Portal:Netherlands

Portal topics: Activities; Culture; Geography; Health; History; Mathematics; Nature; People; Philosophy; Religion; Society; Technology; Random portal

Welcome to the Netherlands Portal
Welkom bij het Nederlandportaal!

The Netherlands, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The Netherlands consists of twelve provinces; it borders Germany to the east and Belgium to the south, with a North Sea coastline to the north and west. It shares maritime borders with the United Kingdom, Germany, and Belgium. The official language is Dutch, with West Frisian as a secondary official language in the province of Friesland. Dutch, English, and Papiamento are official in the Caribbean territories.

The Netherlands has been a parliamentary constitutional monarchy with a unitary structure since 1848. The country has a tradition of pillarisation (separation of citizens into groups by religion and political beliefs) and a long record of social tolerance, having legalised prostitution and euthanasia, along with maintaining a liberal drug policy. The Netherlands allowed women's suffrage in 1919 and was the first country to legalise same-sex marriage in 2001. Its mixed-market advanced economy has the eleventh-highest per capita income globally. The Hague holds the seat of the States General, Cabinet, and Supreme Court. The Port of Rotterdam is the busiest in Europe. Schiphol is the busiest airport in the Netherlands, and the fourth busiest in Europe. Being a developed country, the Netherlands is a founding member of the European Union, eurozone, G10, NATO, OECD, and WTO, as well as a part of the Schengen Area and the trilateral Benelux Union. It hosts intergovernmental organisations and international courts, many of which are in The Hague. (Full article...)

Refresh with new selections below (purge)

Featured articles - load new batch

Featured articles are displayed here, which represent some of the best content on English Wikipedia.

Image 1

Windmill at Wijk bij Duurstede (c. 1670)

Jacob Isaackszoon van Ruisdael (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈjaːkɔp fɑn ˈrœyzdaːl] ; c. 1629 – 10 March 1682) was a Dutch painter, draughtsman, and etcher. He is generally considered the pre-eminent landscape painter of the Dutch Golden Age, a period of great wealth and cultural achievement when Dutch painting became highly popular.

Prolific and versatile, Ruisdael depicted a wide variety of landscape subjects. From 1646 he painted Dutch countryside scenes of remarkable quality for a young man. After a trip to Germany in 1650, his landscapes took on a more heroic character. In his late work, conducted when he lived and worked in Amsterdam, he added city panoramas and seascapes to his regular repertoire. In these, the sky often took up two-thirds of the canvas. In total he produced more than 150 Scandinavian views featuring waterfalls. (Full article...)
Image 2

Theatrical poster, Batavia

Terang Boelan ([təˈraŋ buˈlan]; Indonesian for "Full Moon", Terang Bulan in the Enhanced Spelling System) is a 1937 film from the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). Written by Saeroen, directed by Albert Balink, and starring Rd Mochtar, Roekiah and Eddie T. Effendi, Terang Boelan follows two lovers who elope after one is almost forced to marry an opium smuggler. The film was shot in the Indies and Singapore, and was partially inspired by the 1936 Hollywood film The Jungle Princess. It was aimed at native audiences and included keroncong music, which was popular at the time, and several actors from Balink's previous work Pareh (1936).
Terang Boelan was a commercial success in both the Indies and abroad, earning 200,000 Straits dollars in British Malaya. This success revived the faltering domestic film industry and inspired films aimed at Malay audiences in Malaya, creating a formula of songs, beautiful scenery and romance that was followed for decades afterwards. The Indonesian film historian Misbach Yusa Biran described it as a turning point in the history of Indonesian cinema for its catalytic effect on the industry's growth. Like many Indonesian films of the era, Terang Boelan has been lost since at least the 1970s. (Full article...)
Image 3
Jan van Eyck, The Arnolfini Portrait, 1434, National Gallery, London

