different risks presented by individual policy holders are compensated through risk equalisation and a common risk pool. The funding burden for all short-term health care coverage is carried 50% by employers, 45% by the insured person and 5% by the government. Children under 18 are covered for free. Those on low incomes receive compensation to help them pay their insurance. Premiums paid by the insured are about €100 per month (about US$127 in August 2010 and €150 or US$196 in 2012), with variation of about 5% between the various competing insurers, and a yearly deductible of €220 (US$288).Mobility on Dutch roads has grown continuously since the 1950s and now exceeds 200 billion km travelled per year, three quarters of which are done by car. Around half of all trips in the Netherlands are made by car, 25% by bicycle, 20% walking, and 5% by public transport.With a total road network of 139,295 km, which includes 2,758 km of expressways, the Netherlands has one of the densest road networks in the world—much denser than Germany and France, but still not as dense as Belgium.As part of its commitment to environmental sustainability, the Government of the Netherlands initiated a plan to establish over 200 recharging stations for electric vehicles across the country. The rollout will be undertaken by Switzerland-based power and automation company ABB and Dutch startup Fastned, and will aim to provide at least one station within a 50-kilometre radius (30 miles) from every home in the Netherlands. Currently, the Netherlands alone hosts more than a quarter of all recharging stations in the European Union. This share rises to 30% if Brexit is taken into account. Moreover, newly sold cars in the Netherlands have on average the lowest CO2 emissions in the EU.About 13% of all distance is travelled by public transport, the majority of which by train. Like in many other European countries, the Dutch rail network of 3,013 km route is also rather dense. The network is mostly focused on passenger rail services and connects all major towns and cities, with over 400 stations. Trains are frequent, with two trains per hour on lesser lines, two to four trains per hour on average, and up to eight trains an hour on the busiest lines. The Dutch national train network also includes the HSL-Zuid, a high-speed line between the Amsterdam metropolitan area and the Belgian border for trains running from Paris and London to the Netherlands.Cycling is a ubiquitous mode of transport in the Netherlands. Almost as many kilometres are covered by bicycle as by train. The Dutch are estimated to have at least 18 million bicycles, which makes more than one per capita, and twice as many as the circa 9 million motor vehicles on the road. In 2013, the European Cyclists' Federation ranked both the Netherlands and Denmark as the most bike-friendly countries in Europe, but more of the Dutch (36%) than of the Danes (23%) list the bike as their most frequent mode of transport on a typical day. Cycling infrastructure is comprehensive. Busy roads have received some 35,000 km of dedicated cycle tracks, physically segregated from motorised traffic. Busy junctions are often equipped with bicycle-specific traffic lights. There are large bicycle parking facilities, particularly in city centres and at train stations.Until the introduction of trains, ships were the primary mode of transport in the Netherlands. And shipping has remained crucial afterwards. The Port of Rotterdam is the largest port in Europe and the largest port in the world outside East-Asia, with the rivers Meuse and Rhine providing excellent access to the hinterland upstream reaching to Basel, Switzerland, and into Germany and France. , Rotterdam was the world's eighth largest container port handling 440.5 million metric tonnes of cargo annually. The port's main activities are petrochemical industries and general cargo handling and transshipment. The harbour functions as an important transit point for bulk materials and between the European continent and overseas. From Rotterdam goods are transported by ship, river barge, train or road. The Volkeraksluizen between Rotterdam and Antwerp are the biggest sluices for inland navigation in the world in terms of tonnage passing through them. In 2007, the Betuweroute, a new fast freight railway from Rotterdam to Germany, was completed. The Netherlands also hosts Europe's 4th largest port in Amsterdam. The inland shipping fleet of the Netherlands is the largest in Europe. The Netherlands also has the largest fleet of active historical ships in the world. Boats are used for passenger travel as well, such as the Watertaxies in Rotterdam. The ferry network in Amsterdam and the Waterbus network in Rotterdam are part of the public transport system.Schiphol Airport, just southwest of Amsterdam, is the main international airport in the Netherlands, and the third busiest airport in Europe in terms of passengers. Schiphol is the main hub for KLM, the nation's flag carrier and the world's oldest airline. In 2016, the Royal Schiphol Group airports handled 70 million passengers. All air traffic is international and Schiphol Airport is connected to over 300 destinations worldwide, more than any other European airport. The airport is a major freight hub as well, processing 1.44 million tonnes of cargo in 2020. Smaller international airports in the country include Eindhoven Airport, Rotterdam The Hague Airport, Maastricht Aachen Airport and Groningen Airport Eelde. Air transport is of vital significance for the Caribbean part of the Netherlands, with all islands having their own airport. This includes the shortest runway in the world on Saba.The Netherlands has had many well-known painters. In the Middle Ages Hieronymus Bosch, Petrus Christus, Lucas Gassel and Pieter Bruegel the Elder were leading Dutch pioneers.During the Dutch Golden Age, spanning much of the 17th century, the Dutch Republic was prosperous and witnessed a flourishing artistic movement. This was the age of the "Dutch Masters", such as Rembrandt van Rijn, Johannes Vermeer, Jan Steen, Jacob van Ruisdael, Gerard van Honthorst, Theodoor van Thulden and many others. Famous Dutch painters of the 19th and 20th century were Vincent van Gogh and the luminists Jan Sluijters, Leo Gestel, and Piet Mondrian. M. C. Escher is a well-known graphic artist. Willem de Kooning was born and trained in Rotterdam, although he is considered to have reached acclaim as an American artist. Literature flourished as well during the Dutch Golden Age, with Joost van den Vondel and P. C. Hooft as the two most famous writers. In the 19th century, Multatuli wrote about the poor treatment of the natives in the Dutch colony, the current Indonesia. Important 20th century authors include Godfried Bomans, Harry Mulisch, Jan Wolkers, Simon Vestdijk, Hella S. Haasse, Cees Nooteboom, Gerard Reve and Willem Frederik Hermans. Anne Frank's "Diary of a Young Girl" was published after she was murdered in the Holocaust and translated from Dutch to all major languages.Various architectural styles can be distinguished in the Netherlands. Over the years, various styles have been built and preserved.The Romanesque architecture was built between the years 950 and 1250. This architectural style is most concentrated in the provinces of Gelderland and Limburg. Limburg, in particular, differs greatly in architectural style from the rest of the Netherlands.The Gothic architecture came to in the Netherlands from about 1230. Gothic buildings often had large windows, pointed arches and were richly decorated.Brabantine Gothic originated with the rise of the Duchy of Brabant and spread throughout the Burgundian provinces.This architectural style is most concentrated in the province of North Brabant, such as St. John's Cathedral in 's-Hertogenbosch, The Church of Our Lady in Breda and the Margraves Palace in Bergen op Zoom.What many know as traditional Dutch architecture is the Dutch Baroque architecture (1525 – 1630) and classicism (1630 – 1700).These style of architecture is especially in evidence in the cities of North Holland, South Holland and Zeeland.Other architectural styles that are common in the Netherlands are Style Louis XIV, Art Nouveau, Rationalism, NeoclassicismExpressionism, De Stijl, Traditionalism and Brutalism.The Netherlands is the country of philosophers Erasmus, Rudolf Agricola and Spinoza. Much of Descartes' major work was done in the Netherlands, where he studied at Leiden University — as did geologist James Hutton, British Prime Minister John Stuart, U.S. President John Quincy Adams, Physics Nobel Prize laureate Hendrik Lorentz and Enrico Fermi. The Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens (1629–1695) discovered Saturn's moon Titan, argued that light travelled as waves, invented the pendulum clock and was the first physicist to use mathematical formulae. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek was the first to observe and describe single-celled organisms with a microscope.Replicas of Dutch buildings can be found in Huis Ten Bosch, Nagasaki, Japan. A similar Holland Village is being built in Shenyang, China. Windmills, tulips, wooden shoes, cheese, Delftware pottery, and cannabis are among the items associated with the Netherlands by tourists.In the south of the Netherlands there are some festivals that rarely or never occur in the rest of the Netherlands. These celebrations grew out of Catholic traditions, including Carnival, lantern parades during the celebration of Three Kings, Brabantian Day and huge Bloemencorso. Bloemencorsos used to occur in many places in the Netherlands, but in the 21th century, Zundert and Valkenswaard in North Brabant have taken the lead.Dutch society is egalitarian and modern. The Dutch have an aversion to the non-essential. Ostentatious behaviour is to be avoided. The Dutch are proud of their cultural heritage, rich history in art and involvement in international affairs.Dutch manners are open and direct with a no-nonsense attitude—informality combined with adherence to basic behaviour. According to a humorous source on Dutch culture, "Their directness gives many the impression that they are rude and crude—attributes they prefer to call openness." A well known more serious source on Dutch etiquette is "Dealing with the Dutch" by Jacob Vossestein: "Dutch egalitarianism is the idea that people are equal, especially from a moral point of view, and accordingly, causes the somewhat ambiguous stance the Dutch have towards hierarchy and status." As always, manners differ between groups. Asking about basic rules will not be considered impolite. "What may strike you as being blatantly blunt topics and comments are no more embarrassing or unusual to the Dutch than discussing the weather."The Netherlands is one of the most secular countries of Europe, and religion in the Netherlands is generally considered as a personal matter which is not supposed to be propagated in public, although it often remains a discussion subject. For only 17% of the population religion is important and 14% goes to church weekly.The Netherlands has a long history of social tolerance and today is regarded as a liberal country, considering its drug policy and its legalisation of euthanasia. On 1 April 2001, the Netherlands became the first nation to legalise same-sex marriage.As of 2018 the Netherlands had one of the highest rates of carbon dioxide emissions per capita in the European Union, above those of Germany, France and Belgium. In addition, the Dutch waste more food than any other EU citizen, at over three times the EU average Despite this, the Netherlands has nonetheless the reputation of the leader country in environmental and population management. In 2015, Amsterdam and Rotterdam were ranked fourth and fifth, respectively, on the Arcadis Sustainable Cities Index.Sustainability is a concept important for the Dutch. The goal of the Dutch Government is to have a sustainable, reliable and affordable energy system, by 2050, in which emissions have been halved and 40 per cent of electricity is derived from sustainable sources.The government is investing billions of euros in energy efficiency, sustainable energy and reduction. The Kingdom also encourages Dutch companies to build sustainable business/projects/facilities, with financial aids from the state to the companies or individuals who are active in making the country more sustainable.The Netherlands has multiple music traditions. Traditional Dutch music is a genre known as "Levenslied", meaning "Song of life", to an extent comparable to a French Chanson or a German Schlager. These songs typically have a simple melody and rhythm, and a straightforward structure of verses and choruses. Themes can be light, but are often sentimental and include love, death and loneliness. Traditional musical instruments such as the accordion and the barrel organ are a staple of levenslied music, though in recent years many artists also use synthesisers and guitars. Artists in this genre include Jan Smit, Frans Bauer and André Hazes.Contemporary Dutch rock and pop music (Nederpop) originated in the 1960s, heavily influenced by popular music from the United States and Britain. In the 1960s and 1970s the lyrics were mostly in English, and some tracks were instrumental. Bands such as Shocking Blue, Golden Earring, Tee Set, George Baker Selection and Focus enjoyed international success. As of the 1980s, more and more pop musicians started working in the Dutch language, partly inspired by the huge success of the band Doe Maar. Today Dutch rock and pop music thrives in both languages, with some artists recording in both.Current symphonic metal bands Epica, Delain, ReVamp, The Gathering, Asrai, Autumn, Ayreon and Within Temptation as well as jazz and pop singer Caro Emerald are having international success. Also, metal bands like Hail of Bullets, God Dethroned, Izegrim, Asphyx, Textures, Present Danger, Heidevolk and Slechtvalk are popular guests at the biggest metal festivals in Europe. Contemporary local stars include pop singer Anouk, country pop singer Ilse DeLange, South Guelderish and Limburgish dialect singing folk band Rowwen Hèze, rock band BLØF and duo Nick & Simon. Trijntje Oosterhuis, one of the country's most well known and versatile singers, has made multiple albums with famous American composers Vince Mendoza and Burt Bacharach.Early 1990s Dutch and Belgian house music came together in Eurodance project 2 Unlimited. Selling 18 million records, the two singers in the band are the most successful Dutch music artists to this day. Tracks like "Get Ready for This" are still popular themes of U.S. sports events, like the NHL. In the mid 1990s Dutch language rap and hip hop ("Nederhop") also came to fruition and has become popular in the Netherlands and Belgium. Artists with North African, Caribbean or Middle Eastern origins have strongly influenced this genre.Since the 1990s, Dutch electronic dance music (EDM) gained widespread popularity in the world in many forms, from trance, techno and gabber to hardstyle. Some of the world's best known dance music DJs hail from the Netherlands, including Armin van Buuren, Tiësto, Hardwell, Martin Garrix, Dash Berlin, Julian Jordan, Nicky Romero, W&W, Don Diablo and Afrojack; the first four of which have been ranked as best in the world by DJ Mag Top 100 DJs. The Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE) is the world's leading electronic music conference and the biggest club festival for the many electronic subgenres on the planet. These DJs also contribute to the world's mainstream pop music, as they frequently collaborate and produce for high-profile international artists.The Netherlands have participated in the Eurovision Song Contest since its first edition in 1956, and have won five times. Their most recent win was in 2019.In classical music, Jan Sweelinck ranks as the Dutch most famous composer, with Louis Andriessen amongst the best known living Dutch classical composers. Ton Koopman is a Dutch conductor, organist and harpsichordist. He is also professor at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. Notable violinists are Janine Jansen and André Rieu. The latter, together with his Johann Strauss Orchestra, has taken classical and waltz music on worldwide concert tours, the size and revenue of which are otherwise only seen from the world's biggest rock and pop music acts. The most famous Dutch classical composition is "Canto Ostinato" by Simeon ten Holt, a minimalistic composition for multiple instruments. Acclaimed harpist Lavinia Meijer in 2012 released an album with works from Philip Glass that she transcribed for harp, with approval of Glass himself. The Concertgebouw (completed in 1888) in Amsterdam is home to the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, considered one of the world's finest orchestras.Some Dutch films – mainly by director Paul Verhoeven – have received international distribution and recognition, such as "Turkish Delight" (""Turks Fruit"", 1973), "Soldier of Orange" (""Soldaat van Oranje"", 1977), "Spetters" (1980) and "The Fourth Man" (""De Vierde Man"", 1983). Verhoeven then went on to direct big Hollywood movies like "RoboCop" (1987), "Total Recall" (1990) and "Basic Instinct" (1992), and returned with Dutch film "Black Book" (""Zwartboek"", 2006).Other well-known Dutch film directors are Jan de Bont ("Speed"), Anton Corbijn ("A Most wanted Man"), Dick Maas ("De Lift"), Fons Rademakers ("The Assault"), and documentary makers Bert Haanstra and Joris Ivens. Film director Theo van Gogh achieved international notoriety in 2004 when he was murdered by Mohammed Bouyeri in the streets of Amsterdam after directing the short film "Submission".Internationally, successful directors of photography from the Netherlands are Hoyte van Hoytema ("Interstellar", "Spectre", "Dunkirk") and Theo van de Sande ("Wayne's World" and "Blade"). Van Hoytema went to the National Film School in Łódź (Poland) and Van de Sande went to the Netherlands Film Academy. Internationally successful Dutch actors include Famke Janssen ("X-Men"), Carice van Houten ("Game of Thrones"), Michiel Huisman ("Game of Thrones"), Rutger Hauer ("Blade Runner"), Jeroen Krabbé ("The Living Daylights") and Derek de Lint ("Three Men and a Baby").The Netherlands has a well developed television market, with both multiple commercial and public broadcasters. Imported TV programmes, as well as interviews with responses in a foreign language, are virtually always shown with the original sound and subtitled. Only foreign shows for children are dubbed.TV exports from the Netherlands mostly take the form of specific formats and franchises, most notably through internationally active TV production conglomerate Endemol, founded by Dutch media tycoons John de Mol and Joop van den Ende. Headquartered in Amsterdam, Endemol has around 90 companies in over 30 countries. Endemol and its subsidiaries create and run reality, talent, and game show franchises worldwide, including "Big Brother" and "Deal or No Deal". John de Mol later started his own company Talpa which created show franchises like "The Voice" and "Utopia".Approximately 4.5 million of the 16.8 million people in the Netherlands are registered to one of the 35,000 sports clubs in the country. About two-thirds of the population between 15 and 75 participates in sports weekly. Football is the most popular participant sport in the Netherlands, before field hockey and volleyball as the second and third most popular team sports. The Netherlands national football team is one of the most popular aspects of Dutch sports; especially since the 1970s when one of the greatest footballers of all time, Johan Cruyff, developed Total Football with coach Rinus Michels. Tennis, gymnastics and golf are the three most widely engaged in individual sports.Organisation of sports began at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. Federations for sports were established (such as the speed skating federation in 1882), rules were unified and sports clubs came into existence. A Dutch National Olympic Committee was established in 1912. Thus far, the nation has won 266 medals at the Summer Olympic Games and another 110 medals at the Winter Olympic Games. In international competition, Dutch national teams and athletes are dominant in several fields of sport. The Netherlands women's field hockey team is the most successful team in World Cup history. The Netherlands baseball team have won the European championship 20 times out of 32 events. Dutch K-1 kickboxers have won the K-1 World Grand Prix 15 times out of 19 tournaments. The Netherlands Women's handball team holds the record of the only team in the world that consecutively reached all six semifinals of major international tournaments since 2015, winning silver and bronze at the European Women's Handball Championship and silver, bronze and gold at the World Women's Handball Championship. They finished fourth at the 2016 Summer Olympics.The Dutch speed skaters' performance at the 2014 Winter Olympics, where they won 8 out of 12 events, 23 out of 36 medals, including 4 clean sweeps, is the most dominant performance in a single sport in Olympic history. Motorcycle racing at the TT Circuit Assen has a long history. Assen is the only venue to have held a round of the Motorcycle World Championship every year since its creation in 1949. The circuit was purpose-built for the Dutch TT in 1954, with previous events having been held on public roads.The Dutch have also had success in all three of cyclings Grand Tours with Jan Janssen winning the 1968 Tour de France, more recently with Tom Dumoulin winning the 2017 Giro d'Italia and legendary rider Joop Zoetemelk was the 1985 UCI World Champion, the winner of the 1979 Vuelta a Espana, the 1980 Tour de France and still holds or shares numerous Tour de France records including most Tours finished and most kilometres ridden.Limburger Max Verstappen currently races in Formula One, and was the first Dutchman to win a Grand Prix. The coastal resort of Zandvoort hosted the Dutch Grand Prix from 1958 to 1985, and has been announced to return in 2020. The volleyball national men's team has also been successful, winning the silver medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics and the gold medal four years later in Atlanta. The biggest success of the women's national team was winning the European Championship in 1995 and the World Grand Prix in 2007.Recently cricket has made a remarkable progress in the Netherlands. Netherlands have participated in 1996, 2003, 2007 and 2011 ODI cricket World Cup. They have also qualified for 2009 and 2014 T20 World Cup. In the 2009 T20 World Cup, Netherlands defeated England, the current World Champions and inventor of the game. Ryan ten Doeschate is the only Dutch player to have played in the IPL on the team Kolkata Knight Riders.Originally, the country's cuisine was shaped by the practices of fishing and farming, including the cultivation of the soil for growing crops and raising domesticated animals. Dutch cuisine is simple and straightforward, and contains many dairy products. Breakfast and lunch are typically bread with toppings, with cereal for breakfast as an alternative. Traditionally, dinner consists of potatoes, a portion of meat, and (seasonal) vegetables. The Dutch diet was relatively high in carbohydrates and fat, reflecting the dietary needs of the labourers whose culture moulded the country. Without many refinements, it is best described as rustic, though many holidays are still celebrated with special foods. In the course of the twentieth century this diet changed and became much more cosmopolitan, with most global cuisines being represented in the major cities.Modern culinary writers distinguish between three general regional forms of Dutch cuisine. The regions in the northeast of the Netherlands, roughly the provinces of Groningen, Friesland, Drenthe, Overijssel and Gelderland north of the great rivers are the least populated areas of the Netherlands. The late (18th century) introduction of large scale agriculture means that the cuisine is generally known for its many kinds of meats. The relative lack of farms allowed for an abundance of game and husbandry, though dishes near the coastal regions of Friesland, Groningen and the parts of Overijssel bordering the IJsselmeer also include a large amount of fish. The various dried sausages, belonging to the metworst-family of Dutch sausages are found throughout this region and are highly prized for their often very strong taste. Also smoked sausages are common, of which ("Gelderse") "rookworst" is the most renowned. The sausage contains a lot of fat and is very juicy. Larger sausages are often eaten alongside "stamppot", "hutspot" or "zuurkool" (sauerkraut); whereas smaller ones are often eaten as a street food. The provinces are also home to hard textured rye bread, pastries and cookies, the latter heavily spiced with ginger or succade or containing small bits of meat. Various kinds of "Kruidkoek" (such as ), "" and "" (small savoury pancakes cooked in a waffle iron) are considered typical. A notable characteristic of "Fries roggebrood" (Frisian rye bread) is its long baking time (up to 20 hours), resulting in a sweet taste and a deep dark colour. In terms of alcoholic beverages, the region is renowned for its many bitters (such as "Beerenburg") and other high-proof liquors rather than beer, which is, apart from "Jenever", typical for the rest of the country. As a coastal region, Friesland is home to low-lying grasslands, and thus has a cheese production in common with the Western cuisine. "Friese Nagelkaas" (Friesian Clove) is a notable example.The provinces of North Holland, South Holland, Zeeland, and Utrecht and the Gelderlandic area of Betuwe make up the region in which western Dutch cuisine is found. Because of the abundance of water and flat grasslands that are found here, the area is known for its many dairy products, which include prominent cheeses such as Gouda, Leyden (spiced cheese with cumin), and Edam (traditionally in small spheres) as well as Leerdammer and Beemster, while the adjacent Zaanstreek in North Holland has since the 16th century been known for its mayonnaise, typical whole-grain mustards, and chocolate industry. Zeeland and South Holland produce a lot of butter, which contains a larger amount of milkfat than most other European butter varieties. A by-product of the butter-making process, "karnemelk" (buttermilk), is also considered typical for this region. Seafood such as soused herring, mussels (called "Zeeuwse Mossels", since all Dutch mussels for consumption are cleaned in Zeeland's Oosterschelde), eels, oysters and shrimps are widely available and typical for the region. "", once a local delicacy consisting of small chunks of battered white fish, has become a national fast food, just as . Pastries in this area tend to be quite doughy, and often contain large amounts of sugar; either caramelised, powdered or crystallised. The "oliebol" (in its modern form) and "Zeeuwse bolus" are good examples. Cookies are also produced in great number and tend to contain a lot of butter and sugar, like "stroopwafel", as well as a filling of some kind, mostly almond, like "". The traditional alcoholic beverages of this region are beer (strong pale lager) and "Jenever", a high proof juniper-flavoured spirit, that came to be known in England as gin. A noted exception within the traditional Dutch alcoholic landscape, "Advocaat", a rich and creamy liqueur made from eggs, sugar and brandy, is also native to this region.The Southern Dutch cuisine consists of the cuisines of the Dutch provinces of North Brabant and Limburg and the Flemish Region in Belgium. It is renowned for its many rich pastries, soups, stews and vegetable dishes and is often called Burgundian which is a Dutch idiom invoking the rich Burgundian court which ruled the Low Countries in the Middle Ages, renowned for its splendor and great feasts. It is the only Dutch culinary region that developed an haute cuisine. Pastries are abundant, often with rich fillings of cream, custard or fruits. Cakes, such as the "Vlaai" from Limburg and the "Moorkop" and "Bossche Bol" from Brabant, are typical pastries. Savoury pastries also occur, with the (a roll with a sausage of ground beef, literally translates into sausage bread) being the most popular. The traditional alcoholic beverage of the region is beer. There are many local brands, ranging from "Trappist" to "Kriek". 5 of the 10 "International Trappist Association" recognised breweries in the world, are located in the Southern Dutch cultural area. Beer, like wine in French cuisine, is also used in cooking; often in stews.In early 2014, Oxfam ranked the Netherlands as the country with the most nutritious, plentiful and healthy food, in a comparison of 125 countries.From the exploitations in the Mughal Empire in the 17th century, to the colonisations in the 19th century, Dutch imperial possessions continued to expand, reaching their greatest extent by establishing a hegemony of the Dutch East Indies in the early 20th century. The Dutch East Indies, which later formed modern-day Indonesia, was one of the most valuable European colonies in the world and the most important one for the Netherlands. Over 350 years of mutual heritage has left a significant cultural mark on the Netherlands.In the Dutch Golden Age of the 17th century, the Netherlands urbanised considerably, mostly financed by corporate revenue from the Asian trade monopolies. Social status was based on merchants' income, which reduced feudalism and considerably changed the dynamics of Dutch society. When the Dutch royal family was established in 1815, much of its wealth came from Colonial trade.By the 17th century, the Dutch East India Company established their base in parts of Ceylon (modern-day Sri Lanka). Afterward, they established ports in Dutch occupied Malabar, leading to Dutch settlements and trading posts in India. However, their expansion into India was halted, after their defeat in the Battle of Colachel by the Kingdom of Travancore, during the Travancore-Dutch War. The Dutch never recovered from the defeat and no longer posed a large colonial threat to Bengal Subah.Universities such as the Leiden University, founded in the 16th century, have developed into leading knowledge centres for Southeast Asian and Indonesian studies. Leiden University has produced leading academics such as Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje, and still has academics who specialise in Indonesian languages and cultures. Leiden University and in particular KITLV are educational and scientific institutions that to this day share both an intellectual and historical interest in Indonesian studies. Other scientific institutions in the Netherlands include the Amsterdam Tropenmuseum, an anthropological museum with massive collections of Indonesian art, culture, ethnography and anthropology.The traditions of the Royal Dutch East Indies Army (KNIL) are maintained by the Regiment Van Heutsz of the modern Royal Netherlands Army. A dedicated "Bronbeek Museum", a former home for retired KNIL soldiers, exists in Arnhem to this day.A specific segment of Dutch literature called Dutch Indies literature still exists and includes established authors, such as Louis Couperus, the writer of "The Hidden Force", taking the colonial era as an important source of inspiration. One of the great masterpieces of Dutch literature is the book "Max Havelaar", written by Multatuli in 1860.The majority of Dutchmen that repatriated to the Netherlands after and during the Indonesian revolution are Indo (Eurasian), native to the islands of the Dutch East Indies. This relatively large Eurasian population had developed over a period of 400 years and were classified by colonial law as belonging to the European legal community. In Dutch they are referred to as "Indische Nederlanders" or as Indo (short for Indo-European).Including their second generation descendants, Indos are currently the largest foreign-born group in the Netherlands. In 2008, the Dutch Central Bureau for Statistics (CBS) registered 387,000 first- and second-generation Indos living in the Netherlands. Although considered fully assimilated into Dutch society, as the main ethnic minority in the Netherlands, these 'repatriants' have played a pivotal role in introducing elements of Indonesian culture into Dutch mainstream culture.Many Indonesian dishes and foodstuffs have become commonplace in the Netherlands. Rijsttafel, a colonial culinary concept, and dishes such as Nasi goreng and satay are very popular in the country. Practically any town of any size in the Netherlands has a "toko" (a Dutch Indonesian Shop) or a Chinese-Indonesian restaurant, and many 'Pasar Malam' (Night market in Malay/Indonesian) fairs are organised throughout the year.
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[
"Piet de Jong",
"Hendrikus Colijn",
"Ruud Lubbers",
"Jan de Quay",
"Wim Schermerhorn",
"Jo Cals",
"Joop den Uyl",
"Wim Kok",
"Louis Beel",
"Dries van Agt",
"Willem Drees",
"Charles Ruijs de Beerenbrouck",
"Victor Marijnen",
"Jelle Zijlstra",
"Jan Peter Balkenende",
"Mark Rutte",
"Pieter Sjoerds Gerbrandy",
"Barend Biesheuvel"
] |
|
Who was the head of Netherlands in 1927-12-29?
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December 29, 1927
|
{
"text": [
"Dirk Jan de Geer"
]
}
|
L2_Q55_P6_2
|
Dries van Agt is the head of the government of Netherlands from Dec, 1977 to Nov, 1982.
Hendrikus Colijn is the head of the government of Netherlands from Aug, 1925 to Mar, 1926.
Wim Kok is the head of the government of Netherlands from Aug, 1994 to Jul, 2002.
Victor Marijnen is the head of the government of Netherlands from Jul, 1963 to Apr, 1965.
Jo Cals is the head of the government of Netherlands from Apr, 1965 to Nov, 1966.
Willem Drees is the head of the government of Netherlands from Aug, 1948 to Dec, 1958.
Jan Peter Balkenende is the head of the government of Netherlands from Jul, 2002 to Oct, 2010.
Joop den Uyl is the head of the government of Netherlands from May, 1973 to Dec, 1977.
Dirk Jan de Geer is the head of the government of Netherlands from Mar, 1926 to Aug, 1929.
Barend Biesheuvel is the head of the government of Netherlands from Jul, 1971 to May, 1973.
Louis Beel is the head of the government of Netherlands from Jul, 1946 to Aug, 1948.
Jelle Zijlstra is the head of the government of Netherlands from Nov, 1966 to Apr, 1967.
Ruud Lubbers is the head of the government of Netherlands from Nov, 1982 to Aug, 1994.
Jan de Quay is the head of the government of Netherlands from May, 1959 to Jul, 1963.
Charles Ruijs de Beerenbrouck is the head of the government of Netherlands from Sep, 1918 to Aug, 1925.
Wim Schermerhorn is the head of the government of Netherlands from Jun, 1945 to Jul, 1946.
Mark Rutte is the head of the government of Netherlands from Oct, 2010 to Dec, 2022.
Piet de Jong is the head of the government of Netherlands from Apr, 1967 to Jul, 1971.
Pieter Sjoerds Gerbrandy is the head of the government of Netherlands from Sep, 1940 to Jun, 1945.
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NetherlandsThe Netherlands ( ), sometimes informally Holland, is a country located in Western Europe with territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. In Europe, the Netherlands consists of twelve provinces, bordering Germany to the east, Belgium to the south, and the North Sea to the northwest, with maritime borders in the North Sea with those countries and the United Kingdom. In the Caribbean, it consists of three special municipalities: the islands of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba. The country's official language is Dutch, with West Frisian as a secondary official language in the province of Friesland, and English and Papiamento as secondary official languages in the Caribbean Netherlands. Dutch Low Saxon and Limburgish are recognised regional languages (spoken in the east and southeast respectively), while Dutch Sign Language, Sinte Romani and Yiddish are recognised non-territorial languages.The four largest cities in the Netherlands are Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht. Amsterdam is the country's most populous city and nominal capital, while The Hague holds the seat of the States General, Cabinet and Supreme Court. The Port of Rotterdam is the busiest seaport in Europe, and the busiest in any country outside East Asia and Southeast Asia, behind only China and Singapore. Amsterdam Airport Schiphol is the busiest airport in the Netherlands, and the third busiest in Europe. The country is a founding member of the EU, Eurozone, G10, NATO, OECD and WTO, as well as a part of the Schengen Area and the trilateral Benelux Union. It hosts several intergovernmental organisations and international courts, many of which are centred in The Hague, which is consequently dubbed 'the world's legal capital'."Netherlands" literally means "lower countries" in reference to its low elevation and flat topography, with only about 50% of its land exceeding above sea level, and nearly 26% falling below sea level. Most of the areas below sea level, known as "polders", are the result of land reclamation that began in the 14th century. Colloquially or informally the Netherlands is occasionally referred to by the pars pro toto "Holland". With a population of 17.4 million people, all living within a total area of roughly —of which the land area is —the Netherlands is the 16th most densely populated country in the world and the 2nd most densely populated country in the European Union, with a density of . Nevertheless, it is the world's second-largest exporter of food and agricultural products by value, owing to its fertile soil, mild climate, intensive agriculture and inventiveness.The Netherlands has been a parliamentary constitutional monarchy with a unitary structure since 1848. The country has a tradition of pillarisation and a long record of social tolerance, having legalised abortion, prostitution and human euthanasia, along with maintaining a liberal drug policy. The Netherlands abolished the death penalty in Civil Law in 1870, though it was not completely removed until a new constitution was approved in 1983. The Netherlands allowed women's suffrage in 1919, before becoming the world's first country to legalise same-sex marriage in 2001. Its mixed-market advanced economy had the eleventh-highest per capita income globally. The Netherlands ranks among the highest in international indexes of press freedom, economic freedom, human development and quality of life, as well as happiness. In 2020, it ranked eighth on the human development index and fifth on the 2021 World Happiness Index.The Netherlands' turbulent history and shifts of power resulted in exceptionally many and widely varying names in different languages. There is diversity even within languages. In English, the Netherlands is also called Holland or (part of) the Low Countries, whereas the term ""Dutch"" is used as the demonym and adjectival form.The region called the Low Countries (comprising Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg) have the same toponymy. Place names with "Neder", "Nieder", "Nedre", "Nether", "Lage(r)" or "Low(er)" (in Germanic languages) and "Bas" or "Inferior" (in Romance languages) are in use in low-lying places all over Europe. They are sometimes used in a deictic relation to a higher ground that consecutively is indicated as "Super(ior)", "Up(per)", "Op(per)", "Ober", "Boven", "High", "Haut" or "Hoch". In the case of the Low Countries / Netherlands the geographical location of the "lower" region has been more or less downstream and near the sea. The geographical location of the upper region, however, changed tremendously over time, depending on the location of the economic and military power governing the Low Countries area. The Romans made a distinction between the Roman provinces of downstream Germania Inferior (nowadays part of Belgium and the Netherlands) and upstream Germania Superior (nowadays part of Germany). The designation 'Low' to refer to the region returns again in the 10th century Duchy of Lower Lorraine, that covered much of the Low Countries. But this time the corresponding "Upper" region is Upper Lorraine, in nowadays Northern France.The Dukes of Burgundy, who ruled from their residence in the Low Countries in the 15th century, used the term "les pays de par deçà" ("the lands over here") for the Low Countries, as opposed to "les pays de par delà" ("the lands over there") for their original homeland: Burgundy in present-day east-central France. Under Habsburg rule, "Les pays de par deçà" developed in "pays d'embas" ("lands down-here"), a deictic expression in relation to other Habsburg possessions like Hungary and Austria. This was translated as "Neder-landen" in contemporary Dutch official documents. From a regional point of view, "Niderlant" was also the area between the Meuse and the lower Rhine in the late Middle Ages. The area known as "Oberland" (High country) was in this deictic context considered to begin approximately at the nearby higher located Cologne.From the mid-sixteenth century on, the "Low Countries" and the "Netherlands" lost their original deictic meaning. They were probably the most commonly used names, besides Flanders, a "pars pro toto" for the Low Countries, especially in Romance language-speaking Europe. The Eighty Years' War (1568–1648) divided the Low Countries into an independent northern Dutch Republic (or Latinised "Belgica Foederata", "Federated Netherlands", the precursor state of the Netherlands) and a Spanish controlled Southern Netherlands (Latinised "Belgica Regia", "Royal Netherlands", the precursor state of Belgium). The Low Countries today is a designation that includes the countries of the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, although in most Romance languages, the term "Low Countries" is used as the name for the Netherlands specifically. It is used synonymously with the more neutral and geopolitical term Benelux.The Netherlands is also referred to as Holland in various languages, including English. However, Holland proper is only a region within the country that consists of North and South Holland, two of the nation's twelve provinces. Formerly they were a single province, and earlier the County of Holland, a remnant of the dissolved Frisian Kingdom which also included parts of present-day Utrecht. Following the decline of the Duchy of Brabant and the County of Flanders, Holland became the most economically and politically important county in the Low Countries region. The emphasis on Holland during the formation of the Dutch Republic, the Eighty Years' War, and the Anglo-Dutch Wars in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, made Holland serve as a "pars pro toto" for the entire country, which is now considered informal or incorrect. Nonetheless, the name "Holland" is still widely used for the Netherlands national football team, including in the Netherlands, and the Dutch government's international websites for tourism and trade are "holland.com" and "hollandtradeandinvest.com". In 2020, however, the Dutch government announced that it would only communicate and advertise under the name "the Netherlands" in the future.The term Dutch is used as the demonymic and adjectival form of the Netherlands in the English language. The origins of the word go back to Proto-Germanic "*þiudiskaz", Latinised into Theodiscus, meaning "popular" or "of the people"; akin to Old Dutch "Dietsch", Old High German "duitsch", and Old English "þeodisc", all meaning "(of) the common (Germanic) people". At first, the English language used (the contemporary form of) Dutch to refer to any or all speakers of West Germanic languages (e.g. the Dutch, the Frisians, and the Germans). Gradually its meaning shifted to the West Germanic people they had most contact with, because of their geographical proximity and for the rivalry in trade and overseas territories. The derivative of the Proto-Germanic word "*þiudiskaz" in modern Dutch, "Diets", can be found in Dutch literature as a poetic name for the Dutch people or language, but is considered very archaic. Although it had a short resurgence after World War II to avoid the reference to Germany. It is still used in the expression "diets maken" – to put it straight to him/her (as in a threat) or, more neutral, to make it clear, understandable, explain, say in the people's language (cf. the Vulgate (Bible not in Greek or Hebrew, but Latin; the folks' language) in meaning vulgar, though not in a pejorative sense).In Dutch, the names for the Netherlands, the Dutch language and a Dutch citizen are "Nederland", "Nederlands" and "Nederlander", respectively. Colloquially the country is also by the Dutch often referred to as Holland, although to lesser extent outside the two provinces North and South Holland, where it may even be used as a pejorative term, e.g. Hollènder (dialect) in Maastricht.The plural "Nederlanden" is used in many different connotations in the past, but since 1815 it has been used in the official name "Koninkrijk der Nederlanden" ("Kingdom of the Netherlands"). In many other languages the plural stuck, for example "Niederlande" (German), "Pays-Bas" (French) and "Países Bajos" (Spanish). In Indonesian (a former colony) the country is called "Belanda", a name derived from 'Holland'.The prehistory of the area that is now the Netherlands was largely shaped by the sea and the rivers that constantly shifted the low-lying geography. The oldest human (Neanderthal) traces were found in higher soils, near Maastricht, from what is believed to be about 250,000 years ago. At the end of the Ice Age, the nomadic late Upper Paleolithic Hamburg culture (c. 13.000–10.000 BC) hunted reindeer in the area, using spears, but the later Ahrensburg culture (c. 11.200–9500 BC) used bow and arrow. From Mesolithic Maglemosian-like tribes (c. 8000 BC) the oldest canoe in the world was found in Drenthe.Indigenous late Mesolithic hunter-gatherers from the Swifterbant culture (c. 5600 BC) were related to the southern Scandinavian Ertebølle culture and were strongly linked to rivers and open water. Between 4800 and 4500 BC, the Swifterbant people started to copy from the neighbouring Linear Pottery culture the practise of animal husbandry, and between 4300 and 4000 BC the practice of agriculture. The Funnelbeaker culture (c. 4300–2800 BC), which is related to the Swifterbant culture, erected the dolmens, large stone grave monuments found in Drenthe. There was a quick and smooth transition from the Funnelbeaker farming culture to the pan-European Corded Ware pastoralist culture (c. 2950 BC). In the southwest, the Seine-Oise-Marne culture — which was related to the Vlaardingen culture (c. 2600 BC), an apparently more primitive culture of hunter-gatherers — survived well into the Neolithic period, until it too was succeeded by the Corded Ware culture.Of the subsequent Bell Beaker culture (2700–2100 BC) several regions of origin have been postulated, notably the Iberian peninsula, the Netherlands and Central Europe. They introduced metalwork in copper, gold and later bronze and opened international trade routes not seen before, reflected in the discoveries of copper artifacts, as the metal is not normally found in Dutch soil. The many finds in Drenthe of rare bronze objects, suggest that it was even a trading centre in the Bronze Age (2000–800 BC). The Bell Beaker culture developed locally into the Barbed-Wire Beaker culture (2100–1800 BC) and later the Elp culture (c. 1800–800 BC), a Middle Bronze Age archaeological culture having earthenware pottery of low quality as a marker. The initial phase of the Elp culture was characterised by tumuli (1800–1200 BC) that were strongly tied to contemporary tumuli in northern Germany and Scandinavia and was apparently related to the Tumulus culture in central Europe. The subsequent phase was that of cremating the dead and placing their ashes in urns which were then buried in fields, following the customs of the Urnfield culture (1200–800 BC). The southern region became dominated by the related Hilversum culture (1800–800 BC), which apparently inherited cultural ties with Britain of the previous Barbed-Wire Beaker culture.From 800 BC onwards, the Iron Age Celtic Hallstatt culture became influential, replacing the Hilversum culture. Iron ore brought a measure of prosperity and was available throughout the country, including bog iron. Smiths travelled from settlement to settlement with bronze and iron, fabricating tools on demand. The King's grave of Oss (700 BC) was found in a burial mound, the largest of its kind in western Europe and containing an iron sword with an inlay of gold and coral.The deteriorating climate in Scandinavia around 850 BC further deteriorated around 650 BC and might have triggered migration of Germanic tribes from the North. By the time this migration was complete, around 250 BC, a few general cultural and linguistic groups had emerged. The North Sea Germanic Ingaevones inhabited the northern part of the Low Countries. They would later develop into the Frisii and the early Saxons. A second grouping, the Weser-Rhine Germanic (or Istvaeones), extended along the middle Rhine and Weser and inhabited the Low Countries south of the great rivers. This group consisted of tribes that would eventually develop into the Salian Franks. Also the Celtic La Tène culture (c. 450 BC up to the Roman conquest) had expanded over a wide range, including the southern area of the Low Countries. Some scholars have speculated that even a third ethnic identity and language, neither Germanic nor Celtic, survived in the Netherlands until the Roman period, the Iron Age Nordwestblock culture, that eventually was absorbed by the Celts to the south and the Germanic peoples from the east.The first author to describe the coast of Holland and Flanders was the Greek geographer Pytheas, who noted in c. 325 BC that in these regions, "more people died in the struggle against water than in the struggle against men." During the Gallic Wars, the area south and west of the Rhine was conquered by Roman forces under Julius Caesar from 57 BC to 53 BC. Caesar describes two main Celtic tribes living in what is now the southern Netherlands: the Menapii and the Eburones. The Rhine became fixed as Rome's northern frontier around 12 AD. Notable towns would arise along the Limes Germanicus: Nijmegen and Voorburg. In the first part of Gallia Belgica, the area south of the Limes became part of the Roman province of Germania Inferior. The area to the north of the Rhine, inhabited by the Frisii, remained outside Roman rule (but not its presence and control), while the Germanic border tribes of the Batavi and Cananefates served in the Roman cavalry. The Batavi rose against the Romans in the Batavian rebellion of 69 AD but were eventually defeated. The Batavi later merged with other tribes into the confederation of the Salian Franks, whose identity emerged at the first half of the third century. Salian Franks appear in Roman texts as both allies and enemies. They were forced by the confederation of the Saxons from the east to move over the Rhine into Roman territory in the fourth century. From their new base in West Flanders and the Southwest Netherlands, they were raiding the English Channel. Roman forces pacified the region, but did not expel the Franks, who continued to be feared at least until the time of Julian the Apostate (358) when Salian Franks were allowed to settle as "foederati" in Texandria. It has been postulated that after deteriorating climate conditions and the Romans' withdrawal, the Frisii disappeared as "laeti" in c. 296, leaving the coastal lands largely unpopulated for the next two centuries. However, recent excavations in Kennemerland show clear indication of a permanent habitation.After Roman government in the area collapsed, the Franks expanded their territories in numerous kingdoms. By the 490s, Clovis I had conquered and united all these territories in the southern Netherlands in one Frankish kingdom, and from there continued his conquests into Gaul. During this expansion, Franks migrating to the south eventually adopted the Vulgar Latin of the local population. A widening cultural divide grew with the Franks remaining in their original homeland in the north (i.e. the southern Netherlands and Flanders), who kept on speaking Old Frankish, which by the ninth century had evolved into Old Low Franconian or Old Dutch. A Dutch-French language boundary hence came into existence.To the north of the Franks, climatic conditions improved, and during the Migration Period Saxons, the closely related Angles, Jutes and Frisii settled the coastal land. Many moved on to England and came to be known as Anglo-Saxons, but those who stayed would be referred to as Frisians and their language as Frisian, named after the land that was once inhabited by Frisii. Frisian was spoken along the entire southern North Sea coast, and it is still the language most closely related to English among the living languages of continental Europe. By the seventh century a Frisian Kingdom (650–734) under King Aldegisel and King Redbad emerged with Traiectum (Utrecht) as its centre of power, while Dorestad was a flourishing trading place. Between 600 and around 719 the cities were often fought over between the Frisians and the Franks. In 734, at the Battle of the Boarn, the Frisians were defeated after a series of wars. With the approval of the Franks, the Anglo-Saxon missionary Willibrord converted the Frisian people to Christianity. He established the Archdiocese of Utrecht and became bishop of the Frisians. However, his successor Boniface was murdered by the Frisians in Dokkum, in 754.The Frankish Carolingian empire modelled itself on the Roman Empire and controlled much of Western Europe. However, in 843, it was divided into three parts—East, Middle, and West Francia. Most of present-day Netherlands became part of Middle Francia, which was a weak kingdom and subject of numerous partitions and annexation attempts by its stronger neighbours. It comprised territories from Frisia in the north to the Kingdom of Italy in the south. Around 850, Lothair I of Middle Francia acknowledged the Viking Rorik of Dorestad as ruler of most of Frisia. When the kingdom of Middle Francia was partitioned in 855, the lands north of the Alps passed to Lothair II and subsequently were named Lotharingia. After he died in 869, Lotharingia was partitioned, into Upper and Lower Lotharingia, the latter part comprising the Low Countries that technically became part of East Francia in 870, although it was effectively under the control of Vikings, who raided the largely defenceless Frisian and Frankish towns lying on the Frisian coast and along the rivers. Around 879, another Viking expedition led by Godfrid, Duke of Frisia, raided the Frisian lands. The Viking raids made the sway of French and German lords in the area weak. Resistance to the Vikings, if any, came from local nobles, who gained in stature as a result, and that laid the basis for the disintegration of Lower Lotharingia into semi-independent states. One of these local nobles was Gerolf of Holland, who assumed lordship in Frisia after he helped to assassinate Godfrid, and Viking rule came to an end.The Holy Roman Empire (the successor state of East Francia and then Lotharingia) ruled much of the Low Countries in the 10th and 11th century but was not able to maintain political unity. Powerful local nobles turned their cities, counties and duchies into private kingdoms that felt little sense of obligation to the emperor. Holland, Hainaut, Flanders, Gelre, Brabant, and Utrecht were in a state of almost continual war or in paradoxically formed personal unions. The language and culture of most of the people who lived in the County of Holland were originally Frisian. As Frankish settlement progressed from Flanders and Brabant, the area quickly became Old Low Franconian (or Old Dutch). The rest of Frisia in the north (now Friesland and Groningen) continued to maintain its independence and had its own institutions (collectively called the "Frisian freedom"), which resented the imposition of the feudal system.Around 1000 AD, due to several agricultural developments, the economy started to develop at a fast pace, and the higher productivity allowed workers to farm more land or to become tradesmen. Towns grew around monasteries and castles, and a mercantile middle class began to develop in these urban areas, especially in Flanders and later also Brabant. Wealthy cities started to buy certain privileges for themselves from the sovereign. In practice, this meant that Bruges and Antwerp became quasi-independent republics in their own right and would later develop into some of the most important cities and ports in Europe.Around 1100 AD, farmers from Flanders and Utrecht began draining and cultivating uninhabited swampy land in the western Netherlands, making the emergence of the County of Holland as the centre of power possible. The title of Count of Holland was fought over in the Hook and Cod Wars () between 1350 and 1490. The Cod faction consisted of the more progressive cities, while the Hook faction consisted of the conservative noblemen. These noblemen invited the Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy — who was also Count of Flanders — to conquer Holland.Most of the Imperial and French fiefs in what is now the Netherlands and Belgium were united in a personal union by Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, in 1433. The House of Valois-Burgundy and their Habsburg heirs would rule the Low Countries in the period from 1384 to 1581. Before the Burgundian union, the Dutch identified themselves by the town they lived in or their local duchy or county. The Burgundian period is when the road to nationhood began. The new rulers defended Dutch trading interests, which then developed rapidly. The fleets of the County of Holland defeated the fleets of the Hanseatic League several times. Amsterdam grew and in the 15th century became the primary trading port in Europe for grain from the Baltic region. Amsterdam distributed grain to the major cities of Belgium, Northern France and England. This trade was vital because Holland could no longer produce enough grain to feed itself. Land drainage had caused the peat of the former wetlands to reduce to a level that was too low for drainage to be maintained.Under Habsburg Charles V, ruler of the Holy Roman Empire and King of Spain, all fiefs in the current Netherlands region were united into the Seventeen Provinces, which also included most of present-day Belgium, Luxembourg, and some adjacent land in what is now France and Germany. In 1568, under Phillip II, the Eighty Years' War between the Provinces and their Spanish ruler began. The level of ferocity exhibited by both sides can be gleaned from a Dutch chronicler's report:The Duke of Alba ruthlessly attempted to suppress the Protestant movement in the Netherlands. Netherlanders were "burned, strangled, beheaded, or buried alive" by his "Blood Council" and his Spanish soldiers. Severed heads and decapitated corpses were displayed along streets and roads to terrorize the population into submission. Alba boasted of having executed 18,600, but this figure does not include those who perished by war and famine.The first great siege was Alba's effort to capture Haarlem and thereby cut Holland in half. It dragged on from December 1572 to the next summer, when Haarlemers finally surrendered on 13 July upon the promise that the city would be spared from being sacked. It was a stipulation Don Fadrique was unable to honour, when his soldiers mutinied, angered over pay owed and the miserable conditions they endured during the long, cold months of the campaign. On 4 November 1576, Spanish tercios seized Antwerp and subjected it to the worst pillage in the Netherlands' history. The citizens resisted, but were overcome; seven thousand of them were mowed down; a thousand buildings were torched; men, women, and children were slaughtered in a delirium of blood by soldiers crying, "Santiago! España! A sangre, a carne, a fuego, a sacco!" (Saint James! Spain! To blood, to the flesh, to fire, to sack!)Following the sack of Antwerp, delegates from Catholic Brabant, Protestant Holland and Zeeland agreed, at Ghent, to join Utrecht and William the Silent in driving out all Spanish troops and forming a new government for the Netherlands. Don Juan of Austria, the new Spanish governor, was forced to concede initially, but within months returned to active hostilities. As the fighting restarted, the Dutch began to look for help from the Queen of England, but she initially stood by her commitments to the Spanish in the Treaty of Bristol of 1574. The result was that when the next large-scale battle did occur at Gembloux in 1578, the Spanish forces easily won the day, killing at least 10,000 rebels, with the Spanish suffering few losses. In light of the defeat at Gembloux, the southern states of the Seventeen Provinces (today in northern France and Belgium) distanced themselves from the rebels in the north with the 1579 Union of Arras, which expressed their loyalty to Philip II of Spain. Opposing them, the northern half of the Seventeen Provinces forged the Union of Utrecht (also of 1579) in which they committed to support each other in their defence against the Spanish army. The Union of Utrecht is seen as the foundation of the modern Netherlands.Spanish troops sacked Maastricht in 1579, killing over 10,000 civilians and thereby ensuring the rebellion continued. In 1581, the northern provinces adopted the Act of Abjuration, the declaration of independence in which the provinces officially deposed Philip II as reigning monarch in the northern provinces. Against the rebels Philip could draw on the resources of Spain, Spanish America, Spanish Italy and the Spanish Netherlands. The Protestant Queen Elizabeth I of England sympathised with the Dutch struggle against the Spanish and sent an army of 7,600 soldiers to aid the Dutch in their war with the Catholic Spanish. English forces under the Earl of Leicester and then Lord Willoughby faced the Spanish in the Netherlands under the Duke of Parma in a series of largely indecisive actions that tied down significant numbers of Spanish troops and bought time for the Dutch to reorganise their defences. The war continued until 1648, when Spain under King Philip IV finally recognised the independence of the seven north-western provinces in the Peace of Münster. Parts of the southern provinces became "de facto" colonies of the new republican-mercantile empire.After declaring their independence, the provinces of Holland, Zeeland, Groningen, Friesland, Utrecht, Overijssel, and Gelderland formed a confederation. All these duchies, lordships and counties were autonomous and had their own government, the States-Provincial. The States General, the confederal government, were seated in The Hague and consisted of representatives from each of the seven provinces. The sparsely populated region of Drenthe was part of the republic too, although it was not considered one of the provinces. Moreover, the Republic had come to occupy during the Eighty Years' War a number of so-called Generality Lands in Flanders, Brabant and Limburg. Their population was mainly Roman Catholic, and these areas did not have a governmental structure of their own, and were used as a buffer zone between the Republic and the Spanish-controlled Southern Netherlands.In the Dutch Golden Age, spanning much of the 17th century, the Dutch Empire grew to become one of the major seafaring and economic powers, alongside Portugal, Spain, France and England. Science, military, and art (especially painting) were among the most acclaimed in the world. By 1650, the Dutch owned 16,000 merchant ships. The Dutch East India Company and the Dutch West India Company established colonies and trading posts all over the world, including ruling the northern parts of Taiwan between 1624–1662 and 1664–1667. The Dutch settlement in North America began with the founding of New Amsterdam on the southern part of Manhattan in 1614. In South Africa, the Dutch settled the Cape Colony in 1652. Dutch colonies in South America were established along the many rivers in the fertile Guyana plains, among them Colony of Surinam (now Suriname). In Asia, the Dutch established the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), and the only western trading post in Japan, Dejima.During the period of Proto-industrialization, the empire received 50% of textiles and 80% of silks import from the India's Mughal Empire, chiefly from its most developed region known as Bengal Subah.Many economic historians regard the Netherlands as the first thoroughly capitalist country in the world. In early modern Europe, it had the wealthiest trading city (Amsterdam) and the first full-time stock exchange. The inventiveness of the traders led to insurance and retirement funds as well as phenomena such as the boom-bust cycle, the world's first asset-inflation bubble, the tulip mania of 1636–1637, and the world's first bear raider, Isaac le Maire, who forced prices down by dumping stock and then buying it back at a discount. In 1672 – known in Dutch history as the Rampjaar (Disaster Year) – the Dutch Republic was at war with France, England and three German Bishoprics simultaneously. At sea, it could successfully prevent the English and French navy from entering the western shores. On land, however, it was almost taken over internally by the advancing French and German armies coming from the east. It managed to turn the tide by inundating parts of Holland but could never recover to its former glory again and went into a state of a general decline in the 18th century, with economic competition from England and long-standing rivalries between the two main factions in Dutch society, the republican "Staatsgezinden" and the supporters of the stadtholder the "Prinsgezinden" as main political factions.With the armed support of revolutionary France, Dutch republicans proclaimed the Batavian Republic, modelled after the French Republic and rendering the Netherlands a unitary state on 19 January 1795. The stadtholder William V of Orange had fled to England. But from 1806 to 1810, the Kingdom of Holland was set up by Napoleon Bonaparte as a puppet kingdom governed by his brother Louis Bonaparte to control the Netherlands more effectively. However, King Louis Bonaparte tried to serve Dutch interests instead of his brother's, and he was forced to abdicate on 1 July 1810. The Emperor sent in an army and the Netherlands became part of the French Empire until the autumn of 1813 when Napoleon was defeated in the Battle of Leipzig.William Frederick, son of the last stadtholder, returned to the Netherlands in 1813 and proclaimed himself Sovereign Prince of the Netherlands. Two years later, the Congress of Vienna added the southern Netherlands to the north to create a strong country on the northern border of France. William Frederick raised this United Netherlands to the status of a kingdom and proclaimed himself as King William I in 1815. In addition, William became hereditary Grand Duke of Luxembourg in exchange for his German possessions. However, the Southern Netherlands had been culturally separate from the north since 1581, and rebelled. The south gained independence in 1830 as Belgium (recognised by the Northern Netherlands in 1839 as the Kingdom of the Netherlands was created by decree), while the personal union between Luxembourg and the Netherlands was severed in 1890, when William III died with no surviving male heirs. Ascendancy laws prevented his daughter Queen Wilhelmina from becoming the next Grand Duchess.The Belgian Revolution at home and the Java War in the Dutch East Indies brought the Netherlands to the brink of bankruptcy. However, the Cultivation System was introduced in 1830; in the Dutch East Indies, 20% of village land had to be devoted to government crops for export. The policy brought the Dutch enormous wealth and made the colony self-sufficient.The Netherlands abolished slavery in its colonies in 1863. Slaves in Suriname would be fully free only in 1873, since the law stipulated that there was to be a mandatory 10-year transition.The Netherlands was able to remain neutral during World War I, in part because the import of goods through the Netherlands proved essential to German survival until the blockade by the British Royal Navy in 1916. That changed in World War II, when Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands on 10 May 1940. The Rotterdam Blitz forced the main element of the Dutch army to surrender four days later. During the occupation, over 100,000 Dutch Jews were rounded up and transported to Nazi extermination camps; only a few of them survived. Dutch workers were conscripted for forced labour in Germany, civilians who resisted were killed in reprisal for attacks on German soldiers, and the countryside was plundered for food. Although there were thousands of Dutch who risked their lives by hiding Jews from the Germans, over 20,000 Dutch fascists joined the Waffen SS, fighting on the Eastern Front. Political collaborators were members of the fascist NSB, the only legal political party in the occupied Netherlands. On 8 December 1941, the Dutch government-in-exile in London declared war on Japan, but could not prevent the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia). In 1944–45, the First Canadian Army, which included Canadian, British and Polish troops, was responsible for liberating much of the Netherlands. Soon after VE Day, the Dutch fought a colonial war against the new Republic of Indonesia.In 1954, the Charter for the Kingdom of the Netherlands reformed the political structure of the Netherlands, which was a result of international pressure to carry out decolonisation. The Dutch colonies of Surinam and Curaçao and Dependencies and the European country all became countries within the Kingdom, on a basis of equality. Indonesia had declared its independence in August 1945 (recognised in 1949), and thus was never part of the reformed Kingdom. Suriname followed in 1975. After the war, the Netherlands left behind an era of neutrality and gained closer ties with neighbouring states. The Netherlands was one of the founding members of the Benelux, the NATO, Euratom and the European Coal and Steel Community, which would evolve into the EEC (Common Market) and later the European Union.Government-encouraged emigration efforts to reduce population density prompted some 500,000 Dutch people to leave the country after the war. The 1960s and 1970s were a time of great social and cultural change, such as rapid de-pillarisation characterised by the decay of the old divisions along political and religious lines. Youths, and students in particular, rejected traditional mores and pushed for change in matters such as women's rights, sexuality, disarmament and environmental issues. In 2002 the euro was introduced as fiat money, and in 2010 the Netherlands Antilles was dissolved. Referendums were held on each island to determine their future status. As a result, the islands of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba (the BES islands) were to obtain closer ties with the Netherlands. This led to the incorporation of these three islands into the country of the Netherlands as "special municipalities" upon the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles. The special municipalities are collectively known as the Caribbean Netherlands.According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, the European Netherlands has a total area of , including water bodies; and a land area of . The Caribbean Netherlands has a total area of It lies between latitudes 50° and 54° N, and longitudes 3° and 8° E.The Netherlands is geographically very low relative to sea level and is considered a flat country, with about 26% of its area and 21% of its population located below sea level, and only about 50% of its land exceeding one metre above sea level. The European part of the country is for the most part flat, with the exception of foothills in the far southeast, up to a height of no more than 321 metres, and some low hill ranges in the central parts. Most of the areas below sea level are man-made, caused by peat extraction or achieved through land reclamation. Since the late 16th century, large polder areas are preserved through elaborate drainage systems that include dikes, canals and pumping stations. Nearly 17% of the country's land area is reclaimed from the sea and from lakes.Much of the country was originally formed by the estuaries of three large European rivers: the Rhine ("Rijn"), the Meuse ("Maas") and the Scheldt ("Schelde"), as well as their tributaries. The south-western part of the Netherlands is to this day a river delta of these three rivers, the Rhine-Meuse-Scheldt delta.The European Netherlands is divided into north and south parts by the Rhine, the Waal, its main tributary branch, and the Meuse. In the past, these rivers functioned as a natural barrier between fiefdoms and hence historically created a cultural divide, as is evident in some phonetic traits that are recognisable on either side of what the Dutch call their "Great Rivers" ("de Grote Rivieren"). Another significant branch of the Rhine, the IJssel river, discharges into Lake IJssel, the former Zuiderzee ('southern sea'). Just like the previous, this river forms a linguistic divide: people to the northeast of this river speak Dutch Low Saxon dialects (except for the province of Friesland, which has its own language).The modern Netherlands formed as a result of the interplay of the four main rivers (Rhine, Meuse, Schelde and IJssel) and the influence of the North Sea. The Netherlands is mostly composed of deltaic, coastal and eolian derived sediments during the Pleistocene glacial and interglacial periods.Almost the entire west Netherlands is composed of the Rhine-Meuse river estuary, but human intervention greatly modified the natural processes at work. Most of the western Netherlands is below sea level due to the human process of turning standing bodies of water into usable land, a polder.In the east of the Netherlands, remains are found of the last ice age, which ended approximately ten thousand years ago. As the continental ice sheet moved in from the north, it pushed moraine forward. The ice sheet halted as it covered the eastern half of the Netherlands. After the ice age ended, the moraine remained in the form of a long hill-line. The cities of Arnhem and Nijmegen are built upon these hills.Over the centuries, the Dutch coastline has changed considerably as a result of natural disasters and human intervention.On 14 December 1287, St. Lucia's flood affected the Netherlands and Germany, killing more than 50,000 people in one of the most destructive floods in recorded history. The St. Elizabeth flood of 1421 and the mismanagement in its aftermath destroyed a newly reclaimed polder, replacing it with the "Biesbosch" tidal floodplains in the south-centre. The huge North Sea flood of early February 1953 caused the collapse of several dikes in the south-west of the Netherlands; more than 1,800 people drowned in the flood. The Dutch government subsequently instituted a large-scale programme, the "Delta Works", to protect the country against future flooding, which was completed over a period of more than thirty years.The impact of disasters was, to an extent, increased through human activity. Relatively high-lying swampland was drained to be used as farmland. The drainage caused the fertile peat to contract and ground levels to drop, upon which groundwater levels were lowered to compensate for the drop in ground level, causing the underlying peat to contract further. Additionally, until the 19th-century peat was mined, dried, and used for fuel, further exacerbating the problem. Centuries of extensive and poorly controlled peat extraction lowered an already low land surface by several metres. Even in flooded areas, peat extraction continued through turf dredging.Because of the flooding, farming was difficult, which encouraged foreign trade, the result of which was that the Dutch were involved in world affairs since the early 14th/15th century.To guard against floods, a series of defences against the water were contrived. In the first millennium AD, villages and farmhouses were built on man-made hills called "terps". Later, these terps were connected by dikes. In the 12th century, local government agencies called ""waterschappen"" ("water boards") or ""hoogheemraadschappen"" ("high home councils") started to appear, whose job it was to maintain the water level and to protect a region from floods; these agencies continue to exist. As the ground level dropped, the dikes by necessity grew and merged into an integrated system. By the 13th century windmills had come into use to pump water out of areas below sea level. The windmills were later used to drain lakes, creating the famous polders.In 1932 the "Afsluitdijk" ("Closure Dike") was completed, blocking the former "Zuiderzee" (Southern Sea) from the North Sea and thus creating the IJsselmeer (IJssel Lake). It became part of the larger Zuiderzee Works in which four polders totalling were reclaimed from the sea.The Netherlands is one of the countries that may suffer most from climate change. Not only is the rising sea a problem, but erratic weather patterns may cause the rivers to overflow.After the 1953 disaster, the Delta Works was constructed, which is a comprehensive set of civil works throughout the Dutch coast. The project started in 1958 and was largely completed in 1997 with the completion of the Maeslantkering. Since then, new projects have been periodically started to renovate and renew the Delta Works. The main goal of the Delta project was to reduce the risk of flooding in South Holland and Zeeland to once per 10,000 years (compared to once per 4000 years for the rest of the country). This was achieved by raising of outer sea-dikes and of the inner, canal, and river dikes, and by closing off the sea estuaries of the Zeeland province. New risk assessments occasionally show problems requiring additional Delta project dike reinforcements. The Delta project is considered by the American Society of Civil Engineers as one of the seven wonders of the modern world.It is anticipated that global warming in the 21st century will result in a rise in sea level. The Netherlands is actively preparing for a sea-level rise. A politically neutral Delta Commission has formulated an action plan to cope with a sea-level rise of and a simultaneous land height decline of . The plan encompasses the reinforcement of the existing coastal defences like dikes and dunes with of additional flood protection. Climate change will not only threaten the Netherlands from the seaside but could also alter rainfall patterns and river run-off. To protect the country from river flooding, another programme is already being executed. The Room for the River plan grants more flow space to rivers, protects the major populated areas and allows for periodic flooding of indefensible lands. The few residents who lived in these so-called "overflow areas" have been moved to higher ground, with some of that ground having been raised above anticipated flood levels.The predominant wind direction in the European Netherlands is southwest, which causes a mild maritime climate, with moderately warm summers and cool winters, and typically high humidity. This is especially true close to the Dutch coastline, where the difference in temperature between summer and winter, as well as between day and night is noticeably smaller than it is in the southeast of the country.Ice days—maximum temperature below —usually occur from December until February, with the occasional rare ice day prior to or after that period. Freezing days—minimum temperature below —occur much more often, usually ranging from mid-November to late March, but not rarely measured as early as mid-October and as late as mid-May. If one chooses the height of measurement to be above ground instead of , one may even find such temperatures in the middle of the summer. On average, snow can occur from November to April but sometimes occurs in May or October too.Warm days—maximum temperature above —are usually found in April to October, but in some parts of the country these warm days can also occur in March, or even sometimes in November or February (usually not in , however). Summer days—maximum temperature above —are usually measured in from May until September, tropical days—maximum temperature above —are rare and usually occur only in June to August.Precipitation throughout the year is distributed relatively equally each month. Summer and autumn months tend to gather a little more precipitation than the other months, mainly because of the intensity of the rainfall rather than the frequency of rain days (this is especially the case in summer when lightning is also much more frequent).The number of sunshine hours is affected by the fact that because of the geographical latitude, the length of the days varies between barely eight hours in December and nearly 17 hours in June.The following table are based on mean measurements by the KNMI weather station in De Bilt between 1991 and 2020. The highest recorded temperature was reached on 25 July 2019 in Gilze-Rijen.The Netherlands has 20 national parks and hundreds of other nature reserves, that include lakes, heathland, woods, dunes, and other habitats. Most of these are owned by Staatsbosbeheer, the national department for forestry and nature conservation and Natuurmonumenten (literally 'Natures monuments'), a private organisation that buys, protects and manages nature reserves. The Dutch part of the Wadden Sea in the north, with its tidal flats and wetlands, is rich in biological diversity, and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Nature Site in 2009.The Oosterschelde, formerly the northeast estuary of the river Scheldt was designated a national park in 2002, thereby making it the largest national park in the Netherlands at an area of . It consists primarily of the salt waters of the Oosterschelde but also includes mudflats, meadows, and shoals. Because of the large variety of sea life, including unique regional species, the park is popular with Scuba divers. Other activities include sailing, fishing, cycling, and bird watching.Phytogeographically, the European Netherlands is shared between the Atlantic European and Central European provinces of the Circumboreal Region within the Boreal Kingdom. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, the European territory of the Netherlands belongs to the ecoregion of Atlantic mixed forests. In 1871, the last old original natural woods were cut down, and most woods today are planted monocultures of trees like Scots pine and trees that are not native to the Netherlands. These woods were planted on anthropogenic heaths and sand-drifts (overgrazed heaths) (Veluwe). The Netherlands had a 2019 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 0.6/10, ranking it 169th globally out of 172 countries.While Curaçao, Aruba and Sint Maarten have a constituent country status, the Caribbean Netherlands are three islands designated as special municipalities of the Netherlands. The islands are part of the Lesser Antilles and have land borders with France (Saint Martin) and maritime borders with Anguilla, Curaçao, France (Saint Barthélemy), Saint Kitts and Nevis, Sint Maarten, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Venezuela.Within this island group:The islands of the Caribbean Netherlands enjoy a tropical climate with warm weather all year round. The Leeward Antilles are warmer and drier than the Windward islands. In summer, the Windward Islands can be subject to hurricanes.The Netherlands has been a constitutional monarchy since 1815, and due to the efforts of Johan Rudolph Thorbecke became a parliamentary democracy in 1848. The Netherlands is described as a consociational state. Dutch politics and governance are characterised by an effort to achieve broad consensus on important issues, within both the political community and society as a whole. In 2017, "The Economist" ranked the Netherlands as the 11th most democratic country in the world.The monarch is the head of state, at present King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands. Constitutionally, the position is equipped with limited powers. By law, the King has the right to be periodically briefed and consulted on government affairs. Depending on the personalities and relationships of the King and the ministers, the monarch might have influence beyond the power granted by the Constitution of the Netherlands.The executive power is formed by the Council of Ministers, the deliberative organ of the Dutch cabinet. The cabinet usually consists of 13 to 16 ministers and a varying number of state secretaries. One to three ministers are ministers without portfolio. The head of government is the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, who often is the leader of the largest party of the coalition. The Prime Minister is a "primus inter pares", with no explicit powers beyond those of the other ministers. Mark Rutte has been Prime Minister since October 2010; the Prime Minister had been the leader of the largest party of the governing coalition continuously since 1973.The cabinet is responsible to the bicameral parliament, the States General, which also has legislative powers. The 150 members of the House of Representatives, the lower house, are elected in direct elections on the basis of party-list proportional representation. These are held every four years, or sooner in case the cabinet falls (for example: when one of the chambers carries a motion of no confidence, the cabinet offers its resignation to the monarch). The States-Provincial are directly elected every four years as well. The members of the provincial assemblies elect the 75 members of the Senate, the upper house, which has the power to reject laws, but not propose or amend them. Both houses send members to the Benelux Parliament, a consultative council.Both trade unions and employers organisations are consulted beforehand in policymaking in the financial, economic and social areas. They meet regularly with the government in the Social-Economic Council. This body advises government and its advice cannot be put aside easily.The Netherlands has a long tradition of social tolerance. In the 18th century, while the Dutch Reformed Church was the state religion, Catholicism, other forms of Protestantism, such as Baptists and Lutherans, as well as Judaism were tolerated but discriminated against.In the late 19th century this Dutch tradition of religious tolerance transformed into a system of pillarisation, in which religious groups coexisted separately and only interacted at the level of government. This tradition of tolerance influences Dutch criminal justice policies on recreational drugs, prostitution, LGBT rights, euthanasia, and abortion, which are among the most liberal in the world.Because of the multi-party system, no single party has held a majority in parliament since the 19th century, as a result, coalition cabinets had to be formed. Since suffrage became universal in 1917, the Dutch political system has been dominated by three families of political parties: the strongest of which were the Christian Democrats, currently represented by the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA); second were the Social Democrats, represented by the Labour Party (PvdA); and third were the Liberals, of which the right-wing People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) is the main representative.These parties co-operated in coalition cabinets in which the Christian Democrats had always been a partner: so either a centre-left coalition of the Christian Democrats and Social Democrats was ruling or a centre-right coalition of Christian Democrats and Liberals. In the 1970s, the party system became more volatile: the Christian Democratic parties lost seats, while new parties became successful, such as the radical democrat and progressive liberal Democrats 66 (D66) or the ecologist party GroenLinks (GL).In the 1994 election, the CDA lost its dominant position. A "purple" cabinet was formed by the VVD, D66, and PvdA. In the 2002 elections, this cabinet lost its majority, because of an increased support for the CDA and the rise of the right-wing LPF, a new political party, around Pim Fortuyn, who was assassinated a week before the elections. A short-lived cabinet was formed by CDA, VVD, and LPF, which was led by the CDA Leader Jan Peter Balkenende. After the 2003 elections, in which the LPF lost most of its seats, a cabinet was formed by the CDA, VVD, and D66. The cabinet initiated an ambitious programme of reforming the welfare state, the healthcare system, and immigration policy.In June 2006, the cabinet fell after D66 voted in favour of a motion of no confidence against the Minister of Immigration and Integration, Rita Verdonk, who had instigated an investigation of the asylum procedure of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a VVD MP. A caretaker cabinet was formed by the CDA and VVD, and general elections were held on 22 November 2006. In these elections, the CDA remained the largest party and the Socialist Party made the largest gains. The formation of a new cabinet took three months, resulting in a coalition of CDA, PvdA, and Christian Union.On 20 February 2010, the cabinet fell when the PvdA refused to prolong the involvement of the Dutch Army in Uruzgan, Afghanistan. Snap elections were held on 9 June 2010, with devastating results for the previously largest party, the CDA, which lost about half of its seats, resulting in 21 seats. The VVD became the largest party with 31 seats, closely followed by the PvdA with 30 seats. The big winner of the 2010 elections was Geert Wilders, whose right wing PVV, the ideological successor to the LPF, more than doubled its number of seats. Negotiation talks for a new government resulted in a minority government, led by VVD (a first) in coalition with CDA, which was sworn in on 14 October 2010. This unprecedented minority government was supported by PVV, but proved ultimately to be unstable, when on 21 April 2012, Wilders, leader of PVV, unexpectedly 'torpedoed seven weeks of austerity talks' on new austerity measures, paving the way for early elections.VVD and PvdA won a majority in the House of Representatives during the 2012 general election. On 5 November 2012 they formed the second Rutte cabinet. After the 2017 general election, VVD, Christian Democratic Appeal, Democrats 66 and ChristenUnie formed the third Rutte cabinet. This cabinet resigned in January 2021, two months before the general election, after a child welfare fraud scandal. In March 2021, centre-right VVD of Prime Minister Mark Rutte was the winner of the elections, securing 35 out of 150 seats. The second biggest party was the centre-left D66 with 24 seats. Geert Wilders' far-right party lost its support. Prime Minister Mark Rutte, in power since 2010, formed his fourth coalition government.The Netherlands is divided into twelve provinces, each under a King's Commissioner ("Commissaris van de Koning"). Informally in Limburg province this position is named Governor ("Gouverneur"). All provinces are divided into municipalities ("gemeenten"), of which there are 355 (2019).The country is also subdivided into 21 water districts, governed by a water board ("waterschap" or "hoogheemraadschap"), each having authority in matters concerning water management. The creation of water boards actually pre-dates that of the nation itself, the first appearing in 1196. The Dutch water boards are among the oldest democratic entities in the world still in existence. Direct elections of the water boards take place every four years.The administrative structure on the three BES islands, collectively known as the Caribbean Netherlands, is outside the twelve provinces. These islands have the status of "openbare lichamen (public bodies)". In the Netherlands these administrative units are often referred to as "special municipalities".The Netherlands has several Belgian exclaves and within those even several enclaves which are part of the province of North Brabant. Because the Netherlands and Belgium are both in the Benelux, and more recently in the Schengen Area, citizens of respective countries can travel through these enclaves without controls.The history of Dutch foreign policy has been characterised by its neutrality. Since World War II, the Netherlands has become a member of a large number of international organisations, most prominently the UN, NATO and the EU. The Dutch economy is very open and relies strongly on international trade.The foreign policy of the Netherlands is based on four basic commitments: to Atlantic co-operation, to European integration, to international development and to international law. One of the more controversial international issues surrounding the Netherlands is its liberal policy towards soft drugs.During and after the Dutch Golden Age, the Dutch people built up a commercial and colonial empire. The most important colonies were present-day Suriname and Indonesia. Indonesia became independent after the Indonesian National Revolution in the 1940s following a war of independence, international pressure and several United Nations Security Council resolutions. Suriname became independent in 1975. The historical ties inherited from its colonial past still influence the foreign relations of the Netherlands. In addition, many people from these countries are living permanently in the Netherlands.The Netherlands has one of the oldest standing armies in Europe; it was first established as such by Maurice of Nassau in the late 1500s. The Dutch army was used throughout the Dutch Empire. After the defeat of Napoleon, the Dutch army was transformed into a conscription army. The army was unsuccessfully deployed during the Belgian Revolution in 1830. After 1830, it was deployed mainly in the Dutch colonies, as the Netherlands remained neutral in European wars (including the First World War), until the Netherlands was invaded in World War II and defeated by the Wehrmacht in May 1940.The Netherlands abandoned its neutrality in 1948 when it signed the Treaty of Brussels, and became a founding member of NATO in 1949. The Dutch military was therefore part of the NATO strength in Cold War Europe, deploying its army to several bases in Germany. More than 3,000 Dutch soldiers were assigned to the 2nd Infantry Division of the United States Army during the Korean War. In 1996 conscription was suspended, and the Dutch army was once again transformed into a professional army. Since the 1990s the Dutch army has been involved in the Bosnian War and the Kosovo War, it held a province in Iraq after the defeat of Saddam Hussein, and it was engaged in Afghanistan.The military is composed of four branches, all of which carry the prefix "Koninklijke" (Royal):The submarine service opened to women on 1 January 2017. The Korps Commandotroepen, the Special Operations Force of the Netherlands Army, is open to women, but because of the extremely high physical demands for initial training, it is almost impossible for a woman to become a commando. The Dutch Ministry of Defence employs more than 70,000 personnel, including over 20,000 civilians and over 50,000 military personnel. In April 2011 the government announced a major reduction in its military because of a cut in government expenditure, including a decrease in the number of tanks, fighter aircraft, naval ships and senior officials.The Netherlands has ratified many international conventions concerning war law. The Netherlands decided not to sign the UN treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.The Netherlands has a developed economy and has been playing a special role in the European economy for many centuries. Since the 16th century, shipping, fishing, agriculture, trade, and banking have been leading sectors of the Dutch economy. The Netherlands has a high level of economic freedom. The Netherlands is one of the top countries in the Global Enabling Trade Report (2nd in 2016), and was ranked the fifth most competitive economy in the world by the Swiss International Institute for Management Development in 2017. In addition, the country was ranked the second most innovative nation in the world in the 2018 Global Innovation Index., the key trading partners of the Netherlands were Germany, Belgium, the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Italy, China and Russia. The Netherlands is one of the world's 10 leading exporting countries. Foodstuffs form the largest industrial sector. Other major industries include chemicals, metallurgy, machinery, electrical goods, trade, services and tourism. Examples of international Dutch companies operating in Netherlands include Randstad, Unilever, Heineken, KLM, financial services (ING, ABN AMRO, Rabobank), chemicals (DSM, AKZO), petroleum refining (Royal Dutch Shell), electronical machinery (Philips, ASML), and satellite navigation (TomTom).The Netherlands has the 17th-largest economy in the world, and ranks 11th in GDP (nominal) per capita. Between 1997 and 2000 annual economic growth (GDP) averaged nearly 4%, well above the European average. Growth slowed considerably from 2001 to 2005 with the global economic slowdown, but accelerated to 4.1% in the third quarter of 2007. In May 2013, inflation was at 2.8% per year. In April 2013, unemployment was at 8.2% (or 6.7% following the ILO definition) of the labour force. In February 2019, this was reduced to 3.4%.In Q3 and Q4 2011, the Dutch economy contracted by 0.4% and 0.7%, respectively, because of European Debt Crisis, while in Q4 the Eurozone economy shrunk by 0.3%. The Netherlands also has a relatively low GINI coefficient of 0.326. Despite ranking 11th in GDP per capita, UNICEF ranked the Netherlands 1st in child well-being in rich countries, both in 2007 and in 2013. On the Index of Economic Freedom Netherlands is the 14th most free market capitalist economy out of 180 surveyed countries.Amsterdam is the financial and business capital of the Netherlands. The Amsterdam Stock Exchange (AEX), part of Euronext, is the world's oldest stock exchange and is one of Europe's largest bourses. It is situated near Dam Square in the city's centre. As a founding member of the euro, the Netherlands replaced (for accounting purposes) its former currency, the "gulden" (guilder), on 1 January 1999, along with 15 other adopters of the euro. Actual euro coins and banknotes followed on 1 January 2002. One euro was equivalent to 2.20371 Dutch guilders. In the Caribbean Netherlands, the United States dollar is used instead of the euro.The Dutch location gives it prime access to markets in the UK and Germany, with the Port of Rotterdam being the largest port in Europe. Other important parts of the economy are international trade (Dutch colonialism started with co-operative private enterprises such as the Dutch East India Company), banking and transport. The Netherlands successfully addressed the issue of public finances and stagnating job growth long before its European partners. Amsterdam is the 5th-busiest tourist destination in Europe with more than 4.2 million international visitors. Since the enlargement of the EU large numbers of migrant workers have arrived in the Netherlands from Central and Eastern Europe.The Netherlands continues to be one of the leading European nations for attracting foreign direct investment and is one of the five largest investors in the United States. The economy experienced a slowdown in 2005, but in 2006 recovered to the fastest pace in six years on the back of increased exports and strong investment. The pace of job growth reached 10-year highs in 2007. The Netherlands is the fourth-most competitive economy in the world, according to the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report.Beginning in the 1950s, the Netherlands discovered huge natural gas resources. The sale of natural gas generated enormous revenues for the Netherlands for decades, adding hundreds of billions of euros to the government's budget. However, the unforeseen consequences of the country's huge energy wealth impacted the competitiveness of other sectors of the economy, leading to the theory of Dutch disease.Apart from coal and gas, the country has no mining resources. The last coal mine was closed in 1974. The Groningen gas field, one of the largest natural-gas fields in the world, is situated near Slochteren. The exploitation of this field has resulted in €159 billion in revenue since the mid-1970s. The field is operated by government-owned Gasunie and output is jointly exploited by the government, Royal Dutch Shell, and Exxon Mobil through NAM (Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij). "Gas extraction has resulted in increasingly strong earth tremors, some measuring as much as 3.6 on the Richter magnitude scale. The cost of damage repairs, structural improvements to buildings, and compensation for home value decreases has been estimated at €6.5 billion. Around 35,000 homes are said to be affected." The Netherlands has an estimated 25% of natural gas reserves in the EU. The energy sector accounted for almost 11% of the GDP in 2014. Netherlands' economy, mainly due to the large shares of natural gas reserves, is considered to have "very high" energy intensity rating.The Netherlands is faced with future challenges as the energy supply is forecasted to fall short of the demand by the year 2025 in the gas sector. This is attributed to the depletion of the Netherlands' major gas field, Groningen, and the earthquakes that have hit the Groningen region. In addition, there is ambiguity surrounding the feasibility of producing unconventional gas. The Netherlands relies heavily on natural gas to provide energy. Gas is the main source of heating for households in the Netherlands and represented 35% of the energy mix in 2014. Furthermore, The European Union 2020 package (20% reduction in GHG emissions, 20% renewables in the energy mix and 20% improvement in energy efficiency) enacted in 2009 has influenced the domestic energy politics of Netherlands and pressured non-state actors to give consent to more aggressive energy reforms that would reduce reliance on natural resources as a source of income to the economy. Therefore, a transition towards renewable energy has been a key objective by Netherlands in order to safeguard the energy security of the country from natural resources depletion, mainly gas. Netherlands has set a 14% renewable energy target of the total energy mix by the year 2020. However, the continuation of providing tax breaks to electricity generated by coal and gas, and to the exploration and extraction of gas from fields that are "insufficiently" profitable, renders a successful transition towards renewable energy more difficult to achieve due to inconsistencies in the policy mix. In 2011, it was estimated that the renewable energy sector received 31% (EUR 743MM), while the conventional energy sector received 69% (EUR 1.6B), of the total energy subsidies by the government. Furthermore, the energy market in the Netherlands remains to be dominated by few major corporations Nuon, RWE, E.ON, Eneco, and Delta that have significant influence over the energy policy. Renewable energy share in the energy mix is estimated to reach 12.4% by the year 2020, falling 1.6% short of the 14% target.From a biological resource perspective, the Netherlands has a low endowment: the Netherlands’ biocapacity adds up to only 0.8 global hectares in 2016, 0.2 of which are dedicated to agriculture. The Dutch biocapacity per person is just about half of the 1.6 global hectares of biocapacity per person available worldwide. In contrast, in 2016, the Dutch used on average 4.8 global hectares of biocapacity - their ecological footprint of consumption. This means the Dutch required nearly six times as much biocapacity as the Netherlands contains. As a result, the Netherlands was running a biocapacity deficit of 4.0 global hectares per person in 2016.The Dutch agricultural sector is highly mechanised, and has a strong focus on international exports. It employs about 4% of the Dutch labour force but produces large surpluses in the food-processing industry and accounts for 21% of the Dutch total export value. The Dutch rank first in the European Union and second worldwide in value of agricultural exports, behind only the United States, with agricultural exports earning €80.7 billion in 2014, up from €75.4 billion in 2012. In 2019 agricultural exports were worth €94.5 billion.One-third of the world's exports of chilis, tomatoes, and cucumbers goes through the country. The Netherlands also exports one-fifteenth of the world's apples.Aside from that, a significant portion of Dutch agricultural exports consists of fresh-cut plants, flowers, and flower bulbs, with the Netherlands exporting two-thirds of the world's total.The Netherlands had an estimated population of 17,493,969 as of 30 April 2021. It is the 5th most densely populated country in Europe, and except for the very small city-states like Monaco, Vatican City and San Marino it is the most densely populated country in Europe. And it is the 16th most densely populated country in the world with a density of . It is the 67th most populous country in the world. Between 1900 and 1950, the country's population almost doubled from 5.1 to 10 million. From 1950 to 2000, the population further increased, to 15.9 million, though this represented a lower rate of population growth. The estimated growth rate is 0.44%.The fertility rate in the Netherlands is 1.78 children per woman (2018 estimate), which is high compared with many other European countries, but below the rate of 2.1 children per woman required for natural population replacement, it remains considerably below the high of 5.39 children born per woman in 1879. Netherlands subsequently has one of the oldest populations in the world, with the average age of 42.7 years. Life expectancy is high in the Netherlands: 84.3 years for newborn girls and 79.7 for boys (2020 estimate). The country has a migration rate of 1.9 migrants per 1,000 inhabitants per year. The majority of the population of the Netherlands is ethnically Dutch. According to a 2005 estimate, the population was 80.9% Dutch, 2.4% Indonesian, 2.4% German, 2.2% Turkish, 2.0% Surinamese, 1.9% Moroccan, 0.8% Antillean and Aruban, and 7.4% others. Some 150,000 to 200,000 people living in the Netherlands are expatriates, mostly concentrated in and around Amsterdam and The Hague, now constituting almost 10% of the population of these cities.The Dutch are the tallest people in the world, by nationality, with an average height of for adult males and for adult females in 2009. People in the south are on average about shorter than those in the north.According to Eurostat, in 2010 there were 1.8 million foreign-born residents in the Netherlands, corresponding to 11.1% of the total population. Of these, 1.4 million (8.5%) were born outside the EU and 0.43 million (2.6%) were born in another EU Member State. On 21 November 2016, there were 3.8 million residents in the Netherlands with at least one foreign-born parent ("migration background"). Over half the young people in Amsterdam and Rotterdam have a non-western background. Dutch people, or descendants of Dutch people, are also found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in Canada, Australia, South Africa and the United States. According to the United States Census Bureau (2006), more than 5 million Americans claim total or partial Dutch ancestry. There are close to 3 million Dutch-descended Afrikaners living in South Africa. In 1940, there were 290,000 Europeans and Eurasians in Indonesia, but most have since left the country.The Randstad is the country's largest conurbation located in the west of the country and contains the four largest cities: Amsterdam in the province North Holland, Rotterdam and The Hague in the province South Holland, and Utrecht in the province Utrecht. The Randstad has a population of about 8.2 million inhabitants and is the 5th largest metropolitan area in Europe. According to Dutch Central Statistics Bureau, in 2015, 28 per cent of the Dutch population had a spendable income above 45,000 euros (which does not include spending on health care or education).The official language is Dutch, which is spoken by the vast majority of the inhabitants. Besides Dutch, West Frisian is recognised as a second official language in the northern province of Friesland ("Fryslân" in West Frisian). West Frisian has a formal status for government correspondence in that province. In the European part of the kingdom two other regional languages are recognised under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.The first of these recognised regional languages is Low Saxon ("Nedersaksisch" in Dutch). Low Saxon consists of several dialects spoken in the north and east, like Tweants in the region of Twente, and Drents in the province of Drenthe. Secondly, Limburgish is also recognised as a regional language. It consists of Dutch varieties of Meuse-Rhenish Franconian languages and is spoken in the south-eastern province of Limburg. The dialects most spoken in the Netherlands are the Brabantian-Hollandic dialects.Ripuarian language, which is spoken in Kerkrade and Vaals in the form of, respectively, the Kerkrade dialect and the Vaals dialect are legally treated as Limburgish as well - see Southeast Limburgish dialect.English has a formal status in the special municipalities of Saba and Sint Eustatius. It is widely spoken on these islands. Papiamento has a formal status in the special municipality of Bonaire. Yiddish and the Romani language were recognised in 1996 as non-territorial languages. The Netherlands has a tradition of learning foreign languages, formalised in Dutch education laws. Some 90% of the total population indicate they are able to converse in English, 70% in German, and 29% in French. English is a mandatory course in all secondary schools. In most lower level secondary school educations ("vmbo"), one additional modern foreign language is mandatory during the first two years.In higher level secondary schools (HAVO and VWO), the acquisition of two additional modern foreign language skills is mandatory during the first three years. Only during the last three years in VWO one foreign language is mandatory. Besides English, the standard modern languages are French and German, although schools can replace one of these modern languages with Chinese, Spanish, Russian, Italian, Turkish or Arabic. Additionally, schools in Friesland teach and have exams in West Frisian, and schools across the country teach and have exams in Ancient Greek and Latin for secondary school (called Gymnasium or VWO+).The population of the Netherlands was predominantly Christian until the late 20th century, divided into a number of denominations. Although significant religious diversity remains, there has been a decline of religious adherence. The Netherlands is now one of the most secular societies in the world.In 2019, Statistics Netherlands found that 54.1% of the total population declared itself to be non-religious. Groups that represent the non-religious in the Netherlands include Humanistisch Verbond. Roman Catholics comprised 20.1% of the total population, Protestants (14.8%). Muslims comprised 5.0% of the total population and followers of other Christian denominations and other religions (like Judaism, Buddhism and Hinduism) comprised the remaining 5.9%. A 2015 survey from another source found that Protestants outnumbered Catholics.The southern provinces of North Brabant and Limburg have historically been strongly Roman Catholic, and some residents consider the Catholic Church as a base for their cultural identity. Protestantism in the Netherlands consists of a number of churches within various traditions. The largest of these is the Protestant Church in the Netherlands (PKN), a United church which is Reformed and Lutheran in orientation. It was formed in 2004 as a merger of the Dutch Reformed Church, the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands and a smaller Lutheran Church. Several orthodox Reformed and liberal churches did not merge into the PKN. Although in the Netherlands as a whole Christianity has become a minority, the Netherlands contains a Bible Belt from Zeeland to the northern parts of the province Overijssel, in which Protestant (particularly Reformed) beliefs remain strong, and even has majorities in municipal councils.Islam is the second largest religion in the state. In 2012, there were about 825,000 Muslims in the Netherlands (5% of the population). The Muslim population increased from the 1960 as a result of large numbers of migrant workers. This included migrant workers from Turkey and Morocco, as well as migrants from former Dutch colonies, such as Surinam and Indonesia. During the 1990s, Muslim refugees arrived from countries like Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iran, Iraq, Somalia, and Afghanistan.Another religion practised is Hinduism, with around 215,000 adherents (slightly over 1% of the population). Most of these are Indo-Surinamese. There are also sizable populations of Hindu immigrants from India and Sri Lanka, and some Western adherents of Hinduism-oriented new religious movements such as Hare Krishnas. The Netherlands has an estimated 250,000 Buddhists or people strongly attracted to this religion, mainly ethnic Dutch people. In addition, there are about 45,000 Jews in the Netherlands.The Constitution of the Netherlands guarantees freedom of education, which means that all schools that adhere to general quality criteria receive the same government funding. This includes schools based on religious principles by religious groups (especially Roman Catholic and various Protestant). Three political parties in the Dutch parliament, (CDA, and two small parties, ChristianUnion and SGP) are based upon the Christian belief. Several Christian religious holidays are national holidays (Christmas, Easter, Pentecost and the Ascension of Jesus).Upon the country's independence, Protestants were predominant in most of the country, while Roman Catholics were dominant in the south, especially North Brabant and Limburg. In the late 19th century, secularism, atheism and pillarisation gained adherents. By 1960, Roman Catholics equalled Protestants in number; thereafter, both Christian branches began to decline. Conversely, Islam grew considerably as the result of immigration. Since 2000 there has been raised awareness of religion, mainly due to Muslim extremism.The Dutch royal family has been traditionally associated with Calvinism, specifically the Dutch Reformed Church, which has merged into the Protestant Church in the Netherlands. The Dutch Reformed Church was the only major Protestant church in the Netherlands from the Reformation until the 19th century. Denominational splits in 1834 and in 1886 diversified Dutch Calvinism. In 2013, a Roman Catholic became Queen consort.A survey in December 2014 concluded that for the first time there were more atheists (25%) than theists (17%) in the Netherlands, while the remainder of the population was agnostic (31%) or ietsistic (27%). In 2015, a vast majority of the inhabitants of the Netherlands (82%) said they had never or almost never visited a church, and 59% stated that they had never been to a church of any kind. Of all the people questioned, 24% saw themselves as atheist, an increase of 11% compared to the previous study done in 2006. The expected rise of spirituality (ietsism) has come to a halt according to research in 2015. In 2006, 40% of respondents considered themselves spiritual; in 2015 this has dropped to 31%. The number who believed in the existence of a higher power fell from 36% to 28% over the same period.Education in the Netherlands is compulsory between the ages of 5 and 16. If a child does not have a "starting qualification" (HAVO, VWO or MBO 2+ degree) they are still forced to attend classes until they achieve such a qualification or reach the age of 18.All children in the Netherlands usually attend elementary school from (on average) ages 4 to 12. It comprises eight grades, the first of which is facultative. Based on an aptitude test, the eighth grade teacher's recommendation and the opinion of the pupil's parents or caretakers, a choice is made for one of the three main streams of secondary education. After completing a particular stream, a pupil may still continue in the penultimate year of the next stream.The VMBO has four grades and is subdivided over several levels. Successfully completing the VMBO results in a low-level vocational degree that grants access to the MBO. The MBO (middle-level applied education) is a form of education that primarily focuses on teaching a practical trade or a vocational degree. With the MBO certification, a student can apply for the HBO. The HAVO has 5 grades and allows for admission to the HBO. The HBO (higher professional education) are universities of professional education (applied sciences) that award professional bachelor's degrees; similar to polytechnic degrees. An HBO degree gives access to the university system. The VWO (comprising atheneum and gymnasium) has 6 grades and prepares for studying at a research university. Universities offer a three-year bachelor's degree, followed by a one or two-year master's degree, which in turn can be followed by a four or five-year doctoral degree programme.Doctoral candidates in the Netherlands are generally non-tenured employees of a university. All Dutch schools and universities are publicly funded and managed with the exception of religious schools that are publicly funded but not managed by the state even though requirements are necessary for the funding to be authorised. Dutch universities have a tuition fee of about 2,000 euros a year for students from the Netherlands and the European Union. The amount is about 10,000 euros for non-EU students.In 2016, the Netherlands maintained its number one position at the top of the annual Euro health consumer index (EHCI), which compares healthcare systems in Europe, scoring 916 of a maximum 1,000 points. The Netherlands has been among the top three countries in each report published since 2005. On 48 indicators such as patient rights and information, accessibility, prevention and outcomes, the Netherlands secured its top position among 37 European countries for six years in a row.The Netherlands was ranked first in a study in 2009 comparing the health care systems of the United States, Australia, Canada, Germany and New Zealand.Ever since a major reform of the health care system in 2006, the Dutch system received more points in the Index each year. According to the HCP (Health Consumer Powerhouse), the Netherlands has 'a chaos system', meaning patients have a great degree of freedom from where to buy their health insurance, to where they get their healthcare service. The difference between the Netherlands and other countries is that the chaos is managed. Healthcare decisions are being made in a dialogue between the patients and healthcare professionals.Health insurance in the Netherlands is mandatory. Healthcare in the Netherlands is covered by two statutory forms of insurance:While Dutch residents are automatically insured by the government for AWBZ, everyone has to take out their own basic healthcare insurance (basisverzekering), except those under 18 who are automatically covered under their parents' premium. If a person decides not to carry out an insurance coverage, the person may be fined. Insurers have to offer a universal package for everyone over the age of 18 years, regardless of age or state of health – it's illegal to refuse an application or impose special conditions. In contrast to many other European systems, the Dutch government is responsible for the accessibility and quality of the healthcare system in the Netherlands, but not in charge of its management.Healthcare in the Netherlands can be divided in several ways: three echelons, in somatic and mental health care and in 'cure' (short term) and 'care' (long term). Home doctors ("huisartsen", comparable to general practitioners) form the largest part of the first echelon. Being referenced by a member of the first echelon is mandatory for access to the second and third echelon. The health care system is in comparison to other Western countries quite effective but not the most cost-effective.Healthcare in the Netherlands is financed by a dual system that came into effect in January 2006. Long-term treatments, especially those that involve semi-permanent hospitalisation, and also disability costs such as wheelchairs, are covered by a state-controlled mandatory insurance. This is laid down in the "Algemene Wet Bijzondere Ziektekosten" ("General Law on Exceptional Healthcare Costs") which first came into effect in 1968. In 2009 this insurance covered 27% of all health care expenses.For all regular (short-term) medical treatment, there is a system of obligatory health insurance, with private health insurance companies. These insurance companies are obliged to provide a package with a defined set of insured treatments. This insurance covers 41% of all health care expenses.Other sources of health care payment are taxes (14%), out of pocket payments (9%), additional optional health insurance packages (4%) and a range of other sources (4%). Affordability is guaranteed through a system of income-related allowances and individual and employer-paid income-related premiums.A key feature of the Dutch system is that premiums may not be related to health status or age. Risk variances between private health insurance companies due to the different risks presented by individual policy holders are compensated through risk equalisation and a common risk pool. The funding burden for all short-term health care coverage is carried 50% by employers, 45% by the insured person and 5% by the government. Children under 18 are covered for free. Those on low incomes receive compensation to help them pay their insurance. Premiums paid by the insured are about €100 per month (about US$127 in August 2010 and €150 or US$196 in 2012), with variation of about 5% between the various competing insurers, and a yearly deductible of €220 (US$288).Mobility on Dutch roads has grown continuously since the 1950s and now exceeds 200 billion km travelled per year, three quarters of which are done by car. Around half of all trips in the Netherlands are made by car, 25% by bicycle, 20% walking, and 5% by public transport.With a total road network of 139,295 km, which includes 2,758 km of expressways, the Netherlands has one of the densest road networks in the world—much denser than Germany and France, but still not as dense as Belgium.As part of its commitment to environmental sustainability, the Government of the Netherlands initiated a plan to establish over 200 recharging stations for electric vehicles across the country. The rollout will be undertaken by Switzerland-based power and automation company ABB and Dutch startup Fastned, and will aim to provide at least one station within a 50-kilometre radius (30 miles) from every home in the Netherlands. Currently, the Netherlands alone hosts more than a quarter of all recharging stations in the European Union. This share rises to 30% if Brexit is taken into account. Moreover, newly sold cars in the Netherlands have on average the lowest CO2 emissions in the EU.About 13% of all distance is travelled by public transport, the majority of which by train. Like in many other European countries, the Dutch rail network of 3,013 km route is also rather dense. The network is mostly focused on passenger rail services and connects all major towns and cities, with over 400 stations. Trains are frequent, with two trains per hour on lesser lines, two to four trains per hour on average, and up to eight trains an hour on the busiest lines. The Dutch national train network also includes the HSL-Zuid, a high-speed line between the Amsterdam metropolitan area and the Belgian border for trains running from Paris and London to the Netherlands.Cycling is a ubiquitous mode of transport in the Netherlands. Almost as many kilometres are covered by bicycle as by train. The Dutch are estimated to have at least 18 million bicycles, which makes more than one per capita, and twice as many as the circa 9 million motor vehicles on the road. In 2013, the European Cyclists' Federation ranked both the Netherlands and Denmark as the most bike-friendly countries in Europe, but more of the Dutch (36%) than of the Danes (23%) list the bike as their most frequent mode of transport on a typical day. Cycling infrastructure is comprehensive. Busy roads have received some 35,000 km of dedicated cycle tracks, physically segregated from motorised traffic. Busy junctions are often equipped with bicycle-specific traffic lights. There are large bicycle parking facilities, particularly in city centres and at train stations.Until the introduction of trains, ships were the primary mode of transport in the Netherlands. And shipping has remained crucial afterwards. The Port of Rotterdam is the largest port in Europe and the largest port in the world outside East-Asia, with the rivers Meuse and Rhine providing excellent access to the hinterland upstream reaching to Basel, Switzerland, and into Germany and France. , Rotterdam was the world's eighth largest container port handling 440.5 million metric tonnes of cargo annually. The port's main activities are petrochemical industries and general cargo handling and transshipment. The harbour functions as an important transit point for bulk materials and between the European continent and overseas. From Rotterdam goods are transported by ship, river barge, train or road. The Volkeraksluizen between Rotterdam and Antwerp are the biggest sluices for inland navigation in the world in terms of tonnage passing through them. In 2007, the Betuweroute, a new fast freight railway from Rotterdam to Germany, was completed. The Netherlands also hosts Europe's 4th largest port in Amsterdam. The inland shipping fleet of the Netherlands is the largest in Europe. The Netherlands also has the largest fleet of active historical ships in the world. Boats are used for passenger travel as well, such as the Watertaxies in Rotterdam. The ferry network in Amsterdam and the Waterbus network in Rotterdam are part of the public transport system.Schiphol Airport, just southwest of Amsterdam, is the main international airport in the Netherlands, and the third busiest airport in Europe in terms of passengers. Schiphol is the main hub for KLM, the nation's flag carrier and the world's oldest airline. In 2016, the Royal Schiphol Group airports handled 70 million passengers. All air traffic is international and Schiphol Airport is connected to over 300 destinations worldwide, more than any other European airport. The airport is a major freight hub as well, processing 1.44 million tonnes of cargo in 2020. Smaller international airports in the country include Eindhoven Airport, Rotterdam The Hague Airport, Maastricht Aachen Airport and Groningen Airport Eelde. Air transport is of vital significance for the Caribbean part of the Netherlands, with all islands having their own airport. This includes the shortest runway in the world on Saba.The Netherlands has had many well-known painters. In the Middle Ages Hieronymus Bosch, Petrus Christus, Lucas Gassel and Pieter Bruegel the Elder were leading Dutch pioneers.During the Dutch Golden Age, spanning much of the 17th century, the Dutch Republic was prosperous and witnessed a flourishing artistic movement. This was the age of the "Dutch Masters", such as Rembrandt van Rijn, Johannes Vermeer, Jan Steen, Jacob van Ruisdael, Gerard van Honthorst, Theodoor van Thulden and many others. Famous Dutch painters of the 19th and 20th century were Vincent van Gogh and the luminists Jan Sluijters, Leo Gestel, and Piet Mondrian. M. C. Escher is a well-known graphic artist. Willem de Kooning was born and trained in Rotterdam, although he is considered to have reached acclaim as an American artist. Literature flourished as well during the Dutch Golden Age, with Joost van den Vondel and P. C. Hooft as the two most famous writers. In the 19th century, Multatuli wrote about the poor treatment of the natives in the Dutch colony, the current Indonesia. Important 20th century authors include Godfried Bomans, Harry Mulisch, Jan Wolkers, Simon Vestdijk, Hella S. Haasse, Cees Nooteboom, Gerard Reve and Willem Frederik Hermans. Anne Frank's "Diary of a Young Girl" was published after she was murdered in the Holocaust and translated from Dutch to all major languages.Various architectural styles can be distinguished in the Netherlands. Over the years, various styles have been built and preserved.The Romanesque architecture was built between the years 950 and 1250. This architectural style is most concentrated in the provinces of Gelderland and Limburg. Limburg, in particular, differs greatly in architectural style from the rest of the Netherlands.The Gothic architecture came to in the Netherlands from about 1230. Gothic buildings often had large windows, pointed arches and were richly decorated.Brabantine Gothic originated with the rise of the Duchy of Brabant and spread throughout the Burgundian provinces.This architectural style is most concentrated in the province of North Brabant, such as St. John's Cathedral in 's-Hertogenbosch, The Church of Our Lady in Breda and the Margraves Palace in Bergen op Zoom.What many know as traditional Dutch architecture is the Dutch Baroque architecture (1525 – 1630) and classicism (1630 – 1700).These style of architecture is especially in evidence in the cities of North Holland, South Holland and Zeeland.Other architectural styles that are common in the Netherlands are Style Louis XIV, Art Nouveau, Rationalism, NeoclassicismExpressionism, De Stijl, Traditionalism and Brutalism.The Netherlands is the country of philosophers Erasmus, Rudolf Agricola and Spinoza. Much of Descartes' major work was done in the Netherlands, where he studied at Leiden University — as did geologist James Hutton, British Prime Minister John Stuart, U.S. President John Quincy Adams, Physics Nobel Prize laureate Hendrik Lorentz and Enrico Fermi. The Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens (1629–1695) discovered Saturn's moon Titan, argued that light travelled as waves, invented the pendulum clock and was the first physicist to use mathematical formulae. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek was the first to observe and describe single-celled organisms with a microscope.Replicas of Dutch buildings can be found in Huis Ten Bosch, Nagasaki, Japan. A similar Holland Village is being built in Shenyang, China. Windmills, tulips, wooden shoes, cheese, Delftware pottery, and cannabis are among the items associated with the Netherlands by tourists.In the south of the Netherlands there are some festivals that rarely or never occur in the rest of the Netherlands. These celebrations grew out of Catholic traditions, including Carnival, lantern parades during the celebration of Three Kings, Brabantian Day and huge Bloemencorso. Bloemencorsos used to occur in many places in the Netherlands, but in the 21th century, Zundert and Valkenswaard in North Brabant have taken the lead.Dutch society is egalitarian and modern. The Dutch have an aversion to the non-essential. Ostentatious behaviour is to be avoided. The Dutch are proud of their cultural heritage, rich history in art and involvement in international affairs.Dutch manners are open and direct with a no-nonsense attitude—informality combined with adherence to basic behaviour. According to a humorous source on Dutch culture, "Their directness gives many the impression that they are rude and crude—attributes they prefer to call openness." A well known more serious source on Dutch etiquette is "Dealing with the Dutch" by Jacob Vossestein: "Dutch egalitarianism is the idea that people are equal, especially from a moral point of view, and accordingly, causes the somewhat ambiguous stance the Dutch have towards hierarchy and status." As always, manners differ between groups. Asking about basic rules will not be considered impolite. "What may strike you as being blatantly blunt topics and comments are no more embarrassing or unusual to the Dutch than discussing the weather."The Netherlands is one of the most secular countries of Europe, and religion in the Netherlands is generally considered as a personal matter which is not supposed to be propagated in public, although it often remains a discussion subject. For only 17% of the population religion is important and 14% goes to church weekly.The Netherlands has a long history of social tolerance and today is regarded as a liberal country, considering its drug policy and its legalisation of euthanasia. On 1 April 2001, the Netherlands became the first nation to legalise same-sex marriage.As of 2018 the Netherlands had one of the highest rates of carbon dioxide emissions per capita in the European Union, above those of Germany, France and Belgium. In addition, the Dutch waste more food than any other EU citizen, at over three times the EU average Despite this, the Netherlands has nonetheless the reputation of the leader country in environmental and population management. In 2015, Amsterdam and Rotterdam were ranked fourth and fifth, respectively, on the Arcadis Sustainable Cities Index.Sustainability is a concept important for the Dutch. The goal of the Dutch Government is to have a sustainable, reliable and affordable energy system, by 2050, in which emissions have been halved and 40 per cent of electricity is derived from sustainable sources.The government is investing billions of euros in energy efficiency, sustainable energy and reduction. The Kingdom also encourages Dutch companies to build sustainable business/projects/facilities, with financial aids from the state to the companies or individuals who are active in making the country more sustainable.The Netherlands has multiple music traditions. Traditional Dutch music is a genre known as "Levenslied", meaning "Song of life", to an extent comparable to a French Chanson or a German Schlager. These songs typically have a simple melody and rhythm, and a straightforward structure of verses and choruses. Themes can be light, but are often sentimental and include love, death and loneliness. Traditional musical instruments such as the accordion and the barrel organ are a staple of levenslied music, though in recent years many artists also use synthesisers and guitars. Artists in this genre include Jan Smit, Frans Bauer and André Hazes.Contemporary Dutch rock and pop music (Nederpop) originated in the 1960s, heavily influenced by popular music from the United States and Britain. In the 1960s and 1970s the lyrics were mostly in English, and some tracks were instrumental. Bands such as Shocking Blue, Golden Earring, Tee Set, George Baker Selection and Focus enjoyed international success. As of the 1980s, more and more pop musicians started working in the Dutch language, partly inspired by the huge success of the band Doe Maar. Today Dutch rock and pop music thrives in both languages, with some artists recording in both.Current symphonic metal bands Epica, Delain, ReVamp, The Gathering, Asrai, Autumn, Ayreon and Within Temptation as well as jazz and pop singer Caro Emerald are having international success. Also, metal bands like Hail of Bullets, God Dethroned, Izegrim, Asphyx, Textures, Present Danger, Heidevolk and Slechtvalk are popular guests at the biggest metal festivals in Europe. Contemporary local stars include pop singer Anouk, country pop singer Ilse DeLange, South Guelderish and Limburgish dialect singing folk band Rowwen Hèze, rock band BLØF and duo Nick & Simon. Trijntje Oosterhuis, one of the country's most well known and versatile singers, has made multiple albums with famous American composers Vince Mendoza and Burt Bacharach.Early 1990s Dutch and Belgian house music came together in Eurodance project 2 Unlimited. Selling 18 million records, the two singers in the band are the most successful Dutch music artists to this day. Tracks like "Get Ready for This" are still popular themes of U.S. sports events, like the NHL. In the mid 1990s Dutch language rap and hip hop ("Nederhop") also came to fruition and has become popular in the Netherlands and Belgium. Artists with North African, Caribbean or Middle Eastern origins have strongly influenced this genre.Since the 1990s, Dutch electronic dance music (EDM) gained widespread popularity in the world in many forms, from trance, techno and gabber to hardstyle. Some of the world's best known dance music DJs hail from the Netherlands, including Armin van Buuren, Tiësto, Hardwell, Martin Garrix, Dash Berlin, Julian Jordan, Nicky Romero, W&W, Don Diablo and Afrojack; the first four of which have been ranked as best in the world by DJ Mag Top 100 DJs. The Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE) is the world's leading electronic music conference and the biggest club festival for the many electronic subgenres on the planet. These DJs also contribute to the world's mainstream pop music, as they frequently collaborate and produce for high-profile international artists.The Netherlands have participated in the Eurovision Song Contest since its first edition in 1956, and have won five times. Their most recent win was in 2019.In classical music, Jan Sweelinck ranks as the Dutch most famous composer, with Louis Andriessen amongst the best known living Dutch classical composers. Ton Koopman is a Dutch conductor, organist and harpsichordist. He is also professor at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. Notable violinists are Janine Jansen and André Rieu. The latter, together with his Johann Strauss Orchestra, has taken classical and waltz music on worldwide concert tours, the size and revenue of which are otherwise only seen from the world's biggest rock and pop music acts. The most famous Dutch classical composition is "Canto Ostinato" by Simeon ten Holt, a minimalistic composition for multiple instruments. Acclaimed harpist Lavinia Meijer in 2012 released an album with works from Philip Glass that she transcribed for harp, with approval of Glass himself. The Concertgebouw (completed in 1888) in Amsterdam is home to the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, considered one of the world's finest orchestras.Some Dutch films – mainly by director Paul Verhoeven – have received international distribution and recognition, such as "Turkish Delight" (""Turks Fruit"", 1973), "Soldier of Orange" (""Soldaat van Oranje"", 1977), "Spetters" (1980) and "The Fourth Man" (""De Vierde Man"", 1983). Verhoeven then went on to direct big Hollywood movies like "RoboCop" (1987), "Total Recall" (1990) and "Basic Instinct" (1992), and returned with Dutch film "Black Book" (""Zwartboek"", 2006).Other well-known Dutch film directors are Jan de Bont ("Speed"), Anton Corbijn ("A Most wanted Man"), Dick Maas ("De Lift"), Fons Rademakers ("The Assault"), and documentary makers Bert Haanstra and Joris Ivens. Film director Theo van Gogh achieved international notoriety in 2004 when he was murdered by Mohammed Bouyeri in the streets of Amsterdam after directing the short film "Submission".Internationally, successful directors of photography from the Netherlands are Hoyte van Hoytema ("Interstellar", "Spectre", "Dunkirk") and Theo van de Sande ("Wayne's World" and "Blade"). Van Hoytema went to the National Film School in Łódź (Poland) and Van de Sande went to the Netherlands Film Academy. Internationally successful Dutch actors include Famke Janssen ("X-Men"), Carice van Houten ("Game of Thrones"), Michiel Huisman ("Game of Thrones"), Rutger Hauer ("Blade Runner"), Jeroen Krabbé ("The Living Daylights") and Derek de Lint ("Three Men and a Baby").The Netherlands has a well developed television market, with both multiple commercial and public broadcasters. Imported TV programmes, as well as interviews with responses in a foreign language, are virtually always shown with the original sound and subtitled. Only foreign shows for children are dubbed.TV exports from the Netherlands mostly take the form of specific formats and franchises, most notably through internationally active TV production conglomerate Endemol, founded by Dutch media tycoons John de Mol and Joop van den Ende. Headquartered in Amsterdam, Endemol has around 90 companies in over 30 countries. Endemol and its subsidiaries create and run reality, talent, and game show franchises worldwide, including "Big Brother" and "Deal or No Deal". John de Mol later started his own company Talpa which created show franchises like "The Voice" and "Utopia".Approximately 4.5 million of the 16.8 million people in the Netherlands are registered to one of the 35,000 sports clubs in the country. About two-thirds of the population between 15 and 75 participates in sports weekly. Football is the most popular participant sport in the Netherlands, before field hockey and volleyball as the second and third most popular team sports. The Netherlands national football team is one of the most popular aspects of Dutch sports; especially since the 1970s when one of the greatest footballers of all time, Johan Cruyff, developed Total Football with coach Rinus Michels. Tennis, gymnastics and golf are the three most widely engaged in individual sports.Organisation of sports began at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. Federations for sports were established (such as the speed skating federation in 1882), rules were unified and sports clubs came into existence. A Dutch National Olympic Committee was established in 1912. Thus far, the nation has won 266 medals at the Summer Olympic Games and another 110 medals at the Winter Olympic Games. In international competition, Dutch national teams and athletes are dominant in several fields of sport. The Netherlands women's field hockey team is the most successful team in World Cup history. The Netherlands baseball team have won the European championship 20 times out of 32 events. Dutch K-1 kickboxers have won the K-1 World Grand Prix 15 times out of 19 tournaments. The Netherlands Women's handball team holds the record of the only team in the world that consecutively reached all six semifinals of major international tournaments since 2015, winning silver and bronze at the European Women's Handball Championship and silver, bronze and gold at the World Women's Handball Championship. They finished fourth at the 2016 Summer Olympics.The Dutch speed skaters' performance at the 2014 Winter Olympics, where they won 8 out of 12 events, 23 out of 36 medals, including 4 clean sweeps, is the most dominant performance in a single sport in Olympic history. Motorcycle racing at the TT Circuit Assen has a long history. Assen is the only venue to have held a round of the Motorcycle World Championship every year since its creation in 1949. The circuit was purpose-built for the Dutch TT in 1954, with previous events having been held on public roads.The Dutch have also had success in all three of cyclings Grand Tours with Jan Janssen winning the 1968 Tour de France, more recently with Tom Dumoulin winning the 2017 Giro d'Italia and legendary rider Joop Zoetemelk was the 1985 UCI World Champion, the winner of the 1979 Vuelta a Espana, the 1980 Tour de France and still holds or shares numerous Tour de France records including most Tours finished and most kilometres ridden.Limburger Max Verstappen currently races in Formula One, and was the first Dutchman to win a Grand Prix. The coastal resort of Zandvoort hosted the Dutch Grand Prix from 1958 to 1985, and has been announced to return in 2020. The volleyball national men's team has also been successful, winning the silver medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics and the gold medal four years later in Atlanta. The biggest success of the women's national team was winning the European Championship in 1995 and the World Grand Prix in 2007.Recently cricket has made a remarkable progress in the Netherlands. Netherlands have participated in 1996, 2003, 2007 and 2011 ODI cricket World Cup. They have also qualified for 2009 and 2014 T20 World Cup. In the 2009 T20 World Cup, Netherlands defeated England, the current World Champions and inventor of the game. Ryan ten Doeschate is the only Dutch player to have played in the IPL on the team Kolkata Knight Riders.Originally, the country's cuisine was shaped by the practices of fishing and farming, including the cultivation of the soil for growing crops and raising domesticated animals. Dutch cuisine is simple and straightforward, and contains many dairy products. Breakfast and lunch are typically bread with toppings, with cereal for breakfast as an alternative. Traditionally, dinner consists of potatoes, a portion of meat, and (seasonal) vegetables. The Dutch diet was relatively high in carbohydrates and fat, reflecting the dietary needs of the labourers whose culture moulded the country. Without many refinements, it is best described as rustic, though many holidays are still celebrated with special foods. In the course of the twentieth century this diet changed and became much more cosmopolitan, with most global cuisines being represented in the major cities.Modern culinary writers distinguish between three general regional forms of Dutch cuisine. The regions in the northeast of the Netherlands, roughly the provinces of Groningen, Friesland, Drenthe, Overijssel and Gelderland north of the great rivers are the least populated areas of the Netherlands. The late (18th century) introduction of large scale agriculture means that the cuisine is generally known for its many kinds of meats. The relative lack of farms allowed for an abundance of game and husbandry, though dishes near the coastal regions of Friesland, Groningen and the parts of Overijssel bordering the IJsselmeer also include a large amount of fish. The various dried sausages, belonging to the metworst-family of Dutch sausages are found throughout this region and are highly prized for their often very strong taste. Also smoked sausages are common, of which ("Gelderse") "rookworst" is the most renowned. The sausage contains a lot of fat and is very juicy. Larger sausages are often eaten alongside "stamppot", "hutspot" or "zuurkool" (sauerkraut); whereas smaller ones are often eaten as a street food. The provinces are also home to hard textured rye bread, pastries and cookies, the latter heavily spiced with ginger or succade or containing small bits of meat. Various kinds of "Kruidkoek" (such as ), "" and "" (small savoury pancakes cooked in a waffle iron) are considered typical. A notable characteristic of "Fries roggebrood" (Frisian rye bread) is its long baking time (up to 20 hours), resulting in a sweet taste and a deep dark colour. In terms of alcoholic beverages, the region is renowned for its many bitters (such as "Beerenburg") and other high-proof liquors rather than beer, which is, apart from "Jenever", typical for the rest of the country. As a coastal region, Friesland is home to low-lying grasslands, and thus has a cheese production in common with the Western cuisine. "Friese Nagelkaas" (Friesian Clove) is a notable example.The provinces of North Holland, South Holland, Zeeland, and Utrecht and the Gelderlandic area of Betuwe make up the region in which western Dutch cuisine is found. Because of the abundance of water and flat grasslands that are found here, the area is known for its many dairy products, which include prominent cheeses such as Gouda, Leyden (spiced cheese with cumin), and Edam (traditionally in small spheres) as well as Leerdammer and Beemster, while the adjacent Zaanstreek in North Holland has since the 16th century been known for its mayonnaise, typical whole-grain mustards, and chocolate industry. Zeeland and South Holland produce a lot of butter, which contains a larger amount of milkfat than most other European butter varieties. A by-product of the butter-making process, "karnemelk" (buttermilk), is also considered typical for this region. Seafood such as soused herring, mussels (called "Zeeuwse Mossels", since all Dutch mussels for consumption are cleaned in Zeeland's Oosterschelde), eels, oysters and shrimps are widely available and typical for the region. "", once a local delicacy consisting of small chunks of battered white fish, has become a national fast food, just as . Pastries in this area tend to be quite doughy, and often contain large amounts of sugar; either caramelised, powdered or crystallised. The "oliebol" (in its modern form) and "Zeeuwse bolus" are good examples. Cookies are also produced in great number and tend to contain a lot of butter and sugar, like "stroopwafel", as well as a filling of some kind, mostly almond, like "". The traditional alcoholic beverages of this region are beer (strong pale lager) and "Jenever", a high proof juniper-flavoured spirit, that came to be known in England as gin. A noted exception within the traditional Dutch alcoholic landscape, "Advocaat", a rich and creamy liqueur made from eggs, sugar and brandy, is also native to this region.The Southern Dutch cuisine consists of the cuisines of the Dutch provinces of North Brabant and Limburg and the Flemish Region in Belgium. It is renowned for its many rich pastries, soups, stews and vegetable dishes and is often called Burgundian which is a Dutch idiom invoking the rich Burgundian court which ruled the Low Countries in the Middle Ages, renowned for its splendor and great feasts. It is the only Dutch culinary region that developed an haute cuisine. Pastries are abundant, often with rich fillings of cream, custard or fruits. Cakes, such as the "Vlaai" from Limburg and the "Moorkop" and "Bossche Bol" from Brabant, are typical pastries. Savoury pastries also occur, with the (a roll with a sausage of ground beef, literally translates into sausage bread) being the most popular. The traditional alcoholic beverage of the region is beer. There are many local brands, ranging from "Trappist" to "Kriek". 5 of the 10 "International Trappist Association" recognised breweries in the world, are located in the Southern Dutch cultural area. Beer, like wine in French cuisine, is also used in cooking; often in stews.In early 2014, Oxfam ranked the Netherlands as the country with the most nutritious, plentiful and healthy food, in a comparison of 125 countries.From the exploitations in the Mughal Empire in the 17th century, to the colonisations in the 19th century, Dutch imperial possessions continued to expand, reaching their greatest extent by establishing a hegemony of the Dutch East Indies in the early 20th century. The Dutch East Indies, which later formed modern-day Indonesia, was one of the most valuable European colonies in the world and the most important one for the Netherlands. Over 350 years of mutual heritage has left a significant cultural mark on the Netherlands.In the Dutch Golden Age of the 17th century, the Netherlands urbanised considerably, mostly financed by corporate revenue from the Asian trade monopolies. Social status was based on merchants' income, which reduced feudalism and considerably changed the dynamics of Dutch society. When the Dutch royal family was established in 1815, much of its wealth came from Colonial trade.By the 17th century, the Dutch East India Company established their base in parts of Ceylon (modern-day Sri Lanka). Afterward, they established ports in Dutch occupied Malabar, leading to Dutch settlements and trading posts in India. However, their expansion into India was halted, after their defeat in the Battle of Colachel by the Kingdom of Travancore, during the Travancore-Dutch War. The Dutch never recovered from the defeat and no longer posed a large colonial threat to Bengal Subah.Universities such as the Leiden University, founded in the 16th century, have developed into leading knowledge centres for Southeast Asian and Indonesian studies. Leiden University has produced leading academics such as Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje, and still has academics who specialise in Indonesian languages and cultures. Leiden University and in particular KITLV are educational and scientific institutions that to this day share both an intellectual and historical interest in Indonesian studies. Other scientific institutions in the Netherlands include the Amsterdam Tropenmuseum, an anthropological museum with massive collections of Indonesian art, culture, ethnography and anthropology.The traditions of the Royal Dutch East Indies Army (KNIL) are maintained by the Regiment Van Heutsz of the modern Royal Netherlands Army. A dedicated "Bronbeek Museum", a former home for retired KNIL soldiers, exists in Arnhem to this day.A specific segment of Dutch literature called Dutch Indies literature still exists and includes established authors, such as Louis Couperus, the writer of "The Hidden Force", taking the colonial era as an important source of inspiration. One of the great masterpieces of Dutch literature is the book "Max Havelaar", written by Multatuli in 1860.The majority of Dutchmen that repatriated to the Netherlands after and during the Indonesian revolution are Indo (Eurasian), native to the islands of the Dutch East Indies. This relatively large Eurasian population had developed over a period of 400 years and were classified by colonial law as belonging to the European legal community. In Dutch they are referred to as "Indische Nederlanders" or as Indo (short for Indo-European).Including their second generation descendants, Indos are currently the largest foreign-born group in the Netherlands. In 2008, the Dutch Central Bureau for Statistics (CBS) registered 387,000 first- and second-generation Indos living in the Netherlands. Although considered fully assimilated into Dutch society, as the main ethnic minority in the Netherlands, these 'repatriants' have played a pivotal role in introducing elements of Indonesian culture into Dutch mainstream culture.Many Indonesian dishes and foodstuffs have become commonplace in the Netherlands. Rijsttafel, a colonial culinary concept, and dishes such as Nasi goreng and satay are very popular in the country. Practically any town of any size in the Netherlands has a "toko" (a Dutch Indonesian Shop) or a Chinese-Indonesian restaurant, and many 'Pasar Malam' (Night market in Malay/Indonesian) fairs are organised throughout the year.
