DUTCH PEOPLE : Encyclopedia Entry

The Dutch trace their heritage to the Franks, a Germanic people originating from what is now Northern Poland, who settled in the southern Low Countries around 400 and quickly became the dominant Germanic tribe of the Region. Later the Franks would conquer vast areas of Europe, and would (though indirectly) give France its name. The Franks formed the base of early Dutch culture. Not only did the Dutch language evolve directly from Old Frankish, the language of the Franks, but the Franks also introduced written laws to the Netherlands among which the Salic Law in which the oldest written piece of Dutch was found, dated around 470.

At the time of the Frankish empire the Netherlands were the core of the Frankish Empire and one of the few areas of the empire in which the Franks were an ethnic majority, as oppose to the regions now known as France and Germany where Gallo-Romans in the former and a large variety of subjected Germanic tribes (such as the Saxons and Bavarians) in the latter formed the majority.

When the Frankish empire was divided the area in which the Dutch people lived was included within the Holy Roman Empire. As over the years Imperial rule began to loosen, the Dutch fiefs gradually became more independent. From the 9th century till 1299 the Counts of Holland were most dominant, after that the Burgundian dukes rule the Netherlands and continue to strengthen the tied between the Dutch fiefs and in 1543 had formed a personal union; the Seventeen Provinces.

At a time of religious unrest, due to the rise of Protestantism the Dutch revolt started marking the emergence of an independent Dutch state in 1566. During the struggle for independence, the Eighty Years' War, the Dutch would emerge victoriously and entered their Golden Age in which the Netherlands became a superpower and a leading European culture.

The Dutch republic was overthrown by the Batavian revolution, a civil war with supporters of the Dutch stadholder on the one side and the supporters of the French revolution on the other side. The latter proved to be victorious and for a period of 20 years (1795–1815) the Netherlands were known as the Batavian Republic. Eventually, after the republic destroyed itself after various coups and internal conflicts, the stadholder returned and was later crowned as King of the United Netherlands.

In 1830 the Belgian revolution began, and despite Dutch efforts a new state was born; Belgium. In 1890 the personal union with Luxemburg ended and thus, Luxemburg also emerged as an independent nation. During the First World War the Dutch remained neutral avoiding conflict at all cost. During the Second World War the Dutch tried to do the same but were nevertheless invaded by Nazi Germany in 1940, 5 years of brutal occupation followed.

After the Second World War the Netherlands became one of NATO's first and most reliable members and also, together with Belgium and Luxemburg started what many consider the ultimate ancestor of the modern European union; the Benelux.

Culture

People

The Dutch society is egalitarian and modern. The people are modest, tolerant, independent, self-reliant, and entrepreneurial. They value education, hard work, ambition and ability. The Dutch have an aversion to the nonessential. Ostentatious behaviour is to be avoided. Accumulating money is fine, but spending money is considered something of a vice and highly associated with being a show-off. A high style is considered wasteful and suspect. The Dutch are very proud of their cultural heritage, rich history in art and music and involvement in international affairs.

The Dutch have a code of etiquette, the code that governs the expectations of social behaviour, and it is considered very important. Because of the international position of the Netherlands many books have written on the subject.

Contribution to humanity

Despite being relatively small in numbers, the Dutch have definitely made their mark on the world, as we know it today. Extremely few painters are so well known across the world as Van Gogh and Rembrandt. Great philosophers like Spinoza^[1], Erasmus of Rotterdam and Hugo Grotius as well as various poets and writers such as Pieter Hooft, Joost van den Vondel and Anne Frank^[2] also made their mark on how we today view the world. The Netherlands were arguably the first nation state of the world one of the first republic in modern Europe. During the early 17th century the economical reforms, empire and ideas made the Netherlands one of the worlds richest countries and the first thoroughly capitalistic country.

Language

Dutch is a West Germanic language spoken by around 22 million people, mainly in the Netherlands and Belgium. Dutch is an official language of the Netherlands, Belgium, Suriname, Aruba, and the Netherlands Antilles. The Dutch, Flemish and Surinamese governments coordinate their language activities in the Nederlandse Taalunie ('Dutch Language Union'). Dutch was an official language in South Africa up until 1961, having fallen into disuse since Afrikaans became an official language in 1925. Of the inhabitants of New Zealand, 0.7% say their home language is Dutch (see article on New Zealand). The number of people coming from the Netherlands, though, is considerably higher but from the second generation on most people changed their language in favour of English.