Early Netherlandish painting is the body of work by artists active in the Burgundian and Habsburg Netherlands during the 15th- and 16th-century Northern Renaissance period, once known as the Flemish Primitives. It flourished especially in the cities of Bruges, Ghent, Mechelen, Leuven, Tournai and Brussels, all in present-day Belgium. The period begins approximately with Robert Campin and Jan van Eyck in the 1420s and lasts at least until the death of Gerard David in 1523, although many scholars extend it to the beginning of the Dutch Revolt in 1566 or 1568–Max J. Friedländer's acclaimed surveys run through Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Early Netherlandish painting coincides with the Early and High Italian Renaissance, but the early period (until about 1500) is seen as an independent artistic evolution, separate from the Renaissance humanism that characterised developments in Italy. Beginning in the 1490s, as increasing numbers of Netherlandish and other Northern painters traveled to Italy, Renaissance ideals and painting styles were incorporated into northern painting. As a result, Early Netherlandish painters are often categorised as belonging to both the Northern Renaissance and the Late or International Gothic.

The major Netherlandish painters include Campin, van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden, Dieric Bouts, Petrus Christus, Hans Memling, Hugo van der Goes and Hieronymus Bosch. These artists made significant advances in natural representation and illusionism, and their work typically features complex iconography. Their subjects are usually religious scenes or small portraits, with narrative painting or mythological subjects being relatively rare. Landscape is often richly described but relegated as a background detail before the early 16th century. The painted works are generally oil on panel, either as single works or more complex portable or fixed altarpieces in the form of diptychs, triptychs or polyptychs. The period is also noted for its sculpture, tapestries, illuminated manuscripts, stained glass and carved retables. (Full article...)
Image 4

Three of the proposed designs: Germania's is on top, followed by Blohm & Voss' and Vickers'.

A Dutch proposal to build new battleships was originally tendered in 1912, after years of concern over the expansion of the Imperial Japanese Navy and the withdrawal of allied British warships from the China Station. Only four coastal defense ships were planned, but naval experts and the Tweede Kamer (lower house of the parliament) believed that acquiring dreadnoughts would provide a stronger defense for the Nederlands-Indië (Netherlands East Indies, abbr. NEI), so a Royal Commission was formed in June 1912.

The Royal Commission reported in August 1913. It recommended that the Koninklijke Marine (Royal Netherlands Navy) acquire nine dreadnought-type battleships to protect the NEI from attack and help guarantee the country's neutrality in Europe. Five of these would be based in the colony, while the other four would operate out of the Netherlands. Seven foreign companies submitted designs for the contract; naval historians believe that a 26,850-long-ton (27,280 tonne) ship, whose design was submitted by the German firm Friedrich Krupp Germaniawerft, would have been eventually selected. (Full article...)
Image 5

Battle of Öland by Claus Møinichen

The Battle of Öland was a naval battle between an allied Danish-Dutch fleet and the Swedish navy in the Baltic Sea, off the east coast of Öland on 1 June 1676. The battle was a part of the Scanian War (1675–79) fought for supremacy over the southern Baltic. Sweden was in urgent need of reinforcements for its north German possessions; Denmark sought to ferry an army to Scania in southern Sweden to open a front on Swedish soil.

Just as the battle began, the Swedish flagship Kronan sank, taking with it almost the entire crew, including the Admiral of the Realm and commander of the Swedish navy, Lorentz Creutz. The allied force under the leadership of the Dutch admiral Cornelis Tromp took full advantage of the ensuing disorder on the Swedish side. The acting commander after Creutz's sudden demise, Admiral Claes Uggla, was surrounded and his flagship Svärdet battered in a drawn-out artillery duel, then set ablaze by a fire ship. Uggla drowned while escaping the burning ship, and with the loss of a second supreme commander, the rest of the Swedish fleet fled in disorder. (Full article...)
Image 6

Union Films was a film production company located in Batavia, Dutch East Indies (now Jakarta, Indonesia). Established by ethnic Chinese businessmen Ang Hock Liem and Tjoa Ma Tjoen in 1940, it produced seven black-and-white films before it was dissolved in 1942; all are thought to be lost. The company's films were directed by four men, mostly ethnic Chinese, and launched the careers of actors such as Rendra Karno and Djoewariah.