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[
"Piet de Jong",
"Hendrikus Colijn",
"Ruud Lubbers",
"Jan de Quay",
"Wim Schermerhorn",
"Jo Cals",
"Joop den Uyl",
"Wim Kok",
"Louis Beel",
"Dries van Agt",
"Willem Drees",
"Charles Ruijs de Beerenbrouck",
"Victor Marijnen",
"Jelle Zijlstra",
"Jan Peter Balkenende",
"Mark Rutte",
"Pieter Sjoerds Gerbrandy",
"Barend Biesheuvel"
] |
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Who was the head of Netherlands in 29/12/1927?
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December 29, 1927
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{
"text": [
"Dirk Jan de Geer"
]
}
|
L2_Q55_P6_2
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Dries van Agt is the head of the government of Netherlands from Dec, 1977 to Nov, 1982.
Hendrikus Colijn is the head of the government of Netherlands from Aug, 1925 to Mar, 1926.
Wim Kok is the head of the government of Netherlands from Aug, 1994 to Jul, 2002.
Victor Marijnen is the head of the government of Netherlands from Jul, 1963 to Apr, 1965.
Jo Cals is the head of the government of Netherlands from Apr, 1965 to Nov, 1966.
Willem Drees is the head of the government of Netherlands from Aug, 1948 to Dec, 1958.
Jan Peter Balkenende is the head of the government of Netherlands from Jul, 2002 to Oct, 2010.
Joop den Uyl is the head of the government of Netherlands from May, 1973 to Dec, 1977.
Dirk Jan de Geer is the head of the government of Netherlands from Mar, 1926 to Aug, 1929.
Barend Biesheuvel is the head of the government of Netherlands from Jul, 1971 to May, 1973.
Louis Beel is the head of the government of Netherlands from Jul, 1946 to Aug, 1948.
Jelle Zijlstra is the head of the government of Netherlands from Nov, 1966 to Apr, 1967.
Ruud Lubbers is the head of the government of Netherlands from Nov, 1982 to Aug, 1994.
Jan de Quay is the head of the government of Netherlands from May, 1959 to Jul, 1963.
Charles Ruijs de Beerenbrouck is the head of the government of Netherlands from Sep, 1918 to Aug, 1925.
Wim Schermerhorn is the head of the government of Netherlands from Jun, 1945 to Jul, 1946.
Mark Rutte is the head of the government of Netherlands from Oct, 2010 to Dec, 2022.
Piet de Jong is the head of the government of Netherlands from Apr, 1967 to Jul, 1971.
Pieter Sjoerds Gerbrandy is the head of the government of Netherlands from Sep, 1940 to Jun, 1945.
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NetherlandsThe Netherlands ( ), sometimes informally Holland, is a country located in Western Europe with territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. In Europe, the Netherlands consists of twelve provinces, bordering Germany to the east, Belgium to the south, and the North Sea to the northwest, with maritime borders in the North Sea with those countries and the United Kingdom. In the Caribbean, it consists of three special municipalities: the islands of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba. The country's official language is Dutch, with West Frisian as a secondary official language in the province of Friesland, and English and Papiamento as secondary official languages in the Caribbean Netherlands. Dutch Low Saxon and Limburgish are recognised regional languages (spoken in the east and southeast respectively), while Dutch Sign Language, Sinte Romani and Yiddish are recognised non-territorial languages.The four largest cities in the Netherlands are Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht. Amsterdam is the country's most populous city and nominal capital, while The Hague holds the seat of the States General, Cabinet and Supreme Court. The Port of Rotterdam is the busiest seaport in Europe, and the busiest in any country outside East Asia and Southeast Asia, behind only China and Singapore. Amsterdam Airport Schiphol is the busiest airport in the Netherlands, and the third busiest in Europe. The country is a founding member of the EU, Eurozone, G10, NATO, OECD and WTO, as well as a part of the Schengen Area and the trilateral Benelux Union. It hosts several intergovernmental organisations and international courts, many of which are centred in The Hague, which is consequently dubbed 'the world's legal capital'."Netherlands" literally means "lower countries" in reference to its low elevation and flat topography, with only about 50% of its land exceeding above sea level, and nearly 26% falling below sea level. Most of the areas below sea level, known as "polders", are the result of land reclamation that began in the 14th century. Colloquially or informally the Netherlands is occasionally referred to by the pars pro toto "Holland". With a population of 17.4 million people, all living within a total area of roughly —of which the land area is —the Netherlands is the 16th most densely populated country in the world and the 2nd most densely populated country in the European Union, with a density of . Nevertheless, it is the world's second-largest exporter of food and agricultural products by value, owing to its fertile soil, mild climate, intensive agriculture and inventiveness.The Netherlands has been a parliamentary constitutional monarchy with a unitary structure since 1848. The country has a tradition of pillarisation and a long record of social tolerance, having legalised abortion, prostitution and human euthanasia, along with maintaining a liberal drug policy. The Netherlands abolished the death penalty in Civil Law in 1870, though it was not completely removed until a new constitution was approved in 1983. The Netherlands allowed women's suffrage in 1919, before becoming the world's first country to legalise same-sex marriage in 2001. Its mixed-market advanced economy had the eleventh-highest per capita income globally. The Netherlands ranks among the highest in international indexes of press freedom, economic freedom, human development and quality of life, as well as happiness. In 2020, it ranked eighth on the human development index and fifth on the 2021 World Happiness Index.The Netherlands' turbulent history and shifts of power resulted in exceptionally many and widely varying names in different languages. There is diversity even within languages. In English, the Netherlands is also called Holland or (part of) the Low Countries, whereas the term ""Dutch"" is used as the demonym and adjectival form.The region called the Low Countries (comprising Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg) have the same toponymy. Place names with "Neder", "Nieder", "Nedre", "Nether", "Lage(r)" or "Low(er)" (in Germanic languages) and "Bas" or "Inferior" (in Romance languages) are in use in low-lying places all over Europe. They are sometimes used in a deictic relation to a higher ground that consecutively is indicated as "Super(ior)", "Up(per)", "Op(per)", "Ober", "Boven", "High", "Haut" or "Hoch". In the case of the Low Countries / Netherlands the geographical location of the "lower" region has been more or less downstream and near the sea. The geographical location of the upper region, however, changed tremendously over time, depending on the location of the economic and military power governing the Low Countries area. The Romans made a distinction between the Roman provinces of downstream Germania Inferior (nowadays part of Belgium and the Netherlands) and upstream Germania Superior (nowadays part of Germany). The designation 'Low' to refer to the region returns again in the 10th century Duchy of Lower Lorraine, that covered much of the Low Countries. But this time the corresponding "Upper" region is Upper Lorraine, in nowadays Northern France.The Dukes of Burgundy, who ruled from their residence in the Low Countries in the 15th century, used the term "les pays de par deçà" ("the lands over here") for the Low Countries, as opposed to "les pays de par delà" ("the lands over there") for their original homeland: Burgundy in present-day east-central France. Under Habsburg rule, "Les pays de par deçà" developed in "pays d'embas" ("lands down-here"), a deictic expression in relation to other Habsburg possessions like Hungary and Austria. This was translated as "Neder-landen" in contemporary Dutch official documents. From a regional point of view, "Niderlant" was also the area between the Meuse and the lower Rhine in the late Middle Ages. The area known as "Oberland" (High country) was in this deictic context considered to begin approximately at the nearby higher located Cologne.From the mid-sixteenth century on, the "Low Countries" and the "Netherlands" lost their original deictic meaning. They were probably the most commonly used names, besides Flanders, a "pars pro toto" for the Low Countries, especially in Romance language-speaking Europe. The Eighty Years' War (1568–1648) divided the Low Countries into an independent northern Dutch Republic (or Latinised "Belgica Foederata", "Federated Netherlands", the precursor state of the Netherlands) and a Spanish controlled Southern Netherlands (Latinised "Belgica Regia", "Royal Netherlands", the precursor state of Belgium). The Low Countries today is a designation that includes the countries of the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, although in most Romance languages, the term "Low Countries" is used as the name for the Netherlands specifically. It is used synonymously with the more neutral and geopolitical term Benelux.The Netherlands is also referred to as Holland in various languages, including English. However, Holland proper is only a region within the country that consists of North and South Holland, two of the nation's twelve provinces. Formerly they were a single province, and earlier the County of Holland, a remnant of the dissolved Frisian Kingdom which also included parts of present-day Utrecht. Following the decline of the Duchy of Brabant and the County of Flanders, Holland became the most economically and politically important county in the Low Countries region. The emphasis on Holland during the formation of the Dutch Republic, the Eighty Years' War, and the Anglo-Dutch Wars in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, made Holland serve as a "pars pro toto" for the entire country, which is now considered informal or incorrect. Nonetheless, the name "Holland" is still widely used for the Netherlands national football team, including in the Netherlands, and the Dutch government's international websites for tourism and trade are "holland.com" and "hollandtradeandinvest.com". In 2020, however, the Dutch government announced that it would only communicate and advertise under the name "the Netherlands" in the future.The term Dutch is used as the demonymic and adjectival form of the Netherlands in the English language. The origins of the word go back to Proto-Germanic "*þiudiskaz", Latinised into Theodiscus, meaning "popular" or "of the people"; akin to Old Dutch "Dietsch", Old High German "duitsch", and Old English "þeodisc", all meaning "(of) the common (Germanic) people". At first, the English language used (the contemporary form of) Dutch to refer to any or all speakers of West Germanic languages (e.g. the Dutch, the Frisians, and the Germans). Gradually its meaning shifted to the West Germanic people they had most contact with, because of their geographical proximity and for the rivalry in trade and overseas territories. The derivative of the Proto-Germanic word "*þiudiskaz" in modern Dutch, "Diets", can be found in Dutch literature as a poetic name for the Dutch people or language, but is considered very archaic. Although it had a short resurgence after World War II to avoid the reference to Germany. It is still used in the expression "diets maken" – to put it straight to him/her (as in a threat) or, more neutral, to make it clear, understandable, explain, say in the people's language (cf. the Vulgate (Bible not in Greek or Hebrew, but Latin; the folks' language) in meaning vulgar, though not in a pejorative sense).In Dutch, the names for the Netherlands, the Dutch language and a Dutch citizen are "Nederland", "Nederlands" and "Nederlander", respectively. Colloquially the country is also by the Dutch often referred to as Holland, although to lesser extent outside the two provinces North and South Holland, where it may even be used as a pejorative term, e.g. Hollènder (dialect) in Maastricht.The plural "Nederlanden" is used in many different connotations in the past, but since 1815 it has been used in the official name "Koninkrijk der Nederlanden" ("Kingdom of the Netherlands"). In many other languages the plural stuck, for example "Niederlande" (German), "Pays-Bas" (French) and "Países Bajos" (Spanish). In Indonesian (a former colony) the country is called "Belanda", a name derived from 'Holland'.The prehistory of the area that is now the Netherlands was largely shaped by the sea and the rivers that constantly shifted the low-lying geography. The oldest human (Neanderthal) traces were found in higher soils, near Maastricht, from what is believed to be about 250,000 years ago. At the end of the Ice Age, the nomadic late Upper Paleolithic Hamburg culture (c. 13.000–10.000 BC) hunted reindeer in the area, using spears, but the later Ahrensburg culture (c. 11.200–9500 BC) used bow and arrow. From Mesolithic Maglemosian-like tribes (c. 8000 BC) the oldest canoe in the world was found in Drenthe.Indigenous late Mesolithic hunter-gatherers from the Swifterbant culture (c. 5600 BC) were related to the southern Scandinavian Ertebølle culture and were strongly linked to rivers and open water. Between 4800 and 4500 BC, the Swifterbant people started to copy from the neighbouring Linear Pottery culture the practise of animal husbandry, and between 4300 and 4000 BC the practice of agriculture. The Funnelbeaker culture (c. 4300–2800 BC), which is related to the Swifterbant culture, erected the dolmens, large stone grave monuments found in Drenthe. There was a quick and smooth transition from the Funnelbeaker farming culture to the pan-European Corded Ware pastoralist culture (c. 2950 BC). In the southwest, the Seine-Oise-Marne culture — which was related to the Vlaardingen culture (c. 2600 BC), an apparently more primitive culture of hunter-gatherers — survived well into the Neolithic period, until it too was succeeded by the Corded Ware culture.Of the subsequent Bell Beaker culture (2700–2100 BC) several regions of origin have been postulated, notably the Iberian peninsula, the Netherlands and Central Europe. They introduced metalwork in copper, gold and later bronze and opened international trade routes not seen before, reflected in the discoveries of copper artifacts, as the metal is not normally found in Dutch soil. The many finds in Drenthe of rare bronze objects, suggest that it was even a trading centre in the Bronze Age (2000–800 BC). The Bell Beaker culture developed locally into the Barbed-Wire Beaker culture (2100–1800 BC) and later the Elp culture (c. 1800–800 BC), a Middle Bronze Age archaeological culture having earthenware pottery of low quality as a marker. The initial phase of the Elp culture was characterised by tumuli (1800–1200 BC) that were strongly tied to contemporary tumuli in northern Germany and Scandinavia and was apparently related to the Tumulus culture in central Europe. The subsequent phase was that of cremating the dead and placing their ashes in urns which were then buried in fields, following the customs of the Urnfield culture (1200–800 BC). The southern region became dominated by the related Hilversum culture (1800–800 BC), which apparently inherited cultural ties with Britain of the previous Barbed-Wire Beaker culture.From 800 BC onwards, the Iron Age Celtic Hallstatt culture became influential, replacing the Hilversum culture. Iron ore brought a measure of prosperity and was available throughout the country, including bog iron. Smiths travelled from settlement to settlement with bronze and iron, fabricating tools on demand. The King's grave of Oss (700 BC) was found in a burial mound, the largest of its kind in western Europe and containing an iron sword with an inlay of gold and coral.The deteriorating climate in Scandinavia around 850 BC further deteriorated around 650 BC and might have triggered migration of Germanic tribes from the North. By the time this migration was complete, around 250 BC, a few general cultural and linguistic groups had emerged. The North Sea Germanic Ingaevones inhabited the northern part of the Low Countries. They would later develop into the Frisii and the early Saxons. A second grouping, the Weser-Rhine Germanic (or Istvaeones), extended along the middle Rhine and Weser and inhabited the Low Countries south of the great rivers. This group consisted of tribes that would eventually develop into the Salian Franks. Also the Celtic La Tène culture (c. 450 BC up to the Roman conquest) had expanded over a wide range, including the southern area of the Low Countries. Some scholars have speculated that even a third ethnic identity and language, neither Germanic nor Celtic, survived in the Netherlands until the Roman period, the Iron Age Nordwestblock culture, that eventually was absorbed by the Celts to the south and the Germanic peoples from the east.The first author to describe the coast of Holland and Flanders was the Greek geographer Pytheas, who noted in c. 325 BC that in these regions, "more people died in the struggle against water than in the struggle against men." During the Gallic Wars, the area south and west of the Rhine was conquered by Roman forces under Julius Caesar from 57 BC to 53 BC. Caesar describes two main Celtic tribes living in what is now the southern Netherlands: the Menapii and the Eburones. The Rhine became fixed as Rome's northern frontier around 12 AD. Notable towns would arise along the Limes Germanicus: Nijmegen and Voorburg. In the first part of Gallia Belgica, the area south of the Limes became part of the Roman province of Germania Inferior. The area to the north of the Rhine, inhabited by the Frisii, remained outside Roman rule (but not its presence and control), while the Germanic border tribes of the Batavi and Cananefates served in the Roman cavalry. The Batavi rose against the Romans in the Batavian rebellion of 69 AD but were eventually defeated. The Batavi later merged with other tribes into the confederation of the Salian Franks, whose identity emerged at the first half of the third century. Salian Franks appear in Roman texts as both allies and enemies. They were forced by the confederation of the Saxons from the east to move over the Rhine into Roman territory in the fourth century. From their new base in West Flanders and the Southwest Netherlands, they were raiding the English Channel. Roman forces pacified the region, but did not expel the Franks, who continued to be feared at least until the time of Julian the Apostate (358) when Salian Franks were allowed to settle as "foederati" in Texandria. It has been postulated that after deteriorating climate conditions and the Romans' withdrawal, the Frisii disappeared as "laeti" in c. 296, leaving the coastal lands largely unpopulated for the next two centuries. However, recent excavations in Kennemerland show clear indication of a permanent habitation.After Roman government in the area collapsed, the Franks expanded their territories in numerous kingdoms. By the 490s, Clovis I had conquered and united all these territories in the southern Netherlands in one Frankish kingdom, and from there continued his conquests into Gaul. During this expansion, Franks migrating to the south eventually adopted the Vulgar Latin of the local population. A widening cultural divide grew with the Franks remaining in their original homeland in the north (i.e. the southern Netherlands and Flanders), who kept on speaking Old Frankish, which by the ninth century had evolved into Old Low Franconian or Old Dutch. A Dutch-French language boundary hence came into existence.To the north of the Franks, climatic conditions improved, and during the Migration Period Saxons, the closely related Angles, Jutes and Frisii settled the coastal land. Many moved on to England and came to be known as Anglo-Saxons, but those who stayed would be referred to as Frisians and their language as Frisian, named after the land that was once inhabited by Frisii. Frisian was spoken along the entire southern North Sea coast, and it is still the language most closely related to English among the living languages of continental Europe. By the seventh century a Frisian Kingdom (650–734) under King Aldegisel and King Redbad emerged with Traiectum (Utrecht) as its centre of power, while Dorestad was a flourishing trading place. Between 600 and around 719 the cities were often fought over between the Frisians and the Franks. In 734, at the Battle of the Boarn, the Frisians were defeated after a series of wars. With the approval of the Franks, the Anglo-Saxon missionary Willibrord converted the Frisian people to Christianity. He established the Archdiocese of Utrecht and became bishop of the Frisians. However, his successor Boniface was murdered by the Frisians in Dokkum, in 754.The Frankish Carolingian empire modelled itself on the Roman Empire and controlled much of Western Europe. However, in 843, it was divided into three parts—East, Middle, and West Francia. Most of present-day Netherlands became part of Middle Francia, which was a weak kingdom and subject of numerous partitions and annexation attempts by its stronger neighbours. It comprised territories from Frisia in the north to the Kingdom of Italy in the south. Around 850, Lothair I of Middle Francia acknowledged the Viking Rorik of Dorestad as ruler of most of Frisia. When the kingdom of Middle Francia was partitioned in 855, the lands north of the Alps passed to Lothair II and subsequently were named Lotharingia. After he died in 869, Lotharingia was partitioned, into Upper and Lower Lotharingia, the latter part comprising the Low Countries that technically became part of East Francia in 870, although it was effectively under the control of Vikings, who raided the largely defenceless Frisian and Frankish towns lying on the Frisian coast and along the rivers. Around 879, another Viking expedition led by Godfrid, Duke of Frisia, raided the Frisian lands. The Viking raids made the sway of French and German lords in the area weak. Resistance to the Vikings, if any, came from local nobles, who gained in stature as a result, and that laid the basis for the disintegration of Lower Lotharingia into semi-independent states. One of these local nobles was Gerolf of Holland, who assumed lordship in Frisia after he helped to assassinate Godfrid, and Viking rule came to an end.The Holy Roman Empire (the successor state of East Francia and then Lotharingia) ruled much of the Low Countries in the 10th and 11th century but was not able to maintain political unity. Powerful local nobles turned their cities, counties and duchies into private kingdoms that felt little sense of obligation to the emperor. Holland, Hainaut, Flanders, Gelre, Brabant, and Utrecht were in a state of almost continual war or in paradoxically formed personal unions. The language and culture of most of the people who lived in the County of Holland were originally Frisian. As Frankish settlement progressed from Flanders and Brabant, the area quickly became Old Low Franconian (or Old Dutch). The rest of Frisia in the north (now Friesland and Groningen) continued to maintain its independence and had its own institutions (collectively called the "Frisian freedom"), which resented the imposition of the feudal system.Around 1000 AD, due to several agricultural developments, the economy started to develop at a fast pace, and the higher productivity allowed workers to farm more land or to become tradesmen. Towns grew around monasteries and castles, and a mercantile middle class began to develop in these urban areas, especially in Flanders and later also Brabant. Wealthy cities started to buy certain privileges for themselves from the sovereign. In practice, this meant that Bruges and Antwerp became quasi-independent republics in their own right and would later develop into some of the most important cities and ports in Europe.Around 1100 AD, farmers from Flanders and Utrecht began draining and cultivating uninhabited swampy land in the western Netherlands, making the emergence of the County of Holland as the centre of power possible. The title of Count of Holland was fought over in the Hook and Cod Wars () between 1350 and 1490. The Cod faction consisted of the more progressive cities, while the Hook faction consisted of the conservative noblemen. These noblemen invited the Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy — who was also Count of Flanders — to conquer Holland.Most of the Imperial and French fiefs in what is now the Netherlands and Belgium were united in a personal union by Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, in 1433. The House of Valois-Burgundy and their Habsburg heirs would rule the Low Countries in the period from 1384 to 1581. Before the Burgundian union, the Dutch identified themselves by the town they lived in or their local duchy or county. The Burgundian period is when the road to nationhood began. The new rulers defended Dutch trading interests, which then developed rapidly. The fleets of the County of Holland defeated the fleets of the Hanseatic League several times. Amsterdam grew and in the 15th century became the primary trading port in Europe for grain from the Baltic region. Amsterdam distributed grain to the major cities of Belgium, Northern France and England. This trade was vital because Holland could no longer produce enough grain to feed itself. Land drainage had caused the peat of the former wetlands to reduce to a level that was too low for drainage to be maintained.Under Habsburg Charles V, ruler of the Holy Roman Empire and King of Spain, all fiefs in the current Netherlands region were united into the Seventeen Provinces, which also included most of present-day Belgium, Luxembourg, and some adjacent land in what is now France and Germany. In 1568, under Phillip II, the Eighty Years' War between the Provinces and their Spanish ruler began. The level of ferocity exhibited by both sides can be gleaned from a Dutch chronicler's report:The Duke of Alba ruthlessly attempted to suppress the Protestant movement in the Netherlands. Netherlanders were "burned, strangled, beheaded, or buried alive" by his "Blood Council" and his Spanish soldiers. Severed heads and decapitated corpses were displayed along streets and roads to terrorize the population into submission. Alba boasted of having executed 18,600, but this figure does not include those who perished by war and famine.The first great siege was Alba's effort to capture Haarlem and thereby cut Holland in half. It dragged on from December 1572 to the next summer, when Haarlemers finally surrendered on 13 July upon the promise that the city would be spared from being sacked. It was a stipulation Don Fadrique was unable to honour, when his soldiers mutinied, angered over pay owed and the miserable conditions they endured during the long, cold months of the campaign. On 4 November 1576, Spanish tercios seized Antwerp and subjected it to the worst pillage in the Netherlands' history. The citizens resisted, but were overcome; seven thousand of them were mowed down; a thousand buildings were torched; men, women, and children were slaughtered in a delirium of blood by soldiers crying, "Santiago! España! A sangre, a carne, a fuego, a sacco!" (Saint James! Spain! To blood, to the flesh, to fire, to sack!)Following the sack of Antwerp, delegates from Catholic Brabant, Protestant Holland and Zeeland agreed, at Ghent, to join Utrecht and William the Silent in driving out all Spanish troops and forming a new government for the Netherlands. Don Juan of Austria, the new Spanish governor, was forced to concede initially, but within months returned to active hostilities. As the fighting restarted, the Dutch began to look for help from the Queen of England, but she initially stood by her commitments to the Spanish in the Treaty of Bristol of 1574. The result was that when the next large-scale battle did occur at Gembloux in 1578, the Spanish forces easily won the day, killing at least 10,000 rebels, with the Spanish suffering few losses. In light of the defeat at Gembloux, the southern states of the Seventeen Provinces (today in northern France and Belgium) distanced themselves from the rebels in the north with the 1579 Union of Arras, which expressed their loyalty to Philip II of Spain. Opposing them, the northern half of the Seventeen Provinces forged the Union of Utrecht (also of 1579) in which they committed to support each other in their defence against the Spanish army. The Union of Utrecht is seen as the foundation of the modern Netherlands.Spanish troops sacked Maastricht in 1579, killing over 10,000 civilians and thereby ensuring the rebellion continued. In 1581, the northern provinces adopted the Act of Abjuration, the declaration of independence in which the provinces officially deposed Philip II as reigning monarch in the northern provinces. Against the rebels Philip could draw on the resources of Spain, Spanish America, Spanish Italy and the Spanish Netherlands. The Protestant Queen Elizabeth I of England sympathised with the Dutch struggle against the Spanish and sent an army of 7,600 soldiers to aid the Dutch in their war with the Catholic Spanish. English forces under the Earl of Leicester and then Lord Willoughby faced the Spanish in the Netherlands under the Duke of Parma in a series of largely indecisive actions that tied down significant numbers of Spanish troops and bought time for the Dutch to reorganise their defences. The war continued until 1648, when Spain under King Philip IV finally recognised the independence of the seven north-western provinces in the Peace of Münster. Parts of the southern provinces became "de facto" colonies of the new republican-mercantile empire.After declaring their independence, the provinces of Holland, Zeeland, Groningen, Friesland, Utrecht, Overijssel, and Gelderland formed a confederation. All these duchies, lordships and counties were autonomous and had their own government, the States-Provincial. The States General, the confederal government, were seated in The Hague and consisted of representatives from each of the seven provinces. The sparsely populated region of Drenthe was part of the republic too, although it was not considered one of the provinces. Moreover, the Republic had come to occupy during the Eighty Years' War a number of so-called Generality Lands in Flanders, Brabant and Limburg. Their population was mainly Roman Catholic, and these areas did not have a governmental structure of their own, and were used as a buffer zone between the Republic and the Spanish-controlled Southern Netherlands.In the Dutch Golden Age, spanning much of the 17th century, the Dutch Empire grew to become one of the major seafaring and economic powers, alongside Portugal, Spain, France and England. Science, military, and art (especially painting) were among the most acclaimed in the world. By 1650, the Dutch owned 16,000 merchant ships. The Dutch East India Company and the Dutch West India Company established colonies and trading posts all over the world, including ruling the northern parts of Taiwan between 1624–1662 and 1664–1667. The Dutch settlement in North America began with the founding of New Amsterdam on the southern part of Manhattan in 1614. In South Africa, the Dutch settled the Cape Colony in 1652. Dutch colonies in South America were established along the many rivers in the fertile Guyana plains, among them Colony of Surinam (now Suriname). In Asia, the Dutch established the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), and the only western trading post in Japan, Dejima.During the period of Proto-industrialization, the empire received 50% of textiles and 80% of silks import from the India's Mughal Empire, chiefly from its most developed region known as Bengal Subah.Many economic historians regard the Netherlands as the first thoroughly capitalist country in the world. In early modern Europe, it had the wealthiest trading city (Amsterdam) and the first full-time stock exchange. The inventiveness of the traders led to insurance and retirement funds as well as phenomena such as the boom-bust cycle, the world's first asset-inflation bubble, the tulip mania of 1636–1637, and the world's first bear raider, Isaac le Maire, who forced prices down by dumping stock and then buying it back at a discount. In 1672 – known in Dutch history as the Rampjaar (Disaster Year) – the Dutch Republic was at war with France, England and three German Bishoprics simultaneously. At sea, it could successfully prevent the English and French navy from entering the western shores. On land, however, it was almost taken over internally by the advancing French and German armies coming from the east. It managed to turn the tide by inundating parts of Holland but could never recover to its former glory again and went into a state of a general decline in the 18th century, with economic competition from England and long-standing rivalries between the two main factions in Dutch society, the republican "Staatsgezinden" and the supporters of the stadtholder the "Prinsgezinden" as main political factions.With the armed support of revolutionary France, Dutch republicans proclaimed the Batavian Republic, modelled after the French Republic and rendering the Netherlands a unitary state on 19 January 1795. The stadtholder William V of Orange had fled to England. But from 1806 to 1810, the Kingdom of Holland was set up by Napoleon Bonaparte as a puppet kingdom governed by his brother Louis Bonaparte to control the Netherlands more effectively. However, King Louis Bonaparte tried to serve Dutch interests instead of his brother's, and he was forced to abdicate on 1 July 1810. The Emperor sent in an army and the Netherlands became part of the French Empire until the autumn of 1813 when Napoleon was defeated in the Battle of Leipzig.William Frederick, son of the last stadtholder, returned to the Netherlands in 1813 and proclaimed himself Sovereign Prince of the Netherlands. Two years later, the Congress of Vienna added the southern Netherlands to the north to create a strong country on the northern border of France. William Frederick raised this United Netherlands to the status of a kingdom and proclaimed himself as King William I in 1815. In addition, William became hereditary Grand Duke of Luxembourg in exchange for his German possessions. However, the Southern Netherlands had been culturally separate from the north since 1581, and rebelled. The south gained independence in 1830 as Belgium (recognised by the Northern Netherlands in 1839 as the Kingdom of the Netherlands was created by decree), while the personal union between Luxembourg and the Netherlands was severed in 1890, when William III died with no surviving male heirs. Ascendancy laws prevented his daughter Queen Wilhelmina from becoming the next Grand Duchess.The Belgian Revolution at home and the Java War in the Dutch East Indies brought the Netherlands to the brink of bankruptcy. However, the Cultivation System was introduced in 1830; in the Dutch East Indies, 20% of village land had to be devoted to government crops for export. The policy brought the Dutch enormous wealth and made the colony self-sufficient.The Netherlands abolished slavery in its colonies in 1863. Slaves in Suriname would be fully free only in 1873, since the law stipulated that there was to be a mandatory 10-year transition.The Netherlands was able to remain neutral during World War I, in part because the import of goods through the Netherlands proved essential to German survival until the blockade by the British Royal Navy in 1916. That changed in World War II, when Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands on 10 May 1940. The Rotterdam Blitz forced the main element of the Dutch army to surrender four days later. During the occupation, over 100,000 Dutch Jews were rounded up and transported to Nazi extermination camps; only a few of them survived. Dutch workers were conscripted for forced labour in Germany, civilians who resisted were killed in reprisal for attacks on German soldiers, and the countryside was plundered for food. Although there were thousands of Dutch who risked their lives by hiding Jews from the Germans, over 20,000 Dutch fascists joined the Waffen SS, fighting on the Eastern Front. Political collaborators were members of the fascist NSB, the only legal political party in the occupied Netherlands. On 8 December 1941, the Dutch government-in-exile in London declared war on Japan, but could not prevent the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia). In 1944–45, the First Canadian Army, which included Canadian, British and Polish troops, was responsible for liberating much of the Netherlands. Soon after VE Day, the Dutch fought a colonial war against the new Republic of Indonesia.In 1954, the Charter for the Kingdom of the Netherlands reformed the political structure of the Netherlands, which was a result of international pressure to carry out decolonisation. The Dutch colonies of Surinam and Curaçao and Dependencies and the European country all became countries within the Kingdom, on a basis of equality. Indonesia had declared its independence in August 1945 (recognised in 1949), and thus was never part of the reformed Kingdom. Suriname followed in 1975. After the war, the Netherlands left behind an era of neutrality and gained closer ties with neighbouring states. The Netherlands was one of the founding members of the Benelux, the NATO, Euratom and the European Coal and Steel Community, which would evolve into the EEC (Common Market) and later the European Union.Government-encouraged emigration efforts to reduce population density prompted some 500,000 Dutch people to leave the country after the war. The 1960s and 1970s were a time of great social and cultural change, such as rapid de-pillarisation characterised by the decay of the old divisions along political and religious lines. Youths, and students in particular, rejected traditional mores and pushed for change in matters such as women's rights, sexuality, disarmament and environmental issues. In 2002 the euro was introduced as fiat money, and in 2010 the Netherlands Antilles was dissolved. Referendums were held on each island to determine their future status. As a result, the islands of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba (the BES islands) were to obtain closer ties with the Netherlands. This led to the incorporation of these three islands into the country of the Netherlands as "special municipalities" upon the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles. The special municipalities are collectively known as the Caribbean Netherlands.According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, the European Netherlands has a total area of , including water bodies; and a land area of . The Caribbean Netherlands has a total area of It lies between latitudes 50° and 54° N, and longitudes 3° and 8° E.The Netherlands is geographically very low relative to sea level and is considered a flat country, with about 26% of its area and 21% of its population located below sea level, and only about 50% of its land exceeding one metre above sea level. The European part of the country is for the most part flat, with the exception of foothills in the far southeast, up to a height of no more than 321 metres, and some low hill ranges in the central parts. Most of the areas below sea level are man-made, caused by peat extraction or achieved through land reclamation. Since the late 16th century, large polder areas are preserved through elaborate drainage systems that include dikes, canals and pumping stations. Nearly 17% of the country's land area is reclaimed from the sea and from lakes.Much of the country was originally formed by the estuaries of three large European rivers: the Rhine ("Rijn"), the Meuse ("Maas") and the Scheldt ("Schelde"), as well as their tributaries. The south-western part of the Netherlands is to this day a river delta of these three rivers, the Rhine-Meuse-Scheldt delta.The European Netherlands is divided into north and south parts by the Rhine, the Waal, its main tributary branch, and the Meuse. In the past, these rivers functioned as a natural barrier between fiefdoms and hence historically created a cultural divide, as is evident in some phonetic traits that are recognisable on either side of what the Dutch call their "Great Rivers" ("de Grote Rivieren"). Another significant branch of the Rhine, the IJssel river, discharges into Lake IJssel, the former Zuiderzee ('southern sea'). Just like the previous, this river forms a linguistic divide: people to the northeast of this river speak Dutch Low Saxon dialects (except for the province of Friesland, which has its own language).The modern Netherlands formed as a result of the interplay of the four main rivers (Rhine, Meuse, Schelde and IJssel) and the influence of the North Sea. The Netherlands is mostly composed of deltaic, coastal and eolian derived sediments during the Pleistocene glacial and interglacial periods.Almost the entire west Netherlands is composed of the Rhine-Meuse river estuary, but human intervention greatly modified the natural processes at work. Most of the western Netherlands is below sea level due to the human process of turning standing bodies of water into usable land, a polder.In the east of the Netherlands, remains are found of the last ice age, which ended approximately ten thousand years ago. As the continental ice sheet moved in from the north, it pushed moraine forward. The ice sheet halted as it covered the eastern half of the Netherlands. After the ice age ended, the moraine remained in the form of a long hill-line. The cities of Arnhem and Nijmegen are built upon these hills.Over the centuries, the Dutch coastline has changed considerably as a result of natural disasters and human intervention.On 14 December 1287, St. Lucia's flood affected the Netherlands and Germany, killing more than 50,000 people in one of the most destructive floods in recorded history. The St. Elizabeth flood of 1421 and the mismanagement in its aftermath destroyed a newly reclaimed polder, replacing it with the "Biesbosch" tidal floodplains in the south-centre. The huge North Sea flood of early February 1953 caused the collapse of several dikes in the south-west of the Netherlands; more than 1,800 people drowned in the flood. The Dutch government subsequently instituted a large-scale programme, the "Delta Works", to protect the country against future flooding, which was completed over a period of more than thirty years.The impact of disasters was, to an extent, increased through human activity. Relatively high-lying swampland was drained to be used as farmland. The drainage caused the fertile peat to contract and ground levels to drop, upon which groundwater levels were lowered to compensate for the drop in ground level, causing the underlying peat to contract further. Additionally, until the 19th-century peat was mined, dried, and used for fuel, further exacerbating the problem. Centuries of extensive and poorly controlled peat extraction lowered an already low land surface by several metres. Even in flooded areas, peat extraction continued through turf dredging.Because of the flooding, farming was difficult, which encouraged foreign trade, the result of which was that the Dutch were involved in world affairs since the early 14th/15th century.To guard against floods, a series of defences against the water were contrived. In the first millennium AD, villages and farmhouses were built on man-made hills called "terps". Later, these terps were connected by dikes. In the 12th century, local government agencies called ""waterschappen"" ("water boards") or ""hoogheemraadschappen"" ("high home councils") started to appear, whose job it was to maintain the water level and to protect a region from floods; these agencies continue to exist. As the ground level dropped, the dikes by necessity grew and merged into an integrated system. By the 13th century windmills had come into use to pump water out of areas below sea level. The windmills were later used to drain lakes, creating the famous polders.In 1932 the "Afsluitdijk" ("Closure Dike") was completed, blocking the former "Zuiderzee" (Southern Sea) from the North Sea and thus creating the IJsselmeer (IJssel Lake). It became part of the larger Zuiderzee Works in which four polders totalling were reclaimed from the sea.The Netherlands is one of the countries that may suffer most from climate change. Not only is the rising sea a problem, but erratic weather patterns may cause the rivers to overflow.After the 1953 disaster, the Delta Works was constructed, which is a comprehensive set of civil works throughout the Dutch coast. The project started in 1958 and was largely completed in 1997 with the completion of the Maeslantkering. Since then, new projects have been periodically started to renovate and renew the Delta Works. The main goal of the Delta project was to reduce the risk of flooding in South Holland and Zeeland to once per 10,000 years (compared to once per 4000 years for the rest of the country). This was achieved by raising of outer sea-dikes and of the inner, canal, and river dikes, and by closing off the sea estuaries of the Zeeland province. New risk assessments occasionally show problems requiring additional Delta project dike reinforcements. The Delta project is considered by the American Society of Civil Engineers as one of the seven wonders of the modern world.It is anticipated that global warming in the 21st century will result in a rise in sea level. The Netherlands is actively preparing for a sea-level rise. A politically neutral Delta Commission has formulated an action plan to cope with a sea-level rise of and a simultaneous land height decline of . The plan encompasses the reinforcement of the existing coastal defences like dikes and dunes with of additional flood protection. Climate change will not only threaten the Netherlands from the seaside but could also alter rainfall patterns and river run-off. To protect the country from river flooding, another programme is already being executed. The Room for the River plan grants more flow space to rivers, protects the major populated areas and allows for periodic flooding of indefensible lands. The few residents who lived in these so-called "overflow areas" have been moved to higher ground, with some of that ground having been raised above anticipated flood levels.The predominant wind direction in the European Netherlands is southwest, which causes a mild maritime climate, with moderately warm summers and cool winters, and typically high humidity. This is especially true close to the Dutch coastline, where the difference in temperature between summer and winter, as well as between day and night is noticeably smaller than it is in the southeast of the country.Ice days—maximum temperature below —usually occur from December until February, with the occasional rare ice day prior to or after that period. Freezing days—minimum temperature below —occur much more often, usually ranging from mid-November to late March, but not rarely measured as early as mid-October and as late as mid-May. If one chooses the height of measurement to be above ground instead of , one may even find such temperatures in the middle of the summer. On average, snow can occur from November to April but sometimes occurs in May or October too.Warm days—maximum temperature above —are usually found in April to October, but in some parts of the country these warm days can also occur in March, or even sometimes in November or February (usually not in , however). Summer days—maximum temperature above —are usually measured in from May until September, tropical days—maximum temperature above —are rare and usually occur only in June to August.Precipitation throughout the year is distributed relatively equally each month. Summer and autumn months tend to gather a little more precipitation than the other months, mainly because of the intensity of the rainfall rather than the frequency of rain days (this is especially the case in summer when lightning is also much more frequent).The number of sunshine hours is affected by the fact that because of the geographical latitude, the length of the days varies between barely eight hours in December and nearly 17 hours in June.The following table are based on mean measurements by the KNMI weather station in De Bilt between 1991 and 2020. The highest recorded temperature was reached on 25 July 2019 in Gilze-Rijen.The Netherlands has 20 national parks and hundreds of other nature reserves, that include lakes, heathland, woods, dunes, and other habitats. Most of these are owned by Staatsbosbeheer, the national department for forestry and nature conservation and Natuurmonumenten (literally 'Natures monuments'), a private organisation that buys, protects and manages nature reserves. The Dutch part of the Wadden Sea in the north, with its tidal flats and wetlands, is rich in biological diversity, and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Nature Site in 2009.The Oosterschelde, formerly the northeast estuary of the river Scheldt was designated a national park in 2002, thereby making it the largest national park in the Netherlands at an area of . It consists primarily of the salt waters of the Oosterschelde but also includes mudflats, meadows, and shoals. Because of the large variety of sea life, including unique regional species, the park is popular with Scuba divers. Other activities include sailing, fishing, cycling, and bird watching.Phytogeographically, the European Netherlands is shared between the Atlantic European and Central European provinces of the Circumboreal Region within the Boreal Kingdom. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, the European territory of the Netherlands belongs to the ecoregion of Atlantic mixed forests. In 1871, the last old original natural woods were cut down, and most woods today are planted monocultures of trees like Scots pine and trees that are not native to the Netherlands. These woods were planted on anthropogenic heaths and sand-drifts (overgrazed heaths) (Veluwe). The Netherlands had a 2019 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 0.6/10, ranking it 169th globally out of 172 countries.While Curaçao, Aruba and Sint Maarten have a constituent country status, the Caribbean Netherlands are three islands designated as special municipalities of the Netherlands. The islands are part of the Lesser Antilles and have land borders with France (Saint Martin) and maritime borders with Anguilla, Curaçao, France (Saint Barthélemy), Saint Kitts and Nevis, Sint Maarten, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Venezuela.Within this island group:The islands of the Caribbean Netherlands enjoy a tropical climate with warm weather all year round. The Leeward Antilles are warmer and drier than the Windward islands. In summer, the Windward Islands can be subject to hurricanes.The Netherlands has been a constitutional monarchy since 1815, and due to the efforts of Johan Rudolph Thorbecke became a parliamentary democracy in 1848. The Netherlands is described as a consociational state. Dutch politics and governance are characterised by an effort to achieve broad consensus on important issues, within both the political community and society as a whole. In 2017, "The Economist" ranked the Netherlands as the 11th most democratic country in the world.The monarch is the head of state, at present King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands. Constitutionally, the position is equipped with limited powers. By law, the King has the right to be periodically briefed and consulted on government affairs. Depending on the personalities and relationships of the King and the ministers, the monarch might have influence beyond the power granted by the Constitution of the Netherlands.The executive power is formed by the Council of Ministers, the deliberative organ of the Dutch cabinet. The cabinet usually consists of 13 to 16 ministers and a varying number of state secretaries. One to three ministers are ministers without portfolio. The head of government is the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, who often is the leader of the largest party of the coalition. The Prime Minister is a "primus inter pares", with no explicit powers beyond those of the other ministers. Mark Rutte has been Prime Minister since October 2010; the Prime Minister had been the leader of the largest party of the governing coalition continuously since 1973.The cabinet is responsible to the bicameral parliament, the States General, which also has legislative powers. The 150 members of the House of Representatives, the lower house, are elected in direct elections on the basis of party-list proportional representation. These are held every four years, or sooner in case the cabinet falls (for example: when one of the chambers carries a motion of no confidence, the cabinet offers its resignation to the monarch). The States-Provincial are directly elected every four years as well. The members of the provincial assemblies elect the 75 members of the Senate, the upper house, which has the power to reject laws, but not propose or amend them. Both houses send members to the Benelux Parliament, a consultative council.Both trade unions and employers organisations are consulted beforehand in policymaking in the financial, economic and social areas. They meet regularly with the government in the Social-Economic Council. This body advises government and its advice cannot be put aside easily.The Netherlands has a long tradition of social tolerance. In the 18th century, while the Dutch Reformed Church was the state religion, Catholicism, other forms of Protestantism, such as Baptists and Lutherans, as well as Judaism were tolerated but discriminated against.In the late 19th century this Dutch tradition of religious tolerance transformed into a system of pillarisation, in which religious groups coexisted separately and only interacted at the level of government. This tradition of tolerance influences Dutch criminal justice policies on recreational drugs, prostitution, LGBT rights, euthanasia, and abortion, which are among the most liberal in the world.Because of the multi-party system, no single party has held a majority in parliament since the 19th century, as a result, coalition cabinets had to be formed. Since suffrage became universal in 1917, the Dutch political system has been dominated by three families of political parties: the strongest of which were the Christian Democrats, currently represented by the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA); second were the Social Democrats, represented by the Labour Party (PvdA); and third were the Liberals, of which the right-wing People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) is the main representative.These parties co-operated in coalition cabinets in which the Christian Democrats had always been a partner: so either a centre-left coalition of the Christian Democrats and Social Democrats was ruling or a centre-right coalition of Christian Democrats and Liberals. In the 1970s, the party system became more volatile: the Christian Democratic parties lost seats, while new parties became successful, such as the radical democrat and progressive liberal Democrats 66 (D66) or the ecologist party GroenLinks (GL).In the 1994 election, the CDA lost its dominant position. A "purple" cabinet was formed by the VVD, D66, and PvdA. In the 2002 elections, this cabinet lost its majority, because of an increased support for the CDA and the rise of the right-wing LPF, a new political party, around Pim Fortuyn, who was assassinated a week before the elections. A short-lived cabinet was formed by CDA, VVD, and LPF, which was led by the CDA Leader Jan Peter Balkenende. After the 2003 elections, in which the LPF lost most of its seats, a cabinet was formed by the CDA, VVD, and D66. The cabinet initiated an ambitious programme of reforming the welfare state, the healthcare system, and immigration policy.In June 2006, the cabinet fell after D66 voted in favour of a motion of no confidence against the Minister of Immigration and Integration, Rita Verdonk, who had instigated an investigation of the asylum procedure of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a VVD MP. A caretaker cabinet was formed by the CDA and VVD, and general elections were held on 22 November 2006. In these elections, the CDA remained the largest party and the Socialist Party made the largest gains. The formation of a new cabinet took three months, resulting in a coalition of CDA, PvdA, and Christian Union.On 20 February 2010, the cabinet fell when the PvdA refused to prolong the involvement of the Dutch Army in Uruzgan, Afghanistan. Snap elections were held on 9 June 2010, with devastating results for the previously largest party, the CDA, which lost about half of its seats, resulting in 21 seats. The VVD became the largest party with 31 seats, closely followed by the PvdA with 30 seats. The big winner of the 2010 elections was Geert Wilders, whose right wing PVV, the ideological successor to the LPF, more than doubled its number of seats. Negotiation talks for a new government resulted in a minority government, led by VVD (a first) in coalition with CDA, which was sworn in on 14 October 2010. This unprecedented minority government was supported by PVV, but proved ultimately to be unstable, when on 21 April 2012, Wilders, leader of PVV, unexpectedly 'torpedoed seven weeks of austerity talks' on new austerity measures, paving the way for early elections.VVD and PvdA won a majority in the House of Representatives during the 2012 general election. On 5 November 2012 they formed the second Rutte cabinet. After the 2017 general election, VVD, Christian Democratic Appeal, Democrats 66 and ChristenUnie formed the third Rutte cabinet. This cabinet resigned in January 2021, two months before the general election, after a child welfare fraud scandal. In March 2021, centre-right VVD of Prime Minister Mark Rutte was the winner of the elections, securing 35 out of 150 seats. The second biggest party was the centre-left D66 with 24 seats. Geert Wilders' far-right party lost its support. Prime Minister Mark Rutte, in power since 2010, formed his fourth coalition government.The Netherlands is divided into twelve provinces, each under a King's Commissioner ("Commissaris van de Koning"). Informally in Limburg province this position is named Governor ("Gouverneur"). All provinces are divided into municipalities ("gemeenten"), of which there are 355 (2019).The country is also subdivided into 21 water districts, governed by a water board ("waterschap" or "hoogheemraadschap"), each having authority in matters concerning water management. The creation of water boards actually pre-dates that of the nation itself, the first appearing in 1196. The Dutch water boards are among the oldest democratic entities in the world still in existence. Direct elections of the water boards take place every four years.The administrative structure on the three BES islands, collectively known as the Caribbean Netherlands, is outside the twelve provinces. These islands have the status of "openbare lichamen (public bodies)". In the Netherlands these administrative units are often referred to as "special municipalities".The Netherlands has several Belgian exclaves and within those even several enclaves which are part of the province of North Brabant. Because the Netherlands and Belgium are both in the Benelux, and more recently in the Schengen Area, citizens of respective countries can travel through these enclaves without controls.The history of Dutch foreign policy has been characterised by its neutrality. Since World War II, the Netherlands has become a member of a large number of international organisations, most prominently the UN, NATO and the EU. The Dutch economy is very open and relies strongly on international trade.The foreign policy of the Netherlands is based on four basic commitments: to Atlantic co-operation, to European integration, to international development and to international law. One of the more controversial international issues surrounding the Netherlands is its liberal policy towards soft drugs.During and after the Dutch Golden Age, the Dutch people built up a commercial and colonial empire. The most important colonies were present-day Suriname and Indonesia. Indonesia became independent after the Indonesian National Revolution in the 1940s following a war of independence, international pressure and several United Nations Security Council resolutions. Suriname became independent in 1975. The historical ties inherited from its colonial past still influence the foreign relations of the Netherlands. In addition, many people from these countries are living permanently in the Netherlands.The Netherlands has one of the oldest standing armies in Europe; it was first established as such by Maurice of Nassau in the late 1500s. The Dutch army was used throughout the Dutch Empire. After the defeat of Napoleon, the Dutch army was transformed into a conscription army. The army was unsuccessfully deployed during the Belgian Revolution in 1830. After 1830, it was deployed mainly in the Dutch colonies, as the Netherlands remained neutral in European wars (including the First World War), until the Netherlands was invaded in World War II and defeated by the Wehrmacht in May 1940.The Netherlands abandoned its neutrality in 1948 when it signed the Treaty of Brussels, and became a founding member of NATO in 1949. The Dutch military was therefore part of the NATO strength in Cold War Europe, deploying its army to several bases in Germany. More than 3,000 Dutch soldiers were assigned to the 2nd Infantry Division of the United States Army during the Korean War. In 1996 conscription was suspended, and the Dutch army was once again transformed into a professional army. Since the 1990s the Dutch army has been involved in the Bosnian War and the Kosovo War, it held a province in Iraq after the defeat of Saddam Hussein, and it was engaged in Afghanistan.The military is composed of four branches, all of which carry the prefix "Koninklijke" (Royal):The submarine service opened to women on 1 January 2017. The Korps Commandotroepen, the Special Operations Force of the Netherlands Army, is open to women, but because of the extremely high physical demands for initial training, it is almost impossible for a woman to become a commando. The Dutch Ministry of Defence employs more than 70,000 personnel, including over 20,000 civilians and over 50,000 military personnel. In April 2011 the government announced a major reduction in its military because of a cut in government expenditure, including a decrease in the number of tanks, fighter aircraft, naval ships and senior officials.The Netherlands has ratified many international conventions concerning war law. The Netherlands decided not to sign the UN treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.The Netherlands has a developed economy and has been playing a special role in the European economy for many centuries. Since the 16th century, shipping, fishing, agriculture, trade, and banking have been leading sectors of the Dutch economy. The Netherlands has a high level of economic freedom. The Netherlands is one of the top countries in the Global Enabling Trade Report (2nd in 2016), and was ranked the fifth most competitive economy in the world by the Swiss International Institute for Management Development in 2017. In addition, the country was ranked the second most innovative nation in the world in the 2018 Global Innovation Index., the key trading partners of the Netherlands were Germany, Belgium, the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Italy, China and Russia. The Netherlands is one of the world's 10 leading exporting countries. Foodstuffs form the largest industrial sector. Other major industries include chemicals, metallurgy, machinery, electrical goods, trade, services and tourism. Examples of international Dutch companies operating in Netherlands include Randstad, Unilever, Heineken, KLM, financial services (ING, ABN AMRO, Rabobank), chemicals (DSM, AKZO), petroleum refining (Royal Dutch Shell), electronical machinery (Philips, ASML), and satellite navigation (TomTom).The Netherlands has the 17th-largest economy in the world, and ranks 11th in GDP (nominal) per capita. Between 1997 and 2000 annual economic growth (GDP) averaged nearly 4%, well above the European average. Growth slowed considerably from 2001 to 2005 with the global economic slowdown, but accelerated to 4.1% in the third quarter of 2007. In May 2013, inflation was at 2.8% per year. In April 2013, unemployment was at 8.2% (or 6.7% following the ILO definition) of the labour force. In February 2019, this was reduced to 3.4%.In Q3 and Q4 2011, the Dutch economy contracted by 0.4% and 0.7%, respectively, because of European Debt Crisis, while in Q4 the Eurozone economy shrunk by 0.3%. The Netherlands also has a relatively low GINI coefficient of 0.326. Despite ranking 11th in GDP per capita, UNICEF ranked the Netherlands 1st in child well-being in rich countries, both in 2007 and in 2013. On the Index of Economic Freedom Netherlands is the 14th most free market capitalist economy out of 180 surveyed countries.Amsterdam is the financial and business capital of the Netherlands. The Amsterdam Stock Exchange (AEX), part of Euronext, is the world's oldest stock exchange and is one of Europe's largest bourses. It is situated near Dam Square in the city's centre. As a founding member of the euro, the Netherlands replaced (for accounting purposes) its former currency, the "gulden" (guilder), on 1 January 1999, along with 15 other adopters of the euro. Actual euro coins and banknotes followed on 1 January 2002. One euro was equivalent to 2.20371 Dutch guilders. In the Caribbean Netherlands, the United States dollar is used instead of the euro.The Dutch location gives it prime access to markets in the UK and Germany, with the Port of Rotterdam being the largest port in Europe. Other important parts of the economy are international trade (Dutch colonialism started with co-operative private enterprises such as the Dutch East India Company), banking and transport. The Netherlands successfully addressed the issue of public finances and stagnating job growth long before its European partners. Amsterdam is the 5th-busiest tourist destination in Europe with more than 4.2 million international visitors. Since the enlargement of the EU large numbers of migrant workers have arrived in the Netherlands from Central and Eastern Europe.The Netherlands continues to be one of the leading European nations for attracting foreign direct investment and is one of the five largest investors in the United States. The economy experienced a slowdown in 2005, but in 2006 recovered to the fastest pace in six years on the back of increased exports and strong investment. The pace of job growth reached 10-year highs in 2007. The Netherlands is the fourth-most competitive economy in the world, according to the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report.Beginning in the 1950s, the Netherlands discovered huge natural gas resources. The sale of natural gas generated enormous revenues for the Netherlands for decades, adding hundreds of billions of euros to the government's budget. However, the unforeseen consequences of the country's huge energy wealth impacted the competitiveness of other sectors of the economy, leading to the theory of Dutch disease.Apart from coal and gas, the country has no mining resources. The last coal mine was closed in 1974. The Groningen gas field, one of the largest natural-gas fields in the world, is situated near Slochteren. The exploitation of this field has resulted in €159 billion in revenue since the mid-1970s. The field is operated by government-owned Gasunie and output is jointly exploited by the government, Royal Dutch Shell, and Exxon Mobil through NAM (Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij). "Gas extraction has resulted in increasingly strong earth tremors, some measuring as much as 3.6 on the Richter magnitude scale. The cost of damage repairs, structural improvements to buildings, and compensation for home value decreases has been estimated at €6.5 billion. Around 35,000 homes are said to be affected." The Netherlands has an estimated 25% of natural gas reserves in the EU. The energy sector accounted for almost 11% of the GDP in 2014. Netherlands' economy, mainly due to the large shares of natural gas reserves, is considered to have "very high" energy intensity rating.The Netherlands is faced with future challenges as the energy supply is forecasted to fall short of the demand by the year 2025 in the gas sector. This is attributed to the depletion of the Netherlands' major gas field, Groningen, and the earthquakes that have hit the Groningen region. In addition, there is ambiguity surrounding the feasibility of producing unconventional gas. The Netherlands relies heavily on natural gas to provide energy. Gas is the main source of heating for households in the Netherlands and represented 35% of the energy mix in 2014. Furthermore, The European Union 2020 package (20% reduction in GHG emissions, 20% renewables in the energy mix and 20% improvement in energy efficiency) enacted in 2009 has influenced the domestic energy politics of Netherlands and pressured non-state actors to give consent to more aggressive energy reforms that would reduce reliance on natural resources as a source of income to the economy. Therefore, a transition towards renewable energy has been a key objective by Netherlands in order to safeguard the energy security of the country from natural resources depletion, mainly gas. Netherlands has set a 14% renewable energy target of the total energy mix by the year 2020. However, the continuation of providing tax breaks to electricity generated by coal and gas, and to the exploration and extraction of gas from fields that are "insufficiently" profitable, renders a successful transition towards renewable energy more difficult to achieve due to inconsistencies in the policy mix. In 2011, it was estimated that the renewable energy sector received 31% (EUR 743MM), while the conventional energy sector received 69% (EUR 1.6B), of the total energy subsidies by the government. Furthermore, the energy market in the Netherlands remains to be dominated by few major corporations Nuon, RWE, E.ON, Eneco, and Delta that have significant influence over the energy policy. Renewable energy share in the energy mix is estimated to reach 12.4% by the year 2020, falling 1.6% short of the 14% target.From a biological resource perspective, the Netherlands has a low endowment: the Netherlands’ biocapacity adds up to only 0.8 global hectares in 2016, 0.2 of which are dedicated to agriculture. The Dutch biocapacity per person is just about half of the 1.6 global hectares of biocapacity per person available worldwide. In contrast, in 2016, the Dutch used on average 4.8 global hectares of biocapacity - their ecological footprint of consumption. This means the Dutch required nearly six times as much biocapacity as the Netherlands contains. As a result, the Netherlands was running a biocapacity deficit of 4.0 global hectares per person in 2016.The Dutch agricultural sector is highly mechanised, and has a strong focus on international exports. It employs about 4% of the Dutch labour force but produces large surpluses in the food-processing industry and accounts for 21% of the Dutch total export value. The Dutch rank first in the European Union and second worldwide in value of agricultural exports, behind only the United States, with agricultural exports earning €80.7 billion in 2014, up from €75.4 billion in 2012. In 2019 agricultural exports were worth €94.5 billion.One-third of the world's exports of chilis, tomatoes, and cucumbers goes through the country. The Netherlands also exports one-fifteenth of the world's apples.Aside from that, a significant portion of Dutch agricultural exports consists of fresh-cut plants, flowers, and flower bulbs, with the Netherlands exporting two-thirds of the world's total.The Netherlands had an estimated population of 17,493,969 as of 30 April 2021. It is the 5th most densely populated country in Europe, and except for the very small city-states like Monaco, Vatican City and San Marino it is the most densely populated country in Europe. And it is the 16th most densely populated country in the world with a density of . It is the 67th most populous country in the world. Between 1900 and 1950, the country's population almost doubled from 5.1 to 10 million. From 1950 to 2000, the population further increased, to 15.9 million, though this represented a lower rate of population growth. The estimated growth rate is 0.44%.The fertility rate in the Netherlands is 1.78 children per woman (2018 estimate), which is high compared with many other European countries, but below the rate of 2.1 children per woman required for natural population replacement, it remains considerably below the high of 5.39 children born per woman in 1879. Netherlands subsequently has one of the oldest populations in the world, with the average age of 42.7 years. Life expectancy is high in the Netherlands: 84.3 years for newborn girls and 79.7 for boys (2020 estimate). The country has a migration rate of 1.9 migrants per 1,000 inhabitants per year. The majority of the population of the Netherlands is ethnically Dutch. According to a 2005 estimate, the population was 80.9% Dutch, 2.4% Indonesian, 2.4% German, 2.2% Turkish, 2.0% Surinamese, 1.9% Moroccan, 0.8% Antillean and Aruban, and 7.4% others. Some 150,000 to 200,000 people living in the Netherlands are expatriates, mostly concentrated in and around Amsterdam and The Hague, now constituting almost 10% of the population of these cities.The Dutch are the tallest people in the world, by nationality, with an average height of for adult males and for adult females in 2009. People in the south are on average about shorter than those in the north.According to Eurostat, in 2010 there were 1.8 million foreign-born residents in the Netherlands, corresponding to 11.1% of the total population. Of these, 1.4 million (8.5%) were born outside the EU and 0.43 million (2.6%) were born in another EU Member State. On 21 November 2016, there were 3.8 million residents in the Netherlands with at least one foreign-born parent ("migration background"). Over half the young people in Amsterdam and Rotterdam have a non-western background. Dutch people, or descendants of Dutch people, are also found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in Canada, Australia, South Africa and the United States. According to the United States Census Bureau (2006), more than 5 million Americans claim total or partial Dutch ancestry. There are close to 3 million Dutch-descended Afrikaners living in South Africa. In 1940, there were 290,000 Europeans and Eurasians in Indonesia, but most have since left the country.The Randstad is the country's largest conurbation located in the west of the country and contains the four largest cities: Amsterdam in the province North Holland, Rotterdam and The Hague in the province South Holland, and Utrecht in the province Utrecht. The Randstad has a population of about 8.2 million inhabitants and is the 5th largest metropolitan area in Europe. According to Dutch Central Statistics Bureau, in 2015, 28 per cent of the Dutch population had a spendable income above 45,000 euros (which does not include spending on health care or education).The official language is Dutch, which is spoken by the vast majority of the inhabitants. Besides Dutch, West Frisian is recognised as a second official language in the northern province of Friesland ("Fryslân" in West Frisian). West Frisian has a formal status for government correspondence in that province. In the European part of the kingdom two other regional languages are recognised under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.The first of these recognised regional languages is Low Saxon ("Nedersaksisch" in Dutch). Low Saxon consists of several dialects spoken in the north and east, like Tweants in the region of Twente, and Drents in the province of Drenthe. Secondly, Limburgish is also recognised as a regional language. It consists of Dutch varieties of Meuse-Rhenish Franconian languages and is spoken in the south-eastern province of Limburg. The dialects most spoken in the Netherlands are the Brabantian-Hollandic dialects.Ripuarian language, which is spoken in Kerkrade and Vaals in the form of, respectively, the Kerkrade dialect and the Vaals dialect are legally treated as Limburgish as well - see Southeast Limburgish dialect.English has a formal status in the special municipalities of Saba and Sint Eustatius. It is widely spoken on these islands. Papiamento has a formal status in the special municipality of Bonaire. Yiddish and the Romani language were recognised in 1996 as non-territorial languages. The Netherlands has a tradition of learning foreign languages, formalised in Dutch education laws. Some 90% of the total population indicate they are able to converse in English, 70% in German, and 29% in French. English is a mandatory course in all secondary schools. In most lower level secondary school educations ("vmbo"), one additional modern foreign language is mandatory during the first two years.In higher level secondary schools (HAVO and VWO), the acquisition of two additional modern foreign language skills is mandatory during the first three years. Only during the last three years in VWO one foreign language is mandatory. Besides English, the standard modern languages are French and German, although schools can replace one of these modern languages with Chinese, Spanish, Russian, Italian, Turkish or Arabic. Additionally, schools in Friesland teach and have exams in West Frisian, and schools across the country teach and have exams in Ancient Greek and Latin for secondary school (called Gymnasium or VWO+).The population of the Netherlands was predominantly Christian until the late 20th century, divided into a number of denominations. Although significant religious diversity remains, there has been a decline of religious adherence. The Netherlands is now one of the most secular societies in the world.In 2019, Statistics Netherlands found that 54.1% of the total population declared itself to be non-religious. Groups that represent the non-religious in the Netherlands include Humanistisch Verbond. Roman Catholics comprised 20.1% of the total population, Protestants (14.8%). Muslims comprised 5.0% of the total population and followers of other Christian denominations and other religions (like Judaism, Buddhism and Hinduism) comprised the remaining 5.9%. A 2015 survey from another source found that Protestants outnumbered Catholics.The southern provinces of North Brabant and Limburg have historically been strongly Roman Catholic, and some residents consider the Catholic Church as a base for their cultural identity. Protestantism in the Netherlands consists of a number of churches within various traditions. The largest of these is the Protestant Church in the Netherlands (PKN), a United church which is Reformed and Lutheran in orientation. It was formed in 2004 as a merger of the Dutch Reformed Church, the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands and a smaller Lutheran Church. Several orthodox Reformed and liberal churches did not merge into the PKN. Although in the Netherlands as a whole Christianity has become a minority, the Netherlands contains a Bible Belt from Zeeland to the northern parts of the province Overijssel, in which Protestant (particularly Reformed) beliefs remain strong, and even has majorities in municipal councils.Islam is the second largest religion in the state. In 2012, there were about 825,000 Muslims in the Netherlands (5% of the population). The Muslim population increased from the 1960 as a result of large numbers of migrant workers. This included migrant workers from Turkey and Morocco, as well as migrants from former Dutch colonies, such as Surinam and Indonesia. During the 1990s, Muslim refugees arrived from countries like Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iran, Iraq, Somalia, and Afghanistan.Another religion practised is Hinduism, with around 215,000 adherents (slightly over 1% of the population). Most of these are Indo-Surinamese. There are also sizable populations of Hindu immigrants from India and Sri Lanka, and some Western adherents of Hinduism-oriented new religious movements such as Hare Krishnas. The Netherlands has an estimated 250,000 Buddhists or people strongly attracted to this religion, mainly ethnic Dutch people. In addition, there are about 45,000 Jews in the Netherlands.The Constitution of the Netherlands guarantees freedom of education, which means that all schools that adhere to general quality criteria receive the same government funding. This includes schools based on religious principles by religious groups (especially Roman Catholic and various Protestant). Three political parties in the Dutch parliament, (CDA, and two small parties, ChristianUnion and SGP) are based upon the Christian belief. Several Christian religious holidays are national holidays (Christmas, Easter, Pentecost and the Ascension of Jesus).Upon the country's independence, Protestants were predominant in most of the country, while Roman Catholics were dominant in the south, especially North Brabant and Limburg. In the late 19th century, secularism, atheism and pillarisation gained adherents. By 1960, Roman Catholics equalled Protestants in number; thereafter, both Christian branches began to decline. Conversely, Islam grew considerably as the result of immigration. Since 2000 there has been raised awareness of religion, mainly due to Muslim extremism.The Dutch royal family has been traditionally associated with Calvinism, specifically the Dutch Reformed Church, which has merged into the Protestant Church in the Netherlands. The Dutch Reformed Church was the only major Protestant church in the Netherlands from the Reformation until the 19th century. Denominational splits in 1834 and in 1886 diversified Dutch Calvinism. In 2013, a Roman Catholic became Queen consort.A survey in December 2014 concluded that for the first time there were more atheists (25%) than theists (17%) in the Netherlands, while the remainder of the population was agnostic (31%) or ietsistic (27%). In 2015, a vast majority of the inhabitants of the Netherlands (82%) said they had never or almost never visited a church, and 59% stated that they had never been to a church of any kind. Of all the people questioned, 24% saw themselves as atheist, an increase of 11% compared to the previous study done in 2006. The expected rise of spirituality (ietsism) has come to a halt according to research in 2015. In 2006, 40% of respondents considered themselves spiritual; in 2015 this has dropped to 31%. The number who believed in the existence of a higher power fell from 36% to 28% over the same period.Education in the Netherlands is compulsory between the ages of 5 and 16. If a child does not have a "starting qualification" (HAVO, VWO or MBO 2+ degree) they are still forced to attend classes until they achieve such a qualification or reach the age of 18.All children in the Netherlands usually attend elementary school from (on average) ages 4 to 12. It comprises eight grades, the first of which is facultative. Based on an aptitude test, the eighth grade teacher's recommendation and the opinion of the pupil's parents or caretakers, a choice is made for one of the three main streams of secondary education. After completing a particular stream, a pupil may still continue in the penultimate year of the next stream.The VMBO has four grades and is subdivided over several levels. Successfully completing the VMBO results in a low-level vocational degree that grants access to the MBO. The MBO (middle-level applied education) is a form of education that primarily focuses on teaching a practical trade or a vocational degree. With the MBO certification, a student can apply for the HBO. The HAVO has 5 grades and allows for admission to the HBO. The HBO (higher professional education) are universities of professional education (applied sciences) that award professional bachelor's degrees; similar to polytechnic degrees. An HBO degree gives access to the university system. The VWO (comprising atheneum and gymnasium) has 6 grades and prepares for studying at a research university. Universities offer a three-year bachelor's degree, followed by a one or two-year master's degree, which in turn can be followed by a four or five-year doctoral degree programme.Doctoral candidates in the Netherlands are generally non-tenured employees of a university. All Dutch schools and universities are publicly funded and managed with the exception of religious schools that are publicly funded but not managed by the state even though requirements are necessary for the funding to be authorised. Dutch universities have a tuition fee of about 2,000 euros a year for students from the Netherlands and the European Union. The amount is about 10,000 euros for non-EU students.In 2016, the Netherlands maintained its number one position at the top of the annual Euro health consumer index (EHCI), which compares healthcare systems in Europe, scoring 916 of a maximum 1,000 points. The Netherlands has been among the top three countries in each report published since 2005. On 48 indicators such as patient rights and information, accessibility, prevention and outcomes, the Netherlands secured its top position among 37 European countries for six years in a row.The Netherlands was ranked first in a study in 2009 comparing the health care systems of the United States, Australia, Canada, Germany and New Zealand.Ever since a major reform of the health care system in 2006, the Dutch system received more points in the Index each year. According to the HCP (Health Consumer Powerhouse), the Netherlands has 'a chaos system', meaning patients have a great degree of freedom from where to buy their health insurance, to where they get their healthcare service. The difference between the Netherlands and other countries is that the chaos is managed. Healthcare decisions are being made in a dialogue between the patients and healthcare professionals.Health insurance in the Netherlands is mandatory. Healthcare in the Netherlands is covered by two statutory forms of insurance:While Dutch residents are automatically insured by the government for AWBZ, everyone has to take out their own basic healthcare insurance (basisverzekering), except those under 18 who are automatically covered under their parents' premium. If a person decides not to carry out an insurance coverage, the person may be fined. Insurers have to offer a universal package for everyone over the age of 18 years, regardless of age or state of health – it's illegal to refuse an application or impose special conditions. In contrast to many other European systems, the Dutch government is responsible for the accessibility and quality of the healthcare system in the Netherlands, but not in charge of its management.Healthcare in the Netherlands can be divided in several ways: three echelons, in somatic and mental health care and in 'cure' (short term) and 'care' (long term). Home doctors ("huisartsen", comparable to general practitioners) form the largest part of the first echelon. Being referenced by a member of the first echelon is mandatory for access to the second and third echelon. The health care system is in comparison to other Western countries quite effective but not the most cost-effective.Healthcare in the Netherlands is financed by a dual system that came into effect in January 2006. Long-term treatments, especially those that involve semi-permanent hospitalisation, and also disability costs such as wheelchairs, are covered by a state-controlled mandatory insurance. This is laid down in the "Algemene Wet Bijzondere Ziektekosten" ("General Law on Exceptional Healthcare Costs") which first came into effect in 1968. In 2009 this insurance covered 27% of all health care expenses.For all regular (short-term) medical treatment, there is a system of obligatory health insurance, with private health insurance companies. These insurance companies are obliged to provide a package with a defined set of insured treatments. This insurance covers 41% of all health care expenses.Other sources of health care payment are taxes (14%), out of pocket payments (9%), additional optional health insurance packages (4%) and a range of other sources (4%). Affordability is guaranteed through a system of income-related allowances and individual and employer-paid income-related premiums.A key feature of the Dutch system is that premiums may not be related to health status or age. Risk variances between private health insurance companies due to the different risks presented by individual policy holders are compensated through risk equalisation and a common risk pool. The funding burden for all short-term health care coverage is carried 50% by employers, 45% by the insured person and 5% by the government. Children under 18 are covered for free. Those on low incomes receive compensation to help them pay their insurance. Premiums paid by the insured are about €100 per month (about US$127 in August 2010 and €150 or US$196 in 2012), with variation of about 5% between the various competing insurers, and a yearly deductible of €220 (US$288).Mobility on Dutch roads has grown continuously since the 1950s and now exceeds 200 billion km travelled per year, three quarters of which are done by car. Around half of all trips in the Netherlands are made by car, 25% by bicycle, 20% walking, and 5% by public transport.With a total road network of 139,295 km, which includes 2,758 km of expressways, the Netherlands has one of the densest road networks in the world—much denser than Germany and France, but still not as dense as Belgium.As part of its commitment to environmental sustainability, the Government of the Netherlands initiated a plan to establish over 200 recharging stations for electric vehicles across the country. The rollout will be undertaken by Switzerland-based power and automation company ABB and Dutch startup Fastned, and will aim to provide at least one station within a 50-kilometre radius (30 miles) from every home in the Netherlands. Currently, the Netherlands alone hosts more than a quarter of all recharging stations in the European Union. This share rises to 30% if Brexit is taken into account. Moreover, newly sold cars in the Netherlands have on average the lowest CO2 emissions in the EU.About 13% of all distance is travelled by public transport, the majority of which by train. Like in many other European countries, the Dutch rail network of 3,013 km route is also rather dense. The network is mostly focused on passenger rail services and connects all major towns and cities, with over 400 stations. Trains are frequent, with two trains per hour on lesser lines, two to four trains per hour on average, and up to eight trains an hour on the busiest lines. The Dutch national train network also includes the HSL-Zuid, a high-speed line between the Amsterdam metropolitan area and the Belgian border for trains running from Paris and London to the Netherlands.Cycling is a ubiquitous mode of transport in the Netherlands. Almost as many kilometres are covered by bicycle as by train. The Dutch are estimated to have at least 18 million bicycles, which makes more than one per capita, and twice as many as the circa 9 million motor vehicles on the road. In 2013, the European Cyclists' Federation ranked both the Netherlands and Denmark as the most bike-friendly countries in Europe, but more of the Dutch (36%) than of the Danes (23%) list the bike as their most frequent mode of transport on a typical day. Cycling infrastructure is comprehensive. Busy roads have received some 35,000 km of dedicated cycle tracks, physically segregated from motorised traffic. Busy junctions are often equipped with bicycle-specific traffic lights. There are large bicycle parking facilities, particularly in city centres and at train stations.Until the introduction of trains, ships were the primary mode of transport in the Netherlands. And shipping has remained crucial afterwards. The Port of Rotterdam is the largest port in Europe and the largest port in the world outside East-Asia, with the rivers Meuse and Rhine providing excellent access to the hinterland upstream reaching to Basel, Switzerland, and into Germany and France. , Rotterdam was the world's eighth largest container port handling 440.5 million metric tonnes of cargo annually. The port's main activities are petrochemical industries and general cargo handling and transshipment. The harbour functions as an important transit point for bulk materials and between the European continent and overseas. From Rotterdam goods are transported by ship, river barge, train or road. The Volkeraksluizen between Rotterdam and Antwerp are the biggest sluices for inland navigation in the world in terms of tonnage passing through them. In 2007, the Betuweroute, a new fast freight railway from Rotterdam to Germany, was completed. The Netherlands also hosts Europe's 4th largest port in Amsterdam. The inland shipping fleet of the Netherlands is the largest in Europe. The Netherlands also has the largest fleet of active historical ships in the world. Boats are used for passenger travel as well, such as the Watertaxies in Rotterdam. The ferry network in Amsterdam and the Waterbus network in Rotterdam are part of the public transport system.Schiphol Airport, just southwest of Amsterdam, is the main international airport in the Netherlands, and the third busiest airport in Europe in terms of passengers. Schiphol is the main hub for KLM, the nation's flag carrier and the world's oldest airline. In 2016, the Royal Schiphol Group airports handled 70 million passengers. All air traffic is international and Schiphol Airport is connected to over 300 destinations worldwide, more than any other European airport. The airport is a major freight hub as well, processing 1.44 million tonnes of cargo in 2020. Smaller international airports in the country include Eindhoven Airport, Rotterdam The Hague Airport, Maastricht Aachen Airport and Groningen Airport Eelde. Air transport is of vital significance for the Caribbean part of the Netherlands, with all islands having their own airport. This includes the shortest runway in the world on Saba.The Netherlands has had many well-known painters. In the Middle Ages Hieronymus Bosch, Petrus Christus, Lucas Gassel and Pieter Bruegel the Elder were leading Dutch pioneers.During the Dutch Golden Age, spanning much of the 17th century, the Dutch Republic was prosperous and witnessed a flourishing artistic movement. This was the age of the "Dutch Masters", such as Rembrandt van Rijn, Johannes Vermeer, Jan Steen, Jacob van Ruisdael, Gerard van Honthorst, Theodoor van Thulden and many others. Famous Dutch painters of the 19th and 20th century were Vincent van Gogh and the luminists Jan Sluijters, Leo Gestel, and Piet Mondrian. M. C. Escher is a well-known graphic artist. Willem de Kooning was born and trained in Rotterdam, although he is considered to have reached acclaim as an American artist. Literature flourished as well during the Dutch Golden Age, with Joost van den Vondel and P. C. Hooft as the two most famous writers. In the 19th century, Multatuli wrote about the poor treatment of the natives in the Dutch colony, the current Indonesia. Important 20th century authors include Godfried Bomans, Harry Mulisch, Jan Wolkers, Simon Vestdijk, Hella S. Haasse, Cees Nooteboom, Gerard Reve and Willem Frederik Hermans. Anne Frank's "Diary of a Young Girl" was published after she was murdered in the Holocaust and translated from Dutch to all major languages.Various architectural styles can be distinguished in the Netherlands. Over the years, various styles have been built and preserved.The Romanesque architecture was built between the years 950 and 1250. This architectural style is most concentrated in the provinces of Gelderland and Limburg. Limburg, in particular, differs greatly in architectural style from the rest of the Netherlands.The Gothic architecture came to in the Netherlands from about 1230. Gothic buildings often had large windows, pointed arches and were richly decorated.Brabantine Gothic originated with the rise of the Duchy of Brabant and spread throughout the Burgundian provinces.This architectural style is most concentrated in the province of North Brabant, such as St. John's Cathedral in 's-Hertogenbosch, The Church of Our Lady in Breda and the Margraves Palace in Bergen op Zoom.What many know as traditional Dutch architecture is the Dutch Baroque architecture (1525 – 1630) and classicism (1630 – 1700).These style of architecture is especially in evidence in the cities of North Holland, South Holland and Zeeland.Other architectural styles that are common in the Netherlands are Style Louis XIV, Art Nouveau, Rationalism, NeoclassicismExpressionism, De Stijl, Traditionalism and Brutalism.The Netherlands is the country of philosophers Erasmus, Rudolf Agricola and Spinoza. Much of Descartes' major work was done in the Netherlands, where he studied at Leiden University — as did geologist James Hutton, British Prime Minister John Stuart, U.S. President John Quincy Adams, Physics Nobel Prize laureate Hendrik Lorentz and Enrico Fermi. The Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens (1629–1695) discovered Saturn's moon Titan, argued that light travelled as waves, invented the pendulum clock and was the first physicist to use mathematical formulae. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek was the first to observe and describe single-celled organisms with a microscope.Replicas of Dutch buildings can be found in Huis Ten Bosch, Nagasaki, Japan. A similar Holland Village is being built in Shenyang, China. Windmills, tulips, wooden shoes, cheese, Delftware pottery, and cannabis are among the items associated with the Netherlands by tourists.In the south of the Netherlands there are some festivals that rarely or never occur in the rest of the Netherlands. These celebrations grew out of Catholic traditions, including Carnival, lantern parades during the celebration of Three Kings, Brabantian Day and huge Bloemencorso. Bloemencorsos used to occur in many places in the Netherlands, but in the 21th century, Zundert and Valkenswaard in North Brabant have taken the lead.Dutch society is egalitarian and modern. The Dutch have an aversion to the non-essential. Ostentatious behaviour is to be avoided. The Dutch are proud of their cultural heritage, rich history in art and involvement in international affairs.Dutch manners are open and direct with a no-nonsense attitude—informality combined with adherence to basic behaviour. According to a humorous source on Dutch culture, "Their directness gives many the impression that they are rude and crude—attributes they prefer to call openness." A well known more serious source on Dutch etiquette is "Dealing with the Dutch" by Jacob Vossestein: "Dutch egalitarianism is the idea that people are equal, especially from a moral point of view, and accordingly, causes the somewhat ambiguous stance the Dutch have towards hierarchy and status." As always, manners differ between groups. Asking about basic rules will not be considered impolite. "What may strike you as being blatantly blunt topics and comments are no more embarrassing or unusual to the Dutch than discussing the weather."The Netherlands is one of the most secular countries of Europe, and religion in the Netherlands is generally considered as a personal matter which is not supposed to be propagated in public, although it often remains a discussion subject. For only 17% of the population religion is important and 14% goes to church weekly.The Netherlands has a long history of social tolerance and today is regarded as a liberal country, considering its drug policy and its legalisation of euthanasia. On 1 April 2001, the Netherlands became the first nation to legalise same-sex marriage.As of 2018 the Netherlands had one of the highest rates of carbon dioxide emissions per capita in the European Union, above those of Germany, France and Belgium. In addition, the Dutch waste more food than any other EU citizen, at over three times the EU average Despite this, the Netherlands has nonetheless the reputation of the leader country in environmental and population management. In 2015, Amsterdam and Rotterdam were ranked fourth and fifth, respectively, on the Arcadis Sustainable Cities Index.Sustainability is a concept important for the Dutch. The goal of the Dutch Government is to have a sustainable, reliable and affordable energy system, by 2050, in which emissions have been halved and 40 per cent of electricity is derived from sustainable sources.The government is investing billions of euros in energy efficiency, sustainable energy and reduction. The Kingdom also encourages Dutch companies to build sustainable business/projects/facilities, with financial aids from the state to the companies or individuals who are active in making the country more sustainable.The Netherlands has multiple music traditions. Traditional Dutch music is a genre known as "Levenslied", meaning "Song of life", to an extent comparable to a French Chanson or a German Schlager. These songs typically have a simple melody and rhythm, and a straightforward structure of verses and choruses. Themes can be light, but are often sentimental and include love, death and loneliness. Traditional musical instruments such as the accordion and the barrel organ are a staple of levenslied music, though in recent years many artists also use synthesisers and guitars. Artists in this genre include Jan Smit, Frans Bauer and André Hazes.Contemporary Dutch rock and pop music (Nederpop) originated in the 1960s, heavily influenced by popular music from the United States and Britain. In the 1960s and 1970s the lyrics were mostly in English, and some tracks were instrumental. Bands such as Shocking Blue, Golden Earring, Tee Set, George Baker Selection and Focus enjoyed international success. As of the 1980s, more and more pop musicians started working in the Dutch language, partly inspired by the huge success of the band Doe Maar. Today Dutch rock and pop music thrives in both languages, with some artists recording in both.Current symphonic metal bands Epica, Delain, ReVamp, The Gathering, Asrai, Autumn, Ayreon and Within Temptation as well as jazz and pop singer Caro Emerald are having international success. Also, metal bands like Hail of Bullets, God Dethroned, Izegrim, Asphyx, Textures, Present Danger, Heidevolk and Slechtvalk are popular guests at the biggest metal festivals in Europe. Contemporary local stars include pop singer Anouk, country pop singer Ilse DeLange, South Guelderish and Limburgish dialect singing folk band Rowwen Hèze, rock band BLØF and duo Nick & Simon. Trijntje Oosterhuis, one of the country's most well known and versatile singers, has made multiple albums with famous American composers Vince Mendoza and Burt Bacharach.Early 1990s Dutch and Belgian house music came together in Eurodance project 2 Unlimited. Selling 18 million records, the two singers in the band are the most successful Dutch music artists to this day. Tracks like "Get Ready for This" are still popular themes of U.S. sports events, like the NHL. In the mid 1990s Dutch language rap and hip hop ("Nederhop") also came to fruition and has become popular in the Netherlands and Belgium. Artists with North African, Caribbean or Middle Eastern origins have strongly influenced this genre.Since the 1990s, Dutch electronic dance music (EDM) gained widespread popularity in the world in many forms, from trance, techno and gabber to hardstyle. Some of the world's best known dance music DJs hail from the Netherlands, including Armin van Buuren, Tiësto, Hardwell, Martin Garrix, Dash Berlin, Julian Jordan, Nicky Romero, W&W, Don Diablo and Afrojack; the first four of which have been ranked as best in the world by DJ Mag Top 100 DJs. The Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE) is the world's leading electronic music conference and the biggest club festival for the many electronic subgenres on the planet. These DJs also contribute to the world's mainstream pop music, as they frequently collaborate and produce for high-profile international artists.The Netherlands have participated in the Eurovision Song Contest since its first edition in 1956, and have won five times. Their most recent win was in 2019.In classical music, Jan Sweelinck ranks as the Dutch most famous composer, with Louis Andriessen amongst the best known living Dutch classical composers. Ton Koopman is a Dutch conductor, organist and harpsichordist. He is also professor at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. Notable violinists are Janine Jansen and André Rieu. The latter, together with his Johann Strauss Orchestra, has taken classical and waltz music on worldwide concert tours, the size and revenue of which are otherwise only seen from the world's biggest rock and pop music acts. The most famous Dutch classical composition is "Canto Ostinato" by Simeon ten Holt, a minimalistic composition for multiple instruments. Acclaimed harpist Lavinia Meijer in 2012 released an album with works from Philip Glass that she transcribed for harp, with approval of Glass himself. The Concertgebouw (completed in 1888) in Amsterdam is home to the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, considered one of the world's finest orchestras.Some Dutch films – mainly by director Paul Verhoeven – have received international distribution and recognition, such as "Turkish Delight" (""Turks Fruit"", 1973), "Soldier of Orange" (""Soldaat van Oranje"", 1977), "Spetters" (1980) and "The Fourth Man" (""De Vierde Man"", 1983). Verhoeven then went on to direct big Hollywood movies like "RoboCop" (1987), "Total Recall" (1990) and "Basic Instinct" (1992), and returned with Dutch film "Black Book" (""Zwartboek"", 2006).Other well-known Dutch film directors are Jan de Bont ("Speed"), Anton Corbijn ("A Most wanted Man"), Dick Maas ("De Lift"), Fons Rademakers ("The Assault"), and documentary makers Bert Haanstra and Joris Ivens. Film director Theo van Gogh achieved international notoriety in 2004 when he was murdered by Mohammed Bouyeri in the streets of Amsterdam after directing the short film "Submission".Internationally, successful directors of photography from the Netherlands are Hoyte van Hoytema ("Interstellar", "Spectre", "Dunkirk") and Theo van de Sande ("Wayne's World" and "Blade"). Van Hoytema went to the National Film School in Łódź (Poland) and Van de Sande went to the Netherlands Film Academy. Internationally successful Dutch actors include Famke Janssen ("X-Men"), Carice van Houten ("Game of Thrones"), Michiel Huisman ("Game of Thrones"), Rutger Hauer ("Blade Runner"), Jeroen Krabbé ("The Living Daylights") and Derek de Lint ("Three Men and a Baby").The Netherlands has a well developed television market, with both multiple commercial and public broadcasters. Imported TV programmes, as well as interviews with responses in a foreign language, are virtually always shown with the original sound and subtitled. Only foreign shows for children are dubbed.TV exports from the Netherlands mostly take the form of specific formats and franchises, most notably through internationally active TV production conglomerate Endemol, founded by Dutch media tycoons John de Mol and Joop van den Ende. Headquartered in Amsterdam, Endemol has around 90 companies in over 30 countries. Endemol and its subsidiaries create and run reality, talent, and game show franchises worldwide, including "Big Brother" and "Deal or No Deal". John de Mol later started his own company Talpa which created show franchises like "The Voice" and "Utopia".Approximately 4.5 million of the 16.8 million people in the Netherlands are registered to one of the 35,000 sports clubs in the country. About two-thirds of the population between 15 and 75 participates in sports weekly. Football is the most popular participant sport in the Netherlands, before field hockey and volleyball as the second and third most popular team sports. The Netherlands national football team is one of the most popular aspects of Dutch sports; especially since the 1970s when one of the greatest footballers of all time, Johan Cruyff, developed Total Football with coach Rinus Michels. Tennis, gymnastics and golf are the three most widely engaged in individual sports.Organisation of sports began at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. Federations for sports were established (such as the speed skating federation in 1882), rules were unified and sports clubs came into existence. A Dutch National Olympic Committee was established in 1912. Thus far, the nation has won 266 medals at the Summer Olympic Games and another 110 medals at the Winter Olympic Games. In international competition, Dutch national teams and athletes are dominant in several fields of sport. The Netherlands women's field hockey team is the most successful team in World Cup history. The Netherlands baseball team have won the European championship 20 times out of 32 events. Dutch K-1 kickboxers have won the K-1 World Grand Prix 15 times out of 19 tournaments. The Netherlands Women's handball team holds the record of the only team in the world that consecutively reached all six semifinals of major international tournaments since 2015, winning silver and bronze at the European Women's Handball Championship and silver, bronze and gold at the World Women's Handball Championship. They finished fourth at the 2016 Summer Olympics.The Dutch speed skaters' performance at the 2014 Winter Olympics, where they won 8 out of 12 events, 23 out of 36 medals, including 4 clean sweeps, is the most dominant performance in a single sport in Olympic history. Motorcycle racing at the TT Circuit Assen has a long history. Assen is the only venue to have held a round of the Motorcycle World Championship every year since its creation in 1949. The circuit was purpose-built for the Dutch TT in 1954, with previous events having been held on public roads.The Dutch have also had success in all three of cyclings Grand Tours with Jan Janssen winning the 1968 Tour de France, more recently with Tom Dumoulin winning the 2017 Giro d'Italia and legendary rider Joop Zoetemelk was the 1985 UCI World Champion, the winner of the 1979 Vuelta a Espana, the 1980 Tour de France and still holds or shares numerous Tour de France records including most Tours finished and most kilometres ridden.Limburger Max Verstappen currently races in Formula One, and was the first Dutchman to win a Grand Prix. The coastal resort of Zandvoort hosted the Dutch Grand Prix from 1958 to 1985, and has been announced to return in 2020. The volleyball national men's team has also been successful, winning the silver medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics and the gold medal four years later in Atlanta. The biggest success of the women's national team was winning the European Championship in 1995 and the World Grand Prix in 2007.Recently cricket has made a remarkable progress in the Netherlands. Netherlands have participated in 1996, 2003, 2007 and 2011 ODI cricket World Cup. They have also qualified for 2009 and 2014 T20 World Cup. In the 2009 T20 World Cup, Netherlands defeated England, the current World Champions and inventor of the game. Ryan ten Doeschate is the only Dutch player to have played in the IPL on the team Kolkata Knight Riders.Originally, the country's cuisine was shaped by the practices of fishing and farming, including the cultivation of the soil for growing crops and raising domesticated animals. Dutch cuisine is simple and straightforward, and contains many dairy products. Breakfast and lunch are typically bread with toppings, with cereal for breakfast as an alternative. Traditionally, dinner consists of potatoes, a portion of meat, and (seasonal) vegetables. The Dutch diet was relatively high in carbohydrates and fat, reflecting the dietary needs of the labourers whose culture moulded the country. Without many refinements, it is best described as rustic, though many holidays are still celebrated with special foods. In the course of the twentieth century this diet changed and became much more cosmopolitan, with most global cuisines being represented in the major cities.Modern culinary writers distinguish between three general regional forms of Dutch cuisine. The regions in the northeast of the Netherlands, roughly the provinces of Groningen, Friesland, Drenthe, Overijssel and Gelderland north of the great rivers are the least populated areas of the Netherlands. The late (18th century) introduction of large scale agriculture means that the cuisine is generally known for its many kinds of meats. The relative lack of farms allowed for an abundance of game and husbandry, though dishes near the coastal regions of Friesland, Groningen and the parts of Overijssel bordering the IJsselmeer also include a large amount of fish. The various dried sausages, belonging to the metworst-family of Dutch sausages are found throughout this region and are highly prized for their often very strong taste. Also smoked sausages are common, of which ("Gelderse") "rookworst" is the most renowned. The sausage contains a lot of fat and is very juicy. Larger sausages are often eaten alongside "stamppot", "hutspot" or "zuurkool" (sauerkraut); whereas smaller ones are often eaten as a street food. The provinces are also home to hard textured rye bread, pastries and cookies, the latter heavily spiced with ginger or succade or containing small bits of meat. Various kinds of "Kruidkoek" (such as ), "" and "" (small savoury pancakes cooked in a waffle iron) are considered typical. A notable characteristic of "Fries roggebrood" (Frisian rye bread) is its long baking time (up to 20 hours), resulting in a sweet taste and a deep dark colour. In terms of alcoholic beverages, the region is renowned for its many bitters (such as "Beerenburg") and other high-proof liquors rather than beer, which is, apart from "Jenever", typical for the rest of the country. As a coastal region, Friesland is home to low-lying grasslands, and thus has a cheese production in common with the Western cuisine. "Friese Nagelkaas" (Friesian Clove) is a notable example.The provinces of North Holland, South Holland, Zeeland, and Utrecht and the Gelderlandic area of Betuwe make up the region in which western Dutch cuisine is found. Because of the abundance of water and flat grasslands that are found here, the area is known for its many dairy products, which include prominent cheeses such as Gouda, Leyden (spiced cheese with cumin), and Edam (traditionally in small spheres) as well as Leerdammer and Beemster, while the adjacent Zaanstreek in North Holland has since the 16th century been known for its mayonnaise, typical whole-grain mustards, and chocolate industry. Zeeland and South Holland produce a lot of butter, which contains a larger amount of milkfat than most other European butter varieties. A by-product of the butter-making process, "karnemelk" (buttermilk), is also considered typical for this region. Seafood such as soused herring, mussels (called "Zeeuwse Mossels", since all Dutch mussels for consumption are cleaned in Zeeland's Oosterschelde), eels, oysters and shrimps are widely available and typical for the region. "", once a local delicacy consisting of small chunks of battered white fish, has become a national fast food, just as . Pastries in this area tend to be quite doughy, and often contain large amounts of sugar; either caramelised, powdered or crystallised. The "oliebol" (in its modern form) and "Zeeuwse bolus" are good examples. Cookies are also produced in great number and tend to contain a lot of butter and sugar, like "stroopwafel", as well as a filling of some kind, mostly almond, like "". The traditional alcoholic beverages of this region are beer (strong pale lager) and "Jenever", a high proof juniper-flavoured spirit, that came to be known in England as gin. A noted exception within the traditional Dutch alcoholic landscape, "Advocaat", a rich and creamy liqueur made from eggs, sugar and brandy, is also native to this region.The Southern Dutch cuisine consists of the cuisines of the Dutch provinces of North Brabant and Limburg and the Flemish Region in Belgium. It is renowned for its many rich pastries, soups, stews and vegetable dishes and is often called Burgundian which is a Dutch idiom invoking the rich Burgundian court which ruled the Low Countries in the Middle Ages, renowned for its splendor and great feasts. It is the only Dutch culinary region that developed an haute cuisine. Pastries are abundant, often with rich fillings of cream, custard or fruits. Cakes, such as the "Vlaai" from Limburg and the "Moorkop" and "Bossche Bol" from Brabant, are typical pastries. Savoury pastries also occur, with the (a roll with a sausage of ground beef, literally translates into sausage bread) being the most popular. The traditional alcoholic beverage of the region is beer. There are many local brands, ranging from "Trappist" to "Kriek". 5 of the 10 "International Trappist Association" recognised breweries in the world, are located in the Southern Dutch cultural area. Beer, like wine in French cuisine, is also used in cooking; often in stews.In early 2014, Oxfam ranked the Netherlands as the country with the most nutritious, plentiful and healthy food, in a comparison of 125 countries.From the exploitations in the Mughal Empire in the 17th century, to the colonisations in the 19th century, Dutch imperial possessions continued to expand, reaching their greatest extent by establishing a hegemony of the Dutch East Indies in the early 20th century. The Dutch East Indies, which later formed modern-day Indonesia, was one of the most valuable European colonies in the world and the most important one for the Netherlands. Over 350 years of mutual heritage has left a significant cultural mark on the Netherlands.In the Dutch Golden Age of the 17th century, the Netherlands urbanised considerably, mostly financed by corporate revenue from the Asian trade monopolies. Social status was based on merchants' income, which reduced feudalism and considerably changed the dynamics of Dutch society. When the Dutch royal family was established in 1815, much of its wealth came from Colonial trade.By the 17th century, the Dutch East India Company established their base in parts of Ceylon (modern-day Sri Lanka). Afterward, they established ports in Dutch occupied Malabar, leading to Dutch settlements and trading posts in India. However, their expansion into India was halted, after their defeat in the Battle of Colachel by the Kingdom of Travancore, during the Travancore-Dutch War. The Dutch never recovered from the defeat and no longer posed a large colonial threat to Bengal Subah.Universities such as the Leiden University, founded in the 16th century, have developed into leading knowledge centres for Southeast Asian and Indonesian studies. Leiden University has produced leading academics such as Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje, and still has academics who specialise in Indonesian languages and cultures. Leiden University and in particular KITLV are educational and scientific institutions that to this day share both an intellectual and historical interest in Indonesian studies. Other scientific institutions in the Netherlands include the Amsterdam Tropenmuseum, an anthropological museum with massive collections of Indonesian art, culture, ethnography and anthropology.The traditions of the Royal Dutch East Indies Army (KNIL) are maintained by the Regiment Van Heutsz of the modern Royal Netherlands Army. A dedicated "Bronbeek Museum", a former home for retired KNIL soldiers, exists in Arnhem to this day.A specific segment of Dutch literature called Dutch Indies literature still exists and includes established authors, such as Louis Couperus, the writer of "The Hidden Force", taking the colonial era as an important source of inspiration. One of the great masterpieces of Dutch literature is the book "Max Havelaar", written by Multatuli in 1860.The majority of Dutchmen that repatriated to the Netherlands after and during the Indonesian revolution are Indo (Eurasian), native to the islands of the Dutch East Indies. This relatively large Eurasian population had developed over a period of 400 years and were classified by colonial law as belonging to the European legal community. In Dutch they are referred to as "Indische Nederlanders" or as Indo (short for Indo-European).Including their second generation descendants, Indos are currently the largest foreign-born group in the Netherlands. In 2008, the Dutch Central Bureau for Statistics (CBS) registered 387,000 first- and second-generation Indos living in the Netherlands. Although considered fully assimilated into Dutch society, as the main ethnic minority in the Netherlands, these 'repatriants' have played a pivotal role in introducing elements of Indonesian culture into Dutch mainstream culture.Many Indonesian dishes and foodstuffs have become commonplace in the Netherlands. Rijsttafel, a colonial culinary concept, and dishes such as Nasi goreng and satay are very popular in the country. Practically any town of any size in the Netherlands has a "toko" (a Dutch Indonesian Shop) or a Chinese-Indonesian restaurant, and many 'Pasar Malam' (Night market in Malay/Indonesian) fairs are organised throughout the year.
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[
"Piet de Jong",
"Hendrikus Colijn",
"Ruud Lubbers",
"Jan de Quay",
"Wim Schermerhorn",
"Jo Cals",
"Joop den Uyl",
"Wim Kok",
"Louis Beel",
"Dries van Agt",
"Willem Drees",
"Charles Ruijs de Beerenbrouck",
"Victor Marijnen",
"Jelle Zijlstra",
"Jan Peter Balkenende",
"Mark Rutte",
"Pieter Sjoerds Gerbrandy",
"Barend Biesheuvel"
] |
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Who was the head of Netherlands in Dec 29, 1927?
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December 29, 1927
|
{
"text": [
"Dirk Jan de Geer"
]
}
|
L2_Q55_P6_2
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Dries van Agt is the head of the government of Netherlands from Dec, 1977 to Nov, 1982.
Hendrikus Colijn is the head of the government of Netherlands from Aug, 1925 to Mar, 1926.
Wim Kok is the head of the government of Netherlands from Aug, 1994 to Jul, 2002.
Victor Marijnen is the head of the government of Netherlands from Jul, 1963 to Apr, 1965.
Jo Cals is the head of the government of Netherlands from Apr, 1965 to Nov, 1966.
Willem Drees is the head of the government of Netherlands from Aug, 1948 to Dec, 1958.
Jan Peter Balkenende is the head of the government of Netherlands from Jul, 2002 to Oct, 2010.
Joop den Uyl is the head of the government of Netherlands from May, 1973 to Dec, 1977.
Dirk Jan de Geer is the head of the government of Netherlands from Mar, 1926 to Aug, 1929.
Barend Biesheuvel is the head of the government of Netherlands from Jul, 1971 to May, 1973.
Louis Beel is the head of the government of Netherlands from Jul, 1946 to Aug, 1948.
Jelle Zijlstra is the head of the government of Netherlands from Nov, 1966 to Apr, 1967.
Ruud Lubbers is the head of the government of Netherlands from Nov, 1982 to Aug, 1994.
Jan de Quay is the head of the government of Netherlands from May, 1959 to Jul, 1963.
Charles Ruijs de Beerenbrouck is the head of the government of Netherlands from Sep, 1918 to Aug, 1925.
Wim Schermerhorn is the head of the government of Netherlands from Jun, 1945 to Jul, 1946.
Mark Rutte is the head of the government of Netherlands from Oct, 2010 to Dec, 2022.
Piet de Jong is the head of the government of Netherlands from Apr, 1967 to Jul, 1971.
Pieter Sjoerds Gerbrandy is the head of the government of Netherlands from Sep, 1940 to Jun, 1945.