Standaardnederlands or Algemeen Nederlands ('Common Dutch', abbreviated to AN) is the standard language as taught in schools and used by authorities in the Netherlands, Flanders, Suriname, Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles. The Dutch Language Union defines what is AN and what is not, for example in terms of orthography.

Religion

During and after the Dutch revolt against Spain, Protestantism became the dominant religion, a notable exception being the modern provinces of Noord-Brabant and Limburg as they remained mostly Catholic.

During the late 19th and early 20th century these three religious groups were living somewhat separate from each other in their own communities; communities had their own schools, their own shops and their own media and political parties, among other things. This was called verzuiling.

This entire system of pillarisation started to collapse after the Second world war when the Dutch people were forced to work together to rebuild their country, which was almost completely destroyed and left without resources around mid 1945. In the early 1960s the system was gone and nowadays a large part of the Dutch population is atheist (some 40%) or is an inactive member of a church and/or religion. There is a small Jewish community, mostly confined to the larger cities, and Islam is growing, mostly in high-Muslim populations of larger cities such as Rotterdam, and wherever Turkish and Moroccan (the most common Muslim immigrants) communities have formed.

Symbols

Oranjegekte in the Netherlands

Despite the most popular "Dutch" symbols around the world being wooden shoes, tulips, cheese and windmills they are generally not thought of as the national symbols of the Netherlands but how foreign countries and cultures view the Netherlands and the Dutch people. The Dutch themselves generally consider themselves to have 2 national symbols, namely the Dutch flag and the colour orange. The red, white and blue flag is the oldest tricolour still in use today. The other national symbol, orange, is the colour of the Dutch royal family, the House of Orange-Nassau.

Sports

There are a number of sports which are most likely invented by the Dutch, which then spread worldwide, examples include Ice Hockey and Golf. Apart from these worldwide sports there are also a number of local Dutch sport such as polsstokverspringen, kaatsen, klootschieten, kolven and korfbal.

The most popular sports, both for active participation and audience are football, cycling, speed skating and tennis.

Identity

The Dutch people are historically affiliated to all Germanic peoples, such as the English, Germans, Danes, and Swedes. The feeling of affiliation is strongest among West Germanic people, the closest being the Flemish, Frisians and Afrikaners and to a lesser degree the English and Germans.

The Greater Netherlands, also called Dietsland.

The Dutch and the Flemish share the same language, the subdivisions of which have little to do with the state border established in 1648. Until 1830 is was common to see the Dutch and Flemings (who live in Northern Belgium) as one single people, and in fact some people still do. Due to historical causes, mostly rooted in the Dutch revolt the two groups slowly started to diverge, nevertheless affilation is still very strong with the same language and a very similar culture. Ever since the Belgian revolution (and the following discriminating laws against the Dutch speaking Belgians) there have been groups and people in the Netherlands, but especially Belgium, who have or are proposing a reunification, Vlaams Belang being one of the chief supporters to date. Such an event could happen, considering that a large portion of the Walloons, the second largest ethnic group in Belgium, also strive to a unification be it with another country: France.

The Frisian people, who speak their own language and today live mainly in Friesland (a province of the Netherlands), have had some influence on Dutch culture, especially in Holland proper.

In the early 16th century a clear cultural split developed between the Dutch regions and the western parts of Northern Germany, this was partially due to northern Germany adopting High German as the standard language and shifting economical goals with Northern Germany clamping on to the dieing hanseatic league and the Netherlands foccusing on the spice trade. Until the 19th century a perfect dialect continuum existed though. German people living in rural villages of Lower Saxony still have a strong cultural connection with Dutch people in the eastern Netherlands and visa versa.

Notes

^ Both Spinoza as Anne Frank are not entirely of Dutch herritage. Anne Frank did have some Dutch blood on her mothers side and Spinoza has none as his family were Portuguese Jews. Nevertheless they are generally considered part of the Dutch as they were raised with the Dutch language and culture. For example both were included in a contest to find the Greatest Dutchman (as can be seen here)
^ As above.

DUTCH PEOPLE

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