Established during the revival of the Indies film industry, Union released its first film, Kedok Ketawa, in July 1940. This was followed by a series of films penned by Saeroen which were increasingly oriented towards the Indies' growing intelligentsia and attempted to distance themselves from the theatrical conventions which were common in the contemporary film industry. This continued after Saeroen left for Star Film in 1941, with Union's final two productions emphasising realism. Following the Japanese occupation of the Indies in March 1942, Union was dissolved, though its films continued to be screened into the mid-1940s. (Full article...)
Image 7

Newspaper advertisement, Surabaya

Djaoeh Dimata (Indonesian: [dʒaˈuh diˈmata]; Perfected Spelling: Jauh di Mata; Indonesian for Out of Sight) is a 1948 film from what is now Indonesia written and directed by Andjar Asmara for the South Pacific Film Corporation (SPFC). Starring Ratna Asmara and Ali Joego, it follows a woman who moves to Jakarta to find work after her husband is blinded in an accident. SPFC's first production, Djaoeh Dimata took two to three months to film and cost almost 130,000 gulden.

The first domestically produced feature film to be released in five years, Djaoeh Dimata received favourable reviews, although financially it was outperformed by Roestam Sutan Palindih's Air Mata Mengalir di Tjitarum (released soon after). The film's cast remained active in the Indonesian film industry, some for another 30 years, and SPFC produced six more works before closing in 1949. A copy of the film is stored at Sinematek Indonesia. (Full article...)
Image 8

Roekiah, c. 1941

Roekiah (Perfected Spelling: Rukiah; 31 December 1917 – 2 September 1945), often credited as Miss Roekiah, was an Indonesian kroncong singer and actress. The daughter of two stage performers, she began her career at the age of seven; by 1932 she had become well known in Batavia, Dutch East Indies (now Jakarta, Indonesia), as a singer and stage actress. Around this time she met Kartolo, whom she married in 1934. The two acted in the 1937 hit film Terang Boelan, in which Roekiah and Rd Mochtar played young lovers.

After the film's commercial success, Roekiah, Kartolo, and most of the cast and crew of Terang Boelan were signed to Tan's Film, first appearing for the company in their 1938 production Fatima. They acted together in two more films before Mochtar left the company in 1940; through these films, Roekiah and Mochtar became the colony's first on-screen couple. Mochtar's replacement, Rd Djoemala, acted with Roekiah in four films, although these were less successful. After the Japanese invaded the Indies in 1942, Roekiah took only one more film role before her death; most of her time was used entertaining Japanese forces. (Full article...)
Image 9

One sheet

Tjioeng Wanara ([tʃiˈuŋ waˈnara]; Perfected Spelling: Ciung Wanara) is a 1941 film from the Dutch East Indies (modern-day Indonesia) directed and produced by Jo Eng Sek. Starring R Sukran, Elly Joenara and AB Djoenaedi, it featured more than 500 people in supporting roles. The film follows a young prince named Tjioeng Wanara who must reclaim his throne from the cruel King of Galuh; it is adapted from the Sundanese legend of the same name.

The second production by Star Film, Tjioeng Wanara was released 18 August 1941. It was advertised heavily, emphasising the fact that the scholar Poerbatjaraka had served as the historical adviser and that the film was based on Balai Pustaka's version of the legend. It premiered to commercial success, but received mixed reviews. This black-and-white production, which was screened until at least 1948, is now thought lost. (Full article...)
Image 10

Djajakusuma, c. 1950s

Djadoeg Djajakusuma ([dʒaˈdʊʔ dʒajakuˈsuma]; 1 August 1918 – 28 October 1987) was an Indonesian film director and promoter of traditional art forms. Born to a nobleman and his wife in Temanggung, Central Java, Djajakusuma became interested in the arts at a young age, choosing to pursue a career in theatre. During the Japanese occupation from 1943 to 1945 he was a translator and actor, and in the four-year national revolution which followed he worked for the military's educational division, several news agencies, and in drama.