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NetherlandsThe Netherlands ( ), sometimes informally Holland, is a country located in Western Europe with territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. In Europe, the Netherlands consists of twelve provinces, bordering Germany to the east, Belgium to the south, and the North Sea to the northwest, with maritime borders in the North Sea with those countries and the United Kingdom. In the Caribbean, it consists of three special municipalities: the islands of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba. The country's official language is Dutch, with West Frisian as a secondary official language in the province of Friesland, and English and Papiamento as secondary official languages in the Caribbean Netherlands. Dutch Low Saxon and Limburgish are recognised regional languages (spoken in the east and southeast respectively), while Dutch Sign Language, Sinte Romani and Yiddish are recognised non-territorial languages.The four largest cities in the Netherlands are Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht. Amsterdam is the country's most populous city and nominal capital, while The Hague holds the seat of the States General, Cabinet and Supreme Court. The Port of Rotterdam is the busiest seaport in Europe, and the busiest in any country outside East Asia and Southeast Asia, behind only China and Singapore. Amsterdam Airport Schiphol is the busiest airport in the Netherlands, and the third busiest in Europe. The country is a founding member of the EU, Eurozone, G10, NATO, OECD and WTO, as well as a part of the Schengen Area and the trilateral Benelux Union. It hosts several intergovernmental organisations and international courts, many of which are centred in The Hague, which is consequently dubbed 'the world's legal capital'."Netherlands" literally means "lower countries" in reference to its low elevation and flat topography, with only about 50% of its land exceeding above sea level, and nearly 26% falling below sea level. Most of the areas below sea level, known as "polders", are the result of land reclamation that began in the 14th century. Colloquially or informally the Netherlands is occasionally referred to by the pars pro toto "Holland". With a population of 17.4 million people, all living within a total area of roughly —of which the land area is —the Netherlands is the 16th most densely populated country in the world and the 2nd most densely populated country in the European Union, with a density of . Nevertheless, it is the world's second-largest exporter of food and agricultural products by value, owing to its fertile soil, mild climate, intensive agriculture and inventiveness.The Netherlands has been a parliamentary constitutional monarchy with a unitary structure since 1848. The country has a tradition of pillarisation and a long record of social tolerance, having legalised abortion, prostitution and human euthanasia, along with maintaining a liberal drug policy. The Netherlands abolished the death penalty in Civil Law in 1870, though it was not completely removed until a new constitution was approved in 1983. The Netherlands allowed women's suffrage in 1919, before becoming the world's first country to legalise same-sex marriage in 2001. Its mixed-market advanced economy had the eleventh-highest per capita income globally. The Netherlands ranks among the highest in international indexes of press freedom, economic freedom, human development and quality of life, as well as happiness. In 2020, it ranked eighth on the human development index and fifth on the 2021 World Happiness Index.The Netherlands' turbulent history and shifts of power resulted in exceptionally many and widely varying names in different languages. There is diversity even within languages. In English, the Netherlands is also called Holland or (part of) the Low Countries, whereas the term ""Dutch"" is used as the demonym and adjectival form.The region called the Low Countries (comprising Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg) have the same toponymy. Place names with "Neder", "Nieder", "Nedre", "Nether", "Lage(r)" or "Low(er)" (in Germanic languages) and "Bas" or "Inferior" (in Romance languages) are in use in low-lying places all over Europe. They are sometimes used in a deictic relation to a higher ground that consecutively is indicated as "Super(ior)", "Up(per)", "Op(per)", "Ober", "Boven", "High", "Haut" or "Hoch". In the case of the Low Countries / Netherlands the geographical location of the "lower" region has been more or less downstream and near the sea. The geographical location of the upper region, however, changed tremendously over time, depending on the location of the economic and military power governing the Low Countries area. The Romans made a distinction between the Roman provinces of downstream Germania Inferior (nowadays part of Belgium and the Netherlands) and upstream Germania Superior (nowadays part of Germany). The designation 'Low' to refer to the region returns again in the 10th century Duchy of Lower Lorraine, that covered much of the Low Countries. But this time the corresponding "Upper" region is Upper Lorraine, in nowadays Northern France.The Dukes of Burgundy, who ruled from their residence in the Low Countries in the 15th century, used the term "les pays de par deçà" ("the lands over here") for the Low Countries, as opposed to "les pays de par delà" ("the lands over there") for their original homeland: Burgundy in present-day east-central France. Under Habsburg rule, "Les pays de par deçà" developed in "pays d'embas" ("lands down-here"), a deictic expression in relation to other Habsburg possessions like Hungary and Austria. This was translated as "Neder-landen" in contemporary Dutch official documents. From a regional point of view, "Niderlant" was also the area between the Meuse and the lower Rhine in the late Middle Ages. The area known as "Oberland" (High country) was in this deictic context considered to begin approximately at the nearby higher located Cologne.From the mid-sixteenth century on, the "Low Countries" and the "Netherlands" lost their original deictic meaning. They were probably the most commonly used names, besides Flanders, a "pars pro toto" for the Low Countries, especially in Romance language-speaking Europe. The Eighty Years' War (1568–1648) divided the Low Countries into an independent northern Dutch Republic (or Latinised "Belgica Foederata", "Federated Netherlands", the precursor state of the Netherlands) and a Spanish controlled Southern Netherlands (Latinised "Belgica Regia", "Royal Netherlands", the precursor state of Belgium). The Low Countries today is a designation that includes the countries of the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, although in most Romance languages, the term "Low Countries" is used as the name for the Netherlands specifically. It is used synonymously with the more neutral and geopolitical term Benelux.The Netherlands is also referred to as Holland in various languages, including English. However, Holland proper is only a region within the country that consists of North and South Holland, two of the nation's twelve provinces. Formerly they were a single province, and earlier the County of Holland, a remnant of the dissolved Frisian Kingdom which also included parts of present-day Utrecht. Following the decline of the Duchy of Brabant and the County of Flanders, Holland became the most economically and politically important county in the Low Countries region. The emphasis on Holland during the formation of the Dutch Republic, the Eighty Years' War, and the Anglo-Dutch Wars in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, made Holland serve as a "pars pro toto" for the entire country, which is now considered informal or incorrect. Nonetheless, the name "Holland" is still widely used for the Netherlands national football team, including in the Netherlands, and the Dutch government's international websites for tourism and trade are "holland.com" and "hollandtradeandinvest.com". In 2020, however, the Dutch government announced that it would only communicate and advertise under the name "the Netherlands" in the future.The term Dutch is used as the demonymic and adjectival form of the Netherlands in the English language. The origins of the word go back to Proto-Germanic "*þiudiskaz", Latinised into Theodiscus, meaning "popular" or "of the people"; akin to Old Dutch "Dietsch", Old High German "duitsch", and Old English "þeodisc", all meaning "(of) the common (Germanic) people". At first, the English language used (the contemporary form of) Dutch to refer to any or all speakers of West Germanic languages (e.g. the Dutch, the Frisians, and the Germans). Gradually its meaning shifted to the West Germanic people they had most contact with, because of their geographical proximity and for the rivalry in trade and overseas territories. The derivative of the Proto-Germanic word "*þiudiskaz" in modern Dutch, "Diets", can be found in Dutch literature as a poetic name for the Dutch people or language, but is considered very archaic. Although it had a short resurgence after World War II to avoid the reference to Germany. It is still used in the expression "diets maken" – to put it straight to him/her (as in a threat) or, more neutral, to make it clear, understandable, explain, say in the people's language (cf. the Vulgate (Bible not in Greek or Hebrew, but Latin; the folks' language) in meaning vulgar, though not in a pejorative sense).In Dutch, the names for the Netherlands, the Dutch language and a Dutch citizen are "Nederland", "Nederlands" and "Nederlander", respectively. Colloquially the country is also by the Dutch often referred to as Holland, although to lesser extent outside the two provinces North and South Holland, where it may even be used as a pejorative term, e.g. Hollènder (dialect) in Maastricht.The plural "Nederlanden" is used in many different connotations in the past, but since 1815 it has been used in the official name "Koninkrijk der Nederlanden" ("Kingdom of the Netherlands"). In many other languages the plural stuck, for example "Niederlande" (German), "Pays-Bas" (French) and "Países Bajos" (Spanish). In Indonesian (a former colony) the country is called "Belanda", a name derived from 'Holland'.The prehistory of the area that is now the Netherlands was largely shaped by the sea and the rivers that constantly shifted the low-lying geography. The oldest human (Neanderthal) traces were found in higher soils, near Maastricht, from what is believed to be about 250,000 years ago. At the end of the Ice Age, the nomadic late Upper Paleolithic Hamburg culture (c. 13.000–10.000 BC) hunted reindeer in the area, using spears, but the later Ahrensburg culture (c. 11.200–9500 BC) used bow and arrow. From Mesolithic Maglemosian-like tribes (c. 8000 BC) the oldest canoe in the world was found in Drenthe.Indigenous late Mesolithic hunter-gatherers from the Swifterbant culture (c. 5600 BC) were related to the southern Scandinavian Ertebølle culture and were strongly linked to rivers and open water. Between 4800 and 4500 BC, the Swifterbant people started to copy from the neighbouring Linear Pottery culture the practise of animal husbandry, and between 4300 and 4000 BC the practice of agriculture. The Funnelbeaker culture (c. 4300–2800 BC), which is related to the Swifterbant culture, erected the dolmens, large stone grave monuments found in Drenthe. There was a quick and smooth transition from the Funnelbeaker farming culture to the pan-European Corded Ware pastoralist culture (c. 2950 BC). In the southwest, the Seine-Oise-Marne culture — which was related to the Vlaardingen culture (c. 2600 BC), an apparently more primitive culture of hunter-gatherers — survived well into the Neolithic period, until it too was succeeded by the Corded Ware culture.Of the subsequent Bell Beaker culture (2700–2100 BC) several regions of origin have been postulated, notably the Iberian peninsula, the Netherlands and Central Europe. They introduced metalwork in copper, gold and later bronze and opened international trade routes not seen before, reflected in the discoveries of copper artifacts, as the metal is not normally found in Dutch soil. The many finds in Drenthe of rare bronze objects, suggest that it was even a trading centre in the Bronze Age (2000–800 BC). The Bell Beaker culture developed locally into the Barbed-Wire Beaker culture (2100–1800 BC) and later the Elp culture (c. 1800–800 BC), a Middle Bronze Age archaeological culture having earthenware pottery of low quality as a marker. The initial phase of the Elp culture was characterised by tumuli (1800–1200 BC) that were strongly tied to contemporary tumuli in northern Germany and Scandinavia and was apparently related to the Tumulus culture in central Europe. The subsequent phase was that of cremating the dead and placing their ashes in urns which were then buried in fields, following the customs of the Urnfield culture (1200–800 BC). The southern region became dominated by the related Hilversum culture (1800–800 BC), which apparently inherited cultural ties with Britain of the previous Barbed-Wire Beaker culture.From 800 BC onwards, the Iron Age Celtic Hallstatt culture became influential, replacing the Hilversum culture. Iron ore brought a measure of prosperity and was available throughout the country, including bog iron. Smiths travelled from settlement to settlement with bronze and iron, fabricating tools on demand. The King's grave of Oss (700 BC) was found in a burial mound, the largest of its kind in western Europe and containing an iron sword with an inlay of gold and coral.The deteriorating climate in Scandinavia around 850 BC further deteriorated around 650 BC and might have triggered migration of Germanic tribes from the North. By the time this migration was complete, around 250 BC, a few general cultural and linguistic groups had emerged. The North Sea Germanic Ingaevones inhabited the northern part of the Low Countries. They would later develop into the Frisii and the early Saxons. A second grouping, the Weser-Rhine Germanic (or Istvaeones), extended along the middle Rhine and Weser and inhabited the Low Countries south of the great rivers. This group consisted of tribes that would eventually develop into the Salian Franks. Also the Celtic La Tène culture (c. 450 BC up to the Roman conquest) had expanded over a wide range, including the southern area of the Low Countries. Some scholars have speculated that even a third ethnic identity and language, neither Germanic nor Celtic, survived in the Netherlands until the Roman period, the Iron Age Nordwestblock culture, that eventually was absorbed by the Celts to the south and the Germanic peoples from the east.The first author to describe the coast of Holland and Flanders was the Greek geographer Pytheas, who noted in c. 325 BC that in these regions, "more people died in the struggle against water than in the struggle against men." During the Gallic Wars, the area south and west of the Rhine was conquered by Roman forces under Julius Caesar from 57 BC to 53 BC. Caesar describes two main Celtic tribes living in what is now the southern Netherlands: the Menapii and the Eburones. The Rhine became fixed as Rome's northern frontier around 12 AD. Notable towns would arise along the Limes Germanicus: Nijmegen and Voorburg. In the first part of Gallia Belgica, the area south of the Limes became part of the Roman province of Germania Inferior. The area to the north of the Rhine, inhabited by the Frisii, remained outside Roman rule (but not its presence and control), while the Germanic border tribes of the Batavi and Cananefates served in the Roman cavalry. The Batavi rose against the Romans in the Batavian rebellion of 69 AD but were eventually defeated. The Batavi later merged with other tribes into the confederation of the Salian Franks, whose identity emerged at the first half of the third century. Salian Franks appear in Roman texts as both allies and enemies. They were forced by the confederation of the Saxons from the east to move over the Rhine into Roman territory in the fourth century. From their new base in West Flanders and the Southwest Netherlands, they were raiding the English Channel. Roman forces pacified the region, but did not expel the Franks, who continued to be feared at least until the time of Julian the Apostate (358) when Salian Franks were allowed to settle as "foederati" in Texandria. It has been postulated that after deteriorating climate conditions and the Romans' withdrawal, the Frisii disappeared as "laeti" in c. 296, leaving the coastal lands largely unpopulated for the next two centuries. However, recent excavations in Kennemerland show clear indication of a permanent habitation.After Roman government in the area collapsed, the Franks expanded their territories in numerous kingdoms. By the 490s, Clovis I had conquered and united all these territories in the southern Netherlands in one Frankish kingdom, and from there continued his conquests into Gaul. During this expansion, Franks migrating to the south eventually adopted the Vulgar Latin of the local population. A widening cultural divide grew with the Franks remaining in their original homeland in the north (i.e. the southern Netherlands and Flanders), who kept on speaking Old Frankish, which by the ninth century had evolved into Old Low Franconian or Old Dutch. A Dutch-French language boundary hence came into existence.To the north of the Franks, climatic conditions improved, and during the Migration Period Saxons, the closely related Angles, Jutes and Frisii settled the coastal land. Many moved on to England and came to be known as Anglo-Saxons, but those who stayed would be referred to as Frisians and their language as Frisian, named after the land that was once inhabited by Frisii. Frisian was spoken along the entire southern North Sea coast, and it is still the language most closely related to English among the living languages of continental Europe. By the seventh century a Frisian Kingdom (650–734) under King Aldegisel and King Redbad emerged with Traiectum (Utrecht) as its centre of power, while Dorestad was a flourishing trading place. Between 600 and around 719 the cities were often fought over between the Frisians and the Franks. In 734, at the Battle of the Boarn, the Frisians were defeated after a series of wars. With the approval of the Franks, the Anglo-Saxon missionary Willibrord converted the Frisian people to Christianity. He established the Archdiocese of Utrecht and became bishop of the Frisians. However, his successor Boniface was murdered by the Frisians in Dokkum, in 754.The Frankish Carolingian empire modelled itself on the Roman Empire and controlled much of Western Europe. However, in 843, it was divided into three parts—East, Middle, and West Francia. Most of present-day Netherlands became part of Middle Francia, which was a weak kingdom and subject of numerous partitions and annexation attempts by its stronger neighbours. It comprised territories from Frisia in the north to the Kingdom of Italy in the south. Around 850, Lothair I of Middle Francia acknowledged the Viking Rorik of Dorestad as ruler of most of Frisia. When the kingdom of Middle Francia was partitioned in 855, the lands north of the Alps passed to Lothair II and subsequently were named Lotharingia. After he died in 869, Lotharingia was partitioned, into Upper and Lower Lotharingia, the latter part comprising the Low Countries that technically became part of East Francia in 870, although it was effectively under the control of Vikings, who raided the largely defenceless Frisian and Frankish towns lying on the Frisian coast and along the rivers. Around 879, another Viking expedition led by Godfrid, Duke of Frisia, raided the Frisian lands. The Viking raids made the sway of French and German lords in the area weak. Resistance to the Vikings, if any, came from local nobles, who gained in stature as a result, and that laid the basis for the disintegration of Lower Lotharingia into semi-independent states. One of these local nobles was Gerolf of Holland, who assumed lordship in Frisia after he helped to assassinate Godfrid, and Viking rule came to an end.The Holy Roman Empire (the successor state of East Francia and then Lotharingia) ruled much of the Low Countries in the 10th and 11th century but was not able to maintain political unity. Powerful local nobles turned their cities, counties and duchies into private kingdoms that felt little sense of obligation to the emperor. Holland, Hainaut, Flanders, Gelre, Brabant, and Utrecht were in a state of almost continual war or in paradoxically formed personal unions. The language and culture of most of the people who lived in the County of Holland were originally Frisian. As Frankish settlement progressed from Flanders and Brabant, the area quickly became Old Low Franconian (or Old Dutch). The rest of Frisia in the north (now Friesland and Groningen) continued to maintain its independence and had its own institutions (collectively called the "Frisian freedom"), which resented the imposition of the feudal system.Around 1000 AD, due to several agricultural developments, the economy started to develop at a fast pace, and the higher productivity allowed workers to farm more land or to become tradesmen. Towns grew around monasteries and castles, and a mercantile middle class began to develop in these urban areas, especially in Flanders and later also Brabant. Wealthy cities started to buy certain privileges for themselves from the sovereign. In practice, this meant that Bruges and Antwerp became quasi-independent republics in their own right and would later develop into some of the most important cities and ports in Europe.Around 1100 AD, farmers from Flanders and Utrecht began draining and cultivating uninhabited swampy land in the western Netherlands, making the emergence of the County of Holland as the centre of power possible. The title of Count of Holland was fought over in the Hook and Cod Wars () between 1350 and 1490. The Cod faction consisted of the more progressive cities, while the Hook faction consisted of the conservative noblemen. These noblemen invited the Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy — who was also Count of Flanders — to conquer Holland.Most of the Imperial and French fiefs in what is now the Netherlands and Belgium were united in a personal union by Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, in 1433. The House of Valois-Burgundy and their Habsburg heirs would rule the Low Countries in the period from 1384 to 1581. Before the Burgundian union, the Dutch identified themselves by the town they lived in or their local duchy or county. The Burgundian period is when the road to nationhood began. The new rulers defended Dutch trading interests, which then developed rapidly. The fleets of the County of Holland defeated the fleets of the Hanseatic League several times. Amsterdam grew and in the 15th century became the primary trading port in Europe for grain from the Baltic region. Amsterdam distributed grain to the major cities of Belgium, Northern France and England. This trade was vital because Holland could no longer produce enough grain to feed itself. Land drainage had caused the peat of the former wetlands to reduce to a level that was too low for drainage to be maintained.Under Habsburg Charles V, ruler of the Holy Roman Empire and King of Spain, all fiefs in the current Netherlands region were united into the Seventeen Provinces, which also included most of present-day Belgium, Luxembourg, and some adjacent land in what is now France and Germany. In 1568, under Phillip II, the Eighty Years' War between the Provinces and their Spanish ruler began. The level of ferocity exhibited by both sides can be gleaned from a Dutch chronicler's report:The Duke of Alba ruthlessly attempted to suppress the Protestant movement in the Netherlands. Netherlanders were "burned, strangled, beheaded, or buried alive" by his "Blood Council" and his Spanish soldiers. Severed heads and decapitated corpses were displayed along streets and roads to terrorize the population into submission. Alba boasted of having executed 18,600, but this figure does not include those who perished by war and famine.The first great siege was Alba's effort to capture Haarlem and thereby cut Holland in half. It dragged on from December 1572 to the next summer, when Haarlemers finally surrendered on 13 July upon the promise that the city would be spared from being sacked. It was a stipulation Don Fadrique was unable to honour, when his soldiers mutinied, angered over pay owed and the miserable conditions they endured during the long, cold months of the campaign. On 4 November 1576, Spanish tercios seized Antwerp and subjected it to the worst pillage in the Netherlands' history. The citizens resisted, but were overcome; seven thousand of them were mowed down; a thousand buildings were torched; men, women, and children were slaughtered in a delirium of blood by soldiers crying, "Santiago! España! A sangre, a carne, a fuego, a sacco!" (Saint James! Spain! To blood, to the flesh, to fire, to sack!)Following the sack of Antwerp, delegates from Catholic Brabant, Protestant Holland and Zeeland agreed, at Ghent, to join Utrecht and William the Silent in driving out all Spanish troops and forming a new government for the Netherlands. Don Juan of Austria, the new Spanish governor, was forced to concede initially, but within months returned to active hostilities. As the fighting restarted, the Dutch began to look for help from the Queen of England, but she initially stood by her commitments to the Spanish in the Treaty of Bristol of 1574. The result was that when the next large-scale battle did occur at Gembloux in 1578, the Spanish forces easily won the day, killing at least 10,000 rebels, with the Spanish suffering few losses. In light of the defeat at Gembloux, the southern states of the Seventeen Provinces (today in northern France and Belgium) distanced themselves from the rebels in the north with the 1579 Union of Arras, which expressed their loyalty to Philip II of Spain. Opposing them, the northern half of the Seventeen Provinces forged the Union of Utrecht (also of 1579) in which they committed to support each other in their defence against the Spanish army. The Union of Utrecht is seen as the foundation of the modern Netherlands.Spanish troops sacked Maastricht in 1579, killing over 10,000 civilians and thereby ensuring the rebellion continued. In 1581, the northern provinces adopted the Act of Abjuration, the declaration of independence in which the provinces officially deposed Philip II as reigning monarch in the northern provinces. Against the rebels Philip could draw on the resources of Spain, Spanish America, Spanish Italy and the Spanish Netherlands. The Protestant Queen Elizabeth I of England sympathised with the Dutch struggle against the Spanish and sent an army of 7,600 soldiers to aid the Dutch in their war with the Catholic Spanish. English forces under the Earl of Leicester and then Lord Willoughby faced the Spanish in the Netherlands under the Duke of Parma in a series of largely indecisive actions that tied down significant numbers of Spanish troops and bought time for the Dutch to reorganise their defences. The war continued until 1648, when Spain under King Philip IV finally recognised the independence of the seven north-western provinces in the Peace of Münster. Parts of the southern provinces became "de facto" colonies of the new republican-mercantile empire.After declaring their independence, the provinces of Holland, Zeeland, Groningen, Friesland, Utrecht, Overijssel, and Gelderland formed a confederation. All these duchies, lordships and counties were autonomous and had their own government, the States-Provincial. The States General, the confederal government, were seated in The Hague and consisted of representatives from each of the seven provinces. The sparsely populated region of Drenthe was part of the republic too, although it was not considered one of the provinces. Moreover, the Republic had come to occupy during the Eighty Years' War a number of so-called Generality Lands in Flanders, Brabant and Limburg. Their population was mainly Roman Catholic, and these areas did not have a governmental structure of their own, and were used as a buffer zone between the Republic and the Spanish-controlled Southern Netherlands.In the Dutch Golden Age, spanning much of the 17th century, the Dutch Empire grew to become one of the major seafaring and economic powers, alongside Portugal, Spain, France and England. Science, military, and art (especially painting) were among the most acclaimed in the world. By 1650, the Dutch owned 16,000 merchant ships. The Dutch East India Company and the Dutch West India Company established colonies and trading posts all over the world, including ruling the northern parts of Taiwan between 1624–1662 and 1664–1667. The Dutch settlement in North America began with the founding of New Amsterdam on the southern part of Manhattan in 1614. In South Africa, the Dutch settled the Cape Colony in 1652. Dutch colonies in South America were established along the many rivers in the fertile Guyana plains, among them Colony of Surinam (now Suriname). In Asia, the Dutch established the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), and the only western trading post in Japan, Dejima.During the period of Proto-industrialization, the empire received 50% of textiles and 80% of silks import from the India's Mughal Empire, chiefly from its most developed region known as Bengal Subah.Many economic historians regard the Netherlands as the first thoroughly capitalist country in the world. In early modern Europe, it had the wealthiest trading city (Amsterdam) and the first full-time stock exchange. The inventiveness of the traders led to insurance and retirement funds as well as phenomena such as the boom-bust cycle, the world's first asset-inflation bubble, the tulip mania of 1636–1637, and the world's first bear raider, Isaac le Maire, who forced prices down by dumping stock and then buying it back at a discount. In 1672 – known in Dutch history as the Rampjaar (Disaster Year) – the Dutch Republic was at war with France, England and three German Bishoprics simultaneously. At sea, it could successfully prevent the English and French navy from entering the western shores. On land, however, it was almost taken over internally by the advancing French and German armies coming from the east. It managed to turn the tide by inundating parts of Holland but could never recover to its former glory again and went into a state of a general decline in the 18th century, with economic competition from England and long-standing rivalries between the two main factions in Dutch society, the republican "Staatsgezinden" and the supporters of the stadtholder the "Prinsgezinden" as main political factions.With the armed support of revolutionary France, Dutch republicans proclaimed the Batavian Republic, modelled after the French Republic and rendering the Netherlands a unitary state on 19 January 1795. The stadtholder William V of Orange had fled to England. But from 1806 to 1810, the Kingdom of Holland was set up by Napoleon Bonaparte as a puppet kingdom governed by his brother Louis Bonaparte to control the Netherlands more effectively. However, King Louis Bonaparte tried to serve Dutch interests instead of his brother's, and he was forced to abdicate on 1 July 1810. The Emperor sent in an army and the Netherlands became part of the French Empire until the autumn of 1813 when Napoleon was defeated in the Battle of Leipzig.William Frederick, son of the last stadtholder, returned to the Netherlands in 1813 and proclaimed himself Sovereign Prince of the Netherlands. Two years later, the Congress of Vienna added the southern Netherlands to the north to create a strong country on the northern border of France. William Frederick raised this United Netherlands to the status of a kingdom and proclaimed himself as King William I in 1815. In addition, William became hereditary Grand Duke of Luxembourg in exchange for his German possessions. However, the Southern Netherlands had been culturally separate from the north since 1581, and rebelled. The south gained independence in 1830 as Belgium (recognised by the Northern Netherlands in 1839 as the Kingdom of the Netherlands was created by decree), while the personal union between Luxembourg and the Netherlands was severed in 1890, when William III died with no surviving male heirs. Ascendancy laws prevented his daughter Queen Wilhelmina from becoming the next Grand Duchess.The Belgian Revolution at home and the Java War in the Dutch East Indies brought the Netherlands to the brink of bankruptcy. However, the Cultivation System was introduced in 1830; in the Dutch East Indies, 20% of village land had to be devoted to government crops for export. The policy brought the Dutch enormous wealth and made the colony self-sufficient.The Netherlands abolished slavery in its colonies in 1863. Slaves in Suriname would be fully free only in 1873, since the law stipulated that there was to be a mandatory 10-year transition.The Netherlands was able to remain neutral during World War I, in part because the import of goods through the Netherlands proved essential to German survival until the blockade by the British Royal Navy in 1916. That changed in World War II, when Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands on 10 May 1940. The Rotterdam Blitz forced the main element of the Dutch army to surrender four days later. During the occupation, over 100,000 Dutch Jews were rounded up and transported to Nazi extermination camps; only a few of them survived. Dutch workers were conscripted for forced labour in Germany, civilians who resisted were killed in reprisal for attacks on German soldiers, and the countryside was plundered for food. Although there were thousands of Dutch who risked their lives by hiding Jews from the Germans, over 20,000 Dutch fascists joined the Waffen SS, fighting on the Eastern Front. Political collaborators were members of the fascist NSB, the only legal political party in the occupied Netherlands. On 8 December 1941, the Dutch government-in-exile in London declared war on Japan, but could not prevent the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia). In 1944–45, the First Canadian Army, which included Canadian, British and Polish troops, was responsible for liberating much of the Netherlands. Soon after VE Day, the Dutch fought a colonial war against the new Republic of Indonesia.In 1954, the Charter for the Kingdom of the Netherlands reformed the political structure of the Netherlands, which was a result of international pressure to carry out decolonisation. The Dutch colonies of Surinam and Curaçao and Dependencies and the European country all became countries within the Kingdom, on a basis of equality. Indonesia had declared its independence in August 1945 (recognised in 1949), and thus was never part of the reformed Kingdom. Suriname followed in 1975. After the war, the Netherlands left behind an era of neutrality and gained closer ties with neighbouring states. The Netherlands was one of the founding members of the Benelux, the NATO, Euratom and the European Coal and Steel Community, which would evolve into the EEC (Common Market) and later the European Union.Government-encouraged emigration efforts to reduce population density prompted some 500,000 Dutch people to leave the country after the war. The 1960s and 1970s were a time of great social and cultural change, such as rapid de-pillarisation characterised by the decay of the old divisions along political and religious lines. Youths, and students in particular, rejected traditional mores and pushed for change in matters such as women's rights, sexuality, disarmament and environmental issues. In 2002 the euro was introduced as fiat money, and in 2010 the Netherlands Antilles was dissolved. Referendums were held on each island to determine their future status. As a result, the islands of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba (the BES islands) were to obtain closer ties with the Netherlands. This led to the incorporation of these three islands into the country of the Netherlands as "special municipalities" upon the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles. The special municipalities are collectively known as the Caribbean Netherlands.According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, the European Netherlands has a total area of , including water bodies; and a land area of . The Caribbean Netherlands has a total area of It lies between latitudes 50° and 54° N, and longitudes 3° and 8° E.The Netherlands is geographically very low relative to sea level and is considered a flat country, with about 26% of its area and 21% of its population located below sea level, and only about 50% of its land exceeding one metre above sea level. The European part of the country is for the most part flat, with the exception of foothills in the far southeast, up to a height of no more than 321 metres, and some low hill ranges in the central parts. Most of the areas below sea level are man-made, caused by peat extraction or achieved through land reclamation. Since the late 16th century, large polder areas are preserved through elaborate drainage systems that include dikes, canals and pumping stations. Nearly 17% of the country's land area is reclaimed from the sea and from lakes.Much of the country was originally formed by the estuaries of three large European rivers: the Rhine ("Rijn"), the Meuse ("Maas") and the Scheldt ("Schelde"), as well as their tributaries. The south-western part of the Netherlands is to this day a river delta of these three rivers, the Rhine-Meuse-Scheldt delta.The European Netherlands is divided into north and south parts by the Rhine, the Waal, its main tributary branch, and the Meuse. In the past, these rivers functioned as a natural barrier between fiefdoms and hence historically created a cultural divide, as is evident in some phonetic traits that are recognisable on either side of what the Dutch call their "Great Rivers" ("de Grote Rivieren"). Another significant branch of the Rhine, the IJssel river, discharges into Lake IJssel, the former Zuiderzee ('southern sea'). Just like the previous, this river forms a linguistic divide: people to the northeast of this river speak Dutch Low Saxon dialects (except for the province of Friesland, which has its own language).The modern Netherlands formed as a result of the interplay of the four main rivers (Rhine, Meuse, Schelde and IJssel) and the influence of the North Sea. The Netherlands is mostly composed of deltaic, coastal and eolian derived sediments during the Pleistocene glacial and interglacial periods.Almost the entire west Netherlands is composed of the Rhine-Meuse river estuary, but human intervention greatly modified the natural processes at work. Most of the western Netherlands is below sea level due to the human process of turning standing bodies of water into usable land, a polder.In the east of the Netherlands, remains are found of the last ice age, which ended approximately ten thousand years ago. As the continental ice sheet moved in from the north, it pushed moraine forward. The ice sheet halted as it covered the eastern half of the Netherlands. After the ice age ended, the moraine remained in the form of a long hill-line. The cities of Arnhem and Nijmegen are built upon these hills.Over the centuries, the Dutch coastline has changed considerably as a result of natural disasters and human intervention.On 14 December 1287, St. Lucia's flood affected the Netherlands and Germany, killing more than 50,000 people in one of the most destructive floods in recorded history. The St. Elizabeth flood of 1421 and the mismanagement in its aftermath destroyed a newly reclaimed polder, replacing it with the "Biesbosch" tidal floodplains in the south-centre. The huge North Sea flood of early February 1953 caused the collapse of several dikes in the south-west of the Netherlands; more than 1,800 people drowned in the flood. The Dutch government subsequently instituted a large-scale programme, the "Delta Works", to protect the country against future flooding, which was completed over a period of more than thirty years.The impact of disasters was, to an extent, increased through human activity. Relatively high-lying swampland was drained to be used as farmland. The drainage caused the fertile peat to contract and ground levels to drop, upon which groundwater levels were lowered to compensate for the drop in ground level, causing the underlying peat to contract further. Additionally, until the 19th-century peat was mined, dried, and used for fuel, further exacerbating the problem. Centuries of extensive and poorly controlled peat extraction lowered an already low land surface by several metres. Even in flooded areas, peat extraction continued through turf dredging.Because of the flooding, farming was difficult, which encouraged foreign trade, the result of which was that the Dutch were involved in world affairs since the early 14th/15th century.To guard against floods, a series of defences against the water were contrived. In the first millennium AD, villages and farmhouses were built on man-made hills called "terps". Later, these terps were connected by dikes. In the 12th century, local government agencies called ""waterschappen"" ("water boards") or ""hoogheemraadschappen"" ("high home councils") started to appear, whose job it was to maintain the water level and to protect a region from floods; these agencies continue to exist. As the ground level dropped, the dikes by necessity grew and merged into an integrated system. By the 13th century windmills had come into use to pump water out of areas below sea level. The windmills were later used to drain lakes, creating the famous polders.In 1932 the "Afsluitdijk" ("Closure Dike") was completed, blocking the former "Zuiderzee" (Southern Sea) from the North Sea and thus creating the IJsselmeer (IJssel Lake). It became part of the larger Zuiderzee Works in which four polders totalling were reclaimed from the sea.The Netherlands is one of the countries that may suffer most from climate change. Not only is the rising sea a problem, but erratic weather patterns may cause the rivers to overflow.After the 1953 disaster, the Delta Works was constructed, which is a comprehensive set of civil works throughout the Dutch coast. The project started in 1958 and was largely completed in 1997 with the completion of the Maeslantkering. Since then, new projects have been periodically started to renovate and renew the Delta Works. The main goal of the Delta project was to reduce the risk of flooding in South Holland and Zeeland to once per 10,000 years (compared to once per 4000 years for the rest of the country). This was achieved by raising of outer sea-dikes and of the inner, canal, and river dikes, and by closing off the sea estuaries of the Zeeland province. New risk assessments occasionally show problems requiring additional Delta project dike reinforcements. The Delta project is considered by the American Society of Civil Engineers as one of the seven wonders of the modern world.It is anticipated that global warming in the 21st century will result in a rise in sea level. The Netherlands is actively preparing for a sea-level rise. A politically neutral Delta Commission has formulated an action plan to cope with a sea-level rise of and a simultaneous land height decline of . The plan encompasses the reinforcement of the existing coastal defences like dikes and dunes with of additional flood protection. Climate change will not only threaten the Netherlands from the seaside but could also alter rainfall patterns and river run-off. To protect the country from river flooding, another programme is already being executed. The Room for the River plan grants more flow space to rivers, protects the major populated areas and allows for periodic flooding of indefensible lands. The few residents who lived in these so-called "overflow areas" have been moved to higher ground, with some of that ground having been raised above anticipated flood levels.The predominant wind direction in the European Netherlands is southwest, which causes a mild maritime climate, with moderately warm summers and cool winters, and typically high humidity. This is especially true close to the Dutch coastline, where the difference in temperature between summer and winter, as well as between day and night is noticeably smaller than it is in the southeast of the country.Ice days—maximum temperature below —usually occur from December until February, with the occasional rare ice day prior to or after that period. Freezing days—minimum temperature below —occur much more often, usually ranging from mid-November to late March, but not rarely measured as early as mid-October and as late as mid-May. If one chooses the height of measurement to be above ground instead of , one may even find such temperatures in the middle of the summer. On average, snow can occur from November to April but sometimes occurs in May or October too.Warm days—maximum temperature above —are usually found in April to October, but in some parts of the country these warm days can also occur in March, or even sometimes in November or February (usually not in , however). Summer days—maximum temperature above —are usually measured in from May until September, tropical days—maximum temperature above —are rare and usually occur only in June to August.Precipitation throughout the year is distributed relatively equally each month. Summer and autumn months tend to gather a little more precipitation than the other months, mainly because of the intensity of the rainfall rather than the frequency of rain days (this is especially the case in summer when lightning is also much more frequent).The number of sunshine hours is affected by the fact that because of the geographical latitude, the length of the days varies between barely eight hours in December and nearly 17 hours in June.The following table are based on mean measurements by the KNMI weather station in De Bilt between 1991 and 2020. The highest recorded temperature was reached on 25 July 2019 in Gilze-Rijen.The Netherlands has 20 national parks and hundreds of other nature reserves, that include lakes, heathland, woods, dunes, and other habitats. Most of these are owned by Staatsbosbeheer, the national department for forestry and nature conservation and Natuurmonumenten (literally 'Natures monuments'), a private organisation that buys, protects and manages nature reserves. The Dutch part of the Wadden Sea in the north, with its tidal flats and wetlands, is rich in biological diversity, and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Nature Site in 2009.The Oosterschelde, formerly the northeast estuary of the river Scheldt was designated a national park in 2002, thereby making it the largest national park in the Netherlands at an area of . It consists primarily of the salt waters of the Oosterschelde but also includes mudflats, meadows, and shoals. Because of the large variety of sea life, including unique regional species, the park is popular with Scuba divers. Other activities include sailing, fishing, cycling, and bird watching.Phytogeographically, the European Netherlands is shared between the Atlantic European and Central European provinces of the Circumboreal Region within the Boreal Kingdom. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, the European territory of the Netherlands belongs to the ecoregion of Atlantic mixed forests. In 1871, the last old original natural woods were cut down, and most woods today are planted monocultures of trees like Scots pine and trees that are not native to the Netherlands. These woods were planted on anthropogenic heaths and sand-drifts (overgrazed heaths) (Veluwe). The Netherlands had a 2019 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 0.6/10, ranking it 169th globally out of 172 countries.While Curaçao, Aruba and Sint Maarten have a constituent country status, the Caribbean Netherlands are three islands designated as special municipalities of the Netherlands. The islands are part of the Lesser Antilles and have land borders with France (Saint Martin) and maritime borders with Anguilla, Curaçao, France (Saint Barthélemy), Saint Kitts and Nevis, Sint Maarten, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Venezuela.Within this island group:The islands of the Caribbean Netherlands enjoy a tropical climate with warm weather all year round. The Leeward Antilles are warmer and drier than the Windward islands. In summer, the Windward Islands can be subject to hurricanes.The Netherlands has been a constitutional monarchy since 1815, and due to the efforts of Johan Rudolph Thorbecke became a parliamentary democracy in 1848. The Netherlands is described as a consociational state. Dutch politics and governance are characterised by an effort to achieve broad consensus on important issues, within both the political community and society as a whole. In 2017, "The Economist" ranked the Netherlands as the 11th most democratic country in the world.The monarch is the head of state, at present King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands. Constitutionally, the position is equipped with limited powers. By law, the King has the right to be periodically briefed and consulted on government affairs. Depending on the personalities and relationships of the King and the ministers, the monarch might have influence beyond the power granted by the Constitution of the Netherlands.The executive power is formed by the Council of Ministers, the deliberative organ of the Dutch cabinet. The cabinet usually consists of 13 to 16 ministers and a varying number of state secretaries. One to three ministers are ministers without portfolio. The head of government is the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, who often is the leader of the largest party of the coalition. The Prime Minister is a "primus inter pares", with no explicit powers beyond those of the other ministers. Mark Rutte has been Prime Minister since October 2010; the Prime Minister had been the leader of the largest party of the governing coalition continuously since 1973.The cabinet is responsible to the bicameral parliament, the States General, which also has legislative powers. The 150 members of the House of Representatives, the lower house, are elected in direct elections on the basis of party-list proportional representation. These are held every four years, or sooner in case the cabinet falls (for example: when one of the chambers carries a motion of no confidence, the cabinet offers its resignation to the monarch). The States-Provincial are directly elected every four years as well. The members of the provincial assemblies elect the 75 members of the Senate, the upper house, which has the power to reject laws, but not propose or amend them. Both houses send members to the Benelux Parliament, a consultative council.Both trade unions and employers organisations are consulted beforehand in policymaking in the financial, economic and social areas. They meet regularly with the government in the Social-Economic Council. This body advises government and its advice cannot be put aside easily.The Netherlands has a long tradition of social tolerance. In the 18th century, while the Dutch Reformed Church was the state religion, Catholicism, other forms of Protestantism, such as Baptists and Lutherans, as well as Judaism were tolerated but discriminated against.In the late 19th century this Dutch tradition of religious tolerance transformed into a system of pillarisation, in which religious groups coexisted separately and only interacted at the level of government. This tradition of tolerance influences Dutch criminal justice policies on recreational drugs, prostitution, LGBT rights, euthanasia, and abortion, which are among the most liberal in the world.Because of the multi-party system, no single party has held a majority in parliament since the 19th century, as a result, coalition cabinets had to be formed. Since suffrage became universal in 1917, the Dutch political system has been dominated by three families of political parties: the strongest of which were the Christian Democrats, currently represented by the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA); second were the Social Democrats, represented by the Labour Party (PvdA); and third were the Liberals, of which the right-wing People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) is the main representative.These parties co-operated in coalition cabinets in which the Christian Democrats had always been a partner: so either a centre-left coalition of the Christian Democrats and Social Democrats was ruling or a centre-right coalition of Christian Democrats and Liberals. In the 1970s, the party system became more volatile: the Christian Democratic parties lost seats, while new parties became successful, such as the radical democrat and progressive liberal Democrats 66 (D66) or the ecologist party GroenLinks (GL).In the 1994 election, the CDA lost its dominant position. A "purple" cabinet was formed by the VVD, D66, and PvdA. In the 2002 elections, this cabinet lost its majority, because of an increased support for the CDA and the rise of the right-wing LPF, a new political party, around Pim Fortuyn, who was assassinated a week before the elections. A short-lived cabinet was formed by CDA, VVD, and LPF, which was led by the CDA Leader Jan Peter Balkenende. After the 2003 elections, in which the LPF lost most of its seats, a cabinet was formed by the CDA, VVD, and D66. The cabinet initiated an ambitious programme of reforming the welfare state, the healthcare system, and immigration policy.In June 2006, the cabinet fell after D66 voted in favour of a motion of no confidence against the Minister of Immigration and Integration, Rita Verdonk, who had instigated an investigation of the asylum procedure of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a VVD MP. A caretaker cabinet was formed by the CDA and VVD, and general elections were held on 22 November 2006. In these elections, the CDA remained the largest party and the Socialist Party made the largest gains. The formation of a new cabinet took three months, resulting in a coalition of CDA, PvdA, and Christian Union.On 20 February 2010, the cabinet fell when the PvdA refused to prolong the involvement of the Dutch Army in Uruzgan, Afghanistan. Snap elections were held on 9 June 2010, with devastating results for the previously largest party, the CDA, which lost about half of its seats, resulting in 21 seats. The VVD became the largest party with 31 seats, closely followed by the PvdA with 30 seats. The big winner of the 2010 elections was Geert Wilders, whose right wing PVV, the ideological successor to the LPF, more than doubled its number of seats. Negotiation talks for a new government resulted in a minority government, led by VVD (a first) in coalition with CDA, which was sworn in on 14 October 2010. This unprecedented minority government was supported by PVV, but proved ultimately to be unstable, when on 21 April 2012, Wilders, leader of PVV, unexpectedly 'torpedoed seven weeks of austerity talks' on new austerity measures, paving the way for early elections.VVD and PvdA won a majority in the House of Representatives during the 2012 general election. On 5 November 2012 they formed the second Rutte cabinet. After the 2017 general election, VVD, Christian Democratic Appeal, Democrats 66 and ChristenUnie formed the third Rutte cabinet. This cabinet resigned in January 2021, two months before the general election, after a child welfare fraud scandal. In March 2021, centre-right VVD of Prime Minister Mark Rutte was the winner of the elections, securing 35 out of 150 seats. The second biggest party was the centre-left D66 with 24 seats. Geert Wilders' far-right party lost its support. Prime Minister Mark Rutte, in power since 2010, formed his fourth coalition government.The Netherlands is divided into twelve provinces, each under a King's Commissioner ("Commissaris van de Koning"). Informally in Limburg province this position is named Governor ("Gouverneur"). All provinces are divided into municipalities ("gemeenten"), of which there are 355 (2019).The country is also subdivided into 21 water districts, governed by a water board ("waterschap" or "hoogheemraadschap"), each having authority in matters concerning water management. The creation of water boards actually pre-dates that of the nation itself, the first appearing in 1196. The Dutch water boards are among the oldest democratic entities in the world still in existence. Direct elections of the water boards take place every four years.The administrative structure on the three BES islands, collectively known as the Caribbean Netherlands, is outside the twelve provinces. These islands have the status of "openbare lichamen (public bodies)". In the Netherlands these administrative units are often referred to as "special municipalities".The Netherlands has several Belgian exclaves and within those even several enclaves which are part of the province of North Brabant. Because the Netherlands and Belgium are both in the Benelux, and more recently in the Schengen Area, citizens of respective countries can travel through these enclaves without controls.The history of Dutch foreign policy has been characterised by its neutrality. Since World War II, the Netherlands has become a member of a large number of international organisations, most prominently the UN, NATO and the EU. The Dutch economy is very open and relies strongly on international trade.The foreign policy of the Netherlands is based on four basic commitments: to Atlantic co-operation, to European integration, to international development and to international law. One of the more controversial international issues surrounding the Netherlands is its liberal policy towards soft drugs.During and after the Dutch Golden Age, the Dutch people built up a commercial and colonial empire. The most important colonies were present-day Suriname and Indonesia. Indonesia became independent after the Indonesian National Revolution in the 1940s following a war of independence, international pressure and several United Nations Security Council resolutions. Suriname became independent in 1975. The historical ties inherited from its colonial past still influence the foreign relations of the Netherlands. In addition, many people from these countries are living permanently in the Netherlands.The Netherlands has one of the oldest standing armies in Europe; it was first established as such by Maurice of Nassau in the late 1500s. The Dutch army was used throughout the Dutch Empire. After the defeat of Napoleon, the Dutch army was transformed into a conscription army. The army was unsuccessfully deployed during the Belgian Revolution in 1830. After 1830, it was deployed mainly in the Dutch colonies, as the Netherlands remained neutral in European wars (including the First World War), until the Netherlands was invaded in World War II and defeated by the Wehrmacht in May 1940.The Netherlands abandoned its neutrality in 1948 when it signed the Treaty of Brussels, and became a founding member of NATO in 1949. The Dutch military was therefore part of the NATO strength in Cold War Europe, deploying its army to several bases in Germany. More than 3,000 Dutch soldiers were assigned to the 2nd Infantry Division of the United States Army during the Korean War. In 1996 conscription was suspended, and the Dutch army was once again transformed into a professional army. Since the 1990s the Dutch army has been involved in the Bosnian War and the Kosovo War, it held a province in Iraq after the defeat of Saddam Hussein, and it was engaged in Afghanistan.The military is composed of four branches, all of which carry the prefix "Koninklijke" (Royal):The submarine service opened to women on 1 January 2017. The Korps Commandotroepen, the Special Operations Force of the Netherlands Army, is open to women, but because of the extremely high physical demands for initial training, it is almost impossible for a woman to become a commando. The Dutch Ministry of Defence employs more than 70,000 personnel, including over 20,000 civilians and over 50,000 military personnel. In April 2011 the government announced a major reduction in its military because of a cut in government expenditure, including a decrease in the number of tanks, fighter aircraft, naval ships and senior officials.The Netherlands has ratified many international conventions concerning war law. The Netherlands decided not to sign the UN treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.The Netherlands has a developed economy and has been playing a special role in the European economy for many centuries. Since the 16th century, shipping, fishing, agriculture, trade, and banking have been leading sectors of the Dutch economy. The Netherlands has a high level of economic freedom. The Netherlands is one of the top countries in the Global Enabling Trade Report (2nd in 2016), and was ranked the fifth most competitive economy in the world by the Swiss International Institute for Management Development in 2017. In addition, the country was ranked the second most innovative nation in the world in the 2018 Global Innovation Index., the key trading partners of the Netherlands were Germany, Belgium, the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Italy, China and Russia. The Netherlands is one of the world's 10 leading exporting countries. Foodstuffs form the largest industrial sector. Other major industries include chemicals, metallurgy, machinery, electrical goods, trade, services and tourism. Examples of international Dutch companies operating in Netherlands include Randstad, Unilever, Heineken, KLM, financial services (ING, ABN AMRO, Rabobank), chemicals (DSM, AKZO), petroleum refining (Royal Dutch Shell), electronical machinery (Philips, ASML), and satellite navigation (TomTom).The Netherlands has the 17th-largest economy in the world, and ranks 11th in GDP (nominal) per capita. Between 1997 and 2000 annual economic growth (GDP) averaged nearly 4%, well above the European average. Growth slowed considerably from 2001 to 2005 with the global economic slowdown, but accelerated to 4.1% in the third quarter of 2007. In May 2013, inflation was at 2.8% per year. In April 2013, unemployment was at 8.2% (or 6.7% following the ILO definition) of the labour force. In February 2019, this was reduced to 3.4%.In Q3 and Q4 2011, the Dutch economy contracted by 0.4% and 0.7%, respectively, because of European Debt Crisis, while in Q4 the Eurozone economy shrunk by 0.3%. The Netherlands also has a relatively low GINI coefficient of 0.326. Despite ranking 11th in GDP per capita, UNICEF ranked the Netherlands 1st in child well-being in rich countries, both in 2007 and in 2013. On the Index of Economic Freedom Netherlands is the 14th most free market capitalist economy out of 180 surveyed countries.Amsterdam is the financial and business capital of the Netherlands. The Amsterdam Stock Exchange (AEX), part of Euronext, is the world's oldest stock exchange and is one of Europe's largest bourses. It is situated near Dam Square in the city's centre. As a founding member of the euro, the Netherlands replaced (for accounting purposes) its former currency, the "gulden" (guilder), on 1 January 1999, along with 15 other adopters of the euro. Actual euro coins and banknotes followed on 1 January 2002. One euro was equivalent to 2.20371 Dutch guilders. In the Caribbean Netherlands, the United States dollar is used instead of the euro.The Dutch location gives it prime access to markets in the UK and Germany, with the Port of Rotterdam being the largest port in Europe. Other important parts of the economy are international trade (Dutch colonialism started with co-operative private enterprises such as the Dutch East India Company), banking and transport. The Netherlands successfully addressed the issue of public finances and stagnating job growth long before its European partners. Amsterdam is the 5th-busiest tourist destination in Europe with more than 4.2 million international visitors. Since the enlargement of the EU large numbers of migrant workers have arrived in the Netherlands from Central and Eastern Europe.The Netherlands continues to be one of the leading European nations for attracting foreign direct investment and is one of the five largest investors in the United States. The economy experienced a slowdown in 2005, but in 2006 recovered to the fastest pace in six years on the back of increased exports and strong investment. The pace of job growth reached 10-year highs in 2007. The Netherlands is the fourth-most competitive economy in the world, according to the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report.Beginning in the 1950s, the Netherlands discovered huge natural gas resources. The sale of natural gas generated enormous revenues for the Netherlands for decades, adding hundreds of billions of euros to the government's budget. However, the unforeseen consequences of the country's huge energy wealth impacted the competitiveness of other sectors of the economy, leading to the theory of Dutch disease.Apart from coal and gas, the country has no mining resources. The last coal mine was closed in 1974. The Groningen gas field, one of the largest natural-gas fields in the world, is situated near Slochteren. The exploitation of this field has resulted in €159 billion in revenue since the mid-1970s. The field is operated by government-owned Gasunie and output is jointly exploited by the government, Royal Dutch Shell, and Exxon Mobil through NAM (Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij). "Gas extraction has resulted in increasingly strong earth tremors, some measuring as much as 3.6 on the Richter magnitude scale. The cost of damage repairs, structural improvements to buildings, and compensation for home value decreases has been estimated at €6.5 billion. Around 35,000 homes are said to be affected." The Netherlands has an estimated 25% of natural gas reserves in the EU. The energy sector accounted for almost 11% of the GDP in 2014. Netherlands' economy, mainly due to the large shares of natural gas reserves, is considered to have "very high" energy intensity rating.The Netherlands is faced with future challenges as the energy supply is forecasted to fall short of the demand by the year 2025 in the gas sector. This is attributed to the depletion of the Netherlands' major gas field, Groningen, and the earthquakes that have hit the Groningen region. In addition, there is ambiguity surrounding the feasibility of producing unconventional gas. The Netherlands relies heavily on natural gas to provide energy. Gas is the main source of heating for households in the Netherlands and represented 35% of the energy mix in 2014. Furthermore, The European Union 2020 package (20% reduction in GHG emissions, 20% renewables in the energy mix and 20% improvement in energy efficiency) enacted in 2009 has influenced the domestic energy politics of Netherlands and pressured non-state actors to give consent to more aggressive energy reforms that would reduce reliance on natural resources as a source of income to the economy. Therefore, a transition towards renewable energy has been a key objective by Netherlands in order to safeguard the energy security of the country from natural resources depletion, mainly gas. Netherlands has set a 14% renewable energy target of the total energy mix by the year 2020. However, the continuation of providing tax breaks to electricity generated by coal and gas, and to the exploration and extraction of gas from fields that are "insufficiently" profitable, renders a successful transition towards renewable energy more difficult to achieve due to inconsistencies in the policy mix. In 2011, it was estimated that the renewable energy sector received 31% (EUR 743MM), while the conventional energy sector received 69% (EUR 1.6B), of the total energy subsidies by the government. Furthermore, the energy market in the Netherlands remains to be dominated by few major corporations Nuon, RWE, E.ON, Eneco, and Delta that have significant influence over the energy policy. Renewable energy share in the energy mix is estimated to reach 12.4% by the year 2020, falling 1.6% short of the 14% target.From a biological resource perspective, the Netherlands has a low endowment: the Netherlands’ biocapacity adds up to only 0.8 global hectares in 2016, 0.2 of which are dedicated to agriculture. The Dutch biocapacity per person is just about half of the 1.6 global hectares of biocapacity per person available worldwide. In contrast, in 2016, the Dutch used on average 4.8 global hectares of biocapacity - their ecological footprint of consumption. This means the Dutch required nearly six times as much biocapacity as the Netherlands contains. As a result, the Netherlands was running a biocapacity deficit of 4.0 global hectares per person in 2016.The Dutch agricultural sector is highly mechanised, and has a strong focus on international exports. It employs about 4% of the Dutch labour force but produces large surpluses in the food-processing industry and accounts for 21% of the Dutch total export value. The Dutch rank first in the European Union and second worldwide in value of agricultural exports, behind only the United States, with agricultural exports earning €80.7 billion in 2014, up from €75.4 billion in 2012. In 2019 agricultural exports were worth €94.5 billion.One-third of the world's exports of chilis, tomatoes, and cucumbers goes through the country. The Netherlands also exports one-fifteenth of the world's apples.Aside from that, a significant portion of Dutch agricultural exports consists of fresh-cut plants, flowers, and flower bulbs, with the Netherlands exporting two-thirds of the world's total.The Netherlands had an estimated population of 17,493,969 as of 30 April 2021. It is the 5th most densely populated country in Europe, and except for the very small city-states like Monaco, Vatican City and San Marino it is the most densely populated country in Europe. And it is the 16th most densely populated country in the world with a density of . It is the 67th most populous country in the world. Between 1900 and 1950, the country's population almost doubled from 5.1 to 10 million. From 1950 to 2000, the population further increased, to 15.9 million, though this represented a lower rate of population growth. The estimated growth rate is 0.44%.The fertility rate in the Netherlands is 1.78 children per woman (2018 estimate), which is high compared with many other European countries, but below the rate of 2.1 children per woman required for natural population replacement, it remains considerably below the high of 5.39 children born per woman in 1879. Netherlands subsequently has one of the oldest populations in the world, with the average age of 42.7 years. Life expectancy is high in the Netherlands: 84.3 years for newborn girls and 79.7 for boys (2020 estimate). The country has a migration rate of 1.9 migrants per 1,000 inhabitants per year. The majority of the population of the Netherlands is ethnically Dutch. According to a 2005 estimate, the population was 80.9% Dutch, 2.4% Indonesian, 2.4% German, 2.2% Turkish, 2.0% Surinamese, 1.9% Moroccan, 0.8% Antillean and Aruban, and 7.4% others. Some 150,000 to 200,000 people living in the Netherlands are expatriates, mostly concentrated in and around Amsterdam and The Hague, now constituting almost 10% of the population of these cities.The Dutch are the tallest people in the world, by nationality, with an average height of for adult males and for adult females in 2009. People in the south are on average about shorter than those in the north.According to Eurostat, in 2010 there were 1.8 million foreign-born residents in the Netherlands, corresponding to 11.1% of the total population. Of these, 1.4 million (8.5%) were born outside the EU and 0.43 million (2.6%) were born in another EU Member State. On 21 November 2016, there were 3.8 million residents in the Netherlands with at least one foreign-born parent ("migration background"). Over half the young people in Amsterdam and Rotterdam have a non-western background. Dutch people, or descendants of Dutch people, are also found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in Canada, Australia, South Africa and the United States. According to the United States Census Bureau (2006), more than 5 million Americans claim total or partial Dutch ancestry. There are close to 3 million Dutch-descended Afrikaners living in South Africa. In 1940, there were 290,000 Europeans and Eurasians in Indonesia, but most have since left the country.The Randstad is the country's largest conurbation located in the west of the country and contains the four largest cities: Amsterdam in the province North Holland, Rotterdam and The Hague in the province South Holland, and Utrecht in the province Utrecht. The Randstad has a population of about 8.2 million inhabitants and is the 5th largest metropolitan area in Europe. According to Dutch Central Statistics Bureau, in 2015, 28 per cent of the Dutch population had a spendable income above 45,000 euros (which does not include spending on health care or education).The official language is Dutch, which is spoken by the vast majority of the inhabitants. Besides Dutch, West Frisian is recognised as a second official language in the northern province of Friesland ("Fryslân" in West Frisian). West Frisian has a formal status for government correspondence in that province. In the European part of the kingdom two other regional languages are recognised under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.The first of these recognised regional languages is Low Saxon ("Nedersaksisch" in Dutch). Low Saxon consists of several dialects spoken in the north and east, like Tweants in the region of Twente, and Drents in the province of Drenthe. Secondly, Limburgish is also recognised as a regional language. It consists of Dutch varieties of Meuse-Rhenish Franconian languages and is spoken in the south-eastern province of Limburg. The dialects most spoken in the Netherlands are the Brabantian-Hollandic dialects.Ripuarian language, which is spoken in Kerkrade and Vaals in the form of, respectively, the Kerkrade dialect and the Vaals dialect are legally treated as Limburgish as well - see Southeast Limburgish dialect.English has a formal status in the special municipalities of Saba and Sint Eustatius. It is widely spoken on these islands. Papiamento has a formal status in the special municipality of Bonaire. Yiddish and the Romani language were recognised in 1996 as non-territorial languages. The Netherlands has a tradition of learning foreign languages, formalised in Dutch education laws. Some 90% of the total population indicate they are able to converse in English, 70% in German, and 29% in French. English is a mandatory course in all secondary schools. In most lower level secondary school educations ("vmbo"), one additional modern foreign language is mandatory during the first two years.In higher level secondary schools (HAVO and VWO), the acquisition of two additional modern foreign language skills is mandatory during the first three years. Only during the last three years in VWO one foreign language is mandatory. Besides English, the standard modern languages are French and German, although schools can replace one of these modern languages with Chinese, Spanish, Russian, Italian, Turkish or Arabic. Additionally, schools in Friesland teach and have exams in West Frisian, and schools across the country teach and have exams in Ancient Greek and Latin for secondary school (called Gymnasium or VWO+).The population of the Netherlands was predominantly Christian until the late 20th century, divided into a number of denominations. Although significant religious diversity remains, there has been a decline of religious adherence. The Netherlands is now one of the most secular societies in the world.In 2019, Statistics Netherlands found that 54.1% of the total population declared itself to be non-religious. Groups that represent the non-religious in the Netherlands include Humanistisch Verbond. Roman Catholics comprised 20.1% of the total population, Protestants (14.8%). Muslims comprised 5.0% of the total population and followers of other Christian denominations and other religions (like Judaism, Buddhism and Hinduism) comprised the remaining 5.9%. A 2015 survey from another source found that Protestants outnumbered Catholics.The southern provinces of North Brabant and Limburg have historically been strongly Roman Catholic, and some residents consider the Catholic Church as a base for their cultural identity. Protestantism in the Netherlands consists of a number of churches within various traditions. The largest of these is the Protestant Church in the Netherlands (PKN), a United church which is Reformed and Lutheran in orientation. It was formed in 2004 as a merger of the Dutch Reformed Church, the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands and a smaller Lutheran Church. Several orthodox Reformed and liberal churches did not merge into the PKN. Although in the Netherlands as a whole Christianity has become a minority, the Netherlands contains a Bible Belt from Zeeland to the northern parts of the province Overijssel, in which Protestant (particularly Reformed) beliefs remain strong, and even has majorities in municipal councils.Islam is the second largest religion in the state. In 2012, there were about 825,000 Muslims in the Netherlands (5% of the population). The Muslim population increased from the 1960 as a result of large numbers of migrant workers. This included migrant workers from Turkey and Morocco, as well as migrants from former Dutch colonies, such as Surinam and Indonesia. During the 1990s, Muslim refugees arrived from countries like Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iran, Iraq, Somalia, and Afghanistan.Another religion practised is Hinduism, with around 215,000 adherents (slightly over 1% of the population). Most of these are Indo-Surinamese. There are also sizable populations of Hindu immigrants from India and Sri Lanka, and some Western adherents of Hinduism-oriented new religious movements such as Hare Krishnas. The Netherlands has an estimated 250,000 Buddhists or people strongly attracted to this religion, mainly ethnic Dutch people. In addition, there are about 45,000 Jews in the Netherlands.The Constitution of the Netherlands guarantees freedom of education, which means that all schools that adhere to general quality criteria receive the same government funding. This includes schools based on religious principles by religious groups (especially Roman Catholic and various Protestant). Three political parties in the Dutch parliament, (CDA, and two small parties, ChristianUnion and SGP) are based upon the Christian belief. Several Christian religious holidays are national holidays (Christmas, Easter, Pentecost and the Ascension of Jesus).Upon the country's independence, Protestants were predominant in most of the country, while Roman Catholics were dominant in the south, especially North Brabant and Limburg. In the late 19th century, secularism, atheism and pillarisation gained adherents. By 1960, Roman Catholics equalled Protestants in number; thereafter, both Christian branches began to decline. Conversely, Islam grew considerably as the result of immigration. Since 2000 there has been raised awareness of religion, mainly due to Muslim extremism.The Dutch royal family has been traditionally associated with Calvinism, specifically the Dutch Reformed Church, which has merged into the Protestant Church in the Netherlands. The Dutch Reformed Church was the only major Protestant church in the Netherlands from the Reformation until the 19th century. Denominational splits in 1834 and in 1886 diversified Dutch Calvinism. In 2013, a Roman Catholic became Queen consort.A survey in December 2014 concluded that for the first time there were more atheists (25%) than theists (17%) in the Netherlands, while the remainder of the population was agnostic (31%) or ietsistic (27%). In 2015, a vast majority of the inhabitants of the Netherlands (82%) said they had never or almost never visited a church, and 59% stated that they had never been to a church of any kind. Of all the people questioned, 24% saw themselves as atheist, an increase of 11% compared to the previous study done in 2006. The expected rise of spirituality (ietsism) has come to a halt according to research in 2015. In 2006, 40% of respondents considered themselves spiritual; in 2015 this has dropped to 31%. The number who believed in the existence of a higher power fell from 36% to 28% over the same period.Education in the Netherlands is compulsory between the ages of 5 and 16. If a child does not have a "starting qualification" (HAVO, VWO or MBO 2+ degree) they are still forced to attend classes until they achieve such a qualification or reach the age of 18.All children in the Netherlands usually attend elementary school from (on average) ages 4 to 12. It comprises eight grades, the first of which is facultative. Based on an aptitude test, the eighth grade teacher's recommendation and the opinion of the pupil's parents or caretakers, a choice is made for one of the three main streams of secondary education. After completing a particular stream, a pupil may still continue in the penultimate year of the next stream.The VMBO has four grades and is subdivided over several levels. Successfully completing the VMBO results in a low-level vocational degree that grants access to the MBO. The MBO (middle-level applied education) is a form of education that primarily focuses on teaching a practical trade or a vocational degree. With the MBO certification, a student can apply for the HBO. The HAVO has 5 grades and allows for admission to the HBO. The HBO (higher professional education) are universities of professional education (applied sciences) that award professional bachelor's degrees; similar to polytechnic degrees. An HBO degree gives access to the university system. The VWO (comprising atheneum and gymnasium) has 6 grades and prepares for studying at a research university. Universities offer a three-year bachelor's degree, followed by a one or two-year master's degree, which in turn can be followed by a four or five-year doctoral degree programme.Doctoral candidates in the Netherlands are generally non-tenured employees of a university. All Dutch schools and universities are publicly funded and managed with the exception of religious schools that are publicly funded but not managed by the state even though requirements are necessary for the funding to be authorised. Dutch universities have a tuition fee of about 2,000 euros a year for students from the Netherlands and the European Union. The amount is about 10,000 euros for non-EU students.In 2016, the Netherlands maintained its number one position at the top of the annual Euro health consumer index (EHCI), which compares healthcare systems in Europe, scoring 916 of a maximum 1,000 points. The Netherlands has been among the top three countries in each report published since 2005. On 48 indicators such as patient rights and information, accessibility, prevention and outcomes, the Netherlands secured its top position among 37 European countries for six years in a row.The Netherlands was ranked first in a study in 2009 comparing the health care systems of the United States, Australia, Canada, Germany and New Zealand.Ever since a major reform of the health care system in 2006, the Dutch system received more points in the Index each year. According to the HCP (Health Consumer Powerhouse), the Netherlands has 'a chaos system', meaning patients have a great degree of freedom from where to buy their health insurance, to where they get their healthcare service. The difference between the Netherlands and other countries is that the chaos is managed. Healthcare decisions are being made in a dialogue between the patients and healthcare professionals.Health insurance in the Netherlands is mandatory. Healthcare in the Netherlands is covered by two statutory forms of insurance:While Dutch residents are automatically insured by the government for AWBZ, everyone has to take out their own basic healthcare insurance (basisverzekering), except those under 18 who are automatically covered under their parents' premium. If a person decides not to carry out an insurance coverage, the person may be fined. Insurers have to offer a universal package for everyone over the age of 18 years, regardless of age or state of health – it's illegal to refuse an application or impose special conditions. In contrast to many other European systems, the Dutch government is responsible for the accessibility and quality of the healthcare system in the Netherlands, but not in charge of its management.Healthcare in the Netherlands can be divided in several ways: three echelons, in somatic and mental health care and in 'cure' (short term) and 'care' (long term). Home doctors ("huisartsen", comparable to general practitioners) form the largest part of the first echelon. Being referenced by a member of the first echelon is mandatory for access to the second and third echelon. The health care system is in comparison to other Western countries quite effective but not the most cost-effective.Healthcare in the Netherlands is financed by a dual system that came into effect in January 2006. Long-term treatments, especially those that involve semi-permanent hospitalisation, and also disability costs such as wheelchairs, are covered by a state-controlled mandatory insurance. This is laid down in the "Algemene Wet Bijzondere Ziektekosten" ("General Law on Exceptional Healthcare Costs") which first came into effect in 1968. In 2009 this insurance covered 27% of all health care expenses.For all regular (short-term) medical treatment, there is a system of obligatory health insurance, with private health insurance companies. These insurance companies are obliged to provide a package with a defined set of insured treatments. This insurance covers 41% of all health care expenses.Other sources of health care payment are taxes (14%), out of pocket payments (9%), additional optional health insurance packages (4%) and a range of other sources (4%). Affordability is guaranteed through a system of income-related allowances and individual and employer-paid income-related premiums.A key feature of the Dutch system is that premiums may not be related to health status or age. Risk variances between private health insurance companies due to the different risks presented by individual policy holders are compensated through risk equalisation and a common risk pool. The funding burden for all short-term health care coverage is carried 50% by employers, 45% by the insured person and 5% by the government. Children under 18 are covered for free. Those on low incomes receive compensation to help them pay their insurance. Premiums paid by the insured are about €100 per month (about US$127 in August 2010 and €150 or US$196 in 2012), with variation of about 5% between the various competing insurers, and a yearly deductible of €220 (US$288).Mobility on Dutch roads has grown continuously since the 1950s and now exceeds 200 billion km travelled per year, three quarters of which are done by car. Around half of all trips in the Netherlands are made by car, 25% by bicycle, 20% walking, and 5% by public transport.With a total road network of 139,295 km, which includes 2,758 km of expressways, the Netherlands has one of the densest road networks in the world—much denser than Germany and France, but still not as dense as Belgium.As part of its commitment to environmental sustainability, the Government of the Netherlands initiated a plan to establish over 200 recharging stations for electric vehicles across the country. The rollout will be undertaken by Switzerland-based power and automation company ABB and Dutch startup Fastned, and will aim to provide at least one station within a 50-kilometre radius (30 miles) from every home in the Netherlands. Currently, the Netherlands alone hosts more than a quarter of all recharging stations in the European Union. This share rises to 30% if Brexit is taken into account. Moreover, newly sold cars in the Netherlands have on average the lowest CO2 emissions in the EU.About 13% of all distance is travelled by public transport, the majority of which by train. Like in many other European countries, the Dutch rail network of 3,013 km route is also rather dense. The network is mostly focused on passenger rail services and connects all major towns and cities, with over 400 stations. Trains are frequent, with two trains per hour on lesser lines, two to four trains per hour on average, and up to eight trains an hour on the busiest lines. The Dutch national train network also includes the HSL-Zuid, a high-speed line between the Amsterdam metropolitan area and the Belgian border for trains running from Paris and London to the Netherlands.Cycling is a ubiquitous mode of transport in the Netherlands. Almost as many kilometres are covered by bicycle as by train. The Dutch are estimated to have at least 18 million bicycles, which makes more than one per capita, and twice as many as the circa 9 million motor vehicles on the road. In 2013, the European Cyclists' Federation ranked both the Netherlands and Denmark as the most bike-friendly countries in Europe, but more of the Dutch (36%) than of the Danes (23%) list the bike as their most frequent mode of transport on a typical day. Cycling infrastructure is comprehensive. Busy roads have received some 35,000 km of dedicated cycle tracks, physically segregated from motorised traffic. Busy junctions are often equipped with bicycle-specific traffic lights. There are large bicycle parking facilities, particularly in city centres and at train stations.Until the introduction of trains, ships were the primary mode of transport in the Netherlands. And shipping has remained crucial afterwards. The Port of Rotterdam is the largest port in Europe and the largest port in the world outside East-Asia, with the rivers Meuse and Rhine providing excellent access to the hinterland upstream reaching to Basel, Switzerland, and into Germany and France. , Rotterdam was the world's eighth largest container port handling 440.5 million metric tonnes of cargo annually. The port's main activities are petrochemical industries and general cargo handling and transshipment. The harbour functions as an important transit point for bulk materials and between the European continent and overseas. From Rotterdam goods are transported by ship, river barge, train or road. The Volkeraksluizen between Rotterdam and Antwerp are the biggest sluices for inland navigation in the world in terms of tonnage passing through them. In 2007, the Betuweroute, a new fast freight railway from Rotterdam to Germany, was completed. The Netherlands also hosts Europe's 4th largest port in Amsterdam. The inland shipping fleet of the Netherlands is the largest in Europe. The Netherlands also has the largest fleet of active historical ships in the world. Boats are used for passenger travel as well, such as the Watertaxies in Rotterdam. The ferry network in Amsterdam and the Waterbus network in Rotterdam are part of the public transport system.Schiphol Airport, just southwest of Amsterdam, is the main international airport in the Netherlands, and the third busiest airport in Europe in terms of passengers. Schiphol is the main hub for KLM, the nation's flag carrier and the world's oldest airline. In 2016, the Royal Schiphol Group airports handled 70 million passengers. All air traffic is international and Schiphol Airport is connected to over 300 destinations worldwide, more than any other European airport. The airport is a major freight hub as well, processing 1.44 million tonnes of cargo in 2020. Smaller international airports in the country include Eindhoven Airport, Rotterdam The Hague Airport, Maastricht Aachen Airport and Groningen Airport Eelde. Air transport is of vital significance for the Caribbean part of the Netherlands, with all islands having their own airport. This includes the shortest runway in the world on Saba.The Netherlands has had many well-known painters. In the Middle Ages Hieronymus Bosch, Petrus Christus, Lucas Gassel and Pieter Bruegel the Elder were leading Dutch pioneers.During the Dutch Golden Age, spanning much of the 17th century, the Dutch Republic was prosperous and witnessed a flourishing artistic movement. This was the age of the "Dutch Masters", such as Rembrandt van Rijn, Johannes Vermeer, Jan Steen, Jacob van Ruisdael, Gerard van Honthorst, Theodoor van Thulden and many others. Famous Dutch painters of the 19th and 20th century were Vincent van Gogh and the luminists Jan Sluijters, Leo Gestel, and Piet Mondrian. M. C. Escher is a well-known graphic artist. Willem de Kooning was born and trained in Rotterdam, although he is considered to have reached acclaim as an American artist. Literature flourished as well during the Dutch Golden Age, with Joost van den Vondel and P. C. Hooft as the two most famous writers. In the 19th century, Multatuli wrote about the poor treatment of the natives in the Dutch colony, the current Indonesia. Important 20th century authors include Godfried Bomans, Harry Mulisch, Jan Wolkers, Simon Vestdijk, Hella S. Haasse, Cees Nooteboom, Gerard Reve and Willem Frederik Hermans. Anne Frank's "Diary of a Young Girl" was published after she was murdered in the Holocaust and translated from Dutch to all major languages.Various architectural styles can be distinguished in the Netherlands. Over the years, various styles have been built and preserved.The Romanesque architecture was built between the years 950 and 1250. This architectural style is most concentrated in the provinces of Gelderland and Limburg. Limburg, in particular, differs greatly in architectural style from the rest of the Netherlands.The Gothic architecture came to in the Netherlands from about 1230. Gothic buildings often had large windows, pointed arches and were richly decorated.Brabantine Gothic originated with the rise of the Duchy of Brabant and spread throughout the Burgundian provinces.This architectural style is most concentrated in the province of North Brabant, such as St. John's Cathedral in 's-Hertogenbosch, The Church of Our Lady in Breda and the Margraves Palace in Bergen op Zoom.What many know as traditional Dutch architecture is the Dutch Baroque architecture (1525 – 1630) and classicism (1630 – 1700).These style of architecture is especially in evidence in the cities of North Holland, South Holland and Zeeland.Other architectural styles that are common in the Netherlands are Style Louis XIV, Art Nouveau, Rationalism, NeoclassicismExpressionism, De Stijl, Traditionalism and Brutalism.The Netherlands is the country of philosophers Erasmus, Rudolf Agricola and Spinoza. Much of Descartes' major work was done in the Netherlands, where he studied at Leiden University — as did geologist James Hutton, British Prime Minister John Stuart, U.S. President John Quincy Adams, Physics Nobel Prize laureate Hendrik Lorentz and Enrico Fermi. The Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens (1629–1695) discovered Saturn's moon Titan, argued that light travelled as waves, invented the pendulum clock and was the first physicist to use mathematical formulae. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek was the first to observe and describe single-celled organisms with a microscope.Replicas of Dutch buildings can be found in Huis Ten Bosch, Nagasaki, Japan. A similar Holland Village is being built in Shenyang, China. Windmills, tulips, wooden shoes, cheese, Delftware pottery, and cannabis are among the items associated with the Netherlands by tourists.In the south of the Netherlands there are some festivals that rarely or never occur in the rest of the Netherlands. These celebrations grew out of Catholic traditions, including Carnival, lantern parades during the celebration of Three Kings, Brabantian Day and huge Bloemencorso. Bloemencorsos used to occur in many places in the Netherlands, but in the 21th century, Zundert and Valkenswaard in North Brabant have taken the lead.Dutch society is egalitarian and modern. The Dutch have an aversion to the non-essential. Ostentatious behaviour is to be avoided. The Dutch are proud of their cultural heritage, rich history in art and involvement in international affairs.Dutch manners are open and direct with a no-nonsense attitude—informality combined with adherence to basic behaviour. According to a humorous source on Dutch culture, "Their directness gives many the impression that they are rude and crude—attributes they prefer to call openness." A well known more serious source on Dutch etiquette is "Dealing with the Dutch" by Jacob Vossestein: "Dutch egalitarianism is the idea that people are equal, especially from a moral point of view, and accordingly, causes the somewhat ambiguous stance the Dutch have towards hierarchy and status." As always, manners differ between groups. Asking about basic rules will not be considered impolite. "What may strike you as being blatantly blunt topics and comments are no more embarrassing or unusual to the Dutch than discussing the weather."The Netherlands is one of the most secular countries of Europe, and religion in the Netherlands is generally considered as a personal matter which is not supposed to be propagated in public, although it often remains a discussion subject. For only 17% of the population religion is important and 14% goes to church weekly.The Netherlands has a long history of social tolerance and today is regarded as a liberal country, considering its drug policy and its legalisation of euthanasia. On 1 April 2001, the Netherlands became the first nation to legalise same-sex marriage.As of 2018 the Netherlands had one of the highest rates of carbon dioxide emissions per capita in the European Union, above those of Germany, France and Belgium. In addition, the Dutch waste more food than any other EU citizen, at over three times the EU average Despite this, the Netherlands has nonetheless the reputation of the leader country in environmental and population management. In 2015, Amsterdam and Rotterdam were ranked fourth and fifth, respectively, on the Arcadis Sustainable Cities Index.Sustainability is a concept important for the Dutch. The goal of the Dutch Government is to have a sustainable, reliable and affordable energy system, by 2050, in which emissions have been halved and 40 per cent of electricity is derived from sustainable sources.The government is investing billions of euros in energy efficiency, sustainable energy and reduction. The Kingdom also encourages Dutch companies to build sustainable business/projects/facilities, with financial aids from the state to the companies or individuals who are active in making the country more sustainable.The Netherlands has multiple music traditions. Traditional Dutch music is a genre known as "Levenslied", meaning "Song of life", to an extent comparable to a French Chanson or a German Schlager. These songs typically have a simple melody and rhythm, and a straightforward structure of verses and choruses. Themes can be light, but are often sentimental and include love, death and loneliness. Traditional musical instruments such as the accordion and the barrel organ are a staple of levenslied music, though in recent years many artists also use synthesisers and guitars. Artists in this genre include Jan Smit, Frans Bauer and André Hazes.Contemporary Dutch rock and pop music (Nederpop) originated in the 1960s, heavily influenced by popular music from the United States and Britain. In the 1960s and 1970s the lyrics were mostly in English, and some tracks were instrumental. Bands such as Shocking Blue, Golden Earring, Tee Set, George Baker Selection and Focus enjoyed international success. As of the 1980s, more and more pop musicians started working in the Dutch language, partly inspired by the huge success of the band Doe Maar. Today Dutch rock and pop music thrives in both languages, with some artists recording in both.Current symphonic metal bands Epica, Delain, ReVamp, The Gathering, Asrai, Autumn, Ayreon and Within Temptation as well as jazz and pop singer Caro Emerald are having international success. Also, metal bands like Hail of Bullets, God Dethroned, Izegrim, Asphyx, Textures, Present Danger, Heidevolk and Slechtvalk are popular guests at the biggest metal festivals in Europe. Contemporary local stars include pop singer Anouk, country pop singer Ilse DeLange, South Guelderish and Limburgish dialect singing folk band Rowwen Hèze, rock band BLØF and duo Nick & Simon. Trijntje Oosterhuis, one of the country's most well known and versatile singers, has made multiple albums with famous American composers Vince Mendoza and Burt Bacharach.Early 1990s Dutch and Belgian house music came together in Eurodance project 2 Unlimited. Selling 18 million records, the two singers in the band are the most successful Dutch music artists to this day. Tracks like "Get Ready for This" are still popular themes of U.S. sports events, like the NHL. In the mid 1990s Dutch language rap and hip hop ("Nederhop") also came to fruition and has become popular in the Netherlands and Belgium. Artists with North African, Caribbean or Middle Eastern origins have strongly influenced this genre.Since the 1990s, Dutch electronic dance music (EDM) gained widespread popularity in the world in many forms, from trance, techno and gabber to hardstyle. Some of the world's best known dance music DJs hail from the Netherlands, including Armin van Buuren, Tiësto, Hardwell, Martin Garrix, Dash Berlin, Julian Jordan, Nicky Romero, W&W, Don Diablo and Afrojack; the first four of which have been ranked as best in the world by DJ Mag Top 100 DJs. The Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE) is the world's leading electronic music conference and the biggest club festival for the many electronic subgenres on the planet. These DJs also contribute to the world's mainstream pop music, as they frequently collaborate and produce for high-profile international artists.The Netherlands have participated in the Eurovision Song Contest since its first edition in 1956, and have won five times. Their most recent win was in 2019.In classical music, Jan Sweelinck ranks as the Dutch most famous composer, with Louis Andriessen amongst the best known living Dutch classical composers. Ton Koopman is a Dutch conductor, organist and harpsichordist. He is also professor at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. Notable violinists are Janine Jansen and André Rieu. The latter, together with his Johann Strauss Orchestra, has taken classical and waltz music on worldwide concert tours, the size and revenue of which are otherwise only seen from the world's biggest rock and pop music acts. The most famous Dutch classical composition is "Canto Ostinato" by Simeon ten Holt, a minimalistic composition for multiple instruments. Acclaimed harpist Lavinia Meijer in 2012 released an album with works from Philip Glass that she transcribed for harp, with approval of Glass himself. The Concertgebouw (completed in 1888) in Amsterdam is home to the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, considered one of the world's finest orchestras.Some Dutch films – mainly by director Paul Verhoeven – have received international distribution and recognition, such as "Turkish Delight" (""Turks Fruit"", 1973), "Soldier of Orange" (""Soldaat van Oranje"", 1977), "Spetters" (1980) and "The Fourth Man" (""De Vierde Man"", 1983). Verhoeven then went on to direct big Hollywood movies like "RoboCop" (1987), "Total Recall" (1990) and "Basic Instinct" (1992), and returned with Dutch film "Black Book" (""Zwartboek"", 2006).Other well-known Dutch film directors are Jan de Bont ("Speed"), Anton Corbijn ("A Most wanted Man"), Dick Maas ("De Lift"), Fons Rademakers ("The Assault"), and documentary makers Bert Haanstra and Joris Ivens. Film director Theo van Gogh achieved international notoriety in 2004 when he was murdered by Mohammed Bouyeri in the streets of Amsterdam after directing the short film "Submission".Internationally, successful directors of photography from the Netherlands are Hoyte van Hoytema ("Interstellar", "Spectre", "Dunkirk") and Theo van de Sande ("Wayne's World" and "Blade"). Van Hoytema went to the National Film School in Łódź (Poland) and Van de Sande went to the Netherlands Film Academy. Internationally successful Dutch actors include Famke Janssen ("X-Men"), Carice van Houten ("Game of Thrones"), Michiel Huisman ("Game of Thrones"), Rutger Hauer ("Blade Runner"), Jeroen Krabbé ("The Living Daylights") and Derek de Lint ("Three Men and a Baby").The Netherlands has a well developed television market, with both multiple commercial and public broadcasters. Imported TV programmes, as well as interviews with responses in a foreign language, are virtually always shown with the original sound and subtitled. Only foreign shows for children are dubbed.TV exports from the Netherlands mostly take the form of specific formats and franchises, most notably through internationally active TV production conglomerate Endemol, founded by Dutch media tycoons John de Mol and Joop van den Ende. Headquartered in Amsterdam, Endemol has around 90 companies in over 30 countries. Endemol and its subsidiaries create and run reality, talent, and game show franchises worldwide, including "Big Brother" and "Deal or No Deal". John de Mol later started his own company Talpa which created show franchises like "The Voice" and "Utopia".Approximately 4.5 million of the 16.8 million people in the Netherlands are registered to one of the 35,000 sports clubs in the country. About two-thirds of the population between 15 and 75 participates in sports weekly. Football is the most popular participant sport in the Netherlands, before field hockey and volleyball as the second and third most popular team sports. The Netherlands national football team is one of the most popular aspects of Dutch sports; especially since the 1970s when one of the greatest footballers of all time, Johan Cruyff, developed Total Football with coach Rinus Michels. Tennis, gymnastics and golf are the three most widely engaged in individual sports.Organisation of sports began at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. Federations for sports were established (such as the speed skating federation in 1882), rules were unified and sports clubs came into existence. A Dutch National Olympic Committee was established in 1912. Thus far, the nation has won 266 medals at the Summer Olympic Games and another 110 medals at the Winter Olympic Games. In international competition, Dutch national teams and athletes are dominant in several fields of sport. The Netherlands women's field hockey team is the most successful team in World Cup history. The Netherlands baseball team have won the European championship 20 times out of 32 events. Dutch K-1 kickboxers have won the K-1 World Grand Prix 15 times out of 19 tournaments. The Netherlands Women's handball team holds the record of the only team in the world that consecutively reached all six semifinals of major international tournaments since 2015, winning silver and bronze at the European Women's Handball Championship and silver, bronze and gold at the World Women's Handball Championship. They finished fourth at the 2016 Summer Olympics.The Dutch speed skaters' performance at the 2014 Winter Olympics, where they won 8 out of 12 events, 23 out of 36 medals, including 4 clean sweeps, is the most dominant performance in a single sport in Olympic history. Motorcycle racing at the TT Circuit Assen has a long history. Assen is the only venue to have held a round of the Motorcycle World Championship every year since its creation in 1949. The circuit was purpose-built for the Dutch TT in 1954, with previous events having been held on public roads.The Dutch have also had success in all three of cyclings Grand Tours with Jan Janssen winning the 1968 Tour de France, more recently with Tom Dumoulin winning the 2017 Giro d'Italia and legendary rider Joop Zoetemelk was the 1985 UCI World Champion, the winner of the 1979 Vuelta a Espana, the 1980 Tour de France and still holds or shares numerous Tour de France records including most Tours finished and most kilometres ridden.Limburger Max Verstappen currently races in Formula One, and was the first Dutchman to win a Grand Prix. The coastal resort of Zandvoort hosted the Dutch Grand Prix from 1958 to 1985, and has been announced to return in 2020. The volleyball national men's team has also been successful, winning the silver medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics and the gold medal four years later in Atlanta. The biggest success of the women's national team was winning the European Championship in 1995 and the World Grand Prix in 2007.Recently cricket has made a remarkable progress in the Netherlands. Netherlands have participated in 1996, 2003, 2007 and 2011 ODI cricket World Cup. They have also qualified for 2009 and 2014 T20 World Cup. In the 2009 T20 World Cup, Netherlands defeated England, the current World Champions and inventor of the game. Ryan ten Doeschate is the only Dutch player to have played in the IPL on the team Kolkata Knight Riders.Originally, the country's cuisine was shaped by the practices of fishing and farming, including the cultivation of the soil for growing crops and raising domesticated animals. Dutch cuisine is simple and straightforward, and contains many dairy products. Breakfast and lunch are typically bread with toppings, with cereal for breakfast as an alternative. Traditionally, dinner consists of potatoes, a portion of meat, and (seasonal) vegetables. The Dutch diet was relatively high in carbohydrates and fat, reflecting the dietary needs of the labourers whose culture moulded the country. Without many refinements, it is best described as rustic, though many holidays are still celebrated with special foods. In the course of the twentieth century this diet changed and became much more cosmopolitan, with most global cuisines being represented in the major cities.Modern culinary writers distinguish between three general regional forms of Dutch cuisine. The regions in the northeast of the Netherlands, roughly the provinces of Groningen, Friesland, Drenthe, Overijssel and Gelderland north of the great rivers are the least populated areas of the Netherlands. The late (18th century) introduction of large scale agriculture means that the cuisine is generally known for its many kinds of meats. The relative lack of farms allowed for an abundance of game and husbandry, though dishes near the coastal regions of Friesland, Groningen and the parts of Overijssel bordering the IJsselmeer also include a large amount of fish. The various dried sausages, belonging to the metworst-family of Dutch sausages are found throughout this region and are highly prized for their often very strong taste. Also smoked sausages are common, of which ("Gelderse") "rookworst" is the most renowned. The sausage contains a lot of fat and is very juicy. Larger sausages are often eaten alongside "stamppot", "hutspot" or "zuurkool" (sauerkraut); whereas smaller ones are often eaten as a street food. The provinces are also home to hard textured rye bread, pastries and cookies, the latter heavily spiced with ginger or succade or containing small bits of meat. Various kinds of "Kruidkoek" (such as ), "" and "" (small savoury pancakes cooked in a waffle iron) are considered typical. A notable characteristic of "Fries roggebrood" (Frisian rye bread) is its long baking time (up to 20 hours), resulting in a sweet taste and a deep dark colour. In terms of alcoholic beverages, the region is renowned for its many bitters (such as "Beerenburg") and other high-proof liquors rather than beer, which is, apart from "Jenever", typical for the rest of the country. As a coastal region, Friesland is home to low-lying grasslands, and thus has a cheese production in common with the Western cuisine. "Friese Nagelkaas" (Friesian Clove) is a notable example.The provinces of North Holland, South Holland, Zeeland, and Utrecht and the Gelderlandic area of Betuwe make up the region in which western Dutch cuisine is found. Because of the abundance of water and flat grasslands that are found here, the area is known for its many dairy products, which include prominent cheeses such as Gouda, Leyden (spiced cheese with cumin), and Edam (traditionally in small spheres) as well as Leerdammer and Beemster, while the adjacent Zaanstreek in North Holland has since the 16th century been known for its mayonnaise, typical whole-grain mustards, and chocolate industry. Zeeland and South Holland produce a lot of butter, which contains a larger amount of milkfat than most other European butter varieties. A by-product of the butter-making process, "karnemelk" (buttermilk), is also considered typical for this region. Seafood such as soused herring, mussels (called "Zeeuwse Mossels", since all Dutch mussels for consumption are cleaned in Zeeland's Oosterschelde), eels, oysters and shrimps are widely available and typical for the region. "", once a local delicacy consisting of small chunks of battered white fish, has become a national fast food, just as . Pastries in this area tend to be quite doughy, and often contain large amounts of sugar; either caramelised, powdered or crystallised. The "oliebol" (in its modern form) and "Zeeuwse bolus" are good examples. Cookies are also produced in great number and tend to contain a lot of butter and sugar, like "stroopwafel", as well as a filling of some kind, mostly almond, like "". The traditional alcoholic beverages of this region are beer (strong pale lager) and "Jenever", a high proof juniper-flavoured spirit, that came to be known in England as gin. A noted exception within the traditional Dutch alcoholic landscape, "Advocaat", a rich and creamy liqueur made from eggs, sugar and brandy, is also native to this region.The Southern Dutch cuisine consists of the cuisines of the Dutch provinces of North Brabant and Limburg and the Flemish Region in Belgium. It is renowned for its many rich pastries, soups, stews and vegetable dishes and is often called Burgundian which is a Dutch idiom invoking the rich Burgundian court which ruled the Low Countries in the Middle Ages, renowned for its splendor and great feasts. It is the only Dutch culinary region that developed an haute cuisine. Pastries are abundant, often with rich fillings of cream, custard or fruits. Cakes, such as the "Vlaai" from Limburg and the "Moorkop" and "Bossche Bol" from Brabant, are typical pastries. Savoury pastries also occur, with the (a roll with a sausage of ground beef, literally translates into sausage bread) being the most popular. The traditional alcoholic beverage of the region is beer. There are many local brands, ranging from "Trappist" to "Kriek". 5 of the 10 "International Trappist Association" recognised breweries in the world, are located in the Southern Dutch cultural area. Beer, like wine in French cuisine, is also used in cooking; often in stews.In early 2014, Oxfam ranked the Netherlands as the country with the most nutritious, plentiful and healthy food, in a comparison of 125 countries.From the exploitations in the Mughal Empire in the 17th century, to the colonisations in the 19th century, Dutch imperial possessions continued to expand, reaching their greatest extent by establishing a hegemony of the Dutch East Indies in the early 20th century. The Dutch East Indies, which later formed modern-day Indonesia, was one of the most valuable European colonies in the world and the most important one for the Netherlands. Over 350 years of mutual heritage has left a significant cultural mark on the Netherlands.In the Dutch Golden Age of the 17th century, the Netherlands urbanised considerably, mostly financed by corporate revenue from the Asian trade monopolies. Social status was based on merchants' income, which reduced feudalism and considerably changed the dynamics of Dutch society. When the Dutch royal family was established in 1815, much of its wealth came from Colonial trade.By the 17th century, the Dutch East India Company established their base in parts of Ceylon (modern-day Sri Lanka). Afterward, they established ports in Dutch occupied Malabar, leading to Dutch settlements and trading posts in India. However, their expansion into India was halted, after their defeat in the Battle of Colachel by the Kingdom of Travancore, during the Travancore-Dutch War. The Dutch never recovered from the defeat and no longer posed a large colonial threat to Bengal Subah.Universities such as the Leiden University, founded in the 16th century, have developed into leading knowledge centres for Southeast Asian and Indonesian studies. Leiden University has produced leading academics such as Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje, and still has academics who specialise in Indonesian languages and cultures. Leiden University and in particular KITLV are educational and scientific institutions that to this day share both an intellectual and historical interest in Indonesian studies. Other scientific institutions in the Netherlands include the Amsterdam Tropenmuseum, an anthropological museum with massive collections of Indonesian art, culture, ethnography and anthropology.The traditions of the Royal Dutch East Indies Army (KNIL) are maintained by the Regiment Van Heutsz of the modern Royal Netherlands Army. A dedicated "Bronbeek Museum", a former home for retired KNIL soldiers, exists in Arnhem to this day.A specific segment of Dutch literature called Dutch Indies literature still exists and includes established authors, such as Louis Couperus, the writer of "The Hidden Force", taking the colonial era as an important source of inspiration. One of the great masterpieces of Dutch literature is the book "Max Havelaar", written by Multatuli in 1860.The majority of Dutchmen that repatriated to the Netherlands after and during the Indonesian revolution are Indo (Eurasian), native to the islands of the Dutch East Indies. This relatively large Eurasian population had developed over a period of 400 years and were classified by colonial law as belonging to the European legal community. In Dutch they are referred to as "Indische Nederlanders" or as Indo (short for Indo-European).Including their second generation descendants, Indos are currently the largest foreign-born group in the Netherlands. In 2008, the Dutch Central Bureau for Statistics (CBS) registered 387,000 first- and second-generation Indos living in the Netherlands. Although considered fully assimilated into Dutch society, as the main ethnic minority in the Netherlands, these 'repatriants' have played a pivotal role in introducing elements of Indonesian culture into Dutch mainstream culture.Many Indonesian dishes and foodstuffs have become commonplace in the Netherlands. Rijsttafel, a colonial culinary concept, and dishes such as Nasi goreng and satay are very popular in the country. Practically any town of any size in the Netherlands has a "toko" (a Dutch Indonesian Shop) or a Chinese-Indonesian restaurant, and many 'Pasar Malam' (Night market in Malay/Indonesian) fairs are organised throughout the year.
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[
"Piet de Jong",
"Hendrikus Colijn",
"Ruud Lubbers",
"Jan de Quay",
"Wim Schermerhorn",
"Jo Cals",
"Joop den Uyl",
"Wim Kok",
"Louis Beel",
"Dries van Agt",
"Willem Drees",
"Charles Ruijs de Beerenbrouck",
"Victor Marijnen",
"Jelle Zijlstra",
"Jan Peter Balkenende",
"Mark Rutte",
"Pieter Sjoerds Gerbrandy",
"Barend Biesheuvel"
] |
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Who was the head of Netherlands in 12/29/1927?
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December 29, 1927
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{
"text": [
"Dirk Jan de Geer"
]
}
|
L2_Q55_P6_2
|
Dries van Agt is the head of the government of Netherlands from Dec, 1977 to Nov, 1982.
Hendrikus Colijn is the head of the government of Netherlands from Aug, 1925 to Mar, 1926.
Wim Kok is the head of the government of Netherlands from Aug, 1994 to Jul, 2002.
Victor Marijnen is the head of the government of Netherlands from Jul, 1963 to Apr, 1965.
Jo Cals is the head of the government of Netherlands from Apr, 1965 to Nov, 1966.
Willem Drees is the head of the government of Netherlands from Aug, 1948 to Dec, 1958.
Jan Peter Balkenende is the head of the government of Netherlands from Jul, 2002 to Oct, 2010.
Joop den Uyl is the head of the government of Netherlands from May, 1973 to Dec, 1977.
Dirk Jan de Geer is the head of the government of Netherlands from Mar, 1926 to Aug, 1929.
Barend Biesheuvel is the head of the government of Netherlands from Jul, 1971 to May, 1973.
Louis Beel is the head of the government of Netherlands from Jul, 1946 to Aug, 1948.
Jelle Zijlstra is the head of the government of Netherlands from Nov, 1966 to Apr, 1967.
Ruud Lubbers is the head of the government of Netherlands from Nov, 1982 to Aug, 1994.
Jan de Quay is the head of the government of Netherlands from May, 1959 to Jul, 1963.
Charles Ruijs de Beerenbrouck is the head of the government of Netherlands from Sep, 1918 to Aug, 1925.
Wim Schermerhorn is the head of the government of Netherlands from Jun, 1945 to Jul, 1946.
Mark Rutte is the head of the government of Netherlands from Oct, 2010 to Dec, 2022.
Piet de Jong is the head of the government of Netherlands from Apr, 1967 to Jul, 1971.
Pieter Sjoerds Gerbrandy is the head of the government of Netherlands from Sep, 1940 to Jun, 1945.
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NetherlandsThe Netherlands ( ), sometimes informally Holland, is a country located in Western Europe with territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. In Europe, the Netherlands consists of twelve provinces, bordering Germany to the east, Belgium to the south, and the North Sea to the northwest, with maritime borders in the North Sea with those countries and the United Kingdom. In the Caribbean, it consists of three special municipalities: the islands of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba. The country's official language is Dutch, with West Frisian as a secondary official language in the province of Friesland, and English and Papiamento as secondary official languages in the Caribbean Netherlands. Dutch Low Saxon and Limburgish are recognised regional languages (spoken in the east and southeast respectively), while Dutch Sign Language, Sinte Romani and Yiddish are recognised non-territorial languages.The four largest cities in the Netherlands are Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht. Amsterdam is the country's most populous city and nominal capital, while The Hague holds the seat of the States General, Cabinet and Supreme Court. The Port of Rotterdam is the busiest seaport in Europe, and the busiest in any country outside East Asia and Southeast Asia, behind only China and Singapore. Amsterdam Airport Schiphol is the busiest airport in the Netherlands, and the third busiest in Europe. The country is a founding member of the EU, Eurozone, G10, NATO, OECD and WTO, as well as a part of the Schengen Area and the trilateral Benelux Union. It hosts several intergovernmental organisations and international courts, many of which are centred in The Hague, which is consequently dubbed 'the world's legal capital'."Netherlands" literally means "lower countries" in reference to its low elevation and flat topography, with only about 50% of its land exceeding above sea level, and nearly 26% falling below sea level. Most of the areas below sea level, known as "polders", are the result of land reclamation that began in the 14th century. Colloquially or informally the Netherlands is occasionally referred to by the pars pro toto "Holland". With a population of 17.4 million people, all living within a total area of roughly —of which the land area is —the Netherlands is the 16th most densely populated country in the world and the 2nd most densely populated country in the European Union, with a density of . Nevertheless, it is the world's second-largest exporter of food and agricultural products by value, owing to its fertile soil, mild climate, intensive agriculture and inventiveness.The Netherlands has been a parliamentary constitutional monarchy with a unitary structure since 1848. The country has a tradition of pillarisation and a long record of social tolerance, having legalised abortion, prostitution and human euthanasia, along with maintaining a liberal drug policy. The Netherlands abolished the death penalty in Civil Law in 1870, though it was not completely removed until a new constitution was approved in 1983. The Netherlands allowed women's suffrage in 1919, before becoming the world's first country to legalise same-sex marriage in 2001. Its mixed-market advanced economy had the eleventh-highest per capita income globally. The Netherlands ranks among the highest in international indexes of press freedom, economic freedom, human development and quality of life, as well as happiness. In 2020, it ranked eighth on the human development index and fifth on the 2021 World Happiness Index.The Netherlands' turbulent history and shifts of power resulted in exceptionally many and widely varying names in different languages. There is diversity even within languages. In English, the Netherlands is also called Holland or (part of) the Low Countries, whereas the term ""Dutch"" is used as the demonym and adjectival form.The region called the Low Countries (comprising Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg) have the same toponymy. Place names with "Neder", "Nieder", "Nedre", "Nether", "Lage(r)" or "Low(er)" (in Germanic languages) and "Bas" or "Inferior" (in Romance languages) are in use in low-lying places all over Europe. They are sometimes used in a deictic relation to a higher ground that consecutively is indicated as "Super(ior)", "Up(per)", "Op(per)", "Ober", "Boven", "High", "Haut" or "Hoch". In the case of the Low Countries / Netherlands the geographical location of the "lower" region has been more or less downstream and near the sea. The geographical location of the upper region, however, changed tremendously over time, depending on the location of the economic and military power governing the Low Countries area. The Romans made a distinction between the Roman provinces of downstream Germania Inferior (nowadays part of Belgium and the Netherlands) and upstream Germania Superior (nowadays part of Germany). The designation 'Low' to refer to the region returns again in the 10th century Duchy of Lower Lorraine, that covered much of the Low Countries. But this time the corresponding "Upper" region is Upper Lorraine, in nowadays Northern France.The Dukes of Burgundy, who ruled from their residence in the Low Countries in the 15th century, used the term "les pays de par deçà" ("the lands over here") for the Low Countries, as opposed to "les pays de par delà" ("the lands over there") for their original homeland: Burgundy in present-day east-central France. Under Habsburg rule, "Les pays de par deçà" developed in "pays d'embas" ("lands down-here"), a deictic expression in relation to other Habsburg possessions like Hungary and Austria. This was translated as "Neder-landen" in contemporary Dutch official documents. From a regional point of view, "Niderlant" was also the area between the Meuse and the lower Rhine in the late Middle Ages. The area known as "Oberland" (High country) was in this deictic context considered to begin approximately at the nearby higher located Cologne.From the mid-sixteenth century on, the "Low Countries" and the "Netherlands" lost their original deictic meaning. They were probably the most commonly used names, besides Flanders, a "pars pro toto" for the Low Countries, especially in Romance language-speaking Europe. The Eighty Years' War (1568–1648) divided the Low Countries into an independent northern Dutch Republic (or Latinised "Belgica Foederata", "Federated Netherlands", the precursor state of the Netherlands) and a Spanish controlled Southern Netherlands (Latinised "Belgica Regia", "Royal Netherlands", the precursor state of Belgium). The Low Countries today is a designation that includes the countries of the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, although in most Romance languages, the term "Low Countries" is used as the name for the Netherlands specifically. It is used synonymously with the more neutral and geopolitical term Benelux.The Netherlands is also referred to as Holland in various languages, including English. However, Holland proper is only a region within the country that consists of North and South Holland, two of the nation's twelve provinces. Formerly they were a single province, and earlier the County of Holland, a remnant of the dissolved Frisian Kingdom which also included parts of present-day Utrecht. Following the decline of the Duchy of Brabant and the County of Flanders, Holland became the most economically and politically important county in the Low Countries region. The emphasis on Holland during the formation of the Dutch Republic, the Eighty Years' War, and the Anglo-Dutch Wars in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, made Holland serve as a "pars pro toto" for the entire country, which is now considered informal or incorrect. Nonetheless, the name "Holland" is still widely used for the Netherlands national football team, including in the Netherlands, and the Dutch government's international websites for tourism and trade are "holland.com" and "hollandtradeandinvest.com". In 2020, however, the Dutch government announced that it would only communicate and advertise under the name "the Netherlands" in the future.The term Dutch is used as the demonymic and adjectival form of the Netherlands in the English language. The origins of the word go back to Proto-Germanic "*þiudiskaz", Latinised into Theodiscus, meaning "popular" or "of the people"; akin to Old Dutch "Dietsch", Old High German "duitsch", and Old English "þeodisc", all meaning "(of) the common (Germanic) people". At first, the English language used (the contemporary form of) Dutch to refer to any or all speakers of West Germanic languages (e.g. the Dutch, the Frisians, and the Germans). Gradually its meaning shifted to the West Germanic people they had most contact with, because of their geographical proximity and for the rivalry in trade and overseas territories. The derivative of the Proto-Germanic word "*þiudiskaz" in modern Dutch, "Diets", can be found in Dutch literature as a poetic name for the Dutch people or language, but is considered very archaic. Although it had a short resurgence after World War II to avoid the reference to Germany. It is still used in the expression "diets maken" – to put it straight to him/her (as in a threat) or, more neutral, to make it clear, understandable, explain, say in the people's language (cf. the Vulgate (Bible not in Greek or Hebrew, but Latin; the folks' language) in meaning vulgar, though not in a pejorative sense).In Dutch, the names for the Netherlands, the Dutch language and a Dutch citizen are "Nederland", "Nederlands" and "Nederlander", respectively. Colloquially the country is also by the Dutch often referred to as Holland, although to lesser extent outside the two provinces North and South Holland, where it may even be used as a pejorative term, e.g. Hollènder (dialect) in Maastricht.The plural "Nederlanden" is used in many different connotations in the past, but since 1815 it has been used in the official name "Koninkrijk der Nederlanden" ("Kingdom of the Netherlands"). In many other languages the plural stuck, for example "Niederlande" (German), "Pays-Bas" (French) and "Países Bajos" (Spanish). In Indonesian (a former colony) the country is called "Belanda", a name derived from 'Holland'.The prehistory of the area that is now the Netherlands was largely shaped by the sea and the rivers that constantly shifted the low-lying geography. The oldest human (Neanderthal) traces were found in higher soils, near Maastricht, from what is believed to be about 250,000 years ago. At the end of the Ice Age, the nomadic late Upper Paleolithic Hamburg culture (c. 13.000–10.000 BC) hunted reindeer in the area, using spears, but the later Ahrensburg culture (c. 11.200–9500 BC) used bow and arrow. From Mesolithic Maglemosian-like tribes (c. 8000 BC) the oldest canoe in the world was found in Drenthe.Indigenous late Mesolithic hunter-gatherers from the Swifterbant culture (c. 5600 BC) were related to the southern Scandinavian Ertebølle culture and were strongly linked to rivers and open water. Between 4800 and 4500 BC, the Swifterbant people started to copy from the neighbouring Linear Pottery culture the practise of animal husbandry, and between 4300 and 4000 BC the practice of agriculture. The Funnelbeaker culture (c. 4300–2800 BC), which is related to the Swifterbant culture, erected the dolmens, large stone grave monuments found in Drenthe. There was a quick and smooth transition from the Funnelbeaker farming culture to the pan-European Corded Ware pastoralist culture (c. 2950 BC). In the southwest, the Seine-Oise-Marne culture — which was related to the Vlaardingen culture (c. 2600 BC), an apparently more primitive culture of hunter-gatherers — survived well into the Neolithic period, until it too was succeeded by the Corded Ware culture.Of the subsequent Bell Beaker culture (2700–2100 BC) several regions of origin have been postulated, notably the Iberian peninsula, the Netherlands and Central Europe. They introduced metalwork in copper, gold and later bronze and opened international trade routes not seen before, reflected in the discoveries of copper artifacts, as the metal is not normally found in Dutch soil. The many finds in Drenthe of rare bronze objects, suggest that it was even a trading centre in the Bronze Age (2000–800 BC). The Bell Beaker culture developed locally into the Barbed-Wire Beaker culture (2100–1800 BC) and later the Elp culture (c. 1800–800 BC), a Middle Bronze Age archaeological culture having earthenware pottery of low quality as a marker. The initial phase of the Elp culture was characterised by tumuli (1800–1200 BC) that were strongly tied to contemporary tumuli in northern Germany and Scandinavia and was apparently related to the Tumulus culture in central Europe. The subsequent phase was that of cremating the dead and placing their ashes in urns which were then buried in fields, following the customs of the Urnfield culture (1200–800 BC). The southern region became dominated by the related Hilversum culture (1800–800 BC), which apparently inherited cultural ties with Britain of the previous Barbed-Wire Beaker culture.From 800 BC onwards, the Iron Age Celtic Hallstatt culture became influential, replacing the Hilversum culture. Iron ore brought a measure of prosperity and was available throughout the country, including bog iron. Smiths travelled from settlement to settlement with bronze and iron, fabricating tools on demand. The King's grave of Oss (700 BC) was found in a burial mound, the largest of its kind in western Europe and containing an iron sword with an inlay of gold and coral.The deteriorating climate in Scandinavia around 850 BC further deteriorated around 650 BC and might have triggered migration of Germanic tribes from the North. By the time this migration was complete, around 250 BC, a few general cultural and linguistic groups had emerged. The North Sea Germanic Ingaevones inhabited the northern part of the Low Countries. They would later develop into the Frisii and the early Saxons. A second grouping, the Weser-Rhine Germanic (or Istvaeones), extended along the middle Rhine and Weser and inhabited the Low Countries south of the great rivers. This group consisted of tribes that would eventually develop into the Salian Franks. Also the Celtic La Tène culture (c. 450 BC up to the Roman conquest) had expanded over a wide range, including the southern area of the Low Countries. Some scholars have speculated that even a third ethnic identity and language, neither Germanic nor Celtic, survived in the Netherlands until the Roman period, the Iron Age Nordwestblock culture, that eventually was absorbed by the Celts to the south and the Germanic peoples from the east.The first author to describe the coast of Holland and Flanders was the Greek geographer Pytheas, who noted in c. 325 BC that in these regions, "more people died in the struggle against water than in the struggle against men." During the Gallic Wars, the area south and west of the Rhine was conquered by Roman forces under Julius Caesar from 57 BC to 53 BC. Caesar describes two main Celtic tribes living in what is now the southern Netherlands: the Menapii and the Eburones. The Rhine became fixed as Rome's northern frontier around 12 AD. Notable towns would arise along the Limes Germanicus: Nijmegen and Voorburg. In the first part of Gallia Belgica, the area south of the Limes became part of the Roman province of Germania Inferior. The area to the north of the Rhine, inhabited by the Frisii, remained outside Roman rule (but not its presence and control), while the Germanic border tribes of the Batavi and Cananefates served in the Roman cavalry. The Batavi rose against the Romans in the Batavian rebellion of 69 AD but were eventually defeated. The Batavi later merged with other tribes into the confederation of the Salian Franks, whose identity emerged at the first half of the third century. Salian Franks appear in Roman texts as both allies and enemies. They were forced by the confederation of the Saxons from the east to move over the Rhine into Roman territory in the fourth century. From their new base in West Flanders and the Southwest Netherlands, they were raiding the English Channel. Roman forces pacified the region, but did not expel the Franks, who continued to be feared at least until the time of Julian the Apostate (358) when Salian Franks were allowed to settle as "foederati" in Texandria. It has been postulated that after deteriorating climate conditions and the Romans' withdrawal, the Frisii disappeared as "laeti" in c. 296, leaving the coastal lands largely unpopulated for the next two centuries. However, recent excavations in Kennemerland show clear indication of a permanent habitation.After Roman government in the area collapsed, the Franks expanded their territories in numerous kingdoms. By the 490s, Clovis I had conquered and united all these territories in the southern Netherlands in one Frankish kingdom, and from there continued his conquests into Gaul. During this expansion, Franks migrating to the south eventually adopted the Vulgar Latin of the local population. A widening cultural divide grew with the Franks remaining in their original homeland in the north (i.e. the southern Netherlands and Flanders), who kept on speaking Old Frankish, which by the ninth century had evolved into Old Low Franconian or Old Dutch. A Dutch-French language boundary hence came into existence.To the north of the Franks, climatic conditions improved, and during the Migration Period Saxons, the closely related Angles, Jutes and Frisii settled the coastal land. Many moved on to England and came to be known as Anglo-Saxons, but those who stayed would be referred to as Frisians and their language as Frisian, named after the land that was once inhabited by Frisii. Frisian was spoken along the entire southern North Sea coast, and it is still the language most closely related to English among the living languages of continental Europe. By the seventh century a Frisian Kingdom (650–734) under King Aldegisel and King Redbad emerged with Traiectum (Utrecht) as its centre of power, while Dorestad was a flourishing trading place. Between 600 and around 719 the cities were often fought over between the Frisians and the Franks. In 734, at the Battle of the Boarn, the Frisians were defeated after a series of wars. With the approval of the Franks, the Anglo-Saxon missionary Willibrord converted the Frisian people to Christianity. He established the Archdiocese of Utrecht and became bishop of the Frisians. However, his successor Boniface was murdered by the Frisians in Dokkum, in 754.The Frankish Carolingian empire modelled itself on the Roman Empire and controlled much of Western Europe. However, in 843, it was divided into three parts—East, Middle, and West Francia. Most of present-day Netherlands became part of Middle Francia, which was a weak kingdom and subject of numerous partitions and annexation attempts by its stronger neighbours. It comprised territories from Frisia in the north to the Kingdom of Italy in the south. Around 850, Lothair I of Middle Francia acknowledged the Viking Rorik of Dorestad as ruler of most of Frisia. When the kingdom of Middle Francia was partitioned in 855, the lands north of the Alps passed to Lothair II and subsequently were named Lotharingia. After he died in 869, Lotharingia was partitioned, into Upper and Lower Lotharingia, the latter part comprising the Low Countries that technically became part of East Francia in 870, although it was effectively under the control of Vikings, who raided the largely defenceless Frisian and Frankish towns lying on the Frisian coast and along the rivers. Around 879, another Viking expedition led by Godfrid, Duke of Frisia, raided the Frisian lands. The Viking raids made the sway of French and German lords in the area weak. Resistance to the Vikings, if any, came from local nobles, who gained in stature as a result, and that laid the basis for the disintegration of Lower Lotharingia into semi-independent states. One of these local nobles was Gerolf of Holland, who assumed lordship in Frisia after he helped to assassinate Godfrid, and Viking rule came to an end.The Holy Roman Empire (the successor state of East Francia and then Lotharingia) ruled much of the Low Countries in the 10th and 11th century but was not able to maintain political unity. Powerful local nobles turned their cities, counties and duchies into private kingdoms that felt little sense of obligation to the emperor. Holland, Hainaut, Flanders, Gelre, Brabant, and Utrecht were in a state of almost continual war or in paradoxically formed personal unions. The language and culture of most of the people who lived in the County of Holland were originally Frisian. As Frankish settlement progressed from Flanders and Brabant, the area quickly became Old Low Franconian (or Old Dutch). The rest of Frisia in the north (now Friesland and Groningen) continued to maintain its independence and had its own institutions (collectively called the "Frisian freedom"), which resented the imposition of the feudal system.Around 1000 AD, due to several agricultural developments, the economy started to develop at a fast pace, and the higher productivity allowed workers to farm more land or to become tradesmen. Towns grew around monasteries and castles, and a mercantile middle class began to develop in these urban areas, especially in Flanders and later also Brabant. Wealthy cities started to buy certain privileges for themselves from the sovereign. In practice, this meant that Bruges and Antwerp became quasi-independent republics in their own right and would later develop into some of the most important cities and ports in Europe.Around 1100 AD, farmers from Flanders and Utrecht began draining and cultivating uninhabited swampy land in the western Netherlands, making the emergence of the County of Holland as the centre of power possible. The title of Count of Holland was fought over in the Hook and Cod Wars () between 1350 and 1490. The Cod faction consisted of the more progressive cities, while the Hook faction consisted of the conservative noblemen. These noblemen invited the Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy — who was also Count of Flanders — to conquer Holland.Most of the Imperial and French fiefs in what is now the Netherlands and Belgium were united in a personal union by Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, in 1433. The House of Valois-Burgundy and their Habsburg heirs would rule the Low Countries in the period from 1384 to 1581. Before the Burgundian union, the Dutch identified themselves by the town they lived in or their local duchy or county. The Burgundian period is when the road to nationhood began. The new rulers defended Dutch trading interests, which then developed rapidly. The fleets of the County of Holland defeated the fleets of the Hanseatic League several times. Amsterdam grew and in the 15th century became the primary trading port in Europe for grain from the Baltic region. Amsterdam distributed grain to the major cities of Belgium, Northern France and England. This trade was vital because Holland could no longer produce enough grain to feed itself. Land drainage had caused the peat of the former wetlands to reduce to a level that was too low for drainage to be maintained.Under Habsburg Charles V, ruler of the Holy Roman Empire and King of Spain, all fiefs in the current Netherlands region were united into the Seventeen Provinces, which also included most of present-day Belgium, Luxembourg, and some adjacent land in what is now France and Germany. In 1568, under Phillip II, the Eighty Years' War between the Provinces and their Spanish ruler began. The level of ferocity exhibited by both sides can be gleaned from a Dutch chronicler's report:The Duke of Alba ruthlessly attempted to suppress the Protestant movement in the Netherlands. Netherlanders were "burned, strangled, beheaded, or buried alive" by his "Blood Council" and his Spanish soldiers. Severed heads and decapitated corpses were displayed along streets and roads to terrorize the population into submission. Alba boasted of having executed 18,600, but this figure does not include those who perished by war and famine.The first great siege was Alba's effort to capture Haarlem and thereby cut Holland in half. It dragged on from December 1572 to the next summer, when Haarlemers finally surrendered on 13 July upon the promise that the city would be spared from being sacked. It was a stipulation Don Fadrique was unable to honour, when his soldiers mutinied, angered over pay owed and the miserable conditions they endured during the long, cold months of the campaign. On 4 November 1576, Spanish tercios seized Antwerp and subjected it to the worst pillage in the Netherlands' history. The citizens resisted, but were overcome; seven thousand of them were mowed down; a thousand buildings were torched; men, women, and children were slaughtered in a delirium of blood by soldiers crying, "Santiago! España! A sangre, a carne, a fuego, a sacco!" (Saint James! Spain! To blood, to the flesh, to fire, to sack!)Following the sack of Antwerp, delegates from Catholic Brabant, Protestant Holland and Zeeland agreed, at Ghent, to join Utrecht and William the Silent in driving out all Spanish troops and forming a new government for the Netherlands. Don Juan of Austria, the new Spanish governor, was forced to concede initially, but within months returned to active hostilities. As the fighting restarted, the Dutch began to look for help from the Queen of England, but she initially stood by her commitments to the Spanish in the Treaty of Bristol of 1574. The result was that when the next large-scale battle did occur at Gembloux in 1578, the Spanish forces easily won the day, killing at least 10,000 rebels, with the Spanish suffering few losses. In light of the defeat at Gembloux, the southern states of the Seventeen Provinces (today in northern France and Belgium) distanced themselves from the rebels in the north with the 1579 Union of Arras, which expressed their loyalty to Philip II of Spain. Opposing them, the northern half of the Seventeen Provinces forged the Union of Utrecht (also of 1579) in which they committed to support each other in their defence against the Spanish army. The Union of Utrecht is seen as the foundation of the modern Netherlands.Spanish troops sacked Maastricht in 1579, killing over 10,000 civilians and thereby ensuring the rebellion continued. In 1581, the northern provinces adopted the Act of Abjuration, the declaration of independence in which the provinces officially deposed Philip II as reigning monarch in the northern provinces. Against the rebels Philip could draw on the resources of Spain, Spanish America, Spanish Italy and the Spanish Netherlands. The Protestant Queen Elizabeth I of England sympathised with the Dutch struggle against the Spanish and sent an army of 7,600 soldiers to aid the Dutch in their war with the Catholic Spanish. English forces under the Earl of Leicester and then Lord Willoughby faced the Spanish in the Netherlands under the Duke of Parma in a series of largely indecisive actions that tied down significant numbers of Spanish troops and bought time for the Dutch to reorganise their defences. The war continued until 1648, when Spain under King Philip IV finally recognised the independence of the seven north-western provinces in the Peace of Münster. Parts of the southern provinces became "de facto" colonies of the new republican-mercantile empire.After declaring their independence, the provinces of Holland, Zeeland, Groningen, Friesland, Utrecht, Overijssel, and Gelderland formed a confederation. All these duchies, lordships and counties were autonomous and had their own government, the States-Provincial. The States General, the confederal government, were seated in The Hague and consisted of representatives from each of the seven provinces. The sparsely populated region of Drenthe was part of the republic too, although it was not considered one of the provinces. Moreover, the Republic had come to occupy during the Eighty Years' War a number of so-called Generality Lands in Flanders, Brabant and Limburg. Their population was mainly Roman Catholic, and these areas did not have a governmental structure of their own, and were used as a buffer zone between the Republic and the Spanish-controlled Southern Netherlands.In the Dutch Golden Age, spanning much of the 17th century, the Dutch Empire grew to become one of the major seafaring and economic powers, alongside Portugal, Spain, France and England. Science, military, and art (especially painting) were among the most acclaimed in the world. By 1650, the Dutch owned 16,000 merchant ships. The Dutch East India Company and the Dutch West India Company established colonies and trading posts all over the world, including ruling the northern parts of Taiwan between 1624–1662 and 1664–1667. The Dutch settlement in North America began with the founding of New Amsterdam on the southern part of Manhattan in 1614. In South Africa, the Dutch settled the Cape Colony in 1652. Dutch colonies in South America were established along the many rivers in the fertile Guyana plains, among them Colony of Surinam (now Suriname). In Asia, the Dutch established the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), and the only western trading post in Japan, Dejima.During the period of Proto-industrialization, the empire received 50% of textiles and 80% of silks import from the India's Mughal Empire, chiefly from its most developed region known as Bengal Subah.Many economic historians regard the Netherlands as the first thoroughly capitalist country in the world. In early modern Europe, it had the wealthiest trading city (Amsterdam) and the first full-time stock exchange. The inventiveness of the traders led to insurance and retirement funds as well as phenomena such as the boom-bust cycle, the world's first asset-inflation bubble, the tulip mania of 1636–1637, and the world's first bear raider, Isaac le Maire, who forced prices down by dumping stock and then buying it back at a discount. In 1672 – known in Dutch history as the Rampjaar (Disaster Year) – the Dutch Republic was at war with France, England and three German Bishoprics simultaneously. At sea, it could successfully prevent the English and French navy from entering the western shores. On land, however, it was almost taken over internally by the advancing French and German armies coming from the east. It managed to turn the tide by inundating parts of Holland but could never recover to its former glory again and went into a state of a general decline in the 18th century, with economic competition from England and long-standing rivalries between the two main factions in Dutch society, the republican "Staatsgezinden" and the supporters of the stadtholder the "Prinsgezinden" as main political factions.With the armed support of revolutionary France, Dutch republicans proclaimed the Batavian Republic, modelled after the French Republic and rendering the Netherlands a unitary state on 19 January 1795. The stadtholder William V of Orange had fled to England. But from 1806 to 1810, the Kingdom of Holland was set up by Napoleon Bonaparte as a puppet kingdom governed by his brother Louis Bonaparte to control the Netherlands more effectively. However, King Louis Bonaparte tried to serve Dutch interests instead of his brother's, and he was forced to abdicate on 1 July 1810. The Emperor sent in an army and the Netherlands became part of the French Empire until the autumn of 1813 when Napoleon was defeated in the Battle of Leipzig.William Frederick, son of the last stadtholder, returned to the Netherlands in 1813 and proclaimed himself Sovereign Prince of the Netherlands. Two years later, the Congress of Vienna added the southern Netherlands to the north to create a strong country on the northern border of France. William Frederick raised this United Netherlands to the status of a kingdom and proclaimed himself as King William I in 1815. In addition, William became hereditary Grand Duke of Luxembourg in exchange for his German possessions. However, the Southern Netherlands had been culturally separate from the north since 1581, and rebelled. The south gained independence in 1830 as Belgium (recognised by the Northern Netherlands in 1839 as the Kingdom of the Netherlands was created by decree), while the personal union between Luxembourg and the Netherlands was severed in 1890, when William III died with no surviving male heirs. Ascendancy laws prevented his daughter Queen Wilhelmina from becoming the next Grand Duchess.The Belgian Revolution at home and the Java War in the Dutch East Indies brought the Netherlands to the brink of bankruptcy. However, the Cultivation System was introduced in 1830; in the Dutch East Indies, 20% of village land had to be devoted to government crops for export. The policy brought the Dutch enormous wealth and made the colony self-sufficient.The Netherlands abolished slavery in its colonies in 1863. Slaves in Suriname would be fully free only in 1873, since the law stipulated that there was to be a mandatory 10-year transition.The Netherlands was able to remain neutral during World War I, in part because the import of goods through the Netherlands proved essential to German survival until the blockade by the British Royal Navy in 1916. That changed in World War II, when Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands on 10 May 1940. The Rotterdam Blitz forced the main element of the Dutch army to surrender four days later. During the occupation, over 100,000 Dutch Jews were rounded up and transported to Nazi extermination camps; only a few of them survived. Dutch workers were conscripted for forced labour in Germany, civilians who resisted were killed in reprisal for attacks on German soldiers, and the countryside was plundered for food. Although there were thousands of Dutch who risked their lives by hiding Jews from the Germans, over 20,000 Dutch fascists joined the Waffen SS, fighting on the Eastern Front. Political collaborators were members of the fascist NSB, the only legal political party in the occupied Netherlands. On 8 December 1941, the Dutch government-in-exile in London declared war on Japan, but could not prevent the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia). In 1944–45, the First Canadian Army, which included Canadian, British and Polish troops, was responsible for liberating much of the Netherlands. Soon after VE Day, the Dutch fought a colonial war against the new Republic of Indonesia.In 1954, the Charter for the Kingdom of the Netherlands reformed the political structure of the Netherlands, which was a result of international pressure to carry out decolonisation. The Dutch colonies of Surinam and Curaçao and Dependencies and the European country all became countries within the Kingdom, on a basis of equality. Indonesia had declared its independence in August 1945 (recognised in 1949), and thus was never part of the reformed Kingdom. Suriname followed in 1975. After the war, the Netherlands left behind an era of neutrality and gained closer ties with neighbouring states. The Netherlands was one of the founding members of the Benelux, the NATO, Euratom and the European Coal and Steel Community, which would evolve into the EEC (Common Market) and later the European Union.Government-encouraged emigration efforts to reduce population density prompted some 500,000 Dutch people to leave the country after the war. The 1960s and 1970s were a time of great social and cultural change, such as rapid de-pillarisation characterised by the decay of the old divisions along political and religious lines. Youths, and students in particular, rejected traditional mores and pushed for change in matters such as women's rights, sexuality, disarmament and environmental issues. In 2002 the euro was introduced as fiat money, and in 2010 the Netherlands Antilles was dissolved. Referendums were held on each island to determine their future status. As a result, the islands of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba (the BES islands) were to obtain closer ties with the Netherlands. This led to the incorporation of these three islands into the country of the Netherlands as "special municipalities" upon the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles. The special municipalities are collectively known as the Caribbean Netherlands.According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, the European Netherlands has a total area of , including water bodies; and a land area of . The Caribbean Netherlands has a total area of It lies between latitudes 50° and 54° N, and longitudes 3° and 8° E.The Netherlands is geographically very low relative to sea level and is considered a flat country, with about 26% of its area and 21% of its population located below sea level, and only about 50% of its land exceeding one metre above sea level. The European part of the country is for the most part flat, with the exception of foothills in the far southeast, up to a height of no more than 321 metres, and some low hill ranges in the central parts. Most of the areas below sea level are man-made, caused by peat extraction or achieved through land reclamation. Since the late 16th century, large polder areas are preserved through elaborate drainage systems that include dikes, canals and pumping stations. Nearly 17% of the country's land area is reclaimed from the sea and from lakes.Much of the country was originally formed by the estuaries of three large European rivers: the Rhine ("Rijn"), the Meuse ("Maas") and the Scheldt ("Schelde"), as well as their tributaries. The south-western part of the Netherlands is to this day a river delta of these three rivers, the Rhine-Meuse-Scheldt delta.The European Netherlands is divided into north and south parts by the Rhine, the Waal, its main tributary branch, and the Meuse. In the past, these rivers functioned as a natural barrier between fiefdoms and hence historically created a cultural divide, as is evident in some phonetic traits that are recognisable on either side of what the Dutch call their "Great Rivers" ("de Grote Rivieren"). Another significant branch of the Rhine, the IJssel river, discharges into Lake IJssel, the former Zuiderzee ('southern sea'). Just like the previous, this river forms a linguistic divide: people to the northeast of this river speak Dutch Low Saxon dialects (except for the province of Friesland, which has its own language).The modern Netherlands formed as a result of the interplay of the four main rivers (Rhine, Meuse, Schelde and IJssel) and the influence of the North Sea. The Netherlands is mostly composed of deltaic, coastal and eolian derived sediments during the Pleistocene glacial and interglacial periods.Almost the entire west Netherlands is composed of the Rhine-Meuse river estuary, but human intervention greatly modified the natural processes at work. Most of the western Netherlands is below sea level due to the human process of turning standing bodies of water into usable land, a polder.In the east of the Netherlands, remains are found of the last ice age, which ended approximately ten thousand years ago. As the continental ice sheet moved in from the north, it pushed moraine forward. The ice sheet halted as it covered the eastern half of the Netherlands. After the ice age ended, the moraine remained in the form of a long hill-line. The cities of Arnhem and Nijmegen are built upon these hills.Over the centuries, the Dutch coastline has changed considerably as a result of natural disasters and human intervention.On 14 December 1287, St. Lucia's flood affected the Netherlands and Germany, killing more than 50,000 people in one of the most destructive floods in recorded history. The St. Elizabeth flood of 1421 and the mismanagement in its aftermath destroyed a newly reclaimed polder, replacing it with the "Biesbosch" tidal floodplains in the south-centre. The huge North Sea flood of early February 1953 caused the collapse of several dikes in the south-west of the Netherlands; more than 1,800 people drowned in the flood. The Dutch government subsequently instituted a large-scale programme, the "Delta Works", to protect the country against future flooding, which was completed over a period of more than thirty years.The impact of disasters was, to an extent, increased through human activity. Relatively high-lying swampland was drained to be used as farmland. The drainage caused the fertile peat to contract and ground levels to drop, upon which groundwater levels were lowered to compensate for the drop in ground level, causing the underlying peat to contract further. Additionally, until the 19th-century peat was mined, dried, and used for fuel, further exacerbating the problem. Centuries of extensive and poorly controlled peat extraction lowered an already low land surface by several metres. Even in flooded areas, peat extraction continued through turf dredging.Because of the flooding, farming was difficult, which encouraged foreign trade, the result of which was that the Dutch were involved in world affairs since the early 14th/15th century.To guard against floods, a series of defences against the water were contrived. In the first millennium AD, villages and farmhouses were built on man-made hills called "terps". Later, these terps were connected by dikes. In the 12th century, local government agencies called ""waterschappen"" ("water boards") or ""hoogheemraadschappen"" ("high home councils") started to appear, whose job it was to maintain the water level and to protect a region from floods; these agencies continue to exist. As the ground level dropped, the dikes by necessity grew and merged into an integrated system. By the 13th century windmills had come into use to pump water out of areas below sea level. The windmills were later used to drain lakes, creating the famous polders.In 1932 the "Afsluitdijk" ("Closure Dike") was completed, blocking the former "Zuiderzee" (Southern Sea) from the North Sea and thus creating the IJsselmeer (IJssel Lake). It became part of the larger Zuiderzee Works in which four polders totalling were reclaimed from the sea.The Netherlands is one of the countries that may suffer most from climate change. Not only is the rising sea a problem, but erratic weather patterns may cause the rivers to overflow.After the 1953 disaster, the Delta Works was constructed, which is a comprehensive set of civil works throughout the Dutch coast. The project started in 1958 and was largely completed in 1997 with the completion of the Maeslantkering. Since then, new projects have been periodically started to renovate and renew the Delta Works. The main goal of the Delta project was to reduce the risk of flooding in South Holland and Zeeland to once per 10,000 years (compared to once per 4000 years for the rest of the country). This was achieved by raising of outer sea-dikes and of the inner, canal, and river dikes, and by closing off the sea estuaries of the Zeeland province. New risk assessments occasionally show problems requiring additional Delta project dike reinforcements. The Delta project is considered by the American Society of Civil Engineers as one of the seven wonders of the modern world.It is anticipated that global warming in the 21st century will result in a rise in sea level. The Netherlands is actively preparing for a sea-level rise. A politically neutral Delta Commission has formulated an action plan to cope with a sea-level rise of and a simultaneous land height decline of . The plan encompasses the reinforcement of the existing coastal defences like dikes and dunes with of additional flood protection. Climate change will not only threaten the Netherlands from the seaside but could also alter rainfall patterns and river run-off. To protect the country from river flooding, another programme is already being executed. The Room for the River plan grants more flow space to rivers, protects the major populated areas and allows for periodic flooding of indefensible lands. The few residents who lived in these so-called "overflow areas" have been moved to higher ground, with some of that ground having been raised above anticipated flood levels.The predominant wind direction in the European Netherlands is southwest, which causes a mild maritime climate, with moderately warm summers and cool winters, and typically high humidity. This is especially true close to the Dutch coastline, where the difference in temperature between summer and winter, as well as between day and night is noticeably smaller than it is in the southeast of the country.Ice days—maximum temperature below —usually occur from December until February, with the occasional rare ice day prior to or after that period. Freezing days—minimum temperature below —occur much more often, usually ranging from mid-November to late March, but not rarely measured as early as mid-October and as late as mid-May. If one chooses the height of measurement to be above ground instead of , one may even find such temperatures in the middle of the summer. On average, snow can occur from November to April but sometimes occurs in May or October too.Warm days—maximum temperature above —are usually found in April to October, but in some parts of the country these warm days can also occur in March, or even sometimes in November or February (usually not in , however). Summer days—maximum temperature above —are usually measured in from May until September, tropical days—maximum temperature above —are rare and usually occur only in June to August.Precipitation throughout the year is distributed relatively equally each month. Summer and autumn months tend to gather a little more precipitation than the other months, mainly because of the intensity of the rainfall rather than the frequency of rain days (this is especially the case in summer when lightning is also much more frequent).The number of sunshine hours is affected by the fact that because of the geographical latitude, the length of the days varies between barely eight hours in December and nearly 17 hours in June.The following table are based on mean measurements by the KNMI weather station in De Bilt between 1991 and 2020. The highest recorded temperature was reached on 25 July 2019 in Gilze-Rijen.The Netherlands has 20 national parks and hundreds of other nature reserves, that include lakes, heathland, woods, dunes, and other habitats. Most of these are owned by Staatsbosbeheer, the national department for forestry and nature conservation and Natuurmonumenten (literally 'Natures monuments'), a private organisation that buys, protects and manages nature reserves. The Dutch part of the Wadden Sea in the north, with its tidal flats and wetlands, is rich in biological diversity, and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Nature Site in 2009.The Oosterschelde, formerly the northeast estuary of the river Scheldt was designated a national park in 2002, thereby making it the largest national park in the Netherlands at an area of . It consists primarily of the salt waters of the Oosterschelde but also includes mudflats, meadows, and shoals. Because of the large variety of sea life, including unique regional species, the park is popular with Scuba divers. Other activities include sailing, fishing, cycling, and bird watching.Phytogeographically, the European Netherlands is shared between the Atlantic European and Central European provinces of the Circumboreal Region within the Boreal Kingdom. