The Kingdom of the Netherlands was formed in 1815. In 1830 Belgium seceded and formed a separate kingdom. The Netherlands remained neutral in World War I, but suffered invasion and occupation by Germany in World War II. A modern, industrialized nation, the Netherlands is also a large exporter of agricultural products. The country was a founding member of NATO and the EC (now the EU), and participated in the introduction of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) in 1999. Terrain is mostly coastal lowland and reclaimed land (polders); some hills in southeast . Here is close-up picture of Europe, Across the United Kingdom, across the North sea you see the Netherlands.

Our capitol is Amsterdam. Some famous "Dutch" peaple are: Sportsman: Arie Luyenduyk and John Cruiff and Marco Van Basten, The Amsterdam soccer team Ajax, worldchampignon speed Ice-skate Gianni Romme and Rientje Ritsma and Ex-worldchampignon Darts Raymond van Barneveld. Movie stars: Rutger Hauer, Jeroen Krabé (James Bond), Famke Jansen (X-man) and the Movie producers: Jan de Bond (Speed) and Paul Verhoeven (Basic Instinct), the Musicians: Ilse deLange (country music) and Candy Dulfer (Prince's lyric; If I want Sax I call Candy...) the two brothers Eddie and Alex Van Halen (rockband), Adrian Vandeberg (Whitesnake) and band "The Golden Earing" (rader love). Some famous Enterprises are Philips (the inventors of the CD player +  CD recorder!), Heineken & Grolsch (beer), Ahold (supermarkets), DAF (trucks).