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, the European territory of the Netherlands belongs to the ecoregion of Atlantic mixed forests. In 1871, the last old original natural woods were cut down, and most woods today are planted monocultures of trees like Scots pine and trees that are not native to the Netherlands. These woods were planted on anthropogenic heaths and sand-drifts (overgrazed heaths) (Veluwe). The Netherlands had a 2019 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 0.6/10, ranking it 169th globally out of 172 countries.While Curaçao, Aruba and Sint Maarten have a constituent country status, the Caribbean Netherlands are three islands designated as special municipalities of the Netherlands. The islands are part of the Lesser Antilles and have land borders with France (Saint Martin) and maritime borders with Anguilla, Curaçao, France (Saint Barthélemy), Saint Kitts and Nevis, Sint Maarten, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Venezuela.Within this island group:The islands of the Caribbean Netherlands enjoy a tropical climate with warm weather all year round. The Leeward Antilles are warmer and drier than the Windward islands. In summer, the Windward Islands can be subject to hurricanes.The Netherlands has been a constitutional monarchy since 1815, and due to the efforts of Johan Rudolph Thorbecke became a parliamentary democracy in 1848. The Netherlands is described as a consociational state. Dutch politics and governance are characterised by an effort to achieve broad consensus on important issues, within both the political community and society as a whole. In 2017, "The Economist" ranked the Netherlands as the 11th most democratic country in the world.The monarch is the head of state, at present King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands. Constitutionally, the position is equipped with limited powers. By law, the King has the right to be periodically briefed and consulted on government affairs. Depending on the personalities and relationships of the King and the ministers, the monarch might have influence beyond the power granted by the Constitution of the Netherlands.The executive power is formed by the Council of Ministers, the deliberative organ of the Dutch cabinet. The cabinet usually consists of 13 to 16 ministers and a varying number of state secretaries. One to three ministers are ministers without portfolio. The head of government is the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, who often is the leader of the largest party of the coalition. The Prime Minister is a "primus inter pares", with no explicit powers beyond those of the other ministers. Mark Rutte has been Prime Minister since October 2010; the Prime Minister had been the leader of the largest party of the governing coalition continuously since 1973.The cabinet is responsible to the bicameral parliament, the States General, which also has legislative powers. The 150 members of the House of Representatives, the lower house, are elected in direct elections on the basis of party-list proportional representation. These are held every four years, or sooner in case the cabinet falls (for example: when one of the chambers carries a motion of no confidence, the cabinet offers its resignation to the monarch). The States-Provincial are directly elected every four years as well. The members of the provincial assemblies elect the 75 members of the Senate, the upper house, which has the power to reject laws, but not propose or amend them. Both houses send members to the Benelux Parliament, a consultative council.Both trade unions and employers organisations are consulted beforehand in policymaking in the financial, economic and social areas. They meet regularly with the government in the Social-Economic Council. This body advises government and its advice cannot be put aside easily.The Netherlands has a long tradition of social tolerance. In the 18th century, while the Dutch Reformed Church was the state religion, Catholicism, other forms of Protestantism, such as Baptists and Lutherans, as well as Judaism were tolerated but discriminated against.In the late 19th century this Dutch tradition of religious tolerance transformed into a system of pillarisation, in which religious groups coexisted separately and only interacted at the level of government. This tradition of tolerance influences Dutch criminal justice policies on recreational drugs, prostitution, LGBT rights, euthanasia, and abortion, which are among the most liberal in the world.Because of the multi-party system, no single party has held a majority in parliament since the 19th century, as a result, coalition cabinets had to be formed. Since suffrage became universal in 1917, the Dutch political system has been dominated by three families of political parties: the strongest of which were the Christian Democrats, currently represented by the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA); second were the Social Democrats, represented by the Labour Party (PvdA); and third were the Liberals, of which the right-wing People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) is the main representative.These parties co-operated in coalition cabinets in which the Christian Democrats had always been a partner: so either a centre-left coalition of the Christian Democrats and Social Democrats was ruling or a centre-right coalition of Christian Democrats and Liberals. In the 1970s, the party system became more volatile: the Christian Democratic parties lost seats, while new parties became successful, such as the radical democrat and progressive liberal Democrats 66 (D66) or the ecologist party GroenLinks (GL).In the 1994 election, the CDA lost its dominant position. A "purple" cabinet was formed by the VVD, D66, and PvdA. In the 2002 elections, this cabinet lost its majority, because of an increased support for the CDA and the rise of the right-wing LPF, a new political party, around Pim Fortuyn, who was assassinated a week before the elections. A short-lived cabinet was formed by CDA, VVD, and LPF, which was led by the CDA Leader Jan Peter Balkenende. After the 2003 elections, in which the LPF lost most of its seats, a cabinet was formed by the CDA, VVD, and D66. The cabinet initiated an ambitious programme of reforming the welfare state, the healthcare system, and immigration policy.In June 2006, the cabinet fell after D66 voted in favour of a motion of no confidence against the Minister of Immigration and Integration, Rita Verdonk, who had instigated an investigation of the asylum procedure of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a VVD MP. A caretaker cabinet was formed by the CDA and VVD, and general elections were held on 22 November 2006. In these elections, the CDA remained the largest party and the Socialist Party made the largest gains. The formation of a new cabinet took three months, resulting in a coalition of CDA, PvdA, and Christian Union.On 20 February 2010, the cabinet fell when the PvdA refused to prolong the involvement of the Dutch Army in Uruzgan, Afghanistan. Snap elections were held on 9 June 2010, with devastating results for the previously largest party, the CDA, which lost about half of its seats, resulting in 21 seats. The VVD became the largest party with 31 seats, closely followed by the PvdA with 30 seats. The big winner of the 2010 elections was Geert Wilders, whose right wing PVV, the ideological successor to the LPF, more than doubled its number of seats. Negotiation talks for a new government resulted in a minority government, led by VVD (a first) in coalition with CDA, which was sworn in on 14 October 2010. This unprecedented minority government was supported by PVV, but proved ultimately to be unstable, when on 21 April 2012, Wilders, leader of PVV, unexpectedly 'torpedoed seven weeks of austerity talks' on new austerity measures, paving the way for early elections.VVD and PvdA won a majority in the House of Representatives during the 2012 general election. On 5 November 2012 they formed the second Rutte cabinet. After the 2017 general election, VVD, Christian Democratic Appeal, Democrats 66 and ChristenUnie formed the third Rutte cabinet. This cabinet resigned in January 2021, two months before the general election, after a child welfare fraud scandal. In March 2021, centre-right VVD of Prime Minister Mark Rutte was the winner of the elections, securing 35 out of 150 seats. The second biggest party was the centre-left D66 with 24 seats. Geert Wilders' far-right party lost its support. Prime Minister Mark Rutte, in power since 2010, formed his fourth coalition government.The Netherlands is divided into twelve provinces, each under a King's Commissioner ("Commissaris van de Koning"). Informally in Limburg province this position is named Governor ("Gouverneur"). All provinces are divided into municipalities ("gemeenten"), of which there are 355 (2019).The country is also subdivided into 21 water districts, governed by a water board ("waterschap" or "hoogheemraadschap"), each having authority in matters concerning water management. The creation of water boards actually pre-dates that of the nation itself, the first appearing in 1196. The Dutch water boards are among the oldest democratic entities in the world still in existence. Direct elections of the water boards take place every four years.The administrative structure on the three BES islands, collectively known as the Caribbean Netherlands, is outside the twelve provinces. These islands have the status of "openbare lichamen (public bodies)". In the Netherlands these administrative units are often referred to as "special municipalities".The Netherlands has several Belgian exclaves and within those even several enclaves which are part of the province of North Brabant. Because the Netherlands and Belgium are both in the Benelux, and more recently in the Schengen Area, citizens of respective countries can travel through these enclaves without controls.The history of Dutch foreign policy has been characterised by its neutrality. Since World War II, the Netherlands has become a member of a large number of international organisations, most prominently the UN, NATO and the EU. The Dutch economy is very open and relies strongly on international trade.The foreign policy of the Netherlands is based on four basic commitments: to Atlantic co-operation, to European integration, to international development and to international law. One of the more controversial international issues surrounding the Netherlands is its liberal policy towards soft drugs.During and after the Dutch Golden Age, the Dutch people built up a commercial and colonial empire. The most important colonies were present-day Suriname and Indonesia. Indonesia became independent after the Indonesian National Revolution in the 1940s following a war of independence, international pressure and several United Nations Security Council resolutions. Suriname became independent in 1975. The historical ties inherited from its colonial past still influence the foreign relations of the Netherlands. In addition, many people from these countries are living permanently in the Netherlands.The Netherlands has one of the oldest standing armies in Europe; it was first established as such by Maurice of Nassau in the late 1500s. The Dutch army was used throughout the Dutch Empire. After the defeat of Napoleon, the Dutch army was transformed into a conscription army. The army was unsuccessfully deployed during the Belgian Revolution in 1830. After 1830, it was deployed mainly in the Dutch colonies, as the Netherlands remained neutral in European wars (including the First World War), until the Netherlands was invaded in World War II and defeated by the Wehrmacht in May 1940.The Netherlands abandoned its neutrality in 1948 when it signed the Treaty of Brussels, and became a founding member of NATO in 1949. The Dutch military was therefore part of the NATO strength in Cold War Europe, deploying its army to several bases in Germany. More than 3,000 Dutch soldiers were assigned to the 2nd Infantry Division of the United States Army during the Korean War. In 1996 conscription was suspended, and the Dutch army was once again transformed into a professional army. Since the 1990s the Dutch army has been involved in the Bosnian War and the Kosovo War, it held a province in Iraq after the defeat of Saddam Hussein, and it was engaged in Afghanistan.The military is composed of four branches, all of which carry the prefix "Koninklijke" (Royal):The submarine service opened to women on 1 January 2017. The Korps Commandotroepen, the Special Operations Force of the Netherlands Army, is open to women, but because of the extremely high physical demands for initial training, it is almost impossible for a woman to become a commando. The Dutch Ministry of Defence employs more than 70,000 personnel, including over 20,000 civilians and over 50,000 military personnel. In April 2011 the government announced a major reduction in its military because of a cut in government expenditure, including a decrease in the number of tanks, fighter aircraft, naval ships and senior officials.The Netherlands has ratified many international conventions concerning war law. The Netherlands decided not to sign the UN treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.The Netherlands has a developed economy and has been playing a special role in the European economy for many centuries. Since the 16th century, shipping, fishing, agriculture, trade, and banking have been leading sectors of the Dutch economy. The Netherlands has a high level of economic freedom. The Netherlands is one of the top countries in the Global Enabling Trade Report (2nd in 2016), and was ranked the fifth most competitive economy in the world by the Swiss International Institute for Management Development in 2017. In addition, the country was ranked the second most innovative nation in the world in the 2018 Global Innovation Index., the key trading partners of the Netherlands were Germany, Belgium, the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Italy, China and Russia. The Netherlands is one of the world's 10 leading exporting countries. Foodstuffs form the largest industrial sector. Other major industries include chemicals, metallurgy, machinery, electrical goods, trade, services and tourism. Examples of international Dutch companies operating in Netherlands include Randstad, Unilever, Heineken, KLM, financial services (ING, ABN AMRO, Rabobank), chemicals (DSM, AKZO), petroleum refining (Royal Dutch Shell), electronical machinery (Philips, ASML), and satellite navigation (TomTom).The Netherlands has the 17th-largest economy in the world, and ranks 11th in GDP (nominal) per capita. Between 1997 and 2000 annual economic growth (GDP) averaged nearly 4%, well above the European average. Growth slowed considerably from 2001 to 2005 with the global economic slowdown, but accelerated to 4.1% in the third quarter of 2007. In May 2013, inflation was at 2.8% per year. In April 2013, unemployment was at 8.2% (or 6.7% following the ILO definition) of the labour force. In February 2019, this was reduced to 3.4%.In Q3 and Q4 2011, the Dutch economy contracted by 0.4% and 0.7%, respectively, because of European Debt Crisis, while in Q4 the Eurozone economy shrunk by 0.3%. The Netherlands also has a relatively low GINI coefficient of 0.326. Despite ranking 11th in GDP per capita, UNICEF ranked the Netherlands 1st in child well-being in rich countries, both in 2007 and in 2013. On the Index of Economic Freedom Netherlands is the 14th most free market capitalist economy out of 180 surveyed countries.Amsterdam is the financial and business capital of the Netherlands. The Amsterdam Stock Exchange (AEX), part of Euronext, is the world's oldest stock exchange and is one of Europe's largest bourses. It is situated near Dam Square in the city's centre. As a founding member of the euro, the Netherlands replaced (for accounting purposes) its former currency, the "gulden" (guilder), on 1 January 1999, along with 15 other adopters of the euro. Actual euro coins and banknotes followed on 1 January 2002. One euro was equivalent to 2.20371 Dutch guilders. In the Caribbean Netherlands, the United States dollar is used instead of the euro.The Dutch location gives it prime access to markets in the UK and Germany, with the Port of Rotterdam being the largest port in Europe. Other important parts of the economy are international trade (Dutch colonialism started with co-operative private enterprises such as the Dutch East India Company), banking and transport. The Netherlands successfully addressed the issue of public finances and stagnating job growth long before its European partners. Amsterdam is the 5th-busiest tourist destination in Europe with more than 4.2 million international visitors. Since the enlargement of the EU large numbers of migrant workers have arrived in the Netherlands from Central and Eastern Europe.The Netherlands continues to be one of the leading European nations for attracting foreign direct investment and is one of the five largest investors in the United States. The economy experienced a slowdown in 2005, but in 2006 recovered to the fastest pace in six years on the back of increased exports and strong investment. The pace of job growth reached 10-year highs in 2007. The Netherlands is the fourth-most competitive economy in the world, according to the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report.Beginning in the 1950s, the Netherlands discovered huge natural gas resources. The sale of natural gas generated enormous revenues for the Netherlands for decades, adding hundreds of billions of euros to the government's budget. However, the unforeseen consequences of the country's huge energy wealth impacted the competitiveness of other sectors of the economy, leading to the theory of Dutch disease.Apart from coal and gas, the country has no mining resources. The last coal mine was closed in 1974. The Groningen gas field, one of the largest natural-gas fields in the world, is situated near Slochteren. The exploitation of this field has resulted in €159 billion in revenue since the mid-1970s. The field is operated by government-owned Gasunie and output is jointly exploited by the government, Royal Dutch Shell, and Exxon Mobil through NAM (Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij). "Gas extraction has resulted in increasingly strong earth tremors, some measuring as much as 3.6 on the Richter magnitude scale. The cost of damage repairs, structural improvements to buildings, and compensation for home value decreases has been estimated at €6.5 billion. Around 35,000 homes are said to be affected." The Netherlands has an estimated 25% of natural gas reserves in the EU. The energy sector accounted for almost 11% of the GDP in 2014. Netherlands' economy, mainly due to the large shares of natural gas reserves, is considered to have "very high" energy intensity rating.The Netherlands is faced with future challenges as the energy supply is forecasted to fall short of the demand by the year 2025 in the gas sector. This is attributed to the depletion of the Netherlands' major gas field, Groningen, and the earthquakes that have hit the Groningen region. In addition, there is ambiguity surrounding the feasibility of producing unconventional gas. The Netherlands relies heavily on natural gas to provide energy. Gas is the main source of heating for households in the Netherlands and represented 35% of the energy mix in 2014. Furthermore, The European Union 2020 package (20% reduction in GHG emissions, 20% renewables in the energy mix and 20% improvement in energy efficiency) enacted in 2009 has influenced the domestic energy politics of Netherlands and pressured non-state actors to give consent to more aggressive energy reforms that would reduce reliance on natural resources as a source of income to the economy. Therefore, a transition towards renewable energy has been a key objective by Netherlands in order to safeguard the energy security of the country from natural resources depletion, mainly gas. Netherlands has set a 14% renewable energy target of the total energy mix by the year 2020. However, the continuation of providing tax breaks to electricity generated by coal and gas, and to the exploration and extraction of gas from fields that are "insufficiently" profitable, renders a successful transition towards renewable energy more difficult to achieve due to inconsistencies in the policy mix. In 2011, it was estimated that the renewable energy sector received 31% (EUR 743MM), while the conventional energy sector received 69% (EUR 1.6B), of the total energy subsidies by the government. Furthermore, the energy market in the Netherlands remains to be dominated by few major corporations Nuon, RWE, E.ON, Eneco, and Delta that have significant influence over the energy policy. Renewable energy share in the energy mix is estimated to reach 12.4% by the year 2020, falling 1.6% short of the 14% target.From a biological resource perspective, the Netherlands has a low endowment: the Netherlands’ biocapacity adds up to only 0.8 global hectares in 2016, 0.2 of which are dedicated to agriculture. The Dutch biocapacity per person is just about half of the 1.6 global hectares of biocapacity per person available worldwide. In contrast, in 2016, the Dutch used on average 4.8 global hectares of biocapacity - their ecological footprint of consumption. This means the Dutch required nearly six times as much biocapacity as the Netherlands contains. As a result, the Netherlands was running a biocapacity deficit of 4.0 global hectares per person in 2016.The Dutch agricultural sector is highly mechanised, and has a strong focus on international exports. It employs about 4% of the Dutch labour force but produces large surpluses in the food-processing industry and accounts for 21% of the Dutch total export value. The Dutch rank first in the European Union and second worldwide in value of agricultural exports, behind only the United States, with agricultural exports earning €80.7 billion in 2014, up from €75.4 billion in 2012. In 2019 agricultural exports were worth €94.5 billion.One-third of the world's exports of chilis, tomatoes, and cucumbers goes through the country. The Netherlands also exports one-fifteenth of the world's apples.Aside from that, a significant portion of Dutch agricultural exports consists of fresh-cut plants, flowers, and flower bulbs, with the Netherlands exporting two-thirds of the world's total.The Netherlands had an estimated population of 17,493,969 as of 30 April 2021. It is the 5th most densely populated country in Europe, and except for the very small city-states like Monaco, Vatican City and San Marino it is the most densely populated country in Europe. And it is the 16th most densely populated country in the world with a density of . It is the 67th most populous country in the world. Between 1900 and 1950, the country's population almost doubled from 5.1 to 10 million. From 1950 to 2000, the population further increased, to 15.9 million, though this represented a lower rate of population growth. The estimated growth rate is 0.44%.The fertility rate in the Netherlands is 1.78 children per woman (2018 estimate), which is high compared with many other European countries, but below the rate of 2.1 children per woman required for natural population replacement, it remains considerably below the high of 5.39 children born per woman in 1879. Netherlands subsequently has one of the oldest populations in the world, with the average age of 42.7 years. Life expectancy is high in the Netherlands: 84.3 years for newborn girls and 79.7 for boys (2020 estimate). The country has a migration rate of 1.9 migrants per 1,000 inhabitants per year. The majority of the population of the Netherlands is ethnically Dutch. According to a 2005 estimate, the population was 80.9% Dutch, 2.4% Indonesian, 2.4% German, 2.2% Turkish, 2.0% Surinamese, 1.9% Moroccan, 0.8% Antillean and Aruban, and 7.4% others. Some 150,000 to 200,000 people living in the Netherlands are expatriates, mostly concentrated in and around Amsterdam and The Hague, now constituting almost 10% of the population of these cities.The Dutch are the tallest people in the world, by nationality, with an average height of for adult males and for adult females in 2009. People in the south are on average about shorter than those in the north.According to Eurostat, in 2010 there were 1.8 million foreign-born residents in the Netherlands, corresponding to 11.1% of the total population. Of these, 1.4 million (8.5%) were born outside the EU and 0.43 million (2.6%) were born in another EU Member State. On 21 November 2016, there were 3.8 million residents in the Netherlands with at least one foreign-born parent ("migration background"). Over half the young people in Amsterdam and Rotterdam have a non-western background. Dutch people, or descendants of Dutch people, are also found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in Canada, Australia, South Africa and the United States. According to the United States Census Bureau (2006), more than 5 million Americans claim total or partial Dutch ancestry. There are close to 3 million Dutch-descended Afrikaners living in South Africa. In 1940, there were 290,000 Europeans and Eurasians in Indonesia, but most have since left the country.The Randstad is the country's largest conurbation located in the west of the country and contains the four largest cities: Amsterdam in the province North Holland, Rotterdam and The Hague in the province South Holland, and Utrecht in the province Utrecht. The Randstad has a population of about 8.2 million inhabitants and is the 5th largest metropolitan area in Europe. According to Dutch Central Statistics Bureau, in 2015, 28 per cent of the Dutch population had a spendable income above 45,000 euros (which does not include spending on health care or education).The official language is Dutch, which is spoken by the vast majority of the inhabitants. Besides Dutch, West Frisian is recognised as a second official language in the northern province of Friesland ("Fryslân" in West Frisian). West Frisian has a formal status for government correspondence in that province. In the European part of the kingdom two other regional languages are recognised under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.The first of these recognised regional languages is Low Saxon ("Nedersaksisch" in Dutch). Low Saxon consists of several dialects spoken in the north and east, like Tweants in the region of Twente, and Drents in the province of Drenthe. Secondly, Limburgish is also recognised as a regional language. It consists of Dutch varieties of Meuse-Rhenish Franconian languages and is spoken in the south-eastern province of Limburg. The dialects most spoken in the Netherlands are the Brabantian-Hollandic dialects.Ripuarian language, which is spoken in Kerkrade and Vaals in the form of, respectively, the Kerkrade dialect and the Vaals dialect are legally treated as Limburgish as well - see Southeast Limburgish dialect.English has a formal status in the special municipalities of Saba and Sint Eustatius. It is widely spoken on these islands. Papiamento has a formal status in the special municipality of Bonaire. Yiddish and the Romani language were recognised in 1996 as non-territorial languages. The Netherlands has a tradition of learning foreign languages, formalised in Dutch education laws. Some 90% of the total population indicate they are able to converse in English, 70% in German, and 29% in French. English is a mandatory course in all secondary schools. In most lower level secondary school educations ("vmbo"), one additional modern foreign language is mandatory during the first two years.In higher level secondary schools (HAVO and VWO), the acquisition of two additional modern foreign language skills is mandatory during the first three years. Only during the last three years in VWO one foreign language is mandatory. Besides English, the standard modern languages are French and German, although schools can replace one of these modern languages with Chinese, Spanish, Russian, Italian, Turkish or Arabic. Additionally, schools in Friesland teach and have exams in West Frisian, and schools across the country teach and have exams in Ancient Greek and Latin for secondary school (called Gymnasium or VWO+).The population of the Netherlands was predominantly Christian until the late 20th century, divided into a number of denominations. Although significant religious diversity remains, there has been a decline of religious adherence. The Netherlands is now one of the most secular societies in the world.In 2019, Statistics Netherlands found that 54.1% of the total population declared itself to be non-religious. Groups that represent the non-religious in the Netherlands include Humanistisch Verbond. Roman Catholics comprised 20.1% of the total population, Protestants (14.8%). Muslims comprised 5.0% of the total population and followers of other Christian denominations and other religions (like Judaism, Buddhism and Hinduism) comprised the remaining 5.9%. A 2015 survey from another source found that Protestants outnumbered Catholics.The southern provinces of North Brabant and Limburg have historically been strongly Roman Catholic, and some residents consider the Catholic Church as a base for their cultural identity. Protestantism in the Netherlands consists of a number of churches within various traditions. The largest of these is the Protestant Church in the Netherlands (PKN), a United church which is Reformed and Lutheran in orientation. It was formed in 2004 as a merger of the Dutch Reformed Church, the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands and a smaller Lutheran Church. Several orthodox Reformed and liberal churches did not merge into the PKN. Although in the Netherlands as a whole Christianity has become a minority, the Netherlands contains a Bible Belt from Zeeland to the northern parts of the province Overijssel, in which Protestant (particularly Reformed) beliefs remain strong, and even has majorities in municipal councils.Islam is the second largest religion in the state. In 2012, there were about 825,000 Muslims in the Netherlands (5% of the population). The Muslim population increased from the 1960 as a result of large numbers of migrant workers. This included migrant workers from Turkey and Morocco, as well as migrants from former Dutch colonies, such as Surinam and Indonesia. During the 1990s, Muslim refugees arrived from countries like Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iran, Iraq, Somalia, and Afghanistan.Another religion practised is Hinduism, with around 215,000 adherents (slightly over 1% of the population). Most of these are Indo-Surinamese. There are also sizable populations of Hindu immigrants from India and Sri Lanka, and some Western adherents of Hinduism-oriented new religious movements such as Hare Krishnas. The Netherlands has an estimated 250,000 Buddhists or people strongly attracted to this religion, mainly ethnic Dutch people. In addition, there are about 45,000 Jews in the Netherlands.The Constitution of the Netherlands guarantees freedom of education, which means that all schools that adhere to general quality criteria receive the same government funding. This includes schools based on religious principles by religious groups (especially Roman Catholic and various Protestant). Three political parties in the Dutch parliament, (CDA, and two small parties, ChristianUnion and SGP) are based upon the Christian belief. Several Christian religious holidays are national holidays (Christmas, Easter, Pentecost and the Ascension of Jesus).Upon the country's independence, Protestants were predominant in most of the country, while Roman Catholics were dominant in the south, especially North Brabant and Limburg. In the late 19th century, secularism, atheism and pillarisation gained adherents. By 1960, Roman Catholics equalled Protestants in number; thereafter, both Christian branches began to decline. Conversely, Islam grew considerably as the result of immigration. Since 2000 there has been raised awareness of religion, mainly due to Muslim extremism.The Dutch royal family has been traditionally associated with Calvinism, specifically the Dutch Reformed Church, which has merged into the Protestant Church in the Netherlands. The Dutch Reformed Church was the only major Protestant church in the Netherlands from the Reformation until the 19th century. Denominational splits in 1834 and in 1886 diversified Dutch Calvinism. In 2013, a Roman Catholic became Queen consort.A survey in December 2014 concluded that for the first time there were more atheists (25%) than theists (17%) in the Netherlands, while the remainder of the population was agnostic (31%) or ietsistic (27%). In 2015, a vast majority of the inhabitants of the Netherlands (82%) said they had never or almost never visited a church, and 59% stated that they had never been to a church of any kind. Of all the people questioned, 24% saw themselves as atheist, an increase of 11% compared to the previous study done in 2006. The expected rise of spirituality (ietsism) has come to a halt according to research in 2015. In 2006, 40% of respondents considered themselves spiritual; in 2015 this has dropped to 31%. The number who believed in the existence of a higher power fell from 36% to 28% over the same period.Education in the Netherlands is compulsory between the ages of 5 and 16. If a child does not have a "starting qualification" (HAVO, VWO or MBO 2+ degree) they are still forced to attend classes until they achieve such a qualification or reach the age of 18.All children in the Netherlands usually attend elementary school from (on average) ages 4 to 12. It comprises eight grades, the first of which is facultative. Based on an aptitude test, the eighth grade teacher's recommendation and the opinion of the pupil's parents or caretakers, a choice is made for one of the three main streams of secondary education. After completing a particular stream, a pupil may still continue in the penultimate year of the next stream.The VMBO has four grades and is subdivided over several levels. Successfully completing the VMBO results in a low-level vocational degree that grants access to the MBO. The MBO (middle-level applied education) is a form of education that primarily focuses on teaching a practical trade or a vocational degree. With the MBO certification, a student can apply for the HBO. The HAVO has 5 grades and allows for admission to the HBO. The HBO (higher professional education) are universities of professional education (applied sciences) that award professional bachelor's degrees; similar to polytechnic degrees. An HBO degree gives access to the university system. The VWO (comprising atheneum and gymnasium) has 6 grades and prepares for studying at a research university. Universities offer a three-year bachelor's degree, followed by a one or two-year master's degree, which in turn can be followed by a four or five-year doctoral degree programme.Doctoral candidates in the Netherlands are generally non-tenured employees of a university. All Dutch schools and universities are publicly funded and managed with the exception of religious schools that are publicly funded but not managed by the state even though requirements are necessary for the funding to be authorised. Dutch universities have a tuition fee of about 2,000 euros a year for students from the Netherlands and the European Union. The amount is about 10,000 euros for non-EU students.In 2016, the Netherlands maintained its number one position at the top of the annual Euro health consumer index (EHCI), which compares healthcare systems in Europe, scoring 916 of a maximum 1,000 points. The Netherlands has been among the top three countries in each report published since 2005. On 48 indicators such as patient rights and information, accessibility, prevention and outcomes, the Netherlands secured its top position among 37 European countries for six years in a row.The Netherlands was ranked first in a study in 2009 comparing the health care systems of the United States, Australia, Canada, Germany and New Zealand.Ever since a major reform of the health care system in 2006, the Dutch system received more points in the Index each year. According to the HCP (Health Consumer Powerhouse), the Netherlands has 'a chaos system', meaning patients have a great degree of freedom from where to buy their health insurance, to where they get their healthcare service. The difference between the Netherlands and other countries is that the chaos is managed. Healthcare decisions are being made in a dialogue between the patients and healthcare professionals.Health insurance in the Netherlands is mandatory. Healthcare in the Netherlands is covered by two statutory forms of insurance:While Dutch residents are automatically insured by the government for AWBZ, everyone has to take out their own basic healthcare insurance (basisverzekering), except those under 18 who are automatically covered under their parents' premium. If a person decides not to carry out an insurance coverage, the person may be fined. Insurers have to offer a universal package for everyone over the age of 18 years, regardless of age or state of health – it's illegal to refuse an application or impose special conditions. In contrast to many other European systems, the Dutch government is responsible for the accessibility and quality of the healthcare system in the Netherlands, but not in charge of its management.Healthcare in the Netherlands can be divided in several ways: three echelons, in somatic and mental health care and in 'cure' (short term) and 'care' (long term). Home doctors ("huisartsen", comparable to general practitioners) form the largest part of the first echelon. Being referenced by a member of the first echelon is mandatory for access to the second and third echelon. The health care system is in comparison to other Western countries quite effective but not the most cost-effective.Healthcare in the Netherlands is financed by a dual system that came into effect in January 2006. Long-term treatments, especially those that involve semi-permanent hospitalisation, and also disability costs such as wheelchairs, are covered by a state-controlled mandatory insurance. This is laid down in the "Algemene Wet Bijzondere Ziektekosten" ("General Law on Exceptional Healthcare Costs") which first came into effect in 1968. In 2009 this insurance covered 27% of all health care expenses.For all regular (short-term) medical treatment, there is a system of obligatory health insurance, with private health insurance companies. These insurance companies are obliged to provide a package with a defined set of insured treatments. This insurance covers 41% of all health care expenses.Other sources of health care payment are taxes (14%), out of pocket payments (9%), additional optional health insurance packages (4%) and a range of other sources (4%). Affordability is guaranteed through a system of income-related allowances and individual and employer-paid income-related premiums.A key feature of the Dutch system is that premiums may not be related to health status or age. Risk variances between private health insurance companies due to the different risks presented by individual policy holders are compensated through risk equalisation and a common risk pool. The funding burden for all short-term health care coverage is carried 50% by employers, 45% by the insured person and 5% by the government. Children under 18 are covered for free. Those on low incomes receive compensation to help them pay their insurance. Premiums paid by the insured are about €100 per month (about US$127 in August 2010 and €150 or US$196 in 2012), with variation of about 5% between the various competing insurers, and a yearly deductible of €220 (US$288).Mobility on Dutch roads has grown continuously since the 1950s and now exceeds 200 billion km travelled per year, three quarters of which are done by car. Around half of all trips in the Netherlands are made by car, 25% by bicycle, 20% walking, and 5% by public transport.With a total road network of 139,295 km, which includes 2,758 km of expressways, the Netherlands has one of the densest road networks in the world—much denser than Germany and France, but still not as dense as Belgium.As part of its commitment to environmental sustainability, the Government of the Netherlands initiated a plan to establish over 200 recharging stations for electric vehicles across the country. The rollout will be undertaken by Switzerland-based power and automation company ABB and Dutch startup Fastned, and will aim to provide at least one station within a 50-kilometre radius (30 miles) from every home in the Netherlands. Currently, the Netherlands alone hosts more than a quarter of all recharging stations in the European Union. This share rises to 30% if Brexit is taken into account. Moreover, newly sold cars in the Netherlands have on average the lowest CO2 emissions in the EU.About 13% of all distance is travelled by public transport, the majority of which by train. Like in many other European countries, the Dutch rail network of 3,013 km route is also rather dense. The network is mostly focused on passenger rail services and connects all major towns and cities, with over 400 stations. Trains are frequent, with two trains per hour on lesser lines, two to four trains per hour on average, and up to eight trains an hour on the busiest lines. The Dutch national train network also includes the HSL-Zuid, a high-speed line between the Amsterdam metropolitan area and the Belgian border for trains running from Paris and London to the Netherlands.Cycling is a ubiquitous mode of transport in the Netherlands. Almost as many kilometres are covered by bicycle as by train. The Dutch are estimated to have at least 18 million bicycles, which makes more than one per capita, and twice as many as the circa 9 million motor vehicles on the road. In 2013, the European Cyclists' Federation ranked both the Netherlands and Denmark as the most bike-friendly countries in Europe, but more of the Dutch (36%) than of the Danes (23%) list the bike as their most frequent mode of transport on a typical day. Cycling infrastructure is comprehensive. Busy roads have received some 35,000 km of dedicated cycle tracks, physically segregated from motorised traffic. Busy junctions are often equipped with bicycle-specific traffic lights. There are large bicycle parking facilities, particularly in city centres and at train stations.Until the introduction of trains, ships were the primary mode of transport in the Netherlands. And shipping has remained crucial afterwards. The Port of Rotterdam is the largest port in Europe and the largest port in the world outside East-Asia, with the rivers Meuse and Rhine providing excellent access to the hinterland upstream reaching to Basel, Switzerland, and into Germany and France. , Rotterdam was the world's eighth largest container port handling 440.5 million metric tonnes of cargo annually. The port's main activities are petrochemical industries and general cargo handling and transshipment. The harbour functions as an important transit point for bulk materials and between the European continent and overseas. From Rotterdam goods are transported by ship, river barge, train or road. The Volkeraksluizen between Rotterdam and Antwerp are the biggest sluices for inland navigation in the world in terms of tonnage passing through them. In 2007, the Betuweroute, a new fast freight railway from Rotterdam to Germany, was completed. The Netherlands also hosts Europe's 4th largest port in Amsterdam. The inland shipping fleet of the Netherlands is the largest in Europe. The Netherlands also has the largest fleet of active historical ships in the world. Boats are used for passenger travel as well, such as the Watertaxies in Rotterdam. The ferry network in Amsterdam and the Waterbus network in Rotterdam are part of the public transport system.Schiphol Airport, just southwest of Amsterdam, is the main international airport in the Netherlands, and the third busiest airport in Europe in terms of passengers. Schiphol is the main hub for KLM, the nation's flag carrier and the world's oldest airline. In 2016, the Royal Schiphol Group airports handled 70 million passengers. All air traffic is international and Schiphol Airport is connected to over 300 destinations worldwide, more than any other European airport. The airport is a major freight hub as well, processing 1.44 million tonnes of cargo in 2020. Smaller international airports in the country include Eindhoven Airport, Rotterdam The Hague Airport, Maastricht Aachen Airport and Groningen Airport Eelde. Air transport is of vital significance for the Caribbean part of the Netherlands, with all islands having their own airport. This includes the shortest runway in the world on Saba.The Netherlands has had many well-known painters. In the Middle Ages Hieronymus Bosch, Petrus Christus, Lucas Gassel and Pieter Bruegel the Elder were leading Dutch pioneers.During the Dutch Golden Age, spanning much of the 17th century, the Dutch Republic was prosperous and witnessed a flourishing artistic movement. This was the age of the "Dutch Masters", such as Rembrandt van Rijn, Johannes Vermeer, Jan Steen, Jacob van Ruisdael, Gerard van Honthorst, Theodoor van Thulden and many others. Famous Dutch painters of the 19th and 20th century were Vincent van Gogh and the luminists Jan Sluijters, Leo Gestel, and Piet Mondrian. M. C. Escher is a well-known graphic artist. Willem de Kooning was born and trained in Rotterdam, although he is considered to have reached acclaim as an American artist. Literature flourished as well during the Dutch Golden Age, with Joost van den Vondel and P. C. Hooft as the two most famous writers. In the 19th century, Multatuli wrote about the poor treatment of the natives in the Dutch colony, the current Indonesia. Important 20th century authors include Godfried Bomans, Harry Mulisch, Jan Wolkers, Simon Vestdijk, Hella S. Haasse, Cees Nooteboom, Gerard Reve and Willem Frederik Hermans. Anne Frank's "Diary of a Young Girl" was published after she was murdered in the Holocaust and translated from Dutch to all major languages.Various architectural styles can be distinguished in the Netherlands. Over the years, various styles have been built and preserved.The Romanesque architecture was built between the years 950 and 1250. This architectural style is most concentrated in the provinces of Gelderland and Limburg. Limburg, in particular, differs greatly in architectural style from the rest of the Netherlands.The Gothic architecture came to in the Netherlands from about 1230. Gothic buildings often had large windows, pointed arches and were richly decorated.Brabantine Gothic originated with the rise of the Duchy of Brabant and spread throughout the Burgundian provinces.This architectural style is most concentrated in the province of North Brabant, such as St. John's Cathedral in 's-Hertogenbosch, The Church of Our Lady in Breda and the Margraves Palace in Bergen op Zoom.What many know as traditional Dutch architecture is the Dutch Baroque architecture (1525 – 1630) and classicism (1630 – 1700).These style of architecture is especially in evidence in the cities of North Holland, South Holland and Zeeland.Other architectural styles that are common in the Netherlands are Style Louis XIV, Art Nouveau, Rationalism, NeoclassicismExpressionism, De Stijl, Traditionalism and Brutalism.The Netherlands is the country of philosophers Erasmus, Rudolf Agricola and Spinoza. Much of Descartes' major work was done in the Netherlands, where he studied at Leiden University — as did geologist James Hutton, British Prime Minister John Stuart, U.S. President John Quincy Adams, Physics Nobel Prize laureate Hendrik Lorentz and Enrico Fermi. The Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens (1629–1695) discovered Saturn's moon Titan, argued that light travelled as waves, invented the pendulum clock and was the first physicist to use mathematical formulae. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek was the first to observe and describe single-celled organisms with a microscope.Replicas of Dutch buildings can be found in Huis Ten Bosch, Nagasaki, Japan. A similar Holland Village is being built in Shenyang, China. Windmills, tulips, wooden shoes, cheese, Delftware pottery, and cannabis are among the items associated with the Netherlands by tourists.In the south of the Netherlands there are some festivals that rarely or never occur in the rest of the Netherlands. These celebrations grew out of Catholic traditions, including Carnival, lantern parades during the celebration of Three Kings, Brabantian Day and huge Bloemencorso. Bloemencorsos used to occur in many places in the Netherlands, but in the 21th century, Zundert and Valkenswaard in North Brabant have taken the lead.Dutch society is egalitarian and modern. The Dutch have an aversion to the non-essential. Ostentatious behaviour is to be avoided. The Dutch are proud of their cultural heritage, rich history in art and involvement in international affairs.Dutch manners are open and direct with a no-nonsense attitude—informality combined with adherence to basic behaviour. According to a humorous source on Dutch culture, "Their directness gives many the impression that they are rude and crude—attributes they prefer to call openness." A well known more serious source on Dutch etiquette is "Dealing with the Dutch" by Jacob Vossestein: "Dutch egalitarianism is the idea that people are equal, especially from a moral point of view, and accordingly, causes the somewhat ambiguous stance the Dutch have towards hierarchy and status." As always, manners differ between groups. Asking about basic rules will not be considered impolite. "What may strike you as being blatantly blunt topics and comments are no more embarrassing or unusual to the Dutch than discussing the weather."The Netherlands is one of the most secular countries of Europe, and religion in the Netherlands is generally considered as a personal matter which is not supposed to be propagated in public, although it often remains a discussion subject. For only 17% of the population religion is important and 14% goes to church weekly.The Netherlands has a long history of social tolerance and today is regarded as a liberal country, considering its drug policy and its legalisation of euthanasia. On 1 April 2001, the Netherlands became the first nation to legalise same-sex marriage.As of 2018 the Netherlands had one of the highest rates of carbon dioxide emissions per capita in the European Union, above those of Germany, France and Belgium. In addition, the Dutch waste more food than any other EU citizen, at over three times the EU average Despite this, the Netherlands has nonetheless the reputation of the leader country in environmental and population management. In 2015, Amsterdam and Rotterdam were ranked fourth and fifth, respectively, on the Arcadis Sustainable Cities Index.Sustainability is a concept important for the Dutch. The goal of the Dutch Government is to have a sustainable, reliable and affordable energy system, by 2050, in which emissions have been halved and 40 per cent of electricity is derived from sustainable sources.The government is investing billions of euros in energy efficiency, sustainable energy and reduction. The Kingdom also encourages Dutch companies to build sustainable business/projects/facilities, with financial aids from the state to the companies or individuals who are active in making the country more sustainable.The Netherlands has multiple music traditions. Traditional Dutch music is a genre known as "Levenslied", meaning "Song of life", to an extent comparable to a French Chanson or a German Schlager. These songs typically have a simple melody and rhythm, and a straightforward structure of verses and choruses. Themes can be light, but are often sentimental and include love, death and loneliness. Traditional musical instruments such as the accordion and the barrel organ are a staple of levenslied music, though in recent years many artists also use synthesisers and guitars. Artists in this genre include Jan Smit, Frans Bauer and André Hazes.Contemporary Dutch rock and pop music (Nederpop) originated in the 1960s, heavily influenced by popular music from the United States and Britain. In the 1960s and 1970s the lyrics were mostly in English, and some tracks were instrumental. Bands such as Shocking Blue, Golden Earring, Tee Set, George Baker Selection and Focus enjoyed international success. As of the 1980s, more and more pop musicians started working in the Dutch language, partly inspired by the huge success of the band Doe Maar. Today Dutch rock and pop music thrives in both languages, with some artists recording in both.Current symphonic metal bands Epica, Delain, ReVamp, The Gathering, Asrai, Autumn, Ayreon and Within Temptation as well as jazz and pop singer Caro Emerald are having international success. Also, metal bands like Hail of Bullets, God Dethroned, Izegrim, Asphyx, Textures, Present Danger, Heidevolk and Slechtvalk are popular guests at the biggest metal festivals in Europe. Contemporary local stars include pop singer Anouk, country pop singer Ilse DeLange, South Guelderish and Limburgish dialect singing folk band Rowwen Hèze, rock band BLØF and duo Nick & Simon. Trijntje Oosterhuis, one of the country's most well known and versatile singers, has made multiple albums with famous American composers Vince Mendoza and Burt Bacharach.Early 1990s Dutch and Belgian house music came together in Eurodance project 2 Unlimited. Selling 18 million records, the two singers in the band are the most successful Dutch music artists to this day. Tracks like "Get Ready for This" are still popular themes of U.S. sports events, like the NHL. In the mid 1990s Dutch language rap and hip hop ("Nederhop") also came to fruition and has become popular in the Netherlands and Belgium. Artists with North African, Caribbean or Middle Eastern origins have strongly influenced this genre.Since the 1990s, Dutch electronic dance music (EDM) gained widespread popularity in the world in many forms, from trance, techno and gabber to hardstyle. Some of the world's best known dance music DJs hail from the Netherlands, including Armin van Buuren, Tiësto, Hardwell, Martin Garrix, Dash Berlin, Julian Jordan, Nicky Romero, W&W, Don Diablo and Afrojack; the first four of which have been ranked as best in the world by DJ Mag Top 100 DJs. The Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE) is the world's leading electronic music conference and the biggest club festival for the many electronic subgenres on the planet. These DJs also contribute to the world's mainstream pop music, as they frequently collaborate and produce for high-profile international artists.The Netherlands have participated in the Eurovision Song Contest since its first edition in 1956, and have won five times. Their most recent win was in 2019.In classical music, Jan Sweelinck ranks as the Dutch most famous composer, with Louis Andriessen amongst the best known living Dutch classical composers. Ton Koopman is a Dutch conductor, organist and harpsichordist. He is also professor at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. Notable violinists are Janine Jansen and André Rieu. The latter, together with his Johann Strauss Orchestra, has taken classical and waltz music on worldwide concert tours, the size and revenue of which are otherwise only seen from the world's biggest rock and pop music acts. The most famous Dutch classical composition is "Canto Ostinato" by Simeon ten Holt, a minimalistic composition for multiple instruments. Acclaimed harpist Lavinia Meijer in 2012 released an album with works from Philip Glass that she transcribed for harp, with approval of Glass himself. The Concertgebouw (completed in 1888) in Amsterdam is home to the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, considered one of the world's finest orchestras.Some Dutch films – mainly by director Paul Verhoeven – have received international distribution and recognition, such as "Turkish Delight" (""Turks Fruit"", 1973), "Soldier of Orange" (""Soldaat van Oranje"", 1977), "Spetters" (1980) and "The Fourth Man" (""De Vierde Man"", 1983). Verhoeven then went on to direct big Hollywood movies like "RoboCop" (1987), "Total Recall" (1990) and "Basic Instinct" (1992), and returned with Dutch film "Black Book" (""Zwartboek"", 2006).Other well-known Dutch film directors are Jan de Bont ("Speed"), Anton Corbijn ("A Most wanted Man"), Dick Maas ("De Lift"), Fons Rademakers ("The Assault"), and documentary makers Bert Haanstra and Joris Ivens. Film director Theo van Gogh achieved international notoriety in 2004 when he was murdered by Mohammed Bouyeri in the streets of Amsterdam after directing the short film "Submission".Internationally, successful directors of photography from the Netherlands are Hoyte van Hoytema ("Interstellar", "Spectre", "Dunkirk") and Theo van de Sande ("Wayne's World" and "Blade"). Van Hoytema went to the National Film School in Łódź (Poland) and Van de Sande went to the Netherlands Film Academy. Internationally successful Dutch actors include Famke Janssen ("X-Men"), Carice van Houten ("Game of Thrones"), Michiel Huisman ("Game of Thrones"), Rutger Hauer ("Blade Runner"), Jeroen Krabbé ("The Living Daylights") and Derek de Lint ("Three Men and a Baby").The Netherlands has a well developed television market, with both multiple commercial and public broadcasters. Imported TV programmes, as well as interviews with responses in a foreign language, are virtually always shown with the original sound and subtitled. Only foreign shows for children are dubbed.TV exports from the Netherlands mostly take the form of specific formats and franchises, most notably through internationally active TV production conglomerate Endemol, founded by Dutch media tycoons John de Mol and Joop van den Ende. Headquartered in Amsterdam, Endemol has around 90 companies in over 30 countries. Endemol and its subsidiaries create and run reality, talent, and game show franchises worldwide, including "Big Brother" and "Deal or No Deal". John de Mol later started his own company Talpa which created show franchises like "The Voice" and "Utopia".Approximately 4.5 million of the 16.8 million people in the Netherlands are registered to one of the 35,000 sports clubs in the country. About two-thirds of the population between 15 and 75 participates in sports weekly. Football is the most popular participant sport in the Netherlands, before field hockey and volleyball as the second and third most popular team sports. The Netherlands national football team is one of the most popular aspects of Dutch sports; especially since the 1970s when one of the greatest footballers of all time, Johan Cruyff, developed Total Football with coach Rinus Michels. Tennis, gymnastics and golf are the three most widely engaged in individual sports.Organisation of sports began at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. Federations for sports were established (such as the speed skating federation in 1882), rules were unified and sports clubs came into existence. A Dutch National Olympic Committee was established in 1912. Thus far, the nation has won 266 medals at the Summer Olympic Games and another 110 medals at the Winter Olympic Games. In international competition, Dutch national teams and athletes are dominant in several fields of sport. The Netherlands women's field hockey team is the most successful team in World Cup history. The Netherlands baseball team have won the European championship 20 times out of 32 events. Dutch K-1 kickboxers have won the K-1 World Grand Prix 15 times out of 19 tournaments. The Netherlands Women's handball team holds the record of the only team in the world that consecutively reached all six semifinals of major international tournaments since 2015, winning silver and bronze at the European Women's Handball Championship and silver, bronze and gold at the World Women's Handball Championship. They finished fourth at the 2016 Summer Olympics.The Dutch speed skaters' performance at the 2014 Winter Olympics, where they won 8 out of 12 events, 23 out of 36 medals, including 4 clean sweeps, is the most dominant performance in a single sport in Olympic history. Motorcycle racing at the TT Circuit Assen has a long history. Assen is the only venue to have held a round of the Motorcycle World Championship every year since its creation in 1949. The circuit was purpose-built for the Dutch TT in 1954, with previous events having been held on public roads.The Dutch have also had success in all three of cyclings Grand Tours with Jan Janssen winning the 1968 Tour de France, more recently with Tom Dumoulin winning the 2017 Giro d'Italia and legendary rider Joop Zoetemelk was the 1985 UCI World Champion, the winner of the 1979 Vuelta a Espana, the 1980 Tour de France and still holds or shares numerous Tour de France records including most Tours finished and most kilometres ridden.Limburger Max Verstappen currently races in Formula One, and was the first Dutchman to win a Grand Prix. The coastal resort of Zandvoort hosted the Dutch Grand Prix from 1958 to 1985, and has been announced to return in 2020. The volleyball national men's team has also been successful, winning the silver medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics and the gold medal four years later in Atlanta. The biggest success of the women's national team was winning the European Championship in 1995 and the World Grand Prix in 2007.Recently cricket has made a remarkable progress in the Netherlands. Netherlands have participated in 1996, 2003, 2007 and 2011 ODI cricket World Cup. They have also qualified for 2009 and 2014 T20 World Cup. In the 2009 T20 World Cup, Netherlands defeated England, the current World Champions and inventor of the game. Ryan ten Doeschate is the only Dutch player to have played in the IPL on the team Kolkata Knight Riders.Originally, the country's cuisine was shaped by the practices of fishing and farming, including the cultivation of the soil for growing crops and raising domesticated animals. Dutch cuisine is simple and straightforward, and contains many dairy products. Breakfast and lunch are typically bread with toppings, with cereal for breakfast as an alternative. Traditionally, dinner consists of potatoes, a portion of meat, and (seasonal) vegetables. The Dutch diet was relatively high in carbohydrates and fat, reflecting the dietary needs of the labourers whose culture moulded the country. Without many refinements, it is best described as rustic, though many holidays are still celebrated with special foods. In the course of the twentieth century this diet changed and became much more cosmopolitan, with most global cuisines being represented in the major cities.Modern culinary writers distinguish between three general regional forms of Dutch cuisine. The regions in the northeast of the Netherlands, roughly the provinces of Groningen, Friesland, Drenthe, Overijssel and Gelderland north of the great rivers are the least populated areas of the Netherlands. The late (18th century) introduction of large scale agriculture means that the cuisine is generally known for its many kinds of meats. The relative lack of farms allowed for an abundance of game and husbandry, though dishes near the coastal regions of Friesland, Groningen and the parts of Overijssel bordering the IJsselmeer also include a large amount of fish. The various dried sausages, belonging to the metworst-family of Dutch sausages are found throughout this region and are highly prized for their often very strong taste. Also smoked sausages are common, of which ("Gelderse") "rookworst" is the most renowned. The sausage contains a lot of fat and is very juicy. Larger sausages are often eaten alongside "stamppot", "hutspot" or "zuurkool" (sauerkraut); whereas smaller ones are often eaten as a street food. The provinces are also home to hard textured rye bread, pastries and cookies, the latter heavily spiced with ginger or succade or containing small bits of meat. Various kinds of "Kruidkoek" (such as ), "" and "" (small savoury pancakes cooked in a waffle iron) are considered typical. A notable characteristic of "Fries roggebrood" (Frisian rye bread) is its long baking time (up to 20 hours), resulting in a sweet taste and a deep dark colour. In terms of alcoholic beverages, the region is renowned for its many bitters (such as "Beerenburg") and other high-proof liquors rather than beer, which is, apart from "Jenever", typical for the rest of the country. As a coastal region, Friesland is home to low-lying grasslands, and thus has a cheese production in common with the Western cuisine. "Friese Nagelkaas" (Friesian Clove) is a notable example.The provinces of North Holland, South Holland, Zeeland, and Utrecht and the Gelderlandic area of Betuwe make up the region in which western Dutch cuisine is found. Because of the abundance of water and flat grasslands that are found here, the area is known for its many dairy products, which include prominent cheeses such as Gouda, Leyden (spiced cheese with cumin), and Edam (traditionally in small spheres) as well as Leerdammer and Beemster, while the adjacent Zaanstreek in North Holland has since the 16th century been known for its mayonnaise, typical whole-grain mustards, and chocolate industry. Zeeland and South Holland produce a lot of butter, which contains a larger amount of milkfat than most other European butter varieties. A by-product of the butter-making process, "karnemelk" (buttermilk), is also considered typical for this region. Seafood such as soused herring, mussels (called "Zeeuwse Mossels", since all Dutch mussels for consumption are cleaned in Zeeland's Oosterschelde), eels, oysters and shrimps are widely available and typical for the region. "", once a local delicacy consisting of small chunks of battered white fish, has become a national fast food, just as . Pastries in this area tend to be quite doughy, and often contain large amounts of sugar; either caramelised, powdered or crystallised. The "oliebol" (in its modern form) and "Zeeuwse bolus" are good examples. Cookies are also produced in great number and tend to contain a lot of butter and sugar, like "stroopwafel", as well as a filling of some kind, mostly almond, like "". The traditional alcoholic beverages of this region are beer (strong pale lager) and "Jenever", a high proof juniper-flavoured spirit, that came to be known in England as gin. A noted exception within the traditional Dutch alcoholic landscape, "Advocaat", a rich and creamy liqueur made from eggs, sugar and brandy, is also native to this region.The Southern Dutch cuisine consists of the cuisines of the Dutch provinces of North Brabant and Limburg and the Flemish Region in Belgium. It is renowned for its many rich pastries, soups, stews and vegetable dishes and is often called Burgundian which is a Dutch idiom invoking the rich Burgundian court which ruled the Low Countries in the Middle Ages, renowned for its splendor and great feasts. It is the only Dutch culinary region that developed an haute cuisine. Pastries are abundant, often with rich fillings of cream, custard or fruits. Cakes, such as the "Vlaai" from Limburg and the "Moorkop" and "Bossche Bol" from Brabant, are typical pastries. Savoury pastries also occur, with the (a roll with a sausage of ground beef, literally translates into sausage bread) being the most popular. The traditional alcoholic beverage of the region is beer. There are many local brands, ranging from "Trappist" to "Kriek". 5 of the 10 "International Trappist Association" recognised breweries in the world, are located in the Southern Dutch cultural area. Beer, like wine in French cuisine, is also used in cooking; often in stews.In early 2014, Oxfam ranked the Netherlands as the country with the most nutritious, plentiful and healthy food, in a comparison of 125 countries.From the exploitations in the Mughal Empire in the 17th century, to the colonisations in the 19th century, Dutch imperial possessions continued to expand, reaching their greatest extent by establishing a hegemony of the Dutch East Indies in the early 20th century. The Dutch East Indies, which later formed modern-day Indonesia, was one of the most valuable European colonies in the world and the most important one for the Netherlands. Over 350 years of mutual heritage has left a significant cultural mark on the Netherlands.In the Dutch Golden Age of the 17th century, the Netherlands urbanised considerably, mostly financed by corporate revenue from the Asian trade monopolies. Social status was based on merchants' income, which reduced feudalism and considerably changed the dynamics of Dutch society. When the Dutch royal family was established in 1815, much of its wealth came from Colonial trade.By the 17th century, the Dutch East India Company established their base in parts of Ceylon (modern-day Sri Lanka). Afterward, they established ports in Dutch occupied Malabar, leading to Dutch settlements and trading posts in India. However, their expansion into India was halted, after their defeat in the Battle of Colachel by the Kingdom of Travancore, during the Travancore-Dutch War. The Dutch never recovered from the defeat and no longer posed a large colonial threat to Bengal Subah.Universities such as the Leiden University, founded in the 16th century, have developed into leading knowledge centres for Southeast Asian and Indonesian studies. Leiden University has produced leading academics such as Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje, and still has academics who specialise in Indonesian languages and cultures. Leiden University and in particular KITLV are educational and scientific institutions that to this day share both an intellectual and historical interest in Indonesian studies. Other scientific institutions in the Netherlands include the Amsterdam Tropenmuseum, an anthropological museum with massive collections of Indonesian art, culture, ethnography and anthropology.The traditions of the Royal Dutch East Indies Army (KNIL) are maintained by the Regiment Van Heutsz of the modern Royal Netherlands Army. A dedicated "Bronbeek Museum", a former home for retired KNIL soldiers, exists in Arnhem to this day.A specific segment of Dutch literature called Dutch Indies literature still exists and includes established authors, such as Louis Couperus, the writer of "The Hidden Force", taking the colonial era as an important source of inspiration. One of the great masterpieces of Dutch literature is the book "Max Havelaar", written by Multatuli in 1860.The majority of Dutchmen that repatriated to the Netherlands after and during the Indonesian revolution are Indo (Eurasian), native to the islands of the Dutch East Indies. This relatively large Eurasian population had developed over a period of 400 years and were classified by colonial law as belonging to the European legal community. In Dutch they are referred to as "Indische Nederlanders" or as Indo (short for Indo-European).Including their second generation descendants, Indos are currently the largest foreign-born group in the Netherlands. In 2008, the Dutch Central Bureau for Statistics (CBS) registered 387,000 first- and second-generation Indos living in the Netherlands. Although considered fully assimilated into Dutch society, as the main ethnic minority in the Netherlands, these 'repatriants' have played a pivotal role in introducing elements of Indonesian culture into Dutch mainstream culture.Many Indonesian dishes and foodstuffs have become commonplace in the Netherlands. Rijsttafel, a colonial culinary concept, and dishes such as Nasi goreng and satay are very popular in the country. Practically any town of any size in the Netherlands has a "toko" (a Dutch Indonesian Shop) or a Chinese-Indonesian restaurant, and many 'Pasar Malam' (Night market in Malay/Indonesian) fairs are organised throughout the year.
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[
"Piet de Jong",
"Hendrikus Colijn",
"Ruud Lubbers",
"Jan de Quay",
"Wim Schermerhorn",
"Jo Cals",
"Joop den Uyl",
"Wim Kok",
"Louis Beel",
"Dries van Agt",
"Willem Drees",
"Charles Ruijs de Beerenbrouck",
"Victor Marijnen",
"Jelle Zijlstra",
"Jan Peter Balkenende",
"Mark Rutte",
"Pieter Sjoerds Gerbrandy",
"Barend Biesheuvel"
] |
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Who was the head of Netherlands in 29-Dec-192729-December-1927?
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December 29, 1927
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{
"text": [
"Dirk Jan de Geer"
]
}
|
L2_Q55_P6_2
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Dries van Agt is the head of the government of Netherlands from Dec, 1977 to Nov, 1982.
Hendrikus Colijn is the head of the government of Netherlands from Aug, 1925 to Mar, 1926.
Wim Kok is the head of the government of Netherlands from Aug, 1994 to Jul, 2002.
Victor Marijnen is the head of the government of Netherlands from Jul, 1963 to Apr, 1965.
Jo Cals is the head of the government of Netherlands from Apr, 1965 to Nov, 1966.
Willem Drees is the head of the government of Netherlands from Aug, 1948 to Dec, 1958.
Jan Peter Balkenende is the head of the government of Netherlands from Jul, 2002 to Oct, 2010.
Joop den Uyl is the head of the government of Netherlands from May, 1973 to Dec, 1977.
Dirk Jan de Geer is the head of the government of Netherlands from Mar, 1926 to Aug, 1929.
Barend Biesheuvel is the head of the government of Netherlands from Jul, 1971 to May, 1973.
Louis Beel is the head of the government of Netherlands from Jul, 1946 to Aug, 1948.
Jelle Zijlstra is the head of the government of Netherlands from Nov, 1966 to Apr, 1967.
Ruud Lubbers is the head of the government of Netherlands from Nov, 1982 to Aug, 1994.
Jan de Quay is the head of the government of Netherlands from May, 1959 to Jul, 1963.
Charles Ruijs de Beerenbrouck is the head of the government of Netherlands from Sep, 1918 to Aug, 1925.
Wim Schermerhorn is the head of the government of Netherlands from Jun, 1945 to Jul, 1946.
Mark Rutte is the head of the government of Netherlands from Oct, 2010 to Dec, 2022.
Piet de Jong is the head of the government of Netherlands from Apr, 1967 to Jul, 1971.
Pieter Sjoerds Gerbrandy is the head of the government of Netherlands from Sep, 1940 to Jun, 1945.
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NetherlandsThe Netherlands ( ), sometimes informally Holland, is a country located in Western Europe with territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. In Europe, the Netherlands consists of twelve provinces, bordering Germany to the east, Belgium to the south, and the North Sea to the northwest, with maritime borders in the North Sea with those countries and the United Kingdom. In the Caribbean, it consists of three special municipalities: the islands of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba. The country's official language is Dutch, with West Frisian as a secondary official language in the province of Friesland, and English and Papiamento as secondary official languages in the Caribbean Netherlands. Dutch Low Saxon and Limburgish are recognised regional languages (spoken in the east and southeast respectively), while Dutch Sign Language, Sinte Romani and Yiddish are recognised non-territorial languages.The four largest cities in the Netherlands are Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht. Amsterdam is the country's most populous city and nominal capital, while The Hague holds the seat of the States General, Cabinet and Supreme Court. The Port of Rotterdam is the busiest seaport in Europe, and the busiest in any country outside East Asia and Southeast Asia, behind only China and Singapore. Amsterdam Airport Schiphol is the busiest airport in the Netherlands, and the third busiest in Europe. The country is a founding member of the EU, Eurozone, G10, NATO, OECD and WTO, as well as a part of the Schengen Area and the trilateral Benelux Union. It hosts several intergovernmental organisations and international courts, many of which are centred in The Hague, which is consequently dubbed 'the world's legal capital'."Netherlands" literally means "lower countries" in reference to its low elevation and flat topography, with only about 50% of its land exceeding above sea level, and nearly 26% falling below sea level. Most of the areas below sea level, known as "polders", are the result of land reclamation that began in the 14th century. Colloquially or informally the Netherlands is occasionally referred to by the pars pro toto "Holland". With a population of 17.4 million people, all living within a total area of roughly —of which the land area is —the Netherlands is the 16th most densely populated country in the world and the 2nd most densely populated country in the European Union, with a density of . Nevertheless, it is the world's second-largest exporter of food and agricultural products by value, owing to its fertile soil, mild climate, intensive agriculture and inventiveness.The Netherlands has been a parliamentary constitutional monarchy with a unitary structure since 1848. The country has a tradition of pillarisation and a long record of social tolerance, having legalised abortion, prostitution and human euthanasia, along with maintaining a liberal drug policy. The Netherlands abolished the death penalty in Civil Law in 1870, though it was not completely removed until a new constitution was approved in 1983. The Netherlands allowed women's suffrage in 1919, before becoming the world's first country to legalise same-sex marriage in 2001. Its mixed-market advanced economy had the eleventh-highest per capita income globally. The Netherlands ranks among the highest in international indexes of press freedom, economic freedom, human development and quality of life, as well as happiness. In 2020, it ranked eighth on the human development index and fifth on the 2021 World Happiness Index.The Netherlands' turbulent history and shifts of power resulted in exceptionally many and widely varying names in different languages. There is diversity even within languages. In English, the Netherlands is also called Holland or (part of) the Low Countries, whereas the term ""Dutch"" is used as the demonym and adjectival form.The region called the Low Countries (comprising Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg) have the same toponymy. Place names with "Neder", "Nieder", "Nedre", "Nether", "Lage(r)" or "Low(er)" (in Germanic languages) and "Bas" or "Inferior" (in Romance languages) are in use in low-lying places all over Europe. They are sometimes used in a deictic relation to a higher ground that consecutively is indicated as "Super(ior)", "Up(per)", "Op(per)", "Ober", "Boven", "High", "Haut" or "Hoch". In the case of the Low Countries / Netherlands the geographical location of the "lower" region has been more or less downstream and near the sea. The geographical location of the upper region, however, changed tremendously over time, depending on the location of the economic and military power governing the Low Countries area. The Romans made a distinction between the Roman provinces of downstream Germania Inferior (nowadays part of Belgium and the Netherlands) and upstream Germania Superior (nowadays part of Germany). The designation 'Low' to refer to the region returns again in the 10th century Duchy of Lower Lorraine, that covered much of the Low Countries. But this time the corresponding "Upper" region is Upper Lorraine, in nowadays Northern France.The Dukes of Burgundy, who ruled from their residence in the Low Countries in the 15th century, used the term "les pays de par deçà" ("the lands over here") for the Low Countries, as opposed to "les pays de par delà" ("the lands over there") for their original homeland: Burgundy in present-day east-central France. Under Habsburg rule, "Les pays de par deçà" developed in "pays d'embas" ("lands down-here"), a deictic expression in relation to other Habsburg possessions like Hungary and Austria. This was translated as "Neder-landen" in contemporary Dutch official documents. From a regional point of view, "Niderlant" was also the area between the Meuse and the lower Rhine in the late Middle Ages. The area known as "Oberland" (High country) was in this deictic context considered to begin approximately at the nearby higher located Cologne.From the mid-sixteenth century on, the "Low Countries" and the "Netherlands" lost their original deictic meaning. They were probably the most commonly used names, besides Flanders, a "pars pro toto" for the Low Countries, especially in Romance language-speaking Europe. The Eighty Years' War (1568–1648) divided the Low Countries into an independent northern Dutch Republic (or Latinised "Belgica Foederata", "Federated Netherlands", the precursor state of the Netherlands) and a Spanish controlled Southern Netherlands (Latinised "Belgica Regia", "Royal Netherlands", the precursor state of Belgium). The Low Countries today is a designation that includes the countries of the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, although in most Romance languages, the term "Low Countries" is used as the name for the Netherlands specifically. It is used synonymously with the more neutral and geopolitical term Benelux.The Netherlands is also referred to as Holland in various languages, including English. However, Holland proper is only a region within the country that consists of North and South Holland, two of the nation's twelve provinces. Formerly they were a single province, and earlier the County of Holland, a remnant of the dissolved Frisian Kingdom which also included parts of present-day Utrecht. Following the decline of the Duchy of Brabant and the County of Flanders, Holland became the most economically and politically important county in the Low Countries region. The emphasis on Holland during the formation of the Dutch Republic, the Eighty Years' War, and the Anglo-Dutch Wars in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, made Holland serve as a "pars pro toto" for the entire country, which is now considered informal or incorrect. Nonetheless, the name "Holland" is still widely used for the Netherlands national football team, including in the Netherlands, and the Dutch government's international websites for tourism and trade are "holland.com" and "hollandtradeandinvest.com". In 2020, however, the Dutch government announced that it would only communicate and advertise under the name "the Netherlands" in the future.The term Dutch is used as the demonymic and adjectival form of the Netherlands in the English language. The origins of the word go back to Proto-Germanic "*þiudiskaz", Latinised into Theodiscus, meaning "popular" or "of the people"; akin to Old Dutch "Dietsch", Old High German "duitsch", and Old English "þeodisc", all meaning "(of) the common (Germanic) people". At first, the English language used (the contemporary form of) Dutch to refer to any or all speakers of West Germanic languages (e.g. the Dutch, the Frisians, and the Germans). Gradually its meaning shifted to the West Germanic people they had most contact with, because of their geographical proximity and for the rivalry in trade and overseas territories. The derivative of the Proto-Germanic word "*þiudiskaz" in modern Dutch, "Diets", can be found in Dutch literature as a poetic name for the Dutch people or language, but is considered very archaic. Although it had a short resurgence after World War II to avoid the reference to Germany. It is still used in the expression "diets maken" – to put it straight to him/her (as in a threat) or, more neutral, to make it clear, understandable, explain, say in the people's language (cf. the Vulgate (Bible not in Greek or Hebrew, but Latin; the folks' language) in meaning vulgar, though not in a pejorative sense).In Dutch, the names for the Netherlands, the Dutch language and a Dutch citizen are "Nederland", "Nederlands" and "Nederlander", respectively. Colloquially the country is also by the Dutch often referred to as Holland, although to lesser extent outside the two provinces North and South Holland, where it may even be used as a pejorative term, e.g. Hollènder (dialect) in Maastricht.The plural "Nederlanden" is used in many different connotations in the past, but since 1815 it has been used in the official name "Koninkrijk der Nederlanden" ("Kingdom of the Netherlands"). In many other languages the plural stuck, for example "Niederlande" (German), "Pays-Bas" (French) and "Países Bajos" (Spanish). In Indonesian (a former colony) the country is called "Belanda", a name derived from 'Holland'.The prehistory of the area that is now the Netherlands was largely shaped by the sea and the rivers that constantly shifted the low-lying geography. The oldest human (Neanderthal) traces were found in higher soils, near Maastricht, from what is believed to be about 250,000 years ago. At the end of the Ice Age, the nomadic late Upper Paleolithic Hamburg culture (c. 13.000–10.000 BC) hunted reindeer in the area, using spears, but the later Ahrensburg culture (c. 11.200–9500 BC) used bow and arrow. From Mesolithic Maglemosian-like tribes (c. 8000 BC) the oldest canoe in the world was found in Drenthe.Indigenous late Mesolithic hunter-gatherers from the Swifterbant culture (c. 5600 BC) were related to the southern Scandinavian Ertebølle culture and were strongly linked to rivers and open water. Between 4800 and 4500 BC, the Swifterbant people started to copy from the neighbouring Linear Pottery culture the practise of animal husbandry, and between 4300 and 4000 BC the practice of agriculture. The Funnelbeaker culture (c. 4300–2800 BC), which is related to the Swifterbant culture, erected the dolmens, large stone grave monuments found in Drenthe. There was a quick and smooth transition from the Funnelbeaker farming culture to the pan-European Corded Ware pastoralist culture (c. 2950 BC). In the southwest, the Seine-Oise-Marne culture — which was related to the Vlaardingen culture (c. 2600 BC), an apparently more primitive culture of hunter-gatherers — survived well into the Neolithic period, until it too was succeeded by the Corded Ware culture.Of the subsequent Bell Beaker culture (2700–2100 BC) several regions of origin have been postulated, notably the Iberian peninsula, the Netherlands and Central Europe. They introduced metalwork in copper, gold and later bronze and opened international trade routes not seen before, reflected in the discoveries of copper artifacts, as the metal is not normally found in Dutch soil. The many finds in Drenthe of rare bronze objects, suggest that it was even a trading centre in the Bronze Age (2000–800 BC). The Bell Beaker culture developed locally into the Barbed-Wire Beaker culture (2100–1800 BC) and later the Elp culture (c. 1800–800 BC), a Middle Bronze Age archaeological culture having earthenware pottery of low quality as a marker. The initial phase of the Elp culture was characterised by tumuli (1800–1200 BC) that were strongly tied to contemporary tumuli in northern Germany and Scandinavia and was apparently related to the Tumulus culture in central Europe. The subsequent phase was that of cremating the dead and placing their ashes in urns which were then buried in fields, following the customs of the Urnfield culture (1200–800 BC). The southern region became dominated by the related Hilversum culture (1800–800 BC), which apparently inherited cultural ties with Britain of the previous Barbed-Wire Beaker culture.From 800 BC onwards, the Iron Age Celtic Hallstatt culture became influential, replacing the Hilversum culture. Iron ore brought a measure of prosperity and was available throughout the country, including bog iron. Smiths travelled from settlement to settlement with bronze and iron, fabricating tools on demand. The King's grave of Oss (700 BC) was found in a burial mound, the largest of its kind in western Europe and containing an iron sword with an inlay of gold and coral.The deteriorating climate in Scandinavia around 850 BC further deteriorated around 650 BC and might have triggered migration of Germanic tribes from the North. By the time this migration was complete, around 250 BC, a few general cultural and linguistic groups had emerged. The North Sea Germanic Ingaevones inhabited the northern part of the Low Countries. They would later develop into the Frisii and the early Saxons. A second grouping, the Weser-Rhine Germanic (or Istvaeones), extended along the middle Rhine and Weser and inhabited the Low Countries south of the great rivers. This group consisted of tribes that would eventually develop into the Salian Franks. Also the Celtic La Tène culture (c. 450 BC up to the Roman conquest) had expanded over a wide range, including the southern area of the Low Countries. Some scholars have speculated that even a third ethnic identity and language, neither Germanic nor Celtic, survived in the Netherlands until the Roman period, the Iron Age Nordwestblock culture, that eventually was absorbed by the Celts to the south and the Germanic peoples from the east.The first author to describe the coast of Holland and Flanders was the Greek geographer Pytheas, who noted in c. 325 BC that in these regions, "more people died in the struggle against water than in the struggle against men." During the Gallic Wars, the area south and west of the Rhine was conquered by Roman forces under Julius Caesar from 57 BC to 53 BC. Caesar describes two main Celtic tribes living in what is now the southern Netherlands: the Menapii and the Eburones. The Rhine became fixed as Rome's northern frontier around 12 AD. Notable towns would arise along the Limes Germanicus: Nijmegen and Voorburg. In the first part of Gallia Belgica, the area south of the Limes became part of the Roman province of Germania Inferior. The area to the north of the Rhine, inhabited by the Frisii, remained outside Roman rule (but not its presence and control), while the Germanic border tribes of the Batavi and Cananefates served in the Roman cavalry. The Batavi rose against the Romans in the Batavian rebellion of 69 AD but were eventually defeated. The Batavi later merged with other tribes into the confederation of the Salian Franks, whose identity emerged at the first half of the third century. Salian Franks appear in Roman texts as both allies and enemies. They were forced by the confederation of the Saxons from the east to move over the Rhine into Roman territory in the fourth century. From their new base in West Flanders and the Southwest Netherlands, they were raiding the English Channel. Roman forces pacified the region, but did not expel the Franks, who continued to be feared at least until the time of Julian the Apostate (358) when Salian Franks were allowed to settle as "foederati" in Texandria. It has been postulated that after deteriorating climate conditions and the Romans' withdrawal, the Frisii disappeared as "laeti" in c. 296, leaving the coastal lands largely unpopulated for the next two centuries. However, recent excavations in Kennemerland show clear indication of a permanent habitation.After Roman government in the area collapsed, the Franks expanded their territories in numerous kingdoms. By the 490s, Clovis I had conquered and united all these territories in the southern Netherlands in one Frankish kingdom, and from there continued his conquests into Gaul. During this expansion, Franks migrating to the south eventually adopted the Vulgar Latin of the local population. A widening cultural divide grew with the Franks remaining in their original homeland in the north (i.e. the southern Netherlands and Flanders), who kept on speaking Old Frankish, which by the ninth century had evolved into Old Low Franconian or Old Dutch. A Dutch-French language boundary hence came into existence.To the north of the Franks, climatic conditions improved, and during the Migration Period Saxons, the closely related Angles, Jutes and Frisii settled the coastal land. Many moved on to England and came to be known as Anglo-Saxons, but those who stayed would be referred to as Frisians and their language as Frisian, named after the land that was once inhabited by Frisii. Frisian was spoken along the entire southern North Sea coast, and it is still the language most closely related to English among the living languages of continental Europe. By the seventh century a Frisian Kingdom (650–734) under King Aldegisel and King Redbad emerged with Traiectum (Utrecht) as its centre of power, while Dorestad was a flourishing trading place. Between 600 and around 719 the cities were often fought over between the Frisians and the Franks. In 734, at the Battle of the Boarn, the Frisians were defeated after a series of wars. With the approval of the Franks, the Anglo-Saxon missionary Willibrord converted the Frisian people to Christianity. He established the Archdiocese of Utrecht and became bishop of the Frisians. However, his successor Boniface was murdered by the Frisians in Dokkum, in 754.The Frankish Carolingian empire modelled itself on the Roman Empire and controlled much of Western Europe. However, in 843, it was divided into three parts—East, Middle, and West Francia. Most of present-day Netherlands became part of Middle Francia, which was a weak kingdom and subject of numerous partitions and annexation attempts by its stronger neighbours. It comprised territories from Frisia in the north to the Kingdom of Italy in the south. Around 850, Lothair I of Middle Francia acknowledged the Viking Rorik of Dorestad as ruler of most of Frisia. When the kingdom of Middle Francia was partitioned in 855, the lands north of the Alps passed to Lothair II and subsequently were named Lotharingia. After he died in 869, Lotharingia was partitioned, into Upper and Lower Lotharingia, the latter part comprising the Low Countries that technically became part of East Francia in 870, although it was effectively under the control of Vikings, who raided the largely defenceless Frisian and Frankish towns lying on the Frisian coast and along the rivers. Around 879, another Viking expedition led by Godfrid, Duke of Frisia, raided the Frisian lands. The Viking raids made the sway of French and German lords in the area weak. Resistance to the Vikings, if any, came from local nobles, who gained in stature as a result, and that laid the basis for the disintegration of Lower Lotharingia into semi-independent states. One of these local nobles was Gerolf of Holland, who assumed lordship in Frisia after he helped to assassinate Godfrid, and Viking rule came to an end.The Holy Roman Empire (the successor state of East Francia and then Lotharingia) ruled much of the Low Countries in the 10th and 11th century but was not able to maintain political unity. Powerful local nobles turned their cities, counties and duchies into private kingdoms that felt little sense of obligation to the emperor. Holland, Hainaut, Flanders, Gelre, Brabant, and Utrecht were in a state of almost continual war or in paradoxically formed personal unions. The language and culture of most of the people who lived in the County of Holland were originally Frisian. As Frankish settlement progressed from Flanders and Brabant, the area quickly became Old Low Franconian (or Old Dutch). The rest of Frisia in the north (now Friesland and Groningen) continued to maintain its independence and had its own institutions (collectively called the "Frisian freedom"), which resented the imposition of the feudal system.Around 1000 AD, due to several agricultural developments, the economy started to develop at a fast pace, and the higher productivity allowed workers to farm more land or to become tradesmen. Towns grew around monasteries and castles, and a mercantile middle class began to develop in these urban areas, especially in Flanders and later also Brabant. Wealthy cities started to buy certain privileges for themselves from the sovereign. In practice, this meant that Bruges and Antwerp became quasi-independent republics in their own right and would later develop into some of the most important cities and ports in Europe.Around 1100 AD, farmers from Flanders and Utrecht began draining and cultivating uninhabited swampy land in the western Netherlands, making the emergence of the County of Holland as the centre of power possible. The title of Count of Holland was fought over in the Hook and Cod Wars () between 1350 and 1490. The Cod faction consisted of the more progressive cities, while the Hook faction consisted of the conservative noblemen. These noblemen invited the Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy — who was also Count of Flanders — to conquer Holland.Most of the Imperial and French fiefs in what is now the Netherlands and Belgium were united in a personal union by Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, in 1433. The House of Valois-Burgundy and their Habsburg heirs would rule the Low Countries in the period from 1384 to 1581. Before the Burgundian union, the Dutch identified themselves by the town they lived in or their local duchy or county. The Burgundian period is when the road to nationhood began. The new rulers defended Dutch trading interests, which then developed rapidly. The fleets of the County of Holland defeated the fleets of the Hanseatic League several times. Amsterdam grew and in the 15th century became the primary trading port in Europe for grain from the Baltic region. Amsterdam distributed grain to the major cities of Belgium, Northern France and England. This trade was vital because Holland could no longer produce enough grain to feed itself. Land drainage had caused the peat of the former wetlands to reduce to a level that was too low for drainage to be maintained.Under Habsburg Charles V, ruler of the Holy Roman Empire and King of Spain, all fiefs in the current Netherlands region were united into the Seventeen Provinces, which also included most of present-day Belgium, Luxembourg, and some adjacent land in what is now France and Germany. In 1568, under Phillip II, the Eighty Years' War between the Provinces and their Spanish ruler began. The level of ferocity exhibited by both sides can be gleaned from a Dutch chronicler's report:The Duke of Alba ruthlessly attempted to suppress the Protestant movement in the Netherlands. Netherlanders were "burned, strangled, beheaded, or buried alive" by his "Blood Council" and his Spanish soldiers. Severed heads and decapitated corpses were displayed along streets and roads to terrorize the population into submission. Alba boasted of having executed 18,600, but this figure does not include those who perished by war and famine.The first great siege was Alba's effort to capture Haarlem and thereby cut Holland in half. It dragged on from December 1572 to the next summer, when Haarlemers finally surrendered on 13 July upon the promise that the city would be spared from being sacked. It was a stipulation Don Fadrique was unable to honour, when his soldiers mutinied, angered over pay owed and the miserable conditions they endured during the long, cold months of the campaign. On 4 November 1576, Spanish tercios seized Antwerp and subjected it to the worst pillage in the Netherlands' history. The citizens resisted, but were overcome; seven thousand of them were mowed down; a thousand buildings were torched; men, women, and children were slaughtered in a delirium of blood by soldiers crying, "Santiago! España! A sangre, a carne, a fuego, a sacco!" (Saint James! Spain! To blood, to the flesh, to fire, to sack!)Following the sack of Antwerp, delegates from Catholic Brabant, Protestant Holland and Zeeland agreed, at Ghent, to join Utrecht and William the Silent in driving out all Spanish troops and forming a new government for the Netherlands. Don Juan of Austria, the new Spanish governor, was forced to concede initially, but within months returned to active hostilities. As the fighting restarted, the Dutch began to look for help from the Queen of England, but she initially stood by her commitments to the Spanish in the Treaty of Bristol of 1574. The result was that when the next large-scale battle did occur at Gembloux in 1578, the Spanish forces easily won the day, killing at least 10,000 rebels, with the Spanish suffering few losses. In light of the defeat at Gembloux, the southern states of the Seventeen Provinces (today in northern France and Belgium) distanced themselves from the rebels in the north with the 1579 Union of Arras, which expressed their loyalty to Philip II of Spain. Opposing them, the northern half of the Seventeen Provinces forged the Union of Utrecht (also of 1579) in which they committed to support each other in their defence against the Spanish army. The Union of Utrecht is seen as the foundation of the modern Netherlands.Spanish troops sacked Maastricht in 1579, killing over 10,000 civilians and thereby ensuring the rebellion continued. In 1581, the northern provinces adopted the Act of Abjuration, the declaration of independence in which the provinces officially deposed Philip II as reigning monarch in the northern provinces. Against the rebels Philip could draw on the resources of Spain, Spanish America, Spanish Italy and the Spanish Netherlands. The Protestant Queen Elizabeth I of England sympathised with the Dutch struggle against the Spanish and sent an army of 7,600 soldiers to aid the Dutch in their war with the Catholic Spanish. English forces under the Earl of Leicester and then Lord Willoughby faced the Spanish in the Netherlands under the Duke of Parma in a series of largely indecisive actions that tied down significant numbers of Spanish troops and bought time for the Dutch to reorganise their defences. The war continued until 1648, when Spain under King Philip IV finally recognised the independence of the seven north-western provinces in the Peace of Münster. Parts of the southern provinces became "de facto" colonies of the new republican-mercantile empire.After declaring their independence, the provinces of Holland, Zeeland, Groningen, Friesland, Utrecht, Overijssel, and Gelderland formed a confederation. All these duchies, lordships and counties were autonomous and had their own government, the States-Provincial. The States General, the confederal government, were seated in The Hague and consisted of representatives from each of the seven provinces. The sparsely populated region of Drenthe was part of the republic too, although it was not considered one of the provinces. Moreover, the Republic had come to occupy during the Eighty Years' War a number of so-called Generality Lands in Flanders, Brabant and Limburg. Their population was mainly Roman Catholic, and these areas did not have a governmental structure of their own, and were used as a buffer zone between the Republic and the Spanish-controlled Southern Netherlands.In the Dutch Golden Age, spanning much of the 17th century, the Dutch Empire grew to become one of the major seafaring and economic powers, alongside Portugal, Spain, France and England. Science, military, and art (especially painting) were among the most acclaimed in the world. By 1650, the Dutch owned 16,000 merchant ships. The Dutch East India Company and the Dutch West India Company established colonies and trading posts all over the world, including ruling the northern parts of Taiwan between 1624–1662 and 1664–1667. The Dutch settlement in North America began with the founding of New Amsterdam on the southern part of Manhattan in 1614. In South Africa, the Dutch settled the Cape Colony in 1652. Dutch colonies in South America were established along the many rivers in the fertile Guyana plains, among them Colony of Surinam (now Suriname). In Asia, the Dutch established the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), and the only western trading post in Japan, Dejima.During the period of Proto-industrialization, the empire received 50% of textiles and 80% of silks import from the India's Mughal Empire, chiefly from its most developed region known as Bengal Subah.Many economic historians regard the Netherlands as the first thoroughly capitalist country in the world. In early modern Europe, it had the wealthiest trading city (Amsterdam) and the first full-time stock exchange. The inventiveness of the traders led to insurance and retirement funds as well as phenomena such as the boom-bust cycle, the world's first asset-inflation bubble, the tulip mania of 1636–1637, and the world's first bear raider, Isaac le Maire, who forced prices down by dumping stock and then buying it back at a discount. In 1672 – known in Dutch history as the Rampjaar (Disaster Year) – the Dutch Republic was at war with France, England and three German Bishoprics simultaneously. At sea, it could successfully prevent the English and French navy from entering the western shores. On land, however, it was almost taken over internally by the advancing French and German armies coming from the east. It managed to turn the tide by inundating parts of Holland but could never recover to its former glory again and went into a state of a general decline in the 18th century, with economic competition from England and long-standing rivalries between the two main factions in Dutch society, the republican "Staatsgezinden" and the supporters of the stadtholder the "Prinsgezinden" as main political factions.With the armed support of revolutionary France, Dutch republicans proclaimed the Batavian Republic, modelled after the French Republic and rendering the Netherlands a unitary state on 19 January 1795. The stadtholder William V of Orange had fled to England. But from 1806 to 1810, the Kingdom of Holland was set up by Napoleon Bonaparte as a puppet kingdom governed by his brother Louis Bonaparte to control the Netherlands more effectively. However, King Louis Bonaparte tried to serve Dutch interests instead of his brother's, and he was forced to abdicate on 1 July 1810. The Emperor sent in an army and the Netherlands became part of the French Empire until the autumn of 1813 when Napoleon was defeated in the Battle of Leipzig.William Frederick, son of the last stadtholder, returned to the Netherlands in 1813 and proclaimed himself Sovereign Prince of the Netherlands. Two years later, the Congress of Vienna added the southern Netherlands to the north to create a strong country on the northern border of France. William Frederick raised this United Netherlands to the status of a kingdom and proclaimed himself as King William I in 1815. In addition, William became hereditary Grand Duke of Luxembourg in exchange for his German possessions. However, the Southern Netherlands had been culturally separate from the north since 1581, and rebelled. The south gained independence in 1830 as Belgium (recognised by the Northern Netherlands in 1839 as the Kingdom of the Netherlands was created by decree), while the personal union between Luxembourg and the Netherlands was severed in 1890, when William III died with no surviving male heirs. Ascendancy laws prevented his daughter Queen Wilhelmina from becoming the next Grand Duchess.The Belgian Revolution at home and the Java War in the Dutch East Indies brought the Netherlands to the brink of bankruptcy. However, the Cultivation System was introduced in 1830; in the Dutch East Indies, 20% of village land had to be devoted to government crops for export. The policy brought the Dutch enormous wealth and made the colony self-sufficient.The Netherlands abolished slavery in its colonies in 1863. Slaves in Suriname would be fully free only in 1873, since the law stipulated that there was to be a mandatory 10-year transition.The Netherlands was able to remain neutral during World War I, in part because the import of goods through the Netherlands proved essential to German survival until the blockade by the British Royal Navy in 1916. That changed in World War II, when Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands on 10 May 1940. The Rotterdam Blitz forced the main element of the Dutch army to surrender four days later. During the occupation, over 100,000 Dutch Jews were rounded up and transported to Nazi extermination camps; only a few of them survived. Dutch workers were conscripted for forced labour in Germany, civilians who resisted were killed in reprisal for attacks on German soldiers, and the countryside was plundered for food. Although there were thousands of Dutch who risked their lives by hiding Jews from the Germans, over 20,000 Dutch fascists joined the Waffen SS, fighting on the Eastern Front. Political collaborators were members of the fascist NSB, the only legal political party in the occupied Netherlands. On 8 December 1941, the Dutch government-in-exile in London declared war on Japan, but could not prevent the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia). In 1944–45, the First Canadian Army, which included Canadian, British and Polish troops, was responsible for liberating much of the Netherlands. Soon after VE Day, the Dutch fought a colonial war against the new Republic of Indonesia.In 1954, the Charter for the Kingdom of the Netherlands reformed the political structure of the Netherlands, which was a result of international pressure to carry out decolonisation. The Dutch colonies of Surinam and Curaçao and Dependencies and the European country all became countries within the Kingdom, on a basis of equality. Indonesia had declared its independence in August 1945 (recognised in 1949), and thus was never part of the reformed Kingdom. Suriname followed in 1975. After the war, the Netherlands left behind an era of neutrality and gained closer ties with neighbouring states. The Netherlands was one of the founding members of the Benelux, the NATO, Euratom and the European Coal and Steel Community, which would evolve into the EEC (Common Market) and later the European Union.Government-encouraged emigration efforts to reduce population density prompted some 500,000 Dutch people to leave the country after the war. The 1960s and 1970s were a time of great social and cultural change, such as rapid de-pillarisation characterised by the decay of the old divisions along political and religious lines. Youths, and students in particular, rejected traditional mores and pushed for change in matters such as women's rights, sexuality, disarmament and environmental issues. In 2002 the euro was introduced as fiat money, and in 2010 the Netherlands Antilles was dissolved. Referendums were held on each island to determine their future status. As a result, the islands of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba (the BES islands) were to obtain closer ties with the Netherlands. This led to the incorporation of these three islands into the country of the Netherlands as "special municipalities" upon the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles. The special municipalities are collectively known as the Caribbean Netherlands.According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, the European Netherlands has a total area of , including water bodies; and a land area of . The Caribbean Netherlands has a total area of It lies between latitudes 50° and 54° N, and longitudes 3° and 8° E.The Netherlands is geographically very low relative to sea level and is considered a flat country, with about 26% of its area and 21% of its population located below sea level, and only about 50% of its land exceeding one metre above sea level. The European part of the country is for the most part flat, with the exception of foothills in the far southeast, up to a height of no more than 321 metres, and some low hill ranges in the central parts. Most of the areas below sea level are man-made, caused by peat extraction or achieved through land reclamation. Since the late 16th century, large polder areas are preserved through elaborate drainage systems that include dikes, canals and pumping stations. Nearly 17% of the country's land area is reclaimed from the sea and from lakes.Much of the country was originally formed by the estuaries of three large European rivers: the Rhine ("Rijn"), the Meuse ("Maas") and the Scheldt ("Schelde"), as well as their tributaries. The south-western part of the Netherlands is to this day a river delta of these three rivers, the Rhine-Meuse-Scheldt delta.The European Netherlands is divided into north and south parts by the Rhine, the Waal, its main tributary branch, and the Meuse. In the past, these rivers functioned as a natural barrier between fiefdoms and hence historically created a cultural divide, as is evident in some phonetic traits that are recognisable on either side of what the Dutch call their "Great Rivers" ("de Grote Rivieren"). Another significant branch of the Rhine, the IJssel river, discharges into Lake IJssel, the former Zuiderzee ('southern sea'). Just like the previous, this river forms a linguistic divide: people to the northeast of this river speak Dutch Low Saxon dialects (except for the province of Friesland, which has its own language).The modern Netherlands formed as a result of the interplay of the four main rivers (Rhine, Meuse, Schelde and IJssel) and the influence of the North Sea. The Netherlands is mostly composed of deltaic, coastal and eolian derived sediments during the Pleistocene glacial and interglacial periods.Almost the entire west Netherlands is composed of the Rhine-Meuse river estuary, but human intervention greatly modified the natural processes at work. Most of the western Netherlands is below sea level due to the human process of turning standing bodies of water into usable land, a polder.In the east of the Netherlands, remains are found of the last ice age, which ended approximately ten thousand years ago. As the continental ice sheet moved in from the north, it pushed moraine forward. The ice sheet halted as it covered the eastern half of the Netherlands. After the ice age ended, the moraine remained in the form of a long hill-line. The cities of Arnhem and Nijmegen are built upon these hills.Over the centuries, the Dutch coastline has changed considerably as a result of natural disasters and human intervention.On 14 December 1287, St. Lucia's flood affected the Netherlands and Germany, killing more than 50,000 people in one of the most destructive floods in recorded history. The St. Elizabeth flood of 1421 and the mismanagement in its aftermath destroyed a newly reclaimed polder, replacing it with the "Biesbosch" tidal floodplains in the south-centre. The huge North Sea flood of early February 1953 caused the collapse of several dikes in the south-west of the Netherlands; more than 1,800 people drowned in the flood. The Dutch government subsequently instituted a large-scale programme, the "Delta Works", to protect the country against future flooding, which was completed over a period of more than thirty years.The impact of disasters was, to an extent, increased through human activity. Relatively high-lying swampland was drained to be used as farmland. The drainage caused the fertile peat to contract and ground levels to drop, upon which groundwater levels were lowered to compensate for the drop in ground level, causing the underlying peat to contract further. Additionally, until the 19th-century peat was mined, dried, and used for fuel, further exacerbating the problem. Centuries of extensive and poorly controlled peat extraction lowered an already low land surface by several metres. Even in flooded areas, peat extraction continued through turf dredging.Because of the flooding, farming was difficult, which encouraged foreign trade, the result of which was that the Dutch were involved in world affairs since the early 14th/15th century.To guard against floods, a series of defences against the water were contrived. In the first millennium AD, villages and farmhouses were built on man-made hills called "terps". Later, these terps were connected by dikes. In the 12th century, local government agencies called ""waterschappen"" ("water boards") or ""hoogheemraadschappen"" ("high home councils") started to appear, whose job it was to maintain the water level and to protect a region from floods; these agencies continue to exist. As the ground level dropped, the dikes by necessity grew and merged into an integrated system. By the 13th century windmills had come into use to pump water out of areas below sea level. The windmills were later used to drain lakes, creating the famous polders.In 1932 the "Afsluitdijk" ("Closure Dike") was completed, blocking the former "Zuiderzee" (Southern Sea) from the North Sea and thus creating the IJsselmeer (IJssel Lake). It became part of the larger Zuiderzee Works in which four polders totalling were reclaimed from the sea.The Netherlands is one of the countries that may suffer most from climate change. Not only is the rising sea a problem, but erratic weather patterns may cause the rivers to overflow.After the 1953 disaster, the Delta Works was constructed, which is a comprehensive set of civil works throughout the Dutch coast. The project started in 1958 and was largely completed in 1997 with the completion of the Maeslantkering. Since then, new projects have been periodically started to renovate and renew the Delta Works. The main goal of the Delta project was to reduce the risk of flooding in South Holland and Zeeland to once per 10,000 years (compared to once per 4000 years for the rest of the country). This was achieved by raising of outer sea-dikes and of the inner, canal, and river dikes, and by closing off the sea estuaries of the Zeeland province. New risk assessments occasionally show problems requiring additional Delta project dike reinforcements. The Delta project is considered by the American Society of Civil Engineers as one of the seven wonders of the modern world.It is anticipated that global warming in the 21st century will result in a rise in sea level. The Netherlands is actively preparing for a sea-level rise. A politically neutral Delta Commission has formulated an action plan to cope with a sea-level rise of and a simultaneous land height decline of . The plan encompasses the reinforcement of the existing coastal defences like dikes and dunes with of additional flood protection. Climate change will not only threaten the Netherlands from the seaside but could also alter rainfall patterns and river run-off. To protect the country from river flooding, another programme is already being executed. The Room for the River plan grants more flow space to rivers, protects the major populated areas and allows for periodic flooding of indefensible lands. The few residents who lived in these so-called "overflow areas" have been moved to higher ground, with some of that ground having been raised above anticipated flood levels.The predominant wind direction in the European Netherlands is southwest, which causes a mild maritime climate, with moderately warm summers and cool winters, and typically high humidity. This is especially true close to the Dutch coastline, where the difference in temperature between summer and winter, as well as between day and night is noticeably smaller than it is in the southeast of the country.Ice days—maximum temperature below —usually occur from December until February, with the occasional rare ice day prior to or after that period. Freezing days—minimum temperature below —occur much more often, usually ranging from mid-November to late March, but not rarely measured as early as mid-October and as late as mid-May. If one chooses the height of measurement to be above ground instead of , one may even find such temperatures in the middle of the summer. On average, snow can occur from November to April but sometimes occurs in May or October too.Warm days—maximum temperature above —are usually found in April to October, but in some parts of the country these warm days can also occur in March, or even sometimes in November or February (usually not in , however). Summer days—maximum temperature above —are usually measured in from May until September, tropical days—maximum temperature above —are rare and usually occur only in June to August.Precipitation throughout the year is distributed relatively equally each month. Summer and autumn months tend to gather a little more precipitation than the other months, mainly because of the intensity of the rainfall rather than the frequency of rain days (this is especially the case in summer when lightning is also much more frequent).The number of sunshine hours is affected by the fact that because of the geographical latitude, the length of the days varies between barely eight hours in December and nearly 17 hours in June.The following table are based on mean measurements by the KNMI weather station in De Bilt between 1991 and 2020. The highest recorded temperature was reached on 25 July 2019 in Gilze-Rijen.The Netherlands has 20 national parks and hundreds of other nature reserves, that include lakes, heathland, woods, dunes, and other habitats. Most of these are owned by Staatsbosbeheer, the national department for forestry and nature conservation and Natuurmonumenten (literally 'Natures monuments'), a private organisation that buys, protects and manages nature reserves. The Dutch part of the Wadden Sea in the north, with its tidal flats and wetlands, is rich in biological diversity, and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Nature Site in 2009.The Oosterschelde, formerly the northeast estuary of the river Scheldt was designated a national park in 2002, thereby making it the largest national park in the Netherlands at an area of . It consists primarily of the salt waters of the Oosterschelde but also includes mudflats, meadows, and shoals. Because of the large variety of sea life, including unique regional species, the park is popular with Scuba divers. Other activities include sailing, fishing, cycling, and bird watching.Phytogeographically, the European Netherlands is shared between the Atlantic European and Central European provinces of the Circumboreal Region within the Boreal Kingdom. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, the European territory of the Netherlands belongs to the ecoregion of Atlantic mixed forests. In 1871, the last old original natural woods were cut down, and most woods today are planted monocultures of trees like Scots pine and trees that are not native to the Netherlands. These woods were planted on anthropogenic heaths and sand-drifts (overgrazed heaths) (Veluwe). The Netherlands had a 2019 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 0.6/10, ranking it 169th globally out of 172 countries.While Curaçao, Aruba and Sint Maarten have a constituent country status, the Caribbean Netherlands are three islands designated as special municipalities of the Netherlands. The islands are part of the Lesser Antilles and have land borders with France (Saint Martin) and maritime borders with Anguilla, Curaçao, France (Saint Barthélemy), Saint Kitts and Nevis, Sint Maarten, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Venezuela.Within this island group:The islands of the Caribbean Netherlands enjoy a tropical climate with warm weather all year round. The Leeward Antilles are warmer and drier than the Windward islands. In summer, the Windward Islands can be subject to hurricanes.The Netherlands has been a constitutional monarchy since 1815, and due to the efforts of Johan Rudolph Thorbecke became a parliamentary democracy in 1848. The Netherlands is described as a consociational state. Dutch politics and governance are characterised by an effort to achieve broad consensus on important issues, within both the political community and society as a whole. In 2017, "The Economist" ranked the Netherlands as the 11th most democratic country in the world.The monarch is the head of state, at present King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands. Constitutionally, the position is equipped with limited powers. By law, the King has the right to be periodically briefed and consulted on government affairs. Depending on the personalities and relationships of the King and the ministers, the monarch might have influence beyond the power granted by the Constitution of the Netherlands.The executive power is formed by the Council of Ministers, the deliberative organ of the Dutch cabinet. The cabinet usually consists of 13 to 16 ministers and a varying number of state secretaries. One to three ministers are ministers without portfolio. The head of government is the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, who often is the leader of the largest party of the coalition. The Prime Minister is a "primus inter pares", with no explicit powers beyond those of the other ministers. Mark Rutte has been Prime Minister since October 2010; the Prime Minister had been the leader of the largest party of the governing coalition continuously since 1973.The cabinet is responsible to the bicameral parliament, the States General, which also has legislative powers. The 150 members of the House of Representatives, the lower house, are elected in direct elections on the basis of party-list proportional representation. These are held every four years, or sooner in case the cabinet falls (for example: when one of the chambers carries a motion of no confidence, the cabinet offers its resignation to the monarch). The States-Provincial are directly elected every four years as well. The members of the provincial assemblies elect the 75 members of the Senate, the upper house, which has the power to reject laws, but not propose or amend them. Both houses send members to the Benelux Parliament, a consultative council.Both trade unions and employers organisations are consulted beforehand in policymaking in the financial, economic and social areas. They meet regularly with the government in the Social-Economic Council. This body advises government and its advice cannot be put aside easily.The Netherlands has a long tradition of social tolerance. In the 18th century, while the Dutch Reformed Church was the state religion, Catholicism, other forms of Protestantism, such as Baptists and Lutherans, as well as Judaism were tolerated but discriminated against.In the late 19th century this Dutch tradition of religious tolerance transformed into a system of pillarisation, in which religious groups coexisted separately and only interacted at the level of government. This tradition of tolerance influences Dutch criminal justice policies on recreational drugs, prostitution, LGBT rights, euthanasia, and abortion, which are among the most liberal in the world.Because of the multi-party system, no single party has held a majority in parliament since the 19th century, as a result, coalition cabinets had to be formed. Since suffrage became universal in 1917, the Dutch political system has been dominated by three families of political parties: the strongest of which were the Christian Democrats, currently represented by the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA); second were the Social Democrats, represented by the Labour Party (PvdA); and third were the Liberals, of which the right-wing People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) is the main representative.These parties co-operated in coalition cabinets in which the Christian Democrats had always been a partner: so either a centre-left coalition of the Christian Democrats and Social Democrats was ruling or a centre-right coalition of Christian Democrats and Liberals. In the 1970s, the party system became more volatile: the Christian Democratic parties lost seats, while new parties became successful, such as the radical democrat and progressive liberal Democrats 66 (D66) or the ecologist party GroenLinks (GL).In the 1994 election, the CDA lost its dominant position. A "purple" cabinet was formed by the VVD, D66, and PvdA. In the 2002 elections, this cabinet lost its majority, because of an increased support for the CDA and the rise of the right-wing LPF, a new political party, around Pim Fortuyn, who was assassinated a week before the elections. A short-lived cabinet was formed by CDA, VVD, and LPF, which was led by the CDA Leader Jan Peter Balkenende. After the 2003 elections, in which the LPF lost most of its seats, a cabinet was formed by the CDA, VVD, and D66. The cabinet initiated an ambitious programme of reforming the welfare state, the healthcare system, and immigration policy.In June 2006, the cabinet fell after D66 voted in favour of a motion of no confidence against the Minister of Immigration and Integration, Rita Verdonk, who had instigated an investigation of the asylum procedure of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a VVD MP. A caretaker cabinet was formed by the CDA and VVD, and general elections were held on 22 November 2006. In these elections, the CDA remained the largest party and the Socialist Party made the largest gains. The formation of a new cabinet took three months, resulting in a coalition of CDA, PvdA, and Christian Union.On 20 February 2010, the cabinet fell when the PvdA refused to prolong the involvement of the Dutch Army in Uruzgan, Afghanistan. Snap elections were held on 9 June 2010, with devastating results for the previously largest party, the CDA, which lost about half of its seats, resulting in 21 seats. The VVD became the largest party with 31 seats, closely followed by the PvdA with 30 seats. The big winner of the 2010 elections was Geert Wilders, whose right wing PVV, the ideological successor to the LPF, more than doubled its number of seats. Negotiation talks for a new government resulted in a minority government, led by VVD (a first) in coalition with CDA, which was sworn in on 14 October 2010. This unprecedented minority government was supported by PVV, but proved ultimately to be unstable, when on 21 April 2012, Wilders, leader of PVV, unexpectedly 'torpedoed seven weeks of austerity talks' on new austerity measures, paving the way for early elections.VVD and PvdA won a majority in the House of Representatives during the 2012 general election. On 5 November 2012 they formed the second Rutte cabinet. After the 2017 general election, VVD, Christian Democratic Appeal, Democrats 66 and ChristenUnie formed the third Rutte cabinet. This cabinet resigned in January 2021, two months before the general election, after a child welfare fraud scandal. In March 2021, centre-right VVD of Prime Minister Mark Rutte was the winner of the elections, securing 35 out of 150 seats. The second biggest party was the centre-left D66 with 24 seats. Geert Wilders' far-right party lost its support. Prime Minister Mark Rutte, in power since 2010, formed his fourth coalition government.The Netherlands is divided into twelve provinces, each under a King's Commissioner ("Commissaris van de Koning"). Informally in Limburg province this position is named Governor ("Gouverneur"). All provinces are divided into municipalities ("gemeenten"), of which there are 355 (2019).The country is also subdivided into 21 water districts, governed by a water board ("waterschap" or "hoogheemraadschap"), each having authority in matters concerning water management. The creation of water boards actually pre-dates that of the nation itself, the first appearing in 1196. The Dutch water boards are among the oldest democratic entities in the world still in existence. Direct elections of the water boards take place every four years.The administrative structure on the three BES islands, collectively known as the Caribbean Netherlands, is outside the twelve provinces. These islands have the status of "openbare lichamen (public bodies)". In the Netherlands these administrative units are often referred to as "special municipalities".The Netherlands has several Belgian exclaves and within those even several enclaves which are part of the province of North Brabant. Because the Netherlands and Belgium are both in the Benelux, and more recently in the Schengen Area, citizens of respective countries can travel through these enclaves without controls.The history of Dutch foreign policy has been characterised by its neutrality. Since World War II, the Netherlands has become a member of a large number of international organisations, most prominently the UN, NATO and the EU. The Dutch economy is very open and relies strongly on international trade.The foreign policy of the Netherlands is based on four basic commitments: to Atlantic co-operation, to European integration, to international development and to international law. One of the more controversial international issues surrounding the Netherlands is its liberal policy towards soft drugs.During and after the Dutch Golden Age, the Dutch people built up a commercial and colonial empire. The most important colonies were present-day Suriname and Indonesia. Indonesia became independent after the Indonesian National Revolution in the 1940s following a war of independence, international pressure and several United Nations Security Council resolutions. Suriname became independent in 1975. The historical ties inherited from its colonial past still influence the foreign relations of the Netherlands. In addition, many people from these countries are living permanently in the Netherlands.The Netherlands has one of the oldest standing armies in Europe; it was first established as such by Maurice of Nassau in the late 1500s. The Dutch army was used throughout the Dutch Empire. After the defeat of Napoleon, the Dutch army was transformed into a conscription army. The army was unsuccessfully deployed during the Belgian Revolution in 1830. After 1830, it was deployed mainly in the Dutch colonies, as the Netherlands remained neutral in European wars (including the First World War), until the Netherlands was invaded in World War II and defeated by the Wehrmacht in May 1940.The Netherlands abandoned its neutrality in 1948 when it signed the Treaty of Brussels, and became a founding member of NATO in 1949. The Dutch military was therefore part of the NATO strength in Cold War Europe, deploying its army to several bases in Germany. More than 3,000 Dutch soldiers were assigned to the 2nd Infantry Division of the United States Army during the Korean War. In 1996 conscription was suspended, and the Dutch army was once again transformed into a professional army. Since the 1990s the Dutch army has been involved in the Bosnian War and the Kosovo War, it held a province in Iraq after the defeat of Saddam Hussein, and it was engaged in Afghanistan.The military is composed of four branches, all of which carry the prefix "Koninklijke" (Royal):The submarine service opened to women on 1 January 2017. The Korps Commandotroepen, the Special Operations Force of the Netherlands Army, is open to women, but because of the extremely high physical demands for initial training, it is almost impossible for a woman to become a commando. The Dutch Ministry of Defence employs more than 70,000 personnel, including over 20,000 civilians and over 50,000 military personnel. In April 2011 the government announced a major reduction in its military because of a cut in government expenditure, including a decrease in the number of tanks, fighter aircraft, naval ships and senior officials.The Netherlands has ratified many international conventions concerning war law. The Netherlands decided not to sign the UN treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.The Netherlands has a developed economy and has been playing a special role in the European economy for many centuries. Since the 16th century, shipping, fishing, agriculture, trade, and banking have been leading sectors of the Dutch economy. The Netherlands has a high level of economic freedom. The Netherlands is one of the top countries in the Global Enabling Trade Report (2nd in 2016), and was ranked the fifth most competitive economy in the world by the Swiss International Institute for Management Development in 2017. In addition, the country was ranked the second most innovative nation in the world in the 2018 Global Innovation Index., the key trading partners of the Netherlands were Germany, Belgium, the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Italy, China and Russia. The Netherlands is one of the world's 10 leading exporting countries. Foodstuffs form the largest industrial sector. Other major industries include chemicals, metallurgy, machinery, electrical goods, trade, services and tourism. Examples of international Dutch companies operating in Netherlands include Randstad, Unilever, Heineken, KLM, financial services (ING, ABN AMRO, Rabobank), chemicals (DSM, AKZO), petroleum refining (Royal Dutch Shell), electronical machinery (Philips, ASML), and satellite navigation (TomTom).The Netherlands has the 17th-largest economy in the world, and ranks 11th in GDP (nominal) per capita. Between 1997 and 2000 annual economic growth (GDP) averaged nearly 4%, well above the European average. Growth slowed considerably from 2001 to 2005 with the global economic slowdown, but accelerated to 4.1% in the third quarter of 2007. In May 2013, inflation was at 2.8% per year. In April 2013, unemployment was at 8.2% (or 6.7% following the ILO definition) of the labour force. In February 2019, this was reduced to 3.4%.In Q3 and Q4 2011, the Dutch economy contracted by 0.4% and 0.7%, respectively, because of European Debt Crisis, while in Q4 the Eurozone economy shrunk by 0.3%. The Netherlands also has a relatively low GINI coefficient of 0.326. Despite ranking 11th in GDP per capita, UNICEF ranked the Netherlands 1st in child well-being in rich countries, both in 2007 and in 2013. On the Index of Economic Freedom Netherlands is the 14th most free market capitalist economy out of 180 surveyed countries.Amsterdam is the financial and business capital of the Netherlands. The Amsterdam Stock Exchange (AEX), part of Euronext, is the world's oldest stock exchange and is one of Europe's largest bourses. It is situated near Dam Square in the city's centre. As a founding member of the euro, the Netherlands replaced (for accounting purposes) its former currency, the "gulden" (guilder), on 1 January 1999, along with 15 other adopters of the euro. Actual euro coins and banknotes followed on 1 January 2002. One euro was equivalent to 2.20371 Dutch guilders. In the Caribbean Netherlands, the United States dollar is used instead of the euro.The Dutch location gives it prime access to markets in the UK and Germany, with the Port of Rotterdam being the largest port in Europe. Other important parts of the economy are international trade (Dutch colonialism started with co-operative private enterprises such as the Dutch East India Company), banking and transport. The Netherlands successfully addressed the issue of public finances and stagnating job growth long before its European partners. Amsterdam is the 5th-busiest tourist destination in Europe with more than 4.2 million international visitors. Since the enlargement of the EU large numbers of migrant workers have arrived in the Netherlands from Central and Eastern Europe.The Netherlands continues to be one of the leading European nations for attracting foreign direct investment and is one of the five largest investors in the United States. The economy experienced a slowdown in 2005, but in 2006 recovered to the fastest pace in six years on the back of increased exports and strong investment. The pace of job growth reached 10-year highs in 2007. The Netherlands is the fourth-most competitive economy in the world, according to the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report.Beginning in the 1950s, the Netherlands discovered huge natural gas resources. The sale of natural gas generated enormous revenues for the Netherlands for decades, adding hundreds of billions of euros to the government's budget. However, the unforeseen consequences of the country's huge energy wealth impacted the competitiveness of other sectors of the economy, leading to the theory of Dutch disease.Apart from coal and gas, the country has no mining resources. The last coal mine was closed in 1974. The Groningen gas field, one of the largest natural-gas fields in the world, is situated near Slochteren. The exploitation of this field has resulted in €159 billion in revenue since the mid-1970s. The field is operated by government-owned Gasunie and output is jointly exploited by the government, Royal Dutch Shell, and Exxon Mobil through NAM (Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij). "Gas extraction has resulted in increasingly strong earth tremors, some measuring as much as 3.6 on the Richter magnitude scale. The cost of damage repairs, structural improvements to buildings, and compensation for home value decreases has been estimated at €6.5 billion. Around 35,000 homes are said to be affected." The Netherlands has an estimated 25% of natural gas reserves in the EU. The energy sector accounted for almost 11% of the GDP in 2014. Netherlands' economy, mainly due to the large shares of natural gas reserves, is considered to have "very high" energy intensity rating.The Netherlands is faced with future challenges as the energy supply is forecasted to fall short of the demand by the year 2025 in the gas sector. This is attributed to the depletion of the Netherlands' major gas field, Groningen, and the earthquakes that have hit the Groningen region. In addition, there is ambiguity surrounding the feasibility of producing unconventional gas. The Netherlands relies heavily on natural gas to provide energy. Gas is the main source of heating for households in the Netherlands and represented 35% of the energy mix in 2014. Furthermore, The European Union 2020 package (20% reduction in GHG emissions, 20% renewables in the energy mix and 20% improvement in energy efficiency) enacted in 2009 has influenced the domestic energy politics of Netherlands and pressured non-state actors to give consent to more aggressive energy reforms that would reduce reliance on natural resources as a source of income to the economy. Therefore, a transition towards renewable energy has been a key objective by Netherlands in order to safeguard the energy security of the country from natural resources depletion, mainly gas. Netherlands has set a 14% renewable energy target of the total energy mix by the year 2020. However, the continuation of providing tax breaks to electricity generated by coal and gas, and to the exploration and extraction of gas from fields that are "insufficiently" profitable, renders a successful transition towards renewable energy more difficult to achieve due to inconsistencies in the policy mix. In 2011, it was estimated that the renewable energy sector received 31% (EUR 743MM), while the conventional energy sector received 69% (EUR 1.6B), of the total energy subsidies by the government. Furthermore, the energy market in the Netherlands remains to be dominated by few major corporations Nuon, RWE, E.ON, Eneco, and Delta that have significant influence over the energy policy. Renewable energy share in the energy mix is estimated to reach 12.4% by the year 2020, falling 1.6% short of the 14% target.From a biological resource perspective, the Netherlands has a low endowment: the Netherlands’ biocapacity adds up to only 0.8 global hectares in 2016, 0.2 of which are dedicated to agriculture. The Dutch biocapacity per person is just about half of the 1.6 global hectares of biocapacity per person available worldwide. In contrast, in 2016, the Dutch used on average 4.8 global hectares of biocapacity - their ecological footprint of consumption. This means the Dutch required nearly six times as much biocapacity as the Netherlands contains. As a result, the Netherlands was running a biocapacity deficit of 4.0 global hectares per person in 2016.The Dutch agricultural sector is highly mechanised, and has a strong focus on international exports. It employs about 4% of the Dutch labour force but produces large surpluses in the food-processing industry and accounts for 21% of the Dutch total export value. The Dutch rank first in the European Union and second worldwide in value of agricultural exports, behind only the United States, with agricultural exports earning €80.7 billion in 2014, up from €75.4 billion in 2012. In 2019 agricultural exports were worth €94.5 billion.One-third of the world's exports of chilis, tomatoes, and cucumbers goes through the country. The Netherlands also exports one-fifteenth of the world's apples.Aside from that, a significant portion of Dutch agricultural exports consists of fresh-cut plants, flowers, and flower bulbs, with the Netherlands exporting two-thirds of the world's total.The Netherlands had an estimated population of 17,493,969 as of 30 April 2021. It is the 5th most densely populated country in Europe, and except for the very small city-states like Monaco, Vatican City and San Marino it is the most densely populated country in Europe. And it is the 16th most densely populated country in the world with a density of . It is the 67th most populous country in the world. Between 1900 and 1950, the country's population almost doubled from 5.1 to 10 million. From 1950 to 2000, the population further increased, to 15.9 million, though this represented a lower rate of population growth. The estimated growth rate is 0.44%.The fertility rate in the Netherlands is 1.78 children per woman (2018 estimate), which is high compared with many other European countries, but below the rate of 2.1 children per woman required for natural population replacement, it remains considerably below the high of 5.39 children born per woman in 1879. Netherlands subsequently has one of the oldest populations in the world, with the average age of 42.7 years. Life expectancy is high in the Netherlands: 84.3 years for newborn girls and 79.7 for boys (2020 estimate). The country has a migration rate of 1.9 migrants per 1,000 inhabitants per year. The majority of the population of the Netherlands is ethnically Dutch. According to a 2005 estimate, the population was 80.9% Dutch, 2.4% Indonesian, 2.4% German, 2.2% Turkish, 2.0% Surinamese, 1.9% Moroccan, 0.8% Antillean and Aruban, and 7.4% others. Some 150,000 to 200,000 people living in the Netherlands are expatriates, mostly concentrated in and around Amsterdam and The Hague, now constituting almost 10% of the population of these cities.The Dutch are the tallest people in the world, by nationality, with an average height of for adult males and for adult females in 2009. People in the south are on average about shorter than those in the north.According to Eurostat, in 2010 there were 1.8 million foreign-born residents in the Netherlands, corresponding to 11.1% of the total population. Of these, 1.4 million (8.5%) were born outside the EU and 0.43 million (2.6%) were born in another EU Member State. On 21 November 2016, there were 3.8 million residents in the Netherlands with at least one foreign-born parent ("migration background"). Over half the young people in Amsterdam and Rotterdam have a non-western background. Dutch people, or descendants of Dutch people, are also found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in Canada, Australia, South Africa and the United States. According to the United States Census Bureau (2006), more than 5 million Americans claim total or partial Dutch ancestry. There are close to 3 million Dutch-descended Afrikaners living in South Africa. In 1940, there were 290,000 Europeans and Eurasians in Indonesia, but most have since left the country.The Randstad is the country's largest conurbation located in the west of the country and contains the four largest cities: Amsterdam in the province North Holland, Rotterdam and The Hague in the province South Holland, and Utrecht in the province Utrecht. The Randstad has a population of about 8.2 million inhabitants and is the 5th largest metropolitan area in Europe. According to Dutch Central Statistics Bureau, in 2015, 28 per cent of the Dutch population had a spendable income above 45,000 euros (which does not include spending on health care or education).The official language is Dutch, which is spoken by the vast majority of the inhabitants. Besides Dutch, West Frisian is recognised as a second official language in the northern province of Friesland ("Fryslân" in West Frisian). West Frisian has a formal status for government correspondence in that province. In the European part of the kingdom two other regional languages are recognised under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.The first of these recognised regional languages is Low Saxon ("Nedersaksisch" in Dutch). Low Saxon consists of several dialects spoken in the north and east, like Tweants in the region of Twente, and Drents in the province of Drenthe. Secondly, Limburgish is also recognised as a regional language. It consists of Dutch varieties of Meuse-Rhenish Franconian languages and is spoken in the south-eastern province of Limburg. The dialects most spoken in the Netherlands are the Brabantian-Hollandic dialects.Ripuarian language, which is spoken in Kerkrade and Vaals in the form of, respectively, the Kerkrade dialect and the Vaals dialect are legally treated as Limburgish as well - see Southeast Limburgish dialect.English has a formal status in the special municipalities of Saba and Sint Eustatius. It is widely spoken on these islands. Papiamento has a formal status in the special municipality of Bonaire. Yiddish and the Romani language were recognised in 1996 as non-territorial languages. The Netherlands has a tradition of learning foreign languages, formalised in Dutch education laws. Some 90% of the total population indicate they are able to converse in English, 70% in German, and 29% in French. English is a mandatory course in all secondary schools. In most lower level secondary school educations ("vmbo"), one additional modern foreign language is mandatory during the first two years.In higher level secondary schools (HAVO and VWO), the acquisition of two additional modern foreign language skills is mandatory during the first three years. Only during the last three years in VWO one foreign language is mandatory. Besides English, the standard modern languages are French and German, although schools can replace one of these modern languages with Chinese, Spanish, Russian, Italian, Turkish or Arabic. Additionally, schools in Friesland teach and have exams in West Frisian, and schools across the country teach and have exams in Ancient Greek and Latin for secondary school (called Gymnasium or VWO+).The population of the Netherlands was predominantly Christian until the late 20th century, divided into a number of denominations. Although significant religious diversity remains, there has been a decline of religious adherence. The Netherlands is now one of the most secular societies in the world.In 2019, Statistics Netherlands found that 54.1% of the total population declared itself to be non-religious. Groups that represent the non-religious in the Netherlands include Humanistisch Verbond. Roman Catholics comprised 20.1% of the total population, Protestants (14.8%). Muslims comprised 5.0% of the total population and followers of other Christian denominations and other religions (like Judaism, Buddhism and Hinduism) comprised the remaining 5.9%. A 2015 survey from another source found that Protestants outnumbered Catholics.The southern provinces of North Brabant and Limburg have historically been strongly Roman Catholic, and some residents consider the Catholic Church as a base for their cultural identity. Protestantism in the Netherlands consists of a number of churches within various traditions. The largest of these is the Protestant Church in the Netherlands (PKN), a United church which is Reformed and Lutheran in orientation. It was formed in 2004 as a merger of the Dutch Reformed Church, the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands and a smaller Lutheran Church. Several orthodox Reformed and liberal churches did not merge into the PKN. Although in the Netherlands as a whole Christianity has become a minority, the Netherlands contains a Bible Belt from Zeeland to the northern parts of the province Overijssel, in which Protestant (particularly Reformed) beliefs remain strong, and even has majorities in municipal councils.Islam is the second largest religion in the state. In 2012, there were about 825,000 Muslims in the Netherlands (5% of the population). The Muslim population increased from the 1960 as a result of large numbers of migrant workers. This included migrant workers from Turkey and Morocco, as well as migrants from former Dutch colonies, such as Surinam and Indonesia. During the 1990s, Muslim refugees arrived from countries like Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iran, Iraq, Somalia, and Afghanistan.Another religion practised is Hinduism, with around 215,000 adherents (slightly over 1% of the population). Most of these are Indo-Surinamese. There are also sizable populations of Hindu immigrants from India and Sri Lanka, and some Western adherents of Hinduism-oriented new religious movements such as Hare Krishnas. The Netherlands has an estimated 250,000 Buddhists or people strongly attracted to this religion, mainly ethnic Dutch people. In addition, there are about 45,000 Jews in the Netherlands.The Constitution of the Netherlands guarantees freedom of education, which means that all schools that adhere to general quality criteria receive the same government funding. This includes schools based on religious principles by religious groups (especially Roman Catholic and various Protestant). Three political parties in the Dutch parliament, (CDA, and two small parties, ChristianUnion and SGP) are based upon the Christian belief. Several Christian religious holidays are national holidays (Christmas, Easter, Pentecost and the Ascension of Jesus).Upon the country's independence, Protestants were predominant in most of the country, while Roman Catholics were dominant in the south, especially North Brabant and Limburg. In the late 19th century, secularism, atheism and pillarisation gained adherents. By 1960, Roman Catholics equalled Protestants in number; thereafter, both Christian branches began to decline. Conversely, Islam grew considerably as the result of immigration. Since 2000 there has been raised awareness of religion, mainly due to Muslim extremism.The Dutch royal family has been traditionally associated with Calvinism, specifically the Dutch Reformed Church, which has merged into the Protestant Church in the Netherlands. The Dutch Reformed Church was the only major Protestant church in the Netherlands from the Reformation until the 19th century. Denominational splits in 1834 and in 1886 diversified Dutch Calvinism. In 2013, a Roman Catholic became Queen consort.A survey in December 2014 concluded that for the first time there were more atheists (25%) than theists (17%) in the Netherlands, while the remainder of the population was agnostic (31%) or ietsistic (27%). In 2015, a vast majority of the inhabitants of the Netherlands (82%) said they had never or almost never visited a church, and 59% stated that they had never been to a church of any kind. Of all the people questioned, 24% saw themselves as atheist, an increase of 11% compared to the previous study done in 2006. The expected rise of spirituality (ietsism) has come to a halt according to research in 2015. In 2006, 40% of respondents considered themselves spiritual; in 2015 this has dropped to 31%. The number who believed in the existence of a higher power fell from 36% to 28% over the same period.Education in the Netherlands is compulsory between the ages of 5 and 16. If a child does not have a "starting qualification" (HAVO, VWO or MBO 2+ degree) they are still forced to attend classes until they achieve such a qualification or reach the age of 18.All children in the Netherlands usually attend elementary school from (on average) ages 4 to 12. It comprises eight grades, the first of which is facultative. Based on an aptitude test, the eighth grade teacher's recommendation and the opinion of the pupil's parents or caretakers, a choice is made for one of the three main streams of secondary education. After completing a particular stream, a pupil may still continue in the penultimate year of the next stream.The VMBO has four grades and is subdivided over several levels. Successfully completing the VMBO results in a low-level vocational degree that grants access to the MBO. The MBO (middle-level applied education) is a form of education that primarily focuses on teaching a practical trade or a vocational degree. With the MBO certification, a student can apply for the HBO. The HAVO has 5 grades and allows for admission to the HBO. The HBO (higher professional education) are universities of professional education (applied sciences) that award professional bachelor's degrees; similar to polytechnic degrees. An HBO degree gives access to the university system. The VWO (comprising atheneum and gymnasium) has 6 grades and prepares for studying at a research university. Universities offer a three-year bachelor's degree, followed by a one or two-year master's degree, which in turn can be followed by a four or five-year doctoral degree programme.Doctoral candidates in the Netherlands are generally non-tenured employees of a university. All Dutch schools and universities are publicly funded and managed with the exception of religious schools that are publicly funded but not managed by the state even though requirements are necessary for the funding to be authorised. Dutch universities have a tuition fee of about 2,000 euros a year for students from the Netherlands and the European Union. The amount is about 10,000 euros for non-EU students.In 2016, the Netherlands maintained its number one position at the top of the annual Euro health consumer index (EHCI), which compares healthcare systems in Europe, scoring 916 of a maximum 1,000 points. The Netherlands has been among the top three countries in each report published since 2005. On 48 indicators such as patient rights and information, accessibility, prevention and outcomes, the Netherlands secured its top position among 37 European countries for six years in a row.The Netherlands was ranked first in a study in 2009 comparing the health care systems of the United States, Australia, Canada, Germany and New Zealand.Ever since a major reform of the health care system in 2006, the Dutch system received more points in the Index each year. According to the HCP (Health Consumer Powerhouse), the Netherlands has 'a chaos system', meaning patients have a great degree of freedom from where to buy their health insurance, to where they get their healthcare service. The difference between the Netherlands and other countries is that the chaos is managed. Healthcare decisions are being made in a dialogue between the patients and healthcare professionals.Health insurance in the Netherlands is mandatory. Healthcare in the Netherlands is covered by two statutory forms of insurance:While Dutch residents are automatically insured by the government for AWBZ, everyone has to take out their own basic healthcare insurance (basisverzekering), except those under 18 who are automatically covered under their parents' premium. If a person decides not to carry out an insurance coverage, the person may be fined. Insurers have to offer a universal package for everyone over the age of 18 years, regardless of age or state of health – it's illegal to refuse an application or impose special conditions. In contrast to many other European systems, the Dutch government is responsible for the accessibility and quality of the healthcare system in the Netherlands, but not in charge of its management.Healthcare in the Netherlands can be divided in several ways: three echelons, in somatic and mental health care and in 'cure' (short term) and 'care' (long term). Home doctors ("huisartsen", comparable to general practitioners) form the largest part of the first echelon. Being referenced by a member of the first echelon is mandatory for access to the second and third echelon. The health care system is in comparison to other Western countries quite effective but not the most cost-effective.Healthcare in the Netherlands is financed by a dual system that came into effect in January 2006. Long-term treatments, especially those that involve semi-permanent hospitalisation, and also disability costs such as wheelchairs, are covered by a state-controlled mandatory insurance. This is laid down in the "Algemene Wet Bijzondere Ziektekosten" ("General Law on Exceptional Healthcare Costs") which first came into effect in 1968. In 2009 this insurance covered 27% of all health care expenses.For all regular (short-term) medical treatment, there is a system of obligatory health insurance, with private health insurance companies. These insurance companies are obliged to provide a package with a defined set of insured treatments. This insurance covers 41% of all health care expenses.Other sources of health care payment are taxes (14%), out of pocket payments (9%), additional optional health insurance packages (4%) and a range of other sources (4%). Affordability is guaranteed through a system of income-related allowances and individual and employer-paid income-related premiums.A key feature of the Dutch system is that premiums may not be related to health status or age. Risk variances between private health insurance companies due to the different risks presented by individual policy holders are compensated through risk equalisation and a common risk pool. The funding burden for all short-term health care coverage is carried 50% by employers, 45% by the insured person and 5% by the government. Children under 18 are covered for free. Those on low incomes receive compensation to help them pay their insurance. Premiums paid by the insured are about €100 per month (about US$127 in August 2010 and €150 or US$196 in 2012), with variation of about 5% between the various competing insurers, and a yearly deductible of €220 (US$288).Mobility on Dutch roads has grown continuously since the 1950s and now exceeds 200 billion km travelled per year, three quarters of which are done by car. Around half of all trips in the Netherlands are made by car, 25% by bicycle, 20% walking, and 5% by public transport.With a total road network of 139,295 km, which includes 2,758 km of expressways, the Netherlands has one of the densest road networks in the world—much denser than Germany and France, but still not as dense as Belgium.As part of its commitment to environmental sustainability, the Government of the Netherlands initiated a plan to establish over 200 recharging stations for electric vehicles across the country. The rollout will be undertaken by Switzerland-based power and automation company ABB and Dutch startup Fastned, and will aim to provide at least one station within a 50-kilometre radius (30 miles) from every home in the Netherlands. Currently, the Netherlands alone hosts more than a quarter of all recharging stations in the European Union. This share rises to 30% if Brexit is taken into account. Moreover, newly sold cars in the Netherlands have on average the lowest CO2 emissions in the EU.About 13% of all distance is travelled by public transport, the majority of which by train. Like in many other European countries, the Dutch rail network of 3,013 km route is also rather dense. The network is mostly focused on passenger rail services and connects all major towns and cities, with over 400 stations. Trains are frequent, with two trains per hour on lesser lines, two to four trains per hour on average, and up to eight trains an hour on the busiest lines. The Dutch national train network also includes the HSL-Zuid, a high-speed line between the Amsterdam metropolitan area and the Belgian border for trains running from Paris and London to the Netherlands.Cycling is a ubiquitous mode of transport in the Netherlands. Almost as many kilometres are covered by bicycle as by train. The Dutch are estimated to have at least 18 million bicycles, which makes more than one per capita, and twice as many as the circa 9 million motor vehicles on the road. In 2013, the European Cyclists' Federation ranked both the Netherlands and Denmark as the most bike-friendly countries in Europe, but more of the Dutch (36%) than of the Danes (23%) list the bike as their most frequent mode of transport on a typical day. Cycling infrastructure is comprehensive. Busy roads have received some 35,000 km of dedicated cycle tracks, physically segregated from motorised traffic. Busy junctions are often equipped with bicycle-specific traffic lights. There are large bicycle parking facilities, particularly in city centres and at train stations.Until the introduction of trains, ships were the primary mode of transport in the Netherlands. And shipping has remained crucial afterwards. The Port of Rotterdam is the largest port in Europe and the largest port in the world outside East-Asia, with the rivers Meuse and Rhine providing excellent access to the hinterland upstream reaching to Basel, Switzerland, and into Germany and France. , Rotterdam was the world's eighth largest container port handling 440.5 million metric tonnes of cargo annually. The port's main activities are petrochemical industries and general cargo handling and transshipment. The harbour functions as an important transit point for bulk materials and between the European continent and overseas. From Rotterdam goods are transported by ship, river barge, train or road. The Volkeraksluizen between Rotterdam and Antwerp are the biggest sluices for inland navigation in the world in terms of tonnage passing through them. In 2007, the Betuweroute, a new fast freight railway from Rotterdam to Germany, was completed. The Netherlands also hosts Europe's 4th largest port in Amsterdam. The inland shipping fleet of the Netherlands is the largest in Europe. The Netherlands also has the largest fleet of active historical ships in the world. Boats are used for passenger travel as well, such as the Watertaxies in Rotterdam. The ferry network in Amsterdam and the Waterbus network in Rotterdam are part of the public transport system.Schiphol Airport, just southwest of Amsterdam, is the main international airport in the Netherlands, and the third busiest airport in Europe in terms of passengers. Schiphol is the main hub for KLM, the nation's flag carrier and the world's oldest airline. In 2016, the Royal Schiphol Group airports handled 70 million passengers. All air traffic is international and Schiphol Airport is connected to over 300 destinations worldwide, more than any other European airport. The airport is a major freight hub as well, processing 1.44 million tonnes of cargo in 2020. Smaller international airports in the country include Eindhoven Airport, Rotterdam The Hague Airport, Maastricht Aachen Airport and Groningen Airport Eelde. Air transport is of vital significance for the Caribbean part of the Netherlands, with all islands having their own airport. This includes the shortest runway in the world on Saba.The Netherlands has had many well-known painters. In the Middle Ages Hieronymus Bosch, Petrus Christus, Lucas Gassel and Pieter Bruegel the Elder were leading Dutch pioneers.During the Dutch Golden Age, spanning much of the 17th century, the Dutch Republic was prosperous and witnessed a flourishing artistic movement. This was the age of the "Dutch Masters", such as Rembrandt van Rijn, Johannes Vermeer, Jan Steen, Jacob van Ruisdael, Gerard van Honthorst, Theodoor van Thulden and many others. Famous Dutch painters of the 19th and 20th century were Vincent van Gogh and the luminists Jan Sluijters, Leo Gestel, and Piet Mondrian. M. C. Escher is a well-known graphic artist. Willem de Kooning was born and trained in Rotterdam, although he is considered to have reached acclaim as an American artist. Literature flourished as well during the Dutch Golden Age, with Joost van den Vondel and P. C. Hooft as the two most famous writers. In the 19th century, Multatuli wrote about the poor treatment of the natives in the Dutch colony, the current Indonesia. Important 20th century authors include Godfried Bomans, Harry Mulisch, Jan Wolkers, Simon Vestdijk, Hella S. Haasse, Cees Nooteboom, Gerard Reve and Willem Frederik Hermans. Anne Frank's "Diary of a Young Girl" was published after she was murdered in the Holocaust and translated from Dutch to all major languages.Various architectural styles can be distinguished in the Netherlands. Over the years, various styles have been built and preserved.The Romanesque architecture was built between the years 950 and 1250. This architectural style is most concentrated in the provinces of Gelderland and Limburg. Limburg, in particular, differs greatly in architectural style from the rest of the Netherlands.The Gothic architecture came to in the Netherlands from about 1230. Gothic buildings often had large windows, pointed arches and were richly decorated.Brabantine Gothic originated with the rise of the Duchy of Brabant and spread throughout the Burgundian provinces.This architectural style is most concentrated in the province of North Brabant, such as St. John's Cathedral in 's-Hertogenbosch, The Church of Our Lady in Breda and the Margraves Palace in Bergen op Zoom.What many know as traditional Dutch architecture is the Dutch Baroque architecture (1525 – 1630) and classicism (1630 – 1700).These style of architecture is especially in evidence in the cities of North Holland, South Holland and Zeeland.Other architectural styles that are common in the Netherlands are Style Louis XIV, Art Nouveau, Rationalism, NeoclassicismExpressionism, De Stijl, Traditionalism and Brutalism.The Netherlands is the country of philosophers Erasmus, Rudolf Agricola and Spinoza. Much of Descartes' major work was done in the Netherlands, where he studied at Leiden University — as did geologist James Hutton, British Prime Minister John Stuart, U.S. President John Quincy Adams, Physics Nobel Prize laureate Hendrik Lorentz and Enrico Fermi. The Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens (1629–1695) discovered Saturn's moon Titan, argued that light travelled as waves, invented the pendulum clock and was the first physicist to use mathematical formulae. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek was the first to observe and describe single-celled organisms with a microscope.Replicas of Dutch buildings can be found in Huis Ten Bosch, Nagasaki, Japan. A similar Holland Village is being built in Shenyang, China. Windmills, tulips, wooden shoes, cheese, Delftware pottery, and cannabis are among the items associated with the Netherlands by tourists.In the south of the Netherlands there are some festivals that rarely or never occur in the rest of the Netherlands. These celebrations grew out of Catholic traditions, including Carnival, lantern parades during the celebration of Three Kings, Brabantian Day and huge Bloemencorso. Bloemencorsos used to occur in many places in the Netherlands, but in the 21th century, Zundert and Valkenswaard in North Brabant have taken the lead.Dutch society is egalitarian and modern. The Dutch have an aversion to the non-essential. Ostentatious behaviour is to be avoided. The Dutch are proud of their cultural heritage, rich history in art and involvement in international affairs.Dutch manners are open and direct with a no-nonsense attitude—informality combined with adherence to basic behaviour. According to a humorous source on Dutch culture, "Their directness gives many the impression that they are rude and crude—attributes they prefer to call openness." A well known more serious source on Dutch etiquette is "Dealing with the Dutch" by Jacob Vossestein: "Dutch egalitarianism is the idea that people are equal, especially from a moral point of view, and accordingly, causes the somewhat ambiguous stance the Dutch have towards hierarchy and status." As always, manners differ between groups. Asking about basic rules will not be considered impolite. "What may strike you as being blatantly blunt topics and comments are no more embarrassing or unusual to the Dutch than discussing the weather."The Netherlands is one of the most secular countries of Europe, and religion in the Netherlands is generally considered as a personal matter which is not supposed to be propagated in public, although it often remains a discussion subject. For only 17% of the population religion is important and 14% goes to church weekly.The Netherlands has a long history of social tolerance and today is regarded as a liberal country, considering its drug policy and its legalisation of euthanasia. On 1 April 2001, the Netherlands became the first nation to legalise same-sex marriage.As of 2018 the Netherlands had one of the highest rates of carbon dioxide emissions per capita in the European Union, above those of Germany, France and Belgium. In addition, the Dutch waste more food than any other EU citizen, at over three times the EU average Despite this, the Netherlands has nonetheless the reputation of the leader country in environmental and population management. In 2015, Amsterdam and Rotterdam were ranked fourth and fifth, respectively, on the Arcadis Sustainable Cities Index.Sustainability is a concept important for the Dutch. The goal of the Dutch Government is to have a sustainable, reliable and affordable energy system, by 2050, in which emissions have been halved and 40 per cent of electricity is derived from sustainable sources.The government is investing billions of euros in energy efficiency, sustainable energy and reduction. The Kingdom also encourages Dutch companies to build sustainable business/projects/facilities, with financial aids from the state to the companies or individuals who are active in making the country more sustainable.The Netherlands has multiple music traditions. Traditional Dutch music is a genre known as "Levenslied", meaning "Song of life", to an extent comparable to a French Chanson or a German Schlager. These songs typically have a simple melody and rhythm, and a straightforward structure of verses and choruses. Themes can be light, but are often sentimental and include love, death and loneliness. Traditional musical instruments such as the accordion and the barrel organ are a staple of levenslied music, though in recent years many artists also use synthesisers and guitars. Artists in this genre include Jan Smit, Frans Bauer and André Hazes.Contemporary Dutch rock and pop music (Nederpop) originated in the 1960s, heavily influenced by popular music from the United States and Britain. In the 1960s and 1970s the lyrics were mostly in English, and some tracks were instrumental. Bands such as Shocking Blue, Golden Earring, Tee Set, George Baker Selection and Focus enjoyed international success. As of the 1980s, more and more pop musicians started working in the Dutch language, partly inspired by the huge success of the band Doe Maar. Today Dutch rock and pop music thrives in both languages, with some artists recording in both.Current symphonic metal bands Epica, Delain, ReVamp, The Gathering, Asrai, Autumn, Ayreon and Within Temptation as well as jazz and pop singer Caro Emerald are having international success. Also, metal bands like Hail of Bullets, God Dethroned, Izegrim, Asphyx, Textures, Present Danger, Heidevolk and Slechtvalk are popular guests at the biggest metal festivals in Europe. Contemporary local stars include pop singer Anouk, country pop singer Ilse DeLange, South Guelderish and Limburgish dialect singing folk band Rowwen Hèze, rock band BLØF and duo Nick & Simon. Trijntje Oosterhuis, one of the country's most well known and versatile singers, has made multiple albums with famous American composers Vince Mendoza and Burt Bacharach.Early 1990s Dutch and Belgian house music came together in Eurodance project 2 Unlimited. Selling 18 million records, the two singers in the band are the most successful Dutch music artists to this day. Tracks like "Get Ready for This" are still popular themes of U.S. sports events, like the NHL. In the mid 1990s Dutch language rap and hip hop ("Nederhop") also came to fruition and has become popular in the Netherlands and Belgium. Artists with North African, Caribbean or Middle Eastern origins have strongly influenced this genre.Since the 1990s, Dutch electronic dance music (EDM) gained widespread popularity in the world in many forms, from trance, techno and gabber to hardstyle. Some of the world's best known dance music DJs hail from the Netherlands, including Armin van Buuren, Tiësto, Hardwell, Martin Garrix, Dash Berlin, Julian Jordan, Nicky Romero, W&W, Don Diablo and Afrojack; the first four of which have been ranked as best in the world by DJ Mag Top 100 DJs. The Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE) is the world's leading electronic music conference and the biggest club festival for the many electronic subgenres on the planet. These DJs also contribute to the world's mainstream pop music, as they frequently collaborate and produce for high-profile international artists.The Netherlands have participated in the Eurovision Song Contest since its first edition in 1956, and have won five times. Their most recent win was in 2019.In classical music, Jan Sweelinck ranks as the Dutch most famous composer, with Louis Andriessen amongst the best known living Dutch classical composers. Ton Koopman is a Dutch conductor, organist and harpsichordist. He is also professor at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. Notable violinists are Janine Jansen and André Rieu. The latter, together with his Johann Strauss Orchestra, has taken classical and waltz music on worldwide concert tours, the size and revenue of which are otherwise only seen from the world's biggest rock and pop music acts. The most famous Dutch classical composition is "Canto Ostinato" by Simeon ten Holt, a minimalistic composition for multiple instruments. Acclaimed harpist Lavinia Meijer in 2012 released an album with works from Philip Glass that she transcribed for harp, with approval of Glass himself. The Concertgebouw (completed in 1888) in Amsterdam is home to the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, considered one of the world's finest orchestras.Some Dutch films – mainly by director Paul Verhoeven – have received international distribution and recognition, such as "Turkish Delight" (""Turks Fruit"", 1973), "Soldier of Orange" (""Soldaat van Oranje"", 1977), "Spetters" (1980) and "The Fourth Man" (""De Vierde Man"", 1983). Verhoeven then went on to direct big Hollywood movies like "RoboCop" (1987), "Total Recall" (1990) and "Basic Instinct" (1992), and returned with Dutch film "Black Book" (""Zwartboek"", 2006).Other well-known Dutch film directors are Jan de Bont ("Speed"), Anton Corbijn ("A Most wanted Man"), Dick Maas ("De Lift"), Fons Rademakers ("The Assault"), and documentary makers Bert Haanstra and Joris Ivens. Film director Theo van Gogh achieved international notoriety in 2004 when he was murdered by Mohammed Bouyeri in the streets of Amsterdam after directing the short film "Submission".Internationally, successful directors of photography from the Netherlands are Hoyte van Hoytema ("Interstellar", "Spectre", "Dunkirk") and Theo van de Sande ("Wayne's World" and "Blade"). Van Hoytema went to the National Film School in Łódź (Poland) and Van de Sande went to the Netherlands Film Academy. Internationally successful Dutch actors include Famke Janssen ("X-Men"), Carice van Houten ("Game of Thrones"), Michiel Huisman ("Game of Thrones"), Rutger Hauer ("Blade Runner"), Jeroen Krabbé ("The Living Daylights") and Derek de Lint ("Three Men and a Baby").The Netherlands has a well developed television market, with both multiple commercial and public broadcasters. Imported TV programmes, as well as interviews with responses in a foreign language, are virtually always shown with the original sound and subtitled. Only foreign shows for children are dubbed.TV exports from the Netherlands mostly take the form of specific formats and franchises, most notably through internationally active TV production conglomerate Endemol, founded by Dutch media tycoons John de Mol and Joop van den Ende. Headquartered in Amsterdam, Endemol has around 90 companies in over 30 countries. Endemol and its subsidiaries create and run reality, talent, and game show franchises worldwide, including "Big Brother" and "Deal or No Deal". John de Mol later started his own company Talpa which created show franchises like "The Voice" and "Utopia".Approximately 4.5 million of the 16.8 million people in the Netherlands are registered to one of the 35,000 sports clubs in the country. About two-thirds of the population between 15 and 75 participates in sports weekly. Football is the most popular participant sport in the Netherlands, before field hockey and volleyball as the second and third most popular team sports. The Netherlands national football team is one of the most popular aspects of Dutch sports; especially since the 1970s when one of the greatest footballers of all time, Johan Cruyff, developed Total Football with coach Rinus Michels. Tennis, gymnastics and golf are the three most widely engaged in individual sports.Organisation of sports began at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. Federations for sports were established (such as the speed skating federation in 1882), rules were unified and sports clubs came into existence. A Dutch National Olympic Committee was established in 1912. Thus far, the nation has won 266 medals at the Summer Olympic Games and another 110 medals at the Winter Olympic Games. In international competition, Dutch national teams and athletes are dominant in several fields of sport. The Netherlands women's field hockey team is the most successful team in World Cup history. The Netherlands baseball team have won the European championship 20 times out of 32 events. Dutch K-1 kickboxers have won the K-1 World Grand Prix 15 times out of 19 tournaments. The Netherlands Women's handball team holds the record of the only team in the world that consecutively reached all six semifinals of major international tournaments since 2015, winning silver and bronze at the European Women's Handball Championship and silver, bronze and gold at the World Women's Handball Championship. They finished fourth at the 2016 Summer Olympics.The Dutch speed skaters' performance at the 2014 Winter Olympics, where they won 8 out of 12 events, 23 out of 36 medals, including 4 clean sweeps, is the most dominant performance in a single sport in Olympic history. Motorcycle racing at the TT Circuit Assen has a long history. Assen is the only venue to have held a round of the Motorcycle World Championship every year since its creation in 1949. The circuit was purpose-built for the Dutch TT in 1954, with previous events having been held on public roads.The Dutch have also had success in all three of cyclings Grand Tours with Jan Janssen winning the 1968 Tour de France, more recently with Tom Dumoulin winning the 2017 Giro d'Italia and legendary rider Joop Zoetemelk was the 1985 UCI World Champion, the winner of the 1979 Vuelta a Espana, the 1980 Tour de France and still holds or shares numerous Tour de France records including most Tours finished and most kilometres ridden.Limburger Max Verstappen currently races in Formula One, and was the first Dutchman to win a Grand Prix. The coastal resort of Zandvoort hosted the Dutch Grand Prix from 1958 to 1985, and has been announced to return in 2020. The volleyball national men's team has also been successful, winning the silver medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics and the gold medal four years later in Atlanta. The biggest success of the women's national team was winning the European Championship in 1995 and the World Grand Prix in 2007.Recently cricket has made a remarkable progress in the Netherlands. Netherlands have participated in 1996, 2003, 2007 and 2011 ODI cricket World Cup. They have also qualified for 2009 and 2014 T20 World Cup. In the 2009 T20 World Cup, Netherlands defeated England, the current World Champions and inventor of the game. Ryan ten Doeschate is the only Dutch player to have played in the IPL on the team Kolkata Knight Riders.Originally, the country's cuisine was shaped by the practices of fishing and farming, including the cultivation of the soil for growing crops and raising domesticated animals. Dutch cuisine is simple and straightforward, and contains many dairy products. Breakfast and lunch are typically bread with toppings, with cereal for breakfast as an alternative. Traditionally, dinner consists of potatoes, a portion of meat, and (seasonal) vegetables. The Dutch diet was relatively high in carbohydrates and fat, reflecting the dietary needs of the labourers whose culture moulded the country. Without many refinements, it is best described as rustic, though many holidays are still celebrated with special foods. In the course of the twentieth century this diet changed and became much more cosmopolitan, with most global cuisines being represented in the major cities.Modern culinary writers distinguish between three general regional forms of Dutch cuisine. The regions in the northeast of the Netherlands, roughly the provinces of Groningen, Friesland, Drenthe, Overijssel and Gelderland north of the great rivers are the least populated areas of the Netherlands. The late (18th century) introduction of large scale agriculture means that the cuisine is generally known for its many kinds of meats. The relative lack of farms allowed for an abundance of game and husbandry, though dishes near the coastal regions of Friesland, Groningen and the parts of Overijssel bordering the IJsselmeer also include a large amount of fish. The various dried sausages, belonging to the metworst-family of Dutch sausages are found throughout this region and are highly prized for their often very strong taste. Also smoked sausages are common, of which ("Gelderse") "rookworst" is the most renowned. The sausage contains a lot of fat and is very juicy. Larger sausages are often eaten alongside "stamppot", "hutspot" or "zuurkool" (sauerkraut); whereas smaller ones are often eaten as a street food. The provinces are also home to hard textured rye bread, pastries and cookies, the latter heavily spiced with ginger or succade or containing small bits of meat. Various kinds of "Kruidkoek" (such as ), "" and "" (small savoury pancakes cooked in a waffle iron) are considered typical. A notable characteristic of "Fries roggebrood" (Frisian rye bread) is its long baking time (up to 20 hours), resulting in a sweet taste and a deep dark colour. In terms of alcoholic beverages, the region is renowned for its many bitters (such as "Beerenburg") and other high-proof liquors rather than beer, which is, apart from "Jenever", typical for the rest of the country. As a coastal region, Friesland is home to low-lying grasslands, and thus has a cheese production in common with the Western cuisine. "Friese Nagelkaas" (Friesian Clove) is a notable example.The provinces of North Holland, South Holland, Zeeland, and Utrecht and the Gelderlandic area of Betuwe make up the region in which western Dutch cuisine is found. Because of the abundance of water and flat grasslands that are found here, the area is known for its many dairy products, which include prominent cheeses such as Gouda, Leyden (spiced cheese with cumin), and Edam (traditionally in small spheres) as well as Leerdammer and Beemster, while the adjacent Zaanstreek in North Holland has since the 16th century been known for its mayonnaise, typical whole-grain mustards, and chocolate industry. Zeeland and South Holland produce a lot of butter, which contains a larger amount of milkfat than most other European butter varieties. A by-product of the butter-making process, "karnemelk" (buttermilk), is also considered typical for this region. Seafood such as soused herring, mussels (called "Zeeuwse Mossels", since all Dutch mussels for consumption are cleaned in Zeeland's Oosterschelde), eels, oysters and shrimps are widely available and typical for the region. "", once a local delicacy consisting of small chunks of battered white fish, has become a national fast food, just as . Pastries in this area tend to be quite doughy, and often contain large amounts of sugar; either caramelised, powdered or crystallised. The "oliebol" (in its modern form) and "Zeeuwse bolus" are good examples. Cookies are also produced in great number and tend to contain a lot of butter and sugar, like "stroopwafel", as well as a filling of some kind, mostly almond, like "". The traditional alcoholic beverages of this region are beer (strong pale lager) and "Jenever", a high proof juniper-flavoured spirit, that came to be known in England as gin. A noted exception within the traditional Dutch alcoholic landscape, "Advocaat", a rich and creamy liqueur made from eggs, sugar and brandy, is also native to this region.The Southern Dutch cuisine consists of the cuisines of the Dutch provinces of North Brabant and Limburg and the Flemish Region in Belgium. It is renowned for its many rich pastries, soups, stews and vegetable dishes and is often called Burgundian which is a Dutch idiom invoking the rich Burgundian court which ruled the Low Countries in the Middle Ages, renowned for its splendor and great feasts. It is the only Dutch culinary region that developed an haute cuisine. Pastries are abundant, often with rich fillings of cream, custard or fruits. Cakes, such as the "Vlaai" from Limburg and the "Moorkop" and "Bossche Bol" from Brabant, are typical pastries. Savoury pastries also occur, with the (a roll with a sausage of ground beef, literally translates into sausage bread) being the most popular. The traditional alcoholic beverage of the region is beer. There are many local brands, ranging from "Trappist" to "Kriek". 5 of the 10 "International Trappist Association" recognised breweries in the world, are located in the Southern Dutch cultural area. Beer, like wine in French cuisine, is also used in cooking; often in stews.In early 2014, Oxfam ranked the Netherlands as the country with the most nutritious, plentiful and healthy food, in a comparison of 125 countries.From the exploitations in the Mughal Empire in the 17th century, to the colonisations in the 19th century, Dutch imperial possessions continued to expand, reaching their greatest extent by establishing a hegemony of the Dutch East Indies in the early 20th century. The Dutch East Indies, which later formed modern-day Indonesia, was one of the most valuable European colonies in the world and the most important one for the Netherlands. Over 350 years of mutual heritage has left a significant cultural mark on the Netherlands.In the Dutch Golden Age of the 17th century, the Netherlands urbanised considerably, mostly financed by corporate revenue from the Asian trade monopolies. Social status was based on merchants' income, which reduced feudalism and considerably changed the dynamics of Dutch society. When the Dutch royal family was established in 1815, much of its wealth came from Colonial trade.By the 17th century, the Dutch East India Company established their base in parts of Ceylon (modern-day Sri Lanka). Afterward, they established ports in Dutch occupied Malabar, leading to Dutch settlements and trading posts in India. However, their expansion into India was halted, after their defeat in the Battle of Colachel by the Kingdom of Travancore, during the Travancore-Dutch War. The Dutch never recovered from the defeat and no longer posed a large colonial threat to Bengal Subah.Universities such as the Leiden University, founded in the 16th century, have developed into leading knowledge centres for Southeast Asian and Indonesian studies. Leiden University has produced leading academics such as Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje, and still has academics who specialise in Indonesian languages and cultures. Leiden University and in particular KITLV are educational and scientific institutions that to this day share both an intellectual and historical interest in Indonesian studies. Other scientific institutions in the Netherlands include the Amsterdam Tropenmuseum, an anthropological museum with massive collections of Indonesian art, culture, ethnography and anthropology.The traditions of the Royal Dutch East Indies Army (KNIL) are maintained by the Regiment Van Heutsz of the modern Royal Netherlands Army. A dedicated "Bronbeek Museum", a former home for retired KNIL soldiers, exists in Arnhem to this day.A specific segment of Dutch literature called Dutch Indies literature still exists and includes established authors, such as Louis Couperus, the writer of "The Hidden Force", taking the colonial era as an important source of inspiration. One of the great masterpieces of Dutch literature is the book "Max Havelaar", written by Multatuli in 1860.The majority of Dutchmen that repatriated to the Netherlands after and during the Indonesian revolution are Indo (Eurasian), native to the islands of the Dutch East Indies. This relatively large Eurasian population had developed over a period of 400 years and were classified by colonial law as belonging to the European legal community. In Dutch they are referred to as "Indische Nederlanders" or as Indo (short for Indo-European).Including their second generation descendants, Indos are currently the largest foreign-born group in the Netherlands. In 2008, the Dutch Central Bureau for Statistics (CBS) registered 387,000 first- and second-generation Indos living in the Netherlands. Although considered fully assimilated into Dutch society, as the main ethnic minority in the Netherlands, these 'repatriants' have played a pivotal role in introducing elements of Indonesian culture into Dutch mainstream culture.Many Indonesian dishes and foodstuffs have become commonplace in the Netherlands. Rijsttafel, a colonial culinary concept, and dishes such as Nasi goreng and satay are very popular in the country. Practically any town of any size in the Netherlands has a "toko" (a Dutch Indonesian Shop) or a Chinese-Indonesian restaurant, and many 'Pasar Malam' (Night market in Malay/Indonesian) fairs are organised throughout the year.
|
[
"Piet de Jong",
"Hendrikus Colijn",
"Ruud Lubbers",
"Jan de Quay",
"Wim Schermerhorn",
"Jo Cals",
"Joop den Uyl",
"Wim Kok",
"Louis Beel",
"Dries van Agt",
"Willem Drees",
"Charles Ruijs de Beerenbrouck",
"Victor Marijnen",
"Jelle Zijlstra",
"Jan Peter Balkenende",
"Mark Rutte",
"Pieter Sjoerds Gerbrandy",
"Barend Biesheuvel"
] |
|
Which team did Sandro Wolfinger play for in Apr, 2014?
|
April 06, 2014
|
{
"text": [
"FC Balzers"
]
}
|
L2_Q3948320_P54_4
|
Sandro Wolfinger plays for SV Heimstetten from Jan, 2015 to Jan, 2016.
Sandro Wolfinger plays for FC Ruggell from Jul, 2012 to Jan, 2013.
Sandro Wolfinger plays for FC Chur 97 from Jan, 2013 to Jan, 2014.
Sandro Wolfinger plays for FC Balzers from Jan, 2014 to Jan, 2015.
Sandro Wolfinger plays for Liechtenstein national under-17 football team from Jan, 2007 to Jan, 2007.
Sandro Wolfinger plays for Liechtenstein national under-21 football team from Jan, 2010 to Jan, 2012.
Sandro Wolfinger plays for BCF Wolfratshausen from Jan, 2016 to Jan, 2017.
|
Sandro WolfingerSandro Wolfinger (born 24 August 1991) is a Liechtensteiner footballer who currently plays for USV Eschen/Mauren.He is a member of the Liechtenstein national football team and holds 42 caps and has scored two goals, making his debut in a friendly against Estonia on 19 November 2013.
|
[
"FC Ruggell",
"Liechtenstein national under-17 football team",
"BCF Wolfratshausen",
"Liechtenstein national under-21 football team",
"SV Heimstetten",
"FC Chur 97"
] |
|
Which team did Sandro Wolfinger play for in 2014-04-06?
|
April 06, 2014
|
{
"text": [
"FC Balzers"
]
}
|
L2_Q3948320_P54_4
|
Sandro Wolfinger plays for SV Heimstetten from Jan, 2015 to Jan, 2016.
Sandro Wolfinger plays for FC Ruggell from Jul, 2012 to Jan, 2013.
Sandro Wolfinger plays for FC Chur 97 from Jan, 2013 to Jan, 2014.
Sandro Wolfinger plays for FC Balzers from Jan, 2014 to Jan, 2015.
Sandro Wolfinger plays for Liechtenstein national under-17 football team from Jan, 2007 to Jan, 2007.
Sandro Wolfinger plays for Liechtenstein national under-21 football team from Jan, 2010 to Jan, 2012.
Sandro Wolfinger plays for BCF Wolfratshausen from Jan, 2016 to Jan, 2017.
|
Sandro WolfingerSandro Wolfinger (born 24 August 1991) is a Liechtensteiner footballer who currently plays for USV Eschen/Mauren.He is a member of the Liechtenstein national football team and holds 42 caps and has scored two goals, making his debut in a friendly against Estonia on 19 November 2013.
|
[
"FC Ruggell",
"Liechtenstein national under-17 football team",
"BCF Wolfratshausen",
"Liechtenstein national under-21 football team",
"SV Heimstetten",
"FC Chur 97"
] |
|
Which team did Sandro Wolfinger play for in 06/04/2014?
|
April 06, 2014
|
{
"text": [
"FC Balzers"
]
}
|
L2_Q3948320_P54_4
|
Sandro Wolfinger plays for SV Heimstetten from Jan, 2015 to Jan, 2016.
Sandro Wolfinger plays for FC Ruggell from Jul, 2012 to Jan, 2013.
Sandro Wolfinger plays for FC Chur 97 from Jan, 2013 to Jan, 2014.
Sandro Wolfinger plays for FC Balzers from Jan, 2014 to Jan, 2015.
Sandro Wolfinger plays for Liechtenstein national under-17 football team from Jan, 2007 to Jan, 2007.
Sandro Wolfinger plays for Liechtenstein national under-21 football team from Jan, 2010 to Jan, 2012.
Sandro Wolfinger plays for BCF Wolfratshausen from Jan, 2016 to Jan, 2017.
|
Sandro WolfingerSandro Wolfinger (born 24 August 1991) is a Liechtensteiner footballer who currently plays for USV Eschen/Mauren.He is a member of the Liechtenstein national football team and holds 42 caps and has scored two goals, making his debut in a friendly against Estonia on 19 November 2013.
|
[
"FC Ruggell",
"Liechtenstein national under-17 football team",
"BCF Wolfratshausen",
"Liechtenstein national under-21 football team",
"SV Heimstetten",
"FC Chur 97"
] |
|
Which team did Sandro Wolfinger play for in Apr 06, 2014?
|
April 06, 2014
|
{
"text": [
"FC Balzers"
]
}
|
L2_Q3948320_P54_4
|
Sandro Wolfinger plays for SV Heimstetten from Jan, 2015 to Jan, 2016.
Sandro Wolfinger plays for FC Ruggell from Jul, 2012 to Jan, 2013.
Sandro Wolfinger plays for FC Chur 97 from Jan, 2013 to Jan, 2014.
Sandro Wolfinger plays for FC Balzers from Jan, 2014 to Jan, 2015.
Sandro Wolfinger plays for Liechtenstein national under-17 football team from Jan, 2007 to Jan, 2007.
Sandro Wolfinger plays for Liechtenstein national under-21 football team from Jan, 2010 to Jan, 2012.
Sandro Wolfinger plays for BCF Wolfratshausen from Jan, 2016 to Jan, 2017.
|
Sandro WolfingerSandro Wolfinger (born 24 August 1991) is a Liechtensteiner footballer who currently plays for USV Eschen/Mauren.He is a member of the Liechtenstein national football team and holds 42 caps and has scored two goals, making his debut in a friendly against Estonia on 19 November 2013.
|
[
"FC Ruggell",
"Liechtenstein national under-17 football team",
"BCF Wolfratshausen",
"Liechtenstein national under-21 football team",
"SV Heimstetten",
"FC Chur 97"
] |
|
Which team did Sandro Wolfinger play for in 04/06/2014?
|
April 06, 2014
|
{
"text": [
"FC Balzers"
]
}
|
L2_Q3948320_P54_4
|
Sandro Wolfinger plays for SV Heimstetten from Jan, 2015 to Jan, 2016.
Sandro Wolfinger plays for FC Ruggell from Jul, 2012 to Jan, 2013.
Sandro Wolfinger plays for FC Chur 97 from Jan, 2013 to Jan, 2014.
Sandro Wolfinger plays for FC Balzers from Jan, 2014 to Jan, 2015.
Sandro Wolfinger plays for Liechtenstein national under-17 football team from Jan, 2007 to Jan, 2007.
Sandro Wolfinger plays for Liechtenstein national under-21 football team from Jan, 2010 to Jan, 2012.
Sandro Wolfinger plays for BCF Wolfratshausen from Jan, 2016 to Jan, 2017.
|
Sandro WolfingerSandro Wolfinger (born 24 August 1991) is a Liechtensteiner footballer who currently plays for USV Eschen/Mauren.He is a member of the Liechtenstein national football team and holds 42 caps and has scored two goals, making his debut in a friendly against Estonia on 19 November 2013.
|
[
"FC Ruggell",
"Liechtenstein national under-17 football team",
"BCF Wolfratshausen",
"Liechtenstein national under-21 football team",
"SV Heimstetten",
"FC Chur 97"
] |
|
Which team did Sandro Wolfinger play for in 06-Apr-201406-April-2014?
|
April 06, 2014
|
{
"text": [
"FC Balzers"
]
}
|
L2_Q3948320_P54_4
|
Sandro Wolfinger plays for SV Heimstetten from Jan, 2015 to Jan, 2016.
Sandro Wolfinger plays for FC Ruggell from Jul, 2012 to Jan, 2013.
Sandro Wolfinger plays for FC Chur 97 from Jan, 2013 to Jan, 2014.
Sandro Wolfinger plays for FC Balzers from Jan, 2014 to Jan, 2015.
Sandro Wolfinger plays for Liechtenstein national under-17 football team from Jan, 2007 to Jan, 2007.
Sandro Wolfinger plays for Liechtenstein national under-21 football team from Jan, 2010 to Jan, 2012.
Sandro Wolfinger plays for BCF Wolfratshausen from Jan, 2016 to Jan, 2017.
|
Sandro WolfingerSandro Wolfinger (born 24 August 1991) is a Liechtensteiner footballer who currently plays for USV Eschen/Mauren.He is a member of the Liechtenstein national football team and holds 42 caps and has scored two goals, making his debut in a friendly against Estonia on 19 November 2013.
|
[
"FC Ruggell",
"Liechtenstein national under-17 football team",
"BCF Wolfratshausen",
"Liechtenstein national under-21 football team",
"SV Heimstetten",
"FC Chur 97"
] |
|
Which position did Jean-Luc Dehaene hold in Dec, 2004?
|
December 05, 2004
|
{
"text": [
"member of the European Parliament"
]
}
|
L2_Q15056_P39_4
|
Jean-Luc Dehaene holds the position of Minister of Mobility from May, 1988 to Mar, 1992.
Jean-Luc Dehaene holds the position of member of the European Parliament from Jul, 2004 to Jul, 2009.
Jean-Luc Dehaene holds the position of Senator of Belgium from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 2001.
Jean-Luc Dehaene holds the position of co-opted senator from Jan, 1982 to Jan, 1987.
Jean-Luc Dehaene holds the position of Prime Minister of Belgium from Mar, 1992 to Jul, 1999.
|
Jean-Luc DehaeneJean Luc Joseph Marie "Jean-Luc" Dehaene (; 7 August 1940 – 15 May 2014) was a Belgian politician who served as Prime Minister of Belgium from 1992 until 1999. During his political career, he was nicknamed "The Plumber" and "The Minesweeper" for his ability to negotiate political deadlocks. A member of the "Christen-Democratisch en Vlaams" (CD&V) party and its antecedents, Dehaene gained his first ministerial appointment in 1981. Dehaene's first government (1992–1995) included both Christian and Social Democrats and presided over the creation of a new constitution, effectively transforming Belgium into a federal state. His second government (1995–1999) coincided with a number of crises in Belgium including the Dutroux scandal. The Dioxin Affair, occurring shortly before the 1999 election, led to a swing against the major parties and Dehaene's government fell. Following his final term as Prime Minister he was active in both Belgian and European politics. He was also on UEFA's financial fair play regulatory body and managed Dexia Bank during the financial crisis. He was the last prime minister of King Baudouin's reign.Dehaene was born on 7 August 1940 in Montpellier, France, when his parents were fleeing the advance of the German army into Belgium and France. During his studies at the Université de Namur and the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, he was a member of the Olivaint Conference of Belgium. He got into politics through the "" (General Christian Workers' Union; ACW), a trade union which was closely linked to the "Christelijke Volkspartij" (Christian People's Party; CVP).Dehaene's long-time wife Celie Verbeke is a native of Illinois in the United States but both her paternal and maternal grandparents were Belgian immigrants. Since she was raised by her parents in Dutch and speaks without a foreign accent, the Belgian public remained unaware of her American background for a long time.Dehaene was a keen football fan, and viewed it as an important part of Belgian national identity. He was a supporter of Club Brugge K.V.. In 1981, he became Minister of Social Affairs and Institutional Reform, until 1988, when he became Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Communications and Institutional Reform.In 1992, after both Guy Verhofstadt and Melchior Wathelet had failed, Dehaene managed to form a governing coalition of Christian Democrats and Social Democrats. This became one of Belgium's most important governments, because it successfully transformed Belgium into a federal state in 1993. In March 1993, Dehaene offered the King the resignation of his government, because of diverging views on how to handle the public finances. However, within a week the differences were put aside.After the death of King Baudouin on 31 July 1993, Dehaene's government exercised the royal function until Prince Albert was sworn in as King Albert II nine days later.In 1994, Dehaene ordered the unilateral withdrawal of Belgian troops from Rwanda following the massacre of a number of Belgian peacekeepers, thus lifting the last barrier to the genocide of Tutsis. During questions from the Belgian parliamentary commission into this decision he repeatedly acknowledged no regrets about the decision. He was the leading candidate to replace Jacques Delors as President of the European Commission, but British Prime Minister John Major vetoed the appointment. The Luxembourg Prime Minister Jacques Santer was appointed as a compromise candidate instead.Dehaene's second government was also composed of Christian Democrats and Social Democrats. Despite the fact that the government was marked by a number of political crises and scandals, most notably the Dutroux affair, it managed to serve the entire legislature. During this period, for his work toward a unified Europe, Dehaene received the Vision for Europe Award in 1996. Dehaene led Belgium into the Euro, and in preparation for joining the Eurozone, the Dehaene government was forced to make some sharp and unpopular economic reforms. Some weeks before the 1999 elections the dioxin affair erupted, and both governing parties lost much of their support. He was replaced by a new government, led by Flemish liberal Guy Verhofstadt.Between 2000 and 2007, he sat as Burgemeester (mayor) of Vilvoorde. At the request of his party, the CD&V, he was once again put up as a candidate during the 2003 elections, but this was clearly not with the intention of becoming Prime Minister as he was put as last person on the party list. In June 2004 and again in June 2009, Jean-Luc Dehaene was elected to the European Parliament for the CD&V within the center-right European People's Party (EPP) group. In 2003, he was awarded the Vlerick Award.Between 2006 and 2007, Dehaene served as member of the Amato Group, a group of high-level European politicians unofficially working on rewriting the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe into what became known as the Treaty of Lisbon following its rejection by French and Dutch voters. After the Belgian elections of 2007, Dehaene was appointed as mediator in the process to form a new government. He was also called in to assist in the negotiations around the Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde partition.Dehaene also served as the chief enforcer of the football association, UEFA's, Financial Fair Play (FFP). In 2011, he was involved in an investigation of Manchester City F.C. over sponsorship irregularities.Dehaene, who had previously been director of InBev, became chairman of Dexia Bank, a Belgian-French bank, in October 2008. With the bank in difficulty owing to the financial crisis, he was asked to lead the company through the difficult period which he described as "mission impossible". Owing to his extensive political background, it was thought that he could cope with the negative public perception Dexia had acquired through the financial crisis. His political connections helped Dexia's bad bank to secure funding guarantees of up to €90 billion, provided primarily by the Belgian government. In 2012, Dexia Belgium became Belfius.On 15 May 2014, Dehaene died after a fall while holidaying in Quimper in France. He had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer earlier the same year and was not seeking reelection as an MEP in the 2014 elections for health reasons. He was 73 years old.In the aftermath of his death, he received tributes from the incumbent Belgian Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo who described him as an "exceptional statesman". Tributes were also made by Guy Verhofstadt, President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz and President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso.His body lay in state in Vilvoorde's town hall and the retired King Albert II and the Flemish Minister-President Kris Peeters both visited Vilvoorde to pay their respects.
|
[
"Senator of Belgium",
"co-opted senator",
"Prime Minister of Belgium",
"Minister of Mobility"
] |
|
Which position did Jean-Luc Dehaene hold in 2004-12-05?
|
December 05, 2004
|
{
"text": [
"member of the European Parliament"
]
}
|
L2_Q15056_P39_4
|
Jean-Luc Dehaene holds the position of Minister of Mobility from May, 1988 to Mar, 1992.
Jean-Luc Dehaene holds the position of member of the European Parliament from Jul, 2004 to Jul, 2009.
Jean-Luc Dehaene holds the position of Senator of Belgium from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 2001.
Jean-Luc Dehaene holds the position of co-opted senator from Jan, 1982 to Jan, 1987.
Jean-Luc Dehaene holds the position of Prime Minister of Belgium from Mar, 1992 to Jul, 1999.
|
Jean-Luc DehaeneJean Luc Joseph Marie "Jean-Luc" Dehaene (; 7 August 1940 – 15 May 2014) was a Belgian politician who served as Prime Minister of Belgium from 1992 until 1999. During his political career, he was nicknamed "The Plumber" and "The Minesweeper" for his ability to negotiate political deadlocks. A member of the "Christen-Democratisch en Vlaams" (CD&V) party and its antecedents, Dehaene gained his first ministerial appointment in 1981. Dehaene's first government (1992–1995) included both Christian and Social Democrats and presided over the creation of a new constitution, effectively transforming Belgium into a federal state. His second government (1995–1999) coincided with a number of crises in Belgium including the Dutroux scandal. The Dioxin Affair, occurring shortly before the 1999 election, led to a swing against the major parties and Dehaene's government fell. Following his final term as Prime Minister he was active in both Belgian and European politics. He was also on UEFA's financial fair play regulatory body and managed Dexia Bank during the financial crisis. He was the last prime minister of King Baudouin's reign.Dehaene was born on 7 August 1940 in Montpellier, France, when his parents were fleeing the advance of the German army into Belgium and France. During his studies at the Université de Namur and the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, he was a member of the Olivaint Conference of Belgium. He got into politics through the "" (General Christian Workers' Union; ACW), a trade union which was closely linked to the "Christelijke Volkspartij" (Christian People's Party; CVP).Dehaene's long-time wife Celie Verbeke is a native of Illinois in the United States but both her paternal and maternal grandparents were Belgian immigrants. Since she was raised by her parents in Dutch and speaks without a foreign accent, the Belgian public remained unaware of her American background for a long time.Dehaene was a keen football fan, and viewed it as an important part of Belgian national identity. He was a supporter of Club Brugge K.V.. In 1981, he became Minister of Social Affairs and Institutional Reform, until 1988, when he became Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Communications and Institutional Reform.In 1992, after both Guy Verhofstadt and Melchior Wathelet had failed, Dehaene managed to form a governing coalition of Christian Democrats and Social Democrats. This became one of Belgium's most important governments, because it successfully transformed Belgium into a federal state in 1993. In March 1993, Dehaene offered the King the resignation of his government, because of diverging views on how to handle the public finances. However, within a week the differences were put aside.After the death of King Baudouin on 31 July 1993, Dehaene's government exercised the royal function until Prince Albert was sworn in as King Albert II nine days later.In 1994, Dehaene ordered the unilateral withdrawal of Belgian troops from Rwanda following the massacre of a number of Belgian peacekeepers, thus lifting the last barrier to the genocide of Tutsis. During questions from the Belgian parliamentary commission into this decision he repeatedly acknowledged no regrets about the decision. He was the leading candidate to replace Jacques Delors as President of the European Commission, but British Prime Minister John Major vetoed the appointment. The Luxembourg Prime Minister Jacques Santer was appointed as a compromise candidate instead.Dehaene's second government was also composed of Christian Democrats and Social Democrats. Despite the fact that the government was marked by a number of political crises and scandals, most notably the Dutroux affair, it managed to serve the entire legislature. During this period, for his work toward a unified Europe, Dehaene received the Vision for Europe Award in 1996. Dehaene led Belgium into the Euro, and in preparation for joining the Eurozone, the Dehaene government was forced to make some sharp and unpopular economic reforms. Some weeks before the 1999 elections the dioxin affair erupted, and both governing parties lost much of their support. He was replaced by a new government, led by Flemish liberal Guy Verhofstadt.Between 2000 and 2007, he sat as Burgemeester (mayor) of Vilvoorde. At the request of his party, the CD&V, he was once again put up as a candidate during the 2003 elections, but this was clearly not with the intention of becoming Prime Minister as he was put as last person on the party list. In June 2004 and again in June 2009, Jean-Luc Dehaene was elected to the European Parliament for the CD&V within the center-right European People's Party (EPP) group. In 2003, he was awarded the Vlerick Award.Between 2006 and 2007, Dehaene served as member of the Amato Group, a group of high-level European politicians unofficially working on rewriting the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe into what became known as the Treaty of Lisbon following its rejection by French and Dutch voters. After the Belgian elections of 2007, Dehaene was appointed as mediator in the process to form a new government. He was also called in to assist in the negotiations around the Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde partition.Dehaene also served as the chief enforcer of the football association, UEFA's, Financial Fair Play (FFP). In 2011, he was involved in an investigation of Manchester City F.C. over sponsorship irregularities.Dehaene, who had previously been director of InBev, became chairman of Dexia Bank, a Belgian-French bank, in October 2008. With the bank in difficulty owing to the financial crisis, he was asked to lead the company through the difficult period which he described as "mission impossible". Owing to his extensive political background, it was thought that he could cope with the negative public perception Dexia had acquired through the financial crisis. His political connections helped Dexia's bad bank to secure funding guarantees of up to €90 billion, provided primarily by the Belgian government. In 2012, Dexia Belgium became Belfius.On 15 May 2014, Dehaene died after a fall while holidaying in Quimper in France. He had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer earlier the same year and was not seeking reelection as an MEP in the 2014 elections for health reasons. He was 73 years old.In the aftermath of his death, he received tributes from the incumbent Belgian Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo who described him as an "exceptional statesman". Tributes were also made by Guy Verhofstadt, President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz and President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso.His body lay in state in Vilvoorde's town hall and the retired King Albert II and the Flemish Minister-President Kris Peeters both visited Vilvoorde to pay their respects.
|
[
"Senator of Belgium",
"co-opted senator",
"Prime Minister of Belgium",
"Minister of Mobility"
] |
|
Which position did Jean-Luc Dehaene hold in 05/12/2004?
|
December 05, 2004
|
{
"text": [
"member of the European Parliament"
]
}
|
L2_Q15056_P39_4
|
Jean-Luc Dehaene holds the position of Minister of Mobility from May, 1988 to Mar, 1992.
Jean-Luc Dehaene holds the position of member of the European Parliament from Jul, 2004 to Jul, 2009.
Jean-Luc Dehaene holds the position of Senator of Belgium from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 2001.
Jean-Luc Dehaene holds the position of co-opted senator from Jan, 1982 to Jan, 1987.
Jean-Luc Dehaene holds the position of Prime Minister of Belgium from Mar, 1992 to Jul, 1999.
|
Jean-Luc DehaeneJean Luc Joseph Marie "Jean-Luc" Dehaene (; 7 August 1940 – 15 May 2014) was a Belgian politician who served as Prime Minister of Belgium from 1992 until 1999. During his political career, he was nicknamed "The Plumber" and "The Minesweeper" for his ability to negotiate political deadlocks. A member of the "Christen-Democratisch en Vlaams" (CD&V) party and its antecedents, Dehaene gained his first ministerial appointment in 1981. Dehaene's first government (1992–1995) included both Christian and Social Democrats and presided over the creation of a new constitution, effectively transforming Belgium into a federal state. His second government (1995–1999) coincided with a number of crises in Belgium including the Dutroux scandal. The Dioxin Affair, occurring shortly before the 1999 election, led to a swing against the major parties and Dehaene's government fell. Following his final term as Prime Minister he was active in both Belgian and European politics. He was also on UEFA's financial fair play regulatory body and managed Dexia Bank during the financial crisis. He was the last prime minister of King Baudouin's reign.Dehaene was born on 7 August 1940 in Montpellier, France, when his parents were fleeing the advance of the German army into Belgium and France. During his studies at the Université de Namur and the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, he was a member of the Olivaint Conference of Belgium. He got into politics through the "" (General Christian Workers' Union; ACW), a trade union which was closely linked to the "Christelijke Volkspartij" (Christian People's Party; CVP).Dehaene's long-time wife Celie Verbeke is a native of Illinois in the United States but both her paternal and maternal grandparents were Belgian immigrants. Since she was raised by her parents in Dutch and speaks without a foreign accent, the Belgian public remained unaware of her American background for a long time.Dehaene was a keen football fan, and viewed it as an important part of Belgian national identity. He was a supporter of Club Brugge K.V.. In 1981, he became Minister of Social Affairs and Institutional Reform, until 1988, when he became Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Communications and Institutional Reform.In 1992, after both Guy Verhofstadt and Melchior Wathelet had failed, Dehaene managed to form a governing coalition of Christian Democrats and Social Democrats. This became one of Belgium's most important governments, because it successfully transformed Belgium into a federal state in 1993. In March 1993, Dehaene offered the King the resignation of his government, because of diverging views on how to handle the public finances. However, within a week the differences were put aside.After the death of King Baudouin on 31 July 1993, Dehaene's government exercised the royal function until Prince Albert was sworn in as King Albert II nine days later.In 1994, Dehaene ordered the unilateral withdrawal of Belgian troops from Rwanda following the massacre of a number of Belgian peacekeepers, thus lifting the last barrier to the genocide of Tutsis. During questions from the Belgian parliamentary commission into this decision he repeatedly acknowledged no regrets about the decision. He was the leading candidate to replace Jacques Delors as President of the European Commission, but British Prime Minister John Major vetoed the appointment. The Luxembourg Prime Minister Jacques Santer was appointed as a compromise candidate instead.Dehaene's second government was also composed of Christian Democrats and Social Democrats. Despite the fact that the government was marked by a number of political crises and scandals, most notably the Dutroux affair, it managed to serve the entire legislature. During this period, for his work toward a unified Europe, Dehaene received the Vision for Europe Award in 1996. Dehaene led Belgium into the Euro, and in preparation for joining the Eurozone, the Dehaene government was forced to make some sharp and unpopular economic reforms. Some weeks before the 1999 elections the dioxin affair erupted, and both governing parties lost much of their support. He was replaced by a new government, led by Flemish liberal Guy Verhofstadt.Between 2000 and 2007, he sat as Burgemeester (mayor) of Vilvoorde. At the request of his party, the CD&V, he was once again put up as a candidate during the 2003 elections, but this was clearly not with the intention of becoming Prime Minister as he was put as last person on the party list. In June 2004 and again in June 2009, Jean-Luc Dehaene was elected to the European Parliament for the CD&V within the center-right European People's Party (EPP) group. In 2003, he was awarded the Vlerick Award.Between 2006 and 2007, Dehaene served as member of the Amato Group, a group of high-level European politicians unofficially working on rewriting the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe into what became known as the Treaty of Lisbon following its rejection by French and Dutch voters. After the Belgian elections of 2007, Dehaene was appointed as mediator in the process to form a new government. He was also called in to assist in the negotiations around the Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde partition.Dehaene also served as the chief enforcer of the football association, UEFA's, Financial Fair Play (FFP). In 2011, he was involved in an investigation of Manchester City F.C. over sponsorship irregularities.Dehaene, who had previously been director of InBev, became chairman of Dexia Bank, a Belgian-French bank, in October 2008. With the bank in difficulty owing to the financial crisis, he was asked to lead the company through the difficult period which he described as "mission impossible". Owing to his extensive political background, it was thought that he could cope with the negative public perception Dexia had acquired through the financial crisis. His political connections helped Dexia's bad bank to secure funding guarantees of up to €90 billion, provided primarily by the Belgian government. In 2012, Dexia Belgium became Belfius.On 15 May 2014, Dehaene died after a fall while holidaying in Quimper in France. He had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer earlier the same year and was not seeking reelection as an MEP in the 2014 elections for health reasons. He was 73 years old.In the aftermath of his death, he received tributes from the incumbent Belgian Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo who described him as an "exceptional statesman". Tributes were also made by Guy Verhofstadt, President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz and President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso.His body lay in state in Vilvoorde's town hall and the retired King Albert II and the Flemish Minister-President Kris Peeters both visited Vilvoorde to pay their respects.
|
[
"Senator of Belgium",
"co-opted senator",
"Prime Minister of Belgium",
"Minister of Mobility"
] |
|
Which position did Jean-Luc Dehaene hold in Dec 05, 2004?
|
December 05, 2004
|
{
"text": [
"member of the European Parliament"
]
}
|
L2_Q15056_P39_4
|
Jean-Luc Dehaene holds the position of Minister of Mobility from May, 1988 to Mar, 1992.
Jean-Luc Dehaene holds the position of member of the European Parliament from Jul, 2004 to Jul, 2009.
Jean-Luc Dehaene holds the position of Senator of Belgium from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 2001.
Jean-Luc Dehaene holds the position of co-opted senator from Jan, 1982 to Jan, 1987.
Jean-Luc Dehaene holds the position of Prime Minister of Belgium from Mar, 1992 to Jul, 1999.
|
Jean-Luc DehaeneJean Luc Joseph Marie "Jean-Luc" Dehaene (; 7 August 1940 – 15 May 2014) was a Belgian politician who served as Prime Minister of Belgium from 1992 until 1999. During his political career, he was nicknamed "The Plumber" and "The Minesweeper" for his ability to negotiate political deadlocks. A member of the "Christen-Democratisch en Vlaams" (CD&V) party and its antecedents, Dehaene gained his first ministerial appointment in 1981. Dehaene's first government (1992–1995) included both Christian and Social Democrats and presided over the creation of a new constitution, effectively transforming Belgium into a federal state. His second government (1995–1999) coincided with a number of crises in Belgium including the Dutroux scandal. The Dioxin Affair, occurring shortly before the 1999 election, led to a swing against the major parties and Dehaene's government fell. Following his final term as Prime Minister he was active in both Belgian and European politics. He was also on UEFA's financial fair play regulatory body and managed Dexia Bank during the financial crisis. He was the last prime minister of King Baudouin's reign.Dehaene was born on 7 August 1940 in Montpellier, France, when his parents were fleeing the advance of the German army into Belgium and France. During his studies at the Université de Namur and the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, he was a member of the Olivaint Conference of Belgium. He got into politics through the "" (General Christian Workers' Union; ACW), a trade union which was closely linked to the "Christelijke Volkspartij" (Christian People's Party; CVP).Dehaene's long-time wife Celie Verbeke is a native of Illinois in the United States but both her paternal and maternal grandparents were Belgian immigrants. Since she was raised by her parents in Dutch and speaks without a foreign accent, the Belgian public remained unaware of her American background for a long time.Dehaene was a keen football fan, and viewed it as an important part of Belgian national identity. He was a supporter of Club Brugge K.V.. In 1981, he became Minister of Social Affairs and Institutional Reform, until 1988, when he became Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Communications and Institutional Reform.In 1992, after both Guy Verhofstadt and Melchior Wathelet had failed, Dehaene managed to form a governing coalition of Christian Democrats and Social Democrats. This became one of Belgium's most important governments, because it successfully transformed Belgium into a federal state in 1993. In March 1993, Dehaene offered the King the resignation of his government, because of diverging views on how to handle the public finances. However, within a week the differences were put aside.After the death of King Baudouin on 31 July 1993, Dehaene's government exercised the royal function until Prince Albert was sworn in as King Albert II nine days later.In 1994, Dehaene ordered the unilateral withdrawal of Belgian troops from Rwanda following the massacre of a number of Belgian peacekeepers, thus lifting the last barrier to the genocide of Tutsis. During questions from the Belgian parliamentary commission into this decision he repeatedly acknowledged no regrets about the decision. He was the leading candidate to replace Jacques Delors as President of the European Commission, but British Prime Minister John Major vetoed the appointment. The Luxembourg Prime Minister Jacques Santer was appointed as a compromise candidate instead.Dehaene's second government was also composed of Christian Democrats and Social Democrats. Despite the fact that the government was marked by a number of political crises and scandals, most notably the Dutroux affair, it managed to serve the entire legislature. During this period, for his work toward a unified Europe, Dehaene received the Vision for Europe Award in 1996. Dehaene led Belgium into the Euro, and in preparation for joining the Eurozone, the Dehaene government was forced to make some sharp and unpopular economic reforms. Some weeks before the 1999 elections the dioxin affair erupted, and both governing parties lost much of their support. He was replaced by a new government, led by Flemish liberal Guy Verhofstadt.Between 2000 and 2007, he sat as Burgemeester (mayor) of Vilvoorde. At the request of his party, the CD&V, he was once again put up as a candidate during the 2003 elections, but this was clearly not with the intention of becoming Prime Minister as he was put as last person on the party list. In June 2004 and again in June 2009, Jean-Luc Dehaene was elected to the European Parliament for the CD&V within the center-right European People's Party (EPP) group. In 2003, he was awarded the Vlerick Award.Between 2006 and 2007, Dehaene served as member of the Amato Group, a group of high-level European politicians unofficially working on rewriting the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe into what became known as the Treaty of Lisbon following its rejection by French and Dutch voters. After the Belgian elections of 2007, Dehaene was appointed as mediator in the process to form a new government. He was also called in to assist in the negotiations around the Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde partition.Dehaene also served as the chief enforcer of the football association, UEFA's, Financial Fair Play (FFP). In 2011, he was involved in an investigation of Manchester City F.C. over sponsorship irregularities.Dehaene, who had previously been director of InBev, became chairman of Dexia Bank, a Belgian-French bank, in October 2008. With the bank in difficulty owing to the financial crisis, he was asked to lead the company through the difficult period which he described as "mission impossible". Owing to his extensive political background, it was thought that he could cope with the negative public perception Dexia had acquired through the financial crisis. His political connections helped Dexia's bad bank to secure funding guarantees of up to €90 billion, provided primarily by the Belgian government. In 2012, Dexia Belgium became Belfius.On 15 May 2014, Dehaene died after a fall while holidaying in Quimper in France. He had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer earlier the same year and was not seeking reelection as an MEP in the 2014 elections for health reasons. He was 73 years old.In the aftermath of his death, he received tributes from the incumbent Belgian Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo who described him as an "exceptional statesman". Tributes were also made by Guy Verhofstadt, President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz and President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso.His body lay in state in Vilvoorde's town hall and the retired King Albert II and the Flemish Minister-President Kris Peeters both visited Vilvoorde to pay their respects.
|
[
"Senator of Belgium",
"co-opted senator",
"Prime Minister of Belgium",
"Minister of Mobility"
] |
|
Which position did Jean-Luc Dehaene hold in 12/05/2004?
|
December 05, 2004
|
{
"text": [
"member of the European Parliament"
]
}
|
L2_Q15056_P39_4
|
Jean-Luc Dehaene holds the position of Minister of Mobility from May, 1988 to Mar, 1992.
Jean-Luc Dehaene holds the position of member of the European Parliament from Jul, 2004 to Jul, 2009.
Jean-Luc Dehaene holds the position of Senator of Belgium from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 2001.
Jean-Luc Dehaene holds the position of co-opted senator from Jan, 1982 to Jan, 1987.
Jean-Luc Dehaene holds the position of Prime Minister of Belgium from Mar, 1992 to Jul, 1999.
|
Jean-Luc DehaeneJean Luc Joseph Marie "Jean-Luc" Dehaene (; 7 August 1940 – 15 May 2014) was a Belgian politician who served as Prime Minister of Belgium from 1992 until 1999. During his political career, he was nicknamed "The Plumber" and "The Minesweeper" for his ability to negotiate political deadlocks. A member of the "Christen-Democratisch en Vlaams" (CD&V) party and its antecedents, Dehaene gained his first ministerial appointment in 1981. Dehaene's first government (1992–1995) included both Christian and Social Democrats and presided over the creation of a new constitution, effectively transforming Belgium into a federal state. His second government (1995–1999) coincided with a number of crises in Belgium including the Dutroux scandal. The Dioxin Affair, occurring shortly before the 1999 election, led to a swing against the major parties and Dehaene's government fell. Following his final term as Prime Minister he was active in both Belgian and European politics. He was also on UEFA's financial fair play regulatory body and managed Dexia Bank during the financial crisis. He was the last prime minister of King Baudouin's reign.Dehaene was born on 7 August 1940 in Montpellier, France, when his parents were fleeing the advance of the German army into Belgium and France. During his studies at the Université de Namur and the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, he was a member of the Olivaint Conference of Belgium. He got into politics through the "" (General Christian Workers' Union; ACW), a trade union which was closely linked to the "Christelijke Volkspartij" (Christian People's Party; CVP).Dehaene's long-time wife Celie Verbeke is a native of Illinois in the United States but both her paternal and maternal grandparents were Belgian immigrants. Since she was raised by her parents in Dutch and speaks without a foreign accent, the Belgian public remained unaware of her American background for a long time.Dehaene was a keen football fan, and viewed it as an important part of Belgian national identity. He was a supporter of Club Brugge K.V.. In 1981, he became Minister of Social Affairs and Institutional Reform, until 1988, when he became Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Communications and Institutional Reform.In 1992, after both Guy Verhofstadt and Melchior Wathelet had failed, Dehaene managed to form a governing coalition of Christian Democrats and Social Democrats. This became one of Belgium's most important governments, because it successfully transformed Belgium into a federal state in 1993. In March 1993, Dehaene offered the King the resignation of his government, because of diverging views on how to handle the public finances. However, within a week the differences were put aside.After the death of King Baudouin on 31 July 1993, Dehaene's government exercised the royal function until Prince Albert was sworn in as King Albert II nine days later.In 1994, Dehaene ordered the unilateral withdrawal of Belgian troops from Rwanda following the massacre of a number of Belgian peacekeepers, thus lifting the last barrier to the genocide of Tutsis. During questions from the Belgian parliamentary commission into this decision he repeatedly acknowledged no regrets about the decision. He was the leading candidate to replace Jacques Delors as President of the European Commission, but British Prime Minister John Major vetoed the appointment. The Luxembourg Prime Minister Jacques Santer was appointed as a compromise candidate instead.Dehaene's second government was also composed of Christian Democrats and Social Democrats. Despite the fact that the government was marked by a number of political crises and scandals, most notably the Dutroux affair, it managed to serve the entire legislature. During this period, for his work toward a unified Europe, Dehaene received the Vision for Europe Award in 1996. Dehaene led Belgium into the Euro, and in preparation for joining the Eurozone, the Dehaene government was forced to make some sharp and unpopular economic reforms. Some weeks before the 1999 elections the dioxin affair erupted, and both governing parties lost much of their support. He was replaced by a new government, led by Flemish liberal Guy Verhofstadt.Between 2000 and 2007, he sat as Burgemeester (mayor) of Vilvoorde. At the request of his party, the CD&V, he was once again put up as a candidate during the 2003 elections, but this was clearly not with the intention of becoming Prime Minister as he was put as last person on the party list. In June 2004 and again in June 2009, Jean-Luc Dehaene was elected to the European Parliament for the CD&V within the center-right European People's Party (EPP) group. In 2003, he was awarded the Vlerick Award.Between 2006 and 2007, Dehaene served as member of the Amato Group, a group of high-level European politicians unofficially working on rewriting the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe into what became known as the Treaty of Lisbon following its rejection by French and Dutch voters. After the Belgian elections of 2007, Dehaene was appointed as mediator in the process to form a new government. He was also called in to assist in the negotiations around the Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde partition.Dehaene also served as the chief enforcer of the football association, UEFA's, Financial Fair Play (FFP). In 2011, he was involved in an investigation of Manchester City F.C. over sponsorship irregularities.Dehaene, who had previously been director of InBev, became chairman of Dexia Bank, a Belgian-French bank, in October 2008. With the bank in difficulty owing to the financial crisis, he was asked to lead the company through the difficult period which he described as "mission impossible". Owing to his extensive political background, it was thought that he could cope with the negative public perception Dexia had acquired through the financial crisis. His political connections helped Dexia's bad bank to secure funding guarantees of up to €90 billion, provided primarily by the Belgian government. In 2012, Dexia Belgium became Belfius.On 15 May 2014, Dehaene died after a fall while holidaying in Quimper in France. He had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer earlier the same year and was not seeking reelection as an MEP in the 2014 elections for health reasons. He was 73 years old.In the aftermath of his death, he received tributes from the incumbent Belgian Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo who described him as an "exceptional statesman". Tributes were also made by Guy Verhofstadt, President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz and President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso.His body lay in state in Vilvoorde's town hall and the retired King Albert II and the Flemish Minister-President Kris Peeters both visited Vilvoorde to pay their respects.
|
[
"Senator of Belgium",
"co-opted senator",
"Prime Minister of Belgium",
"Minister of Mobility"
] |
|
Which position did Jean-Luc Dehaene hold in 05-Dec-200405-December-2004?
|
December 05, 2004
|
{
"text": [
"member of the European Parliament"
]
}
|
L2_Q15056_P39_4
|
Jean-Luc Dehaene holds the position of Minister of Mobility from May, 1988 to Mar, 1992.
Jean-Luc Dehaene holds the position of member of the European Parliament from Jul, 2004 to Jul, 2009.
Jean-Luc Dehaene holds the position of Senator of Belgium from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 2001.
Jean-Luc Dehaene holds the position of co-opted senator from Jan, 1982 to Jan, 1987.
Jean-Luc Dehaene holds the position of Prime Minister of Belgium from Mar, 1992 to Jul, 1999.
|
Jean-Luc DehaeneJean Luc Joseph Marie "Jean-Luc" Dehaene (; 7 August 1940 – 15 May 2014) was a Belgian politician who served as Prime Minister of Belgium from 1992 until 1999. During his political career, he was nicknamed "The Plumber" and "The Minesweeper" for his ability to negotiate political deadlocks. A member of the "Christen-Democratisch en Vlaams" (CD&V) party and its antecedents, Dehaene gained his first ministerial appointment in 1981. Dehaene's first government (1992–1995) included both Christian and Social Democrats and presided over the creation of a new constitution, effectively transforming Belgium into a federal state. His second government (1995–1999) coincided with a number of crises in Belgium including the Dutroux scandal. The Dioxin Affair, occurring shortly before the 1999 election, led to a swing against the major parties and Dehaene's government fell. Following his final term as Prime Minister he was active in both Belgian and European politics. He was also on UEFA's financial fair play regulatory body and managed Dexia Bank during the financial crisis. He was the last prime minister of King Baudouin's reign.Dehaene was born on 7 August 1940 in Montpellier, France, when his parents were fleeing the advance of the German army into Belgium and France. During his studies at the Université de Namur and the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, he was a member of the Olivaint Conference of Belgium. He got into politics through the "" (General Christian Workers' Union; ACW), a trade union which was closely linked to the "Christelijke Volkspartij" (Christian People's Party; CVP).Dehaene's long-time wife Celie Verbeke is a native of Illinois in the United States but both her paternal and maternal grandparents were Belgian immigrants. Since she was raised by her parents in Dutch and speaks without a foreign accent, the Belgian public remained unaware of her American background for a long time.Dehaene was a keen football fan, and viewed it as an important part of Belgian national identity. He was a supporter of Club Brugge K.V.. In 1981, he became Minister of Social Affairs and Institutional Reform, until 1988, when he became Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Communications and Institutional Reform.In 1992, after both Guy Verhofstadt and Melchior Wathelet had failed, Dehaene managed to form a governing coalition of Christian Democrats and Social Democrats. This became one of Belgium's most important governments, because it successfully transformed Belgium into a federal state in 1993. In March 1993, Dehaene offered the King the resignation of his government, because of diverging views on how to handle the public finances. However, within a week the differences were put aside.After the death of King Baudouin on 31 July 1993, Dehaene's government exercised the royal function until Prince Albert was sworn in as King Albert II nine days later.In 1994, Dehaene ordered the unilateral withdrawal of Belgian troops from Rwanda following the massacre of a number of Belgian peacekeepers, thus lifting the last barrier to the genocide of Tutsis. During questions from the Belgian parliamentary commission into this decision he repeatedly acknowledged no regrets about the decision. He was the leading candidate to replace Jacques Delors as President of the European Commission, but British Prime Minister John Major vetoed the appointment. The Luxembourg Prime Minister Jacques Santer was appointed as a compromise candidate instead.Dehaene's second government was also composed of Christian Democrats and Social Democrats. Despite the fact that the government was marked by a number of political crises and scandals, most notably the Dutroux affair, it managed to serve the entire legislature. During this period, for his work toward a unified Europe, Dehaene received the Vision for Europe Award in 1996. Dehaene led Belgium into the Euro, and in preparation for joining the Eurozone, the Dehaene government was forced to make some sharp and unpopular economic reforms. Some weeks before the 1999 elections the dioxin affair erupted, and both governing parties lost much of their support. He was replaced by a new government, led by Flemish liberal Guy Verhofstadt.Between 2000 and 2007, he sat as Burgemeester (mayor) of Vilvoorde. At the request of his party, the CD&V, he was once again put up as a candidate during the 2003 elections, but this was clearly not with the intention of becoming Prime Minister as he was put as last person on the party list. In June 2004 and again in June 2009, Jean-Luc Dehaene was elected to the European Parliament for the CD&V within the center-right European People's Party (EPP) group. In 2003, he was awarded the Vlerick Award.Between 2006 and 2007, Dehaene served as member of the Amato Group, a group of high-level European politicians unofficially working on rewriting the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe into what became known as the Treaty of Lisbon following its rejection by French and Dutch voters. After the Belgian elections of 2007, Dehaene was appointed as mediator in the process to form a new government. He was also called in to assist in the negotiations around the Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde partition.Dehaene also served as the chief enforcer of the football association, UEFA's, Financial Fair Play (FFP). In 2011, he was involved in an investigation of Manchester City F.C. over sponsorship irregularities.Dehaene, who had previously been director of InBev, became chairman of Dexia Bank, a Belgian-French bank, in October 2008. With the bank in difficulty owing to the financial crisis, he was asked to lead the company through the difficult period which he described as "mission impossible". Owing to his extensive political background, it was thought that he could cope with the negative public perception Dexia had acquired through the financial crisis. His political connections helped Dexia's bad bank to secure funding guarantees of up to €90 billion, provided primarily by the Belgian government. In 2012, Dexia Belgium became Belfius.On 15 May 2014, Dehaene died after a fall while holidaying in Quimper in France. He had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer earlier the same year and was not seeking reelection as an MEP in the 2014 elections for health reasons. He was 73 years old.In the aftermath of his death, he received tributes from the incumbent Belgian Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo who described him as an "exceptional statesman". Tributes were also made by Guy Verhofstadt, President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz and President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso.His body lay in state in Vilvoorde's town hall and the retired King Albert II and the Flemish Minister-President Kris Peeters both visited Vilvoorde to pay their respects.
|
[
"Senator of Belgium",
"co-opted senator",
"Prime Minister of Belgium",
"Minister of Mobility"
] |
|
Who was the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile in Nov, 1965?
|
November 16, 1965
|
{
"text": [
"Wilfred Andrews"
]
}
|
L2_Q179412_P488_5
|
Mohammed bin Sulayem is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Dec, 2021 to Dec, 2022.
Wilfred Andrews is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 1965 to Jan, 1971.
Filippo Caracciolo is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 1963 to Jan, 1965.
Jean-Marie Balestre is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 1985 to Jan, 1993.
Max Mosley is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 1993 to Jan, 2009.
Robert de Vogüé is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 1931 to Jan, 1936.
Étienne van Zuylen van Nyevelt is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 1904 to Jan, 1931.
Amaury de Mérode is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 1971 to Jan, 1975.
Paul de Metternich-Winneburg is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 1975 to Jan, 1985.
Jean Todt is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 2009 to Dec, 2021.
Jehan de Rohan-Chabot is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 1936 to Jan, 1958.
Hadelin de Liedekerke Beaufort is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 1958 to Jan, 1963.
|
Fédération Internationale de l'AutomobileThe Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA; ) is an association established on 20 June 1904 to represent the interests of motoring organisations and motor car users. To the general public, the FIA is mostly known as the governing body for many auto racing events, such as the well-known Formula One. The FIA also promotes road safety around the world.Headquartered at 8 Place de la Concorde, Paris, with offices in Geneva and Valleiry, the FIA consists of 246 member organisations in 145 countries worldwide. Its current president is Jean Todt.The FIA is generally known by its French name or initials, even in non-French-speaking countries, but is occasionally rendered as International Automobile Federation.Its most prominent role is in the licensing and sanctioning of Formula One, World Rally Championship, World Endurance Championship, World Touring Car Cup, World Rallycross Championship, Formula E and various other forms of racing. The FIA along with the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM) also certify land speed record attempts. The International Olympic Committee provisionally recognized the federation in 2011, and granted full recognition in 2013.The Association Internationale des Automobile Clubs Reconnus (AIACR, English: 'International Association of Recognized Automobile Clubs') was founded in Paris on 20 June 1904, as an association of national motor clubs. The association was designed to represent the interests of motor car users, as well as to oversee the burgeoning international motor sport scene. In 1922, the AIACR delegated the organisation of automobile racing to the Commission Sportive Internationale (CSI), which would set the regulations for international Grand Prix motor racing. The European Drivers' Championship was introduced in 1931, a title awarded to the driver with the best results in the selected Grands Prix. Upon the resumption of motor racing after the Second World War, the AIACR was renamed the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile. The FIA established a number of new racing categories, among them Formulas One and Two, and created the first World Championship, the Formula One World Drivers' Championship, in 1950.The CSI determined the regulations and calendar of the major international championships, such as the Formula One World Championship, World Sportscar Championship and European Rally Championship. Meanwhile, the organisers of the individual races (for example local or national clubs) were responsible for accepting entries, paying prize money, and the general running of each event. In Formula One, this led to tension between the teams, which formed themselves into the Formula One Constructors Association (FOCA) founded in 1974, event organisers and the CSI. The FIA and CSI were largely amateur organisations, and FOCA under the control of Bernie Ecclestone began to take charge of various aspects of organising the events, as well as setting terms with race organisers for the arrival of teams and the amount of prize money. This led to the FIA President Prince Metternich attempting to reassert its authority by appointing Jean-Marie Balestre as the head of the CSI in 1978, who promptly reformed the committee into the autonomous Fédération Internationale du Sport Automobile (FISA).Under Balestre's leadership FISA and the manufacturer-backed teams became involved in a dispute with FOCA (named the "FISA–FOCA war"). The conflict saw several races being cancelled or boycotted, and large-scale disagreement over the technical regulations and their enforcement. The dispute and the Concorde Agreement that was written to end it, would have significant ramifications for the FIA. The agreement led to FOCA acquiring commercial rights over Formula One, while FISA and the FIA would have control over sport's regulations. FOCA chief Bernie Ecclestone became an FIA Vice-President with control over promoting the FIA's World Championships, while FOCA legal advisor and former March Engineering manager Max Mosley would end up becoming FISA President in 1991. Mosley succeeded Balestre as President of the FIA in 1993 and restructured the organisation, dissolving FISA and placing motor racing under the direct management of the FIA.Following the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, which saw the deaths of Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger, the FIA formed an Expert Advisory Safety Committee to research and improve safety in motor racing. Chaired by Formula One medical chief Professor Sid Watkins, the committee worked with the Motor Industry Research Association to strengthen the crash resistance of cars and the restraint systems and to improve drivers' personal safety. The recommendations of the committee led to significantly more stringent crash tests for racing vehicles, new safety standards for helmets and race suits, and the eventual introduction of the HANS device as compulsory in all international racing series. The committee also worked on improving circuit safety. This led to a number of changes at motor racing circuits around the world, and the improvement of crash barriers and trackside medical procedures.The FIA was a founder member of the European New Car Assessment Programme, a car safety programme that crash-tests new models and publishes safety reports on vehicles. Mosley was the first chairman of the organisation. The FIA later helped establish the Latin NCAP and Global NCAP.The Competition Directorate of the European Commission and the FIA were involved in a dispute over the commercial administration of motorsport during the 1990s. The Competition Commissioner, Karel Van Miert had received a number of complaints from television companies and motorsport promoters in 1997 that the FIA had been abusing its position as motorsport's governing body. Van Miert's initial inquiry had not concluded by 1999, which resulted in the FIA suing the European Commission, alleging that the delay was causing damaging uncertainty, and successfully receiving an apology from the Commission over the leaking of documents relating to the case. Mario Monti took over as Commissioner in 1999, and the European Commission opened a formal investigation into the FIA. The Commission alleged a number of breaches of European competition law, centred around the FIA's administration of licences required to participate in motorsport and the control of television rights of the motorsport events it authorised. In order to compete in events the FIA authorised, the competitor had to apply for a licence, which prohibited licensees from entering a series not controlled by the FIA. This provision, which also applied to racing circuits and promoters, prevented rival championships competing against the FIA championships by restricting their access to facilities, drivers, and vehicle manufacturers. In addition, the FIA also claimed the television rights to all international motorsport events, which were then transferred to International Sportsworld Communicators, a company controlled by Ecclestone. This meant organisers were forced into having their championships promoted by the same company that managed the affairs of other motorsport events, a potential conflict of interest. The combination of these requirements meant Ecclestone's Formula One Administration, which now controlled Formula One's commercial rights, was protected from competition from any rival championships.The investigation was closed in 2001 after the FIA and FOA agreed to a number of conditions. In order to fairly regulate all international motorsport, the FIA agreed to limit its role to that of a sporting regulator, and would sell the commercial rights to its championships, including Formula One. This was to prevent a conflict of interest between the FIA's regulatory role and any commercial advantages it may gain from the success of certain championships. The FIA could no longer prevent non-FIA administered events from being established, neither could it use its powers to prevent competition to Formula One. Ecclestone and FOA would no longer handle the commercial rights to other motorsport events outside of Formula One. Ecclestone had sold the ISC company, which now only controlled the rights to rallying, and would stand down from his role as an FIA Vice-President. As a result of this ruling, the FIA sold the commercial rights to Formula One to the Formula One Group for 100 years for $360 million.Mosley was elected unopposed to his third term as president in 2001, the first election which reduced the term from five to four years. The FIA also moved back to Paris, having been based in Geneva (outside the EU) for the previous two years during the European Commission's investigation.The FIA Foundation was established in 2001 as the FIA's charitable arm. The Foundation received a US$300 million grant from the sale of Formula One's rights to fund research into road safety, the environmental impact of motoring, and to support sustainable motoring. In 2004 the FIA and the Foundation established the FIA Institute for Motor Sport Safety, which brought together the various safety research groups into one organisation. The Make Roads Safe campaign was set up in 2006 by the FIA Foundation, targeting the creation of safe roads across the world.During the 2000s the FIA and its president became increasingly embroiled in controversy over Formula One, while facing threats from teams to establish a breakaway series. A grouping of the car manufacturers involved in F1, the Grand Prix Manufacturers Association, proposed a new world championship, which would allow them greater control over the regulations and revenue distribution. A new Concorde Agreement eventually ended the threat, but the breakaway series would resurface during each dispute between the FIA, teams and the Formula One Group. The FIA's handling of the tyre situation at the 2005 United States Grand Prix was criticised. Mosley had refused any modification to the circuit or the holding of a non-championship event in place of the Grand Prix, having stated that running on an untested circuit was unsafe. The FIA also threatened to punish the teams who withdrew from the event, but later cleared the teams of any wrongdoing.Having again been re-elected unopposed in 2005, Mosley faced his first leadership challenge in a vote of confidence called in June 2008. The vote was in response to allegations concerning Mosley's sex life published by the British media. Mosley won the vote by 103 votes in support to 55 against, though he continued to face criticism from several motoring clubs and motorsport figures. In mid-2009, the FIA and the newly formed Formula One Teams Association disagreed over the pending implementation of a budget cap for the 2010 season. The teams again threatened a breakaway championship, with the FIA in response opening an entry process for new teams. The dispute also focused on a lack of confidence in Mosley's control over the sport, and there was a stand-off until Ecclestone negotiated a settlement to establish a new Concorde Agreement. In return for the teams joining the championship and ending the dispute, the budget cap would be replaced by a series of cost-cutting measures, and Mosley agreed to stand down at the end of his term in 2009.Former Scuderia Ferrari boss Jean Todt was elected the new President of the FIA in 2009, beating former World Rally champion Ari Vatanen.The true history of Formula One began in 1946 with the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile's (FIA's) standardisation of rules. Then in 1950, the FIA organised the first World Championship for Drivers. From 1958, a Constructors Championship title was introduced.The World Sportscar Championship was created in 1953, and was the first points series for sports car racing in the world. The championship was solely for manufacturers up to 1981. In 1981, a Drivers Championship title was introduced, and in 1985, the manufacturers title was replaced by a Teams Championship.In 1973, the FIA organised the first World Rally Championship: the 42nd Auto Rally of Monte-Carlo. In 1977, a Drivers Championship title was introduced (in 1977 and 1978 as an "FIA Cup for Drivers" title).In 1987, the FIA sanctioned the first World Touring Car Championship. Initially a one-off series, the title was revived in 2005, and discontinued at the end of 2017.After the 1992 season the World Sportscar Championship was cancelled and dissolved.In 1993, the National Hot Rod Association was officially recognised by the FIA World Motor Sport Council and the FIA Drag Racing Commission was formed. The FISA was dissolved, and its activities placed directly under the FIA.There were no sports car world championships until 2010. The SRO Group introduced the FIA GT1 World Championship, which was a championship consisting of one-hour sprint races. After a switch to GT3 cars in 2012 it became the FIA GT Series in 2013, and is called the Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe.After the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) successfully organised the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup (ILMC) in 2010 and 2011, the FIA and ACO organised together the rebirth of the World Sportscar Championship from 2012 onward, now known as the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC). Organised by the AIACR (The Association Internationale des Automobile Clubs Reconnus).The FIA General Assembly is the Federation's supreme governing body, consisting of representatives from each of the FIA's member associations. Meetings of the General Assembly are usually held once a year, though extraordinary meetings can be convened for urgent matters. The General Assembly has responsibility for amending the FIA's statutes and regulations, approving the annual budget and reports, deciding upon the membership, and electing the officers and members to the Federation's governing bodies. The FIA Senate overseas the finances and management of the FIA, and can take decisions required between meetings of the relevant committee or World Council.The head of the FIA and chairman of the General Assembly is the President, an office currently held by Jean Todt. The President coordinates the activities of the Federation and proposes resolutions to the various commissions and committees. The President also acts as the representative of the FIA to external organisations. There is also a Deputy and seven Vice-Presidents for Sport and Mobility, who assist the President in managing the activities in their respective area. The President is elected to a four-year term by the General Assembly. Candidates must produce an electoral list consisting of their proposed Deputy Presidents, Vice-Presidents for Sport, and the President of the Senate, as well as demonstrate support from a number of member clubs.The FIA has two World Councils. The Mobility and Automobile Council governs all non-sporting activities, comprising transport policy, road safety, tourism and environmental concerns. The World Motor Sport Council (WMSC) governs all sporting events regulated by the FIA, and writes the regulations for every FIA championship. It also supervises Karting through the Commission Internationale de Karting (CIK). Beneath the WMSC are a number of specialised commissions, which are either focused on individual championships, or general areas such as safety.The FIA's judicial bodies include the International Tribunal, which exercises disciplinary powers that are not dealt with by the meeting stewards, and the International Court of Appeal. The ICA is the final appeal tribunal for international motor sport, which resolves disputes brought before it by National Sporting Authorities worldwide, or by the President of the FIA. It can also settle non-sporting disputes brought by national motoring organizations affiliated to the FIA."Association Internationale des Automobile Clubs Reconnus":"Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile":The FIA Hall of Fame honours racing drivers, technicians, and engineers who have greatly contributed to motor racing. It was established by FIA in 2017.In October 2010, the FIA Institute Young Driver Excellence Academy, a new programme to develop young driver talent worldwide, was announced. After a three-day shootout in Melk, Austria, on 6–8 February, twelve drivers were selected.Many of the Formula Student regulations also refer to FIA standards.In 2007 and 2008 the FIA was criticised on two issues. The 2007 Formula One espionage controversy involved accusations against McLaren, who were accused of stealing technological secrets from Ferrari. Commenting on how the FIA handled the situation, Martin Brundle wrote a column in the "Sunday Times" entitled "Witch-hunt threatens to spoil world title race" in which he accused the FIA of a witch-hunt against McLaren. The World Motor Sport Council responded by issuing a writ against the "Sunday Times" alleging libel. Brundle responded by saying "I have earned the right to have an opinion", and suggested the writ was a "warning sign to other journalists".In 2008, accusations surfaced that FIA President Max Mosley was involved in scandalous sexual behaviour. Following a June 2008 decision of the FIA to retain Max Mosley as president, the German branch of the FIA, the ADAC (the largest European motoring body), announced, "We view with regret and incredulity the FIA general assembly's decision in Paris, confirming Max Mosley in office as FIA president". It froze all its activities with the FIA until Max Mosley leaves office. Press reports also claimed that Bernie Ecclestone was investigating creating a rival to the Formula 1 series due to the scandal.
|
[
"Mohammed bin Sulayem",
"Jehan de Rohan-Chabot",
"Filippo Caracciolo",
"Jean-Marie Balestre",
"Jean Todt",
"Étienne van Zuylen van Nyevelt",
"Amaury de Mérode",
"Max Mosley",
"Robert de Vogüé",
"Paul de Metternich-Winneburg",
"Hadelin de Liedekerke Beaufort"
] |
|
Who was the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile in 1965-11-16?
|
November 16, 1965
|
{
"text": [
"Wilfred Andrews"
]
}
|
L2_Q179412_P488_5
|
Mohammed bin Sulayem is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Dec, 2021 to Dec, 2022.
Wilfred Andrews is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 1965 to Jan, 1971.
Filippo Caracciolo is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 1963 to Jan, 1965.
Jean-Marie Balestre is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 1985 to Jan, 1993.
Max Mosley is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 1993 to Jan, 2009.
Robert de Vogüé is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 1931 to Jan, 1936.
Étienne van Zuylen van Nyevelt is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 1904 to Jan, 1931.
Amaury de Mérode is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 1971 to Jan, 1975.
Paul de Metternich-Winneburg is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 1975 to Jan, 1985.
Jean Todt is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 2009 to Dec, 2021.
Jehan de Rohan-Chabot is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 1936 to Jan, 1958.
Hadelin de Liedekerke Beaufort is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 1958 to Jan, 1963.
|
Fédération Internationale de l'AutomobileThe Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA; ) is an association established on 20 June 1904 to represent the interests of motoring organisations and motor car users. To the general public, the FIA is mostly known as the governing body for many auto racing events, such as the well-known Formula One. The FIA also promotes road safety around the world.Headquartered at 8 Place de la Concorde, Paris, with offices in Geneva and Valleiry, the FIA consists of 246 member organisations in 145 countries worldwide. Its current president is Jean Todt.The FIA is generally known by its French name or initials, even in non-French-speaking countries, but is occasionally rendered as International Automobile Federation.Its most prominent role is in the licensing and sanctioning of Formula One, World Rally Championship, World Endurance Championship, World Touring Car Cup, World Rallycross Championship, Formula E and various other forms of racing. The FIA along with the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM) also certify land speed record attempts. The International Olympic Committee provisionally recognized the federation in 2011, and granted full recognition in 2013.The Association Internationale des Automobile Clubs Reconnus (AIACR, English: 'International Association of Recognized Automobile Clubs') was founded in Paris on 20 June 1904, as an association of national motor clubs. The association was designed to represent the interests of motor car users, as well as to oversee the burgeoning international motor sport scene. In 1922, the AIACR delegated the organisation of automobile racing to the Commission Sportive Internationale (CSI), which would set the regulations for international Grand Prix motor racing. The European Drivers' Championship was introduced in 1931, a title awarded to the driver with the best results in the selected Grands Prix. Upon the resumption of motor racing after the Second World War, the AIACR was renamed the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile. The FIA established a number of new racing categories, among them Formulas One and Two, and created the first World Championship, the Formula One World Drivers' Championship, in 1950.The CSI determined the regulations and calendar of the major international championships, such as the Formula One World Championship, World Sportscar Championship and European Rally Championship. Meanwhile, the organisers of the individual races (for example local or national clubs) were responsible for accepting entries, paying prize money, and the general running of each event. In Formula One, this led to tension between the teams, which formed themselves into the Formula One Constructors Association (FOCA) founded in 1974, event organisers and the CSI. The FIA and CSI were largely amateur organisations, and FOCA under the control of Bernie Ecclestone began to take charge of various aspects of organising the events, as well as setting terms with race organisers for the arrival of teams and the amount of prize money. This led to the FIA President Prince Metternich attempting to reassert its authority by appointing Jean-Marie Balestre as the head of the CSI in 1978, who promptly reformed the committee into the autonomous Fédération Internationale du Sport Automobile (FISA).Under Balestre's leadership FISA and the manufacturer-backed teams became involved in a dispute with FOCA (named the "FISA–FOCA war"). The conflict saw several races being cancelled or boycotted, and large-scale disagreement over the technical regulations and their enforcement. The dispute and the Concorde Agreement that was written to end it, would have significant ramifications for the FIA. The agreement led to FOCA acquiring commercial rights over Formula One, while FISA and the FIA would have control over sport's regulations. FOCA chief Bernie Ecclestone became an FIA Vice-President with control over promoting the FIA's World Championships, while FOCA legal advisor and former March Engineering manager Max Mosley would end up becoming FISA President in 1991. Mosley succeeded Balestre as President of the FIA in 1993 and restructured the organisation, dissolving FISA and placing motor racing under the direct management of the FIA.Following the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, which saw the deaths of Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger, the FIA formed an Expert Advisory Safety Committee to research and improve safety in motor racing. Chaired by Formula One medical chief Professor Sid Watkins, the committee worked with the Motor Industry Research Association to strengthen the crash resistance of cars and the restraint systems and to improve drivers' personal safety. The recommendations of the committee led to significantly more stringent crash tests for racing vehicles, new safety standards for helmets and race suits, and the eventual introduction of the HANS device as compulsory in all international racing series. The committee also worked on improving circuit safety. This led to a number of changes at motor racing circuits around the world, and the improvement of crash barriers and trackside medical procedures.The FIA was a founder member of the European New Car Assessment Programme, a car safety programme that crash-tests new models and publishes safety reports on vehicles. Mosley was the first chairman of the organisation. The FIA later helped establish the Latin NCAP and Global NCAP.The Competition Directorate of the European Commission and the FIA were involved in a dispute over the commercial administration of motorsport during the 1990s. The Competition Commissioner, Karel Van Miert had received a number of complaints from television companies and motorsport promoters in 1997 that the FIA had been abusing its position as motorsport's governing body. Van Miert's initial inquiry had not concluded by 1999, which resulted in the FIA suing the European Commission, alleging that the delay was causing damaging uncertainty, and successfully receiving an apology from the Commission over the leaking of documents relating to the case. Mario Monti took over as Commissioner in 1999, and the European Commission opened a formal investigation into the FIA. The Commission alleged a number of breaches of European competition law, centred around the FIA's administration of licences required to participate in motorsport and the control of television rights of the motorsport events it authorised. In order to compete in events the FIA authorised, the competitor had to apply for a licence, which prohibited licensees from entering a series not controlled by the FIA. This provision, which also applied to racing circuits and promoters, prevented rival championships competing against the FIA championships by restricting their access to facilities, drivers, and vehicle manufacturers. In addition, the FIA also claimed the television rights to all international motorsport events, which were then transferred to International Sportsworld Communicators, a company controlled by Ecclestone. This meant organisers were forced into having their championships promoted by the same company that managed the affairs of other motorsport events, a potential conflict of interest. The combination of these requirements meant Ecclestone's Formula One Administration, which now controlled Formula One's commercial rights, was protected from competition from any rival championships.The investigation was closed in 2001 after the FIA and FOA agreed to a number of conditions. In order to fairly regulate all international motorsport, the FIA agreed to limit its role to that of a sporting regulator, and would sell the commercial rights to its championships, including Formula One. This was to prevent a conflict of interest between the FIA's regulatory role and any commercial advantages it may gain from the success of certain championships. The FIA could no longer prevent non-FIA administered events from being established, neither could it use its powers to prevent competition to Formula One. Ecclestone and FOA would no longer handle the commercial rights to other motorsport events outside of Formula One. Ecclestone had sold the ISC company, which now only controlled the rights to rallying, and would stand down from his role as an FIA Vice-President. As a result of this ruling, the FIA sold the commercial rights to Formula One to the Formula One Group for 100 years for $360 million.Mosley was elected unopposed to his third term as president in 2001, the first election which reduced the term from five to four years. The FIA also moved back to Paris, having been based in Geneva (outside the EU) for the previous two years during the European Commission's investigation.The FIA Foundation was established in 2001 as the FIA's charitable arm. The Foundation received a US$300 million grant from the sale of Formula One's rights to fund research into road safety, the environmental impact of motoring, and to support sustainable motoring. In 2004 the FIA and the Foundation established the FIA Institute for Motor Sport Safety, which brought together the various safety research groups into one organisation. The Make Roads Safe campaign was set up in 2006 by the FIA Foundation, targeting the creation of safe roads across the world.During the 2000s the FIA and its president became increasingly embroiled in controversy over Formula One, while facing threats from teams to establish a breakaway series. A grouping of the car manufacturers involved in F1, the Grand Prix Manufacturers Association, proposed a new world championship, which would allow them greater control over the regulations and revenue distribution. A new Concorde Agreement eventually ended the threat, but the breakaway series would resurface during each dispute between the FIA, teams and the Formula One Group. The FIA's handling of the tyre situation at the 2005 United States Grand Prix was criticised. Mosley had refused any modification to the circuit or the holding of a non-championship event in place of the Grand Prix, having stated that running on an untested circuit was unsafe. The FIA also threatened to punish the teams who withdrew from the event, but later cleared the teams of any wrongdoing.Having again been re-elected unopposed in 2005, Mosley faced his first leadership challenge in a vote of confidence called in June 2008. The vote was in response to allegations concerning Mosley's sex life published by the British media. Mosley won the vote by 103 votes in support to 55 against, though he continued to face criticism from several motoring clubs and motorsport figures. In mid-2009, the FIA and the newly formed Formula One Teams Association disagreed over the pending implementation of a budget cap for the 2010 season. The teams again threatened a breakaway championship, with the FIA in response opening an entry process for new teams. The dispute also focused on a lack of confidence in Mosley's control over the sport, and there was a stand-off until Ecclestone negotiated a settlement to establish a new Concorde Agreement. In return for the teams joining the championship and ending the dispute, the budget cap would be replaced by a series of cost-cutting measures, and Mosley agreed to stand down at the end of his term in 2009.Former Scuderia Ferrari boss Jean Todt was elected the new President of the FIA in 2009, beating former World Rally champion Ari Vatanen.The true history of Formula One began in 1946 with the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile's (FIA's) standardisation of rules. Then in 1950, the FIA organised the first World Championship for Drivers. From 1958, a Constructors Championship title was introduced.The World Sportscar Championship was created in 1953, and was the first points series for sports car racing in the world. The championship was solely for manufacturers up to 1981. In 1981, a Drivers Championship title was introduced, and in 1985, the manufacturers title was replaced by a Teams Championship.In 1973, the FIA organised the first World Rally Championship: the 42nd Auto Rally of Monte-Carlo. In 1977, a Drivers Championship title was introduced (in 1977 and 1978 as an "FIA Cup for Drivers" title).In 1987, the FIA sanctioned the first World Touring Car Championship. Initially a one-off series, the title was revived in 2005, and discontinued at the end of 2017.After the 1992 season the World Sportscar Championship was cancelled and dissolved.In 1993, the National Hot Rod Association was officially recognised by the FIA World Motor Sport Council and the FIA Drag Racing Commission was formed. The FISA was dissolved, and its activities placed directly under the FIA.There were no sports car world championships until 2010. The SRO Group introduced the FIA GT1 World Championship, which was a championship consisting of one-hour sprint races. After a switch to GT3 cars in 2012 it became the FIA GT Series in 2013, and is called the Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe.After the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) successfully organised the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup (ILMC) in 2010 and 2011, the FIA and ACO organised together the rebirth of the World Sportscar Championship from 2012 onward, now known as the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC). Organised by the AIACR (The Association Internationale des Automobile Clubs Reconnus).The FIA General Assembly is the Federation's supreme governing body, consisting of representatives from each of the FIA's member associations. Meetings of the General Assembly are usually held once a year, though extraordinary meetings can be convened for urgent matters. The General Assembly has responsibility for amending the FIA's statutes and regulations, approving the annual budget and reports, deciding upon the membership, and electing the officers and members to the Federation's governing bodies. The FIA Senate overseas the finances and management of the FIA, and can take decisions required between meetings of the relevant committee or World Council.The head of the FIA and chairman of the General Assembly is the President, an office currently held by Jean Todt. The President coordinates the activities of the Federation and proposes resolutions to the various commissions and committees. The President also acts as the representative of the FIA to external organisations. There is also a Deputy and seven Vice-Presidents for Sport and Mobility, who assist the President in managing the activities in their respective area. The President is elected to a four-year term by the General Assembly. Candidates must produce an electoral list consisting of their proposed Deputy Presidents, Vice-Presidents for Sport, and the President of the Senate, as well as demonstrate support from a number of member clubs.The FIA has two World Councils. The Mobility and Automobile Council governs all non-sporting activities, comprising transport policy, road safety, tourism and environmental concerns. The World Motor Sport Council (WMSC) governs all sporting events regulated by the FIA, and writes the regulations for every FIA championship. It also supervises Karting through the Commission Internationale de Karting (CIK). Beneath the WMSC are a number of specialised commissions, which are either focused on individual championships, or general areas such as safety.The FIA's judicial bodies include the International Tribunal, which exercises disciplinary powers that are not dealt with by the meeting stewards, and the International Court of Appeal. The ICA is the final appeal tribunal for international motor sport, which resolves disputes brought before it by National Sporting Authorities worldwide, or by the President of the FIA. It can also settle non-sporting disputes brought by national motoring organizations affiliated to the FIA."Association Internationale des Automobile Clubs Reconnus":"Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile":The FIA Hall of Fame honours racing drivers, technicians, and engineers who have greatly contributed to motor racing. It was established by FIA in 2017.In October 2010, the FIA Institute Young Driver Excellence Academy, a new programme to develop young driver talent worldwide, was announced. After a three-day shootout in Melk, Austria, on 6–8 February, twelve drivers were selected.Many of the Formula Student regulations also refer to FIA standards.In 2007 and 2008 the FIA was criticised on two issues. The 2007 Formula One espionage controversy involved accusations against McLaren, who were accused of stealing technological secrets from Ferrari. Commenting on how the FIA handled the situation, Martin Brundle wrote a column in the "Sunday Times" entitled "Witch-hunt threatens to spoil world title race" in which he accused the FIA of a witch-hunt against McLaren. The World Motor Sport Council responded by issuing a writ against the "Sunday Times" alleging libel. Brundle responded by saying "I have earned the right to have an opinion", and suggested the writ was a "warning sign to other journalists".In 2008, accusations surfaced that FIA President Max Mosley was involved in scandalous sexual behaviour. Following a June 2008 decision of the FIA to retain Max Mosley as president, the German branch of the FIA, the ADAC (the largest European motoring body), announced, "We view with regret and incredulity the FIA general assembly's decision in Paris, confirming Max Mosley in office as FIA president". It froze all its activities with the FIA until Max Mosley leaves office. Press reports also claimed that Bernie Ecclestone was investigating creating a rival to the Formula 1 series due to the scandal.
|
[
"Mohammed bin Sulayem",
"Jehan de Rohan-Chabot",
"Filippo Caracciolo",
"Jean-Marie Balestre",
"Jean Todt",
"Étienne van Zuylen van Nyevelt",
"Amaury de Mérode",
"Max Mosley",
"Robert de Vogüé",
"Paul de Metternich-Winneburg",
"Hadelin de Liedekerke Beaufort"
] |
|
Who was the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile in 16/11/1965?
|
November 16, 1965
|
{
"text": [
"Wilfred Andrews"
]
}
|
L2_Q179412_P488_5
|
Mohammed bin Sulayem is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Dec, 2021 to Dec, 2022.
Wilfred Andrews is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 1965 to Jan, 1971.
Filippo Caracciolo is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 1963 to Jan, 1965.
Jean-Marie Balestre is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 1985 to Jan, 1993.
Max Mosley is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 1993 to Jan, 2009.
Robert de Vogüé is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 1931 to Jan, 1936.
Étienne van Zuylen van Nyevelt is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 1904 to Jan, 1931.
Amaury de Mérode is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 1971 to Jan, 1975.
Paul de Metternich-Winneburg is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 1975 to Jan, 1985.
Jean Todt is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 2009 to Dec, 2021.
Jehan de Rohan-Chabot is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 1936 to Jan, 1958.
Hadelin de Liedekerke Beaufort is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 1958 to Jan, 1963.
|
Fédération Internationale de l'AutomobileThe Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA; ) is an association established on 20 June 1904 to represent the interests of motoring organisations and motor car users. To the general public, the FIA is mostly known as the governing body for many auto racing events, such as the well-known Formula One. The FIA also promotes road safety around the world.Headquartered at 8 Place de la Concorde, Paris, with offices in Geneva and Valleiry, the FIA consists of 246 member organisations in 145 countries worldwide. Its current president is Jean Todt.The FIA is generally known by its French name or initials, even in non-French-speaking countries, but is occasionally rendered as International Automobile Federation.Its most prominent role is in the licensing and sanctioning of Formula One, World Rally Championship, World Endurance Championship, World Touring Car Cup, World Rallycross Championship, Formula E and various other forms of racing. The FIA along with the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM) also certify land speed record attempts. The International Olympic Committee provisionally recognized the federation in 2011, and granted full recognition in 2013.The Association Internationale des Automobile Clubs Reconnus (AIACR, English: 'International Association of Recognized Automobile Clubs') was founded in Paris on 20 June 1904, as an association of national motor clubs. The association was designed to represent the interests of motor car users, as well as to oversee the burgeoning international motor sport scene. In 1922, the AIACR delegated the organisation of automobile racing to the Commission Sportive Internationale (CSI), which would set the regulations for international Grand Prix motor racing. The European Drivers' Championship was introduced in 1931, a title awarded to the driver with the best results in the selected Grands Prix. Upon the resumption of motor racing after the Second World War, the AIACR was renamed the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile. The FIA established a number of new racing categories, among them Formulas One and Two, and created the first World Championship, the Formula One World Drivers' Championship, in 1950.The CSI determined the regulations and calendar of the major international championships, such as the Formula One World Championship, World Sportscar Championship and European Rally Championship. Meanwhile, the organisers of the individual races (for example local or national clubs) were responsible for accepting entries, paying prize money, and the general running of each event. In Formula One, this led to tension between the teams, which formed themselves into the Formula One Constructors Association (FOCA) founded in 1974, event organisers and the CSI. The FIA and CSI were largely amateur organisations, and FOCA under the control of Bernie Ecclestone began to take charge of various aspects of organising the events, as well as setting terms with race organisers for the arrival of teams and the amount of prize money. This led to the FIA President Prince Metternich attempting to reassert its authority by appointing Jean-Marie Balestre as the head of the CSI in 1978, who promptly reformed the committee into the autonomous Fédération Internationale du Sport Automobile (FISA).Under Balestre's leadership FISA and the manufacturer-backed teams became involved in a dispute with FOCA (named the "FISA–FOCA war"). The conflict saw several races being cancelled or boycotted, and large-scale disagreement over the technical regulations and their enforcement. The dispute and the Concorde Agreement that was written to end it, would have significant ramifications for the FIA. The agreement led to FOCA acquiring commercial rights over Formula One, while FISA and the FIA would have control over sport's regulations. FOCA chief Bernie Ecclestone became an FIA Vice-President with control over promoting the FIA's World Championships, while FOCA legal advisor and former March Engineering manager Max Mosley would end up becoming FISA President in 1991. Mosley succeeded Balestre as President of the FIA in 1993 and restructured the organisation, dissolving FISA and placing motor racing under the direct management of the FIA.Following the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, which saw the deaths of Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger, the FIA formed an Expert Advisory Safety Committee to research and improve safety in motor racing. Chaired by Formula One medical chief Professor Sid Watkins, the committee worked with the Motor Industry Research Association to strengthen the crash resistance of cars and the restraint systems and to improve drivers' personal safety. The recommendations of the committee led to significantly more stringent crash tests for racing vehicles, new safety standards for helmets and race suits, and the eventual introduction of the HANS device as compulsory in all international racing series. The committee also worked on improving circuit safety. This led to a number of changes at motor racing circuits around the world, and the improvement of crash barriers and trackside medical procedures.The FIA was a founder member of the European New Car Assessment Programme, a car safety programme that crash-tests new models and publishes safety reports on vehicles. Mosley was the first chairman of the organisation. The FIA later helped establish the Latin NCAP and Global NCAP.The Competition Directorate of the European Commission and the FIA were involved in a dispute over the commercial administration of motorsport during the 1990s. The Competition Commissioner, Karel Van Miert had received a number of complaints from television companies and motorsport promoters in 1997 that the FIA had been abusing its position as motorsport's governing body. Van Miert's initial inquiry had not concluded by 1999, which resulted in the FIA suing the European Commission, alleging that the delay was causing damaging uncertainty, and successfully receiving an apology from the Commission over the leaking of documents relating to the case. Mario Monti took over as Commissioner in 1999, and the European Commission opened a formal investigation into the FIA. The Commission alleged a number of breaches of European competition law, centred around the FIA's administration of licences required to participate in motorsport and the control of television rights of the motorsport events it authorised. In order to compete in events the FIA authorised, the competitor had to apply for a licence, which prohibited licensees from entering a series not controlled by the FIA. This provision, which also applied to racing circuits and promoters, prevented rival championships competing against the FIA championships by restricting their access to facilities, drivers, and vehicle manufacturers. In addition, the FIA also claimed the television rights to all international motorsport events, which were then transferred to International Sportsworld Communicators, a company controlled by Ecclestone. This meant organisers were forced into having their championships promoted by the same company that managed the affairs of other motorsport events, a potential conflict of interest. The combination of these requirements meant Ecclestone's Formula One Administration, which now controlled Formula One's commercial rights, was protected from competition from any rival championships.The investigation was closed in 2001 after the FIA and FOA agreed to a number of conditions. In order to fairly regulate all international motorsport, the FIA agreed to limit its role to that of a sporting regulator, and would sell the commercial rights to its championships, including Formula One. This was to prevent a conflict of interest between the FIA's regulatory role and any commercial advantages it may gain from the success of certain championships. The FIA could no longer prevent non-FIA administered events from being established, neither could it use its powers to prevent competition to Formula One. Ecclestone and FOA would no longer handle the commercial rights to other motorsport events outside of Formula One. Ecclestone had sold the ISC company, which now only controlled the rights to rallying, and would stand down from his role as an FIA Vice-President. As a result of this ruling, the FIA sold the commercial rights to Formula One to the Formula One Group for 100 years for $360 million.Mosley was elected unopposed to his third term as president in 2001, the first election which reduced the term from five to four years. The FIA also moved back to Paris, having been based in Geneva (outside the EU) for the previous two years during the European Commission's investigation.The FIA Foundation was established in 2001 as the FIA's charitable arm. The Foundation received a US$300 million grant from the sale of Formula One's rights to fund research into road safety, the environmental impact of motoring, and to support sustainable motoring. In 2004 the FIA and the Foundation established the FIA Institute for Motor Sport Safety, which brought together the various safety research groups into one organisation. The Make Roads Safe campaign was set up in 2006 by the FIA Foundation, targeting the creation of safe roads across the world.During the 2000s the FIA and its president became increasingly embroiled in controversy over Formula One, while facing threats from teams to establish a breakaway series. A grouping of the car manufacturers involved in F1, the Grand Prix Manufacturers Association, proposed a new world championship, which would allow them greater control over the regulations and revenue distribution. A new Concorde Agreement eventually ended the threat, but the breakaway series would resurface during each dispute between the FIA, teams and the Formula One Group. The FIA's handling of the tyre situation at the 2005 United States Grand Prix was criticised. Mosley had refused any modification to the circuit or the holding of a non-championship event in place of the Grand Prix, having stated that running on an untested circuit was unsafe. The FIA also threatened to punish the teams who withdrew from the event, but later cleared the teams of any wrongdoing.Having again been re-elected unopposed in 2005, Mosley faced his first leadership challenge in a vote of confidence called in June 2008. The vote was in response to allegations concerning Mosley's sex life published by the British media. Mosley won the vote by 103 votes in support to 55 against, though he continued to face criticism from several motoring clubs and motorsport figures. In mid-2009, the FIA and the newly formed Formula One Teams Association disagreed over the pending implementation of a budget cap for the 2010 season. The teams again threatened a breakaway championship, with the FIA in response opening an entry process for new teams. The dispute also focused on a lack of confidence in Mosley's control over the sport, and there was a stand-off until Ecclestone negotiated a settlement to establish a new Concorde Agreement. In return for the teams joining the championship and ending the dispute, the budget cap would be replaced by a series of cost-cutting measures, and Mosley agreed to stand down at the end of his term in 2009.Former Scuderia Ferrari boss Jean Todt was elected the new President of the FIA in 2009, beating former World Rally champion Ari Vatanen.The true history of Formula One began in 1946 with the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile's (FIA's) standardisation of rules. Then in 1950, the FIA organised the first World Championship for Drivers. From 1958, a Constructors Championship title was introduced.The World Sportscar Championship was created in 1953, and was the first points series for sports car racing in the world. The championship was solely for manufacturers up to 1981. In 1981, a Drivers Championship title was introduced, and in 1985, the manufacturers title was replaced by a Teams Championship.In 1973, the FIA organised the first World Rally Championship: the 42nd Auto Rally of Monte-Carlo. In 1977, a Drivers Championship title was introduced (in 1977 and 1978 as an "FIA Cup for Drivers" title).In 1987, the FIA sanctioned the first World Touring Car Championship. Initially a one-off series, the title was revived in 2005, and discontinued at the end of 2017.After the 1992 season the World Sportscar Championship was cancelled and dissolved.In 1993, the National Hot Rod Association was officially recognised by the FIA World Motor Sport Council and the FIA Drag Racing Commission was formed. The FISA was dissolved, and its activities placed directly under the FIA.There were no sports car world championships until 2010. The SRO Group introduced the FIA GT1 World Championship, which was a championship consisting of one-hour sprint races. After a switch to GT3 cars in 2012 it became the FIA GT Series in 2013, and is called the Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe.After the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) successfully organised the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup (ILMC) in 2010 and 2011, the FIA and ACO organised together the rebirth of the World Sportscar Championship from 2012 onward, now known as the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC). Organised by the AIACR (The Association Internationale des Automobile Clubs Reconnus).The FIA General Assembly is the Federation's supreme governing body, consisting of representatives from each of the FIA's member associations. Meetings of the General Assembly are usually held once a year, though extraordinary meetings can be convened for urgent matters. The General Assembly has responsibility for amending the FIA's statutes and regulations, approving the annual budget and reports, deciding upon the membership, and electing the officers and members to the Federation's governing bodies. The FIA Senate overseas the finances and management of the FIA, and can take decisions required between meetings of the relevant committee or World Council.The head of the FIA and chairman of the General Assembly is the President, an office currently held by Jean Todt. The President coordinates the activities of the Federation and proposes resolutions to the various commissions and committees. The President also acts as the representative of the FIA to external organisations. There is also a Deputy and seven Vice-Presidents for Sport and Mobility, who assist the President in managing the activities in their respective area. The President is elected to a four-year term by the General Assembly. Candidates must produce an electoral list consisting of their proposed Deputy Presidents, Vice-Presidents for Sport, and the President of the Senate, as well as demonstrate support from a number of member clubs.The FIA has two World Councils. The Mobility and Automobile Council governs all non-sporting activities, comprising transport policy, road safety, tourism and environmental concerns. The World Motor Sport Council (WMSC) governs all sporting events regulated by the FIA, and writes the regulations for every FIA championship. It also supervises Karting through the Commission Internationale de Karting (CIK). Beneath the WMSC are a number of specialised commissions, which are either focused on individual championships, or general areas such as safety.The FIA's judicial bodies include the International Tribunal, which exercises disciplinary powers that are not dealt with by the meeting stewards, and the International Court of Appeal. The ICA is the final appeal tribunal for international motor sport, which resolves disputes brought before it by National Sporting Authorities worldwide, or by the President of the FIA. It can also settle non-sporting disputes brought by national motoring organizations affiliated to the FIA."Association Internationale des Automobile Clubs Reconnus":"Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile":The FIA Hall of Fame honours racing drivers, technicians, and engineers who have greatly contributed to motor racing. It was established by FIA in 2017.In October 2010, the FIA Institute Young Driver Excellence Academy, a new programme to develop young driver talent worldwide, was announced. After a three-day shootout in Melk, Austria, on 6–8 February, twelve drivers were selected.Many of the Formula Student regulations also refer to FIA standards.In 2007 and 2008 the FIA was criticised on two issues. The 2007 Formula One espionage controversy involved accusations against McLaren, who were accused of stealing technological secrets from Ferrari. Commenting on how the FIA handled the situation, Martin Brundle wrote a column in the "Sunday Times" entitled "Witch-hunt threatens to spoil world title race" in which he accused the FIA of a witch-hunt against McLaren. The World Motor Sport Council responded by issuing a writ against the "Sunday Times" alleging libel. Brundle responded by saying "I have earned the right to have an opinion", and suggested the writ was a "warning sign to other journalists".In 2008, accusations surfaced that FIA President Max Mosley was involved in scandalous sexual behaviour. Following a June 2008 decision of the FIA to retain Max Mosley as president, the German branch of the FIA, the ADAC (the largest European motoring body), announced, "We view with regret and incredulity the FIA general assembly's decision in Paris, confirming Max Mosley in office as FIA president". It froze all its activities with the FIA until Max Mosley leaves office. Press reports also claimed that Bernie Ecclestone was investigating creating a rival to the Formula 1 series due to the scandal.
|
[
"Mohammed bin Sulayem",
"Jehan de Rohan-Chabot",
"Filippo Caracciolo",
"Jean-Marie Balestre",
"Jean Todt",
"Étienne van Zuylen van Nyevelt",
"Amaury de Mérode",
"Max Mosley",
"Robert de Vogüé",
"Paul de Metternich-Winneburg",
"Hadelin de Liedekerke Beaufort"
] |
|
Who was the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile in Nov 16, 1965?
|
November 16, 1965
|
{
"text": [
"Wilfred Andrews"
]
}
|
L2_Q179412_P488_5
|
Mohammed bin Sulayem is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Dec, 2021 to Dec, 2022.
Wilfred Andrews is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 1965 to Jan, 1971.
Filippo Caracciolo is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 1963 to Jan, 1965.
Jean-Marie Balestre is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 1985 to Jan, 1993.
Max Mosley is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 1993 to Jan, 2009.
Robert de Vogüé is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 1931 to Jan, 1936.
Étienne van Zuylen van Nyevelt is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 1904 to Jan, 1931.
Amaury de Mérode is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 1971 to Jan, 1975.
Paul de Metternich-Winneburg is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 1975 to Jan, 1985.
Jean Todt is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 2009 to Dec, 2021.
Jehan de Rohan-Chabot is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 1936 to Jan, 1958.
Hadelin de Liedekerke Beaufort is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 1958 to Jan, 1963.
|
Fédération Internationale de l'AutomobileThe Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA; ) is an association established on 20 June 1904 to represent the interests of motoring organisations and motor car users. To the general public, the FIA is mostly known as the governing body for many auto racing events, such as the well-known Formula One. The FIA also promotes road safety around the world.Headquartered at 8 Place de la Concorde, Paris, with offices in Geneva and Valleiry, the FIA consists of 246 member organisations in 145 countries worldwide. Its current president is Jean Todt.The FIA is generally known by its French name or initials, even in non-French-speaking countries, but is occasionally rendered as International Automobile Federation.Its most prominent role is in the licensing and sanctioning of Formula One, World Rally Championship, World Endurance Championship, World Touring Car Cup, World Rallycross Championship, Formula E and various other forms of racing. The FIA along with the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM) also certify land speed record attempts. The International Olympic Committee provisionally recognized the federation in 2011, and granted full recognition in 2013.The Association Internationale des Automobile Clubs Reconnus (AIACR, English: 'International Association of Recognized Automobile Clubs') was founded in Paris on 20 June 1904, as an association of national motor clubs. The association was designed to represent the interests of motor car users, as well as to oversee the burgeoning international motor sport scene. In 1922, the AIACR delegated the organisation of automobile racing to the Commission Sportive Internationale (CSI), which would set the regulations for international Grand Prix motor racing. The European Drivers' Championship was introduced in 1931, a title awarded to the driver with the best results in the selected Grands Prix. Upon the resumption of motor racing after the Second World War, the AIACR was renamed the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile. The FIA established a number of new racing categories, among them Formulas One and Two, and created the first World Championship, the Formula One World Drivers' Championship, in 1950.The CSI determined the regulations and calendar of the major international championships, such as the Formula One World Championship, World Sportscar Championship and European Rally Championship. Meanwhile, the organisers of the individual races (for example local or national clubs) were responsible for accepting entries, paying prize money, and the general running of each event. In Formula One, this led to tension between the teams, which formed themselves into the Formula One Constructors Association (FOCA) founded in 1974, event organisers and the CSI. The FIA and CSI were largely amateur organisations, and FOCA under the control of Bernie Ecclestone began to take charge of various aspects of organising the events, as well as setting terms with race organisers for the arrival of teams and the amount of prize money. This led to the FIA President Prince Metternich attempting to reassert its authority by appointing Jean-Marie Balestre as the head of the CSI in 1978, who promptly reformed the committee into the autonomous Fédération Internationale du Sport Automobile (FISA).Under Balestre's leadership FISA and the manufacturer-backed teams became involved in a dispute with FOCA (named the "FISA–FOCA war"). The conflict saw several races being cancelled or boycotted, and large-scale disagreement over the technical regulations and their enforcement. The dispute and the Concorde Agreement that was written to end it, would have significant ramifications for the FIA. The agreement led to FOCA acquiring commercial rights over Formula One, while FISA and the FIA would have control over sport's regulations. FOCA chief Bernie Ecclestone became an FIA Vice-President with control over promoting the FIA's World Championships, while FOCA legal advisor and former March Engineering manager Max Mosley would end up becoming FISA President in 1991. Mosley succeeded Balestre as President of the FIA in 1993 and restructured the organisation, dissolving FISA and placing motor racing under the direct management of the FIA.Following the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, which saw the deaths of Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger, the FIA formed an Expert Advisory Safety Committee to research and improve safety in motor racing. Chaired by Formula One medical chief Professor Sid Watkins, the committee worked with the Motor Industry Research Association to strengthen the crash resistance of cars and the restraint systems and to improve drivers' personal safety. The recommendations of the committee led to significantly more stringent crash tests for racing vehicles, new safety standards for helmets and race suits, and the eventual introduction of the HANS device as compulsory in all international racing series. The committee also worked on improving circuit safety. This led to a number of changes at motor racing circuits around the world, and the improvement of crash barriers and trackside medical procedures.The FIA was a founder member of the European New Car Assessment Programme, a car safety programme that crash-tests new models and publishes safety reports on vehicles. Mosley was the first chairman of the organisation. The FIA later helped establish the Latin NCAP and Global NCAP.The Competition Directorate of the European Commission and the FIA were involved in a dispute over the commercial administration of motorsport during the 1990s. The Competition Commissioner, Karel Van Miert had received a number of complaints from television companies and motorsport promoters in 1997 that the FIA had been abusing its position as motorsport's governing body. Van Miert's initial inquiry had not concluded by 1999, which resulted in the FIA suing the European Commission, alleging that the delay was causing damaging uncertainty, and successfully receiving an apology from the Commission over the leaking of documents relating to the case. Mario Monti took over as Commissioner in 1999, and the European Commission opened a formal investigation into the FIA. The Commission alleged a number of breaches of European competition law, centred around the FIA's administration of licences required to participate in motorsport and the control of television rights of the motorsport events it authorised. In order to compete in events the FIA authorised, the competitor had to apply for a licence, which prohibited licensees from entering a series not controlled by the FIA. This provision, which also applied to racing circuits and promoters, prevented rival championships competing against the FIA championships by restricting their access to facilities, drivers, and vehicle manufacturers. In addition, the FIA also claimed the television rights to all international motorsport events, which were then transferred to International Sportsworld Communicators, a company controlled by Ecclestone. This meant organisers were forced into having their championships promoted by the same company that managed the affairs of other motorsport events, a potential conflict of interest. The combination of these requirements meant Ecclestone's Formula One Administration, which now controlled Formula One's commercial rights, was protected from competition from any rival championships.The investigation was closed in 2001 after the FIA and FOA agreed to a number of conditions. In order to fairly regulate all international motorsport, the FIA agreed to limit its role to that of a sporting regulator, and would sell the commercial rights to its championships, including Formula One. This was to prevent a conflict of interest between the FIA's regulatory role and any commercial advantages it may gain from the success of certain championships. The FIA could no longer prevent non-FIA administered events from being established, neither could it use its powers to prevent competition to Formula One. Ecclestone and FOA would no longer handle the commercial rights to other motorsport events outside of Formula One. Ecclestone had sold the ISC company, which now only controlled the rights to rallying, and would stand down from his role as an FIA Vice-President. As a result of this ruling, the FIA sold the commercial rights to Formula One to the Formula One Group for 100 years for $360 million.Mosley was elected unopposed to his third term as president in 2001, the first election which reduced the term from five to four years. The FIA also moved back to Paris, having been based in Geneva (outside the EU) for the previous two years during the European Commission's investigation.The FIA Foundation was established in 2001 as the FIA's charitable arm. The Foundation received a US$300 million grant from the sale of Formula One's rights to fund research into road safety, the environmental impact of motoring, and to support sustainable motoring. In 2004 the FIA and the Foundation established the FIA Institute for Motor Sport Safety, which brought together the various safety research groups into one organisation. The Make Roads Safe campaign was set up in 2006 by the FIA Foundation, targeting the creation of safe roads across the world.During the 2000s the FIA and its president became increasingly embroiled in controversy over Formula One, while facing threats from teams to establish a breakaway series. A grouping of the car manufacturers involved in F1, the Grand Prix Manufacturers Association, proposed a new world championship, which would allow them greater control over the regulations and revenue distribution. A new Concorde Agreement eventually ended the threat, but the breakaway series would resurface during each dispute between the FIA, teams and the Formula One Group. The FIA's handling of the tyre situation at the 2005 United States Grand Prix was criticised. Mosley had refused any modification to the circuit or the holding of a non-championship event in place of the Grand Prix, having stated that running on an untested circuit was unsafe. The FIA also threatened to punish the teams who withdrew from the event, but later cleared the teams of any wrongdoing.Having again been re-elected unopposed in 2005, Mosley faced his first leadership challenge in a vote of confidence called in June 2008. The vote was in response to allegations concerning Mosley's sex life published by the British media. Mosley won the vote by 103 votes in support to 55 against, though he continued to face criticism from several motoring clubs and motorsport figures. In mid-2009, the FIA and the newly formed Formula One Teams Association disagreed over the pending implementation of a budget cap for the 2010 season. The teams again threatened a breakaway championship, with the FIA in response opening an entry process for new teams. The dispute also focused on a lack of confidence in Mosley's control over the sport, and there was a stand-off until Ecclestone negotiated a settlement to establish a new Concorde Agreement. In return for the teams joining the championship and ending the dispute, the budget cap would be replaced by a series of cost-cutting measures, and Mosley agreed to stand down at the end of his term in 2009.Former Scuderia Ferrari boss Jean Todt was elected the new President of the FIA in 2009, beating former World Rally champion Ari Vatanen.The true history of Formula One began in 1946 with the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile's (FIA's) standardisation of rules. Then in 1950, the FIA organised the first World Championship for Drivers. From 1958, a Constructors Championship title was introduced.The World Sportscar Championship was created in 1953, and was the first points series for sports car racing in the world. The championship was solely for manufacturers up to 1981. In 1981, a Drivers Championship title was introduced, and in 1985, the manufacturers title was replaced by a Teams Championship.In 1973, the FIA organised the first World Rally Championship: the 42nd Auto Rally of Monte-Carlo. In 1977, a Drivers Championship title was introduced (in 1977 and 1978 as an "FIA Cup for Drivers" title).In 1987, the FIA sanctioned the first World Touring Car Championship. Initially a one-off series, the title was revived in 2005, and discontinued at the end of 2017.After the 1992 season the World Sportscar Championship was cancelled and dissolved.In 1993, the National Hot Rod Association was officially recognised by the FIA World Motor Sport Council and the FIA Drag Racing Commission was formed. The FISA was dissolved, and its activities placed directly under the FIA.There were no sports car world championships until 2010. The SRO Group introduced the FIA GT1 World Championship, which was a championship consisting of one-hour sprint races. After a switch to GT3 cars in 2012 it became the FIA GT Series in 2013, and is called the Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe.After the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) successfully organised the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup (ILMC) in 2010 and 2011, the FIA and ACO organised together the rebirth of the World Sportscar Championship from 2012 onward, now known as the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC). Organised by the AIACR (The Association Internationale des Automobile Clubs Reconnus).The FIA General Assembly is the Federation's supreme governing body, consisting of representatives from each of the FIA's member associations. Meetings of the General Assembly are usually held once a year, though extraordinary meetings can be convened for urgent matters. The General Assembly has responsibility for amending the FIA's statutes and regulations, approving the annual budget and reports, deciding upon the membership, and electing the officers and members to the Federation's governing bodies. The FIA Senate overseas the finances and management of the FIA, and can take decisions required between meetings of the relevant committee or World Council.The head of the FIA and chairman of the General Assembly is the President, an office currently held by Jean Todt. The President coordinates the activities of the Federation and proposes resolutions to the various commissions and committees. The President also acts as the representative of the FIA to external organisations. There is also a Deputy and seven Vice-Presidents for Sport and Mobility, who assist the President in managing the activities in their respective area. The President is elected to a four-year term by the General Assembly. Candidates must produce an electoral list consisting of their proposed Deputy Presidents, Vice-Presidents for Sport, and the President of the Senate, as well as demonstrate support from a number of member clubs.The FIA has two World Councils. The Mobility and Automobile Council governs all non-sporting activities, comprising transport policy, road safety, tourism and environmental concerns. The World Motor Sport Council (WMSC) governs all sporting events regulated by the FIA, and writes the regulations for every FIA championship. It also supervises Karting through the Commission Internationale de Karting (CIK). Beneath the WMSC are a number of specialised commissions, which are either focused on individual championships, or general areas such as safety.The FIA's judicial bodies include the International Tribunal, which exercises disciplinary powers that are not dealt with by the meeting stewards, and the International Court of Appeal. The ICA is the final appeal tribunal for international motor sport, which resolves disputes brought before it by National Sporting Authorities worldwide, or by the President of the FIA. It can also settle non-sporting disputes brought by national motoring organizations affiliated to the FIA."Association Internationale des Automobile Clubs Reconnus":"Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile":The FIA Hall of Fame honours racing drivers, technicians, and engineers who have greatly contributed to motor racing. It was established by FIA in 2017.In October 2010, the FIA Institute Young Driver Excellence Academy, a new programme to develop young driver talent worldwide, was announced. After a three-day shootout in Melk, Austria, on 6–8 February, twelve drivers were selected.Many of the Formula Student regulations also refer to FIA standards.In 2007 and 2008 the FIA was criticised on two issues. The 2007 Formula One espionage controversy involved accusations against McLaren, who were accused of stealing technological secrets from Ferrari. Commenting on how the FIA handled the situation, Martin Brundle wrote a column in the "Sunday Times" entitled "Witch-hunt threatens to spoil world title race" in which he accused the FIA of a witch-hunt against McLaren. The World Motor Sport Council responded by issuing a writ against the "Sunday Times" alleging libel. Brundle responded by saying "I have earned the right to have an opinion", and suggested the writ was a "warning sign to other journalists".In 2008, accusations surfaced that FIA President Max Mosley was involved in scandalous sexual behaviour. Following a June 2008 decision of the FIA to retain Max Mosley as president, the German branch of the FIA, the ADAC (the largest European motoring body), announced, "We view with regret and incredulity the FIA general assembly's decision in Paris, confirming Max Mosley in office as FIA president". It froze all its activities with the FIA until Max Mosley leaves office. Press reports also claimed that Bernie Ecclestone was investigating creating a rival to the Formula 1 series due to the scandal.
|
[
"Mohammed bin Sulayem",
"Jehan de Rohan-Chabot",
"Filippo Caracciolo",
"Jean-Marie Balestre",
"Jean Todt",
"Étienne van Zuylen van Nyevelt",
"Amaury de Mérode",
"Max Mosley",
"Robert de Vogüé",
"Paul de Metternich-Winneburg",
"Hadelin de Liedekerke Beaufort"
] |
|
Who was the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile in 11/16/1965?
|
November 16, 1965
|
{
"text": [
"Wilfred Andrews"
]
}
|
L2_Q179412_P488_5
|
Mohammed bin Sulayem is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Dec, 2021 to Dec, 2022.
Wilfred Andrews is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 1965 to Jan, 1971.
Filippo Caracciolo is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 1963 to Jan, 1965.
Jean-Marie Balestre is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 1985 to Jan, 1993.
Max Mosley is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 1993 to Jan, 2009.
Robert de Vogüé is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 1931 to Jan, 1936.
Étienne van Zuylen van Nyevelt is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 1904 to Jan, 1931.
Amaury de Mérode is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 1971 to Jan, 1975.
Paul de Metternich-Winneburg is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 1975 to Jan, 1985.
Jean Todt is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 2009 to Dec, 2021.
Jehan de Rohan-Chabot is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 1936 to Jan, 1958.
Hadelin de Liedekerke Beaufort is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 1958 to Jan, 1963.
|
Fédération Internationale de l'AutomobileThe Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA; ) is an association established on 20 June 1904 to represent the interests of motoring organisations and motor car users. To the general public, the FIA is mostly known as the governing body for many auto racing events, such as the well-known Formula One. The FIA also promotes road safety around the world.Headquartered at 8 Place de la Concorde, Paris, with offices in Geneva and Valleiry, the FIA consists of 246 member organisations in 145 countries worldwide. Its current president is Jean Todt.The FIA is generally known by its French name or initials, even in non-French-speaking countries, but is occasionally rendered as International Automobile Federation.Its most prominent role is in the licensing and sanctioning of Formula One, World Rally Championship, World Endurance Championship, World Touring Car Cup, World Rallycross Championship, Formula E and various other forms of racing. The FIA along with the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM) also certify land speed record attempts. The International Olympic Committee provisionally recognized the federation in 2011, and granted full recognition in 2013.The Association Internationale des Automobile Clubs Reconnus (AIACR, English: 'International Association of Recognized Automobile Clubs') was founded in Paris on 20 June 1904, as an association of national motor clubs. The association was designed to represent the interests of motor car users, as well as to oversee the burgeoning international motor sport scene. In 1922, the AIACR delegated the organisation of automobile racing to the Commission Sportive Internationale (CSI), which would set the regulations for international Grand Prix motor racing. The European Drivers' Championship was introduced in 1931, a title awarded to the driver with the best results in the selected Grands Prix. Upon the resumption of motor racing after the Second World War, the AIACR was renamed the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile. The FIA established a number of new racing categories, among them Formulas One and Two, and created the first World Championship, the Formula One World Drivers' Championship, in 1950.The CSI determined the regulations and calendar of the major international championships, such as the Formula One World Championship, World Sportscar Championship and European Rally Championship. Meanwhile, the organisers of the individual races (for example local or national clubs) were responsible for accepting entries, paying prize money, and the general running of each event. In Formula One, this led to tension between the teams, which formed themselves into the Formula One Constructors Association (FOCA) founded in 1974, event organisers and the CSI. The FIA and CSI were largely amateur organisations, and FOCA under the control of Bernie Ecclestone began to take charge of various aspects of organising the events, as well as setting terms with race organisers for the arrival of teams and the amount of prize money. This led to the FIA President Prince Metternich attempting to reassert its authority by appointing Jean-Marie Balestre as the head of the CSI in 1978, who promptly reformed the committee into the autonomous Fédération Internationale du Sport Automobile (FISA).Under Balestre's leadership FISA and the manufacturer-backed teams became involved in a dispute with FOCA (named the "FISA–FOCA war"). The conflict saw several races being cancelled or boycotted, and large-scale disagreement over the technical regulations and their enforcement. The dispute and the Concorde Agreement that was written to end it, would have significant ramifications for the FIA. The agreement led to FOCA acquiring commercial rights over Formula One, while FISA and the FIA would have control over sport's regulations. FOCA chief Bernie Ecclestone became an FIA Vice-President with control over promoting the FIA's World Championships, while FOCA legal advisor and former March Engineering manager Max Mosley would end up becoming FISA President in 1991. Mosley succeeded Balestre as President of the FIA in 1993 and restructured the organisation, dissolving FISA and placing motor racing under the direct management of the FIA.Following the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, which saw the deaths of Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger, the FIA formed an Expert Advisory Safety Committee to research and improve safety in motor racing. Chaired by Formula One medical chief Professor Sid Watkins, the committee worked with the Motor Industry Research Association to strengthen the crash resistance of cars and the restraint systems and to improve drivers' personal safety. The recommendations of the committee led to significantly more stringent crash tests for racing vehicles, new safety standards for helmets and race suits, and the eventual introduction of the HANS device as compulsory in all international racing series. The committee also worked on improving circuit safety. This led to a number of changes at motor racing circuits around the world, and the improvement of crash barriers and trackside medical procedures.The FIA was a founder member of the European New Car Assessment Programme, a car safety programme that crash-tests new models and publishes safety reports on vehicles. Mosley was the first chairman of the organisation. The FIA later helped establish the Latin NCAP and Global NCAP.The Competition Directorate of the European Commission and the FIA were involved in a dispute over the commercial administration of motorsport during the 1990s. The Competition Commissioner, Karel Van Miert had received a number of complaints from television companies and motorsport promoters in 1997 that the FIA had been abusing its position as motorsport's governing body. Van Miert's initial inquiry had not concluded by 1999, which resulted in the FIA suing the European Commission, alleging that the delay was causing damaging uncertainty, and successfully receiving an apology from the Commission over the leaking of documents relating to the case. Mario Monti took over as Commissioner in 1999, and the European Commission opened a formal investigation into the FIA. The Commission alleged a number of breaches of European competition law, centred around the FIA's administration of licences required to participate in motorsport and the control of television rights of the motorsport events it authorised. In order to compete in events the FIA authorised, the competitor had to apply for a licence, which prohibited licensees from entering a series not controlled by the FIA. This provision, which also applied to racing circuits and promoters, prevented rival championships competing against the FIA championships by restricting their access to facilities, drivers, and vehicle manufacturers. In addition, the FIA also claimed the television rights to all international motorsport events, which were then transferred to International Sportsworld Communicators, a company controlled by Ecclestone. This meant organisers were forced into having their championships promoted by the same company that managed the affairs of other motorsport events, a potential conflict of interest. The combination of these requirements meant Ecclestone's Formula One Administration, which now controlled Formula One's commercial rights, was protected from competition from any rival championships.The investigation was closed in 2001 after the FIA and FOA agreed to a number of conditions. In order to fairly regulate all international motorsport, the FIA agreed to limit its role to that of a sporting regulator, and would sell the commercial rights to its championships, including Formula One. This was to prevent a conflict of interest between the FIA's regulatory role and any commercial advantages it may gain from the success of certain championships. The FIA could no longer prevent non-FIA administered events from being established, neither could it use its powers to prevent competition to Formula One. Ecclestone and FOA would no longer handle the commercial rights to other motorsport events outside of Formula One. Ecclestone had sold the ISC company, which now only controlled the rights to rallying, and would stand down from his role as an FIA Vice-President. As a result of this ruling, the FIA sold the commercial rights to Formula One to the Formula One Group for 100 years for $360 million.Mosley was elected unopposed to his third term as president in 2001, the first election which reduced the term from five to four years. The FIA also moved back to Paris, having been based in Geneva (outside the EU) for the previous two years during the European Commission's investigation.The FIA Foundation was established in 2001 as the FIA's charitable arm. The Foundation received a US$300 million grant from the sale of Formula One's rights to fund research into road safety, the environmental impact of motoring, and to support sustainable motoring. In 2004 the FIA and the Foundation established the FIA Institute for Motor Sport Safety, which brought together the various safety research groups into one organisation. The Make Roads Safe campaign was set up in 2006 by the FIA Foundation, targeting the creation of safe roads across the world.During the 2000s the FIA and its president became increasingly embroiled in controversy over Formula One, while facing threats from teams to establish a breakaway series. A grouping of the car manufacturers involved in F1, the Grand Prix Manufacturers Association, proposed a new world championship, which would allow them greater control over the regulations and revenue distribution. A new Concorde Agreement eventually ended the threat, but the breakaway series would resurface during each dispute between the FIA, teams and the Formula One Group. The FIA's handling of the tyre situation at the 2005 United States Grand Prix was criticised. Mosley had refused any modification to the circuit or the holding of a non-championship event in place of the Grand Prix, having stated that running on an untested circuit was unsafe. The FIA also threatened to punish the teams who withdrew from the event, but later cleared the teams of any wrongdoing.Having again been re-elected unopposed in 2005, Mosley faced his first leadership challenge in a vote of confidence called in June 2008. The vote was in response to allegations concerning Mosley's sex life published by the British media. Mosley won the vote by 103 votes in support to 55 against, though he continued to face criticism from several motoring clubs and motorsport figures. In mid-2009, the FIA and the newly formed Formula One Teams Association disagreed over the pending implementation of a budget cap for the 2010 season. The teams again threatened a breakaway championship, with the FIA in response opening an entry process for new teams. The dispute also focused on a lack of confidence in Mosley's control over the sport, and there was a stand-off until Ecclestone negotiated a settlement to establish a new Concorde Agreement. In return for the teams joining the championship and ending the dispute, the budget cap would be replaced by a series of cost-cutting measures, and Mosley agreed to stand down at the end of his term in 2009.Former Scuderia Ferrari boss Jean Todt was elected the new President of the FIA in 2009, beating former World Rally champion Ari Vatanen.The true history of Formula One began in 1946 with the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile's (FIA's) standardisation of rules. Then in 1950, the FIA organised the first World Championship for Drivers. From 1958, a Constructors Championship title was introduced.The World Sportscar Championship was created in 1953, and was the first points series for sports car racing in the world. The championship was solely for manufacturers up to 1981. In 1981, a Drivers Championship title was introduced, and in 1985, the manufacturers title was replaced by a Teams Championship.In 1973, the FIA organised the first World Rally Championship: the 42nd Auto Rally of Monte-Carlo. In 1977, a Drivers Championship title was introduced (in 1977 and 1978 as an "FIA Cup for Drivers" title).In 1987, the FIA sanctioned the first World Touring Car Championship. Initially a one-off series, the title was revived in 2005, and discontinued at the end of 2017.After the 1992 season the World Sportscar Championship was cancelled and dissolved.In 1993, the National Hot Rod Association was officially recognised by the FIA World Motor Sport Council and the FIA Drag Racing Commission was formed. The FISA was dissolved, and its activities placed directly under the FIA.There were no sports car world championships until 2010. The SRO Group introduced the FIA GT1 World Championship, which was a championship consisting of one-hour sprint races. After a switch to GT3 cars in 2012 it became the FIA GT Series in 2013, and is called the Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe.After the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) successfully organised the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup (ILMC) in 2010 and 2011, the FIA and ACO organised together the rebirth of the World Sportscar Championship from 2012 onward, now known as the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC). Organised by the AIACR (The Association Internationale des Automobile Clubs Reconnus).The FIA General Assembly is the Federation's supreme governing body, consisting of representatives from each of the FIA's member associations. Meetings of the General Assembly are usually held once a year, though extraordinary meetings can be convened for urgent matters. The General Assembly has responsibility for amending the FIA's statutes and regulations, approving the annual budget and reports, deciding upon the membership, and electing the officers and members to the Federation's governing bodies. The FIA Senate overseas the finances and management of the FIA, and can take decisions required between meetings of the relevant committee or World Council.The head of the FIA and chairman of the General Assembly is the President, an office currently held by Jean Todt. The President coordinates the activities of the Federation and proposes resolutions to the various commissions and committees. The President also acts as the representative of the FIA to external organisations. There is also a Deputy and seven Vice-Presidents for Sport and Mobility, who assist the President in managing the activities in their respective area. The President is elected to a four-year term by the General Assembly. Candidates must produce an electoral list consisting of their proposed Deputy Presidents, Vice-Presidents for Sport, and the President of the Senate, as well as demonstrate support from a number of member clubs.The FIA has two World Councils. The Mobility and Automobile Council governs all non-sporting activities, comprising transport policy, road safety, tourism and environmental concerns. The World Motor Sport Council (WMSC) governs all sporting events regulated by the FIA, and writes the regulations for every FIA championship. It also supervises Karting through the Commission Internationale de Karting (CIK). Beneath the WMSC are a number of specialised commissions, which are either focused on individual championships, or general areas such as safety.The FIA's judicial bodies include the International Tribunal, which exercises disciplinary powers that are not dealt with by the meeting stewards, and the International Court of Appeal. The ICA is the final appeal tribunal for international motor sport, which resolves disputes brought before it by National Sporting Authorities worldwide, or by the President of the FIA. It can also settle non-sporting disputes brought by national motoring organizations affiliated to the FIA."Association Internationale des Automobile Clubs Reconnus":"Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile":The FIA Hall of Fame honours racing drivers, technicians, and engineers who have greatly contributed to motor racing. It was established by FIA in 2017.In October 2010, the FIA Institute Young Driver Excellence Academy, a new programme to develop young driver talent worldwide, was announced. After a three-day shootout in Melk, Austria, on 6–8 February, twelve drivers were selected.Many of the Formula Student regulations also refer to FIA standards.In 2007 and 2008 the FIA was criticised on two issues. The 2007 Formula One espionage controversy involved accusations against McLaren, who were accused of stealing technological secrets from Ferrari. Commenting on how the FIA handled the situation, Martin Brundle wrote a column in the "Sunday Times" entitled "Witch-hunt threatens to spoil world title race" in which he accused the FIA of a witch-hunt against McLaren. The World Motor Sport Council responded by issuing a writ against the "Sunday Times" alleging libel. Brundle responded by saying "I have earned the right to have an opinion", and suggested the writ was a "warning sign to other journalists".In 2008, accusations surfaced that FIA President Max Mosley was involved in scandalous sexual behaviour. Following a June 2008 decision of the FIA to retain Max Mosley as president, the German branch of the FIA, the ADAC (the largest European motoring body), announced, "We view with regret and incredulity the FIA general assembly's decision in Paris, confirming Max Mosley in office as FIA president". It froze all its activities with the FIA until Max Mosley leaves office. Press reports also claimed that Bernie Ecclestone was investigating creating a rival to the Formula 1 series due to the scandal.
|
[
"Mohammed bin Sulayem",
"Jehan de Rohan-Chabot",
"Filippo Caracciolo",
"Jean-Marie Balestre",
"Jean Todt",
"Étienne van Zuylen van Nyevelt",
"Amaury de Mérode",
"Max Mosley",
"Robert de Vogüé",
"Paul de Metternich-Winneburg",
"Hadelin de Liedekerke Beaufort"
] |
|
Who was the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile in 16-Nov-196516-November-1965?
|
November 16, 1965
|
{
"text": [
"Wilfred Andrews"
]
}
|
L2_Q179412_P488_5
|
Mohammed bin Sulayem is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Dec, 2021 to Dec, 2022.
Wilfred Andrews is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 1965 to Jan, 1971.
Filippo Caracciolo is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 1963 to Jan, 1965.
Jean-Marie Balestre is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 1985 to Jan, 1993.
Max Mosley is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 1993 to Jan, 2009.
Robert de Vogüé is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 1931 to Jan, 1936.
Étienne van Zuylen van Nyevelt is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 1904 to Jan, 1931.
Amaury de Mérode is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 1971 to Jan, 1975.
Paul de Metternich-Winneburg is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 1975 to Jan, 1985.
Jean Todt is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 2009 to Dec, 2021.
Jehan de Rohan-Chabot is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 1936 to Jan, 1958.
Hadelin de Liedekerke Beaufort is the chair of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile from Jan, 1958 to Jan, 1963.
|
Fédération Internationale de l'AutomobileThe Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA; ) is an association established on 20 June 1904 to represent the interests of motoring organisations and motor car users. To the general public, the FIA is mostly known as the governing body for many auto racing events, such as the well-known Formula One. The FIA also promotes road safety around the world.Headquartered at 8 Place de la Concorde, Paris, with offices in Geneva and Valleiry, the FIA consists of 246 member organisations in 145 countries worldwide. Its current president is Jean Todt.The FIA is generally known by its French name or initials, even in non-French-speaking countries, but is occasionally rendered as International Automobile Federation.Its most prominent role is in the licensing and sanctioning of Formula One, World Rally Championship, World Endurance Championship, World Touring Car Cup, World Rallycross Championship, Formula E and various other forms of racing. The FIA along with the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM) also certify land speed record attempts. The International Olympic Committee provisionally recognized the federation in 2011, and granted full recognition in 2013.The Association Internationale des Automobile Clubs Reconnus (AIACR, English: 'International Association of Recognized Automobile Clubs') was founded in Paris on 20 June 1904, as an association of national motor clubs. The association was designed to represent the interests of motor car users, as well as to oversee the burgeoning international motor sport scene. In 1922, the AIACR delegated the organisation of automobile racing to the Commission Sportive Internationale (CSI), which would set the regulations for international Grand Prix motor racing. The European Drivers' Championship was introduced in 1931, a title awarded to the driver with the best results in the selected Grands Prix. Upon the resumption of motor racing after the Second World War, the AIACR was renamed the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile. The FIA established a number of new racing categories, among them Formulas One and Two, and created the first World Championship, the Formula One World Drivers' Championship, in 1950.The CSI determined the regulations and calendar of the major international championships, such as the Formula One World Championship, World Sportscar Championship and European Rally Championship. Meanwhile, the organisers of the individual races (for example local or national clubs) were responsible for accepting entries, paying prize money, and the general running of each event. In Formula One, this led to tension between the teams, which formed themselves into the Formula One Constructors Association (FOCA) founded in 1974, event organisers and the CSI. The FIA and CSI were largely amateur organisations, and FOCA under the control of Bernie Ecclestone began to take charge of various aspects of organising the events, as well as setting terms with race organisers for the arrival of teams and the amount of prize money. This led to the FIA President Prince Metternich attempting to reassert its authority by appointing Jean-Marie Balestre as the head of the CSI in 1978, who promptly reformed the committee into the autonomous Fédération Internationale du Sport Automobile (FISA).Under Balestre's leadership FISA and the manufacturer-backed teams became involved in a dispute with FOCA (named the "FISA–FOCA war"). The conflict saw several races being cancelled or boycotted, and large-scale disagreement over the technical regulations and their enforcement. The dispute and the Concorde Agreement that was written to end it, would have significant ramifications for the FIA. The agreement led to FOCA acquiring commercial rights over Formula One, while FISA and the FIA would have control over sport's regulations. FOCA chief Bernie Ecclestone became an FIA Vice-President with control over promoting the FIA's World Championships, while FOCA legal advisor and former March Engineering manager Max Mosley would end up becoming FISA President in 1991. Mosley succeeded Balestre as President of the FIA in 1993 and restructured the organisation, dissolving FISA and placing motor racing under the direct management of the FIA.Following the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, which saw the deaths of Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger, the FIA formed an Expert Advisory Safety Committee to research and improve safety in motor racing. Chaired by Formula One medical chief Professor Sid Watkins, the committee worked with the Motor Industry Research Association to strengthen the crash resistance of cars and the restraint systems and to improve drivers' personal safety. The recommendations of the committee led to significantly more stringent crash tests for racing vehicles, new safety standards for helmets and race suits, and the eventual introduction of the HANS device as compulsory in all international racing series. The committee also worked on improving circuit safety. This led to a number of changes at motor racing circuits around the world, and the improvement of crash barriers and trackside medical procedures.The FIA was a founder member of the European New Car Assessment Programme, a car safety programme that crash-tests new models and publishes safety reports on vehicles. Mosley was the first chairman of the organisation. The FIA later helped establish the Latin NCAP and Global NCAP.The Competition Directorate of the European Commission and the FIA were involved in a dispute over the commercial administration of motorsport during the 1990s. The Competition Commissioner, Karel Van Miert had received a number of complaints from television companies and motorsport promoters in 1997 that the FIA had been abusing its position as motorsport's governing body. Van Miert's initial inquiry had not concluded by 1999, which resulted in the FIA suing the European Commission, alleging that the delay was causing damaging uncertainty, and successfully receiving an apology from the Commission over the leaking of documents relating to the case. Mario Monti took over as Commissioner in 1999, and the European Commission opened a formal investigation into the FIA. The Commission alleged a number of breaches of European competition law, centred around the FIA's administration of licences required to participate in motorsport and the control of television rights of the motorsport events it authorised. In order to compete in events the FIA authorised, the competitor had to apply for a licence, which prohibited licensees from entering a series not controlled by the FIA. This provision, which also applied to racing circuits and promoters, prevented rival championships competing against the FIA championships by restricting their access to facilities, drivers, and vehicle manufacturers. In addition, the FIA also claimed the television rights to all international motorsport events, which were then transferred to International Sportsworld Communicators, a company controlled by Ecclestone. This meant organisers were forced into having their championships promoted by the same company that managed the affairs of other motorsport events, a potential conflict of interest. The combination of these requirements meant Ecclestone's Formula One Administration, which now controlled Formula One's commercial rights, was protected from competition from any rival championships.The investigation was closed in 2001 after the FIA and FOA agreed to a number of conditions. In order to fairly regulate all international motorsport, the FIA agreed to limit its role to that of a sporting regulator, and would sell the commercial rights to its championships, including Formula One. This was to prevent a conflict of interest between the FIA's regulatory role and any commercial advantages it may gain from the success of certain championships. The FIA could no longer prevent non-FIA administered events from being established, neither could it use its powers to prevent competition to Formula One. Ecclestone and FOA would no longer handle the commercial rights to other motorsport events outside of Formula One. Ecclestone had sold the ISC company, which now only controlled the rights to rallying, and would stand down from his role as an FIA Vice-President. As a result of this ruling, the FIA sold the commercial rights to Formula One to the Formula One Group for 100 years for $360 million.Mosley was elected unopposed to his third term as president in 2001, the first election which reduced the term from five to four years. The FIA also moved back to Paris, having been based in Geneva (outside the EU) for the previous two years during the European Commission's investigation.The FIA Foundation was established in 2001 as the FIA's charitable arm. The Foundation received a US$300 million grant from the sale of Formula One's rights to fund research into road safety, the environmental impact of motoring, and to support sustainable motoring. In 2004 the FIA and the Foundation established the FIA Institute for Motor Sport Safety, which brought together the various safety research groups into one organisation. The Make Roads Safe campaign was set up in 2006 by the FIA Foundation, targeting the creation of safe roads across the world.During the 2000s the FIA and its president became increasingly embroiled in controversy over Formula One, while facing threats from teams to establish a breakaway series. A grouping of the car manufacturers involved in F1, the Grand Prix Manufacturers Association, proposed a new world championship, which would allow them greater control over the regulations and revenue distribution. A new Concorde Agreement eventually ended the threat, but the breakaway series would resurface during each dispute between the FIA, teams and the Formula One Group. The FIA's handling of the tyre situation at the 2005 United States Grand Prix was criticised. Mosley had refused any modification to the circuit or the holding of a non-championship event in place of the Grand Prix, having stated that running on an untested circuit was unsafe. The FIA also threatened to punish the teams who withdrew from the event, but later cleared the teams of any wrongdoing.Having again been re-elected unopposed in 2005, Mosley faced his first leadership challenge in a vote of confidence called in June 2008. The vote was in response to allegations concerning Mosley's sex life published by the British media. Mosley won the vote by 103 votes in support to 55 against, though he continued to face criticism from several motoring clubs and motorsport figures. In mid-2009, the FIA and the newly formed Formula One Teams Association disagreed over the pending implementation of a budget cap for the 2010 season. The teams again threatened a breakaway championship, with the FIA in response opening an entry process for new teams. The dispute also focused on a lack of confidence in Mosley's control over the sport, and there was a stand-off until Ecclestone negotiated a settlement to establish a new Concorde Agreement. In return for the teams joining the championship and ending the dispute, the budget cap would be replaced by a series of cost-cutting measures, and Mosley agreed to stand down at the end of his term in 2009.Former Scuderia Ferrari boss Jean Todt was elected the new President of the FIA in 2009, beating former World Rally champion Ari Vatanen.The true history of Formula One began in 1946 with the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile's (FIA's) standardisation of rules. Then in 1950, the FIA organised the first World Championship for Drivers. From 1958, a Constructors Championship title was introduced.The World Sportscar Championship was created in 1953, and was the first points series for sports car racing in the world. The championship was solely for manufacturers up to 1981. In 1981, a Drivers Championship title was introduced, and in 1985, the manufacturers title was replaced by a Teams Championship.In 1973, the FIA organised the first World Rally Championship: the 42nd Auto Rally of Monte-Carlo. In 1977, a Drivers Championship title was introduced (in 1977 and 1978 as an "FIA Cup for Drivers" title).In 1987, the FIA sanctioned the first World Touring Car Championship. Initially a one-off series, the title was revived in 2005, and discontinued at the end of 2017.After the 1992 season the World Sportscar Championship was cancelled and dissolved.In 1993, the National Hot Rod Association was officially recognised by the FIA World Motor Sport Council and the FIA Drag Racing Commission was formed. The FISA was dissolved, and its activities placed directly under the FIA.There were no sports car world championships until 2010. The SRO Group introduced the FIA GT1 World Championship, which was a championship consisting of one-hour sprint races. After a switch to GT3 cars in 2012 it became the FIA GT Series in 2013, and is called the Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe.After the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) successfully organised the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup (ILMC) in 2010 and 2011, the FIA and ACO organised together the rebirth of the World Sportscar Championship from 2012 onward, now known as the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC). Organised by the AIACR (The Association Internationale des Automobile Clubs Reconnus).The FIA General Assembly is the Federation's supreme governing body, consisting of representatives from each of the FIA's member associations. Meetings of the General Assembly are usually held once a year, though extraordinary meetings can be convened for urgent matters. The General Assembly has responsibility for amending the FIA's statutes and regulations, approving the annual budget and reports, deciding upon the membership, and electing the officers and members to the Federation's governing bodies. The FIA Senate overseas the finances and management of the FIA, and can take decisions required between meetings of the relevant committee or World Council.The head of the FIA and chairman of the General Assembly is the President, an office currently held by Jean Todt. The President coordinates the activities of the Federation and proposes resolutions to the various commissions and committees. The President also acts as the representative of the FIA to external organisations. There is also a Deputy and seven Vice-Presidents for Sport and Mobility, who assist the President in managing the activities in their respective area. The President is elected to a four-year term by the General Assembly. Candidates must produce an electoral list consisting of their proposed Deputy Presidents, Vice-Presidents for Sport, and the President of the Senate, as well as demonstrate support from a number of member clubs.The FIA has two World Councils. The Mobility and Automobile Council governs all non-sporting activities, comprising transport policy, road safety, tourism and environmental concerns. The World Motor Sport Council (WMSC) governs all sporting events regulated by the FIA, and writes the regulations for every FIA championship. It also supervises Karting through the Commission Internationale de Karting (CIK). Beneath the WMSC are a number of specialised commissions, which are either focused on individual championships, or general areas such as safety.The FIA's judicial bodies include the International Tribunal, which exercises disciplinary powers that are not dealt with by the meeting stewards, and the International Court of Appeal. The ICA is the final appeal tribunal for international motor sport, which resolves disputes brought before it by National Sporting Authorities worldwide, or by the President of the FIA. It can also settle non-sporting disputes brought by national motoring organizations affiliated to the FIA."Association Internationale des Automobile Clubs Reconnus":"Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile":The FIA Hall of Fame honours racing drivers, technicians, and engineers who have greatly contributed to motor racing. It was established by FIA in 2017.In October 2010, the FIA Institute Young Driver Excellence Academy, a new programme to develop young driver talent worldwide, was announced. After a three-day shootout in Melk, Austria, on 6–8 February, twelve drivers were selected.Many of the Formula Student regulations also refer to FIA standards.In 2007 and 2008 the FIA was criticised on two issues. The 2007 Formula One espionage controversy involved accusations against McLaren, who were accused of stealing technological secrets from Ferrari. Commenting on how the FIA handled the situation, Martin Brundle wrote a column in the "Sunday Times" entitled "Witch-hunt threatens to spoil world title race" in which he accused the FIA of a witch-hunt against McLaren. The World Motor Sport Council responded by issuing a writ against the "Sunday Times" alleging libel. Brundle responded by saying "I have earned the right to have an opinion", and suggested the writ was a "warning sign to other journalists".In 2008, accusations surfaced that FIA President Max Mosley was involved in scandalous sexual behaviour. Following a June 2008 decision of the FIA to retain Max Mosley as president, the German branch of the FIA, the ADAC (the largest European motoring body), announced, "We view with regret and incredulity the FIA general assembly's decision in Paris, confirming Max Mosley in office as FIA president". It froze all its activities with the FIA until Max Mosley leaves office. Press reports also claimed that Bernie Ecclestone was investigating creating a rival to the Formula 1 series due to the scandal.
|
[
"Mohammed bin Sulayem",
"Jehan de Rohan-Chabot",
"Filippo Caracciolo",
"Jean-Marie Balestre",
"Jean Todt",
"Étienne van Zuylen van Nyevelt",
"Amaury de Mérode",
"Max Mosley",
"Robert de Vogüé",
"Paul de Metternich-Winneburg",
"Hadelin de Liedekerke Beaufort"
] |
|
Which team did Thanasis Sentementes play for in Sep, 2007?
|
September 01, 2007
|
{
"text": [
"Panserraikos F.C."
]
}
|
L2_Q7710139_P54_3
|
Thanasis Sentementes plays for Doxa Vyronas F.C. from Jan, 1996 to Jan, 1998.
Thanasis Sentementes plays for PAE Kerkyra from Jan, 2008 to Jan, 2009.
Thanasis Sentementes plays for Panserraikos F.C. from Jan, 2007 to Jan, 2008.
Thanasis Sentementes plays for Panachaiki G.E. from Jan, 2009 to Jan, 2010.
Thanasis Sentementes plays for PAS Giannina F.C. from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 2000.
Thanasis Sentementes plays for Kalamata F.C. from Jan, 1995 to Jan, 1996.
|
Thanasis SentementesThanasis Sentementes () is a Greek footballer currently signed to Kerkyra F.C..
|
[
"PAE Kerkyra",
"Doxa Vyronas F.C.",
"Kalamata F.C.",
"Panachaiki G.E.",
"PAS Giannina F.C."
] |
|
Which team did Thanasis Sentementes play for in 2007-09-01?
|
September 01, 2007
|
{
"text": [
"Panserraikos F.C."
]
}
|
L2_Q7710139_P54_3
|
Thanasis Sentementes plays for Doxa Vyronas F.C. from Jan, 1996 to Jan, 1998.
Thanasis Sentementes plays for PAE Kerkyra from Jan, 2008 to Jan, 2009.
Thanasis Sentementes plays for Panserraikos F.C. from Jan, 2007 to Jan, 2008.
Thanasis Sentementes plays for Panachaiki G.E. from Jan, 2009 to Jan, 2010.
Thanasis Sentementes plays for PAS Giannina F.C. from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 2000.
Thanasis Sentementes plays for Kalamata F.C. from Jan, 1995 to Jan, 1996.
|
Thanasis SentementesThanasis Sentementes () is a Greek footballer currently signed to Kerkyra F.C..
|
[
"PAE Kerkyra",
"Doxa Vyronas F.C.",
"Kalamata F.C.",
"Panachaiki G.E.",
"PAS Giannina F.C."
] |
|
Which team did Thanasis Sentementes play for in 01/09/2007?
|
September 01, 2007
|
{
"text": [
"Panserraikos F.C."
]
}
|
L2_Q7710139_P54_3
|
Thanasis Sentementes plays for Doxa Vyronas F.C. from Jan, 1996 to Jan, 1998.
Thanasis Sentementes plays for PAE Kerkyra from Jan, 2008 to Jan, 2009.
Thanasis Sentementes plays for Panserraikos F.C. from Jan, 2007 to Jan, 2008.
Thanasis Sentementes plays for Panachaiki G.E. from Jan, 2009 to Jan, 2010.
Thanasis Sentementes plays for PAS Giannina F.C. from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 2000.
Thanasis Sentementes plays for Kalamata F.C. from Jan, 1995 to Jan, 1996.
|
Thanasis SentementesThanasis Sentementes () is a Greek footballer currently signed to Kerkyra F.C..
|
[
"PAE Kerkyra",
"Doxa Vyronas F.C.",
"Kalamata F.C.",
"Panachaiki G.E.",
"PAS Giannina F.C."
] |
|
Which team did Thanasis Sentementes play for in Sep 01, 2007?
|
September 01, 2007
|
{
"text": [
"Panserraikos F.C."
]
}
|
L2_Q7710139_P54_3
|
Thanasis Sentementes plays for Doxa Vyronas F.C. from Jan, 1996 to Jan, 1998.
Thanasis Sentementes plays for PAE Kerkyra from Jan, 2008 to Jan, 2009.
Thanasis Sentementes plays for Panserraikos F.C. from Jan, 2007 to Jan, 2008.
Thanasis Sentementes plays for Panachaiki G.E. from Jan, 2009 to Jan, 2010.
Thanasis Sentementes plays for PAS Giannina F.C. from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 2000.
Thanasis Sentementes plays for Kalamata F.C. from Jan, 1995 to Jan, 1996.
|
Thanasis SentementesThanasis Sentementes () is a Greek footballer currently signed to Kerkyra F.C..
|
[
"PAE Kerkyra",
"Doxa Vyronas F.C.",
"Kalamata F.C.",
"Panachaiki G.E.",
"PAS Giannina F.C."
] |
|
Which team did Thanasis Sentementes play for in 09/01/2007?
|
September 01, 2007
|
{
"text": [
"Panserraikos F.C."
]
}
|
L2_Q7710139_P54_3
|
Thanasis Sentementes plays for Doxa Vyronas F.C. from Jan, 1996 to Jan, 1998.
Thanasis Sentementes plays for PAE Kerkyra from Jan, 2008 to Jan, 2009.
Thanasis Sentementes plays for Panserraikos F.C. from Jan, 2007 to Jan, 2008.
Thanasis Sentementes plays for Panachaiki G.E. from Jan, 2009 to Jan, 2010.
Thanasis Sentementes plays for PAS Giannina F.C. from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 2000.
Thanasis Sentementes plays for Kalamata F.C. from Jan, 1995 to Jan, 1996.
|
Thanasis SentementesThanasis Sentementes () is a Greek footballer currently signed to Kerkyra F.C..
|
[
"PAE Kerkyra",
"Doxa Vyronas F.C.",
"Kalamata F.C.",
"Panachaiki G.E.",
"PAS Giannina F.C."
] |
|
Which team did Thanasis Sentementes play for in 01-Sep-200701-September-2007?
|
September 01, 2007
|
{
"text": [
"Panserraikos F.C."
]
}
|
L2_Q7710139_P54_3
|
Thanasis Sentementes plays for Doxa Vyronas F.C. from Jan, 1996 to Jan, 1998.
Thanasis Sentementes plays for PAE Kerkyra from Jan, 2008 to Jan, 2009.
Thanasis Sentementes plays for Panserraikos F.C. from Jan, 2007 to Jan, 2008.
Thanasis Sentementes plays for Panachaiki G.E. from Jan, 2009 to Jan, 2010.
Thanasis Sentementes plays for PAS Giannina F.C. from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 2000.
Thanasis Sentementes plays for Kalamata F.C. from Jan, 1995 to Jan, 1996.
|
Thanasis SentementesThanasis Sentementes () is a Greek footballer currently signed to Kerkyra F.C..
|
[
"PAE Kerkyra",
"Doxa Vyronas F.C.",
"Kalamata F.C.",
"Panachaiki G.E.",
"PAS Giannina F.C."
] |
|
Which employer did Savvas Poursaitidis work for in Nov, 2018?
|
November 09, 2018
|
{
"text": [
"Nea Salamis Famagusta FC"
]
}
|
L2_Q969283_P108_2
|
Savvas Poursaitidis works for Anagennisi Deryneia FC from Oct, 2016 to Jan, 2017.
Savvas Poursaitidis works for Doxa Katokopias F.C. from Jan, 2017 to Apr, 2017.
Savvas Poursaitidis works for Nea Salamis Famagusta FC from Oct, 2017 to May, 2020.
|
Savvas PoursaitidisSavvas Poursaitidis (, born 23 June 1976) is a former professional footballer who was appointed manager of Cypriot First Division club APOEL in January 2021.Poursaitidis played football, mainly as a right back, in his native Greece from 1994 to 2002 before moving to Cyprus where his playing career continued for a further ten years. In 2009 he received Cypriot citizenship and represented that country at international level. In 2016, he began his senior managerial career, also in Cyprus.Savvas Poursaitidis was born in Eleftheroupoli, in the Kavala district of Greece. He has a twin brother, Sakis, and his parents kept a taverna in Orfani.Poursaitidis started his senior career at Doxa Drama. He also played for Veria, Olympiacos and Skoda Xanthi in Greece. Later, he moved to Cyprus to play for Digenis Morphou, Ethnikos Achna, Anorthosis and APOEL.APOEL signed Poursaitidis in June 2008, after the player was released from Anorthosis as a result from a failure in negotiations with his former club to renew his contract. In his first year with APOEL he continued to impress Cypriot football fans with his high level performances. In the end, he helped APOEL to be crowned champions after one unsuccessful season.The next season (2009–10) Poursaitidis helped APOEL to achieve the greatest success in its history and reach the UEFA Champions League group stage. He appeared in five group stage matches with APOEL.After he won the championship again in 2010–11 with APOEL, the Board of Directors renewed his contract, as they recognized that Poursaitidis was one of the key players that contributed greatly towards winning the Championship. In summer 2011, he appeared in nine 2011–12 UEFA Champions League matches for APOEL, in the club's surprising run to the quarter-finals of the competition.In May 2012, Poursaitidis decided to retire from professional football, ending his four-year successful spell with the club.In August 2009 he gained Cypriot nationality and made his debut with Cyprus national team in March 2010 in a friendly match against Iceland. He made 12 appearances with the national team.On 31 July 2012, after retiring from his football career, Poursaitides became Chief Scout in APOEL's newly created Scouting Department. On 7 June 2013, APOEL announced that the club were not renewing his contract.Poursaitidis started his managerial career on 23 October 2016, when he was appointed as the manager of the Cypriot First Division side Anagennisi Deryneia. On 25 January 2017, after only three months in charge, he left the team to take over as the manager of Doxa Katokopias. On 30 April 2017 he left the team. He later became the manager of Nea Salamis Famagusta. He was appointed manager of APOEL in January 2021.OlympiacosAnorthosis FamagustaAPOEL
|
[
"Anagennisi Deryneia FC",
"Doxa Katokopias F.C."
] |
|
Which employer did Savvas Poursaitidis work for in 2018-11-09?
|
November 09, 2018
|
{
"text": [
"Nea Salamis Famagusta FC"
]
}
|
L2_Q969283_P108_2
|
Savvas Poursaitidis works for Anagennisi Deryneia FC from Oct, 2016 to Jan, 2017.
Savvas Poursaitidis works for Doxa Katokopias F.C. from Jan, 2017 to Apr, 2017.
Savvas Poursaitidis works for Nea Salamis Famagusta FC from Oct, 2017 to May, 2020.
|
Savvas PoursaitidisSavvas Poursaitidis (, born 23 June 1976) is a former professional footballer who was appointed manager of Cypriot First Division club APOEL in January 2021.Poursaitidis played football, mainly as a right back, in his native Greece from 1994 to 2002 before moving to Cyprus where his playing career continued for a further ten years. In 2009 he received Cypriot citizenship and represented that country at international level. In 2016, he began his senior managerial career, also in Cyprus.Savvas Poursaitidis was born in Eleftheroupoli, in the Kavala district of Greece. He has a twin brother, Sakis, and his parents kept a taverna in Orfani.Poursaitidis started his senior career at Doxa Drama. He also played for Veria, Olympiacos and Skoda Xanthi in Greece. Later, he moved to Cyprus to play for Digenis Morphou, Ethnikos Achna, Anorthosis and APOEL.APOEL signed Poursaitidis in June 2008, after the player was released from Anorthosis as a result from a failure in negotiations with his former club to renew his contract. In his first year with APOEL he continued to impress Cypriot football fans with his high level performances. In the end, he helped APOEL to be crowned champions after one unsuccessful season.The next season (2009–10) Poursaitidis helped APOEL to achieve the greatest success in its history and reach the UEFA Champions League group stage. He appeared in five group stage matches with APOEL.After he won the championship again in 2010–11 with APOEL, the Board of Directors renewed his contract, as they recognized that Poursaitidis was one of the key players that contributed greatly towards winning the Championship. In summer 2011, he appeared in nine 2011–12 UEFA Champions League matches for APOEL, in the club's surprising run to the quarter-finals of the competition.In May 2012, Poursaitidis decided to retire from professional football, ending his four-year successful spell with the club.In August 2009 he gained Cypriot nationality and made his debut with Cyprus national team in March 2010 in a friendly match against Iceland. He made 12 appearances with the national team.On 31 July 2012, after retiring from his football career, Poursaitides became Chief Scout in APOEL's newly created Scouting Department. On 7 June 2013, APOEL announced that the club were not renewing his contract.Poursaitidis started his managerial career on 23 October 2016, when he was appointed as the manager of the Cypriot First Division side Anagennisi Deryneia. On 25 January 2017, after only three months in charge, he left the team to take over as the manager of Doxa Katokopias. On 30 April 2017 he left the team. He later became the manager of Nea Salamis Famagusta. He was appointed manager of APOEL in January 2021.OlympiacosAnorthosis FamagustaAPOEL
|
[
"Anagennisi Deryneia FC",
"Doxa Katokopias F.C."
] |
|
Which employer did Savvas Poursaitidis work for in 09/11/2018?
|
November 09, 2018
|
{
"text": [
"Nea Salamis Famagusta FC"
]
}
|
L2_Q969283_P108_2
|
Savvas Poursaitidis works for Anagennisi Deryneia FC from Oct, 2016 to Jan, 2017.
Savvas Poursaitidis works for Doxa Katokopias F.C. from Jan, 2017 to Apr, 2017.
Savvas Poursaitidis works for Nea Salamis Famagusta FC from Oct, 2017 to May, 2020.
|
Savvas PoursaitidisSavvas Poursaitidis (, born 23 June 1976) is a former professional footballer who was appointed manager of Cypriot First Division club APOEL in January 2021.Poursaitidis played football, mainly as a right back, in his native Greece from 1994 to 2002 before moving to Cyprus where his playing career continued for a further ten years. In 2009 he received Cypriot citizenship and represented that country at international level. In 2016, he began his senior managerial career, also in Cyprus.Savvas Poursaitidis was born in Eleftheroupoli, in the Kavala district of Greece. He has a twin brother, Sakis, and his parents kept a taverna in Orfani.Poursaitidis started his senior career at Doxa Drama. He also played for Veria, Olympiacos and Skoda Xanthi in Greece. Later, he moved to Cyprus to play for Digenis Morphou, Ethnikos Achna, Anorthosis and APOEL.APOEL signed Poursaitidis in June 2008, after the player was released from Anorthosis as a result from a failure in negotiations with his former club to renew his contract. In his first year with APOEL he continued to impress Cypriot football fans with his high level performances. In the end, he helped APOEL to be crowned champions after one unsuccessful season.The next season (2009–10) Poursaitidis helped APOEL to achieve the greatest success in its history and reach the UEFA Champions League group stage. He appeared in five group stage matches with APOEL.After he won the championship again in 2010–11 with APOEL, the Board of Directors renewed his contract, as they recognized that Poursaitidis was one of the key players that contributed greatly towards winning the Championship. In summer 2011, he appeared in nine 2011–12 UEFA Champions League matches for APOEL, in the club's surprising run to the quarter-finals of the competition.In May 2012, Poursaitidis decided to retire from professional football, ending his four-year successful spell with the club.In August 2009 he gained Cypriot nationality and made his debut with Cyprus national team in March 2010 in a friendly match against Iceland. He made 12 appearances with the national team.On 31 July 2012, after retiring from his football career, Poursaitides became Chief Scout in APOEL's newly created Scouting Department. On 7 June 2013, APOEL announced that the club were not renewing his contract.Poursaitidis started his managerial career on 23 October 2016, when he was appointed as the manager of the Cypriot First Division side Anagennisi Deryneia. On 25 January 2017, after only three months in charge, he left the team to take over as the manager of Doxa Katokopias. On 30 April 2017 he left the team. He later became the manager of Nea Salamis Famagusta. He was appointed manager of APOEL in January 2021.OlympiacosAnorthosis FamagustaAPOEL
|
[
"Anagennisi Deryneia FC",
"Doxa Katokopias F.C."
] |
|
Which employer did Savvas Poursaitidis work for in Nov 09, 2018?
|
November 09, 2018
|
{
"text": [
"Nea Salamis Famagusta FC"
]
}
|
L2_Q969283_P108_2
|
Savvas Poursaitidis works for Anagennisi Deryneia FC from Oct, 2016 to Jan, 2017.
Savvas Poursaitidis works for Doxa Katokopias F.C. from Jan, 2017 to Apr, 2017.
Savvas Poursaitidis works for Nea Salamis Famagusta FC from Oct, 2017 to May, 2020.
|
Savvas PoursaitidisSavvas Poursaitidis (, born 23 June 1976) is a former professional footballer who was appointed manager of Cypriot First Division club APOEL in January 2021.Poursaitidis played football, mainly as a right back, in his native Greece from 1994 to 2002 before moving to Cyprus where his playing career continued for a further ten years. In 2009 he received Cypriot citizenship and represented that country at international level. In 2016, he began his senior managerial career, also in Cyprus.Savvas Poursaitidis was born in Eleftheroupoli, in the Kavala district of Greece. He has a twin brother, Sakis, and his parents kept a taverna in Orfani.Poursaitidis started his senior career at Doxa Drama. He also played for Veria, Olympiacos and Skoda Xanthi in Greece. Later, he moved to Cyprus to play for Digenis Morphou, Ethnikos Achna, Anorthosis and APOEL.APOEL signed Poursaitidis in June 2008, after the player was released from Anorthosis as a result from a failure in negotiations with his former club to renew his contract. In his first year with APOEL he continued to impress Cypriot football fans with his high level performances. In the end, he helped APOEL to be crowned champions after one unsuccessful season.The next season (2009–10) Poursaitidis helped APOEL to achieve the greatest success in its history and reach the UEFA Champions League group stage. He appeared in five group stage matches with APOEL.After he won the championship again in 2010–11 with APOEL, the Board of Directors renewed his contract, as they recognized that Poursaitidis was one of the key players that contributed greatly towards winning the Championship. In summer 2011, he appeared in nine 2011–12 UEFA Champions League matches for APOEL, in the club's surprising run to the quarter-finals of the competition.In May 2012, Poursaitidis decided to retire from professional football, ending his four-year successful spell with the club.In August 2009 he gained Cypriot nationality and made his debut with Cyprus national team in March 2010 in a friendly match against Iceland. He made 12 appearances with the national team.On 31 July 2012, after retiring from his football career, Poursaitides became Chief Scout in APOEL's newly created Scouting Department. On 7 June 2013, APOEL announced that the club were not renewing his contract.Poursaitidis started his managerial career on 23 October 2016, when he was appointed as the manager of the Cypriot First Division side Anagennisi Deryneia. On 25 January 2017, after only three months in charge, he left the team to take over as the manager of Doxa Katokopias. On 30 April 2017 he left the team. He later became the manager of Nea Salamis Famagusta. He was appointed manager of APOEL in January 2021.OlympiacosAnorthosis FamagustaAPOEL
|
[
"Anagennisi Deryneia FC",
"Doxa Katokopias F.C."
] |
|
Which employer did Savvas Poursaitidis work for in 11/09/2018?
|
November 09, 2018
|
{
"text": [
"Nea Salamis Famagusta FC"
]
}
|
L2_Q969283_P108_2
|
Savvas Poursaitidis works for Anagennisi Deryneia FC from Oct, 2016 to Jan, 2017.
Savvas Poursaitidis works for Doxa Katokopias F.C. from Jan, 2017 to Apr, 2017.
Savvas Poursaitidis works for Nea Salamis Famagusta FC from Oct, 2017 to May, 2020.
|
Savvas PoursaitidisSavvas Poursaitidis (, born 23 June 1976) is a former professional footballer who was appointed manager of Cypriot First Division club APOEL in January 2021.Poursaitidis played football, mainly as a right back, in his native Greece from 1994 to 2002 before moving to Cyprus where his playing career continued for a further ten years. In 2009 he received Cypriot citizenship and represented that country at international level. In 2016, he began his senior managerial career, also in Cyprus.Savvas Poursaitidis was born in Eleftheroupoli, in the Kavala district of Greece. He has a twin brother, Sakis, and his parents kept a taverna in Orfani.Poursaitidis started his senior career at Doxa Drama. He also played for Veria, Olympiacos and Skoda Xanthi in Greece. Later, he moved to Cyprus to play for Digenis Morphou, Ethnikos Achna, Anorthosis and APOEL.APOEL signed Poursaitidis in June 2008, after the player was released from Anorthosis as a result from a failure in negotiations with his former club to renew his contract. In his first year with APOEL he continued to impress Cypriot football fans with his high level performances. In the end, he helped APOEL to be crowned champions after one unsuccessful season.The next season (2009–10) Poursaitidis helped APOEL to achieve the greatest success in its history and reach the UEFA Champions League group stage. He appeared in five group stage matches with APOEL.After he won the championship again in 2010–11 with APOEL, the Board of Directors renewed his contract, as they recognized that Poursaitidis was one of the key players that contributed greatly towards winning the Championship. In summer 2011, he appeared in nine 2011–12 UEFA Champions League matches for APOEL, in the club's surprising run to the quarter-finals of the competition.In May 2012, Poursaitidis decided to retire from professional football, ending his four-year successful spell with the club.In August 2009 he gained Cypriot nationality and made his debut with Cyprus national team in March 2010 in a friendly match against Iceland. He made 12 appearances with the national team.On 31 July 2012, after retiring from his football career, Poursaitides became Chief Scout in APOEL's newly created Scouting Department. On 7 June 2013, APOEL announced that the club were not renewing his contract.Poursaitidis started his managerial career on 23 October 2016, when he was appointed as the manager of the Cypriot First Division side Anagennisi Deryneia. On 25 January 2017, after only three months in charge, he left the team to take over as the manager of Doxa Katokopias. On 30 April 2017 he left the team. He later became the manager of Nea Salamis Famagusta. He was appointed manager of APOEL in January 2021.OlympiacosAnorthosis FamagustaAPOEL
|
[
"Anagennisi Deryneia FC",
"Doxa Katokopias F.C."
] |
|
Which employer did Savvas Poursaitidis work for in 09-Nov-201809-November-2018?
|
November 09, 2018
|
{
"text": [
"Nea Salamis Famagusta FC"
]
}
|
L2_Q969283_P108_2
|
Savvas Poursaitidis works for Anagennisi Deryneia FC from Oct, 2016 to Jan, 2017.
Savvas Poursaitidis works for Doxa Katokopias F.C. from Jan, 2017 to Apr, 2017.
Savvas Poursaitidis works for Nea Salamis Famagusta FC from Oct, 2017 to May, 2020.
|
Savvas PoursaitidisSavvas Poursaitidis (, born 23 June 1976) is a former professional footballer who was appointed manager of Cypriot First Division club APOEL in January 2021.Poursaitidis played football, mainly as a right back, in his native Greece from 1994 to 2002 before moving to Cyprus where his playing career continued for a further ten years. In 2009 he received Cypriot citizenship and represented that country at international level. In 2016, he began his senior managerial career, also in Cyprus.Savvas Poursaitidis was born in Eleftheroupoli, in the Kavala district of Greece. He has a twin brother, Sakis, and his parents kept a taverna in Orfani.Poursaitidis started his senior career at Doxa Drama. He also played for Veria, Olympiacos and Skoda Xanthi in Greece. Later, he moved to Cyprus to play for Digenis Morphou, Ethnikos Achna, Anorthosis and APOEL.APOEL signed Poursaitidis in June 2008, after the player was released from Anorthosis as a result from a failure in negotiations with his former club to renew his contract. In his first year with APOEL he continued to impress Cypriot football fans with his high level performances. In the end, he helped APOEL to be crowned champions after one unsuccessful season.The next season (2009–10) Poursaitidis helped APOEL to achieve the greatest success in its history and reach the UEFA Champions League group stage. He appeared in five group stage matches with APOEL.After he won the championship again in 2010–11 with APOEL, the Board of Directors renewed his contract, as they recognized that Poursaitidis was one of the key players that contributed greatly towards winning the Championship. In summer 2011, he appeared in nine 2011–12 UEFA Champions League matches for APOEL, in the club's surprising run to the quarter-finals of the competition.In May 2012, Poursaitidis decided to retire from professional football, ending his four-year successful spell with the club.In August 2009 he gained Cypriot nationality and made his debut with Cyprus national team in March 2010 in a friendly match against Iceland. He made 12 appearances with the national team.On 31 July 2012, after retiring from his football career, Poursaitides became Chief Scout in APOEL's newly created Scouting Department. On 7 June 2013, APOEL announced that the club were not renewing his contract.Poursaitidis started his managerial career on 23 October 2016, when he was appointed as the manager of the Cypriot First Division side Anagennisi Deryneia. On 25 January 2017, after only three months in charge, he left the team to take over as the manager of Doxa Katokopias. On 30 April 2017 he left the team. He later became the manager of Nea Salamis Famagusta. He was appointed manager of APOEL in January 2021.OlympiacosAnorthosis FamagustaAPOEL
|
[
"Anagennisi Deryneia FC",
"Doxa Katokopias F.C."
] |
|
Who was the head of Balassagyarmat in Feb, 2015?
|
February 26, 2015
|
{
"text": [
"Lajos Medvácz"
]
}
|
L2_Q789233_P6_1
|
István Lombos is the head of the government of Balassagyarmat from Jan, 2002 to Jan, 2006.
Gábor Csach is the head of the government of Balassagyarmat from Jan, 2019 to Dec, 2022.
Lajos Medvácz is the head of the government of Balassagyarmat from Jan, 2006 to Jan, 2019.
|
BalassagyarmatBalassagyarmat (formerly "Balassa-Gyarmath", , ) is a town in northern Hungary. It was the seat of the Nógrád comitatus.Since 1998, the town's coat of arms has borne the Latin inscription "Civitas Fortissima" (the bravest city) because it was claimed that in January 1919 Czechoslovak troops crossed the demarcation line delineated in December 1918 in preparation for the Treaty of Trianon, illegally occupying towns south of the line, including Balassagyarmat. The occupation was the subject of a 2009 song by the nationalist rock-band , "Civitas Fortissima"During World War II, May 9, 1944, Germans kept 3,000 Jews from the town and the surrounding villages imprisoned in a ghetto. They were all sent to Auschwitz concentration camp on June 11 and 14, 1944.Balassagyarmat was captured on 9 December 1944 by Soviet troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front in the course of the Budapest Offensive.The town lies on the left bank of the Ipoly river, which marks the state border with Slovakia.In 2001 Balassagyarmat had 18,474 inhabitants. The population were Hungarian 98%, Romani 2%. 100% of the total population speak Hungarian as their mother tongue.Balassagyarmat is twinned with:
|
[
"Gábor Csach",
"István Lombos"
] |
|
Who was the head of Balassagyarmat in 2015-02-26?
|
February 26, 2015
|
{
"text": [
"Lajos Medvácz"
]
}
|
L2_Q789233_P6_1
|
István Lombos is the head of the government of Balassagyarmat from Jan, 2002 to Jan, 2006.
Gábor Csach is the head of the government of Balassagyarmat from Jan, 2019 to Dec, 2022.
Lajos Medvácz is the head of the government of Balassagyarmat from Jan, 2006 to Jan, 2019.
|
BalassagyarmatBalassagyarmat (formerly "Balassa-Gyarmath", , ) is a town in northern Hungary. It was the seat of the Nógrád comitatus.Since 1998, the town's coat of arms has borne the Latin inscription "Civitas Fortissima" (the bravest city) because it was claimed that in January 1919 Czechoslovak troops crossed the demarcation line delineated in December 1918 in preparation for the Treaty of Trianon, illegally occupying towns south of the line, including Balassagyarmat. The occupation was the subject of a 2009 song by the nationalist rock-band , "Civitas Fortissima"During World War II, May 9, 1944, Germans kept 3,000 Jews from the town and the surrounding villages imprisoned in a ghetto. They were all sent to Auschwitz concentration camp on June 11 and 14, 1944.Balassagyarmat was captured on 9 December 1944 by Soviet troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front in the course of the Budapest Offensive.The town lies on the left bank of the Ipoly river, which marks the state border with Slovakia.In 2001 Balassagyarmat had 18,474 inhabitants. The population were Hungarian 98%, Romani 2%. 100% of the total population speak Hungarian as their mother tongue.Balassagyarmat is twinned with:
|
[
"Gábor Csach",
"István Lombos"
] |
|
Who was the head of Balassagyarmat in 26/02/2015?
|
February 26, 2015
|
{
"text": [
"Lajos Medvácz"
]
}
|
L2_Q789233_P6_1
|
István Lombos is the head of the government of Balassagyarmat from Jan, 2002 to Jan, 2006.
Gábor Csach is the head of the government of Balassagyarmat from Jan, 2019 to Dec, 2022.
Lajos Medvácz is the head of the government of Balassagyarmat from Jan, 2006 to Jan, 2019.
|
BalassagyarmatBalassagyarmat (formerly "Balassa-Gyarmath", , ) is a town in northern Hungary. It was the seat of the Nógrád comitatus.Since 1998, the town's coat of arms has borne the Latin inscription "Civitas Fortissima" (the bravest city) because it was claimed that in January 1919 Czechoslovak troops crossed the demarcation line delineated in December 1918 in preparation for the Treaty of Trianon, illegally occupying towns south of the line, including Balassagyarmat. The occupation was the subject of a 2009 song by the nationalist rock-band , "Civitas Fortissima"During World War II, May 9, 1944, Germans kept 3,000 Jews from the town and the surrounding villages imprisoned in a ghetto. They were all sent to Auschwitz concentration camp on June 11 and 14, 1944.Balassagyarmat was captured on 9 December 1944 by Soviet troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front in the course of the Budapest Offensive.The town lies on the left bank of the Ipoly river, which marks the state border with Slovakia.In 2001 Balassagyarmat had 18,474 inhabitants. The population were Hungarian 98%, Romani 2%. 100% of the total population speak Hungarian as their mother tongue.Balassagyarmat is twinned with:
|
[
"Gábor Csach",
"István Lombos"
] |
|
Who was the head of Balassagyarmat in Feb 26, 2015?
|
February 26, 2015
|
{
"text": [
"Lajos Medvácz"
]
}
|
L2_Q789233_P6_1
|
István Lombos is the head of the government of Balassagyarmat from Jan, 2002 to Jan, 2006.
Gábor Csach is the head of the government of Balassagyarmat from Jan, 2019 to Dec, 2022.
Lajos Medvácz is the head of the government of Balassagyarmat from Jan, 2006 to Jan, 2019.
|
BalassagyarmatBalassagyarmat (formerly "Balassa-Gyarmath", , ) is a town in northern Hungary. It was the seat of the Nógrád comitatus.Since 1998, the town's coat of arms has borne the Latin inscription "Civitas Fortissima" (the bravest city) because it was claimed that in January 1919 Czechoslovak troops crossed the demarcation line delineated in December 1918 in preparation for the Treaty of Trianon, illegally occupying towns south of the line, including Balassagyarmat. The occupation was the subject of a 2009 song by the nationalist rock-band , "Civitas Fortissima"During World War II, May 9, 1944, Germans kept 3,000 Jews from the town and the surrounding villages imprisoned in a ghetto. They were all sent to Auschwitz concentration camp on June 11 and 14, 1944.Balassagyarmat was captured on 9 December 1944 by Soviet troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front in the course of the Budapest Offensive.The town lies on the left bank of the Ipoly river, which marks the state border with Slovakia.In 2001 Balassagyarmat had 18,474 inhabitants. The population were Hungarian 98%, Romani 2%. 100% of the total population speak Hungarian as their mother tongue.Balassagyarmat is twinned with:
|
[
"Gábor Csach",
"István Lombos"
] |
|
Who was the head of Balassagyarmat in 02/26/2015?
|
February 26, 2015
|
{
"text": [
"Lajos Medvácz"
]
}
|
L2_Q789233_P6_1
|
István Lombos is the head of the government of Balassagyarmat from Jan, 2002 to Jan, 2006.
Gábor Csach is the head of the government of Balassagyarmat from Jan, 2019 to Dec, 2022.
Lajos Medvácz is the head of the government of Balassagyarmat from Jan, 2006 to Jan, 2019.
|
BalassagyarmatBalassagyarmat (formerly "Balassa-Gyarmath", , ) is a town in northern Hungary. It was the seat of the Nógrád comitatus.Since 1998, the town's coat of arms has borne the Latin inscription "Civitas Fortissima" (the bravest city) because it was claimed that in January 1919 Czechoslovak troops crossed the demarcation line delineated in December 1918 in preparation for the Treaty of Trianon, illegally occupying towns south of the line, including Balassagyarmat. The occupation was the subject of a 2009 song by the nationalist rock-band , "Civitas Fortissima"During World War II, May 9, 1944, Germans kept 3,000 Jews from the town and the surrounding villages imprisoned in a ghetto. They were all sent to Auschwitz concentration camp on June 11 and 14, 1944.Balassagyarmat was captured on 9 December 1944 by Soviet troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front in the course of the Budapest Offensive.The town lies on the left bank of the Ipoly river, which marks the state border with Slovakia.In 2001 Balassagyarmat had 18,474 inhabitants. The population were Hungarian 98%, Romani 2%. 100% of the total population speak Hungarian as their mother tongue.Balassagyarmat is twinned with:
|
[
"Gábor Csach",
"István Lombos"
] |
|
Who was the head of Balassagyarmat in 26-Feb-201526-February-2015?
|
February 26, 2015
|
{
"text": [
"Lajos Medvácz"
]
}
|
L2_Q789233_P6_1
|
István Lombos is the head of the government of Balassagyarmat from Jan, 2002 to Jan, 2006.
Gábor Csach is the head of the government of Balassagyarmat from Jan, 2019 to Dec, 2022.
Lajos Medvácz is the head of the government of Balassagyarmat from Jan, 2006 to Jan, 2019.
|
BalassagyarmatBalassagyarmat (formerly "Balassa-Gyarmath", , ) is a town in northern Hungary. It was the seat of the Nógrád comitatus.Since 1998, the town's coat of arms has borne the Latin inscription "Civitas Fortissima" (the bravest city) because it was claimed that in January 1919 Czechoslovak troops crossed the demarcation line delineated in December 1918 in preparation for the Treaty of Trianon, illegally occupying towns south of the line, including Balassagyarmat. The occupation was the subject of a 2009 song by the nationalist rock-band , "Civitas Fortissima"During World War II, May 9, 1944, Germans kept 3,000 Jews from the town and the surrounding villages imprisoned in a ghetto. They were all sent to Auschwitz concentration camp on June 11 and 14, 1944.Balassagyarmat was captured on 9 December 1944 by Soviet troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front in the course of the Budapest Offensive.The town lies on the left bank of the Ipoly river, which marks the state border with Slovakia.In 2001 Balassagyarmat had 18,474 inhabitants. The population were Hungarian 98%, Romani 2%. 100% of the total population speak Hungarian as their mother tongue.Balassagyarmat is twinned with:
|
[
"Gábor Csach",
"István Lombos"
] |
|
Which political party did Jana Juřenčáková belong to in Mar, 2011?
|
March 27, 2011
|
{
"text": [
"Mayors and Independents"
]
}
|
L2_Q12023422_P102_1
|
Jana Juřenčáková is a member of the Realists from Jan, 2017 to Jan, 2019.
Jana Juřenčáková is a member of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia from Jan, 1988 to Jan, 1989.
Jana Juřenčáková is a member of the Mayors and Independents from Jan, 2011 to Jan, 2013.
|
Jana JuřenčákováJana Juřenčáková (born 29 October 1962) is a Czech politician and economist. An independent, supported by Mayors and Independents, Juřenčáková became Senator for Zlín as a result of the 2006 Czech Senate election, ahead of incumbent Jiří Stodůlka. After running for re-election in 2012, she finished fourth in the first round of voting, eventually being replaced by Tomio Okamura.
|
[
"Communist Party of Czechoslovakia",
"Realists"
] |
|
Which political party did Jana Juřenčáková belong to in 2011-03-27?
|
March 27, 2011
|
{
"text": [
"Mayors and Independents"
]
}
|
L2_Q12023422_P102_1
|
Jana Juřenčáková is a member of the Realists from Jan, 2017 to Jan, 2019.
Jana Juřenčáková is a member of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia from Jan, 1988 to Jan, 1989.
Jana Juřenčáková is a member of the Mayors and Independents from Jan, 2011 to Jan, 2013.
|
Jana JuřenčákováJana Juřenčáková (born 29 October 1962) is a Czech politician and economist. An independent, supported by Mayors and Independents, Juřenčáková became Senator for Zlín as a result of the 2006 Czech Senate election, ahead of incumbent Jiří Stodůlka. After running for re-election in 2012, she finished fourth in the first round of voting, eventually being replaced by Tomio Okamura.
|
[
"Communist Party of Czechoslovakia",
"Realists"
] |
|
Which political party did Jana Juřenčáková belong to in 27/03/2011?
|
March 27, 2011
|
{
"text": [
"Mayors and Independents"
]
}
|
L2_Q12023422_P102_1
|
Jana Juřenčáková is a member of the Realists from Jan, 2017 to Jan, 2019.
Jana Juřenčáková is a member of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia from Jan, 1988 to Jan, 1989.
Jana Juřenčáková is a member of the Mayors and Independents from Jan, 2011 to Jan, 2013.
|
Jana JuřenčákováJana Juřenčáková (born 29 October 1962) is a Czech politician and economist. An independent, supported by Mayors and Independents, Juřenčáková became Senator for Zlín as a result of the 2006 Czech Senate election, ahead of incumbent Jiří Stodůlka. After running for re-election in 2012, she finished fourth in the first round of voting, eventually being replaced by Tomio Okamura.
|
[
"Communist Party of Czechoslovakia",
"Realists"
] |
|
Which political party did Jana Juřenčáková belong to in Mar 27, 2011?
|
March 27, 2011
|
{
"text": [
"Mayors and Independents"
]
}
|
L2_Q12023422_P102_1
|
Jana Juřenčáková is a member of the Realists from Jan, 2017 to Jan, 2019.
Jana Juřenčáková is a member of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia from Jan, 1988 to Jan, 1989.
Jana Juřenčáková is a member of the Mayors and Independents from Jan, 2011 to Jan, 2013.
|
Jana JuřenčákováJana Juřenčáková (born 29 October 1962) is a Czech politician and economist. An independent, supported by Mayors and Independents, Juřenčáková became Senator for Zlín as a result of the 2006 Czech Senate election, ahead of incumbent Jiří Stodůlka. After running for re-election in 2012, she finished fourth in the first round of voting, eventually being replaced by Tomio Okamura.
|
[
"Communist Party of Czechoslovakia",
"Realists"
] |
|
Which political party did Jana Juřenčáková belong to in 03/27/2011?
|
March 27, 2011
|
{
"text": [
"Mayors and Independents"
]
}
|
L2_Q12023422_P102_1
|
Jana Juřenčáková is a member of the Realists from Jan, 2017 to Jan, 2019.
Jana Juřenčáková is a member of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia from Jan, 1988 to Jan, 1989.
Jana Juřenčáková is a member of the Mayors and Independents from Jan, 2011 to Jan, 2013.
|
Jana JuřenčákováJana Juřenčáková (born 29 October 1962) is a Czech politician and economist. An independent, supported by Mayors and Independents, Juřenčáková became Senator for Zlín as a result of the 2006 Czech Senate election, ahead of incumbent Jiří Stodůlka. After running for re-election in 2012, she finished fourth in the first round of voting, eventually being replaced by Tomio Okamura.
|
[
"Communist Party of Czechoslovakia",
"Realists"
] |
|
Which political party did Jana Juřenčáková belong to in 27-Mar-201127-March-2011?
|
March 27, 2011
|
{
"text": [
"Mayors and Independents"
]
}
|
L2_Q12023422_P102_1
|
Jana Juřenčáková is a member of the Realists from Jan, 2017 to Jan, 2019.
Jana Juřenčáková is a member of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia from Jan, 1988 to Jan, 1989.
Jana Juřenčáková is a member of the Mayors and Independents from Jan, 2011 to Jan, 2013.
|
Jana JuřenčákováJana Juřenčáková (born 29 October 1962) is a Czech politician and economist. An independent, supported by Mayors and Independents, Juřenčáková became Senator for Zlín as a result of the 2006 Czech Senate election, ahead of incumbent Jiří Stodůlka. After running for re-election in 2012, she finished fourth in the first round of voting, eventually being replaced by Tomio Okamura.
|
[
"Communist Party of Czechoslovakia",
"Realists"
] |
|
Which team did Carl Hoefkens play for in Aug, 2007?
|
August 26, 2007
|
{
"text": [
"Belgium national football team",
"West Bromwich Albion F.C."
]
}
|
L2_Q386907_P54_9
|
Carl Hoefkens plays for Club Brugge K.V. from Jan, 2009 to Jan, 2013.
Carl Hoefkens plays for Belgium national under-21 football team from Jan, 1997 to Jan, 1999.
Carl Hoefkens plays for Stoke City F.C. from Jan, 2005 to Jan, 2007.
Carl Hoefkens plays for Belgium national under-19 football team from Jan, 1995 to Jan, 1996.
Carl Hoefkens plays for Beerschot A.C. from Jan, 2003 to Jan, 2005.
Carl Hoefkens plays for Belgium national under-17 football team from Jan, 1994 to Jan, 1995.
Carl Hoefkens plays for Manchester 62 F.C. from Jan, 2015 to Dec, 2022.
Carl Hoefkens plays for K.V. Oostende from Jan, 2014 to Jan, 2015.
Carl Hoefkens plays for Belgium national under-20 football team from Jan, 1997 to Jan, 1997.
Carl Hoefkens plays for K.F.C. Lommel S.K. from Jan, 2001 to Jan, 2003.
Carl Hoefkens plays for Belgium national football team from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 2011.
Carl Hoefkens plays for Lierse S.K. from Jan, 2013 to Jan, 2014.
Carl Hoefkens plays for West Bromwich Albion F.C. from Jan, 2007 to Jan, 2009.
Carl Hoefkens plays for K.V.C. Westerlo from Jan, 2003 to Jan, 2003.
|
Carl HoefkensCarl Hoefkens (; born 6 October 1978) is a Belgian former footballer who played as a defender.Born in Lier, Belgium, Hoefkens started his career at K. Lierse S.K. and played there for six years. He made his breakthrough with Lierse in first class and won the Belgian Cup in 1999, beating Standard Liège in the final with 3–1. Afterwards, he made a move to Lommel but his move turned into a nightmare, when Lommel went broke in 2003. In the summer of 2003, he came to Germinal Beerschot, the first class team of the Belgian city of Antwerp. There, he became one of the pillars of the team. In his second season at Germinal Beerschot, he won the cup in the final against FC Bruges, then champions of Belgium. Hoefkens is still appreciated by Beerschot fans; a group of fans from the club have travelled to England on numerous occasions to watch him play.In the summer of 2005 Stoke City manager, Johan Boskamp snapped him up for an undisclosed fee. He made his debut for the club in a 0–0 draw against Sheffield Wednesday on 6 August 2005. Hoefkens became an ever-present in the Stoke line-up and wore the number 2 shirt.Hoefkens received acclaim for his performances in his first season in English football. He became a fans favourite at Stoke and was crowned 'Fans' Player of the year (2005–06). He then won his 9th cap for his country against Kazakhstan (0–0).During the January 2007 transfer window he was linked with a return to Belgium, with Club Brugge reportedly interested in him. He was also penalty taker for Stoke before the arrival of Danny Higginbotham, however he still maintained a 100% record for the club. Hoefkens impressed both manager and fans alike with his technical ability during the 2006–07 season. He was also praised for his versatility, as he operated as a winger or a central midfielder on occasions in the latter stages of the season.It was feared that Hoefkens had broken a bone in his foot in a Euro 2008 qualifier against Portugal however a scan revealed that there was no damage.Stoke accepted a bid for Hoefkens from West Bromwich Albion on 4 August 2007. He joined Albion on 7 August 2007 in a £750,000 deal and was offered a two-year contract plus a further one-year as an option. Hoefkens made his Albion debut in a 2–1 defeat away at Burnley on the opening day of the 2007–08 season. One week later, Hoefkens was named in the Championship Team of the Week, following his performance in the 2–0 home win over Preston North End. He is known by his West Brom teammates as "Wolverine", due to his resemblance to the comic book hero from the X-Men.Hoefkens was released in the summer of 2009.On 25 August 2009 Club Brugge signed the former West Bromwich Albion's Belgian right-back on a two-year deal. He became captain in the season 2010–11. After the season ended, he signed for an extra year with the club. After 4 years and 127 appearances for the club, Hoefkens moved to Lierse in 2013, spending a season there before a move to Oostende.In August 2015, after his release from Oostende, Hoefkens signed for Gibraltar Premier Division side Manchester 62, who beat off competition from reigning champions Lincoln Red Imps for his signature. He signed undisclosed semi-professional terms for the side and will aid in the development of David Ochello's young side, making his debut on 26 September in a 1–0 victory over Glacis United.Hoefkens has played for his country twenty two times and has scored one goal. He also represented Belgium in the 1997 FIFA World Youth Championship.Hoefkens is married and has two sons: Milan and Valentino. Hoefkens can speak Dutch, English, French, German and Italian.Sources:Source:
|
[
"Beerschot A.C.",
"K.F.C. Lommel S.K.",
"K.V.C. Westerlo",
"Belgium national under-21 football team",
"Lierse S.K.",
"Belgium national under-17 football team",
"Belgium national under-19 football team",
"Club Brugge K.V.",
"Belgium national under-20 football team",
"K.V. Oostende",
"Manchester 62 F.C.",
"Stoke City F.C."
] |
|
Which team did Carl Hoefkens play for in 2007-08-26?
|
August 26, 2007
|
{
"text": [
"Belgium national football team",
"West Bromwich Albion F.C."
]
}
|
L2_Q386907_P54_9
|
Carl Hoefkens plays for Club Brugge K.V. from Jan, 2009 to Jan, 2013.
Carl Hoefkens plays for Belgium national under-21 football team from Jan, 1997 to Jan, 1999.
Carl Hoefkens plays for Stoke City F.C. from Jan, 2005 to Jan, 2007.
Carl Hoefkens plays for Belgium national under-19 football team from Jan, 1995 to Jan, 1996.
Carl Hoefkens plays for Beerschot A.C. from Jan, 2003 to Jan, 2005.
Carl Hoefkens plays for Belgium national under-17 football team from Jan, 1994 to Jan, 1995.
Carl Hoefkens plays for Manchester 62 F.C. from Jan, 2015 to Dec, 2022.
Carl Hoefkens plays for K.V. Oostende from Jan, 2014 to Jan, 2015.
Carl Hoefkens plays for Belgium national under-20 football team from Jan, 1997 to Jan, 1997.
Carl Hoefkens plays for K.F.C. Lommel S.K. from Jan, 2001 to Jan, 2003.
Carl Hoefkens plays for Belgium national football team from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 2011.
Carl Hoefkens plays for Lierse S.K. from Jan, 2013 to Jan, 2014.
Carl Hoefkens plays for West Bromwich Albion F.C. from Jan, 2007 to Jan, 2009.
Carl Hoefkens plays for K.V.C. Westerlo from Jan, 2003 to Jan, 2003.
|
Carl HoefkensCarl Hoefkens (; born 6 October 1978) is a Belgian former footballer who played as a defender.Born in Lier, Belgium, Hoefkens started his career at K. Lierse S.K. and played there for six years. He made his breakthrough with Lierse in first class and won the Belgian Cup in 1999, beating Standard Liège in the final with 3–1. Afterwards, he made a move to Lommel but his move turned into a nightmare, when Lommel went broke in 2003. In the summer of 2003, he came to Germinal Beerschot, the first class team of the Belgian city of Antwerp. There, he became one of the pillars of the team. In his second season at Germinal Beerschot, he won the cup in the final against FC Bruges, then champions of Belgium. Hoefkens is still appreciated by Beerschot fans; a group of fans from the club have travelled to England on numerous occasions to watch him play.In the summer of 2005 Stoke City manager, Johan Boskamp snapped him up for an undisclosed fee. He made his debut for the club in a 0–0 draw against Sheffield Wednesday on 6 August 2005. Hoefkens became an ever-present in the Stoke line-up and wore the number 2 shirt.Hoefkens received acclaim for his performances in his first season in English football. He became a fans favourite at Stoke and was crowned 'Fans' Player of the year (2005–06). He then won his 9th cap for his country against Kazakhstan (0–0).During the January 2007 transfer window he was linked with a return to Belgium, with Club Brugge reportedly interested in him. He was also penalty taker for Stoke before the arrival of Danny Higginbotham, however he still maintained a 100% record for the club. Hoefkens impressed both manager and fans alike with his technical ability during the 2006–07 season. He was also praised for his versatility, as he operated as a winger or a central midfielder on occasions in the latter stages of the season.It was feared that Hoefkens had broken a bone in his foot in a Euro 2008 qualifier against Portugal however a scan revealed that there was no damage.Stoke accepted a bid for Hoefkens from West Bromwich Albion on 4 August 2007. He joined Albion on 7 August 2007 in a £750,000 deal and was offered a two-year contract plus a further one-year as an option. Hoefkens made his Albion debut in a 2–1 defeat away at Burnley on the opening day of the 2007–08 season. One week later, Hoefkens was named in the Championship Team of the Week, following his performance in the 2–0 home win over Preston North End. He is known by his West Brom teammates as "Wolverine", due to his resemblance to the comic book hero from the X-Men.Hoefkens was released in the summer of 2009.On 25 August 2009 Club Brugge signed the former West Bromwich Albion's Belgian right-back on a two-year deal. He became captain in the season 2010–11. After the season ended, he signed for an extra year with the club. After 4 years and 127 appearances for the club, Hoefkens moved to Lierse in 2013, spending a season there before a move to Oostende.In August 2015, after his release from Oostende, Hoefkens signed for Gibraltar Premier Division side Manchester 62, who beat off competition from reigning champions Lincoln Red Imps for his signature. He signed undisclosed semi-professional terms for the side and will aid in the development of David Ochello's young side, making his debut on 26 September in a 1–0 victory over Glacis United.Hoefkens has played for his country twenty two times and has scored one goal. He also represented Belgium in the 1997 FIFA World Youth Championship.Hoefkens is married and has two sons: Milan and Valentino. Hoefkens can speak Dutch, English, French, German and Italian.Sources:Source:
|
[
"Beerschot A.C.",
"K.F.C. Lommel S.K.",
"K.V.C. Westerlo",
"Belgium national under-21 football team",
"Lierse S.K.",
"Belgium national under-17 football team",
"Belgium national under-19 football team",
"Club Brugge K.V.",
"Belgium national under-20 football team",
"K.V. Oostende",
"Manchester 62 F.C.",
"Stoke City F.C."
] |
|
Which team did Carl Hoefkens play for in 26/08/2007?
|
August 26, 2007
|
{
"text": [
"Belgium national football team",
"West Bromwich Albion F.C."
]
}
|
L2_Q386907_P54_9
|
Carl Hoefkens plays for Club Brugge K.V. from Jan, 2009 to Jan, 2013.
Carl Hoefkens plays for Belgium national under-21 football team from Jan, 1997 to Jan, 1999.
Carl Hoefkens plays for Stoke City F.C. from Jan, 2005 to Jan, 2007.
Carl Hoefkens plays for Belgium national under-19 football team from Jan, 1995 to Jan, 1996.
Carl Hoefkens plays for Beerschot A.C. from Jan, 2003 to Jan, 2005.
Carl Hoefkens plays for Belgium national under-17 football team from Jan, 1994 to Jan, 1995.
Carl Hoefkens plays for Manchester 62 F.C. from Jan, 2015 to Dec, 2022.
Carl Hoefkens plays for K.V. Oostende from Jan, 2014 to Jan, 2015.
Carl Hoefkens plays for Belgium national under-20 football team from Jan, 1997 to Jan, 1997.
Carl Hoefkens plays for K.F.C. Lommel S.K. from Jan, 2001 to Jan, 2003.
Carl Hoefkens plays for Belgium national football team from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 2011.
Carl Hoefkens plays for Lierse S.K. from Jan, 2013 to Jan, 2014.
Carl Hoefkens plays for West Bromwich Albion F.C. from Jan, 2007 to Jan, 2009.
Carl Hoefkens plays for K.V.C. Westerlo from Jan, 2003 to Jan, 2003.
|
Carl HoefkensCarl Hoefkens (; born 6 October 1978) is a Belgian former footballer who played as a defender.Born in Lier, Belgium, Hoefkens started his career at K. Lierse S.K. and played there for six years. He made his breakthrough with Lierse in first class and won the Belgian Cup in 1999, beating Standard Liège in the final with 3–1. Afterwards, he made a move to Lommel but his move turned into a nightmare, when Lommel went broke in 2003. In the summer of 2003, he came to Germinal Beerschot, the first class team of the Belgian city of Antwerp. There, he became one of the pillars of the team. In his second season at Germinal Beerschot, he won the cup in the final against FC Bruges, then champions of Belgium. Hoefkens is still appreciated by Beerschot fans; a group of fans from the club have travelled to England on numerous occasions to watch him play.In the summer of 2005 Stoke City manager, Johan Boskamp snapped him up for an undisclosed fee. He made his debut for the club in a 0–0 draw against Sheffield Wednesday on 6 August 2005. Hoefkens became an ever-present in the Stoke line-up and wore the number 2 shirt.Hoefkens received acclaim for his performances in his first season in English football. He became a fans favourite at Stoke and was crowned 'Fans' Player of the year (2005–06). He then won his 9th cap for his country against Kazakhstan (0–0).During the January 2007 transfer window he was linked with a return to Belgium, with Club Brugge reportedly interested in him. He was also penalty taker for Stoke before the arrival of Danny Higginbotham, however he still maintained a 100% record for the club. Hoefkens impressed both manager and fans alike with his technical ability during the 2006–07 season. He was also praised for his versatility, as he operated as a winger or a central midfielder on occasions in the latter stages of the season.It was feared that Hoefkens had broken a bone in his foot in a Euro 2008 qualifier against Portugal however a scan revealed that there was no damage.Stoke accepted a bid for Hoefkens from West Bromwich Albion on 4 August 2007. He joined Albion on 7 August 2007 in a £750,000 deal and was offered a two-year contract plus a further one-year as an option. Hoefkens made his Albion debut in a 2–1 defeat away at Burnley on the opening day of the 2007–08 season. One week later, Hoefkens was named in the Championship Team of the Week, following his performance in the 2–0 home win over Preston North End. He is known by his West Brom teammates as "Wolverine", due to his resemblance to the comic book hero from the X-Men.Hoefkens was released in the summer of 2009.On 25 August 2009 Club Brugge signed the former West Bromwich Albion's Belgian right-back on a two-year deal. He became captain in the season 2010–11. After the season ended, he signed for an extra year with the club. After 4 years and 127 appearances for the club, Hoefkens moved to Lierse in 2013, spending a season there before a move to Oostende.In August 2015, after his release from Oostende, Hoefkens signed for Gibraltar Premier Division side Manchester 62, who beat off competition from reigning champions Lincoln Red Imps for his signature. He signed undisclosed semi-professional terms for the side and will aid in the development of David Ochello's young side, making his debut on 26 September in a 1–0 victory over Glacis United.Hoefkens has played for his country twenty two times and has scored one goal. He also represented Belgium in the 1997 FIFA World Youth Championship.Hoefkens is married and has two sons: Milan and Valentino. Hoefkens can speak Dutch, English, French, German and Italian.Sources:Source:
|
[
"Beerschot A.C.",
"K.F.C. Lommel S.K.",
"K.V.C. Westerlo",
"Belgium national under-21 football team",
"Lierse S.K.",
"Belgium national under-17 football team",
"Belgium national under-19 football team",
"Club Brugge K.V.",
"Belgium national under-20 football team",
"K.V. Oostende",
"Manchester 62 F.C.",
"Stoke City F.C."
] |
|
Which team did Carl Hoefkens play for in Aug 26, 2007?
|
August 26, 2007
|
{
"text": [
"Belgium national football team",
"West Bromwich Albion F.C."
]
}
|
L2_Q386907_P54_9
|
Carl Hoefkens plays for Club Brugge K.V. from Jan, 2009 to Jan, 2013.
Carl Hoefkens plays for Belgium national under-21 football team from Jan, 1997 to Jan, 1999.
Carl Hoefkens plays for Stoke City F.C. from Jan, 2005 to Jan, 2007.
Carl Hoefkens plays for Belgium national under-19 football team from Jan, 1995 to Jan, 1996.
Carl Hoefkens plays for Beerschot A.C. from Jan, 2003 to Jan, 2005.
Carl Hoefkens plays for Belgium national under-17 football team from Jan, 1994 to Jan, 1995.
Carl Hoefkens plays for Manchester 62 F.C. from Jan, 2015 to Dec, 2022.
Carl Hoefkens plays for K.V. Oostende from Jan, 2014 to Jan, 2015.
Carl Hoefkens plays for Belgium national under-20 football team from Jan, 1997 to Jan, 1997.
Carl Hoefkens plays for K.F.C. Lommel S.K. from Jan, 2001 to Jan, 2003.
Carl Hoefkens plays for Belgium national football team from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 2011.
Carl Hoefkens plays for Lierse S.K. from Jan, 2013 to Jan, 2014.
Carl Hoefkens plays for West Bromwich Albion F.C. from Jan, 2007 to Jan, 2009.
Carl Hoefkens plays for K.V.C. Westerlo from Jan, 2003 to Jan, 2003.
|
Carl HoefkensCarl Hoefkens (; born 6 October 1978) is a Belgian former footballer who played as a defender.Born in Lier, Belgium, Hoefkens started his career at K. Lierse S.K. and played there for six years. He made his breakthrough with Lierse in first class and won the Belgian Cup in 1999, beating Standard Liège in the final with 3–1. Afterwards, he made a move to Lommel but his move turned into a nightmare, when Lommel went broke in 2003. In the summer of 2003, he came to Germinal Beerschot, the first class team of the Belgian city of Antwerp. There, he became one of the pillars of the team. In his second season at Germinal Beerschot, he won the cup in the final against FC Bruges, then champions of Belgium. Hoefkens is still appreciated by Beerschot fans; a group of fans from the club have travelled to England on numerous occasions to watch him play.In the summer of 2005 Stoke City manager, Johan Boskamp snapped him up for an undisclosed fee. He made his debut for the club in a 0–0 draw against Sheffield Wednesday on 6 August 2005. Hoefkens became an ever-present in the Stoke line-up and wore the number 2 shirt.Hoefkens received acclaim for his performances in his first season in English football. He became a fans favourite at Stoke and was crowned 'Fans' Player of the year (2005–06). He then won his 9th cap for his country against Kazakhstan (0–0).During the January 2007 transfer window he was linked with a return to Belgium, with Club Brugge reportedly interested in him. He was also penalty taker for Stoke before the arrival of Danny Higginbotham, however he still maintained a 100% record for the club. Hoefkens impressed both manager and fans alike with his technical ability during the 2006–07 season. He was also praised for his versatility, as he operated as a winger or a central midfielder on occasions in the latter stages of the season.It was feared that Hoefkens had broken a bone in his foot in a Euro 2008 qualifier against Portugal however a scan revealed that there was no damage.Stoke accepted a bid for Hoefkens from West Bromwich Albion on 4 August 2007. He joined Albion on 7 August 2007 in a £750,000 deal and was offered a two-year contract plus a further one-year as an option. Hoefkens made his Albion debut in a 2–1 defeat away at Burnley on the opening day of the 2007–08 season. One week later, Hoefkens was named in the Championship Team of the Week, following his performance in the 2–0 home win over Preston North End. He is known by his West Brom teammates as "Wolverine", due to his resemblance to the comic book hero from the X-Men.Hoefkens was released in the summer of 2009.On 25 August 2009 Club Brugge signed the former West Bromwich Albion's Belgian right-back on a two-year deal. He became captain in the season 2010–11. After the season ended, he signed for an extra year with the club. After 4 years and 127 appearances for the club, Hoefkens moved to Lierse in 2013, spending a season there before a move to Oostende.In August 2015, after his release from Oostende, Hoefkens signed for Gibraltar Premier Division side Manchester 62, who beat off competition from reigning champions Lincoln Red Imps for his signature. He signed undisclosed semi-professional terms for the side and will aid in the development of David Ochello's young side, making his debut on 26 September in a 1–0 victory over Glacis United.Hoefkens has played for his country twenty two times and has scored one goal. He also represented Belgium in the 1997 FIFA World Youth Championship.Hoefkens is married and has two sons: Milan and Valentino. Hoefkens can speak Dutch, English, French, German and Italian.Sources:Source:
|
[
"Beerschot A.C.",
"K.F.C. Lommel S.K.",
"K.V.C. Westerlo",
"Belgium national under-21 football team",
"Lierse S.K.",
"Belgium national under-17 football team",
"Belgium national under-19 football team",
"Club Brugge K.V.",
"Belgium national under-20 football team",
"K.V. Oostende",
"Manchester 62 F.C.",
"Stoke City F.C."
] |
|
Which team did Carl Hoefkens play for in 08/26/2007?
|
August 26, 2007
|
{
"text": [
"Belgium national football team",
"West Bromwich Albion F.C."
]
}
|
L2_Q386907_P54_9
|
Carl Hoefkens plays for Club Brugge K.V. from Jan, 2009 to Jan, 2013.
Carl Hoefkens plays for Belgium national under-21 football team from Jan, 1997 to Jan, 1999.
Carl Hoefkens plays for Stoke City F.C. from Jan, 2005 to Jan, 2007.
Carl Hoefkens plays for Belgium national under-19 football team from Jan, 1995 to Jan, 1996.
Carl Hoefkens plays for Beerschot A.C. from Jan, 2003 to Jan, 2005.
Carl Hoefkens plays for Belgium national under-17 football team from Jan, 1994 to Jan, 1995.
Carl Hoefkens plays for Manchester 62 F.C. from Jan, 2015 to Dec, 2022.
Carl Hoefkens plays for K.V. Oostende from Jan, 2014 to Jan, 2015.
Carl Hoefkens plays for Belgium national under-20 football team from Jan, 1997 to Jan, 1997.
Carl Hoefkens plays for K.F.C. Lommel S.K. from Jan, 2001 to Jan, 2003.
Carl Hoefkens plays for Belgium national football team from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 2011.
Carl Hoefkens plays for Lierse S.K. from Jan, 2013 to Jan, 2014.
Carl Hoefkens plays for West Bromwich Albion F.C. from Jan, 2007 to Jan, 2009.
Carl Hoefkens plays for K.V.C. Westerlo from Jan, 2003 to Jan, 2003.
|
Carl HoefkensCarl Hoefkens (; born 6 October 1978) is a Belgian former footballer who played as a defender.Born in Lier, Belgium, Hoefkens started his career at K. Lierse S.K. and played there for six years. He made his breakthrough with Lierse in first class and won the Belgian Cup in 1999, beating Standard Liège in the final with 3–1. Afterwards, he made a move to Lommel but his move turned into a nightmare, when Lommel went broke in 2003. In the summer of 2003, he came to Germinal Beerschot, the first class team of the Belgian city of Antwerp. There, he became one of the pillars of the team. In his second season at Germinal Beerschot, he won the cup in the final against FC Bruges, then champions of Belgium. Hoefkens is still appreciated by Beerschot fans; a group of fans from the club have travelled to England on numerous occasions to watch him play.In the summer of 2005 Stoke City manager, Johan Boskamp snapped him up for an undisclosed fee. He made his debut for the club in a 0–0 draw against Sheffield Wednesday on 6 August 2005. Hoefkens became an ever-present in the Stoke line-up and wore the number 2 shirt.Hoefkens received acclaim for his performances in his first season in English football. He became a fans favourite at Stoke and was crowned 'Fans' Player of the year (2005–06). He then won his 9th cap for his country against Kazakhstan (0–0).During the January 2007 transfer window he was linked with a return to Belgium, with Club Brugge reportedly interested in him. He was also penalty taker for Stoke before the arrival of Danny Higginbotham, however he still maintained a 100% record for the club. Hoefkens impressed both manager and fans alike with his technical ability during the 2006–07 season. He was also praised for his versatility, as he operated as a winger or a central midfielder on occasions in the latter stages of the season.It was feared that Hoefkens had broken a bone in his foot in a Euro 2008 qualifier against Portugal however a scan revealed that there was no damage.Stoke accepted a bid for Hoefkens from West Bromwich Albion on 4 August 2007. He joined Albion on 7 August 2007 in a £750,000 deal and was offered a two-year contract plus a further one-year as an option. Hoefkens made his Albion debut in a 2–1 defeat away at Burnley on the opening day of the 2007–08 season. One week later, Hoefkens was named in the Championship Team of the Week, following his performance in the 2–0 home win over Preston North End. He is known by his West Brom teammates as "Wolverine", due to his resemblance to the comic book hero from the X-Men.Hoefkens was released in the summer of 2009.On 25 August 2009 Club Brugge signed the former West Bromwich Albion's Belgian right-back on a two-year deal. He became captain in the season 2010–11. After the season ended, he signed for an extra year with the club. After 4 years and 127 appearances for the club, Hoefkens moved to Lierse in 2013, spending a season there before a move to Oostende.In August 2015, after his release from Oostende, Hoefkens signed for Gibraltar Premier Division side Manchester 62, who beat off competition from reigning champions Lincoln Red Imps for his signature. He signed undisclosed semi-professional terms for the side and will aid in the development of David Ochello's young side, making his debut on 26 September in a 1–0 victory over Glacis United.Hoefkens has played for his country twenty two times and has scored one goal. He also represented Belgium in the 1997 FIFA World Youth Championship.Hoefkens is married and has two sons: Milan and Valentino. Hoefkens can speak Dutch, English, French, German and Italian.Sources:Source:
|
[
"Beerschot A.C.",
"K.F.C. Lommel S.K.",
"K.V.C. Westerlo",
"Belgium national under-21 football team",
"Lierse S.K.",
"Belgium national under-17 football team",
"Belgium national under-19 football team",
"Club Brugge K.V.",
"Belgium national under-20 football team",
"K.V. Oostende",
"Manchester 62 F.C.",
"Stoke City F.C."
] |
|
Which team did Carl Hoefkens play for in 26-Aug-200726-August-2007?
|
August 26, 2007
|
{
"text": [
"Belgium national football team",
"West Bromwich Albion F.C."
]
}
|
L2_Q386907_P54_9
|
Carl Hoefkens plays for Club Brugge K.V. from Jan, 2009 to Jan, 2013.
Carl Hoefkens plays for Belgium national under-21 football team from Jan, 1997 to Jan, 1999.
Carl Hoefkens plays for Stoke City F.C. from Jan, 2005 to Jan, 2007.
Carl Hoefkens plays for Belgium national under-19 football team from Jan, 1995 to Jan, 1996.
Carl Hoefkens plays for Beerschot A.C. from Jan, 2003 to Jan, 2005.
Carl Hoefkens plays for Belgium national under-17 football team from Jan, 1994 to Jan, 1995.
Carl Hoefkens plays for Manchester 62 F.C. from Jan, 2015 to Dec, 2022.
Carl Hoefkens plays for K.V. Oostende from Jan, 2014 to Jan, 2015.
Carl Hoefkens plays for Belgium national under-20 football team from Jan, 1997 to Jan, 1997.
Carl Hoefkens plays for K.F.C. Lommel S.K. from Jan, 2001 to Jan, 2003.
Carl Hoefkens plays for Belgium national football team from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 2011.
Carl Hoefkens plays for Lierse S.K. from Jan, 2013 to Jan, 2014.
Carl Hoefkens plays for West Bromwich Albion F.C. from Jan, 2007 to Jan, 2009.
Carl Hoefkens plays for K.V.C. Westerlo from Jan, 2003 to Jan, 2003.
|
Carl HoefkensCarl Hoefkens (; born 6 October 1978) is a Belgian former footballer who played as a defender.Born in Lier, Belgium, Hoefkens started his career at K. Lierse S.K. and played there for six years. He made his breakthrough with Lierse in first class and won the Belgian Cup in 1999, beating Standard Liège in the final with 3–1. Afterwards, he made a move to Lommel but his move turned into a nightmare, when Lommel went broke in 2003. In the summer of 2003, he came to Germinal Beerschot, the first class team of the Belgian city of Antwerp. There, he became one of the pillars of the team. In his second season at Germinal Beerschot, he won the cup in the final against FC Bruges, then champions of Belgium. Hoefkens is still appreciated by Beerschot fans; a group of fans from the club have travelled to England on numerous occasions to watch him play.In the summer of 2005 Stoke City manager, Johan Boskamp snapped him up for an undisclosed fee. He made his debut for the club in a 0–0 draw against Sheffield Wednesday on 6 August 2005. Hoefkens became an ever-present in the Stoke line-up and wore the number 2 shirt.Hoefkens received acclaim for his performances in his first season in English football. He became a fans favourite at Stoke and was crowned 'Fans' Player of the year (2005–06). He then won his 9th cap for his country against Kazakhstan (0–0).During the January 2007 transfer window he was linked with a return to Belgium, with Club Brugge reportedly interested in him. He was also penalty taker for Stoke before the arrival of Danny Higginbotham, however he still maintained a 100% record for the club. Hoefkens impressed both manager and fans alike with his technical ability during the 2006–07 season. He was also praised for his versatility, as he operated as a winger or a central midfielder on occasions in the latter stages of the season.It was feared that Hoefkens had broken a bone in his foot in a Euro 2008 qualifier against Portugal however a scan revealed that there was no damage.Stoke accepted a bid for Hoefkens from West Bromwich Albion on 4 August 2007. He joined Albion on 7 August 2007 in a £750,000 deal and was offered a two-year contract plus a further one-year as an option. Hoefkens made his Albion debut in a 2–1 defeat away at Burnley on the opening day of the 2007–08 season. One week later, Hoefkens was named in the Championship Team of the Week, following his performance in the 2–0 home win over Preston North End. He is known by his West Brom teammates as "Wolverine", due to his resemblance to the comic book hero from the X-Men.Hoefkens was released in the summer of 2009.On 25 August 2009 Club Brugge signed the former West Bromwich Albion's Belgian right-back on a two-year deal. He became captain in the season 2010–11. After the season ended, he signed for an extra year with the club. After 4 years and 127 appearances for the club, Hoefkens moved to Lierse in 2013, spending a season there before a move to Oostende.In August 2015, after his release from Oostende, Hoefkens signed for Gibraltar Premier Division side Manchester 62, who beat off competition from reigning champions Lincoln Red Imps for his signature. He signed undisclosed semi-professional terms for the side and will aid in the development of David Ochello's young side, making his debut on 26 September in a 1–0 victory over Glacis United.Hoefkens has played for his country twenty two times and has scored one goal. He also represented Belgium in the 1997 FIFA World Youth Championship.Hoefkens is married and has two sons: Milan and Valentino. Hoefkens can speak Dutch, English, French, German and Italian.Sources:Source:
|
[
"Beerschot A.C.",
"K.F.C. Lommel S.K.",
"K.V.C. Westerlo",
"Belgium national under-21 football team",
"Lierse S.K.",
"Belgium national under-17 football team",
"Belgium national under-19 football team",
"Club Brugge K.V.",
"Belgium national under-20 football team",
"K.V. Oostende",
"Manchester 62 F.C.",
"Stoke City F.C."
] |
|
Which team did Syarhey Herasimets play for in Apr, 1990?
|
April 16, 1990
|
{
"text": [
"FC Dinamo Minsk"
]
}
|
L2_Q4135991_P54_3
|
Syarhey Herasimets plays for Bnei Yehuda Tel Aviv F.C. from Jan, 1993 to Jan, 1996.
Syarhey Herasimets plays for FC Zenit Saint Petersburg from Jan, 1997 to Jan, 1999.
Syarhey Herasimets plays for FC Baltika Kaliningrad from Jan, 1997 to Jan, 1997.
Syarhey Herasimets plays for FC Dynamo Kyiv from Jan, 1983 to Jan, 1984.
Syarhey Herasimets plays for FC Torpedo-MAZ Minsk from Jan, 2001 to Jan, 2002.
Syarhey Herasimets plays for FC Dinamo Minsk from Jan, 1989 to Jan, 1993.
Syarhey Herasimets plays for FBK Kaunas from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 1999.
Syarhey Herasimets plays for FC Shakhtar Donetsk from Jan, 1986 to Jan, 1988.
Syarhey Herasimets plays for Belarus national football team from Jan, 1992 to Jan, 1999.
Syarhey Herasimets plays for FC Dynamo Saint Petersburg from Jan, 2000 to Jan, 2000.
Syarhey Herasimets plays for FC Ros Bila Tserkva from Jan, 1984 to Jan, 1986.
|
Syarhey HerasimetsSyarhyey Ryhoravich Hyerasimets (; ; born 13 October 1965) is a Belarusian professional football coach and a former player.As a player, he made his professional debut in the Soviet Second League in 1984 for FC Dynamo Irpen. He is perhaps best known for scoring the only goal in a 1-0 win for Belarus over the Netherlands in a Euro 1996 qualifying match in 1995.His son is Ukrainian footballer Serhiy Herasymets, who as of 2017 plays for Ukrainian First League club MFC Mykolaiv.Dinamo MinskZenit Saint PetersburgŽalgiris KaunasIndividual
|
[
"FBK Kaunas",
"FC Zenit Saint Petersburg",
"FC Dynamo Saint Petersburg",
"FC Torpedo-MAZ Minsk",
"FC Baltika Kaliningrad",
"Belarus national football team",
"FC Dynamo Kyiv",
"Bnei Yehuda Tel Aviv F.C.",
"FC Shakhtar Donetsk",
"FC Ros Bila Tserkva"
] |
|
Which team did Syarhey Herasimets play for in 1990-04-16?
|
April 16, 1990
|
{
"text": [
"FC Dinamo Minsk"
]
}
|
L2_Q4135991_P54_3
|
Syarhey Herasimets plays for Bnei Yehuda Tel Aviv F.C. from Jan, 1993 to Jan, 1996.
Syarhey Herasimets plays for FC Zenit Saint Petersburg from Jan, 1997 to Jan, 1999.
Syarhey Herasimets plays for FC Baltika Kaliningrad from Jan, 1997 to Jan, 1997.
Syarhey Herasimets plays for FC Dynamo Kyiv from Jan, 1983 to Jan, 1984.
Syarhey Herasimets plays for FC Torpedo-MAZ Minsk from Jan, 2001 to Jan, 2002.
Syarhey Herasimets plays for FC Dinamo Minsk from Jan, 1989 to Jan, 1993.
Syarhey Herasimets plays for FBK Kaunas from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 1999.
Syarhey Herasimets plays for FC Shakhtar Donetsk from Jan, 1986 to Jan, 1988.
Syarhey Herasimets plays for Belarus national football team from Jan, 1992 to Jan, 1999.
Syarhey Herasimets plays for FC Dynamo Saint Petersburg from Jan, 2000 to Jan, 2000.
Syarhey Herasimets plays for FC Ros Bila Tserkva from Jan, 1984 to Jan, 1986.
|
Syarhey HerasimetsSyarhyey Ryhoravich Hyerasimets (; ; born 13 October 1965) is a Belarusian professional football coach and a former player.As a player, he made his professional debut in the Soviet Second League in 1984 for FC Dynamo Irpen. He is perhaps best known for scoring the only goal in a 1-0 win for Belarus over the Netherlands in a Euro 1996 qualifying match in 1995.His son is Ukrainian footballer Serhiy Herasymets, who as of 2017 plays for Ukrainian First League club MFC Mykolaiv.Dinamo MinskZenit Saint PetersburgŽalgiris KaunasIndividual
|
[
"FBK Kaunas",
"FC Zenit Saint Petersburg",
"FC Dynamo Saint Petersburg",
"FC Torpedo-MAZ Minsk",
"FC Baltika Kaliningrad",
"Belarus national football team",
"FC Dynamo Kyiv",
"Bnei Yehuda Tel Aviv F.C.",
"FC Shakhtar Donetsk",
"FC Ros Bila Tserkva"
] |
|
Which team did Syarhey Herasimets play for in 16/04/1990?
|
April 16, 1990
|
{
"text": [
"FC Dinamo Minsk"
]
}
|
L2_Q4135991_P54_3
|
Syarhey Herasimets plays for Bnei Yehuda Tel Aviv F.C. from Jan, 1993 to Jan, 1996.
Syarhey Herasimets plays for FC Zenit Saint Petersburg from Jan, 1997 to Jan, 1999.
Syarhey Herasimets plays for FC Baltika Kaliningrad from Jan, 1997 to Jan, 1997.
Syarhey Herasimets plays for FC Dynamo Kyiv from Jan, 1983 to Jan, 1984.
Syarhey Herasimets plays for FC Torpedo-MAZ Minsk from Jan, 2001 to Jan, 2002.
Syarhey Herasimets plays for FC Dinamo Minsk from Jan, 1989 to Jan, 1993.
Syarhey Herasimets plays for FBK Kaunas from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 1999.
Syarhey Herasimets plays for FC Shakhtar Donetsk from Jan, 1986 to Jan, 1988.
Syarhey Herasimets plays for Belarus national football team from Jan, 1992 to Jan, 1999.
Syarhey Herasimets plays for FC Dynamo Saint Petersburg from Jan, 2000 to Jan, 2000.
Syarhey Herasimets plays for FC Ros Bila Tserkva from Jan, 1984 to Jan, 1986.
|
Syarhey HerasimetsSyarhyey Ryhoravich Hyerasimets (; ; born 13 October 1965) is a Belarusian professional football coach and a former player.As a player, he made his professional debut in the Soviet Second League in 1984 for FC Dynamo Irpen. He is perhaps best known for scoring the only goal in a 1-0 win for Belarus over the Netherlands in a Euro 1996 qualifying match in 1995.His son is Ukrainian footballer Serhiy Herasymets, who as of 2017 plays for Ukrainian First League club MFC Mykolaiv.Dinamo MinskZenit Saint PetersburgŽalgiris KaunasIndividual
|
[
"FBK Kaunas",
"FC Zenit Saint Petersburg",
"FC Dynamo Saint Petersburg",
"FC Torpedo-MAZ Minsk",
"FC Baltika Kaliningrad",
"Belarus national football team",
"FC Dynamo Kyiv",
"Bnei Yehuda Tel Aviv F.C.",
"FC Shakhtar Donetsk",
"FC Ros Bila Tserkva"
] |
|
Which team did Syarhey Herasimets play for in Apr 16, 1990?
|
April 16, 1990
|
{
"text": [
"FC Dinamo Minsk"
]
}
|
L2_Q4135991_P54_3
|
Syarhey Herasimets plays for Bnei Yehuda Tel Aviv F.C. from Jan, 1993 to Jan, 1996.
Syarhey Herasimets plays for FC Zenit Saint Petersburg from Jan, 1997 to Jan, 1999.
Syarhey Herasimets plays for FC Baltika Kaliningrad from Jan, 1997 to Jan, 1997.
Syarhey Herasimets plays for FC Dynamo Kyiv from Jan, 1983 to Jan, 1984.
Syarhey Herasimets plays for FC Torpedo-MAZ Minsk from Jan, 2001 to Jan, 2002.
Syarhey Herasimets plays for FC Dinamo Minsk from Jan, 1989 to Jan, 1993.
Syarhey Herasimets plays for FBK Kaunas from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 1999.
Syarhey Herasimets plays for FC Shakhtar Donetsk from Jan, 1986 to Jan, 1988.
Syarhey Herasimets plays for Belarus national football team from Jan, 1992 to Jan, 1999.
Syarhey Herasimets plays for FC Dynamo Saint Petersburg from Jan, 2000 to Jan, 2000.
Syarhey Herasimets plays for FC Ros Bila Tserkva from Jan, 1984 to Jan, 1986.
|
Syarhey HerasimetsSyarhyey Ryhoravich Hyerasimets (; ; born 13 October 1965) is a Belarusian professional football coach and a former player.As a player, he made his professional debut in the Soviet Second League in 1984 for FC Dynamo Irpen. He is perhaps best known for scoring the only goal in a 1-0 win for Belarus over the Netherlands in a Euro 1996 qualifying match in 1995.His son is Ukrainian footballer Serhiy Herasymets, who as of 2017 plays for Ukrainian First League club MFC Mykolaiv.Dinamo MinskZenit Saint PetersburgŽalgiris KaunasIndividual
|
[
"FBK Kaunas",
"FC Zenit Saint Petersburg",
"FC Dynamo Saint Petersburg",
"FC Torpedo-MAZ Minsk",
"FC Baltika Kaliningrad",
"Belarus national football team",
"FC Dynamo Kyiv",
"Bnei Yehuda Tel Aviv F.C.",
"FC Shakhtar Donetsk",
"FC Ros Bila Tserkva"
] |
|
Which team did Syarhey Herasimets play for in 04/16/1990?
|
April 16, 1990
|
{
"text": [
"FC Dinamo Minsk"
]
}
|
L2_Q4135991_P54_3
|
Syarhey Herasimets plays for Bnei Yehuda Tel Aviv F.C. from Jan, 1993 to Jan, 1996.
Syarhey Herasimets plays for FC Zenit Saint Petersburg from Jan, 1997 to Jan, 1999.
Syarhey Herasimets plays for FC Baltika Kaliningrad from Jan, 1997 to Jan, 1997.
Syarhey Herasimets plays for FC Dynamo Kyiv from Jan, 1983 to Jan, 1984.
Syarhey Herasimets plays for FC Torpedo-MAZ Minsk from Jan, 2001 to Jan, 2002.
Syarhey Herasimets plays for FC Dinamo Minsk from Jan, 1989 to Jan, 1993.
Syarhey Herasimets plays for FBK Kaunas from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 1999.
Syarhey Herasimets plays for FC Shakhtar Donetsk from Jan, 1986 to Jan, 1988.
Syarhey Herasimets plays for Belarus national football team from Jan, 1992 to Jan, 1999.
Syarhey Herasimets plays for FC Dynamo Saint Petersburg from Jan, 2000 to Jan, 2000.
Syarhey Herasimets plays for FC Ros Bila Tserkva from Jan, 1984 to Jan, 1986.
|
Syarhey HerasimetsSyarhyey Ryhoravich Hyerasimets (; ; born 13 October 1965) is a Belarusian professional football coach and a former player.As a player, he made his professional debut in the Soviet Second League in 1984 for FC Dynamo Irpen. He is perhaps best known for scoring the only goal in a 1-0 win for Belarus over the Netherlands in a Euro 1996 qualifying match in 1995.His son is Ukrainian footballer Serhiy Herasymets, who as of 2017 plays for Ukrainian First League club MFC Mykolaiv.Dinamo MinskZenit Saint PetersburgŽalgiris KaunasIndividual
|
[
"FBK Kaunas",
"FC Zenit Saint Petersburg",
"FC Dynamo Saint Petersburg",
"FC Torpedo-MAZ Minsk",
"FC Baltika Kaliningrad",
"Belarus national football team",
"FC Dynamo Kyiv",
"Bnei Yehuda Tel Aviv F.C.",
"FC Shakhtar Donetsk",
"FC Ros Bila Tserkva"
] |
|
Which team did Syarhey Herasimets play for in 16-Apr-199016-April-1990?
|
April 16, 1990
|
{
"text": [
"FC Dinamo Minsk"
]
}
|
L2_Q4135991_P54_3
|
Syarhey Herasimets plays for Bnei Yehuda Tel Aviv F.C. from Jan, 1993 to Jan, 1996.
Syarhey Herasimets plays for FC Zenit Saint Petersburg from Jan, 1997 to Jan, 1999.
Syarhey Herasimets plays for FC Baltika Kaliningrad from Jan, 1997 to Jan, 1997.
Syarhey Herasimets plays for FC Dynamo Kyiv from Jan, 1983 to Jan, 1984.
Syarhey Herasimets plays for FC Torpedo-MAZ Minsk from Jan, 2001 to Jan, 2002.
Syarhey Herasimets plays for FC Dinamo Minsk from Jan, 1989 to Jan, 1993.
Syarhey Herasimets plays for FBK Kaunas from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 1999.
Syarhey Herasimets plays for FC Shakhtar Donetsk from Jan, 1986 to Jan, 1988.
Syarhey Herasimets plays for Belarus national football team from Jan, 1992 to Jan, 1999.
Syarhey Herasimets plays for FC Dynamo Saint Petersburg from Jan, 2000 to Jan, 2000.
Syarhey Herasimets plays for FC Ros Bila Tserkva from Jan, 1984 to Jan, 1986.
|
Syarhey HerasimetsSyarhyey Ryhoravich Hyerasimets (; ; born 13 October 1965) is a Belarusian professional football coach and a former player.As a player, he made his professional debut in the Soviet Second League in 1984 for FC Dynamo Irpen. He is perhaps best known for scoring the only goal in a 1-0 win for Belarus over the Netherlands in a Euro 1996 qualifying match in 1995.His son is Ukrainian footballer Serhiy Herasymets, who as of 2017 plays for Ukrainian First League club MFC Mykolaiv.Dinamo MinskZenit Saint PetersburgŽalgiris KaunasIndividual
|
[
"FBK Kaunas",
"FC Zenit Saint Petersburg",
"FC Dynamo Saint Petersburg",
"FC Torpedo-MAZ Minsk",
"FC Baltika Kaliningrad",
"Belarus national football team",
"FC Dynamo Kyiv",
"Bnei Yehuda Tel Aviv F.C.",
"FC Shakhtar Donetsk",
"FC Ros Bila Tserkva"
] |
|
Who was the chair of Embassy of Ukraine, Sofia in Sep, 2014?
|
September 22, 2014
|
{
"text": [
"Mikola Baltazhi"
]
}
|
L2_Q12142696_P488_4
|
Oleksandr Vorobyov is the chair of Embassy of Ukraine, Sofia from Jan, 1993 to Jan, 1998.
Moskalenko Vitalij Anatolijovic is the chair of Embassy of Ukraine, Sofia from Jul, 2018 to Dec, 2022.
Jurij Rylatsch is the chair of Embassy of Ukraine, Sofia from Mar, 2004 to Jun, 2006.
Victor Kalnik is the chair of Embassy of Ukraine, Sofia from Feb, 2007 to Mar, 2011.
Viacheslav Pokhvalsky is the chair of Embassy of Ukraine, Sofia from Jun, 1998 to Mar, 2004.
Mikola Baltazhi is the chair of Embassy of Ukraine, Sofia from Mar, 2011 to Jul, 2018.
|
Embassy of Ukraine, SofiaThe Embassy of Ukraine, Sofia is an embassy located in Sofia, Bulgaria. It is hosts the primary diplomatic mission from Ukraine to the Republic of Bulgaria.Ukraine and Bulgaria first established diplomatic relations on February 9, 1918, with the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk during the First World War. The treaty was signed between the Soviet Union (which had recently come to power after overthrowing the tsarist government of the Russian Empire) and the Central Powers (The German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Bulgaria). The Soviet Union agreed to withdraw Russian troops from the Eastern Front of the war and make peace with the Central Powers. Part of the agreement was the establishment of diplomatic relations between the governments of the Central Powers and the governments of the newly independent Eastern European republics that had gained independence from Russia during the Russian Revolution. One of these newly independent Eastern Europeans states was the Ukrainian People's Republic. Thus, the treaty caused Bulgaria and Ukraine to establish diplomatic ties. Oleksandr Shulhin, a prominent Ukrainian politician, became the first Ukrainian ambassador to Bulgaria. The diplomatic relations were ultimately short lived, as the Ukrainian People's Republic was eventually forced to join the Soviet Union in 1922. Coming under supremacy from Moscow once again, Ukraine was forced to break off the diplomatic relations it had established during its brief experience with independence. Bulgaria and Ukraine re-established diplomatic relations on December 13, 1991, shortly after Ukraine gained independence from the Soviet Union and became the modern sovereign state known as the Republic of Ukraine. The two countries have enjoyed positive and productive relations ever since 1991. Bulgaria, as a member of the European Union, has supported Ukraine in its efforts to become closer with the EU and with Western Europe in general.Bulgaria supported Ukraine's claim to the Crimean Peninsula over Russia's claim during the Crimean Crisis of 2014. During the crisis, then President of Bulgaria, Rosen Plevneliev, stated "Bulgaria is for preserving the sovereignty, the territorial integrity and the democratic future of Ukraine."In addition to the Ukrainian embassy in Sofia, a Bulgarian embassy was established in the Capital of Ukraine, Kyiv (see Embassy of Bulgaria, Kyiv). The two countries also have consulate-generals in each others' borders. Bulgaria maintains a consulate-general in Odessa and Ukraine maintains a consulate-general in Varna. The Ukrainian embassy in Sofia provides various consular services, such as "visa, passport, document legalization [and] emergency travel assistance". The embassy's stated purpose is to "help the government of Ukraine to maintain cordial economic, political, cultural, social and other transnational ties with the government of Bulgaria."
|
[
"Viacheslav Pokhvalsky",
"Victor Kalnik",
"Oleksandr Vorobyov",
"Moskalenko Vitalij Anatolijovic",
"Jurij Rylatsch"
] |
|
Who was the chair of Embassy of Ukraine, Sofia in 2014-09-22?
|
September 22, 2014
|
{
"text": [
"Mikola Baltazhi"
]
}
|
L2_Q12142696_P488_4
|
Oleksandr Vorobyov is the chair of Embassy of Ukraine, Sofia from Jan, 1993 to Jan, 1998.
Moskalenko Vitalij Anatolijovic is the chair of Embassy of Ukraine, Sofia from Jul, 2018 to Dec, 2022.
Jurij Rylatsch is the chair of Embassy of Ukraine, Sofia from Mar, 2004 to Jun, 2006.
Victor Kalnik is the chair of Embassy of Ukraine, Sofia from Feb, 2007 to Mar, 2011.
Viacheslav Pokhvalsky is the chair of Embassy of Ukraine, Sofia from Jun, 1998 to Mar, 2004.
Mikola Baltazhi is the chair of Embassy of Ukraine, Sofia from Mar, 2011 to Jul, 2018.
|
Embassy of Ukraine, SofiaThe Embassy of Ukraine, Sofia is an embassy located in Sofia, Bulgaria. It is hosts the primary diplomatic mission from Ukraine to the Republic of Bulgaria.Ukraine and Bulgaria first established diplomatic relations on February 9, 1918, with the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk during the First World War. The treaty was signed between the Soviet Union (which had recently come to power after overthrowing the tsarist government of the Russian Empire) and the Central Powers (The German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Bulgaria). The Soviet Union agreed to withdraw Russian troops from the Eastern Front of the war and make peace with the Central Powers. Part of the agreement was the establishment of diplomatic relations between the governments of the Central Powers and the governments of the newly independent Eastern European republics that had gained independence from Russia during the Russian Revolution. One of these newly independent Eastern Europeans states was the Ukrainian People's Republic. Thus, the treaty caused Bulgaria and Ukraine to establish diplomatic ties. Oleksandr Shulhin, a prominent Ukrainian politician, became the first Ukrainian ambassador to Bulgaria. The diplomatic relations were ultimately short lived, as the Ukrainian People's Republic was eventually forced to join the Soviet Union in 1922. Coming under supremacy from Moscow once again, Ukraine was forced to break off the diplomatic relations it had established during its brief experience with independence. Bulgaria and Ukraine re-established diplomatic relations on December 13, 1991, shortly after Ukraine gained independence from the Soviet Union and became the modern sovereign state known as the Republic of Ukraine. The two countries have enjoyed positive and productive relations ever since 1991. Bulgaria, as a member of the European Union, has supported Ukraine in its efforts to become closer with the EU and with Western Europe in general.Bulgaria supported Ukraine's claim to the Crimean Peninsula over Russia's claim during the Crimean Crisis of 2014. During the crisis, then President of Bulgaria, Rosen Plevneliev, stated "Bulgaria is for preserving the sovereignty, the territorial integrity and the democratic future of Ukraine."In addition to the Ukrainian embassy in Sofia, a Bulgarian embassy was established in the Capital of Ukraine, Kyiv (see Embassy of Bulgaria, Kyiv). The two countries also have consulate-generals in each others' borders. Bulgaria maintains a consulate-general in Odessa and Ukraine maintains a consulate-general in Varna. The Ukrainian embassy in Sofia provides various consular services, such as "visa, passport, document legalization [and] emergency travel assistance". The embassy's stated purpose is to "help the government of Ukraine to maintain cordial economic, political, cultural, social and other transnational ties with the government of Bulgaria."
|
[
"Viacheslav Pokhvalsky",
"Victor Kalnik",
"Oleksandr Vorobyov",
"Moskalenko Vitalij Anatolijovic",
"Jurij Rylatsch"
] |
|
Who was the chair of Embassy of Ukraine, Sofia in 22/09/2014?
|
September 22, 2014
|
{
"text": [
"Mikola Baltazhi"
]
}
|
L2_Q12142696_P488_4
|
Oleksandr Vorobyov is the chair of Embassy of Ukraine, Sofia from Jan, 1993 to Jan, 1998.
Moskalenko Vitalij Anatolijovic is the chair of Embassy of Ukraine, Sofia from Jul, 2018 to Dec, 2022.
Jurij Rylatsch is the chair of Embassy of Ukraine, Sofia from Mar, 2004 to Jun, 2006.
Victor Kalnik is the chair of Embassy of Ukraine, Sofia from Feb, 2007 to Mar, 2011.
Viacheslav Pokhvalsky is the chair of Embassy of Ukraine, Sofia from Jun, 1998 to Mar, 2004.
Mikola Baltazhi is the chair of Embassy of Ukraine, Sofia from Mar, 2011 to Jul, 2018.
|
Embassy of Ukraine, SofiaThe Embassy of Ukraine, Sofia is an embassy located in Sofia, Bulgaria. It is hosts the primary diplomatic mission from Ukraine to the Republic of Bulgaria.Ukraine and Bulgaria first established diplomatic relations on February 9, 1918, with the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk during the First World War. The treaty was signed between the Soviet Union (which had recently come to power after overthrowing the tsarist government of the Russian Empire) and the Central Powers (The German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Bulgaria). The Soviet Union agreed to withdraw Russian troops from the Eastern Front of the war and make peace with the Central Powers. Part of the agreement was the establishment of diplomatic relations between the governments of the Central Powers and the governments of the newly independent Eastern European republics that had gained independence from Russia during the Russian Revolution. One of these newly independent Eastern Europeans states was the Ukrainian People's Republic. Thus, the treaty caused Bulgaria and Ukraine to establish diplomatic ties. Oleksandr Shulhin, a prominent Ukrainian politician, became the first Ukrainian ambassador to Bulgaria. The diplomatic relations were ultimately short lived, as the Ukrainian People's Republic was eventually forced to join the Soviet Union in 1922. Coming under supremacy from Moscow once again, Ukraine was forced to break off the diplomatic relations it had established during its brief experience with independence. Bulgaria and Ukraine re-established diplomatic relations on December 13, 1991, shortly after Ukraine gained independence from the Soviet Union and became the modern sovereign state known as the Republic of Ukraine. The two countries have enjoyed positive and productive relations ever since 1991. Bulgaria, as a member of the European Union, has supported Ukraine in its efforts to become closer with the EU and with Western Europe in general.Bulgaria supported Ukraine's claim to the Crimean Peninsula over Russia's claim during the Crimean Crisis of 2014. During the crisis, then President of Bulgaria, Rosen Plevneliev, stated "Bulgaria is for preserving the sovereignty, the territorial integrity and the democratic future of Ukraine."In addition to the Ukrainian embassy in Sofia, a Bulgarian embassy was established in the Capital of Ukraine, Kyiv (see Embassy of Bulgaria, Kyiv). The two countries also have consulate-generals in each others' borders. Bulgaria maintains a consulate-general in Odessa and Ukraine maintains a consulate-general in Varna. The Ukrainian embassy in Sofia provides various consular services, such as "visa, passport, document legalization [and] emergency travel assistance". The embassy's stated purpose is to "help the government of Ukraine to maintain cordial economic, political, cultural, social and other transnational ties with the government of Bulgaria."
|
[
"Viacheslav Pokhvalsky",
"Victor Kalnik",
"Oleksandr Vorobyov",
"Moskalenko Vitalij Anatolijovic",
"Jurij Rylatsch"
] |
|
Who was the chair of Embassy of Ukraine, Sofia in Sep 22, 2014?
|
September 22, 2014
|
{
"text": [
"Mikola Baltazhi"
]
}
|
L2_Q12142696_P488_4
|
Oleksandr Vorobyov is the chair of Embassy of Ukraine, Sofia from Jan, 1993 to Jan, 1998.
Moskalenko Vitalij Anatolijovic is the chair of Embassy of Ukraine, Sofia from Jul, 2018 to Dec, 2022.
Jurij Rylatsch is the chair of Embassy of Ukraine, Sofia from Mar, 2004 to Jun, 2006.
Victor Kalnik is the chair of Embassy of Ukraine, Sofia from Feb, 2007 to Mar, 2011.
Viacheslav Pokhvalsky is the chair of Embassy of Ukraine, Sofia from Jun, 1998 to Mar, 2004.
Mikola Baltazhi is the chair of Embassy of Ukraine, Sofia from Mar, 2011 to Jul, 2018.
|
Embassy of Ukraine, SofiaThe Embassy of Ukraine, Sofia is an embassy located in Sofia, Bulgaria. It is hosts the primary diplomatic mission from Ukraine to the Republic of Bulgaria.Ukraine and Bulgaria first established diplomatic relations on February 9, 1918, with the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk during the First World War. The treaty was signed between the Soviet Union (which had recently come to power after overthrowing the tsarist government of the Russian Empire) and the Central Powers (The German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Bulgaria). The Soviet Union agreed to withdraw Russian troops from the Eastern Front of the war and make peace with the Central Powers. Part of the agreement was the establishment of diplomatic relations between the governments of the Central Powers and the governments of the newly independent Eastern European republics that had gained independence from Russia during the Russian Revolution. One of these newly independent Eastern Europeans states was the Ukrainian People's Republic. Thus, the treaty caused Bulgaria and Ukraine to establish diplomatic ties. Oleksandr Shulhin, a prominent Ukrainian politician, became the first Ukrainian ambassador to Bulgaria. The diplomatic relations were ultimately short lived, as the Ukrainian People's Republic was eventually forced to join the Soviet Union in 1922. Coming under supremacy from Moscow once again, Ukraine was forced to break off the diplomatic relations it had established during its brief experience with independence. Bulgaria and Ukraine re-established diplomatic relations on December 13, 1991, shortly after Ukraine gained independence from the Soviet Union and became the modern sovereign state known as the Republic of Ukraine. The two countries have enjoyed positive and productive relations ever since 1991. Bulgaria, as a member of the European Union, has supported Ukraine in its efforts to become closer with the EU and with Western Europe in general.Bulgaria supported Ukraine's claim to the Crimean Peninsula over Russia's claim during the Crimean Crisis of 2014. During the crisis, then President of Bulgaria, Rosen Plevneliev, stated "Bulgaria is for preserving the sovereignty, the territorial integrity and the democratic future of Ukraine."In addition to the Ukrainian embassy in Sofia, a Bulgarian embassy was established in the Capital of Ukraine, Kyiv (see Embassy of Bulgaria, Kyiv). The two countries also have consulate-generals in each others' borders. Bulgaria maintains a consulate-general in Odessa and Ukraine maintains a consulate-general in Varna. The Ukrainian embassy in Sofia provides various consular services, such as "visa, passport, document legalization [and] emergency travel assistance". The embassy's stated purpose is to "help the government of Ukraine to maintain cordial economic, political, cultural, social and other transnational ties with the government of Bulgaria."
|
[
"Viacheslav Pokhvalsky",
"Victor Kalnik",
"Oleksandr Vorobyov",
"Moskalenko Vitalij Anatolijovic",
"Jurij Rylatsch"
] |
|
Who was the chair of Embassy of Ukraine, Sofia in 09/22/2014?
|
September 22, 2014
|
{
"text": [
"Mikola Baltazhi"
]
}
|
L2_Q12142696_P488_4
|
Oleksandr Vorobyov is the chair of Embassy of Ukraine, Sofia from Jan, 1993 to Jan, 1998.
Moskalenko Vitalij Anatolijovic is the chair of Embassy of Ukraine, Sofia from Jul, 2018 to Dec, 2022.
Jurij Rylatsch is the chair of Embassy of Ukraine, Sofia from Mar, 2004 to Jun, 2006.
Victor Kalnik is the chair of Embassy of Ukraine, Sofia from Feb, 2007 to Mar, 2011.
Viacheslav Pokhvalsky is the chair of Embassy of Ukraine, Sofia from Jun, 1998 to Mar, 2004.
Mikola Baltazhi is the chair of Embassy of Ukraine, Sofia from Mar, 2011 to Jul, 2018.
|
Embassy of Ukraine, SofiaThe Embassy of Ukraine, Sofia is an embassy located in Sofia, Bulgaria. It is hosts the primary diplomatic mission from Ukraine to the Republic of Bulgaria.Ukraine and Bulgaria first established diplomatic relations on February 9, 1918, with the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk during the First World War. The treaty was signed between the Soviet Union (which had recently come to power after overthrowing the tsarist government of the Russian Empire) and the Central Powers (The German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Bulgaria). The Soviet Union agreed to withdraw Russian troops from the Eastern Front of the war and make peace with the Central Powers. Part of the agreement was the establishment of diplomatic relations between the governments of the Central Powers and the governments of the newly independent Eastern European republics that had gained independence from Russia during the Russian Revolution. One of these newly independent Eastern Europeans states was the Ukrainian People's Republic. Thus, the treaty caused Bulgaria and Ukraine to establish diplomatic ties. Oleksandr Shulhin, a prominent Ukrainian politician, became the first Ukrainian ambassador to Bulgaria. The diplomatic relations were ultimately short lived, as the Ukrainian People's Republic was eventually forced to join the Soviet Union in 1922. Coming under supremacy from Moscow once again, Ukraine was forced to break off the diplomatic relations it had established during its brief experience with independence. Bulgaria and Ukraine re-established diplomatic relations on December 13, 1991, shortly after Ukraine gained independence from the Soviet Union and became the modern sovereign state known as the Republic of Ukraine. The two countries have enjoyed positive and productive relations ever since 1991. Bulgaria, as a member of the European Union, has supported Ukraine in its efforts to become closer with the EU and with Western Europe in general.Bulgaria supported Ukraine's claim to the Crimean Peninsula over Russia's claim during the Crimean Crisis of 2014. During the crisis, then President of Bulgaria, Rosen Plevneliev, stated "Bulgaria is for preserving the sovereignty, the territorial integrity and the democratic future of Ukraine."In addition to the Ukrainian embassy in Sofia, a Bulgarian embassy was established in the Capital of Ukraine, Kyiv (see Embassy of Bulgaria, Kyiv). The two countries also have consulate-generals in each others' borders. Bulgaria maintains a consulate-general in Odessa and Ukraine maintains a consulate-general in Varna. The Ukrainian embassy in Sofia provides various consular services, such as "visa, passport, document legalization [and] emergency travel assistance". The embassy's stated purpose is to "help the government of Ukraine to maintain cordial economic, political, cultural, social and other transnational ties with the government of Bulgaria."
|
[
"Viacheslav Pokhvalsky",
"Victor Kalnik",
"Oleksandr Vorobyov",
"Moskalenko Vitalij Anatolijovic",
"Jurij Rylatsch"
] |
|
Who was the chair of Embassy of Ukraine, Sofia in 22-Sep-201422-September-2014?
|
September 22, 2014
|
{
"text": [
"Mikola Baltazhi"
]
}
|
L2_Q12142696_P488_4
|
Oleksandr Vorobyov is the chair of Embassy of Ukraine, Sofia from Jan, 1993 to Jan, 1998.
Moskalenko Vitalij Anatolijovic is the chair of Embassy of Ukraine, Sofia from Jul, 2018 to Dec, 2022.
Jurij Rylatsch is the chair of Embassy of Ukraine, Sofia from Mar, 2004 to Jun, 2006.
Victor Kalnik is the chair of Embassy of Ukraine, Sofia from Feb, 2007 to Mar, 2011.
Viacheslav Pokhvalsky is the chair of Embassy of Ukraine, Sofia from Jun, 1998 to Mar, 2004.
Mikola Baltazhi is the chair of Embassy of Ukraine, Sofia from Mar, 2011 to Jul, 2018.
|
Embassy of Ukraine, SofiaThe Embassy of Ukraine, Sofia is an embassy located in Sofia, Bulgaria. It is hosts the primary diplomatic mission from Ukraine to the Republic of Bulgaria.Ukraine and Bulgaria first established diplomatic relations on February 9, 1918, with the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk during the First World War. The treaty was signed between the Soviet Union (which had recently come to power after overthrowing the tsarist government of the Russian Empire) and the Central Powers (The German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Bulgaria). The Soviet Union agreed to withdraw Russian troops from the Eastern Front of the war and make peace with the Central Powers. Part of the agreement was the establishment of diplomatic relations between the governments of the Central Powers and the governments of the newly independent Eastern European republics that had gained independence from Russia during the Russian Revolution. One of these newly independent Eastern Europeans states was the Ukrainian People's Republic. Thus, the treaty caused Bulgaria and Ukraine to establish diplomatic ties. Oleksandr Shulhin, a prominent Ukrainian politician, became the first Ukrainian ambassador to Bulgaria. The diplomatic relations were ultimately short lived, as the Ukrainian People's Republic was eventually forced to join the Soviet Union in 1922. Coming under supremacy from Moscow once again, Ukraine was forced to break off the diplomatic relations it had established during its brief experience with independence. Bulgaria and Ukraine re-established diplomatic relations on December 13, 1991, shortly after Ukraine gained independence from the Soviet Union and became the modern sovereign state known as the Republic of Ukraine. The two countries have enjoyed positive and productive relations ever since 1991. Bulgaria, as a member of the European Union, has supported Ukraine in its efforts to become closer with the EU and with Western Europe in general.Bulgaria supported Ukraine's claim to the Crimean Peninsula over Russia's claim during the Crimean Crisis of 2014. During the crisis, then President of Bulgaria, Rosen Plevneliev, stated "Bulgaria is for preserving the sovereignty, the territorial integrity and the democratic future of Ukraine."In addition to the Ukrainian embassy in Sofia, a Bulgarian embassy was established in the Capital of Ukraine, Kyiv (see Embassy of Bulgaria, Kyiv). The two countries also have consulate-generals in each others' borders. Bulgaria maintains a consulate-general in Odessa and Ukraine maintains a consulate-general in Varna. The Ukrainian embassy in Sofia provides various consular services, such as "visa, passport, document legalization [and] emergency travel assistance". The embassy's stated purpose is to "help the government of Ukraine to maintain cordial economic, political, cultural, social and other transnational ties with the government of Bulgaria."
|
[
"Viacheslav Pokhvalsky",
"Victor Kalnik",
"Oleksandr Vorobyov",
"Moskalenko Vitalij Anatolijovic",
"Jurij Rylatsch"
] |
|
Which team did Ethem Pülgir play for in Aug, 2014?
|
August 04, 2014
|
{
"text": [
"Bursaspor"
]
}
|
L2_Q1371178_P54_3
|
Ethem Pülgir plays for Kayseri Erciyesspor from Jan, 2015 to Dec, 2022.
Ethem Pülgir plays for Turkey national under-21 football team from Jan, 2012 to Jan, 2013.
Ethem Pülgir plays for Kartal S.K. from Jan, 2011 to Jan, 2014.
Ethem Pülgir plays for Bursaspor from Jan, 2014 to Jan, 2015.
Ethem Pülgir plays for Turkey national under-20 football team from Jan, 2012 to Jan, 2012.
|
Ethem PülgirEthem Ercan Pülgir (born 2 April 1993) is a Turkish professional footballer who plays as a defender for Diyarbakırspor. He made his Süper Lig debut on 4 May 2014.Pülgir represented Turkey at the 2013 FIFA U-20 World Cup.
|
[
"Turkey national under-21 football team",
"Kartal S.K.",
"Turkey national under-20 football team",
"Kayseri Erciyesspor"
] |
|
Which team did Ethem Pülgir play for in 2014-08-04?
|
August 04, 2014
|
{
"text": [
"Bursaspor"
]
}
|
L2_Q1371178_P54_3
|
Ethem Pülgir plays for Kayseri Erciyesspor from Jan, 2015 to Dec, 2022.
Ethem Pülgir plays for Turkey national under-21 football team from Jan, 2012 to Jan, 2013.
Ethem Pülgir plays for Kartal S.K. from Jan, 2011 to Jan, 2014.
Ethem Pülgir plays for Bursaspor from Jan, 2014 to Jan, 2015.
Ethem Pülgir plays for Turkey national under-20 football team from Jan, 2012 to Jan, 2012.
|
Ethem PülgirEthem Ercan Pülgir (born 2 April 1993) is a Turkish professional footballer who plays as a defender for Diyarbakırspor. He made his Süper Lig debut on 4 May 2014.Pülgir represented Turkey at the 2013 FIFA U-20 World Cup.
|
[
"Turkey national under-21 football team",
"Kartal S.K.",
"Turkey national under-20 football team",
"Kayseri Erciyesspor"
] |
|
Which team did Ethem Pülgir play for in 04/08/2014?
|
August 04, 2014
|
{
"text": [
"Bursaspor"
]
}
|
L2_Q1371178_P54_3
|
Ethem Pülgir plays for Kayseri Erciyesspor from Jan, 2015 to Dec, 2022.
Ethem Pülgir plays for Turkey national under-21 football team from Jan, 2012 to Jan, 2013.
Ethem Pülgir plays for Kartal S.K. from Jan, 2011 to Jan, 2014.
Ethem Pülgir plays for Bursaspor from Jan, 2014 to Jan, 2015.
Ethem Pülgir plays for Turkey national under-20 football team from Jan, 2012 to Jan, 2012.
|
Ethem PülgirEthem Ercan Pülgir (born 2 April 1993) is a Turkish professional footballer who plays as a defender for Diyarbakırspor. He made his Süper Lig debut on 4 May 2014.Pülgir represented Turkey at the 2013 FIFA U-20 World Cup.
|
[
"Turkey national under-21 football team",
"Kartal S.K.",
"Turkey national under-20 football team",
"Kayseri Erciyesspor"
] |
|
Which team did Ethem Pülgir play for in Aug 04, 2014?
|
August 04, 2014
|
{
"text": [
"Bursaspor"
]
}
|
L2_Q1371178_P54_3
|
Ethem Pülgir plays for Kayseri Erciyesspor from Jan, 2015 to Dec, 2022.
Ethem Pülgir plays for Turkey national under-21 football team from Jan, 2012 to Jan, 2013.
Ethem Pülgir plays for Kartal S.K. from Jan, 2011 to Jan, 2014.
Ethem Pülgir plays for Bursaspor from Jan, 2014 to Jan, 2015.
Ethem Pülgir plays for Turkey national under-20 football team from Jan, 2012 to Jan, 2012.
|
Ethem PülgirEthem Ercan Pülgir (born 2 April 1993) is a Turkish professional footballer who plays as a defender for Diyarbakırspor. He made his Süper Lig debut on 4 May 2014.Pülgir represented Turkey at the 2013 FIFA U-20 World Cup.
|
[
"Turkey national under-21 football team",
"Kartal S.K.",
"Turkey national under-20 football team",
"Kayseri Erciyesspor"
] |
|
Which team did Ethem Pülgir play for in 08/04/2014?
|
August 04, 2014
|
{
"text": [
"Bursaspor"
]
}
|
L2_Q1371178_P54_3
|
Ethem Pülgir plays for Kayseri Erciyesspor from Jan, 2015 to Dec, 2022.
Ethem Pülgir plays for Turkey national under-21 football team from Jan, 2012 to Jan, 2013.
Ethem Pülgir plays for Kartal S.K. from Jan, 2011 to Jan, 2014.
Ethem Pülgir plays for Bursaspor from Jan, 2014 to Jan, 2015.
Ethem Pülgir plays for Turkey national under-20 football team from Jan, 2012 to Jan, 2012.
|
Ethem PülgirEthem Ercan Pülgir (born 2 April 1993) is a Turkish professional footballer who plays as a defender for Diyarbakırspor. He made his Süper Lig debut on 4 May 2014.Pülgir represented Turkey at the 2013 FIFA U-20 World Cup.
|
[
"Turkey national under-21 football team",
"Kartal S.K.",
"Turkey national under-20 football team",
"Kayseri Erciyesspor"
] |
|
Which team did Ethem Pülgir play for in 04-Aug-201404-August-2014?
|
August 04, 2014
|
{
"text": [
"Bursaspor"
]
}
|
L2_Q1371178_P54_3
|
Ethem Pülgir plays for Kayseri Erciyesspor from Jan, 2015 to Dec, 2022.
Ethem Pülgir plays for Turkey national under-21 football team from Jan, 2012 to Jan, 2013.
Ethem Pülgir plays for Kartal S.K. from Jan, 2011 to Jan, 2014.
Ethem Pülgir plays for Bursaspor from Jan, 2014 to Jan, 2015.
Ethem Pülgir plays for Turkey national under-20 football team from Jan, 2012 to Jan, 2012.
|
Ethem PülgirEthem Ercan Pülgir (born 2 April 1993) is a Turkish professional footballer who plays as a defender for Diyarbakırspor. He made his Süper Lig debut on 4 May 2014.Pülgir represented Turkey at the 2013 FIFA U-20 World Cup.
|
[
"Turkey national under-21 football team",
"Kartal S.K.",
"Turkey national under-20 football team",
"Kayseri Erciyesspor"
] |
|
Which position did Lee H. Hamilton hold in Dec, 1989?
|
December 28, 1989
|
{
"text": [
"United States representative"
]
}
|
L2_Q984174_P39_2
|
Lee H. Hamilton holds the position of deputy chairperson from Jan, 2002 to Jan, 2004.
Lee H. Hamilton holds the position of treasurer from Jan, 1960 to Jan, 1963.
Lee H. Hamilton holds the position of United States representative from Jan, 1989 to Jan, 1991.
Lee H. Hamilton holds the position of president from Jan, 1963 to Jan, 1964.
|
Lee H. HamiltonLee Herbert Hamilton (born April 20, 1931) is an American politician and lawyer from Indiana. He is a former member of the United States House of Representatives and a former member of the U.S. Homeland Security Advisory Council. A member of the Democratic Party, Hamilton represented the 9th congressional district of Indiana from 1965 to 1999. Following his departure from Congress, he has served on a number of governmental advisory boards, most notably as the vice chairman of the 9/11 Commission.Born in Daytona Beach, Florida, Hamilton was raised in Evansville, Indiana, attending the public schools and graduating from Evansville Central High School in 1948. An outstanding basketball player, he led the Central Bears to the state title game in March 1948; he then continued his playing career at DePauw University, where he played for Coach Jay McCreary before graduating in 1952 and then from the Indiana Univ. School of Law in 1956. He worked as a lawyer in private practice for the next ten years in Columbus, Indiana.Hamilton was elected to the House of Representatives as a Democrat as part of the national Democratic landslide of 1964. He chaired many committees during his tenure in office, including the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, the U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, the Joint Committee on Printing, and others.As chairman of the House Select Committee to Investigate Covert Arms Transactions with Iran (1987), Hamilton chose not to investigate President Ronald Reagan or President George H. W. Bush, stating that he did not think it would be "good for the country" to put the public through another impeachment trial. Hamilton was later chair of the House October Surprise Task Force (1992).He remained in Congress until 1999; at the time he was one of two surviving members of the large Democratic freshman class of 1965 (the other being John Conyers). He was viewed as a potential Democratic vice-presidential running mate in 1984, 1988, and 1992, due to his foreign policy credentials and Indiana's potential to turn into what would later be described as a "blue" state due to economic concerns.In November 2002, George W. Bush nominated Hamilton as the Vice-Chairman of the 9/11 Commission, officially titled The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks on the United States. On March 15, 2006, Congress announced the formation of the Iraq Study Group, organized by the United States Institute of Peace, of which Hamilton is the Democratic co-chairman, along with the former Secretary of State (under President George H.W. Bush) James A. Baker III. Hamilton, like Baker, is considered a master negotiator.Since leaving Congress, Mr. Hamilton has served as a member of the Hart-Rudman Commission, and was co-chairman of the Commission to Investigate Certain Security Issues at Los Alamos. He sits on many advisory boards, including those to the CIA, the President's Homeland Security Advisory Council, and the United States Army. Hamilton is an Advisory Board member and Co-Chair for the Partnership for a Secure America, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to recreating the bipartisan center in American national security and foreign policy. He is previously the president and director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and was appointed to serve as the vice chair of the 9/11 Commission. In 2000-2001, he served as the American member of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, which prepared the U.N policy of Responsibility to Protect, adopted in 2005. He is also a member of the Board of Advisors of Albright Stonebridge Group. He was appointed Co-Chair of the Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future from 2010–2012 alongside Brent Scowcroft. He is also a member of Washington D.C. based think tank, the Inter-American Dialogue.Hamilton serves as a co-chair of the National Security Preparedness Group (NSPG) at the Bipartisan Policy Center. Hamilton is a co-chair with Sandra Day O'Connor of the Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools. He also serves as an Advisory Board member for the Partnership for a Secure America and for America Abroad Media.On February 25, 2011, Hamilton wrote a letter to President Barack Obama urging him to commute Jonathan Pollard's sentence to time served. Pollard was serving a life sentence for providing Israel with classified information, without the intent to harm the United States, a crime which normally carries a sentence of two to four years. In his letter, he stated, "I do believe that he has served a disproportionately severe sentence." He also stated, "I have been acquainted for many years with members of his family, especially his parents, and I know how much pain and anguish they have suffered because of their son's incarceration." He concluded that, "commuting his sentence is a matter of basic compassion and justice. Pollard was granted parole on July 7, 2015, and released on November 20, 2015.On August 11, 2012, Hamilton's wife Nancy died in an auto-related accident; no one else was injured. Prior to her death, Mrs. Hamilton was an accomplished artist. In 1981 her oil paintings and watercolors were featured in an exhibit at The Commons and in 1984 she had a one-woman show at a Seymour art gallery. Mrs. Hamilton also contributed thousands of hours at the INOVA Alexandria Virginia Hospital.Hamilton endorsed Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election.Hamilton is a member of the ReFormers Caucus of Issue One.Lee H. Hamilton serves as an Honorary Co-Chair for the World Justice Project. The World Justice Project works to lead a global, multidisciplinary effort to strengthen the Rule of Law for the development of communities of opportunity and equity.A nine-mile stretch of I-265 and Indiana 265 in Floyd and Clark counties, part of Hamilton's former House district, was designated the "Lee H. Hamilton Highway" shortly after his retirement from the House in 1999. The moniker is largely symbolic, as locals generally do not refer to the road by that name, although the name is used frequently by the traffic reporter for the area's largest radio station, WHAS 840-AM in nearby Louisville, Kentucky.In 1982, Hamilton was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame, in honor of his outstanding prep basketball career; he led the Evansville Central Bears to three deep runs in the IHSAA tournament. In 1946, the Bears made the State Semi-finals, in 1947, they made the State Quarter-finals; as a Senior, he led them to the Championship game. He was selected All-State his senior season and was awarded the Trestor Award for mental attitude. He later starred for the DePauw Tigers, leading them in scoring average in 1951 and rebounds in 1951 and 1952.In 2001 Lee H. Hamilton was presented the Lifetime Contributions to American Diplomacy Award by the American Foreign Service Association.In 2005, Hamilton received the U.S. Senator John Heinz Award for Greatest Public Service by an Elected or Appointed Official, an award given out annually by Jefferson Awards.In 2011, Hamilton received the Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site Advancing American Democracy Award.In 2018, Indiana University Bloomington announced that the School of Global and International Studies will be renamed the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies in honor of Hamilton and former U.S. Senator Richard Lugar, describing both as "two immensely accomplished Indiana statesmen and two of the nation's most distinguished and influential voices in foreign policy."In November 2015, Hamilton was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in a ceremony at the White House.
|
[
"deputy chairperson",
"treasurer",
"president"
] |
|
Which position did Lee H. Hamilton hold in 1989-12-28?
|
December 28, 1989
|
{
"text": [
"United States representative"
]
}
|
L2_Q984174_P39_2
|
Lee H. Hamilton holds the position of deputy chairperson from Jan, 2002 to Jan, 2004.
Lee H. Hamilton holds the position of treasurer from Jan, 1960 to Jan, 1963.
Lee H. Hamilton holds the position of United States representative from Jan, 1989 to Jan, 1991.
Lee H. Hamilton holds the position of president from Jan, 1963 to Jan, 1964.
|
Lee H. HamiltonLee Herbert Hamilton (born April 20, 1931) is an American politician and lawyer from Indiana. He is a former member of the United States House of Representatives and a former member of the U.S. Homeland Security Advisory Council. A member of the Democratic Party, Hamilton represented the 9th congressional district of Indiana from 1965 to 1999. Following his departure from Congress, he has served on a number of governmental advisory boards, most notably as the vice chairman of the 9/11 Commission.Born in Daytona Beach, Florida, Hamilton was raised in Evansville, Indiana, attending the public schools and graduating from Evansville Central High School in 1948. An outstanding basketball player, he led the Central Bears to the state title game in March 1948; he then continued his playing career at DePauw University, where he played for Coach Jay McCreary before graduating in 1952 and then from the Indiana Univ. School of Law in 1956. He worked as a lawyer in private practice for the next ten years in Columbus, Indiana.Hamilton was elected to the House of Representatives as a Democrat as part of the national Democratic landslide of 1964. He chaired many committees during his tenure in office, including the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, the U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, the Joint Committee on Printing, and others.As chairman of the House Select Committee to Investigate Covert Arms Transactions with Iran (1987), Hamilton chose not to investigate President Ronald Reagan or President George H. W. Bush, stating that he did not think it would be "good for the country" to put the public through another impeachment trial. Hamilton was later chair of the House October Surprise Task Force (1992).He remained in Congress until 1999; at the time he was one of two surviving members of the large Democratic freshman class of 1965 (the other being John Conyers). He was viewed as a potential Democratic vice-presidential running mate in 1984, 1988, and 1992, due to his foreign policy credentials and Indiana's potential to turn into what would later be described as a "blue" state due to economic concerns.In November 2002, George W. Bush nominated Hamilton as the Vice-Chairman of the 9/11 Commission, officially titled The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks on the United States. On March 15, 2006, Congress announced the formation of the Iraq Study Group, organized by the United States Institute of Peace, of which Hamilton is the Democratic co-chairman, along with the former Secretary of State (under President George H.W. Bush) James A. Baker III. Hamilton, like Baker, is considered a master negotiator.Since leaving Congress, Mr. Hamilton has served as a member of the Hart-Rudman Commission, and was co-chairman of the Commission to Investigate Certain Security Issues at Los Alamos. He sits on many advisory boards, including those to the CIA, the President's Homeland Security Advisory Council, and the United States Army. Hamilton is an Advisory Board member and Co-Chair for the Partnership for a Secure America, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to recreating the bipartisan center in American national security and foreign policy. He is previously the president and director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and was appointed to serve as the vice chair of the 9/11 Commission. In 2000-2001, he served as the American member of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, which prepared the U.N policy of Responsibility to Protect, adopted in 2005. He is also a member of the Board of Advisors of Albright Stonebridge Group. He was appointed Co-Chair of the Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future from 2010–2012 alongside Brent Scowcroft. He is also a member of Washington D.C. based think tank, the Inter-American Dialogue.Hamilton serves as a co-chair of the National Security Preparedness Group (NSPG) at the Bipartisan Policy Center. Hamilton is a co-chair with Sandra Day O'Connor of the Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools. He also serves as an Advisory Board member for the Partnership for a Secure America and for America Abroad Media.On February 25, 2011, Hamilton wrote a letter to President Barack Obama urging him to commute Jonathan Pollard's sentence to time served. Pollard was serving a life sentence for providing Israel with classified information, without the intent to harm the United States, a crime which normally carries a sentence of two to four years. In his letter, he stated, "I do believe that he has served a disproportionately severe sentence." He also stated, "I have been acquainted for many years with members of his family, especially his parents, and I know how much pain and anguish they have suffered because of their son's incarceration." He concluded that, "commuting his sentence is a matter of basic compassion and justice. Pollard was granted parole on July 7, 2015, and released on November 20, 2015.On August 11, 2012, Hamilton's wife Nancy died in an auto-related accident; no one else was injured. Prior to her death, Mrs. Hamilton was an accomplished artist. In 1981 her oil paintings and watercolors were featured in an exhibit at The Commons and in 1984 she had a one-woman show at a Seymour art gallery. Mrs. Hamilton also contributed thousands of hours at the INOVA Alexandria Virginia Hospital.Hamilton endorsed Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election.Hamilton is a member of the ReFormers Caucus of Issue One.Lee H. Hamilton serves as an Honorary Co-Chair for the World Justice Project. The World Justice Project works to lead a global, multidisciplinary effort to strengthen the Rule of Law for the development of communities of opportunity and equity.A nine-mile stretch of I-265 and Indiana 265 in Floyd and Clark counties, part of Hamilton's former House district, was designated the "Lee H. Hamilton Highway" shortly after his retirement from the House in 1999. The moniker is largely symbolic, as locals generally do not refer to the road by that name, although the name is used frequently by the traffic reporter for the area's largest radio station, WHAS 840-AM in nearby Louisville, Kentucky.In 1982, Hamilton was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame, in honor of his outstanding prep basketball career; he led the Evansville Central Bears to three deep runs in the IHSAA tournament. In 1946, the Bears made the State Semi-finals, in 1947, they made the State Quarter-finals; as a Senior, he led them to the Championship game. He was selected All-State his senior season and was awarded the Trestor Award for mental attitude. He later starred for the DePauw Tigers, leading them in scoring average in 1951 and rebounds in 1951 and 1952.In 2001 Lee H. Hamilton was presented the Lifetime Contributions to American Diplomacy Award by the American Foreign Service Association.In 2005, Hamilton received the U.S. Senator John Heinz Award for Greatest Public Service by an Elected or Appointed Official, an award given out annually by Jefferson Awards.In 2011, Hamilton received the Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site Advancing American Democracy Award.In 2018, Indiana University Bloomington announced that the School of Global and International Studies will be renamed the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies in honor of Hamilton and former U.S. Senator Richard Lugar, describing both as "two immensely accomplished Indiana statesmen and two of the nation's most distinguished and influential voices in foreign policy."In November 2015, Hamilton was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in a ceremony at the White House.
|
[
"deputy chairperson",
"treasurer",
"president"
] |
|
Which position did Lee H. Hamilton hold in 28/12/1989?
|
December 28, 1989
|
{
"text": [
"United States representative"
]
}
|
L2_Q984174_P39_2
|
Lee H. Hamilton holds the position of deputy chairperson from Jan, 2002 to Jan, 2004.
Lee H. Hamilton holds the position of treasurer from Jan, 1960 to Jan, 1963.
Lee H. Hamilton holds the position of United States representative from Jan, 1989 to Jan, 1991.
Lee H. Hamilton holds the position of president from Jan, 1963 to Jan, 1964.
|
Lee H. HamiltonLee Herbert Hamilton (born April 20, 1931) is an American politician and lawyer from Indiana. He is a former member of the United States House of Representatives and a former member of the U.S. Homeland Security Advisory Council. A member of the Democratic Party, Hamilton represented the 9th congressional district of Indiana from 1965 to 1999. Following his departure from Congress, he has served on a number of governmental advisory boards, most notably as the vice chairman of the 9/11 Commission.Born in Daytona Beach, Florida, Hamilton was raised in Evansville, Indiana, attending the public schools and graduating from Evansville Central High School in 1948. An outstanding basketball player, he led the Central Bears to the state title game in March 1948; he then continued his playing career at DePauw University, where he played for Coach Jay McCreary before graduating in 1952 and then from the Indiana Univ. School of Law in 1956. He worked as a lawyer in private practice for the next ten years in Columbus, Indiana.Hamilton was elected to the House of Representatives as a Democrat as part of the national Democratic landslide of 1964. He chaired many committees during his tenure in office, including the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, the U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, the Joint Committee on Printing, and others.As chairman of the House Select Committee to Investigate Covert Arms Transactions with Iran (1987), Hamilton chose not to investigate President Ronald Reagan or President George H. W. Bush, stating that he did not think it would be "good for the country" to put the public through another impeachment trial. Hamilton was later chair of the House October Surprise Task Force (1992).He remained in Congress until 1999; at the time he was one of two surviving members of the large Democratic freshman class of 1965 (the other being John Conyers). He was viewed as a potential Democratic vice-presidential running mate in 1984, 1988, and 1992, due to his foreign policy credentials and Indiana's potential to turn into what would later be described as a "blue" state due to economic concerns.In November 2002, George W. Bush nominated Hamilton as the Vice-Chairman of the 9/11 Commission, officially titled The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks on the United States. On March 15, 2006, Congress announced the formation of the Iraq Study Group, organized by the United States Institute of Peace, of which Hamilton is the Democratic co-chairman, along with the former Secretary of State (under President George H.W. Bush) James A. Baker III. Hamilton, like Baker, is considered a master negotiator.Since leaving Congress, Mr. Hamilton has served as a member of the Hart-Rudman Commission, and was co-chairman of the Commission to Investigate Certain Security Issues at Los Alamos. He sits on many advisory boards, including those to the CIA, the President's Homeland Security Advisory Council, and the United States Army. Hamilton is an Advisory Board member and Co-Chair for the Partnership for a Secure America, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to recreating the bipartisan center in American national security and foreign policy. He is previously the president and director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and was appointed to serve as the vice chair of the 9/11 Commission. In 2000-2001, he served as the American member of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, which prepared the U.N policy of Responsibility to Protect, adopted in 2005. He is also a member of the Board of Advisors of Albright Stonebridge Group. He was appointed Co-Chair of the Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future from 2010–2012 alongside Brent Scowcroft. He is also a member of Washington D.C. based think tank, the Inter-American Dialogue.Hamilton serves as a co-chair of the National Security Preparedness Group (NSPG) at the Bipartisan Policy Center. Hamilton is a co-chair with Sandra Day O'Connor of the Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools. He also serves as an Advisory Board member for the Partnership for a Secure America and for America Abroad Media.On February 25, 2011, Hamilton wrote a letter to President Barack Obama urging him to commute Jonathan Pollard's sentence to time served. Pollard was serving a life sentence for providing Israel with classified information, without the intent to harm the United States, a crime which normally carries a sentence of two to four years. In his letter, he stated, "I do believe that he has served a disproportionately severe sentence." He also stated, "I have been acquainted for many years with members of his family, especially his parents, and I know how much pain and anguish they have suffered because of their son's incarceration." He concluded that, "commuting his sentence is a matter of basic compassion and justice. Pollard was granted parole on July 7, 2015, and released on November 20, 2015.On August 11, 2012, Hamilton's wife Nancy died in an auto-related accident; no one else was injured. Prior to her death, Mrs. Hamilton was an accomplished artist. In 1981 her oil paintings and watercolors were featured in an exhibit at The Commons and in 1984 she had a one-woman show at a Seymour art gallery. Mrs. Hamilton also contributed thousands of hours at the INOVA Alexandria Virginia Hospital.Hamilton endorsed Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election.Hamilton is a member of the ReFormers Caucus of Issue One.Lee H. Hamilton serves as an Honorary Co-Chair for the World Justice Project. The World Justice Project works to lead a global, multidisciplinary effort to strengthen the Rule of Law for the development of communities of opportunity and equity.A nine-mile stretch of I-265 and Indiana 265 in Floyd and Clark counties, part of Hamilton's former House district, was designated the "Lee H. Hamilton Highway" shortly after his retirement from the House in 1999. The moniker is largely symbolic, as locals generally do not refer to the road by that name, although the name is used frequently by the traffic reporter for the area's largest radio station, WHAS 840-AM in nearby Louisville, Kentucky.In 1982, Hamilton was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame, in honor of his outstanding prep basketball career; he led the Evansville Central Bears to three deep runs in the IHSAA tournament. In 1946, the Bears made the State Semi-finals, in 1947, they made the State Quarter-finals; as a Senior, he led them to the Championship game. He was selected All-State his senior season and was awarded the Trestor Award for mental attitude. He later starred for the DePauw Tigers, leading them in scoring average in 1951 and rebounds in 1951 and 1952.In 2001 Lee H. Hamilton was presented the Lifetime Contributions to American Diplomacy Award by the American Foreign Service Association.In 2005, Hamilton received the U.S. Senator John Heinz Award for Greatest Public Service by an Elected or Appointed Official, an award given out annually by Jefferson Awards.In 2011, Hamilton received the Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site Advancing American Democracy Award.In 2018, Indiana University Bloomington announced that the School of Global and International Studies will be renamed the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies in honor of Hamilton and former U.S. Senator Richard Lugar, describing both as "two immensely accomplished Indiana statesmen and two of the nation's most distinguished and influential voices in foreign policy."In November 2015, Hamilton was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in a ceremony at the White House.
|
[
"deputy chairperson",
"treasurer",
"president"
] |
|
Which position did Lee H. Hamilton hold in Dec 28, 1989?
|
December 28, 1989
|
{
"text": [
"United States representative"
]
}
|
L2_Q984174_P39_2
|
Lee H. Hamilton holds the position of deputy chairperson from Jan, 2002 to Jan, 2004.
Lee H. Hamilton holds the position of treasurer from Jan, 1960 to Jan, 1963.
Lee H. Hamilton holds the position of United States representative from Jan, 1989 to Jan, 1991.
Lee H. Hamilton holds the position of president from Jan, 1963 to Jan, 1964.
|
Lee H. HamiltonLee Herbert Hamilton (born April 20, 1931) is an American politician and lawyer from Indiana. He is a former member of the United States House of Representatives and a former member of the U.S. Homeland Security Advisory Council. A member of the Democratic Party, Hamilton represented the 9th congressional district of Indiana from 1965 to 1999. Following his departure from Congress, he has served on a number of governmental advisory boards, most notably as the vice chairman of the 9/11 Commission.Born in Daytona Beach, Florida, Hamilton was raised in Evansville, Indiana, attending the public schools and graduating from Evansville Central High School in 1948. An outstanding basketball player, he led the Central Bears to the state title game in March 1948; he then continued his playing career at DePauw University, where he played for Coach Jay McCreary before graduating in 1952 and then from the Indiana Univ. School of Law in 1956. He worked as a lawyer in private practice for the next ten years in Columbus, Indiana.Hamilton was elected to the House of Representatives as a Democrat as part of the national Democratic landslide of 1964. He chaired many committees during his tenure in office, including the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, the U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, the Joint Committee on Printing, and others.As chairman of the House Select Committee to Investigate Covert Arms Transactions with Iran (1987), Hamilton chose not to investigate President Ronald Reagan or President George H. W. Bush, stating that he did not think it would be "good for the country" to put the public through another impeachment trial. Hamilton was later chair of the House October Surprise Task Force (1992).He remained in Congress until 1999; at the time he was one of two surviving members of the large Democratic freshman class of 1965 (the other being John Conyers). He was viewed as a potential Democratic vice-presidential running mate in 1984, 1988, and 1992, due to his foreign policy credentials and Indiana's potential to turn into what would later be described as a "blue" state due to economic concerns.In November 2002, George W. Bush nominated Hamilton as the Vice-Chairman of the 9/11 Commission, officially titled The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks on the United States. On March 15, 2006, Congress announced the formation of the Iraq Study Group, organized by the United States Institute of Peace, of which Hamilton is the Democratic co-chairman, along with the former Secretary of State (under President George H.W. Bush) James A. Baker III. Hamilton, like Baker, is considered a master negotiator.Since leaving Congress, Mr. Hamilton has served as a member of the Hart-Rudman Commission, and was co-chairman of the Commission to Investigate Certain Security Issues at Los Alamos. He sits on many advisory boards, including those to the CIA, the President's Homeland Security Advisory Council, and the United States Army. Hamilton is an Advisory Board member and Co-Chair for the Partnership for a Secure America, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to recreating the bipartisan center in American national security and foreign policy. He is previously the president and director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and was appointed to serve as the vice chair of the 9/11 Commission. In 2000-2001, he served as the American member of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, which prepared the U.N policy of Responsibility to Protect, adopted in 2005. He is also a member of the Board of Advisors of Albright Stonebridge Group. He was appointed Co-Chair of the Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future from 2010–2012 alongside Brent Scowcroft. He is also a member of Washington D.C. based think tank, the Inter-American Dialogue.Hamilton serves as a co-chair of the National Security Preparedness Group (NSPG) at the Bipartisan Policy Center. Hamilton is a co-chair with Sandra Day O'Connor of the Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools. He also serves as an Advisory Board member for the Partnership for a Secure America and for America Abroad Media.On February 25, 2011, Hamilton wrote a letter to President Barack Obama urging him to commute Jonathan Pollard's sentence to time served. Pollard was serving a life sentence for providing Israel with classified information, without the intent to harm the United States, a crime which normally carries a sentence of two to four years. In his letter, he stated, "I do believe that he has served a disproportionately severe sentence." He also stated, "I have been acquainted for many years with members of his family, especially his parents, and I know how much pain and anguish they have suffered because of their son's incarceration." He concluded that, "commuting his sentence is a matter of basic compassion and justice. Pollard was granted parole on July 7, 2015, and released on November 20, 2015.On August 11, 2012, Hamilton's wife Nancy died in an auto-related accident; no one else was injured. Prior to her death, Mrs. Hamilton was an accomplished artist. In 1981 her oil paintings and watercolors were featured in an exhibit at The Commons and in 1984 she had a one-woman show at a Seymour art gallery. Mrs. Hamilton also contributed thousands of hours at the INOVA Alexandria Virginia Hospital.Hamilton endorsed Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election.Hamilton is a member of the ReFormers Caucus of Issue One.Lee H. Hamilton serves as an Honorary Co-Chair for the World Justice Project. The World Justice Project works to lead a global, multidisciplinary effort to strengthen the Rule of Law for the development of communities of opportunity and equity.A nine-mile stretch of I-265 and Indiana 265 in Floyd and Clark counties, part of Hamilton's former House district, was designated the "Lee H. Hamilton Highway" shortly after his retirement from the House in 1999. The moniker is largely symbolic, as locals generally do not refer to the road by that name, although the name is used frequently by the traffic reporter for the area's largest radio station, WHAS 840-AM in nearby Louisville, Kentucky.In 1982, Hamilton was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame, in honor of his outstanding prep basketball career; he led the Evansville Central Bears to three deep runs in the IHSAA tournament. In 1946, the Bears made the State Semi-finals, in 1947, they made the State Quarter-finals; as a Senior, he led them to the Championship game. He was selected All-State his senior season and was awarded the Trestor Award for mental attitude. He later starred for the DePauw Tigers, leading them in scoring average in 1951 and rebounds in 1951 and 1952.In 2001 Lee H. Hamilton was presented the Lifetime Contributions to American Diplomacy Award by the American Foreign Service Association.In 2005, Hamilton received the U.S. Senator John Heinz Award for Greatest Public Service by an Elected or Appointed Official, an award given out annually by Jefferson Awards.In 2011, Hamilton received the Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site Advancing American Democracy Award.In 2018, Indiana University Bloomington announced that the School of Global and International Studies will be renamed the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies in honor of Hamilton and former U.S. Senator Richard Lugar, describing both as "two immensely accomplished Indiana statesmen and two of the nation's most distinguished and influential voices in foreign policy."In November 2015, Hamilton was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in a ceremony at the White House.
|
[
"deputy chairperson",
"treasurer",
"president"
] |
|
Which position did Lee H. Hamilton hold in 12/28/1989?
|
December 28, 1989
|
{
"text": [
"United States representative"
]
}
|
L2_Q984174_P39_2
|
Lee H. Hamilton holds the position of deputy chairperson from Jan, 2002 to Jan, 2004.
Lee H. Hamilton holds the position of treasurer from Jan, 1960 to Jan, 1963.
Lee H. Hamilton holds the position of United States representative from Jan, 1989 to Jan, 1991.
Lee H. Hamilton holds the position of president from Jan, 1963 to Jan, 1964.
|
Lee H. HamiltonLee Herbert Hamilton (born April 20, 1931) is an American politician and lawyer from Indiana. He is a former member of the United States House of Representatives and a former member of the U.S. Homeland Security Advisory Council. A member of the Democratic Party, Hamilton represented the 9th congressional district of Indiana from 1965 to 1999. Following his departure from Congress, he has served on a number of governmental advisory boards, most notably as the vice chairman of the 9/11 Commission.Born in Daytona Beach, Florida, Hamilton was raised in Evansville, Indiana, attending the public schools and graduating from Evansville Central High School in 1948. An outstanding basketball player, he led the Central Bears to the state title game in March 1948; he then continued his playing career at DePauw University, where he played for Coach Jay McCreary before graduating in 1952 and then from the Indiana Univ. School of Law in 1956. He worked as a lawyer in private practice for the next ten years in Columbus, Indiana.Hamilton was elected to the House of Representatives as a Democrat as part of the national Democratic landslide of 1964. He chaired many committees during his tenure in office, including the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, the U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, the Joint Committee on Printing, and others.As chairman of the House Select Committee to Investigate Covert Arms Transactions with Iran (1987), Hamilton chose not to investigate President Ronald Reagan or President George H. W. Bush, stating that he did not think it would be "good for the country" to put the public through another impeachment trial. Hamilton was later chair of the House October Surprise Task Force (1992).He remained in Congress until 1999; at the time he was one of two surviving members of the large Democratic freshman class of 1965 (the other being John Conyers). He was viewed as a potential Democratic vice-presidential running mate in 1984, 1988, and 1992, due to his foreign policy credentials and Indiana's potential to turn into what would later be described as a "blue" state due to economic concerns.In November 2002, George W. Bush nominated Hamilton as the Vice-Chairman of the 9/11 Commission, officially titled The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks on the United States. On March 15, 2006, Congress announced the formation of the Iraq Study Group, organized by the United States Institute of Peace, of which Hamilton is the Democratic co-chairman, along with the former Secretary of State (under President George H.W. Bush) James A. Baker III. Hamilton, like Baker, is considered a master negotiator.Since leaving Congress, Mr. Hamilton has served as a member of the Hart-Rudman Commission, and was co-chairman of the Commission to Investigate Certain Security Issues at Los Alamos. He sits on many advisory boards, including those to the CIA, the President's Homeland Security Advisory Council, and the United States Army. Hamilton is an Advisory Board member and Co-Chair for the Partnership for a Secure America, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to recreating the bipartisan center in American national security and foreign policy. He is previously the president and director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and was appointed to serve as the vice chair of the 9/11 Commission. In 2000-2001, he served as the American member of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, which prepared the U.N policy of Responsibility to Protect, adopted in 2005. He is also a member of the Board of Advisors of Albright Stonebridge Group. He was appointed Co-Chair of the Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future from 2010–2012 alongside Brent Scowcroft. He is also a member of Washington D.C. based think tank, the Inter-American Dialogue.Hamilton serves as a co-chair of the National Security Preparedness Group (NSPG) at the Bipartisan Policy Center. Hamilton is a co-chair with Sandra Day O'Connor of the Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools. He also serves as an Advisory Board member for the Partnership for a Secure America and for America Abroad Media.On February 25, 2011, Hamilton wrote a letter to President Barack Obama urging him to commute Jonathan Pollard's sentence to time served. Pollard was serving a life sentence for providing Israel with classified information, without the intent to harm the United States, a crime which normally carries a sentence of two to four years. In his letter, he stated, "I do believe that he has served a disproportionately severe sentence." He also stated, "I have been acquainted for many years with members of his family, especially his parents, and I know how much pain and anguish they have suffered because of their son's incarceration." He concluded that, "commuting his sentence is a matter of basic compassion and justice. Pollard was granted parole on July 7, 2015, and released on November 20, 2015.On August 11, 2012, Hamilton's wife Nancy died in an auto-related accident; no one else was injured. Prior to her death, Mrs. Hamilton was an accomplished artist. In 1981 her oil paintings and watercolors were featured in an exhibit at The Commons and in 1984 she had a one-woman show at a Seymour art gallery. Mrs. Hamilton also contributed thousands of hours at the INOVA Alexandria Virginia Hospital.Hamilton endorsed Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election.Hamilton is a member of the ReFormers Caucus of Issue One.Lee H. Hamilton serves as an Honorary Co-Chair for the World Justice Project. The World Justice Project works to lead a global, multidisciplinary effort to strengthen the Rule of Law for the development of communities of opportunity and equity.A nine-mile stretch of I-265 and Indiana 265 in Floyd and Clark counties, part of Hamilton's former House district, was designated the "Lee H. Hamilton Highway" shortly after his retirement from the House in 1999. The moniker is largely symbolic, as locals generally do not refer to the road by that name, although the name is used frequently by the traffic reporter for the area's largest radio station, WHAS 840-AM in nearby Louisville, Kentucky.In 1982, Hamilton was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame, in honor of his outstanding prep basketball career; he led the Evansville Central Bears to three deep runs in the IHSAA tournament. In 1946, the Bears made the State Semi-finals, in 1947, they made the State Quarter-finals; as a Senior, he led them to the Championship game. He was selected All-State his senior season and was awarded the Trestor Award for mental attitude. He later starred for the DePauw Tigers, leading them in scoring average in 1951 and rebounds in 1951 and 1952.In 2001 Lee H. Hamilton was presented the Lifetime Contributions to American Diplomacy Award by the American Foreign Service Association.In 2005, Hamilton received the U.S. Senator John Heinz Award for Greatest Public Service by an Elected or Appointed Official, an award given out annually by Jefferson Awards.In 2011, Hamilton received the Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site Advancing American Democracy Award.In 2018, Indiana University Bloomington announced that the School of Global and International Studies will be renamed the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies in honor of Hamilton and former U.S. Senator Richard Lugar, describing both as "two immensely accomplished Indiana statesmen and two of the nation's most distinguished and influential voices in foreign policy."In November 2015, Hamilton was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in a ceremony at the White House.
|
[
"deputy chairperson",
"treasurer",
"president"
] |
|
Which position did Lee H. Hamilton hold in 28-Dec-198928-December-1989?
|
December 28, 1989
|
{
"text": [
"United States representative"
]
}
|
L2_Q984174_P39_2
|
Lee H. Hamilton holds the position of deputy chairperson from Jan, 2002 to Jan, 2004.
Lee H. Hamilton holds the position of treasurer from Jan, 1960 to Jan, 1963.
Lee H. Hamilton holds the position of United States representative from Jan, 1989 to Jan, 1991.
Lee H. Hamilton holds the position of president from Jan, 1963 to Jan, 1964.
|
Lee H. HamiltonLee Herbert Hamilton (born April 20, 1931) is an American politician and lawyer from Indiana. He is a former member of the United States House of Representatives and a former member of the U.S. Homeland Security Advisory Council. A member of the Democratic Party, Hamilton represented the 9th congressional district of Indiana from 1965 to 1999. Following his departure from Congress, he has served on a number of governmental advisory boards, most notably as the vice chairman of the 9/11 Commission.Born in Daytona Beach, Florida, Hamilton was raised in Evansville, Indiana, attending the public schools and graduating from Evansville Central High School in 1948. An outstanding basketball player, he led the Central Bears to the state title game in March 1948; he then continued his playing career at DePauw University, where he played for Coach Jay McCreary before graduating in 1952 and then from the Indiana Univ. School of Law in 1956. He worked as a lawyer in private practice for the next ten years in Columbus, Indiana.Hamilton was elected to the House of Representatives as a Democrat as part of the national Democratic landslide of 1964. He chaired many committees during his tenure in office, including the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, the U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, the Joint Committee on Printing, and others.As chairman of the House Select Committee to Investigate Covert Arms Transactions with Iran (1987), Hamilton chose not to investigate President Ronald Reagan or President George H. W. Bush, stating that he did not think it would be "good for the country" to put the public through another impeachment trial. Hamilton was later chair of the House October Surprise Task Force (1992).He remained in Congress until 1999; at the time he was one of two surviving members of the large Democratic freshman class of 1965 (the other being John Conyers). He was viewed as a potential Democratic vice-presidential running mate in 1984, 1988, and 1992, due to his foreign policy credentials and Indiana's potential to turn into what would later be described as a "blue" state due to economic concerns.In November 2002, George W. Bush nominated Hamilton as the Vice-Chairman of the 9/11 Commission, officially titled The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks on the United States. On March 15, 2006, Congress announced the formation of the Iraq Study Group, organized by the United States Institute of Peace, of which Hamilton is the Democratic co-chairman, along with the former Secretary of State (under President George H.W. Bush) James A. Baker III. Hamilton, like Baker, is considered a master negotiator.Since leaving Congress, Mr. Hamilton has served as a member of the Hart-Rudman Commission, and was co-chairman of the Commission to Investigate Certain Security Issues at Los Alamos. He sits on many advisory boards, including those to the CIA, the President's Homeland Security Advisory Council, and the United States Army. Hamilton is an Advisory Board member and Co-Chair for the Partnership for a Secure America, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to recreating the bipartisan center in American national security and foreign policy. He is previously the president and director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and was appointed to serve as the vice chair of the 9/11 Commission. In 2000-2001, he served as the American member of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, which prepared the U.N policy of Responsibility to Protect, adopted in 2005. He is also a member of the Board of Advisors of Albright Stonebridge Group. He was appointed Co-Chair of the Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future from 2010–2012 alongside Brent Scowcroft. He is also a member of Washington D.C. based think tank, the Inter-American Dialogue.Hamilton serves as a co-chair of the National Security Preparedness Group (NSPG) at the Bipartisan Policy Center. Hamilton is a co-chair with Sandra Day O'Connor of the Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools. He also serves as an Advisory Board member for the Partnership for a Secure America and for America Abroad Media.On February 25, 2011, Hamilton wrote a letter to President Barack Obama urging him to commute Jonathan Pollard's sentence to time served. Pollard was serving a life sentence for providing Israel with classified information, without the intent to harm the United States, a crime which normally carries a sentence of two to four years. In his letter, he stated, "I do believe that he has served a disproportionately severe sentence." He also stated, "I have been acquainted for many years with members of his family, especially his parents, and I know how much pain and anguish they have suffered because of their son's incarceration." He concluded that, "commuting his sentence is a matter of basic compassion and justice. Pollard was granted parole on July 7, 2015, and released on November 20, 2015.On August 11, 2012, Hamilton's wife Nancy died in an auto-related accident; no one else was injured. Prior to her death, Mrs. Hamilton was an accomplished artist. In 1981 her oil paintings and watercolors were featured in an exhibit at The Commons and in 1984 she had a one-woman show at a Seymour art gallery. Mrs. Hamilton also contributed thousands of hours at the INOVA Alexandria Virginia Hospital.Hamilton endorsed Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election.Hamilton is a member of the ReFormers Caucus of Issue One.Lee H. Hamilton serves as an Honorary Co-Chair for the World Justice Project. The World Justice Project works to lead a global, multidisciplinary effort to strengthen the Rule of Law for the development of communities of opportunity and equity.A nine-mile stretch of I-265 and Indiana 265 in Floyd and Clark counties, part of Hamilton's former House district, was designated the "Lee H. Hamilton Highway" shortly after his retirement from the House in 1999. The moniker is largely symbolic, as locals generally do not refer to the road by that name, although the name is used frequently by the traffic reporter for the area's largest radio station, WHAS 840-AM in nearby Louisville, Kentucky.In 1982, Hamilton was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame, in honor of his outstanding prep basketball career; he led the Evansville Central Bears to three deep runs in the IHSAA tournament. In 1946, the Bears made the State Semi-finals, in 1947, they made the State Quarter-finals; as a Senior, he led them to the Championship game. He was selected All-State his senior season and was awarded the Trestor Award for mental attitude. He later starred for the DePauw Tigers, leading them in scoring average in 1951 and rebounds in 1951 and 1952.In 2001 Lee H. Hamilton was presented the Lifetime Contributions to American Diplomacy Award by the American Foreign Service Association.In 2005, Hamilton received the U.S. Senator John Heinz Award for Greatest Public Service by an Elected or Appointed Official, an award given out annually by Jefferson Awards.In 2011, Hamilton received the Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site Advancing American Democracy Award.In 2018, Indiana University Bloomington announced that the School of Global and International Studies will be renamed the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies in honor of Hamilton and former U.S. Senator Richard Lugar, describing both as "two immensely accomplished Indiana statesmen and two of the nation's most distinguished and influential voices in foreign policy."In November 2015, Hamilton was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in a ceremony at the White House.
|
[
"deputy chairperson",
"treasurer",
"president"
] |
|
Which position did David Mudd hold in Nov, 1979?
|
November 19, 1979
|
{
"text": [
"Member of the 48th Parliament of the United Kingdom"
]
}
|
L2_Q5237784_P39_3
|
David Mudd holds the position of Member of the 50th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1987 to Mar, 1992.
David Mudd holds the position of Member of the 48th Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 1979 to May, 1983.
David Mudd holds the position of Member of the 46th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Feb, 1974 to Sep, 1974.
David Mudd holds the position of Member of the 45th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1970 to Feb, 1974.
David Mudd holds the position of Member of the 47th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Oct, 1974 to Apr, 1979.
David Mudd holds the position of Member of the 49th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1983 to May, 1987.
|
David MuddWilliam David Mudd (2 June 1933 – 28 April 2020) was a British politician.Mudd was born in Falmouth, Cornwall, in June 1933. He was educated at Truro Cathedral School and was a member of the Tavistock Urban District Council from 1959 to 1961. He carried out his National service on merchant ships in the 1950s and, after working for a brief period as a stage manager in ballrooms all over the UK, he decided to take on a career in radio and television broadcast journalism.He was Conservative MP for Falmouth and Camborne from 1970 until 1992, when he stood down. It was considered a surprise when he decided to stand in his old constituency at the 2005 general election as an independent candidate. He came fifth with 2% of the vote.In the 1970s, Mudd was a member of Mebyon Kernow as well as the Conservative Party. He was also a newsreader on Westward Television in the 1970s and a Cornish bard.He died in Derriford Hospital, Plymouth, Devon in April 2020 at the age of 86.
|
[
"Member of the 47th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 46th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 50th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 49th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 45th Parliament of the United Kingdom"
] |
|
Which position did David Mudd hold in 1979-11-19?
|
November 19, 1979
|
{
"text": [
"Member of the 48th Parliament of the United Kingdom"
]
}
|
L2_Q5237784_P39_3
|
David Mudd holds the position of Member of the 50th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1987 to Mar, 1992.
David Mudd holds the position of Member of the 48th Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 1979 to May, 1983.
David Mudd holds the position of Member of the 46th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Feb, 1974 to Sep, 1974.
David Mudd holds the position of Member of the 45th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1970 to Feb, 1974.
David Mudd holds the position of Member of the 47th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Oct, 1974 to Apr, 1979.
David Mudd holds the position of Member of the 49th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1983 to May, 1987.
|
David MuddWilliam David Mudd (2 June 1933 – 28 April 2020) was a British politician.Mudd was born in Falmouth, Cornwall, in June 1933. He was educated at Truro Cathedral School and was a member of the Tavistock Urban District Council from 1959 to 1961. He carried out his National service on merchant ships in the 1950s and, after working for a brief period as a stage manager in ballrooms all over the UK, he decided to take on a career in radio and television broadcast journalism.He was Conservative MP for Falmouth and Camborne from 1970 until 1992, when he stood down. It was considered a surprise when he decided to stand in his old constituency at the 2005 general election as an independent candidate. He came fifth with 2% of the vote.In the 1970s, Mudd was a member of Mebyon Kernow as well as the Conservative Party. He was also a newsreader on Westward Television in the 1970s and a Cornish bard.He died in Derriford Hospital, Plymouth, Devon in April 2020 at the age of 86.
|
[
"Member of the 47th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 46th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 50th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 49th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 45th Parliament of the United Kingdom"
] |
|
Which position did David Mudd hold in 19/11/1979?
|
November 19, 1979
|
{
"text": [
"Member of the 48th Parliament of the United Kingdom"
]
}
|
L2_Q5237784_P39_3
|
David Mudd holds the position of Member of the 50th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1987 to Mar, 1992.
David Mudd holds the position of Member of the 48th Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 1979 to May, 1983.
David Mudd holds the position of Member of the 46th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Feb, 1974 to Sep, 1974.
David Mudd holds the position of Member of the 45th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1970 to Feb, 1974.
David Mudd holds the position of Member of the 47th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Oct, 1974 to Apr, 1979.
David Mudd holds the position of Member of the 49th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1983 to May, 1987.
|
David MuddWilliam David Mudd (2 June 1933 – 28 April 2020) was a British politician.Mudd was born in Falmouth, Cornwall, in June 1933. He was educated at Truro Cathedral School and was a member of the Tavistock Urban District Council from 1959 to 1961. He carried out his National service on merchant ships in the 1950s and, after working for a brief period as a stage manager in ballrooms all over the UK, he decided to take on a career in radio and television broadcast journalism.He was Conservative MP for Falmouth and Camborne from 1970 until 1992, when he stood down. It was considered a surprise when he decided to stand in his old constituency at the 2005 general election as an independent candidate. He came fifth with 2% of the vote.In the 1970s, Mudd was a member of Mebyon Kernow as well as the Conservative Party. He was also a newsreader on Westward Television in the 1970s and a Cornish bard.He died in Derriford Hospital, Plymouth, Devon in April 2020 at the age of 86.
|
[
"Member of the 47th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 46th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 50th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 49th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 45th Parliament of the United Kingdom"
] |
|
Which position did David Mudd hold in Nov 19, 1979?
|
November 19, 1979
|
{
"text": [
"Member of the 48th Parliament of the United Kingdom"
]
}
|
L2_Q5237784_P39_3
|
David Mudd holds the position of Member of the 50th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1987 to Mar, 1992.
David Mudd holds the position of Member of the 48th Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 1979 to May, 1983.
David Mudd holds the position of Member of the 46th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Feb, 1974 to Sep, 1974.
David Mudd holds the position of Member of the 45th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1970 to Feb, 1974.
David Mudd holds the position of Member of the 47th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Oct, 1974 to Apr, 1979.
David Mudd holds the position of Member of the 49th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1983 to May, 1987.
|
David MuddWilliam David Mudd (2 June 1933 – 28 April 2020) was a British politician.Mudd was born in Falmouth, Cornwall, in June 1933. He was educated at Truro Cathedral School and was a member of the Tavistock Urban District Council from 1959 to 1961. He carried out his National service on merchant ships in the 1950s and, after working for a brief period as a stage manager in ballrooms all over the UK, he decided to take on a career in radio and television broadcast journalism.He was Conservative MP for Falmouth and Camborne from 1970 until 1992, when he stood down. It was considered a surprise when he decided to stand in his old constituency at the 2005 general election as an independent candidate. He came fifth with 2% of the vote.In the 1970s, Mudd was a member of Mebyon Kernow as well as the Conservative Party. He was also a newsreader on Westward Television in the 1970s and a Cornish bard.He died in Derriford Hospital, Plymouth, Devon in April 2020 at the age of 86.
|
[
"Member of the 47th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 46th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 50th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 49th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 45th Parliament of the United Kingdom"
] |
|
Which position did David Mudd hold in 11/19/1979?
|
November 19, 1979
|
{
"text": [
"Member of the 48th Parliament of the United Kingdom"
]
}
|
L2_Q5237784_P39_3
|
David Mudd holds the position of Member of the 50th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1987 to Mar, 1992.
David Mudd holds the position of Member of the 48th Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 1979 to May, 1983.
David Mudd holds the position of Member of the 46th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Feb, 1974 to Sep, 1974.
David Mudd holds the position of Member of the 45th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1970 to Feb, 1974.
David Mudd holds the position of Member of the 47th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Oct, 1974 to Apr, 1979.
David Mudd holds the position of Member of the 49th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1983 to May, 1987.
|
David MuddWilliam David Mudd (2 June 1933 – 28 April 2020) was a British politician.Mudd was born in Falmouth, Cornwall, in June 1933. He was educated at Truro Cathedral School and was a member of the Tavistock Urban District Council from 1959 to 1961. He carried out his National service on merchant ships in the 1950s and, after working for a brief period as a stage manager in ballrooms all over the UK, he decided to take on a career in radio and television broadcast journalism.He was Conservative MP for Falmouth and Camborne from 1970 until 1992, when he stood down. It was considered a surprise when he decided to stand in his old constituency at the 2005 general election as an independent candidate. He came fifth with 2% of the vote.In the 1970s, Mudd was a member of Mebyon Kernow as well as the Conservative Party. He was also a newsreader on Westward Television in the 1970s and a Cornish bard.He died in Derriford Hospital, Plymouth, Devon in April 2020 at the age of 86.
|
[
"Member of the 47th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 46th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 50th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 49th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 45th Parliament of the United Kingdom"
] |
|
Which position did David Mudd hold in 19-Nov-197919-November-1979?
|
November 19, 1979
|
{
"text": [
"Member of the 48th Parliament of the United Kingdom"
]
}
|
L2_Q5237784_P39_3
|
David Mudd holds the position of Member of the 50th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1987 to Mar, 1992.
David Mudd holds the position of Member of the 48th Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 1979 to May, 1983.
David Mudd holds the position of Member of the 46th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Feb, 1974 to Sep, 1974.
David Mudd holds the position of Member of the 45th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1970 to Feb, 1974.
David Mudd holds the position of Member of the 47th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Oct, 1974 to Apr, 1979.
David Mudd holds the position of Member of the 49th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1983 to May, 1987.
|
David MuddWilliam David Mudd (2 June 1933 – 28 April 2020) was a British politician.Mudd was born in Falmouth, Cornwall, in June 1933. He was educated at Truro Cathedral School and was a member of the Tavistock Urban District Council from 1959 to 1961. He carried out his National service on merchant ships in the 1950s and, after working for a brief period as a stage manager in ballrooms all over the UK, he decided to take on a career in radio and television broadcast journalism.He was Conservative MP for Falmouth and Camborne from 1970 until 1992, when he stood down. It was considered a surprise when he decided to stand in his old constituency at the 2005 general election as an independent candidate. He came fifth with 2% of the vote.In the 1970s, Mudd was a member of Mebyon Kernow as well as the Conservative Party. He was also a newsreader on Westward Television in the 1970s and a Cornish bard.He died in Derriford Hospital, Plymouth, Devon in April 2020 at the age of 86.
|
[
"Member of the 47th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 46th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 50th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 49th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 45th Parliament of the United Kingdom"
] |
|
Which team did Jan Flachbart play for in Jan, 2007?
|
January 01, 2007
|
{
"text": [
"FK Jablonec"
]
}
|
L2_Q382348_P54_5
|
Jan Flachbart plays for FC Zenit Saint Petersburg from Jan, 2004 to Jan, 2006.
Jan Flachbart plays for FC Oberlausitz Neugersdorf from Jan, 2012 to Jan, 2014.
Jan Flachbart plays for Bohemians 1905 from Jan, 1996 to Jan, 1999.
Jan Flachbart plays for Czech Republic national under-21 football team from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 2000.
Jan Flachbart plays for FK Jablonec from Jan, 2007 to Jan, 2007.
Jan Flachbart plays for AC Sparta Prague from Jan, 2001 to Jan, 2003.
Jan Flachbart plays for SK Hlavice from Jan, 2008 to Jan, 2009.
Jan Flachbart plays for SK Sigma Olomouc from Jan, 2006 to Jan, 2006.
Jan Flachbart plays for SK Sparta Krč from Jan, 2008 to Jan, 2008.
|
Jan FlachbartJan Flachbart (born 3 March 1978) is a Czech footballer currently playing for FC Oberlausitz Neugersdorf.Flachbart played for FC Zenit St. Petersburg in the Russian Premier League from 2004 to 2006.
|
[
"AC Sparta Prague",
"FC Zenit Saint Petersburg",
"Bohemians 1905",
"SK Sigma Olomouc",
"FC Oberlausitz Neugersdorf",
"SK Sparta Krč",
"Czech Republic national under-21 football team",
"SK Hlavice"
] |
|
Which team did Jan Flachbart play for in 2007-01-01?
|
January 01, 2007
|
{
"text": [
"FK Jablonec"
]
}
|
L2_Q382348_P54_5
|
Jan Flachbart plays for FC Zenit Saint Petersburg from Jan, 2004 to Jan, 2006.
Jan Flachbart plays for FC Oberlausitz Neugersdorf from Jan, 2012 to Jan, 2014.
Jan Flachbart plays for Bohemians 1905 from Jan, 1996 to Jan, 1999.
Jan Flachbart plays for Czech Republic national under-21 football team from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 2000.
Jan Flachbart plays for FK Jablonec from Jan, 2007 to Jan, 2007.
Jan Flachbart plays for AC Sparta Prague from Jan, 2001 to Jan, 2003.
Jan Flachbart plays for SK Hlavice from Jan, 2008 to Jan, 2009.
Jan Flachbart plays for SK Sigma Olomouc from Jan, 2006 to Jan, 2006.
Jan Flachbart plays for SK Sparta Krč from Jan, 2008 to Jan, 2008.
|
Jan FlachbartJan Flachbart (born 3 March 1978) is a Czech footballer currently playing for FC Oberlausitz Neugersdorf.Flachbart played for FC Zenit St. Petersburg in the Russian Premier League from 2004 to 2006.
|
[
"AC Sparta Prague",
"FC Zenit Saint Petersburg",
"Bohemians 1905",
"SK Sigma Olomouc",
"FC Oberlausitz Neugersdorf",
"SK Sparta Krč",
"Czech Republic national under-21 football team",
"SK Hlavice"
] |
|
Which team did Jan Flachbart play for in 01/01/2007?
|
January 01, 2007
|
{
"text": [
"FK Jablonec"
]
}
|
L2_Q382348_P54_5
|
Jan Flachbart plays for FC Zenit Saint Petersburg from Jan, 2004 to Jan, 2006.
Jan Flachbart plays for FC Oberlausitz Neugersdorf from Jan, 2012 to Jan, 2014.
Jan Flachbart plays for Bohemians 1905 from Jan, 1996 to Jan, 1999.
Jan Flachbart plays for Czech Republic national under-21 football team from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 2000.
Jan Flachbart plays for FK Jablonec from Jan, 2007 to Jan, 2007.
Jan Flachbart plays for AC Sparta Prague from Jan, 2001 to Jan, 2003.
Jan Flachbart plays for SK Hlavice from Jan, 2008 to Jan, 2009.
Jan Flachbart plays for SK Sigma Olomouc from Jan, 2006 to Jan, 2006.
Jan Flachbart plays for SK Sparta Krč from Jan, 2008 to Jan, 2008.
|
Jan FlachbartJan Flachbart (born 3 March 1978) is a Czech footballer currently playing for FC Oberlausitz Neugersdorf.Flachbart played for FC Zenit St. Petersburg in the Russian Premier League from 2004 to 2006.
|
[
"AC Sparta Prague",
"FC Zenit Saint Petersburg",
"Bohemians 1905",
"SK Sigma Olomouc",
"FC Oberlausitz Neugersdorf",
"SK Sparta Krč",
"Czech Republic national under-21 football team",
"SK Hlavice"
] |
|
Which team did Jan Flachbart play for in Jan 01, 2007?
|
January 01, 2007
|
{
"text": [
"FK Jablonec"
]
}
|
L2_Q382348_P54_5
|
Jan Flachbart plays for FC Zenit Saint Petersburg from Jan, 2004 to Jan, 2006.
Jan Flachbart plays for FC Oberlausitz Neugersdorf from Jan, 2012 to Jan, 2014.
Jan Flachbart plays for Bohemians 1905 from Jan, 1996 to Jan, 1999.
Jan Flachbart plays for Czech Republic national under-21 football team from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 2000.
Jan Flachbart plays for FK Jablonec from Jan, 2007 to Jan, 2007.
Jan Flachbart plays for AC Sparta Prague from Jan, 2001 to Jan, 2003.
Jan Flachbart plays for SK Hlavice from Jan, 2008 to Jan, 2009.
Jan Flachbart plays for SK Sigma Olomouc from Jan, 2006 to Jan, 2006.
Jan Flachbart plays for SK Sparta Krč from Jan, 2008 to Jan, 2008.
|
Jan FlachbartJan Flachbart (born 3 March 1978) is a Czech footballer currently playing for FC Oberlausitz Neugersdorf.Flachbart played for FC Zenit St. Petersburg in the Russian Premier League from 2004 to 2006.
|
[
"AC Sparta Prague",
"FC Zenit Saint Petersburg",
"Bohemians 1905",
"SK Sigma Olomouc",
"FC Oberlausitz Neugersdorf",
"SK Sparta Krč",
"Czech Republic national under-21 football team",
"SK Hlavice"
] |
|
Which team did Jan Flachbart play for in 01/01/2007?
|
January 01, 2007
|
{
"text": [
"FK Jablonec"
]
}
|
L2_Q382348_P54_5
|
Jan Flachbart plays for FC Zenit Saint Petersburg from Jan, 2004 to Jan, 2006.
Jan Flachbart plays for FC Oberlausitz Neugersdorf from Jan, 2012 to Jan, 2014.
Jan Flachbart plays for Bohemians 1905 from Jan, 1996 to Jan, 1999.
Jan Flachbart plays for Czech Republic national under-21 football team from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 2000.
Jan Flachbart plays for FK Jablonec from Jan, 2007 to Jan, 2007.
Jan Flachbart plays for AC Sparta Prague from Jan, 2001 to Jan, 2003.
Jan Flachbart plays for SK Hlavice from Jan, 2008 to Jan, 2009.
Jan Flachbart plays for SK Sigma Olomouc from Jan, 2006 to Jan, 2006.
Jan Flachbart plays for SK Sparta Krč from Jan, 2008 to Jan, 2008.
|
Jan FlachbartJan Flachbart (born 3 March 1978) is a Czech footballer currently playing for FC Oberlausitz Neugersdorf.Flachbart played for FC Zenit St. Petersburg in the Russian Premier League from 2004 to 2006.
|
[
"AC Sparta Prague",
"FC Zenit Saint Petersburg",
"Bohemians 1905",
"SK Sigma Olomouc",
"FC Oberlausitz Neugersdorf",
"SK Sparta Krč",
"Czech Republic national under-21 football team",
"SK Hlavice"
] |
|
Which team did Jan Flachbart play for in 01-Jan-200701-January-2007?
|
January 01, 2007
|
{
"text": [
"FK Jablonec"
]
}
|
L2_Q382348_P54_5
|
Jan Flachbart plays for FC Zenit Saint Petersburg from Jan, 2004 to Jan, 2006.
Jan Flachbart plays for FC Oberlausitz Neugersdorf from Jan, 2012 to Jan, 2014.
Jan Flachbart plays for Bohemians 1905 from Jan, 1996 to Jan, 1999.
Jan Flachbart plays for Czech Republic national under-21 football team from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 2000.
Jan Flachbart plays for FK Jablonec from Jan, 2007 to Jan, 2007.
Jan Flachbart plays for AC Sparta Prague from Jan, 2001 to Jan, 2003.
Jan Flachbart plays for SK Hlavice from Jan, 2008 to Jan, 2009.
Jan Flachbart plays for SK Sigma Olomouc from Jan, 2006 to Jan, 2006.
Jan Flachbart plays for SK Sparta Krč from Jan, 2008 to Jan, 2008.
|
Jan FlachbartJan Flachbart (born 3 March 1978) is a Czech footballer currently playing for FC Oberlausitz Neugersdorf.Flachbart played for FC Zenit St. Petersburg in the Russian Premier League from 2004 to 2006.
|
[
"AC Sparta Prague",
"FC Zenit Saint Petersburg",
"Bohemians 1905",
"SK Sigma Olomouc",
"FC Oberlausitz Neugersdorf",
"SK Sparta Krč",
"Czech Republic national under-21 football team",
"SK Hlavice"
] |
|
Who was the chair of Johns Hopkins University in May, 1917?
|
May 11, 1917
|
{
"text": [
"Frank Johnson Goodnow"
]
}
|
L2_Q193727_P488_2
|
Lowell Reed is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Sep, 1953 to Jun, 1956.
Milton Stover Eisenhower is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Jul, 1956 to Jun, 1967.
Daniel Coit Gilman is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Feb, 1876 to Aug, 1901.
Frank Johnson Goodnow is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Oct, 1914 to Jun, 1929.
William Ralph Brody is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Aug, 1996 to Mar, 2008.
Lincoln Gordon is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Jul, 1967 to Mar, 1971.
Ronald J. Daniels is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Jan, 2009 to Dec, 2022.
Isaiah Bowman is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Jul, 1935 to Dec, 1948.
Ira Remsen is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Sep, 1901 to Jan, 1913.
Joseph Sweetman Ames is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Jul, 1929 to Jun, 1935.
Daniel Nathans is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Jun, 1995 to Aug, 1996.
Steven Muller is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Feb, 1972 to Jun, 1990.
William C. Richardson is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Jun, 1990 to Jun, 1995.
Detlev Bronk is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Jan, 1949 to Aug, 1953.
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Johns Hopkins UniversityThe Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, the university was named for its first benefactor, the American entrepreneur and philanthropist Johns Hopkins. Johns Hopkins is considered the first research university in the United States. Hopkin's $7 million bequest to establish the university was the largest philanthropic gift in the history of the United States up to that time. Daniel Coit Gilman, who was inaugurated as on February 22, 1876, led the university to revolutionize higher education in the U.S. by integrating teaching and research. In 1900, Johns Hopkins became a founding member of the American Association of Universities. The university has since led all U.S. universities in annual research expenditures. Johns Hopkins is organized into 10 divisions on campuses in Maryland and Washington, D.C., with international centers in Italy and China. The two undergraduate divisions, the Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences and the Whiting School of Engineering, are located on the Homewood campus in Baltimore's Charles Village neighborhood. The medical school, nursing school, and Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Johns Hopkins Children’s Center are located on the Medical Institutions campus in East Baltimore. The university also consists of the Peabody Institute, Applied Physics Laboratory, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, School of Education, Carey Business School, and various other facilities. The university also has graduate campuses in Italy, China, and Washington, D.C.As of October 2019, 39 Nobel laureates and 1 Fields Medalist have been affiliated with Johns Hopkins' faculty and alumni. Founded in 1883, the Blue Jays men's lacrosse team has captured 44 national titles and plays in the Big Ten Conference as an affiliate member.On his death in 1873, Johns Hopkins, a Quaker entrepreneur and childless bachelor, bequeathed $7 million (approximately $ million today adjusted for consumer price inflation) to fund a hospital and university in Baltimore, Maryland. At the time, this donation, generated primarily from the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, was the largest philanthropic gift in the history of the United States, and endowment was then the largest in America. Until 2020, Hopkins was assumed to be a fervent abolitionist, until research done by the school into his United States Census records revealed he claimed to own at least five household slaves in the 1840 and 1850 decennial censuses.The first name of philanthropist Johns Hopkins comes from the surname of his great-grandmother, Margaret Johns, who married Gerard Hopkins. They named their son Johns Hopkins, who named his own son Samuel Hopkins. Samuel named one of his sons for his father, and that son became the university's benefactor. Milton Eisenhower, a former university president, once spoke at a convention in Pittsburgh where the master of ceremonies introduced him as "President of "John" Hopkins." Eisenhower retorted that he was "glad to be here in "Pitt"burgh."The original board opted for an entirely novel university model dedicated to the discovery of knowledge at an advanced level, extending that of contemporary Germany. Building on the Humboldtian model of higher education, the German education model of Wilhelm von Humboldt, it became dedicated to research. It was especially Heidelberg University and its long academic research history on which the new institution tried to model itself. Johns Hopkins thereby became the model of the modern research university in the United States. Its success eventually shifted higher education in the United States from a focus on teaching revealed and/or applied knowledge to the scientific discovery of new knowledge. The trustees worked alongside four notable university presidents – Charles W. Eliot of Harvard, Andrew D. White of Cornell, Noah Porter of Yale College and James B. Angell of Michigan. They each vouched for Daniel Coit Gilman to lead the new University and he became the university's first president. Gilman, a Yale-educated scholar, had been serving as president of the University of California, Berkeley prior to this appointment. In preparation for the university's founding, Gilman visited University of Freiburg and other German universities.Gilman launched what many at the time considered an audacious and unprecedented academic experiment to merge teaching and research. He dismissed the idea that the two were mutually exclusive: "The best teachers are usually those who are free, competent and willing to make original researches in the library and the laboratory," he stated. To implement his plan, Gilman recruited internationally known researchers including the mathematician James Joseph Sylvester; the biologist H. Newell Martin; the physicist Henry A. Rowland (the first president of the American Physical Society), the classical scholars Basil Gildersleeve and Charles D. Morris; the economist Richard T. Ely; and the chemist Ira Remsen, who became the second president of the university in 1901.Gilman focused on the expansion of graduate education and support of faculty research. The new university fused advanced scholarship with such professional schools as medicine and engineering. Hopkins became the national trendsetter in doctoral programs and the host for numerous scholarly journals and associations. The Johns Hopkins University Press, founded in 1878, is the oldest American university press in continuous operation.With the completion of Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1889 and the medical school in 1893, the university's research-focused mode of instruction soon began attracting world-renowned faculty members who would become major figures in the emerging field of academic medicine, including William Osler, William Halsted, Howard Kelly, and William Welch. Students came from all over the world to study at Johns Hopkins and returned to their sending country to serve their nation, including Dr Harry Chung (b. 1872) who served as a diplomat in the Manchu Dynasty and First Secretary to the United States. During this period Hopkins made more history by becoming the first medical school to admit women on an equal basis with men and to require a Bachelor's degree, based on the efforts of Mary E. Garrett, who had endowed the school at Gilman's request. The school of medicine was America's first coeducational, graduate-level medical school, and became a prototype for academic medicine that emphasized bedside learning, research projects, and laboratory training. In his will and in his instructions to the trustees of the university and the hospital, Hopkins requested that both institutions be built upon the vast grounds of his Baltimore estate, Clifton. When Gilman assumed the presidency, he decided that it would be best to use the university's endowment for recruiting faculty and students, deciding to, as it has been paraphrased, "build men, not buildings." In his will Hopkins stipulated that none of his endowment should be used for construction; only interest on the principal could be used for this purpose. Unfortunately, stocks in The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, which would have generated most of the interest, became virtually worthless soon after Hopkins's death. The university's first home was thus in Downtown Baltimore delaying plans to site the university in Clifton.In the early 20th century, the university outgrew its buildings and the trustees began to search for a new home. Developing Clifton for the university was too costly, and of the estate had to be sold to the city as public park. A solution was achieved by a team of prominent locals who acquired the estate in north Baltimore known as Homewood. On February 22, 1902, this land was formally transferred to the university. The flagship building, Gilman Hall, was completed in 1915. The School of Engineering relocated in Fall of 1914 and the School of Arts and Sciences followed in 1916. These decades saw the ceding of lands by the university for the public Wyman Park and Wyman Park Dell and the Baltimore Museum of Art, coalescing in the contemporary area of .Prior to becoming the main Johns Hopkins campus, the Homewood estate had initially been the gift of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, a Maryland planter and signer of the Declaration of Independence, to his son Charles Carroll Jr. The original structure, the 1801 Homewood House, still stands and serves as an on-campus museum. The brick and marble Federal style of Homewood House became the architectural inspiration for much of the university campus versus the Collegiate Gothic style of other historic American universities.In 1909, the university was among the first to start adult continuing education programs and in 1916 it founded the US' first school of public health.Since the 1910s, Johns Hopkins University has famously been a "fertile cradle" to Arthur Lovejoy's history of ideas.Since 1942, the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) has served as a major governmental defense contractor. In tandem with on-campus research, Johns Hopkins has every year since 1979 had the highest federal research funding of any American university.Professional schools of international affairs and music were established in 1950 and 1977, respectively, when the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in Washington D.C and the Peabody Institute in Baltimore were incorporated into the university.The early decades of the 21st century saw expansion across the university's institutions in both physical and population sizes. Notably, a planned 88-acre expansion to the medical campus began in 2013. Completed construction on the Homewood campus has included a new biomedical engineering building in the Johns Hopkins University Department of Biomedical Engineering, a new library, a new biology wing, an extensive renovation of the flagship Gilman Hall, and the reconstruction of the main university entrance.These years also brought about the rapid development of the university's professional schools of education and business. From 1999 until 2007, these disciplines had been joined together within the School of Professional Studies in Business and Education (SPSBE), itself a reshuffling of several earlier ventures. The 2007 split, combined with new funding and leadership initiatives, has led to the simultaneous emergence of the Johns Hopkins School of Education and the Carey Business School.On November 18, 2018, it was announced that Michael Bloomberg would make a donation to his alma mater of $1.8 billion, marking the largest private donation in modern history to an institution of higher education and bringing Bloomberg's total contribution to the school in excess of $3.3 billion. Bloomberg's $1.8 billion gift allows the school to practice need-blind admission and meet the full financial need of admitted students.In January 2019, the university announced an agreement to purchase the Newseum, located at 555 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, in the heart of Washington, D.C., with plans to locate all of its D.C.-based graduate programs there. In an interview with The Atlantic, the president of Johns Hopkins stated that “the purchase is an opportunity to position the university, literally, to better contribute its expertise to national- and international-policy discussions.”In late 2019, the university's Coronavirus Research Center began tracking worldwide cases of the COVID-19 pandemic by compiling data from hundreds of sources around the world. This led to the university becoming one of the most cited sources for data about the pandemic.Hopkins was a prominent abolitionist who supported Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War. After his death, reports said his conviction was a decisive factor in enrolling Hopkins' first African-American student, Kelly Miller, a graduate student in physics, astronomy and mathematics. As time passed, the university adopted a "separate but equal" stance more like other Baltimore institutions.The first black undergraduate entered the school in 1945 and graduate students followed in 1967. James Nabwangu, a British-trained Kenyan, was the first black graduate of the medical school. African-American instructor and laboratory supervisor Vivien Thomas was instrumental in developing and conducting the first successful blue baby operation in 1944. Despite such cases, racial diversity did not become commonplace at Johns Hopkins institutions until the 1960s and 1970s.Hopkins' most well-known battle for women's rights was the one led by daughters of trustees of the university; Mary E. Garrett, M. Carey Thomas, Mamie Gwinn, Elizabeth King, and Julia Rogers. They donated and raised the funds needed to open the medical school, and required Hopkins' officials to agree to their stipulation that women would be admitted. The nursing school opened in 1889 and accepted women and men as students. Other graduate schools were later opened to women by president Ira Remsen in 1907. Christine Ladd-Franklin was the first woman to earn a PhD at Hopkins, in mathematics in 1882. The trustees denied her the degree for decades and refused to change the policy about admitting women. In 1893, Florence Bascomb became the university's first female PhD. The decision to admit women at undergraduate level was not considered until the late 1960s and was eventually adopted in October 1969. As of 2009–2010, the undergraduate population was 47% female and 53% male. In 2020, the undergraduate population of Hopkins was 53% female.On September 5, 2013, cryptographer and Johns Hopkins university professor Matthew Green posted a blog entitled, "On the NSA", in which he contributed to the ongoing debate regarding the role of NIST and NSA in formulating U.S. cryptography standards. On September 9, 2013, Green received a take-down request for the "On the NSA" blog from interim Dean Andrew Douglas from the Johns Hopkins University Whiting School of Engineering. The request cited concerns that the blog had links to sensitive material. The blog linked to already published news articles from "The Guardian", "The New York Times" and ProPublica.org. Douglas subsequently issued a personal on-line apology to Green. The event raised concern over the future of academic freedom of speech within the cryptologic research community.The first campus was located on Howard Street. Eventually, they relocated to Homewood, in northern Baltimore, the estate of Charles Carroll, son of the oldest surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence. Carroll's Homewood House is considered one of the finest examples of Federal residential architecture. The estate then came to the Wyman family, which participated in making it the park-like main campus of the schools of arts and sciences and engineering at the start of the 20th century. Most of its architecture was modeled after the Federal style of Homewood House. Homewood House is preserved as a museum. Most undergraduate programs are on this campus.Collectively known as Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions (JHMI) campus, the East Baltimore facility occupies several city blocks spreading from the Johns Hopkins Hospital trademark dome.The Washington, D.C. campus is on Massachusetts Avenue, towards the Southeastern end of Embassy Row.In 2019, Hopkins announced its purchase of the Newseum building on Pennsylvania Avenue, three blocks from the United States Capitol to house its D.C. programs and centers. Akin to the Washington, D.C. campus for the School of Arts & Sciences, the APL also is the primary campus for master's degrees in a variety of STEM fields.The Johns Hopkins entity is structured as two corporations, the university and The Johns Hopkins Health System, formed in 1986. The President is JHU's chief executive officer, and the university is organized into nine academic divisions.JHU's bylaws specify a Board of Trustees of between 18 and 65 voting members. Trustees serve six-year terms subject to a two-term limit. The alumni select 12 trustees. Four recent alumni serve 4-year terms, one per year, typically from the graduating class. The bylaws prohibit students, faculty or administrative staff from serving on the Board, except the President as an ex-officio trustee. The Johns Hopkins Health System has a separate Board of Trustees, many of whom are doctors or health care executives.The full-time, four-year undergraduate program is "most selective" with low transfer-in and a high graduate co-existence. The cost of attendance per year is $60,820; however, the average need met is 99%. The university is one of fourteen founding members of the Association of American Universities (AAU); it is also a member of the Consortium on Financing Higher Education (COFHE) and the Universities Research Association (URA).JHU's undergraduate education is ranked 9th among U.S. "national universities" by "U.S. News & World Report" for 2021. For medical research "U.S. News & World Report" ranks the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in 2020 for 2nd in the U.S. and the Bloomberg School of Public Health 1st. The School of Nursing was ranked 1st nationally for master's degrees. The "QS Top Universities" ranked Johns Hopkins University No. 5 in the world for medicine. , Hopkins ranked No. 1 nationally in receipt of federal research funds, and was the top recipient of NIH research grants in 2019, both in terms of dollar amount and number of grants. In 2020, the Johns Hopkins Hospital was ranked the No. 3 hospital in the United States by the "U.S. News & World Report" annual ranking of American hospitals.The School of Education is ranked No. 2 nationally by "U.S. News & World Report" for 2017. In 2015, the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) ranked 2nd in the world in Foreign Policy's "Top Master's Programs for Policy Career in International Relations" ranking.The university's undergraduate programs are most selective: in 2021, the Office of Admissions accepted about 4.9% of its 33,236 Regular Decision applicants. In 2019, 98% of admitted students graduated in the top tenth of their high school class with a mean unweighted academic GPA of 3.92. The inter-quartile range on the SAT composite score was 1480–1550. In 2013, 96.8% of freshmen returned after the first year and 88% of students graduated in 4 years. Over time, applications to Johns Hopkins University have risen steadily. As a result, the selectivity of Johns Hopkins University has also increased. Early Decision is an option at Johns Hopkins University for students who wish to demonstrate that the university is their first choice. These students, if admitted, are required to enroll. This application is due November 2. Most students, however, apply Regular Decision, which is a traditional non-binding round. These applications are due January 1 and students are notified in late March. In 2014, Johns Hopkins ended legacy preference in admissions.The Johns Hopkins University Library system houses more than 3.6 million volumes and includes ten main divisions across the university's campuses. The largest segment of this system is the Sheridan Libraries, encompassing the Milton S. Eisenhower Library (the main library of the Homewood campus), the Brody Learning Commons, the Hutzler Reading Room ("The Hut") in Gilman Hall, the John Work Garrett Library at Evergreen House, and the George Peabody Library at the Peabody Institute campus.The main library, constructed in the 1960s, was named for Milton S. Eisenhower, former president of the university and brother of former U.S. president Dwight D. Eisenhower. The university's stacks had previously been housed in Gilman Hall and departmental libraries. Only two of the Eisenhower library's six stories are above ground, though the building was designed so that every level receives natural light. The design accords with campus lore that no structure can be taller than Gilman Hall, the flagship academic building. A four-story expansion to the library, known as the Brody Learning Commons, opened in August 2012. The expansion features an energy-efficient, state-of-the-art technology infrastructure and includes study spaces, seminar rooms, and a rare books collection.The Johns Hopkins University Press is the publishing division of the Johns Hopkins University. It was founded in 1878 and holds the distinction of being the oldest continuously running university press in the United States. To date the Press has published more than 6,000 titles and currently publishes 65 scholarly periodicals and over 200 new books each year. Since 1993, the Johns Hopkins University Press has run Project MUSE, an online collection of over 250 full-text, peer-reviewed journals in the humanities and social sciences. The Press also houses the Hopkins Fulfilment Services (HFS), which handles distribution for a number of university presses and publishers. Taken together, the three divisions of the Press—Books, Journals (including MUSE) and HFS—make it one of the largest of America's university presses.The Johns Hopkins University also offers the "Center for Talented Youth" program—a nonprofit organization dedicated to identifying and developing the talents of the most promising K-12 grade students worldwide. As part of the Johns Hopkins University, the "Center for Talented Youth" or CTY helps fulfill the university's mission of preparing students to make significant future contributions to the world. The Johns Hopkins Digital Media Center (DMC) is a multimedia lab space as well as an equipment, technology and knowledge resource for students interested in exploring creative uses of emerging media and use of technology.Johns Hopkins offers a number of degrees in various undergraduate majors leading to the BA and BS and various majors leading to the MA, MS and Ph.D. for graduate students. Because Hopkins offers both undergraduate and graduate areas of study, many disciplines have multiple degrees available. Biomedical engineering, perhaps one of Hopkins' best-known programs, offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees.The opportunity to participate in important research is one of the distinguishing characteristics of Hopkins' undergraduate education. About 80 percent of undergraduates perform independent research, often alongside top researchers. In fiscal year 2016, Johns Hopkins spent nearly $2.5 billion on research—more than any other U.S. university for the 38th consecutive year. Johns Hopkins has had seventy-seven members of the Institute of Medicine, forty-three Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigators, seventeen members of the National Academy of Engineering, and sixty-two members of the National Academy of Sciences. As of October 2019, 39 Nobel Prize winners have been affiliated with the university as alumni, faculty members or researchers, with the most recent winners being Gregg Semenza and William G. Kaelin.Between 1999 and 2009, Johns Hopkins was among the most cited institutions in the world. It attracted nearly 1,222,166 citations and produced 54,022 papers under its name, ranking No. 3 globally (after Harvard University and the Max Planck Society) in the number of "total" citations published in Thomson Reuters-indexed journals over 22 fields in America.In FY 2000, Johns Hopkins received $95.4 million in research grants from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), making it the leading recipient of NASA research and development funding. In FY 2002, Hopkins became the first university to cross the $1 billion threshold on either list, recording $1.14 billion in total research and $1.023 billion in federally sponsored research. In FY 2008, Johns Hopkins University performed $1.68 billion in science, medical and engineering research, making it the leading U.S. academic institution in total R&D spending for the 30th year in a row, according to a National Science Foundation (NSF) ranking. These totals include grants and expenditures of JHU's Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland.In 2013, the Bloomberg Distinguished Professorships program was established by a $250 million gift from Michael Bloomberg. This program enables the university to recruit fifty researchers from around the world to joint appointments throughout the nine divisions and research centers. Each professor must be a leader in interdisciplinary research and be active in undergraduate education. Directed by Vice Provost for Research Denis Wirtz, there are currently thirty two Bloomberg Distinguished Professors at the university, including three Nobel Laureates, eight fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, ten members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and thirteen members of the National Academies.Charles Village, the region of North Baltimore surrounding the university, has undergone several restoration projects, and the university has gradually bought the property around the school for additional student housing and dormitories. "The Charles Village Project", completed in 2008, brought new commercial spaces to the neighborhood. The project included Charles Commons, a new, modern residence hall that includes popular retail franchises. In 2015, the University began development of new commercial properties, including a modern upperclassmen apartment complex, restaurants and eateries, and a CVS retail store.Hopkins invested in improving campus life with an arts complex in 2001, the Mattin Center, and a three-story sports facility, the O'Connor Recreation Center. The large on-campus dining facilities at Homewood were renovated in the summer of 2006.Quality of life is enriched by the proximity of neighboring academic institutions, including Loyola College, Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), UMBC, Goucher College, and Towson University, as well as the nearby neighborhoods of Hampden, the Inner Harbor, Fells Point, and Mount Vernon.Greek life came to Hopkins in 1876 with the charter of fraternity Beta Theta Pi, which still exists on campus today. Since, Johns Hopkins has become home to nine sororities and 11 fraternities. Of the nine sororities, five belong to the National Panhellenic Conference and four to the Multicultural Greek Council Sororities. Of the fraternities, all 11 belong to the Inter-Fraternity Council. Over 1,000 students participate in Greek life, with 23% of women and 20% of men taking part. Greek life has expanded its reach at Hopkins in recent decades, as only 15% of the student body participated in 1989. Rush for all students occurs in the spring. Most fraternities keep houses in Charles Village while sororities do not.Johns Hopkins Greek life has been largely representative of its increasing diversity with the installment of Alpha Phi Alpha, a historically black fraternity, in 1991 and Lambda Phi Epsilon, an Asian-interest fraternity in 1994 among others.Spring Fair has been a Johns Hopkins tradition since 1972 and has since grown to be the largest student-run festival in the country. Popular among Hopkins students and Baltimore inhabitants alike, Spring Fair features carnival rides, vendors, food and a beer garden. Since its beginning, Spring Fair has decreased in size, both in regard to attendance and utilization of space. While one point, the Fair attracted upwards of 100,000 people, it became unruly and, for a variety of reasons including safety concerns and a campus beautification project in the early 2000s, had to be scaled back.While it has been speculated that Johns Hopkins has relatively few traditions for a school of its age and that many past traditions have been forgotten, a handful of myths and customs are ubiquitous knowledge among the community. One such long-standing myth surrounds the university seal that is embedded into the floor of the Gilman Hall foyer. The myth holds that any current student to step on the seal will never graduate. In reverence for this tradition, the seal has been fenced off from the rest of the room.An annual event is the "Lighting of the Quad", a ceremony each winter during which the campus is lit up in holiday lights. Recent years have included singing and fireworks.Living on campus is typically required for first- and second-year undergraduates. Freshman housing is centered around Freshman Quad, which consists of three residence hall complexes: The two Alumni Memorial Residences (AMR I and AMR II) plus Buildings A and B. The AMR dormitories are each divided into "houses", subunits named for figures from the university's early history. Freshmen are also housed in Wolman Hall and in certain wings of McCoy Hall, both located slightly outside the campus. Dorms at Hopkins are generally co-ed with same-gender rooms, though a new policy has allowed students to live in mixed-gender rooms since Fall 2014.Students determine where they will live during sophomore year through a housing lottery. Most juniors and seniors move into nearby apartments or row-houses. Non-freshmen in university housing occupy one of four buildings: McCoy Hall, the Bradford Apartments, the Homewood Apartments, and Charles Commons. All are located in Charles Village within a block from the Homewood campus. Forty-five percent of the student body lives off-campus while 55% lives on campus.Athletic teams are called Blue Jays. Even though sable and gold are used for academic robes, the university's athletic colors are Columbia blue (PMS 284) and black. Hopkins celebrates Homecoming in the spring to coincide with the height of the lacrosse season. The men's and women's lacrosse teams are in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I and are affiliate members of the Big Ten Conference. Other teams are in Division III and participate in the Centennial Conference. JHU is also home to the Lacrosse Museum and National Hall of Fame, maintained by US Lacrosse.The school's most prominent team is its men's lacrosse team. The team has won 44 national titles – nine Division I (2007, 2005, 1987, 1985, 1984, 1980, 1979, 1978, 1974), 29 United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA), and six Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (ILA) titles. Hopkins' primary national rivals are Princeton University, Syracuse University, and the University of Virginia; its primary intrastate rivals are Loyola University Maryland (competing in what is called the "Charles Street Massacre"), Towson University, the United States Naval Academy, and the University of Maryland. The rivalry with Maryland is the oldest. The schools have met 111 times since 1899, three times in playoff matches.On June 3, 2013, it was announced that the Blue Jays would join the Big Ten Conference for men's lacrosse when that league begins sponsoring the sport in the 2015 season (2014–15 school year).The women's team is a member of the Big Ten Conference and a former member of the American Lacrosse Conference (ALC). The Lady Blue Jays were ranked number 18 in the 2015 Inside Lacrosse Women's DI Media Poll. They ranked number 8 in the 2007 Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA) Poll Division I. The team finished the 2012 season with a 9–9 record and finished the 2013 season with a 10–7 record. They finished the 2014 season 15–5. On June 17, 2015, it was announced that the Blue Jays would join the Big Ten Conference for women's lacrosse in the 2017 season (2016–17 school year).Hopkins has notable Division III Athletic teams. JHU Men's Swimming won three consecutive NCAA Championships in 1977, 1978, and 1979. In 2009–2010, Hopkins won 8 Centennial Conference titles in Women's Cross Country, Women's Track & Field, Baseball, Men's and Women's Soccer, Football, and Men's and Women's Tennis. The Women's Cross Country team became the first women's team at Hopkins to achieve a #1 National ranking. In 2006–2007 teams won Centennial Conference titles in Baseball, Men's and Women's Soccer, Men's and Women's Tennis and Men's Basketball. Women's soccer won their Centennial Conference title for 7 consecutive years from 2005 to 2011. In the 2013–2014 school year, Hopkins earned 12 Centennial Conference titles, most notably from the cross country and track & field teams, which accounted for six.Hopkins has an acclaimed fencing team, which ranked in the top three Division III teams in the past few years and in both 2008 and 2007 defeated the University of North Carolina, a Division I team. In 2008, they defeated UNC and won the MACFA championship.The swimming team ranked highly in NCAA Division III for the last 10 years, most recently placing second at DIII Nationals in 2008. The water polo team was number one in Division III for several of the past years, playing a full schedule against Division I opponents. Hopkins also has a century-old rivalry with McDaniel College (formerly Western Maryland College), playing the Green Terrors 83 times in football since the first game in 1894. In 2009 the football team reached the quarterfinals of the NCAA Division III tournament, with three tournament appearances since 2005. In 2008, the baseball team ranked second, losing in the final game of the DIII College World Series to Trinity College.The Johns Hopkins squash team plays in the College Squash Association as a club team along with Division I and III varsity programs. In 2011–12 the squash team finished 30th in the ranking., there have been 39 Nobel Laureates who either attended the university as undergraduate or graduate students, or were faculty members. Woodrow Wilson, who received his PhD from Johns Hopkins in 1886, was Hopkins' first affiliated laureate, winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1919. Twenty-three laureates were faculty members, five earned PhDs, eight earned M.D.s, and Francis Peyton Rous and Martin Rodbell earned undergraduate degrees.As of October 2019, eighteen Johns Hopkins laureates have won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Four Nobel Prizes were shared by Johns Hopkins laureates: George Minot and George Whipple won the 1934 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Joseph Erlanger and Herbert Spencer Gasser won the 1944 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Daniel Nathans and Hamilton O. Smith won the 1978 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, and David H. Hubel and Torsten N. Wiesel won the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.Four Johns Hopkins laureates won Nobel Prizes in Physics, including Riccardo Giacconi in 2002 and Bloomberg Distinguished Professor Adam Riess in 2011. Bloomberg Distinguished Professor Peter Agre was awarded the 2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry (which he shared with Roderick MacKinnon) for his discovery of aquaporins. Bloomberg Distinguished Professor Carol Greider was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, along with Blackburn and Jack W. Szostak, for their discovery that telomeres are protected from progressive shortening by the enzyme telomerase.Bristol-Myers Squibb, Johns Hopkins University and the Rockefeller Foundation are currently the subject of a $1 billion lawsuit from Guatemala for "roles in a 1940s U.S. government experiment that infected hundreds of Guatemalans with syphilis. A previous suit against the United States government was dismissed in 2011 for the Guatemala syphilis experiments when a judge determined that the U.S. government could not be held liable for actions committed outside of the U.S.
|
[
"Ira Remsen",
"Joseph Sweetman Ames",
"Ronald J. Daniels",
"Milton Stover Eisenhower",
"Daniel Nathans",
"Isaiah Bowman",
"Daniel Coit Gilman",
"William C. Richardson",
"Lowell Reed",
"Steven Muller",
"Lincoln Gordon",
"Detlev Bronk",
"William Ralph Brody"
] |
|
Who was the chair of Johns Hopkins University in 1917-05-11?
|
May 11, 1917
|
{
"text": [
"Frank Johnson Goodnow"
]
}
|
L2_Q193727_P488_2
|
Lowell Reed is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Sep, 1953 to Jun, 1956.
Milton Stover Eisenhower is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Jul, 1956 to Jun, 1967.
Daniel Coit Gilman is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Feb, 1876 to Aug, 1901.
Frank Johnson Goodnow is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Oct, 1914 to Jun, 1929.
William Ralph Brody is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Aug, 1996 to Mar, 2008.
Lincoln Gordon is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Jul, 1967 to Mar, 1971.
Ronald J. Daniels is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Jan, 2009 to Dec, 2022.
Isaiah Bowman is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Jul, 1935 to Dec, 1948.
Ira Remsen is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Sep, 1901 to Jan, 1913.
Joseph Sweetman Ames is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Jul, 1929 to Jun, 1935.
Daniel Nathans is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Jun, 1995 to Aug, 1996.
Steven Muller is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Feb, 1972 to Jun, 1990.
William C. Richardson is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Jun, 1990 to Jun, 1995.
Detlev Bronk is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Jan, 1949 to Aug, 1953.
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Johns Hopkins UniversityThe Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, the university was named for its first benefactor, the American entrepreneur and philanthropist Johns Hopkins. Johns Hopkins is considered the first research university in the United States. Hopkin's $7 million bequest to establish the university was the largest philanthropic gift in the history of the United States up to that time. Daniel Coit Gilman, who was inaugurated as on February 22, 1876, led the university to revolutionize higher education in the U.S. by integrating teaching and research. In 1900, Johns Hopkins became a founding member of the American Association of Universities. The university has since led all U.S. universities in annual research expenditures. Johns Hopkins is organized into 10 divisions on campuses in Maryland and Washington, D.C., with international centers in Italy and China. The two undergraduate divisions, the Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences and the Whiting School of Engineering, are located on the Homewood campus in Baltimore's Charles Village neighborhood. The medical school, nursing school, and Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Johns Hopkins Children’s Center are located on the Medical Institutions campus in East Baltimore. The university also consists of the Peabody Institute, Applied Physics Laboratory, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, School of Education, Carey Business School, and various other facilities. The university also has graduate campuses in Italy, China, and Washington, D.C.As of October 2019, 39 Nobel laureates and 1 Fields Medalist have been affiliated with Johns Hopkins' faculty and alumni. Founded in 1883, the Blue Jays men's lacrosse team has captured 44 national titles and plays in the Big Ten Conference as an affiliate member.On his death in 1873, Johns Hopkins, a Quaker entrepreneur and childless bachelor, bequeathed $7 million (approximately $ million today adjusted for consumer price inflation) to fund a hospital and university in Baltimore, Maryland. At the time, this donation, generated primarily from the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, was the largest philanthropic gift in the history of the United States, and endowment was then the largest in America. Until 2020, Hopkins was assumed to be a fervent abolitionist, until research done by the school into his United States Census records revealed he claimed to own at least five household slaves in the 1840 and 1850 decennial censuses.The first name of philanthropist Johns Hopkins comes from the surname of his great-grandmother, Margaret Johns, who married Gerard Hopkins. They named their son Johns Hopkins, who named his own son Samuel Hopkins. Samuel named one of his sons for his father, and that son became the university's benefactor. Milton Eisenhower, a former university president, once spoke at a convention in Pittsburgh where the master of ceremonies introduced him as "President of "John" Hopkins." Eisenhower retorted that he was "glad to be here in "Pitt"burgh."The original board opted for an entirely novel university model dedicated to the discovery of knowledge at an advanced level, extending that of contemporary Germany. Building on the Humboldtian model of higher education, the German education model of Wilhelm von Humboldt, it became dedicated to research. It was especially Heidelberg University and its long academic research history on which the new institution tried to model itself. Johns Hopkins thereby became the model of the modern research university in the United States. Its success eventually shifted higher education in the United States from a focus on teaching revealed and/or applied knowledge to the scientific discovery of new knowledge. The trustees worked alongside four notable university presidents – Charles W. Eliot of Harvard, Andrew D. White of Cornell, Noah Porter of Yale College and James B. Angell of Michigan. They each vouched for Daniel Coit Gilman to lead the new University and he became the university's first president. Gilman, a Yale-educated scholar, had been serving as president of the University of California, Berkeley prior to this appointment. In preparation for the university's founding, Gilman visited University of Freiburg and other German universities.Gilman launched what many at the time considered an audacious and unprecedented academic experiment to merge teaching and research. He dismissed the idea that the two were mutually exclusive: "The best teachers are usually those who are free, competent and willing to make original researches in the library and the laboratory," he stated. To implement his plan, Gilman recruited internationally known researchers including the mathematician James Joseph Sylvester; the biologist H. Newell Martin; the physicist Henry A. Rowland (the first president of the American Physical Society), the classical scholars Basil Gildersleeve and Charles D. Morris; the economist Richard T. Ely; and the chemist Ira Remsen, who became the second president of the university in 1901.Gilman focused on the expansion of graduate education and support of faculty research. The new university fused advanced scholarship with such professional schools as medicine and engineering. Hopkins became the national trendsetter in doctoral programs and the host for numerous scholarly journals and associations. The Johns Hopkins University Press, founded in 1878, is the oldest American university press in continuous operation.With the completion of Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1889 and the medical school in 1893, the university's research-focused mode of instruction soon began attracting world-renowned faculty members who would become major figures in the emerging field of academic medicine, including William Osler, William Halsted, Howard Kelly, and William Welch. Students came from all over the world to study at Johns Hopkins and returned to their sending country to serve their nation, including Dr Harry Chung (b. 1872) who served as a diplomat in the Manchu Dynasty and First Secretary to the United States. During this period Hopkins made more history by becoming the first medical school to admit women on an equal basis with men and to require a Bachelor's degree, based on the efforts of Mary E. Garrett, who had endowed the school at Gilman's request. The school of medicine was America's first coeducational, graduate-level medical school, and became a prototype for academic medicine that emphasized bedside learning, research projects, and laboratory training. In his will and in his instructions to the trustees of the university and the hospital, Hopkins requested that both institutions be built upon the vast grounds of his Baltimore estate, Clifton. When Gilman assumed the presidency, he decided that it would be best to use the university's endowment for recruiting faculty and students, deciding to, as it has been paraphrased, "build men, not buildings." In his will Hopkins stipulated that none of his endowment should be used for construction; only interest on the principal could be used for this purpose. Unfortunately, stocks in The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, which would have generated most of the interest, became virtually worthless soon after Hopkins's death. The university's first home was thus in Downtown Baltimore delaying plans to site the university in Clifton.In the early 20th century, the university outgrew its buildings and the trustees began to search for a new home. Developing Clifton for the university was too costly, and of the estate had to be sold to the city as public park. A solution was achieved by a team of prominent locals who acquired the estate in north Baltimore known as Homewood. On February 22, 1902, this land was formally transferred to the university. The flagship building, Gilman Hall, was completed in 1915. The School of Engineering relocated in Fall of 1914 and the School of Arts and Sciences followed in 1916. These decades saw the ceding of lands by the university for the public Wyman Park and Wyman Park Dell and the Baltimore Museum of Art, coalescing in the contemporary area of .Prior to becoming the main Johns Hopkins campus, the Homewood estate had initially been the gift of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, a Maryland planter and signer of the Declaration of Independence, to his son Charles Carroll Jr. The original structure, the 1801 Homewood House, still stands and serves as an on-campus museum. The brick and marble Federal style of Homewood House became the architectural inspiration for much of the university campus versus the Collegiate Gothic style of other historic American universities.In 1909, the university was among the first to start adult continuing education programs and in 1916 it founded the US' first school of public health.Since the 1910s, Johns Hopkins University has famously been a "fertile cradle" to Arthur Lovejoy's history of ideas.Since 1942, the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) has served as a major governmental defense contractor. In tandem with on-campus research, Johns Hopkins has every year since 1979 had the highest federal research funding of any American university.Professional schools of international affairs and music were established in 1950 and 1977, respectively, when the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in Washington D.C and the Peabody Institute in Baltimore were incorporated into the university.The early decades of the 21st century saw expansion across the university's institutions in both physical and population sizes. Notably, a planned 88-acre expansion to the medical campus began in 2013. Completed construction on the Homewood campus has included a new biomedical engineering building in the Johns Hopkins University Department of Biomedical Engineering, a new library, a new biology wing, an extensive renovation of the flagship Gilman Hall, and the reconstruction of the main university entrance.These years also brought about the rapid development of the university's professional schools of education and business. From 1999 until 2007, these disciplines had been joined together within the School of Professional Studies in Business and Education (SPSBE), itself a reshuffling of several earlier ventures. The 2007 split, combined with new funding and leadership initiatives, has led to the simultaneous emergence of the Johns Hopkins School of Education and the Carey Business School.On November 18, 2018, it was announced that Michael Bloomberg would make a donation to his alma mater of $1.8 billion, marking the largest private donation in modern history to an institution of higher education and bringing Bloomberg's total contribution to the school in excess of $3.3 billion. Bloomberg's $1.8 billion gift allows the school to practice need-blind admission and meet the full financial need of admitted students.In January 2019, the university announced an agreement to purchase the Newseum, located at 555 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, in the heart of Washington, D.C., with plans to locate all of its D.C.-based graduate programs there. In an interview with The Atlantic, the president of Johns Hopkins stated that “the purchase is an opportunity to position the university, literally, to better contribute its expertise to national- and international-policy discussions.”In late 2019, the university's Coronavirus Research Center began tracking worldwide cases of the COVID-19 pandemic by compiling data from hundreds of sources around the world. This led to the university becoming one of the most cited sources for data about the pandemic.Hopkins was a prominent abolitionist who supported Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War. After his death, reports said his conviction was a decisive factor in enrolling Hopkins' first African-American student, Kelly Miller, a graduate student in physics, astronomy and mathematics. As time passed, the university adopted a "separate but equal" stance more like other Baltimore institutions.The first black undergraduate entered the school in 1945 and graduate students followed in 1967. James Nabwangu, a British-trained Kenyan, was the first black graduate of the medical school. African-American instructor and laboratory supervisor Vivien Thomas was instrumental in developing and conducting the first successful blue baby operation in 1944. Despite such cases, racial diversity did not become commonplace at Johns Hopkins institutions until the 1960s and 1970s.Hopkins' most well-known battle for women's rights was the one led by daughters of trustees of the university; Mary E. Garrett, M. Carey Thomas, Mamie Gwinn, Elizabeth King, and Julia Rogers. They donated and raised the funds needed to open the medical school, and required Hopkins' officials to agree to their stipulation that women would be admitted. The nursing school opened in 1889 and accepted women and men as students. Other graduate schools were later opened to women by president Ira Remsen in 1907. Christine Ladd-Franklin was the first woman to earn a PhD at Hopkins, in mathematics in 1882. The trustees denied her the degree for decades and refused to change the policy about admitting women. In 1893, Florence Bascomb became the university's first female PhD. The decision to admit women at undergraduate level was not considered until the late 1960s and was eventually adopted in October 1969. As of 2009–2010, the undergraduate population was 47% female and 53% male. In 2020, the undergraduate population of Hopkins was 53% female.On September 5, 2013, cryptographer and Johns Hopkins university professor Matthew Green posted a blog entitled, "On the NSA", in which he contributed to the ongoing debate regarding the role of NIST and NSA in formulating U.S. cryptography standards. On September 9, 2013, Green received a take-down request for the "On the NSA" blog from interim Dean Andrew Douglas from the Johns Hopkins University Whiting School of Engineering. The request cited concerns that the blog had links to sensitive material. The blog linked to already published news articles from "The Guardian", "The New York Times" and ProPublica.org. Douglas subsequently issued a personal on-line apology to Green. The event raised concern over the future of academic freedom of speech within the cryptologic research community.The first campus was located on Howard Street. Eventually, they relocated to Homewood, in northern Baltimore, the estate of Charles Carroll, son of the oldest surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence. Carroll's Homewood House is considered one of the finest examples of Federal residential architecture. The estate then came to the Wyman family, which participated in making it the park-like main campus of the schools of arts and sciences and engineering at the start of the 20th century. Most of its architecture was modeled after the Federal style of Homewood House. Homewood House is preserved as a museum. Most undergraduate programs are on this campus.Collectively known as Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions (JHMI) campus, the East Baltimore facility occupies several city blocks spreading from the Johns Hopkins Hospital trademark dome.The Washington, D.C. campus is on Massachusetts Avenue, towards the Southeastern end of Embassy Row.In 2019, Hopkins announced its purchase of the Newseum building on Pennsylvania Avenue, three blocks from the United States Capitol to house its D.C. programs and centers. Akin to the Washington, D.C. campus for the School of Arts & Sciences, the APL also is the primary campus for master's degrees in a variety of STEM fields.The Johns Hopkins entity is structured as two corporations, the university and The Johns Hopkins Health System, formed in 1986. The President is JHU's chief executive officer, and the university is organized into nine academic divisions.JHU's bylaws specify a Board of Trustees of between 18 and 65 voting members. Trustees serve six-year terms subject to a two-term limit. The alumni select 12 trustees. Four recent alumni serve 4-year terms, one per year, typically from the graduating class. The bylaws prohibit students, faculty or administrative staff from serving on the Board, except the President as an ex-officio trustee. The Johns Hopkins Health System has a separate Board of Trustees, many of whom are doctors or health care executives.The full-time, four-year undergraduate program is "most selective" with low transfer-in and a high graduate co-existence. The cost of attendance per year is $60,820; however, the average need met is 99%. The university is one of fourteen founding members of the Association of American Universities (AAU); it is also a member of the Consortium on Financing Higher Education (COFHE) and the Universities Research Association (URA).JHU's undergraduate education is ranked 9th among U.S. "national universities" by "U.S. News & World Report" for 2021. For medical research "U.S. News & World Report" ranks the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in 2020 for 2nd in the U.S. and the Bloomberg School of Public Health 1st. The School of Nursing was ranked 1st nationally for master's degrees. The "QS Top Universities" ranked Johns Hopkins University No. 5 in the world for medicine. , Hopkins ranked No. 1 nationally in receipt of federal research funds, and was the top recipient of NIH research grants in 2019, both in terms of dollar amount and number of grants. In 2020, the Johns Hopkins Hospital was ranked the No. 3 hospital in the United States by the "U.S. News & World Report" annual ranking of American hospitals.The School of Education is ranked No. 2 nationally by "U.S. News & World Report" for 2017. In 2015, the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) ranked 2nd in the world in Foreign Policy's "Top Master's Programs for Policy Career in International Relations" ranking.The university's undergraduate programs are most selective: in 2021, the Office of Admissions accepted about 4.9% of its 33,236 Regular Decision applicants. In 2019, 98% of admitted students graduated in the top tenth of their high school class with a mean unweighted academic GPA of 3.92. The inter-quartile range on the SAT composite score was 1480–1550. In 2013, 96.8% of freshmen returned after the first year and 88% of students graduated in 4 years. Over time, applications to Johns Hopkins University have risen steadily. As a result, the selectivity of Johns Hopkins University has also increased. Early Decision is an option at Johns Hopkins University for students who wish to demonstrate that the university is their first choice. These students, if admitted, are required to enroll. This application is due November 2. Most students, however, apply Regular Decision, which is a traditional non-binding round. These applications are due January 1 and students are notified in late March. In 2014, Johns Hopkins ended legacy preference in admissions.The Johns Hopkins University Library system houses more than 3.6 million volumes and includes ten main divisions across the university's campuses. The largest segment of this system is the Sheridan Libraries, encompassing the Milton S. Eisenhower Library (the main library of the Homewood campus), the Brody Learning Commons, the Hutzler Reading Room ("The Hut") in Gilman Hall, the John Work Garrett Library at Evergreen House, and the George Peabody Library at the Peabody Institute campus.The main library, constructed in the 1960s, was named for Milton S. Eisenhower, former president of the university and brother of former U.S. president Dwight D. Eisenhower. The university's stacks had previously been housed in Gilman Hall and departmental libraries. Only two of the Eisenhower library's six stories are above ground, though the building was designed so that every level receives natural light. The design accords with campus lore that no structure can be taller than Gilman Hall, the flagship academic building. A four-story expansion to the library, known as the Brody Learning Commons, opened in August 2012. The expansion features an energy-efficient, state-of-the-art technology infrastructure and includes study spaces, seminar rooms, and a rare books collection.The Johns Hopkins University Press is the publishing division of the Johns Hopkins University. It was founded in 1878 and holds the distinction of being the oldest continuously running university press in the United States. To date the Press has published more than 6,000 titles and currently publishes 65 scholarly periodicals and over 200 new books each year. Since 1993, the Johns Hopkins University Press has run Project MUSE, an online collection of over 250 full-text, peer-reviewed journals in the humanities and social sciences. The Press also houses the Hopkins Fulfilment Services (HFS), which handles distribution for a number of university presses and publishers. Taken together, the three divisions of the Press—Books, Journals (including MUSE) and HFS—make it one of the largest of America's university presses.The Johns Hopkins University also offers the "Center for Talented Youth" program—a nonprofit organization dedicated to identifying and developing the talents of the most promising K-12 grade students worldwide. As part of the Johns Hopkins University, the "Center for Talented Youth" or CTY helps fulfill the university's mission of preparing students to make significant future contributions to the world. The Johns Hopkins Digital Media Center (DMC) is a multimedia lab space as well as an equipment, technology and knowledge resource for students interested in exploring creative uses of emerging media and use of technology.Johns Hopkins offers a number of degrees in various undergraduate majors leading to the BA and BS and various majors leading to the MA, MS and Ph.D. for graduate students. Because Hopkins offers both undergraduate and graduate areas of study, many disciplines have multiple degrees available. Biomedical engineering, perhaps one of Hopkins' best-known programs, offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees.The opportunity to participate in important research is one of the distinguishing characteristics of Hopkins' undergraduate education. About 80 percent of undergraduates perform independent research, often alongside top researchers. In fiscal year 2016, Johns Hopkins spent nearly $2.5 billion on research—more than any other U.S. university for the 38th consecutive year. Johns Hopkins has had seventy-seven members of the Institute of Medicine, forty-three Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigators, seventeen members of the National Academy of Engineering, and sixty-two members of the National Academy of Sciences. As of October 2019, 39 Nobel Prize winners have been affiliated with the university as alumni, faculty members or researchers, with the most recent winners being Gregg Semenza and William G. Kaelin.Between 1999 and 2009, Johns Hopkins was among the most cited institutions in the world. It attracted nearly 1,222,166 citations and produced 54,022 papers under its name, ranking No. 3 globally (after Harvard University and the Max Planck Society) in the number of "total" citations published in Thomson Reuters-indexed journals over 22 fields in America.In FY 2000, Johns Hopkins received $95.4 million in research grants from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), making it the leading recipient of NASA research and development funding. In FY 2002, Hopkins became the first university to cross the $1 billion threshold on either list, recording $1.14 billion in total research and $1.023 billion in federally sponsored research. In FY 2008, Johns Hopkins University performed $1.68 billion in science, medical and engineering research, making it the leading U.S. academic institution in total R&D spending for the 30th year in a row, according to a National Science Foundation (NSF) ranking. These totals include grants and expenditures of JHU's Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland.In 2013, the Bloomberg Distinguished Professorships program was established by a $250 million gift from Michael Bloomberg. This program enables the university to recruit fifty researchers from around the world to joint appointments throughout the nine divisions and research centers. Each professor must be a leader in interdisciplinary research and be active in undergraduate education. Directed by Vice Provost for Research Denis Wirtz, there are currently thirty two Bloomberg Distinguished Professors at the university, including three Nobel Laureates, eight fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, ten members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and thirteen members of the National Academies.Charles Village, the region of North Baltimore surrounding the university, has undergone several restoration projects, and the university has gradually bought the property around the school for additional student housing and dormitories. "The Charles Village Project", completed in 2008, brought new commercial spaces to the neighborhood. The project included Charles Commons, a new, modern residence hall that includes popular retail franchises. In 2015, the University began development of new commercial properties, including a modern upperclassmen apartment complex, restaurants and eateries, and a CVS retail store.Hopkins invested in improving campus life with an arts complex in 2001, the Mattin Center, and a three-story sports facility, the O'Connor Recreation Center. The large on-campus dining facilities at Homewood were renovated in the summer of 2006.Quality of life is enriched by the proximity of neighboring academic institutions, including Loyola College, Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), UMBC, Goucher College, and Towson University, as well as the nearby neighborhoods of Hampden, the Inner Harbor, Fells Point, and Mount Vernon.Greek life came to Hopkins in 1876 with the charter of fraternity Beta Theta Pi, which still exists on campus today. Since, Johns Hopkins has become home to nine sororities and 11 fraternities. Of the nine sororities, five belong to the National Panhellenic Conference and four to the Multicultural Greek Council Sororities. Of the fraternities, all 11 belong to the Inter-Fraternity Council. Over 1,000 students participate in Greek life, with 23% of women and 20% of men taking part. Greek life has expanded its reach at Hopkins in recent decades, as only 15% of the student body participated in 1989. Rush for all students occurs in the spring. Most fraternities keep houses in Charles Village while sororities do not.Johns Hopkins Greek life has been largely representative of its increasing diversity with the installment of Alpha Phi Alpha, a historically black fraternity, in 1991 and Lambda Phi Epsilon, an Asian-interest fraternity in 1994 among others.Spring Fair has been a Johns Hopkins tradition since 1972 and has since grown to be the largest student-run festival in the country. Popular among Hopkins students and Baltimore inhabitants alike, Spring Fair features carnival rides, vendors, food and a beer garden. Since its beginning, Spring Fair has decreased in size, both in regard to attendance and utilization of space. While one point, the Fair attracted upwards of 100,000 people, it became unruly and, for a variety of reasons including safety concerns and a campus beautification project in the early 2000s, had to be scaled back.While it has been speculated that Johns Hopkins has relatively few traditions for a school of its age and that many past traditions have been forgotten, a handful of myths and customs are ubiquitous knowledge among the community. One such long-standing myth surrounds the university seal that is embedded into the floor of the Gilman Hall foyer. The myth holds that any current student to step on the seal will never graduate. In reverence for this tradition, the seal has been fenced off from the rest of the room.An annual event is the "Lighting of the Quad", a ceremony each winter during which the campus is lit up in holiday lights. Recent years have included singing and fireworks.Living on campus is typically required for first- and second-year undergraduates. Freshman housing is centered around Freshman Quad, which consists of three residence hall complexes: The two Alumni Memorial Residences (AMR I and AMR II) plus Buildings A and B. The AMR dormitories are each divided into "houses", subunits named for figures from the university's early history. Freshmen are also housed in Wolman Hall and in certain wings of McCoy Hall, both located slightly outside the campus. Dorms at Hopkins are generally co-ed with same-gender rooms, though a new policy has allowed students to live in mixed-gender rooms since Fall 2014.Students determine where they will live during sophomore year through a housing lottery. Most juniors and seniors move into nearby apartments or row-houses. Non-freshmen in university housing occupy one of four buildings: McCoy Hall, the Bradford Apartments, the Homewood Apartments, and Charles Commons. All are located in Charles Village within a block from the Homewood campus. Forty-five percent of the student body lives off-campus while 55% lives on campus.Athletic teams are called Blue Jays. Even though sable and gold are used for academic robes, the university's athletic colors are Columbia blue (PMS 284) and black. Hopkins celebrates Homecoming in the spring to coincide with the height of the lacrosse season. The men's and women's lacrosse teams are in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I and are affiliate members of the Big Ten Conference. Other teams are in Division III and participate in the Centennial Conference. JHU is also home to the Lacrosse Museum and National Hall of Fame, maintained by US Lacrosse.The school's most prominent team is its men's lacrosse team. The team has won 44 national titles – nine Division I (2007, 2005, 1987, 1985, 1984, 1980, 1979, 1978, 1974), 29 United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA), and six Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (ILA) titles. Hopkins' primary national rivals are Princeton University, Syracuse University, and the University of Virginia; its primary intrastate rivals are Loyola University Maryland (competing in what is called the "Charles Street Massacre"), Towson University, the United States Naval Academy, and the University of Maryland. The rivalry with Maryland is the oldest. The schools have met 111 times since 1899, three times in playoff matches.On June 3, 2013, it was announced that the Blue Jays would join the Big Ten Conference for men's lacrosse when that league begins sponsoring the sport in the 2015 season (2014–15 school year).The women's team is a member of the Big Ten Conference and a former member of the American Lacrosse Conference (ALC). The Lady Blue Jays were ranked number 18 in the 2015 Inside Lacrosse Women's DI Media Poll. They ranked number 8 in the 2007 Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA) Poll Division I. The team finished the 2012 season with a 9–9 record and finished the 2013 season with a 10–7 record. They finished the 2014 season 15–5. On June 17, 2015, it was announced that the Blue Jays would join the Big Ten Conference for women's lacrosse in the 2017 season (2016–17 school year).Hopkins has notable Division III Athletic teams. JHU Men's Swimming won three consecutive NCAA Championships in 1977, 1978, and 1979. In 2009–2010, Hopkins won 8 Centennial Conference titles in Women's Cross Country, Women's Track & Field, Baseball, Men's and Women's Soccer, Football, and Men's and Women's Tennis. The Women's Cross Country team became the first women's team at Hopkins to achieve a #1 National ranking. In 2006–2007 teams won Centennial Conference titles in Baseball, Men's and Women's Soccer, Men's and Women's Tennis and Men's Basketball. Women's soccer won their Centennial Conference title for 7 consecutive years from 2005 to 2011. In the 2013–2014 school year, Hopkins earned 12 Centennial Conference titles, most notably from the cross country and track & field teams, which accounted for six.Hopkins has an acclaimed fencing team, which ranked in the top three Division III teams in the past few years and in both 2008 and 2007 defeated the University of North Carolina, a Division I team. In 2008, they defeated UNC and won the MACFA championship.The swimming team ranked highly in NCAA Division III for the last 10 years, most recently placing second at DIII Nationals in 2008. The water polo team was number one in Division III for several of the past years, playing a full schedule against Division I opponents. Hopkins also has a century-old rivalry with McDaniel College (formerly Western Maryland College), playing the Green Terrors 83 times in football since the first game in 1894. In 2009 the football team reached the quarterfinals of the NCAA Division III tournament, with three tournament appearances since 2005. In 2008, the baseball team ranked second, losing in the final game of the DIII College World Series to Trinity College.The Johns Hopkins squash team plays in the College Squash Association as a club team along with Division I and III varsity programs. In 2011–12 the squash team finished 30th in the ranking., there have been 39 Nobel Laureates who either attended the university as undergraduate or graduate students, or were faculty members. Woodrow Wilson, who received his PhD from Johns Hopkins in 1886, was Hopkins' first affiliated laureate, winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1919. Twenty-three laureates were faculty members, five earned PhDs, eight earned M.D.s, and Francis Peyton Rous and Martin Rodbell earned undergraduate degrees.As of October 2019, eighteen Johns Hopkins laureates have won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Four Nobel Prizes were shared by Johns Hopkins laureates: George Minot and George Whipple won the 1934 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Joseph Erlanger and Herbert Spencer Gasser won the 1944 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Daniel Nathans and Hamilton O. Smith won the 1978 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, and David H. Hubel and Torsten N. Wiesel won the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.Four Johns Hopkins laureates won Nobel Prizes in Physics, including Riccardo Giacconi in 2002 and Bloomberg Distinguished Professor Adam Riess in 2011. Bloomberg Distinguished Professor Peter Agre was awarded the 2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry (which he shared with Roderick MacKinnon) for his discovery of aquaporins. Bloomberg Distinguished Professor Carol Greider was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, along with Blackburn and Jack W. Szostak, for their discovery that telomeres are protected from progressive shortening by the enzyme telomerase.Bristol-Myers Squibb, Johns Hopkins University and the Rockefeller Foundation are currently the subject of a $1 billion lawsuit from Guatemala for "roles in a 1940s U.S. government experiment that infected hundreds of Guatemalans with syphilis. A previous suit against the United States government was dismissed in 2011 for the Guatemala syphilis experiments when a judge determined that the U.S. government could not be held liable for actions committed outside of the U.S.
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[
"Ira Remsen",
"Joseph Sweetman Ames",
"Ronald J. Daniels",
"Milton Stover Eisenhower",
"Daniel Nathans",
"Isaiah Bowman",
"Daniel Coit Gilman",
"William C. Richardson",
"Lowell Reed",
"Steven Muller",
"Lincoln Gordon",
"Detlev Bronk",
"William Ralph Brody"
] |
|
Who was the chair of Johns Hopkins University in 11/05/1917?
|
May 11, 1917
|
{
"text": [
"Frank Johnson Goodnow"
]
}
|
L2_Q193727_P488_2
|
Lowell Reed is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Sep, 1953 to Jun, 1956.
Milton Stover Eisenhower is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Jul, 1956 to Jun, 1967.
Daniel Coit Gilman is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Feb, 1876 to Aug, 1901.
Frank Johnson Goodnow is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Oct, 1914 to Jun, 1929.
William Ralph Brody is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Aug, 1996 to Mar, 2008.
Lincoln Gordon is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Jul, 1967 to Mar, 1971.
Ronald J. Daniels is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Jan, 2009 to Dec, 2022.
Isaiah Bowman is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Jul, 1935 to Dec, 1948.
Ira Remsen is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Sep, 1901 to Jan, 1913.
Joseph Sweetman Ames is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Jul, 1929 to Jun, 1935.
Daniel Nathans is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Jun, 1995 to Aug, 1996.
Steven Muller is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Feb, 1972 to Jun, 1990.
William C. Richardson is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Jun, 1990 to Jun, 1995.
Detlev Bronk is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Jan, 1949 to Aug, 1953.
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Johns Hopkins UniversityThe Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, the university was named for its first benefactor, the American entrepreneur and philanthropist Johns Hopkins. Johns Hopkins is considered the first research university in the United States. Hopkin's $7 million bequest to establish the university was the largest philanthropic gift in the history of the United States up to that time. Daniel Coit Gilman, who was inaugurated as on February 22, 1876, led the university to revolutionize higher education in the U.S. by integrating teaching and research. In 1900, Johns Hopkins became a founding member of the American Association of Universities. The university has since led all U.S. universities in annual research expenditures. Johns Hopkins is organized into 10 divisions on campuses in Maryland and Washington, D.C., with international centers in Italy and China. The two undergraduate divisions, the Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences and the Whiting School of Engineering, are located on the Homewood campus in Baltimore's Charles Village neighborhood. The medical school, nursing school, and Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Johns Hopkins Children’s Center are located on the Medical Institutions campus in East Baltimore. The university also consists of the Peabody Institute, Applied Physics Laboratory, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, School of Education, Carey Business School, and various other facilities. The university also has graduate campuses in Italy, China, and Washington, D.C.As of October 2019, 39 Nobel laureates and 1 Fields Medalist have been affiliated with Johns Hopkins' faculty and alumni. Founded in 1883, the Blue Jays men's lacrosse team has captured 44 national titles and plays in the Big Ten Conference as an affiliate member.On his death in 1873, Johns Hopkins, a Quaker entrepreneur and childless bachelor, bequeathed $7 million (approximately $ million today adjusted for consumer price inflation) to fund a hospital and university in Baltimore, Maryland. At the time, this donation, generated primarily from the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, was the largest philanthropic gift in the history of the United States, and endowment was then the largest in America. Until 2020, Hopkins was assumed to be a fervent abolitionist, until research done by the school into his United States Census records revealed he claimed to own at least five household slaves in the 1840 and 1850 decennial censuses.The first name of philanthropist Johns Hopkins comes from the surname of his great-grandmother, Margaret Johns, who married Gerard Hopkins. They named their son Johns Hopkins, who named his own son Samuel Hopkins. Samuel named one of his sons for his father, and that son became the university's benefactor. Milton Eisenhower, a former university president, once spoke at a convention in Pittsburgh where the master of ceremonies introduced him as "President of "John" Hopkins." Eisenhower retorted that he was "glad to be here in "Pitt"burgh."The original board opted for an entirely novel university model dedicated to the discovery of knowledge at an advanced level, extending that of contemporary Germany. Building on the Humboldtian model of higher education, the German education model of Wilhelm von Humboldt, it became dedicated to research. It was especially Heidelberg University and its long academic research history on which the new institution tried to model itself. Johns Hopkins thereby became the model of the modern research university in the United States. Its success eventually shifted higher education in the United States from a focus on teaching revealed and/or applied knowledge to the scientific discovery of new knowledge. The trustees worked alongside four notable university presidents – Charles W. Eliot of Harvard, Andrew D. White of Cornell, Noah Porter of Yale College and James B. Angell of Michigan. They each vouched for Daniel Coit Gilman to lead the new University and he became the university's first president. Gilman, a Yale-educated scholar, had been serving as president of the University of California, Berkeley prior to this appointment. In preparation for the university's founding, Gilman visited University of Freiburg and other German universities.Gilman launched what many at the time considered an audacious and unprecedented academic experiment to merge teaching and research. He dismissed the idea that the two were mutually exclusive: "The best teachers are usually those who are free, competent and willing to make original researches in the library and the laboratory," he stated. To implement his plan, Gilman recruited internationally known researchers including the mathematician James Joseph Sylvester; the biologist H. Newell Martin; the physicist Henry A. Rowland (the first president of the American Physical Society), the classical scholars Basil Gildersleeve and Charles D. Morris; the economist Richard T. Ely; and the chemist Ira Remsen, who became the second president of the university in 1901.Gilman focused on the expansion of graduate education and support of faculty research. The new university fused advanced scholarship with such professional schools as medicine and engineering. Hopkins became the national trendsetter in doctoral programs and the host for numerous scholarly journals and associations. The Johns Hopkins University Press, founded in 1878, is the oldest American university press in continuous operation.With the completion of Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1889 and the medical school in 1893, the university's research-focused mode of instruction soon began attracting world-renowned faculty members who would become major figures in the emerging field of academic medicine, including William Osler, William Halsted, Howard Kelly, and William Welch. Students came from all over the world to study at Johns Hopkins and returned to their sending country to serve their nation, including Dr Harry Chung (b. 1872) who served as a diplomat in the Manchu Dynasty and First Secretary to the United States. During this period Hopkins made more history by becoming the first medical school to admit women on an equal basis with men and to require a Bachelor's degree, based on the efforts of Mary E. Garrett, who had endowed the school at Gilman's request. The school of medicine was America's first coeducational, graduate-level medical school, and became a prototype for academic medicine that emphasized bedside learning, research projects, and laboratory training. In his will and in his instructions to the trustees of the university and the hospital, Hopkins requested that both institutions be built upon the vast grounds of his Baltimore estate, Clifton. When Gilman assumed the presidency, he decided that it would be best to use the university's endowment for recruiting faculty and students, deciding to, as it has been paraphrased, "build men, not buildings." In his will Hopkins stipulated that none of his endowment should be used for construction; only interest on the principal could be used for this purpose. Unfortunately, stocks in The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, which would have generated most of the interest, became virtually worthless soon after Hopkins's death. The university's first home was thus in Downtown Baltimore delaying plans to site the university in Clifton.In the early 20th century, the university outgrew its buildings and the trustees began to search for a new home. Developing Clifton for the university was too costly, and of the estate had to be sold to the city as public park. A solution was achieved by a team of prominent locals who acquired the estate in north Baltimore known as Homewood. On February 22, 1902, this land was formally transferred to the university. The flagship building, Gilman Hall, was completed in 1915. The School of Engineering relocated in Fall of 1914 and the School of Arts and Sciences followed in 1916. These decades saw the ceding of lands by the university for the public Wyman Park and Wyman Park Dell and the Baltimore Museum of Art, coalescing in the contemporary area of .Prior to becoming the main Johns Hopkins campus, the Homewood estate had initially been the gift of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, a Maryland planter and signer of the Declaration of Independence, to his son Charles Carroll Jr. The original structure, the 1801 Homewood House, still stands and serves as an on-campus museum. The brick and marble Federal style of Homewood House became the architectural inspiration for much of the university campus versus the Collegiate Gothic style of other historic American universities.In 1909, the university was among the first to start adult continuing education programs and in 1916 it founded the US' first school of public health.Since the 1910s, Johns Hopkins University has famously been a "fertile cradle" to Arthur Lovejoy's history of ideas.Since 1942, the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) has served as a major governmental defense contractor. In tandem with on-campus research, Johns Hopkins has every year since 1979 had the highest federal research funding of any American university.Professional schools of international affairs and music were established in 1950 and 1977, respectively, when the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in Washington D.C and the Peabody Institute in Baltimore were incorporated into the university.The early decades of the 21st century saw expansion across the university's institutions in both physical and population sizes. Notably, a planned 88-acre expansion to the medical campus began in 2013. Completed construction on the Homewood campus has included a new biomedical engineering building in the Johns Hopkins University Department of Biomedical Engineering, a new library, a new biology wing, an extensive renovation of the flagship Gilman Hall, and the reconstruction of the main university entrance.These years also brought about the rapid development of the university's professional schools of education and business. From 1999 until 2007, these disciplines had been joined together within the School of Professional Studies in Business and Education (SPSBE), itself a reshuffling of several earlier ventures. The 2007 split, combined with new funding and leadership initiatives, has led to the simultaneous emergence of the Johns Hopkins School of Education and the Carey Business School.On November 18, 2018, it was announced that Michael Bloomberg would make a donation to his alma mater of $1.8 billion, marking the largest private donation in modern history to an institution of higher education and bringing Bloomberg's total contribution to the school in excess of $3.3 billion. Bloomberg's $1.8 billion gift allows the school to practice need-blind admission and meet the full financial need of admitted students.In January 2019, the university announced an agreement to purchase the Newseum, located at 555 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, in the heart of Washington, D.C., with plans to locate all of its D.C.-based graduate programs there. In an interview with The Atlantic, the president of Johns Hopkins stated that “the purchase is an opportunity to position the university, literally, to better contribute its expertise to national- and international-policy discussions.”In late 2019, the university's Coronavirus Research Center began tracking worldwide cases of the COVID-19 pandemic by compiling data from hundreds of sources around the world. This led to the university becoming one of the most cited sources for data about the pandemic.Hopkins was a prominent abolitionist who supported Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War. After his death, reports said his conviction was a decisive factor in enrolling Hopkins' first African-American student, Kelly Miller, a graduate student in physics, astronomy and mathematics. As time passed, the university adopted a "separate but equal" stance more like other Baltimore institutions.The first black undergraduate entered the school in 1945 and graduate students followed in 1967. James Nabwangu, a British-trained Kenyan, was the first black graduate of the medical school. African-American instructor and laboratory supervisor Vivien Thomas was instrumental in developing and conducting the first successful blue baby operation in 1944. Despite such cases, racial diversity did not become commonplace at Johns Hopkins institutions until the 1960s and 1970s.Hopkins' most well-known battle for women's rights was the one led by daughters of trustees of the university; Mary E. Garrett, M. Carey Thomas, Mamie Gwinn, Elizabeth King, and Julia Rogers. They donated and raised the funds needed to open the medical school, and required Hopkins' officials to agree to their stipulation that women would be admitted. The nursing school opened in 1889 and accepted women and men as students. Other graduate schools were later opened to women by president Ira Remsen in 1907. Christine Ladd-Franklin was the first woman to earn a PhD at Hopkins, in mathematics in 1882. The trustees denied her the degree for decades and refused to change the policy about admitting women. In 1893, Florence Bascomb became the university's first female PhD. The decision to admit women at undergraduate level was not considered until the late 1960s and was eventually adopted in October 1969. As of 2009–2010, the undergraduate population was 47% female and 53% male. In 2020, the undergraduate population of Hopkins was 53% female.On September 5, 2013, cryptographer and Johns Hopkins university professor Matthew Green posted a blog entitled, "On the NSA", in which he contributed to the ongoing debate regarding the role of NIST and NSA in formulating U.S. cryptography standards. On September 9, 2013, Green received a take-down request for the "On the NSA" blog from interim Dean Andrew Douglas from the Johns Hopkins University Whiting School of Engineering. The request cited concerns that the blog had links to sensitive material. The blog linked to already published news articles from "The Guardian", "The New York Times" and ProPublica.org. Douglas subsequently issued a personal on-line apology to Green. The event raised concern over the future of academic freedom of speech within the cryptologic research community.The first campus was located on Howard Street. Eventually, they relocated to Homewood, in northern Baltimore, the estate of Charles Carroll, son of the oldest surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence. Carroll's Homewood House is considered one of the finest examples of Federal residential architecture. The estate then came to the Wyman family, which participated in making it the park-like main campus of the schools of arts and sciences and engineering at the start of the 20th century. Most of its architecture was modeled after the Federal style of Homewood House. Homewood House is preserved as a museum. Most undergraduate programs are on this campus.Collectively known as Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions (JHMI) campus, the East Baltimore facility occupies several city blocks spreading from the Johns Hopkins Hospital trademark dome.The Washington, D.C. campus is on Massachusetts Avenue, towards the Southeastern end of Embassy Row.In 2019, Hopkins announced its purchase of the Newseum building on Pennsylvania Avenue, three blocks from the United States Capitol to house its D.C. programs and centers. Akin to the Washington, D.C. campus for the School of Arts & Sciences, the APL also is the primary campus for master's degrees in a variety of STEM fields.The Johns Hopkins entity is structured as two corporations, the university and The Johns Hopkins Health System, formed in 1986. The President is JHU's chief executive officer, and the university is organized into nine academic divisions.JHU's bylaws specify a Board of Trustees of between 18 and 65 voting members. Trustees serve six-year terms subject to a two-term limit. The alumni select 12 trustees. Four recent alumni serve 4-year terms, one per year, typically from the graduating class. The bylaws prohibit students, faculty or administrative staff from serving on the Board, except the President as an ex-officio trustee. The Johns Hopkins Health System has a separate Board of Trustees, many of whom are doctors or health care executives.The full-time, four-year undergraduate program is "most selective" with low transfer-in and a high graduate co-existence. The cost of attendance per year is $60,820; however, the average need met is 99%. The university is one of fourteen founding members of the Association of American Universities (AAU); it is also a member of the Consortium on Financing Higher Education (COFHE) and the Universities Research Association (URA).JHU's undergraduate education is ranked 9th among U.S. "national universities" by "U.S. News & World Report" for 2021. For medical research "U.S. News & World Report" ranks the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in 2020 for 2nd in the U.S. and the Bloomberg School of Public Health 1st. The School of Nursing was ranked 1st nationally for master's degrees. The "QS Top Universities" ranked Johns Hopkins University No. 5 in the world for medicine. , Hopkins ranked No. 1 nationally in receipt of federal research funds, and was the top recipient of NIH research grants in 2019, both in terms of dollar amount and number of grants. In 2020, the Johns Hopkins Hospital was ranked the No. 3 hospital in the United States by the "U.S. News & World Report" annual ranking of American hospitals.The School of Education is ranked No. 2 nationally by "U.S. News & World Report" for 2017. In 2015, the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) ranked 2nd in the world in Foreign Policy's "Top Master's Programs for Policy Career in International Relations" ranking.The university's undergraduate programs are most selective: in 2021, the Office of Admissions accepted about 4.9% of its 33,236 Regular Decision applicants. In 2019, 98% of admitted students graduated in the top tenth of their high school class with a mean unweighted academic GPA of 3.92. The inter-quartile range on the SAT composite score was 1480–1550. In 2013, 96.8% of freshmen returned after the first year and 88% of students graduated in 4 years. Over time, applications to Johns Hopkins University have risen steadily. As a result, the selectivity of Johns Hopkins University has also increased. Early Decision is an option at Johns Hopkins University for students who wish to demonstrate that the university is their first choice. These students, if admitted, are required to enroll. This application is due November 2. Most students, however, apply Regular Decision, which is a traditional non-binding round. These applications are due January 1 and students are notified in late March. In 2014, Johns Hopkins ended legacy preference in admissions.The Johns Hopkins University Library system houses more than 3.6 million volumes and includes ten main divisions across the university's campuses. The largest segment of this system is the Sheridan Libraries, encompassing the Milton S. Eisenhower Library (the main library of the Homewood campus), the Brody Learning Commons, the Hutzler Reading Room ("The Hut") in Gilman Hall, the John Work Garrett Library at Evergreen House, and the George Peabody Library at the Peabody Institute campus.The main library, constructed in the 1960s, was named for Milton S. Eisenhower, former president of the university and brother of former U.S. president Dwight D. Eisenhower. The university's stacks had previously been housed in Gilman Hall and departmental libraries. Only two of the Eisenhower library's six stories are above ground, though the building was designed so that every level receives natural light. The design accords with campus lore that no structure can be taller than Gilman Hall, the flagship academic building. A four-story expansion to the library, known as the Brody Learning Commons, opened in August 2012. The expansion features an energy-efficient, state-of-the-art technology infrastructure and includes study spaces, seminar rooms, and a rare books collection.The Johns Hopkins University Press is the publishing division of the Johns Hopkins University. It was founded in 1878 and holds the distinction of being the oldest continuously running university press in the United States. To date the Press has published more than 6,000 titles and currently publishes 65 scholarly periodicals and over 200 new books each year. Since 1993, the Johns Hopkins University Press has run Project MUSE, an online collection of over 250 full-text, peer-reviewed journals in the humanities and social sciences. The Press also houses the Hopkins Fulfilment Services (HFS), which handles distribution for a number of university presses and publishers. Taken together, the three divisions of the Press—Books, Journals (including MUSE) and HFS—make it one of the largest of America's university presses.The Johns Hopkins University also offers the "Center for Talented Youth" program—a nonprofit organization dedicated to identifying and developing the talents of the most promising K-12 grade students worldwide. As part of the Johns Hopkins University, the "Center for Talented Youth" or CTY helps fulfill the university's mission of preparing students to make significant future contributions to the world. The Johns Hopkins Digital Media Center (DMC) is a multimedia lab space as well as an equipment, technology and knowledge resource for students interested in exploring creative uses of emerging media and use of technology.Johns Hopkins offers a number of degrees in various undergraduate majors leading to the BA and BS and various majors leading to the MA, MS and Ph.D. for graduate students. Because Hopkins offers both undergraduate and graduate areas of study, many disciplines have multiple degrees available. Biomedical engineering, perhaps one of Hopkins' best-known programs, offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees.The opportunity to participate in important research is one of the distinguishing characteristics of Hopkins' undergraduate education. About 80 percent of undergraduates perform independent research, often alongside top researchers. In fiscal year 2016, Johns Hopkins spent nearly $2.5 billion on research—more than any other U.S. university for the 38th consecutive year. Johns Hopkins has had seventy-seven members of the Institute of Medicine, forty-three Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigators, seventeen members of the National Academy of Engineering, and sixty-two members of the National Academy of Sciences. As of October 2019, 39 Nobel Prize winners have been affiliated with the university as alumni, faculty members or researchers, with the most recent winners being Gregg Semenza and William G. Kaelin.Between 1999 and 2009, Johns Hopkins was among the most cited institutions in the world. It attracted nearly 1,222,166 citations and produced 54,022 papers under its name, ranking No. 3 globally (after Harvard University and the Max Planck Society) in the number of "total" citations published in Thomson Reuters-indexed journals over 22 fields in America.In FY 2000, Johns Hopkins received $95.4 million in research grants from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), making it the leading recipient of NASA research and development funding. In FY 2002, Hopkins became the first university to cross the $1 billion threshold on either list, recording $1.14 billion in total research and $1.023 billion in federally sponsored research. In FY 2008, Johns Hopkins University performed $1.68 billion in science, medical and engineering research, making it the leading U.S. academic institution in total R&D spending for the 30th year in a row, according to a National Science Foundation (NSF) ranking. These totals include grants and expenditures of JHU's Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland.In 2013, the Bloomberg Distinguished Professorships program was established by a $250 million gift from Michael Bloomberg. This program enables the university to recruit fifty researchers from around the world to joint appointments throughout the nine divisions and research centers. Each professor must be a leader in interdisciplinary research and be active in undergraduate education. Directed by Vice Provost for Research Denis Wirtz, there are currently thirty two Bloomberg Distinguished Professors at the university, including three Nobel Laureates, eight fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, ten members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and thirteen members of the National Academies.Charles Village, the region of North Baltimore surrounding the university, has undergone several restoration projects, and the university has gradually bought the property around the school for additional student housing and dormitories. "The Charles Village Project", completed in 2008, brought new commercial spaces to the neighborhood. The project included Charles Commons, a new, modern residence hall that includes popular retail franchises. In 2015, the University began development of new commercial properties, including a modern upperclassmen apartment complex, restaurants and eateries, and a CVS retail store.Hopkins invested in improving campus life with an arts complex in 2001, the Mattin Center, and a three-story sports facility, the O'Connor Recreation Center. The large on-campus dining facilities at Homewood were renovated in the summer of 2006.Quality of life is enriched by the proximity of neighboring academic institutions, including Loyola College, Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), UMBC, Goucher College, and Towson University, as well as the nearby neighborhoods of Hampden, the Inner Harbor, Fells Point, and Mount Vernon.Greek life came to Hopkins in 1876 with the charter of fraternity Beta Theta Pi, which still exists on campus today. Since, Johns Hopkins has become home to nine sororities and 11 fraternities. Of the nine sororities, five belong to the National Panhellenic Conference and four to the Multicultural Greek Council Sororities. Of the fraternities, all 11 belong to the Inter-Fraternity Council. Over 1,000 students participate in Greek life, with 23% of women and 20% of men taking part. Greek life has expanded its reach at Hopkins in recent decades, as only 15% of the student body participated in 1989. Rush for all students occurs in the spring. Most fraternities keep houses in Charles Village while sororities do not.Johns Hopkins Greek life has been largely representative of its increasing diversity with the installment of Alpha Phi Alpha, a historically black fraternity, in 1991 and Lambda Phi Epsilon, an Asian-interest fraternity in 1994 among others.Spring Fair has been a Johns Hopkins tradition since 1972 and has since grown to be the largest student-run festival in the country. Popular among Hopkins students and Baltimore inhabitants alike, Spring Fair features carnival rides, vendors, food and a beer garden. Since its beginning, Spring Fair has decreased in size, both in regard to attendance and utilization of space. While one point, the Fair attracted upwards of 100,000 people, it became unruly and, for a variety of reasons including safety concerns and a campus beautification project in the early 2000s, had to be scaled back.While it has been speculated that Johns Hopkins has relatively few traditions for a school of its age and that many past traditions have been forgotten, a handful of myths and customs are ubiquitous knowledge among the community. One such long-standing myth surrounds the university seal that is embedded into the floor of the Gilman Hall foyer. The myth holds that any current student to step on the seal will never graduate. In reverence for this tradition, the seal has been fenced off from the rest of the room.An annual event is the "Lighting of the Quad", a ceremony each winter during which the campus is lit up in holiday lights. Recent years have included singing and fireworks.Living on campus is typically required for first- and second-year undergraduates. Freshman housing is centered around Freshman Quad, which consists of three residence hall complexes: The two Alumni Memorial Residences (AMR I and AMR II) plus Buildings A and B. The AMR dormitories are each divided into "houses", subunits named for figures from the university's early history. Freshmen are also housed in Wolman Hall and in certain wings of McCoy Hall, both located slightly outside the campus. Dorms at Hopkins are generally co-ed with same-gender rooms, though a new policy has allowed students to live in mixed-gender rooms since Fall 2014.Students determine where they will live during sophomore year through a housing lottery. Most juniors and seniors move into nearby apartments or row-houses. Non-freshmen in university housing occupy one of four buildings: McCoy Hall, the Bradford Apartments, the Homewood Apartments, and Charles Commons. All are located in Charles Village within a block from the Homewood campus. Forty-five percent of the student body lives off-campus while 55% lives on campus.Athletic teams are called Blue Jays. Even though sable and gold are used for academic robes, the university's athletic colors are Columbia blue (PMS 284) and black. Hopkins celebrates Homecoming in the spring to coincide with the height of the lacrosse season. The men's and women's lacrosse teams are in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I and are affiliate members of the Big Ten Conference. Other teams are in Division III and participate in the Centennial Conference. JHU is also home to the Lacrosse Museum and National Hall of Fame, maintained by US Lacrosse.The school's most prominent team is its men's lacrosse team. The team has won 44 national titles – nine Division I (2007, 2005, 1987, 1985, 1984, 1980, 1979, 1978, 1974), 29 United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA), and six Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (ILA) titles. Hopkins' primary national rivals are Princeton University, Syracuse University, and the University of Virginia; its primary intrastate rivals are Loyola University Maryland (competing in what is called the "Charles Street Massacre"), Towson University, the United States Naval Academy, and the University of Maryland. The rivalry with Maryland is the oldest. The schools have met 111 times since 1899, three times in playoff matches.On June 3, 2013, it was announced that the Blue Jays would join the Big Ten Conference for men's lacrosse when that league begins sponsoring the sport in the 2015 season (2014–15 school year).The women's team is a member of the Big Ten Conference and a former member of the American Lacrosse Conference (ALC). The Lady Blue Jays were ranked number 18 in the 2015 Inside Lacrosse Women's DI Media Poll. They ranked number 8 in the 2007 Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA) Poll Division I. The team finished the 2012 season with a 9–9 record and finished the 2013 season with a 10–7 record. They finished the 2014 season 15–5. On June 17, 2015, it was announced that the Blue Jays would join the Big Ten Conference for women's lacrosse in the 2017 season (2016–17 school year).Hopkins has notable Division III Athletic teams. JHU Men's Swimming won three consecutive NCAA Championships in 1977, 1978, and 1979. In 2009–2010, Hopkins won 8 Centennial Conference titles in Women's Cross Country, Women's Track & Field, Baseball, Men's and Women's Soccer, Football, and Men's and Women's Tennis. The Women's Cross Country team became the first women's team at Hopkins to achieve a #1 National ranking. In 2006–2007 teams won Centennial Conference titles in Baseball, Men's and Women's Soccer, Men's and Women's Tennis and Men's Basketball. Women's soccer won their Centennial Conference title for 7 consecutive years from 2005 to 2011. In the 2013–2014 school year, Hopkins earned 12 Centennial Conference titles, most notably from the cross country and track & field teams, which accounted for six.Hopkins has an acclaimed fencing team, which ranked in the top three Division III teams in the past few years and in both 2008 and 2007 defeated the University of North Carolina, a Division I team. In 2008, they defeated UNC and won the MACFA championship.The swimming team ranked highly in NCAA Division III for the last 10 years, most recently placing second at DIII Nationals in 2008. The water polo team was number one in Division III for several of the past years, playing a full schedule against Division I opponents. Hopkins also has a century-old rivalry with McDaniel College (formerly Western Maryland College), playing the Green Terrors 83 times in football since the first game in 1894. In 2009 the football team reached the quarterfinals of the NCAA Division III tournament, with three tournament appearances since 2005. In 2008, the baseball team ranked second, losing in the final game of the DIII College World Series to Trinity College.The Johns Hopkins squash team plays in the College Squash Association as a club team along with Division I and III varsity programs. In 2011–12 the squash team finished 30th in the ranking., there have been 39 Nobel Laureates who either attended the university as undergraduate or graduate students, or were faculty members. Woodrow Wilson, who received his PhD from Johns Hopkins in 1886, was Hopkins' first affiliated laureate, winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1919. Twenty-three laureates were faculty members, five earned PhDs, eight earned M.D.s, and Francis Peyton Rous and Martin Rodbell earned undergraduate degrees.As of October 2019, eighteen Johns Hopkins laureates have won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Four Nobel Prizes were shared by Johns Hopkins laureates: George Minot and George Whipple won the 1934 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Joseph Erlanger and Herbert Spencer Gasser won the 1944 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Daniel Nathans and Hamilton O. Smith won the 1978 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, and David H. Hubel and Torsten N. Wiesel won the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.Four Johns Hopkins laureates won Nobel Prizes in Physics, including Riccardo Giacconi in 2002 and Bloomberg Distinguished Professor Adam Riess in 2011. Bloomberg Distinguished Professor Peter Agre was awarded the 2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry (which he shared with Roderick MacKinnon) for his discovery of aquaporins. Bloomberg Distinguished Professor Carol Greider was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, along with Blackburn and Jack W. Szostak, for their discovery that telomeres are protected from progressive shortening by the enzyme telomerase.Bristol-Myers Squibb, Johns Hopkins University and the Rockefeller Foundation are currently the subject of a $1 billion lawsuit from Guatemala for "roles in a 1940s U.S. government experiment that infected hundreds of Guatemalans with syphilis. A previous suit against the United States government was dismissed in 2011 for the Guatemala syphilis experiments when a judge determined that the U.S. government could not be held liable for actions committed outside of the U.S.
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[
"Ira Remsen",
"Joseph Sweetman Ames",
"Ronald J. Daniels",
"Milton Stover Eisenhower",
"Daniel Nathans",
"Isaiah Bowman",
"Daniel Coit Gilman",
"William C. Richardson",
"Lowell Reed",
"Steven Muller",
"Lincoln Gordon",
"Detlev Bronk",
"William Ralph Brody"
] |
|
Who was the chair of Johns Hopkins University in May 11, 1917?
|
May 11, 1917
|
{
"text": [
"Frank Johnson Goodnow"
]
}
|
L2_Q193727_P488_2
|
Lowell Reed is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Sep, 1953 to Jun, 1956.
Milton Stover Eisenhower is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Jul, 1956 to Jun, 1967.
Daniel Coit Gilman is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Feb, 1876 to Aug, 1901.
Frank Johnson Goodnow is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Oct, 1914 to Jun, 1929.
William Ralph Brody is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Aug, 1996 to Mar, 2008.
Lincoln Gordon is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Jul, 1967 to Mar, 1971.
Ronald J. Daniels is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Jan, 2009 to Dec, 2022.
Isaiah Bowman is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Jul, 1935 to Dec, 1948.
Ira Remsen is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Sep, 1901 to Jan, 1913.
Joseph Sweetman Ames is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Jul, 1929 to Jun, 1935.
Daniel Nathans is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Jun, 1995 to Aug, 1996.
Steven Muller is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Feb, 1972 to Jun, 1990.
William C. Richardson is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Jun, 1990 to Jun, 1995.
Detlev Bronk is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Jan, 1949 to Aug, 1953.
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Johns Hopkins UniversityThe Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, the university was named for its first benefactor, the American entrepreneur and philanthropist Johns Hopkins. Johns Hopkins is considered the first research university in the United States. Hopkin's $7 million bequest to establish the university was the largest philanthropic gift in the history of the United States up to that time. Daniel Coit Gilman, who was inaugurated as on February 22, 1876, led the university to revolutionize higher education in the U.S. by integrating teaching and research. In 1900, Johns Hopkins became a founding member of the American Association of Universities. The university has since led all U.S. universities in annual research expenditures. Johns Hopkins is organized into 10 divisions on campuses in Maryland and Washington, D.C., with international centers in Italy and China. The two undergraduate divisions, the Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences and the Whiting School of Engineering, are located on the Homewood campus in Baltimore's Charles Village neighborhood. The medical school, nursing school, and Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Johns Hopkins Children’s Center are located on the Medical Institutions campus in East Baltimore. The university also consists of the Peabody Institute, Applied Physics Laboratory, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, School of Education, Carey Business School, and various other facilities. The university also has graduate campuses in Italy, China, and Washington, D.C.As of October 2019, 39 Nobel laureates and 1 Fields Medalist have been affiliated with Johns Hopkins' faculty and alumni. Founded in 1883, the Blue Jays men's lacrosse team has captured 44 national titles and plays in the Big Ten Conference as an affiliate member.On his death in 1873, Johns Hopkins, a Quaker entrepreneur and childless bachelor, bequeathed $7 million (approximately $ million today adjusted for consumer price inflation) to fund a hospital and university in Baltimore, Maryland. At the time, this donation, generated primarily from the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, was the largest philanthropic gift in the history of the United States, and endowment was then the largest in America. Until 2020, Hopkins was assumed to be a fervent abolitionist, until research done by the school into his United States Census records revealed he claimed to own at least five household slaves in the 1840 and 1850 decennial censuses.The first name of philanthropist Johns Hopkins comes from the surname of his great-grandmother, Margaret Johns, who married Gerard Hopkins. They named their son Johns Hopkins, who named his own son Samuel Hopkins. Samuel named one of his sons for his father, and that son became the university's benefactor. Milton Eisenhower, a former university president, once spoke at a convention in Pittsburgh where the master of ceremonies introduced him as "President of "John" Hopkins." Eisenhower retorted that he was "glad to be here in "Pitt"burgh."The original board opted for an entirely novel university model dedicated to the discovery of knowledge at an advanced level, extending that of contemporary Germany. Building on the Humboldtian model of higher education, the German education model of Wilhelm von Humboldt, it became dedicated to research. It was especially Heidelberg University and its long academic research history on which the new institution tried to model itself. Johns Hopkins thereby became the model of the modern research university in the United States. Its success eventually shifted higher education in the United States from a focus on teaching revealed and/or applied knowledge to the scientific discovery of new knowledge. The trustees worked alongside four notable university presidents – Charles W. Eliot of Harvard, Andrew D. White of Cornell, Noah Porter of Yale College and James B. Angell of Michigan. They each vouched for Daniel Coit Gilman to lead the new University and he became the university's first president. Gilman, a Yale-educated scholar, had been serving as president of the University of California, Berkeley prior to this appointment. In preparation for the university's founding, Gilman visited University of Freiburg and other German universities.Gilman launched what many at the time considered an audacious and unprecedented academic experiment to merge teaching and research. He dismissed the idea that the two were mutually exclusive: "The best teachers are usually those who are free, competent and willing to make original researches in the library and the laboratory," he stated. To implement his plan, Gilman recruited internationally known researchers including the mathematician James Joseph Sylvester; the biologist H. Newell Martin; the physicist Henry A. Rowland (the first president of the American Physical Society), the classical scholars Basil Gildersleeve and Charles D. Morris; the economist Richard T. Ely; and the chemist Ira Remsen, who became the second president of the university in 1901.Gilman focused on the expansion of graduate education and support of faculty research. The new university fused advanced scholarship with such professional schools as medicine and engineering. Hopkins became the national trendsetter in doctoral programs and the host for numerous scholarly journals and associations. The Johns Hopkins University Press, founded in 1878, is the oldest American university press in continuous operation.With the completion of Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1889 and the medical school in 1893, the university's research-focused mode of instruction soon began attracting world-renowned faculty members who would become major figures in the emerging field of academic medicine, including William Osler, William Halsted, Howard Kelly, and William Welch. Students came from all over the world to study at Johns Hopkins and returned to their sending country to serve their nation, including Dr Harry Chung (b. 1872) who served as a diplomat in the Manchu Dynasty and First Secretary to the United States. During this period Hopkins made more history by becoming the first medical school to admit women on an equal basis with men and to require a Bachelor's degree, based on the efforts of Mary E. Garrett, who had endowed the school at Gilman's request. The school of medicine was America's first coeducational, graduate-level medical school, and became a prototype for academic medicine that emphasized bedside learning, research projects, and laboratory training. In his will and in his instructions to the trustees of the university and the hospital, Hopkins requested that both institutions be built upon the vast grounds of his Baltimore estate, Clifton. When Gilman assumed the presidency, he decided that it would be best to use the university's endowment for recruiting faculty and students, deciding to, as it has been paraphrased, "build men, not buildings." In his will Hopkins stipulated that none of his endowment should be used for construction; only interest on the principal could be used for this purpose. Unfortunately, stocks in The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, which would have generated most of the interest, became virtually worthless soon after Hopkins's death. The university's first home was thus in Downtown Baltimore delaying plans to site the university in Clifton.In the early 20th century, the university outgrew its buildings and the trustees began to search for a new home. Developing Clifton for the university was too costly, and of the estate had to be sold to the city as public park. A solution was achieved by a team of prominent locals who acquired the estate in north Baltimore known as Homewood. On February 22, 1902, this land was formally transferred to the university. The flagship building, Gilman Hall, was completed in 1915. The School of Engineering relocated in Fall of 1914 and the School of Arts and Sciences followed in 1916. These decades saw the ceding of lands by the university for the public Wyman Park and Wyman Park Dell and the Baltimore Museum of Art, coalescing in the contemporary area of .Prior to becoming the main Johns Hopkins campus, the Homewood estate had initially been the gift of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, a Maryland planter and signer of the Declaration of Independence, to his son Charles Carroll Jr. The original structure, the 1801 Homewood House, still stands and serves as an on-campus museum. The brick and marble Federal style of Homewood House became the architectural inspiration for much of the university campus versus the Collegiate Gothic style of other historic American universities.In 1909, the university was among the first to start adult continuing education programs and in 1916 it founded the US' first school of public health.Since the 1910s, Johns Hopkins University has famously been a "fertile cradle" to Arthur Lovejoy's history of ideas.Since 1942, the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) has served as a major governmental defense contractor. In tandem with on-campus research, Johns Hopkins has every year since 1979 had the highest federal research funding of any American university.Professional schools of international affairs and music were established in 1950 and 1977, respectively, when the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in Washington D.C and the Peabody Institute in Baltimore were incorporated into the university.The early decades of the 21st century saw expansion across the university's institutions in both physical and population sizes. Notably, a planned 88-acre expansion to the medical campus began in 2013. Completed construction on the Homewood campus has included a new biomedical engineering building in the Johns Hopkins University Department of Biomedical Engineering, a new library, a new biology wing, an extensive renovation of the flagship Gilman Hall, and the reconstruction of the main university entrance.These years also brought about the rapid development of the university's professional schools of education and business. From 1999 until 2007, these disciplines had been joined together within the School of Professional Studies in Business and Education (SPSBE), itself a reshuffling of several earlier ventures. The 2007 split, combined with new funding and leadership initiatives, has led to the simultaneous emergence of the Johns Hopkins School of Education and the Carey Business School.On November 18, 2018, it was announced that Michael Bloomberg would make a donation to his alma mater of $1.8 billion, marking the largest private donation in modern history to an institution of higher education and bringing Bloomberg's total contribution to the school in excess of $3.3 billion. Bloomberg's $1.8 billion gift allows the school to practice need-blind admission and meet the full financial need of admitted students.In January 2019, the university announced an agreement to purchase the Newseum, located at 555 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, in the heart of Washington, D.C., with plans to locate all of its D.C.-based graduate programs there. In an interview with The Atlantic, the president of Johns Hopkins stated that “the purchase is an opportunity to position the university, literally, to better contribute its expertise to national- and international-policy discussions.”In late 2019, the university's Coronavirus Research Center began tracking worldwide cases of the COVID-19 pandemic by compiling data from hundreds of sources around the world. This led to the university becoming one of the most cited sources for data about the pandemic.Hopkins was a prominent abolitionist who supported Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War. After his death, reports said his conviction was a decisive factor in enrolling Hopkins' first African-American student, Kelly Miller, a graduate student in physics, astronomy and mathematics. As time passed, the university adopted a "separate but equal" stance more like other Baltimore institutions.The first black undergraduate entered the school in 1945 and graduate students followed in 1967. James Nabwangu, a British-trained Kenyan, was the first black graduate of the medical school. African-American instructor and laboratory supervisor Vivien Thomas was instrumental in developing and conducting the first successful blue baby operation in 1944. Despite such cases, racial diversity did not become commonplace at Johns Hopkins institutions until the 1960s and 1970s.Hopkins' most well-known battle for women's rights was the one led by daughters of trustees of the university; Mary E. Garrett, M. Carey Thomas, Mamie Gwinn, Elizabeth King, and Julia Rogers. They donated and raised the funds needed to open the medical school, and required Hopkins' officials to agree to their stipulation that women would be admitted. The nursing school opened in 1889 and accepted women and men as students. Other graduate schools were later opened to women by president Ira Remsen in 1907. Christine Ladd-Franklin was the first woman to earn a PhD at Hopkins, in mathematics in 1882. The trustees denied her the degree for decades and refused to change the policy about admitting women. In 1893, Florence Bascomb became the university's first female PhD. The decision to admit women at undergraduate level was not considered until the late 1960s and was eventually adopted in October 1969. As of 2009–2010, the undergraduate population was 47% female and 53% male. In 2020, the undergraduate population of Hopkins was 53% female.On September 5, 2013, cryptographer and Johns Hopkins university professor Matthew Green posted a blog entitled, "On the NSA", in which he contributed to the ongoing debate regarding the role of NIST and NSA in formulating U.S. cryptography standards. On September 9, 2013, Green received a take-down request for the "On the NSA" blog from interim Dean Andrew Douglas from the Johns Hopkins University Whiting School of Engineering. The request cited concerns that the blog had links to sensitive material. The blog linked to already published news articles from "The Guardian", "The New York Times" and ProPublica.org. Douglas subsequently issued a personal on-line apology to Green. The event raised concern over the future of academic freedom of speech within the cryptologic research community.The first campus was located on Howard Street. Eventually, they relocated to Homewood, in northern Baltimore, the estate of Charles Carroll, son of the oldest surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence. Carroll's Homewood House is considered one of the finest examples of Federal residential architecture. The estate then came to the Wyman family, which participated in making it the park-like main campus of the schools of arts and sciences and engineering at the start of the 20th century. Most of its architecture was modeled after the Federal style of Homewood House. Homewood House is preserved as a museum. Most undergraduate programs are on this campus.Collectively known as Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions (JHMI) campus, the East Baltimore facility occupies several city blocks spreading from the Johns Hopkins Hospital trademark dome.The Washington, D.C. campus is on Massachusetts Avenue, towards the Southeastern end of Embassy Row.In 2019, Hopkins announced its purchase of the Newseum building on Pennsylvania Avenue, three blocks from the United States Capitol to house its D.C. programs and centers. Akin to the Washington, D.C. campus for the School of Arts & Sciences, the APL also is the primary campus for master's degrees in a variety of STEM fields.The Johns Hopkins entity is structured as two corporations, the university and The Johns Hopkins Health System, formed in 1986. The President is JHU's chief executive officer, and the university is organized into nine academic divisions.JHU's bylaws specify a Board of Trustees of between 18 and 65 voting members. Trustees serve six-year terms subject to a two-term limit. The alumni select 12 trustees. Four recent alumni serve 4-year terms, one per year, typically from the graduating class. The bylaws prohibit students, faculty or administrative staff from serving on the Board, except the President as an ex-officio trustee. The Johns Hopkins Health System has a separate Board of Trustees, many of whom are doctors or health care executives.The full-time, four-year undergraduate program is "most selective" with low transfer-in and a high graduate co-existence. The cost of attendance per year is $60,820; however, the average need met is 99%. The university is one of fourteen founding members of the Association of American Universities (AAU); it is also a member of the Consortium on Financing Higher Education (COFHE) and the Universities Research Association (URA).JHU's undergraduate education is ranked 9th among U.S. "national universities" by "U.S. News & World Report" for 2021. For medical research "U.S. News & World Report" ranks the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in 2020 for 2nd in the U.S. and the Bloomberg School of Public Health 1st. The School of Nursing was ranked 1st nationally for master's degrees. The "QS Top Universities" ranked Johns Hopkins University No. 5 in the world for medicine. , Hopkins ranked No. 1 nationally in receipt of federal research funds, and was the top recipient of NIH research grants in 2019, both in terms of dollar amount and number of grants. In 2020, the Johns Hopkins Hospital was ranked the No. 3 hospital in the United States by the "U.S. News & World Report" annual ranking of American hospitals.The School of Education is ranked No. 2 nationally by "U.S. News & World Report" for 2017. In 2015, the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) ranked 2nd in the world in Foreign Policy's "Top Master's Programs for Policy Career in International Relations" ranking.The university's undergraduate programs are most selective: in 2021, the Office of Admissions accepted about 4.9% of its 33,236 Regular Decision applicants. In 2019, 98% of admitted students graduated in the top tenth of their high school class with a mean unweighted academic GPA of 3.92. The inter-quartile range on the SAT composite score was 1480–1550. In 2013, 96.8% of freshmen returned after the first year and 88% of students graduated in 4 years. Over time, applications to Johns Hopkins University have risen steadily. As a result, the selectivity of Johns Hopkins University has also increased. Early Decision is an option at Johns Hopkins University for students who wish to demonstrate that the university is their first choice. These students, if admitted, are required to enroll. This application is due November 2. Most students, however, apply Regular Decision, which is a traditional non-binding round. These applications are due January 1 and students are notified in late March. In 2014, Johns Hopkins ended legacy preference in admissions.The Johns Hopkins University Library system houses more than 3.6 million volumes and includes ten main divisions across the university's campuses. The largest segment of this system is the Sheridan Libraries, encompassing the Milton S. Eisenhower Library (the main library of the Homewood campus), the Brody Learning Commons, the Hutzler Reading Room ("The Hut") in Gilman Hall, the John Work Garrett Library at Evergreen House, and the George Peabody Library at the Peabody Institute campus.The main library, constructed in the 1960s, was named for Milton S. Eisenhower, former president of the university and brother of former U.S. president Dwight D. Eisenhower. The university's stacks had previously been housed in Gilman Hall and departmental libraries. Only two of the Eisenhower library's six stories are above ground, though the building was designed so that every level receives natural light. The design accords with campus lore that no structure can be taller than Gilman Hall, the flagship academic building. A four-story expansion to the library, known as the Brody Learning Commons, opened in August 2012. The expansion features an energy-efficient, state-of-the-art technology infrastructure and includes study spaces, seminar rooms, and a rare books collection.The Johns Hopkins University Press is the publishing division of the Johns Hopkins University. It was founded in 1878 and holds the distinction of being the oldest continuously running university press in the United States. To date the Press has published more than 6,000 titles and currently publishes 65 scholarly periodicals and over 200 new books each year. Since 1993, the Johns Hopkins University Press has run Project MUSE, an online collection of over 250 full-text, peer-reviewed journals in the humanities and social sciences. The Press also houses the Hopkins Fulfilment Services (HFS), which handles distribution for a number of university presses and publishers. Taken together, the three divisions of the Press—Books, Journals (including MUSE) and HFS—make it one of the largest of America's university presses.The Johns Hopkins University also offers the "Center for Talented Youth" program—a nonprofit organization dedicated to identifying and developing the talents of the most promising K-12 grade students worldwide. As part of the Johns Hopkins University, the "Center for Talented Youth" or CTY helps fulfill the university's mission of preparing students to make significant future contributions to the world. The Johns Hopkins Digital Media Center (DMC) is a multimedia lab space as well as an equipment, technology and knowledge resource for students interested in exploring creative uses of emerging media and use of technology.Johns Hopkins offers a number of degrees in various undergraduate majors leading to the BA and BS and various majors leading to the MA, MS and Ph.D. for graduate students. Because Hopkins offers both undergraduate and graduate areas of study, many disciplines have multiple degrees available. Biomedical engineering, perhaps one of Hopkins' best-known programs, offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees.The opportunity to participate in important research is one of the distinguishing characteristics of Hopkins' undergraduate education. About 80 percent of undergraduates perform independent research, often alongside top researchers. In fiscal year 2016, Johns Hopkins spent nearly $2.5 billion on research—more than any other U.S. university for the 38th consecutive year. Johns Hopkins has had seventy-seven members of the Institute of Medicine, forty-three Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigators, seventeen members of the National Academy of Engineering, and sixty-two members of the National Academy of Sciences. As of October 2019, 39 Nobel Prize winners have been affiliated with the university as alumni, faculty members or researchers, with the most recent winners being Gregg Semenza and William G. Kaelin.Between 1999 and 2009, Johns Hopkins was among the most cited institutions in the world. It attracted nearly 1,222,166 citations and produced 54,022 papers under its name, ranking No. 3 globally (after Harvard University and the Max Planck Society) in the number of "total" citations published in Thomson Reuters-indexed journals over 22 fields in America.In FY 2000, Johns Hopkins received $95.4 million in research grants from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), making it the leading recipient of NASA research and development funding. In FY 2002, Hopkins became the first university to cross the $1 billion threshold on either list, recording $1.14 billion in total research and $1.023 billion in federally sponsored research. In FY 2008, Johns Hopkins University performed $1.68 billion in science, medical and engineering research, making it the leading U.S. academic institution in total R&D spending for the 30th year in a row, according to a National Science Foundation (NSF) ranking. These totals include grants and expenditures of JHU's Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland.In 2013, the Bloomberg Distinguished Professorships program was established by a $250 million gift from Michael Bloomberg. This program enables the university to recruit fifty researchers from around the world to joint appointments throughout the nine divisions and research centers. Each professor must be a leader in interdisciplinary research and be active in undergraduate education. Directed by Vice Provost for Research Denis Wirtz, there are currently thirty two Bloomberg Distinguished Professors at the university, including three Nobel Laureates, eight fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, ten members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and thirteen members of the National Academies.Charles Village, the region of North Baltimore surrounding the university, has undergone several restoration projects, and the university has gradually bought the property around the school for additional student housing and dormitories. "The Charles Village Project", completed in 2008, brought new commercial spaces to the neighborhood. The project included Charles Commons, a new, modern residence hall that includes popular retail franchises. In 2015, the University began development of new commercial properties, including a modern upperclassmen apartment complex, restaurants and eateries, and a CVS retail store.Hopkins invested in improving campus life with an arts complex in 2001, the Mattin Center, and a three-story sports facility, the O'Connor Recreation Center. The large on-campus dining facilities at Homewood were renovated in the summer of 2006.Quality of life is enriched by the proximity of neighboring academic institutions, including Loyola College, Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), UMBC, Goucher College, and Towson University, as well as the nearby neighborhoods of Hampden, the Inner Harbor, Fells Point, and Mount Vernon.Greek life came to Hopkins in 1876 with the charter of fraternity Beta Theta Pi, which still exists on campus today. Since, Johns Hopkins has become home to nine sororities and 11 fraternities. Of the nine sororities, five belong to the National Panhellenic Conference and four to the Multicultural Greek Council Sororities. Of the fraternities, all 11 belong to the Inter-Fraternity Council. Over 1,000 students participate in Greek life, with 23% of women and 20% of men taking part. Greek life has expanded its reach at Hopkins in recent decades, as only 15% of the student body participated in 1989. Rush for all students occurs in the spring. Most fraternities keep houses in Charles Village while sororities do not.Johns Hopkins Greek life has been largely representative of its increasing diversity with the installment of Alpha Phi Alpha, a historically black fraternity, in 1991 and Lambda Phi Epsilon, an Asian-interest fraternity in 1994 among others.Spring Fair has been a Johns Hopkins tradition since 1972 and has since grown to be the largest student-run festival in the country. Popular among Hopkins students and Baltimore inhabitants alike, Spring Fair features carnival rides, vendors, food and a beer garden. Since its beginning, Spring Fair has decreased in size, both in regard to attendance and utilization of space. While one point, the Fair attracted upwards of 100,000 people, it became unruly and, for a variety of reasons including safety concerns and a campus beautification project in the early 2000s, had to be scaled back.While it has been speculated that Johns Hopkins has relatively few traditions for a school of its age and that many past traditions have been forgotten, a handful of myths and customs are ubiquitous knowledge among the community. One such long-standing myth surrounds the university seal that is embedded into the floor of the Gilman Hall foyer. The myth holds that any current student to step on the seal will never graduate. In reverence for this tradition, the seal has been fenced off from the rest of the room.An annual event is the "Lighting of the Quad", a ceremony each winter during which the campus is lit up in holiday lights. Recent years have included singing and fireworks.Living on campus is typically required for first- and second-year undergraduates. Freshman housing is centered around Freshman Quad, which consists of three residence hall complexes: The two Alumni Memorial Residences (AMR I and AMR II) plus Buildings A and B. The AMR dormitories are each divided into "houses", subunits named for figures from the university's early history. Freshmen are also housed in Wolman Hall and in certain wings of McCoy Hall, both located slightly outside the campus. Dorms at Hopkins are generally co-ed with same-gender rooms, though a new policy has allowed students to live in mixed-gender rooms since Fall 2014.Students determine where they will live during sophomore year through a housing lottery. Most juniors and seniors move into nearby apartments or row-houses. Non-freshmen in university housing occupy one of four buildings: McCoy Hall, the Bradford Apartments, the Homewood Apartments, and Charles Commons. All are located in Charles Village within a block from the Homewood campus. Forty-five percent of the student body lives off-campus while 55% lives on campus.Athletic teams are called Blue Jays. Even though sable and gold are used for academic robes, the university's athletic colors are Columbia blue (PMS 284) and black. Hopkins celebrates Homecoming in the spring to coincide with the height of the lacrosse season. The men's and women's lacrosse teams are in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I and are affiliate members of the Big Ten Conference. Other teams are in Division III and participate in the Centennial Conference. JHU is also home to the Lacrosse Museum and National Hall of Fame, maintained by US Lacrosse.The school's most prominent team is its men's lacrosse team. The team has won 44 national titles – nine Division I (2007, 2005, 1987, 1985, 1984, 1980, 1979, 1978, 1974), 29 United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA), and six Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (ILA) titles. Hopkins' primary national rivals are Princeton University, Syracuse University, and the University of Virginia; its primary intrastate rivals are Loyola University Maryland (competing in what is called the "Charles Street Massacre"), Towson University, the United States Naval Academy, and the University of Maryland. The rivalry with Maryland is the oldest. The schools have met 111 times since 1899, three times in playoff matches.On June 3, 2013, it was announced that the Blue Jays would join the Big Ten Conference for men's lacrosse when that league begins sponsoring the sport in the 2015 season (2014–15 school year).The women's team is a member of the Big Ten Conference and a former member of the American Lacrosse Conference (ALC). The Lady Blue Jays were ranked number 18 in the 2015 Inside Lacrosse Women's DI Media Poll. They ranked number 8 in the 2007 Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA) Poll Division I. The team finished the 2012 season with a 9–9 record and finished the 2013 season with a 10–7 record. They finished the 2014 season 15–5. On June 17, 2015, it was announced that the Blue Jays would join the Big Ten Conference for women's lacrosse in the 2017 season (2016–17 school year).Hopkins has notable Division III Athletic teams. JHU Men's Swimming won three consecutive NCAA Championships in 1977, 1978, and 1979. In 2009–2010, Hopkins won 8 Centennial Conference titles in Women's Cross Country, Women's Track & Field, Baseball, Men's and Women's Soccer, Football, and Men's and Women's Tennis. The Women's Cross Country team became the first women's team at Hopkins to achieve a #1 National ranking. In 2006–2007 teams won Centennial Conference titles in Baseball, Men's and Women's Soccer, Men's and Women's Tennis and Men's Basketball. Women's soccer won their Centennial Conference title for 7 consecutive years from 2005 to 2011. In the 2013–2014 school year, Hopkins earned 12 Centennial Conference titles, most notably from the cross country and track & field teams, which accounted for six.Hopkins has an acclaimed fencing team, which ranked in the top three Division III teams in the past few years and in both 2008 and 2007 defeated the University of North Carolina, a Division I team. In 2008, they defeated UNC and won the MACFA championship.The swimming team ranked highly in NCAA Division III for the last 10 years, most recently placing second at DIII Nationals in 2008. The water polo team was number one in Division III for several of the past years, playing a full schedule against Division I opponents. Hopkins also has a century-old rivalry with McDaniel College (formerly Western Maryland College), playing the Green Terrors 83 times in football since the first game in 1894. In 2009 the football team reached the quarterfinals of the NCAA Division III tournament, with three tournament appearances since 2005. In 2008, the baseball team ranked second, losing in the final game of the DIII College World Series to Trinity College.The Johns Hopkins squash team plays in the College Squash Association as a club team along with Division I and III varsity programs. In 2011–12 the squash team finished 30th in the ranking., there have been 39 Nobel Laureates who either attended the university as undergraduate or graduate students, or were faculty members. Woodrow Wilson, who received his PhD from Johns Hopkins in 1886, was Hopkins' first affiliated laureate, winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1919. Twenty-three laureates were faculty members, five earned PhDs, eight earned M.D.s, and Francis Peyton Rous and Martin Rodbell earned undergraduate degrees.As of October 2019, eighteen Johns Hopkins laureates have won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Four Nobel Prizes were shared by Johns Hopkins laureates: George Minot and George Whipple won the 1934 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Joseph Erlanger and Herbert Spencer Gasser won the 1944 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Daniel Nathans and Hamilton O. Smith won the 1978 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, and David H. Hubel and Torsten N. Wiesel won the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.Four Johns Hopkins laureates won Nobel Prizes in Physics, including Riccardo Giacconi in 2002 and Bloomberg Distinguished Professor Adam Riess in 2011. Bloomberg Distinguished Professor Peter Agre was awarded the 2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry (which he shared with Roderick MacKinnon) for his discovery of aquaporins. Bloomberg Distinguished Professor Carol Greider was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, along with Blackburn and Jack W. Szostak, for their discovery that telomeres are protected from progressive shortening by the enzyme telomerase.Bristol-Myers Squibb, Johns Hopkins University and the Rockefeller Foundation are currently the subject of a $1 billion lawsuit from Guatemala for "roles in a 1940s U.S. government experiment that infected hundreds of Guatemalans with syphilis. A previous suit against the United States government was dismissed in 2011 for the Guatemala syphilis experiments when a judge determined that the U.S. government could not be held liable for actions committed outside of the U.S.
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[
"Ira Remsen",
"Joseph Sweetman Ames",
"Ronald J. Daniels",
"Milton Stover Eisenhower",
"Daniel Nathans",
"Isaiah Bowman",
"Daniel Coit Gilman",
"William C. Richardson",
"Lowell Reed",
"Steven Muller",
"Lincoln Gordon",
"Detlev Bronk",
"William Ralph Brody"
] |
|
Who was the chair of Johns Hopkins University in 05/11/1917?
|
May 11, 1917
|
{
"text": [
"Frank Johnson Goodnow"
]
}
|
L2_Q193727_P488_2
|
Lowell Reed is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Sep, 1953 to Jun, 1956.
Milton Stover Eisenhower is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Jul, 1956 to Jun, 1967.
Daniel Coit Gilman is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Feb, 1876 to Aug, 1901.
Frank Johnson Goodnow is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Oct, 1914 to Jun, 1929.
William Ralph Brody is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Aug, 1996 to Mar, 2008.
Lincoln Gordon is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Jul, 1967 to Mar, 1971.
Ronald J. Daniels is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Jan, 2009 to Dec, 2022.
Isaiah Bowman is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Jul, 1935 to Dec, 1948.
Ira Remsen is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Sep, 1901 to Jan, 1913.
Joseph Sweetman Ames is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Jul, 1929 to Jun, 1935.
Daniel Nathans is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Jun, 1995 to Aug, 1996.
Steven Muller is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Feb, 1972 to Jun, 1990.
William C. Richardson is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Jun, 1990 to Jun, 1995.
Detlev Bronk is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Jan, 1949 to Aug, 1953.
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Johns Hopkins UniversityThe Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, the university was named for its first benefactor, the American entrepreneur and philanthropist Johns Hopkins. Johns Hopkins is considered the first research university in the United States. Hopkin's $7 million bequest to establish the university was the largest philanthropic gift in the history of the United States up to that time. Daniel Coit Gilman, who was inaugurated as on February 22, 1876, led the university to revolutionize higher education in the U.S. by integrating teaching and research. In 1900, Johns Hopkins became a founding member of the American Association of Universities. The university has since led all U.S. universities in annual research expenditures. Johns Hopkins is organized into 10 divisions on campuses in Maryland and Washington, D.C., with international centers in Italy and China. The two undergraduate divisions, the Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences and the Whiting School of Engineering, are located on the Homewood campus in Baltimore's Charles Village neighborhood. The medical school, nursing school, and Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Johns Hopkins Children’s Center are located on the Medical Institutions campus in East Baltimore. The university also consists of the Peabody Institute, Applied Physics Laboratory, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, School of Education, Carey Business School, and various other facilities. The university also has graduate campuses in Italy, China, and Washington, D.C.As of October 2019, 39 Nobel laureates and 1 Fields Medalist have been affiliated with Johns Hopkins' faculty and alumni. Founded in 1883, the Blue Jays men's lacrosse team has captured 44 national titles and plays in the Big Ten Conference as an affiliate member.On his death in 1873, Johns Hopkins, a Quaker entrepreneur and childless bachelor, bequeathed $7 million (approximately $ million today adjusted for consumer price inflation) to fund a hospital and university in Baltimore, Maryland. At the time, this donation, generated primarily from the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, was the largest philanthropic gift in the history of the United States, and endowment was then the largest in America. Until 2020, Hopkins was assumed to be a fervent abolitionist, until research done by the school into his United States Census records revealed he claimed to own at least five household slaves in the 1840 and 1850 decennial censuses.The first name of philanthropist Johns Hopkins comes from the surname of his great-grandmother, Margaret Johns, who married Gerard Hopkins. They named their son Johns Hopkins, who named his own son Samuel Hopkins. Samuel named one of his sons for his father, and that son became the university's benefactor. Milton Eisenhower, a former university president, once spoke at a convention in Pittsburgh where the master of ceremonies introduced him as "President of "John" Hopkins." Eisenhower retorted that he was "glad to be here in "Pitt"burgh."The original board opted for an entirely novel university model dedicated to the discovery of knowledge at an advanced level, extending that of contemporary Germany. Building on the Humboldtian model of higher education, the German education model of Wilhelm von Humboldt, it became dedicated to research. It was especially Heidelberg University and its long academic research history on which the new institution tried to model itself. Johns Hopkins thereby became the model of the modern research university in the United States. Its success eventually shifted higher education in the United States from a focus on teaching revealed and/or applied knowledge to the scientific discovery of new knowledge. The trustees worked alongside four notable university presidents – Charles W. Eliot of Harvard, Andrew D. White of Cornell, Noah Porter of Yale College and James B. Angell of Michigan. They each vouched for Daniel Coit Gilman to lead the new University and he became the university's first president. Gilman, a Yale-educated scholar, had been serving as president of the University of California, Berkeley prior to this appointment. In preparation for the university's founding, Gilman visited University of Freiburg and other German universities.Gilman launched what many at the time considered an audacious and unprecedented academic experiment to merge teaching and research. He dismissed the idea that the two were mutually exclusive: "The best teachers are usually those who are free, competent and willing to make original researches in the library and the laboratory," he stated. To implement his plan, Gilman recruited internationally known researchers including the mathematician James Joseph Sylvester; the biologist H. Newell Martin; the physicist Henry A. Rowland (the first president of the American Physical Society), the classical scholars Basil Gildersleeve and Charles D. Morris; the economist Richard T. Ely; and the chemist Ira Remsen, who became the second president of the university in 1901.Gilman focused on the expansion of graduate education and support of faculty research. The new university fused advanced scholarship with such professional schools as medicine and engineering. Hopkins became the national trendsetter in doctoral programs and the host for numerous scholarly journals and associations. The Johns Hopkins University Press, founded in 1878, is the oldest American university press in continuous operation.With the completion of Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1889 and the medical school in 1893, the university's research-focused mode of instruction soon began attracting world-renowned faculty members who would become major figures in the emerging field of academic medicine, including William Osler, William Halsted, Howard Kelly, and William Welch. Students came from all over the world to study at Johns Hopkins and returned to their sending country to serve their nation, including Dr Harry Chung (b. 1872) who served as a diplomat in the Manchu Dynasty and First Secretary to the United States. During this period Hopkins made more history by becoming the first medical school to admit women on an equal basis with men and to require a Bachelor's degree, based on the efforts of Mary E. Garrett, who had endowed the school at Gilman's request. The school of medicine was America's first coeducational, graduate-level medical school, and became a prototype for academic medicine that emphasized bedside learning, research projects, and laboratory training. In his will and in his instructions to the trustees of the university and the hospital, Hopkins requested that both institutions be built upon the vast grounds of his Baltimore estate, Clifton. When Gilman assumed the presidency, he decided that it would be best to use the university's endowment for recruiting faculty and students, deciding to, as it has been paraphrased, "build men, not buildings." In his will Hopkins stipulated that none of his endowment should be used for construction; only interest on the principal could be used for this purpose. Unfortunately, stocks in The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, which would have generated most of the interest, became virtually worthless soon after Hopkins's death. The university's first home was thus in Downtown Baltimore delaying plans to site the university in Clifton.In the early 20th century, the university outgrew its buildings and the trustees began to search for a new home. Developing Clifton for the university was too costly, and of the estate had to be sold to the city as public park. A solution was achieved by a team of prominent locals who acquired the estate in north Baltimore known as Homewood. On February 22, 1902, this land was formally transferred to the university. The flagship building, Gilman Hall, was completed in 1915. The School of Engineering relocated in Fall of 1914 and the School of Arts and Sciences followed in 1916. These decades saw the ceding of lands by the university for the public Wyman Park and Wyman Park Dell and the Baltimore Museum of Art, coalescing in the contemporary area of .Prior to becoming the main Johns Hopkins campus, the Homewood estate had initially been the gift of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, a Maryland planter and signer of the Declaration of Independence, to his son Charles Carroll Jr. The original structure, the 1801 Homewood House, still stands and serves as an on-campus museum. The brick and marble Federal style of Homewood House became the architectural inspiration for much of the university campus versus the Collegiate Gothic style of other historic American universities.In 1909, the university was among the first to start adult continuing education programs and in 1916 it founded the US' first school of public health.Since the 1910s, Johns Hopkins University has famously been a "fertile cradle" to Arthur Lovejoy's history of ideas.Since 1942, the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) has served as a major governmental defense contractor. In tandem with on-campus research, Johns Hopkins has every year since 1979 had the highest federal research funding of any American university.Professional schools of international affairs and music were established in 1950 and 1977, respectively, when the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in Washington D.C and the Peabody Institute in Baltimore were incorporated into the university.The early decades of the 21st century saw expansion across the university's institutions in both physical and population sizes. Notably, a planned 88-acre expansion to the medical campus began in 2013. Completed construction on the Homewood campus has included a new biomedical engineering building in the Johns Hopkins University Department of Biomedical Engineering, a new library, a new biology wing, an extensive renovation of the flagship Gilman Hall, and the reconstruction of the main university entrance.These years also brought about the rapid development of the university's professional schools of education and business. From 1999 until 2007, these disciplines had been joined together within the School of Professional Studies in Business and Education (SPSBE), itself a reshuffling of several earlier ventures. The 2007 split, combined with new funding and leadership initiatives, has led to the simultaneous emergence of the Johns Hopkins School of Education and the Carey Business School.On November 18, 2018, it was announced that Michael Bloomberg would make a donation to his alma mater of $1.8 billion, marking the largest private donation in modern history to an institution of higher education and bringing Bloomberg's total contribution to the school in excess of $3.3 billion. Bloomberg's $1.8 billion gift allows the school to practice need-blind admission and meet the full financial need of admitted students.In January 2019, the university announced an agreement to purchase the Newseum, located at 555 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, in the heart of Washington, D.C., with plans to locate all of its D.C.-based graduate programs there. In an interview with The Atlantic, the president of Johns Hopkins stated that “the purchase is an opportunity to position the university, literally, to better contribute its expertise to national- and international-policy discussions.”In late 2019, the university's Coronavirus Research Center began tracking worldwide cases of the COVID-19 pandemic by compiling data from hundreds of sources around the world. This led to the university becoming one of the most cited sources for data about the pandemic.Hopkins was a prominent abolitionist who supported Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War. After his death, reports said his conviction was a decisive factor in enrolling Hopkins' first African-American student, Kelly Miller, a graduate student in physics, astronomy and mathematics. As time passed, the university adopted a "separate but equal" stance more like other Baltimore institutions.The first black undergraduate entered the school in 1945 and graduate students followed in 1967. James Nabwangu, a British-trained Kenyan, was the first black graduate of the medical school. African-American instructor and laboratory supervisor Vivien Thomas was instrumental in developing and conducting the first successful blue baby operation in 1944. Despite such cases, racial diversity did not become commonplace at Johns Hopkins institutions until the 1960s and 1970s.Hopkins' most well-known battle for women's rights was the one led by daughters of trustees of the university; Mary E. Garrett, M. Carey Thomas, Mamie Gwinn, Elizabeth King, and Julia Rogers. They donated and raised the funds needed to open the medical school, and required Hopkins' officials to agree to their stipulation that women would be admitted. The nursing school opened in 1889 and accepted women and men as students. Other graduate schools were later opened to women by president Ira Remsen in 1907. Christine Ladd-Franklin was the first woman to earn a PhD at Hopkins, in mathematics in 1882. The trustees denied her the degree for decades and refused to change the policy about admitting women. In 1893, Florence Bascomb became the university's first female PhD. The decision to admit women at undergraduate level was not considered until the late 1960s and was eventually adopted in October 1969. As of 2009–2010, the undergraduate population was 47% female and 53% male. In 2020, the undergraduate population of Hopkins was 53% female.On September 5, 2013, cryptographer and Johns Hopkins university professor Matthew Green posted a blog entitled, "On the NSA", in which he contributed to the ongoing debate regarding the role of NIST and NSA in formulating U.S. cryptography standards. On September 9, 2013, Green received a take-down request for the "On the NSA" blog from interim Dean Andrew Douglas from the Johns Hopkins University Whiting School of Engineering. The request cited concerns that the blog had links to sensitive material. The blog linked to already published news articles from "The Guardian", "The New York Times" and ProPublica.org. Douglas subsequently issued a personal on-line apology to Green. The event raised concern over the future of academic freedom of speech within the cryptologic research community.The first campus was located on Howard Street. Eventually, they relocated to Homewood, in northern Baltimore, the estate of Charles Carroll, son of the oldest surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence. Carroll's Homewood House is considered one of the finest examples of Federal residential architecture. The estate then came to the Wyman family, which participated in making it the park-like main campus of the schools of arts and sciences and engineering at the start of the 20th century. Most of its architecture was modeled after the Federal style of Homewood House. Homewood House is preserved as a museum. Most undergraduate programs are on this campus.Collectively known as Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions (JHMI) campus, the East Baltimore facility occupies several city blocks spreading from the Johns Hopkins Hospital trademark dome.The Washington, D.C. campus is on Massachusetts Avenue, towards the Southeastern end of Embassy Row.In 2019, Hopkins announced its purchase of the Newseum building on Pennsylvania Avenue, three blocks from the United States Capitol to house its D.C. programs and centers. Akin to the Washington, D.C. campus for the School of Arts & Sciences, the APL also is the primary campus for master's degrees in a variety of STEM fields.The Johns Hopkins entity is structured as two corporations, the university and The Johns Hopkins Health System, formed in 1986. The President is JHU's chief executive officer, and the university is organized into nine academic divisions.JHU's bylaws specify a Board of Trustees of between 18 and 65 voting members. Trustees serve six-year terms subject to a two-term limit. The alumni select 12 trustees. Four recent alumni serve 4-year terms, one per year, typically from the graduating class. The bylaws prohibit students, faculty or administrative staff from serving on the Board, except the President as an ex-officio trustee. The Johns Hopkins Health System has a separate Board of Trustees, many of whom are doctors or health care executives.The full-time, four-year undergraduate program is "most selective" with low transfer-in and a high graduate co-existence. The cost of attendance per year is $60,820; however, the average need met is 99%. The university is one of fourteen founding members of the Association of American Universities (AAU); it is also a member of the Consortium on Financing Higher Education (COFHE) and the Universities Research Association (URA).JHU's undergraduate education is ranked 9th among U.S. "national universities" by "U.S. News & World Report" for 2021. For medical research "U.S. News & World Report" ranks the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in 2020 for 2nd in the U.S. and the Bloomberg School of Public Health 1st. The School of Nursing was ranked 1st nationally for master's degrees. The "QS Top Universities" ranked Johns Hopkins University No. 5 in the world for medicine. , Hopkins ranked No. 1 nationally in receipt of federal research funds, and was the top recipient of NIH research grants in 2019, both in terms of dollar amount and number of grants. In 2020, the Johns Hopkins Hospital was ranked the No. 3 hospital in the United States by the "U.S. News & World Report" annual ranking of American hospitals.The School of Education is ranked No. 2 nationally by "U.S. News & World Report" for 2017. In 2015, the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) ranked 2nd in the world in Foreign Policy's "Top Master's Programs for Policy Career in International Relations" ranking.The university's undergraduate programs are most selective: in 2021, the Office of Admissions accepted about 4.9% of its 33,236 Regular Decision applicants. In 2019, 98% of admitted students graduated in the top tenth of their high school class with a mean unweighted academic GPA of 3.92. The inter-quartile range on the SAT composite score was 1480–1550. In 2013, 96.8% of freshmen returned after the first year and 88% of students graduated in 4 years. Over time, applications to Johns Hopkins University have risen steadily. As a result, the selectivity of Johns Hopkins University has also increased. Early Decision is an option at Johns Hopkins University for students who wish to demonstrate that the university is their first choice. These students, if admitted, are required to enroll. This application is due November 2. Most students, however, apply Regular Decision, which is a traditional non-binding round. These applications are due January 1 and students are notified in late March. In 2014, Johns Hopkins ended legacy preference in admissions.The Johns Hopkins University Library system houses more than 3.6 million volumes and includes ten main divisions across the university's campuses. The largest segment of this system is the Sheridan Libraries, encompassing the Milton S. Eisenhower Library (the main library of the Homewood campus), the Brody Learning Commons, the Hutzler Reading Room ("The Hut") in Gilman Hall, the John Work Garrett Library at Evergreen House, and the George Peabody Library at the Peabody Institute campus.The main library, constructed in the 1960s, was named for Milton S. Eisenhower, former president of the university and brother of former U.S. president Dwight D. Eisenhower. The university's stacks had previously been housed in Gilman Hall and departmental libraries. Only two of the Eisenhower library's six stories are above ground, though the building was designed so that every level receives natural light. The design accords with campus lore that no structure can be taller than Gilman Hall, the flagship academic building. A four-story expansion to the library, known as the Brody Learning Commons, opened in August 2012. The expansion features an energy-efficient, state-of-the-art technology infrastructure and includes study spaces, seminar rooms, and a rare books collection.The Johns Hopkins University Press is the publishing division of the Johns Hopkins University. It was founded in 1878 and holds the distinction of being the oldest continuously running university press in the United States. To date the Press has published more than 6,000 titles and currently publishes 65 scholarly periodicals and over 200 new books each year. Since 1993, the Johns Hopkins University Press has run Project MUSE, an online collection of over 250 full-text, peer-reviewed journals in the humanities and social sciences. The Press also houses the Hopkins Fulfilment Services (HFS), which handles distribution for a number of university presses and publishers. Taken together, the three divisions of the Press—Books, Journals (including MUSE) and HFS—make it one of the largest of America's university presses.The Johns Hopkins University also offers the "Center for Talented Youth" program—a nonprofit organization dedicated to identifying and developing the talents of the most promising K-12 grade students worldwide. As part of the Johns Hopkins University, the "Center for Talented Youth" or CTY helps fulfill the university's mission of preparing students to make significant future contributions to the world. The Johns Hopkins Digital Media Center (DMC) is a multimedia lab space as well as an equipment, technology and knowledge resource for students interested in exploring creative uses of emerging media and use of technology.Johns Hopkins offers a number of degrees in various undergraduate majors leading to the BA and BS and various majors leading to the MA, MS and Ph.D. for graduate students. Because Hopkins offers both undergraduate and graduate areas of study, many disciplines have multiple degrees available. Biomedical engineering, perhaps one of Hopkins' best-known programs, offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees.The opportunity to participate in important research is one of the distinguishing characteristics of Hopkins' undergraduate education. About 80 percent of undergraduates perform independent research, often alongside top researchers. In fiscal year 2016, Johns Hopkins spent nearly $2.5 billion on research—more than any other U.S. university for the 38th consecutive year. Johns Hopkins has had seventy-seven members of the Institute of Medicine, forty-three Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigators, seventeen members of the National Academy of Engineering, and sixty-two members of the National Academy of Sciences. As of October 2019, 39 Nobel Prize winners have been affiliated with the university as alumni, faculty members or researchers, with the most recent winners being Gregg Semenza and William G. Kaelin.Between 1999 and 2009, Johns Hopkins was among the most cited institutions in the world. It attracted nearly 1,222,166 citations and produced 54,022 papers under its name, ranking No. 3 globally (after Harvard University and the Max Planck Society) in the number of "total" citations published in Thomson Reuters-indexed journals over 22 fields in America.In FY 2000, Johns Hopkins received $95.4 million in research grants from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), making it the leading recipient of NASA research and development funding. In FY 2002, Hopkins became the first university to cross the $1 billion threshold on either list, recording $1.14 billion in total research and $1.023 billion in federally sponsored research. In FY 2008, Johns Hopkins University performed $1.68 billion in science, medical and engineering research, making it the leading U.S. academic institution in total R&D spending for the 30th year in a row, according to a National Science Foundation (NSF) ranking. These totals include grants and expenditures of JHU's Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland.In 2013, the Bloomberg Distinguished Professorships program was established by a $250 million gift from Michael Bloomberg. This program enables the university to recruit fifty researchers from around the world to joint appointments throughout the nine divisions and research centers. Each professor must be a leader in interdisciplinary research and be active in undergraduate education. Directed by Vice Provost for Research Denis Wirtz, there are currently thirty two Bloomberg Distinguished Professors at the university, including three Nobel Laureates, eight fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, ten members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and thirteen members of the National Academies.Charles Village, the region of North Baltimore surrounding the university, has undergone several restoration projects, and the university has gradually bought the property around the school for additional student housing and dormitories. "The Charles Village Project", completed in 2008, brought new commercial spaces to the neighborhood. The project included Charles Commons, a new, modern residence hall that includes popular retail franchises. In 2015, the University began development of new commercial properties, including a modern upperclassmen apartment complex, restaurants and eateries, and a CVS retail store.Hopkins invested in improving campus life with an arts complex in 2001, the Mattin Center, and a three-story sports facility, the O'Connor Recreation Center. The large on-campus dining facilities at Homewood were renovated in the summer of 2006.Quality of life is enriched by the proximity of neighboring academic institutions, including Loyola College, Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), UMBC, Goucher College, and Towson University, as well as the nearby neighborhoods of Hampden, the Inner Harbor, Fells Point, and Mount Vernon.Greek life came to Hopkins in 1876 with the charter of fraternity Beta Theta Pi, which still exists on campus today. Since, Johns Hopkins has become home to nine sororities and 11 fraternities. Of the nine sororities, five belong to the National Panhellenic Conference and four to the Multicultural Greek Council Sororities. Of the fraternities, all 11 belong to the Inter-Fraternity Council. Over 1,000 students participate in Greek life, with 23% of women and 20% of men taking part. Greek life has expanded its reach at Hopkins in recent decades, as only 15% of the student body participated in 1989. Rush for all students occurs in the spring. Most fraternities keep houses in Charles Village while sororities do not.Johns Hopkins Greek life has been largely representative of its increasing diversity with the installment of Alpha Phi Alpha, a historically black fraternity, in 1991 and Lambda Phi Epsilon, an Asian-interest fraternity in 1994 among others.Spring Fair has been a Johns Hopkins tradition since 1972 and has since grown to be the largest student-run festival in the country. Popular among Hopkins students and Baltimore inhabitants alike, Spring Fair features carnival rides, vendors, food and a beer garden. Since its beginning, Spring Fair has decreased in size, both in regard to attendance and utilization of space. While one point, the Fair attracted upwards of 100,000 people, it became unruly and, for a variety of reasons including safety concerns and a campus beautification project in the early 2000s, had to be scaled back.While it has been speculated that Johns Hopkins has relatively few traditions for a school of its age and that many past traditions have been forgotten, a handful of myths and customs are ubiquitous knowledge among the community. One such long-standing myth surrounds the university seal that is embedded into the floor of the Gilman Hall foyer. The myth holds that any current student to step on the seal will never graduate. In reverence for this tradition, the seal has been fenced off from the rest of the room.An annual event is the "Lighting of the Quad", a ceremony each winter during which the campus is lit up in holiday lights. Recent years have included singing and fireworks.Living on campus is typically required for first- and second-year undergraduates. Freshman housing is centered around Freshman Quad, which consists of three residence hall complexes: The two Alumni Memorial Residences (AMR I and AMR II) plus Buildings A and B. The AMR dormitories are each divided into "houses", subunits named for figures from the university's early history. Freshmen are also housed in Wolman Hall and in certain wings of McCoy Hall, both located slightly outside the campus. Dorms at Hopkins are generally co-ed with same-gender rooms, though a new policy has allowed students to live in mixed-gender rooms since Fall 2014.Students determine where they will live during sophomore year through a housing lottery. Most juniors and seniors move into nearby apartments or row-houses. Non-freshmen in university housing occupy one of four buildings: McCoy Hall, the Bradford Apartments, the Homewood Apartments, and Charles Commons. All are located in Charles Village within a block from the Homewood campus. Forty-five percent of the student body lives off-campus while 55% lives on campus.Athletic teams are called Blue Jays. Even though sable and gold are used for academic robes, the university's athletic colors are Columbia blue (PMS 284) and black. Hopkins celebrates Homecoming in the spring to coincide with the height of the lacrosse season. The men's and women's lacrosse teams are in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I and are affiliate members of the Big Ten Conference. Other teams are in Division III and participate in the Centennial Conference. JHU is also home to the Lacrosse Museum and National Hall of Fame, maintained by US Lacrosse.The school's most prominent team is its men's lacrosse team. The team has won 44 national titles – nine Division I (2007, 2005, 1987, 1985, 1984, 1980, 1979, 1978, 1974), 29 United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA), and six Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (ILA) titles. Hopkins' primary national rivals are Princeton University, Syracuse University, and the University of Virginia; its primary intrastate rivals are Loyola University Maryland (competing in what is called the "Charles Street Massacre"), Towson University, the United States Naval Academy, and the University of Maryland. The rivalry with Maryland is the oldest. The schools have met 111 times since 1899, three times in playoff matches.On June 3, 2013, it was announced that the Blue Jays would join the Big Ten Conference for men's lacrosse when that league begins sponsoring the sport in the 2015 season (2014–15 school year).The women's team is a member of the Big Ten Conference and a former member of the American Lacrosse Conference (ALC). The Lady Blue Jays were ranked number 18 in the 2015 Inside Lacrosse Women's DI Media Poll. They ranked number 8 in the 2007 Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA) Poll Division I. The team finished the 2012 season with a 9–9 record and finished the 2013 season with a 10–7 record. They finished the 2014 season 15–5. On June 17, 2015, it was announced that the Blue Jays would join the Big Ten Conference for women's lacrosse in the 2017 season (2016–17 school year).Hopkins has notable Division III Athletic teams. JHU Men's Swimming won three consecutive NCAA Championships in 1977, 1978, and 1979. In 2009–2010, Hopkins won 8 Centennial Conference titles in Women's Cross Country, Women's Track & Field, Baseball, Men's and Women's Soccer, Football, and Men's and Women's Tennis. The Women's Cross Country team became the first women's team at Hopkins to achieve a #1 National ranking. In 2006–2007 teams won Centennial Conference titles in Baseball, Men's and Women's Soccer, Men's and Women's Tennis and Men's Basketball. Women's soccer won their Centennial Conference title for 7 consecutive years from 2005 to 2011. In the 2013–2014 school year, Hopkins earned 12 Centennial Conference titles, most notably from the cross country and track & field teams, which accounted for six.Hopkins has an acclaimed fencing team, which ranked in the top three Division III teams in the past few years and in both 2008 and 2007 defeated the University of North Carolina, a Division I team. In 2008, they defeated UNC and won the MACFA championship.The swimming team ranked highly in NCAA Division III for the last 10 years, most recently placing second at DIII Nationals in 2008. The water polo team was number one in Division III for several of the past years, playing a full schedule against Division I opponents. Hopkins also has a century-old rivalry with McDaniel College (formerly Western Maryland College), playing the Green Terrors 83 times in football since the first game in 1894. In 2009 the football team reached the quarterfinals of the NCAA Division III tournament, with three tournament appearances since 2005. In 2008, the baseball team ranked second, losing in the final game of the DIII College World Series to Trinity College.The Johns Hopkins squash team plays in the College Squash Association as a club team along with Division I and III varsity programs. In 2011–12 the squash team finished 30th in the ranking., there have been 39 Nobel Laureates who either attended the university as undergraduate or graduate students, or were faculty members. Woodrow Wilson, who received his PhD from Johns Hopkins in 1886, was Hopkins' first affiliated laureate, winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1919. Twenty-three laureates were faculty members, five earned PhDs, eight earned M.D.s, and Francis Peyton Rous and Martin Rodbell earned undergraduate degrees.As of October 2019, eighteen Johns Hopkins laureates have won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Four Nobel Prizes were shared by Johns Hopkins laureates: George Minot and George Whipple won the 1934 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Joseph Erlanger and Herbert Spencer Gasser won the 1944 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Daniel Nathans and Hamilton O. Smith won the 1978 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, and David H. Hubel and Torsten N. Wiesel won the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.Four Johns Hopkins laureates won Nobel Prizes in Physics, including Riccardo Giacconi in 2002 and Bloomberg Distinguished Professor Adam Riess in 2011. Bloomberg Distinguished Professor Peter Agre was awarded the 2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry (which he shared with Roderick MacKinnon) for his discovery of aquaporins. Bloomberg Distinguished Professor Carol Greider was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, along with Blackburn and Jack W. Szostak, for their discovery that telomeres are protected from progressive shortening by the enzyme telomerase.Bristol-Myers Squibb, Johns Hopkins University and the Rockefeller Foundation are currently the subject of a $1 billion lawsuit from Guatemala for "roles in a 1940s U.S. government experiment that infected hundreds of Guatemalans with syphilis. A previous suit against the United States government was dismissed in 2011 for the Guatemala syphilis experiments when a judge determined that the U.S. government could not be held liable for actions committed outside of the U.S.
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[
"Ira Remsen",
"Joseph Sweetman Ames",
"Ronald J. Daniels",
"Milton Stover Eisenhower",
"Daniel Nathans",
"Isaiah Bowman",
"Daniel Coit Gilman",
"William C. Richardson",
"Lowell Reed",
"Steven Muller",
"Lincoln Gordon",
"Detlev Bronk",
"William Ralph Brody"
] |
|
Who was the chair of Johns Hopkins University in 11-May-191711-May-1917?
|
May 11, 1917
|
{
"text": [
"Frank Johnson Goodnow"
]
}
|
L2_Q193727_P488_2
|
Lowell Reed is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Sep, 1953 to Jun, 1956.
Milton Stover Eisenhower is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Jul, 1956 to Jun, 1967.
Daniel Coit Gilman is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Feb, 1876 to Aug, 1901.
Frank Johnson Goodnow is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Oct, 1914 to Jun, 1929.
William Ralph Brody is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Aug, 1996 to Mar, 2008.
Lincoln Gordon is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Jul, 1967 to Mar, 1971.
Ronald J. Daniels is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Jan, 2009 to Dec, 2022.
Isaiah Bowman is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Jul, 1935 to Dec, 1948.
Ira Remsen is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Sep, 1901 to Jan, 1913.
Joseph Sweetman Ames is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Jul, 1929 to Jun, 1935.
Daniel Nathans is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Jun, 1995 to Aug, 1996.
Steven Muller is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Feb, 1972 to Jun, 1990.
William C. Richardson is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Jun, 1990 to Jun, 1995.
Detlev Bronk is the chair of Johns Hopkins University from Jan, 1949 to Aug, 1953.
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Johns Hopkins UniversityThe Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, the university was named for its first benefactor, the American entrepreneur and philanthropist Johns Hopkins. Johns Hopkins is considered the first research university in the United States. Hopkin's $7 million bequest to establish the university was the largest philanthropic gift in the history of the United States up to that time. Daniel Coit Gilman, who was inaugurated as on February 22, 1876, led the university to revolutionize higher education in the U.S. by integrating teaching and research. In 1900, Johns Hopkins became a founding member of the American Association of Universities. The university has since led all U.S. universities in annual research expenditures. Johns Hopkins is organized into 10 divisions on campuses in Maryland and Washington, D.C., with international centers in Italy and China. The two undergraduate divisions, the Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences and the Whiting School of Engineering, are located on the Homewood campus in Baltimore's Charles Village neighborhood. The medical school, nursing school, and Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Johns Hopkins Children’s Center are located on the Medical Institutions campus in East Baltimore. The university also consists of the Peabody Institute, Applied Physics Laboratory, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, School of Education, Carey Business School, and various other facilities. The university also has graduate campuses in Italy, China, and Washington, D.C.As of October 2019, 39 Nobel laureates and 1 Fields Medalist have been affiliated with Johns Hopkins' faculty and alumni. Founded in 1883, the Blue Jays men's lacrosse team has captured 44 national titles and plays in the Big Ten Conference as an affiliate member.On his death in 1873, Johns Hopkins, a Quaker entrepreneur and childless bachelor, bequeathed $7 million (approximately $ million today adjusted for consumer price inflation) to fund a hospital and university in Baltimore, Maryland. At the time, this donation, generated primarily from the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, was the largest philanthropic gift in the history of the United States, and endowment was then the largest in America. Until 2020, Hopkins was assumed to be a fervent abolitionist, until research done by the school into his United States Census records revealed he claimed to own at least five household slaves in the 1840 and 1850 decennial censuses.The first name of philanthropist Johns Hopkins comes from the surname of his great-grandmother, Margaret Johns, who married Gerard Hopkins. They named their son Johns Hopkins, who named his own son Samuel Hopkins. Samuel named one of his sons for his father, and that son became the university's benefactor. Milton Eisenhower, a former university president, once spoke at a convention in Pittsburgh where the master of ceremonies introduced him as "President of "John" Hopkins." Eisenhower retorted that he was "glad to be here in "Pitt"burgh."The original board opted for an entirely novel university model dedicated to the discovery of knowledge at an advanced level, extending that of contemporary Germany. Building on the Humboldtian model of higher education, the German education model of Wilhelm von Humboldt, it became dedicated to research. It was especially Heidelberg University and its long academic research history on which the new institution tried to model itself. Johns Hopkins thereby became the model of the modern research university in the United States. Its success eventually shifted higher education in the United States from a focus on teaching revealed and/or applied knowledge to the scientific discovery of new knowledge. The trustees worked alongside four notable university presidents – Charles W. Eliot of Harvard, Andrew D. White of Cornell, Noah Porter of Yale College and James B. Angell of Michigan. They each vouched for Daniel Coit Gilman to lead the new University and he became the university's first president. Gilman, a Yale-educated scholar, had been serving as president of the University of California, Berkeley prior to this appointment. In preparation for the university's founding, Gilman visited University of Freiburg and other German universities.Gilman launched what many at the time considered an audacious and unprecedented academic experiment to merge teaching and research. He dismissed the idea that the two were mutually exclusive: "The best teachers are usually those who are free, competent and willing to make original researches in the library and the laboratory," he stated. To implement his plan, Gilman recruited internationally known researchers including the mathematician James Joseph Sylvester; the biologist H. Newell Martin; the physicist Henry A. Rowland (the first president of the American Physical Society), the classical scholars Basil Gildersleeve and Charles D. Morris; the economist Richard T. Ely; and the chemist Ira Remsen, who became the second president of the university in 1901.Gilman focused on the expansion of graduate education and support of faculty research. The new university fused advanced scholarship with such professional schools as medicine and engineering. Hopkins became the national trendsetter in doctoral programs and the host for numerous scholarly journals and associations. The Johns Hopkins University Press, founded in 1878, is the oldest American university press in continuous operation.With the completion of Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1889 and the medical school in 1893, the university's research-focused mode of instruction soon began attracting world-renowned faculty members who would become major figures in the emerging field of academic medicine, including William Osler, William Halsted, Howard Kelly, and William Welch. Students came from all over the world to study at Johns Hopkins and returned to their sending country to serve their nation, including Dr Harry Chung (b. 1872) who served as a diplomat in the Manchu Dynasty and First Secretary to the United States. During this period Hopkins made more history by becoming the first medical school to admit women on an equal basis with men and to require a Bachelor's degree, based on the efforts of Mary E. Garrett, who had endowed the school at Gilman's request. The school of medicine was America's first coeducational, graduate-level medical school, and became a prototype for academic medicine that emphasized bedside learning, research projects, and laboratory training. In his will and in his instructions to the trustees of the university and the hospital, Hopkins requested that both institutions be built upon the vast grounds of his Baltimore estate, Clifton. When Gilman assumed the presidency, he decided that it would be best to use the university's endowment for recruiting faculty and students, deciding to, as it has been paraphrased, "build men, not buildings." In his will Hopkins stipulated that none of his endowment should be used for construction; only interest on the principal could be used for this purpose. Unfortunately, stocks in The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, which would have generated most of the interest, became virtually worthless soon after Hopkins's death. The university's first home was thus in Downtown Baltimore delaying plans to site the university in Clifton.In the early 20th century, the university outgrew its buildings and the trustees began to search for a new home. Developing Clifton for the university was too costly, and of the estate had to be sold to the city as public park. A solution was achieved by a team of prominent locals who acquired the estate in north Baltimore known as Homewood. On February 22, 1902, this land was formally transferred to the university. The flagship building, Gilman Hall, was completed in 1915. The School of Engineering relocated in Fall of 1914 and the School of Arts and Sciences followed in 1916. These decades saw the ceding of lands by the university for the public Wyman Park and Wyman Park Dell and the Baltimore Museum of Art, coalescing in the contemporary area of .Prior to becoming the main Johns Hopkins campus, the Homewood estate had initially been the gift of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, a Maryland planter and signer of the Declaration of Independence, to his son Charles Carroll Jr. The original structure, the 1801 Homewood House, still stands and serves as an on-campus museum. The brick and marble Federal style of Homewood House became the architectural inspiration for much of the university campus versus the Collegiate Gothic style of other historic American universities.In 1909, the university was among the first to start adult continuing education programs and in 1916 it founded the US' first school of public health.Since the 1910s, Johns Hopkins University has famously been a "fertile cradle" to Arthur Lovejoy's history of ideas.Since 1942, the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) has served as a major governmental defense contractor. In tandem with on-campus research, Johns Hopkins has every year since 1979 had the highest federal research funding of any American university.Professional schools of international affairs and music were established in 1950 and 1977, respectively, when the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in Washington D.C and the Peabody Institute in Baltimore were incorporated into the university.The early decades of the 21st century saw expansion across the university's institutions in both physical and population sizes. Notably, a planned 88-acre expansion to the medical campus began in 2013. Completed construction on the Homewood campus has included a new biomedical engineering building in the Johns Hopkins University Department of Biomedical Engineering, a new library, a new biology wing, an extensive renovation of the flagship Gilman Hall, and the reconstruction of the main university entrance.These years also brought about the rapid development of the university's professional schools of education and business. From 1999 until 2007, these disciplines had been joined together within the School of Professional Studies in Business and Education (SPSBE), itself a reshuffling of several earlier ventures. The 2007 split, combined with new funding and leadership initiatives, has led to the simultaneous emergence of the Johns Hopkins School of Education and the Carey Business School.On November 18, 2018, it was announced that Michael Bloomberg would make a donation to his alma mater of $1.8 billion, marking the largest private donation in modern history to an institution of higher education and bringing Bloomberg's total contribution to the school in excess of $3.3 billion. Bloomberg's $1.8 billion gift allows the school to practice need-blind admission and meet the full financial need of admitted students.In January 2019, the university announced an agreement to purchase the Newseum, located at 555 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, in the heart of Washington, D.C., with plans to locate all of its D.C.-based graduate programs there. In an interview with The Atlantic, the president of Johns Hopkins stated that “the purchase is an opportunity to position the university, literally, to better contribute its expertise to national- and international-policy discussions.”In late 2019, the university's Coronavirus Research Center began tracking worldwide cases of the COVID-19 pandemic by compiling data from hundreds of sources around the world. This led to the university becoming one of the most cited sources for data about the pandemic.Hopkins was a prominent abolitionist who supported Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War. After his death, reports said his conviction was a decisive factor in enrolling Hopkins' first African-American student, Kelly Miller, a graduate student in physics, astronomy and mathematics. As time passed, the university adopted a "separate but equal" stance more like other Baltimore institutions.The first black undergraduate entered the school in 1945 and graduate students followed in 1967. James Nabwangu, a British-trained Kenyan, was the first black graduate of the medical school. African-American instructor and laboratory supervisor Vivien Thomas was instrumental in developing and conducting the first successful blue baby operation in 1944. Despite such cases, racial diversity did not become commonplace at Johns Hopkins institutions until the 1960s and 1970s.Hopkins' most well-known battle for women's rights was the one led by daughters of trustees of the university; Mary E. Garrett, M. Carey Thomas, Mamie Gwinn, Elizabeth King, and Julia Rogers. They donated and raised the funds needed to open the medical school, and required Hopkins' officials to agree to their stipulation that women would be admitted. The nursing school opened in 1889 and accepted women and men as students. Other graduate schools were later opened to women by president Ira Remsen in 1907. Christine Ladd-Franklin was the first woman to earn a PhD at Hopkins, in mathematics in 1882. The trustees denied her the degree for decades and refused to change the policy about admitting women. In 1893, Florence Bascomb became the university's first female PhD. The decision to admit women at undergraduate level was not considered until the late 1960s and was eventually adopted in October 1969. As of 2009–2010, the undergraduate population was 47% female and 53% male. In 2020, the undergraduate population of Hopkins was 53% female.On September 5, 2013, cryptographer and Johns Hopkins university professor Matthew Green posted a blog entitled, "On the NSA", in which he contributed to the ongoing debate regarding the role of NIST and NSA in formulating U.S. cryptography standards. On September 9, 2013, Green received a take-down request for the "On the NSA" blog from interim Dean Andrew Douglas from the Johns Hopkins University Whiting School of Engineering. The request cited concerns that the blog had links to sensitive material. The blog linked to already published news articles from "The Guardian", "The New York Times" and ProPublica.org. Douglas subsequently issued a personal on-line apology to Green. The event raised concern over the future of academic freedom of speech within the cryptologic research community.The first campus was located on Howard Street. Eventually, they relocated to Homewood, in northern Baltimore, the estate of Charles Carroll, son of the oldest surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence. Carroll's Homewood House is considered one of the finest examples of Federal residential architecture. The estate then came to the Wyman family, which participated in making it the park-like main campus of the schools of arts and sciences and engineering at the start of the 20th century. Most of its architecture was modeled after the Federal style of Homewood House. Homewood House is preserved as a museum. Most undergraduate programs are on this campus.Collectively known as Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions (JHMI) campus, the East Baltimore facility occupies several city blocks spreading from the Johns Hopkins Hospital trademark dome.The Washington, D.C. campus is on Massachusetts Avenue, towards the Southeastern end of Embassy Row.In 2019, Hopkins announced its purchase of the Newseum building on Pennsylvania Avenue, three blocks from the United States Capitol to house its D.C. programs and centers. Akin to the Washington, D.C. campus for the School of Arts & Sciences, the APL also is the primary campus for master's degrees in a variety of STEM fields.The Johns Hopkins entity is structured as two corporations, the university and The Johns Hopkins Health System, formed in 1986. The President is JHU's chief executive officer, and the university is organized into nine academic divisions.JHU's bylaws specify a Board of Trustees of between 18 and 65 voting members. Trustees serve six-year terms subject to a two-term limit. The alumni select 12 trustees. Four recent alumni serve 4-year terms, one per year, typically from the graduating class. The bylaws prohibit students, faculty or administrative staff from serving on the Board, except the President as an ex-officio trustee. The Johns Hopkins Health System has a separate Board of Trustees, many of whom are doctors or health care executives.The full-time, four-year undergraduate program is "most selective" with low transfer-in and a high graduate co-existence. The cost of attendance per year is $60,820; however, the average need met is 99%. The university is one of fourteen founding members of the Association of American Universities (AAU); it is also a member of the Consortium on Financing Higher Education (COFHE) and the Universities Research Association (URA).JHU's undergraduate education is ranked 9th among U.S. "national universities" by "U.S. News & World Report" for 2021. For medical research "U.S. News & World Report" ranks the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in 2020 for 2nd in the U.S. and the Bloomberg School of Public Health 1st. The School of Nursing was ranked 1st nationally for master's degrees. The "QS Top Universities" ranked Johns Hopkins University No. 5 in the world for medicine. , Hopkins ranked No. 1 nationally in receipt of federal research funds, and was the top recipient of NIH research grants in 2019, both in terms of dollar amount and number of grants. In 2020, the Johns Hopkins Hospital was ranked the No. 3 hospital in the United States by the "U.S. News & World Report" annual ranking of American hospitals.The School of Education is ranked No. 2 nationally by "U.S. News & World Report" for 2017. In 2015, the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) ranked 2nd in the world in Foreign Policy's "Top Master's Programs for Policy Career in International Relations" ranking.The university's undergraduate programs are most selective: in 2021, the Office of Admissions accepted about 4.9% of its 33,236 Regular Decision applicants. In 2019, 98% of admitted students graduated in the top tenth of their high school class with a mean unweighted academic GPA of 3.92. The inter-quartile range on the SAT composite score was 1480–1550. In 2013, 96.8% of freshmen returned after the first year and 88% of students graduated in 4 years. Over time, applications to Johns Hopkins University have risen steadily. As a result, the selectivity of Johns Hopkins University has also increased. Early Decision is an option at Johns Hopkins University for students who wish to demonstrate that the university is their first choice. These students, if admitted, are required to enroll. This application is due November 2. Most students, however, apply Regular Decision, which is a traditional non-binding round. These applications are due January 1 and students are notified in late March. In 2014, Johns Hopkins ended legacy preference in admissions.The Johns Hopkins University Library system houses more than 3.6 million volumes and includes ten main divisions across the university's campuses. The largest segment of this system is the Sheridan Libraries, encompassing the Milton S. Eisenhower Library (the main library of the Homewood campus), the Brody Learning Commons, the Hutzler Reading Room ("The Hut") in Gilman Hall, the John Work Garrett Library at Evergreen House, and the George Peabody Library at the Peabody Institute campus.The main library, constructed in the 1960s, was named for Milton S. Eisenhower, former president of the university and brother of former U.S. president Dwight D. Eisenhower. The university's stacks had previously been housed in Gilman Hall and departmental libraries. Only two of the Eisenhower library's six stories are above ground, though the building was designed so that every level receives natural light. The design accords with campus lore that no structure can be taller than Gilman Hall, the flagship academic building. A four-story expansion to the library, known as the Brody Learning Commons, opened in August 2012. The expansion features an energy-efficient, state-of-the-art technology infrastructure and includes study spaces, seminar rooms, and a rare books collection.The Johns Hopkins University Press is the publishing division of the Johns Hopkins University. It was founded in 1878 and holds the distinction of being the oldest continuously running university press in the United States. To date the Press has published more than 6,000 titles and currently publishes 65 scholarly periodicals and over 200 new books each year. Since 1993, the Johns Hopkins University Press has run Project MUSE, an online collection of over 250 full-text, peer-reviewed journals in the humanities and social sciences. The Press also houses the Hopkins Fulfilment Services (HFS), which handles distribution for a number of university presses and publishers. Taken together, the three divisions of the Press—Books, Journals (including MUSE) and HFS—make it one of the largest of America's university presses.The Johns Hopkins University also offers the "Center for Talented Youth" program—a nonprofit organization dedicated to identifying and developing the talents of the most promising K-12 grade students worldwide. As part of the Johns Hopkins University, the "Center for Talented Youth" or CTY helps fulfill the university's mission of preparing students to make significant future contributions to the world. The Johns Hopkins Digital Media Center (DMC) is a multimedia lab space as well as an equipment, technology and knowledge resource for students interested in exploring creative uses of emerging media and use of technology.Johns Hopkins offers a number of degrees in various undergraduate majors leading to the BA and BS and various majors leading to the MA, MS and Ph.D. for graduate students. Because Hopkins offers both undergraduate and graduate areas of study, many disciplines have multiple degrees available. Biomedical engineering, perhaps one of Hopkins' best-known programs, offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees.The opportunity to participate in important research is one of the distinguishing characteristics of Hopkins' undergraduate education. About 80 percent of undergraduates perform independent research, often alongside top researchers. In fiscal year 2016, Johns Hopkins spent nearly $2.5 billion on research—more than any other U.S. university for the 38th consecutive year. Johns Hopkins has had seventy-seven members of the Institute of Medicine, forty-three Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigators, seventeen members of the National Academy of Engineering, and sixty-two members of the National Academy of Sciences. As of October 2019, 39 Nobel Prize winners have been affiliated with the university as alumni, faculty members or researchers, with the most recent winners being Gregg Semenza and William G. Kaelin.Between 1999 and 2009, Johns Hopkins was among the most cited institutions in the world. It attracted nearly 1,222,166 citations and produced 54,022 papers under its name, ranking No. 3 globally (after Harvard University and the Max Planck Society) in the number of "total" citations published in Thomson Reuters-indexed journals over 22 fields in America.In FY 2000, Johns Hopkins received $95.4 million in research grants from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), making it the leading recipient of NASA research and development funding. In FY 2002, Hopkins became the first university to cross the $1 billion threshold on either list, recording $1.14 billion in total research and $1.023 billion in federally sponsored research. In FY 2008, Johns Hopkins University performed $1.68 billion in science, medical and engineering research, making it the leading U.S. academic institution in total R&D spending for the 30th year in a row, according to a National Science Foundation (NSF) ranking. These totals include grants and expenditures of JHU's Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland.In 2013, the Bloomberg Distinguished Professorships program was established by a $250 million gift from Michael Bloomberg. This program enables the university to recruit fifty researchers from around the world to joint appointments throughout the nine divisions and research centers. Each professor must be a leader in interdisciplinary research and be active in undergraduate education. Directed by Vice Provost for Research Denis Wirtz, there are currently thirty two Bloomberg Distinguished Professors at the university, including three Nobel Laureates, eight fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, ten members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and thirteen members of the National Academies.Charles Village, the region of North Baltimore surrounding the university, has undergone several restoration projects, and the university has gradually bought the property around the school for additional student housing and dormitories. "The Charles Village Project", completed in 2008, brought new commercial spaces to the neighborhood. The project included Charles Commons, a new, modern residence hall that includes popular retail franchises. In 2015, the University began development of new commercial properties, including a modern upperclassmen apartment complex, restaurants and eateries, and a CVS retail store.Hopkins invested in improving campus life with an arts complex in 2001, the Mattin Center, and a three-story sports facility, the O'Connor Recreation Center. The large on-campus dining facilities at Homewood were renovated in the summer of 2006.Quality of life is enriched by the proximity of neighboring academic institutions, including Loyola College, Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), UMBC, Goucher College, and Towson University, as well as the nearby neighborhoods of Hampden, the Inner Harbor, Fells Point, and Mount Vernon.Greek life came to Hopkins in 1876 with the charter of fraternity Beta Theta Pi, which still exists on campus today. Since, Johns Hopkins has become home to nine sororities and 11 fraternities. Of the nine sororities, five belong to the National Panhellenic Conference and four to the Multicultural Greek Council Sororities. Of the fraternities, all 11 belong to the Inter-Fraternity Council. Over 1,000 students participate in Greek life, with 23% of women and 20% of men taking part. Greek life has expanded its reach at Hopkins in recent decades, as only 15% of the student body participated in 1989. Rush for all students occurs in the spring. Most fraternities keep houses in Charles Village while sororities do not.Johns Hopkins Greek life has been largely representative of its increasing diversity with the installment of Alpha Phi Alpha, a historically black fraternity, in 1991 and Lambda Phi Epsilon, an Asian-interest fraternity in 1994 among others.Spring Fair has been a Johns Hopkins tradition since 1972 and has since grown to be the largest student-run festival in the country. Popular among Hopkins students and Baltimore inhabitants alike, Spring Fair features carnival rides, vendors, food and a beer garden. Since its beginning, Spring Fair has decreased in size, both in regard to attendance and utilization of space. While one point, the Fair attracted upwards of 100,000 people, it became unruly and, for a variety of reasons including safety concerns and a campus beautification project in the early 2000s, had to be scaled back.While it has been speculated that Johns Hopkins has relatively few traditions for a school of its age and that many past traditions have been forgotten, a handful of myths and customs are ubiquitous knowledge among the community. One such long-standing myth surrounds the university seal that is embedded into the floor of the Gilman Hall foyer. The myth holds that any current student to step on the seal will never graduate. In reverence for this tradition, the seal has been fenced off from the rest of the room.An annual event is the "Lighting of the Quad", a ceremony each winter during which the campus is lit up in holiday lights. Recent years have included singing and fireworks.Living on campus is typically required for first- and second-year undergraduates. Freshman housing is centered around Freshman Quad, which consists of three residence hall complexes: The two Alumni Memorial Residences (AMR I and AMR II) plus Buildings A and B. The AMR dormitories are each divided into "houses", subunits named for figures from the university's early history. Freshmen are also housed in Wolman Hall and in certain wings of McCoy Hall, both located slightly outside the campus. Dorms at Hopkins are generally co-ed with same-gender rooms, though a new policy has allowed students to live in mixed-gender rooms since Fall 2014.Students determine where they will live during sophomore year through a housing lottery. Most juniors and seniors move into nearby apartments or row-houses. Non-freshmen in university housing occupy one of four buildings: McCoy Hall, the Bradford Apartments, the Homewood Apartments, and Charles Commons. All are located in Charles Village within a block from the Homewood campus. Forty-five percent of the student body lives off-campus while 55% lives on campus.Athletic teams are called Blue Jays. Even though sable and gold are used for academic robes, the university's athletic colors are Columbia blue (PMS 284) and black. Hopkins celebrates Homecoming in the spring to coincide with the height of the lacrosse season. The men's and women's lacrosse teams are in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I and are affiliate members of the Big Ten Conference. Other teams are in Division III and participate in the Centennial Conference. JHU is also home to the Lacrosse Museum and National Hall of Fame, maintained by US Lacrosse.The school's most prominent team is its men's lacrosse team. The team has won 44 national titles – nine Division I (2007, 2005, 1987, 1985, 1984, 1980, 1979, 1978, 1974), 29 United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA), and six Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (ILA) titles. Hopkins' primary national rivals are Princeton University, Syracuse University, and the University of Virginia; its primary intrastate rivals are Loyola University Maryland (competing in what is called the "Charles Street Massacre"), Towson University, the United States Naval Academy, and the University of Maryland. The rivalry with Maryland is the oldest. The schools have met 111 times since 1899, three times in playoff matches.On June 3, 2013, it was announced that the Blue Jays would join the Big Ten Conference for men's lacrosse when that league begins sponsoring the sport in the 2015 season (2014–15 school year).The women's team is a member of the Big Ten Conference and a former member of the American Lacrosse Conference (ALC). The Lady Blue Jays were ranked number 18 in the 2015 Inside Lacrosse Women's DI Media Poll. They ranked number 8 in the 2007 Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA) Poll Division I. The team finished the 2012 season with a 9–9 record and finished the 2013 season with a 10–7 record. They finished the 2014 season 15–5. On June 17, 2015, it was announced that the Blue Jays would join the Big Ten Conference for women's lacrosse in the 2017 season (2016–17 school year).Hopkins has notable Division III Athletic teams. JHU Men's Swimming won three consecutive NCAA Championships in 1977, 1978, and 1979. In 2009–2010, Hopkins won 8 Centennial Conference titles in Women's Cross Country, Women's Track & Field, Baseball, Men's and Women's Soccer, Football, and Men's and Women's Tennis. The Women's Cross Country team became the first women's team at Hopkins to achieve a #1 National ranking. In 2006–2007 teams won Centennial Conference titles in Baseball, Men's and Women's Soccer, Men's and Women's Tennis and Men's Basketball. Women's soccer won their Centennial Conference title for 7 consecutive years from 2005 to 2011. In the 2013–2014 school year, Hopkins earned 12 Centennial Conference titles, most notably from the cross country and track & field teams, which accounted for six.Hopkins has an acclaimed fencing team, which ranked in the top three Division III teams in the past few years and in both 2008 and 2007 defeated the University of North Carolina, a Division I team. In 2008, they defeated UNC and won the MACFA championship.The swimming team ranked highly in NCAA Division III for the last 10 years, most recently placing second at DIII Nationals in 2008. The water polo team was number one in Division III for several of the past years, playing a full schedule against Division I opponents. Hopkins also has a century-old rivalry with McDaniel College (formerly Western Maryland College), playing the Green Terrors 83 times in football since the first game in 1894. In 2009 the football team reached the quarterfinals of the NCAA Division III tournament, with three tournament appearances since 2005. In 2008, the baseball team ranked second, losing in the final game of the DIII College World Series to Trinity College.The Johns Hopkins squash team plays in the College Squash Association as a club team along with Division I and III varsity programs. In 2011–12 the squash team finished 30th in the ranking., there have been 39 Nobel Laureates who either attended the university as undergraduate or graduate students, or were faculty members. Woodrow Wilson, who received his PhD from Johns Hopkins in 1886, was Hopkins' first affiliated laureate, winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1919. Twenty-three laureates were faculty members, five earned PhDs, eight earned M.D.s, and Francis Peyton Rous and Martin Rodbell earned undergraduate degrees.As of October 2019, eighteen Johns Hopkins laureates have won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Four Nobel Prizes were shared by Johns Hopkins laureates: George Minot and George Whipple won the 1934 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Joseph Erlanger and Herbert Spencer Gasser won the 1944 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Daniel Nathans and Hamilton O. Smith won the 1978 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, and David H. Hubel and Torsten N. Wiesel won the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.Four Johns Hopkins laureates won Nobel Prizes in Physics, including Riccardo Giacconi in 2002 and Bloomberg Distinguished Professor Adam Riess in 2011. Bloomberg Distinguished Professor Peter Agre was awarded the 2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry (which he shared with Roderick MacKinnon) for his discovery of aquaporins. Bloomberg Distinguished Professor Carol Greider was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, along with Blackburn and Jack W. Szostak, for their discovery that telomeres are protected from progressive shortening by the enzyme telomerase.Bristol-Myers Squibb, Johns Hopkins University and the Rockefeller Foundation are currently the subject of a $1 billion lawsuit from Guatemala for "roles in a 1940s U.S. government experiment that infected hundreds of Guatemalans with syphilis. A previous suit against the United States government was dismissed in 2011 for the Guatemala syphilis experiments when a judge determined that the U.S. government could not be held liable for actions committed outside of the U.S.
|
[
"Ira Remsen",
"Joseph Sweetman Ames",
"Ronald J. Daniels",
"Milton Stover Eisenhower",
"Daniel Nathans",
"Isaiah Bowman",
"Daniel Coit Gilman",
"William C. Richardson",
"Lowell Reed",
"Steven Muller",
"Lincoln Gordon",
"Detlev Bronk",
"William Ralph Brody"
] |
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