In 1951, Djajakusuma joined the National Film Corporation (Perfini) at the invitation of Usmar Ismail. After making his directorial debut with Embun, Djajakusuma released a further eleven films with the company before leaving in 1964. He then returned to traditional Indonesian theatre, including wayang. Although he continued to direct movies independently of Perfini, most of his energies were dedicated to promoting traditional art forms and teaching cinematography. After over a decade of poor health and high blood pressure, Djajakusuma collapsed during a ceremony and died. He was buried in Karet Bivak Cemetery. (Full article...)

More featured articles

Featured lists

Featured lists have been determined by the Wikipedia community to be the best lists on English Wikipedia.

Image 1
The Battle of Camperdown, painted by Philip de Loutherbourg in 1799.

The Battle of Camperdown was an important naval action of the French Revolutionary Wars, fought off Camperduin on the North Holland coast on 11 October 1797 between a British fleet under Admiral Adam Duncan and a Dutch fleet under Vice-Admiral Jan de Winter. The French Republic had overrun the Dutch Republic two years earlier, reforming it into the Batavian Republic. In early 1797, the Batavian Navy was ordered to sail to Brest and unite with the French Atlantic Fleet in preparation for an invasion of Ireland. Shortly afterwards, the British fleets were paralysed by the Spithead and Nore mutinies, in which the sailors refused to take their ships to sea until they were awarded better pay and conditions. For two months^{[citation needed]}, the English Channel was undefended, but the Dutch failed to take the opportunity to sail from their harbour in the Texel: their preparations were not complete, and a small squadron of loyal British ships under Duncan convinced de Winter that the British fleet was at sea by sending nonsensical signals to fictitious ships over the horizon.

By October 1797, the plan to attack Ireland had been abandoned and the British North Sea Fleet was again at full strength. During a brief period replenishing supplies at Yarmouth, news reached Duncan on 10 October that the Dutch had sailed on a raiding cruise^{[citation needed]} and he returned to the Dutch coast, intercepting de Winter's fleet on its way back to the Texel. The Dutch formed a line of battle in shallow coastal waters to meet Duncan's attack, which was conducted in a confused mass, the British fleet separating into two groups that struck the vanguard and rear of the Dutch fleet, overwhelming each in turn and capturing eleven ships, including de Winter's flagship Vrijheid. On the return journey, three of the captured ships were lost, and none of the surviving Dutch prizes was ever suitable for active service again^{[citation needed]}. Both sides suffered heavy casualties during the battle as each fleet had been trained to aim at the hulls of their opponents, maximising the damage to personnel. (Full article...)
Image 2
The Wong brothers (one pictured) were the first ethnic Chinese directors in the Indies.

Twenty-nine people are recorded as having directed fictional films in the Dutch East Indies between 1926, when L. Heuveldorp released Loetoeng Kasaroeng, the colony's first domestically produced film, and 1949, when the Dutch formally recognised Indonesia's sovereignty after a four-year revolution, leaving the Dutch East Indies defunct. Thirteen directors active in the Indies continued to direct films after 1950, including Usmar Ismail: his 1950 film Darah dan Doa (The Long March) is generally considered the first truly Indonesian film.

The colony's first directors, L. Heuveldorp and George Krugers, were of European or mixed descent. They were followed by ethnic Chinese soon after, when Nelson Wong made his debut in 1928 with Lily van Java; other Chinese directors included Lie Tek Swie (1929), Wong's brothers Joshua and Othniel (1930), and The Teng Chun (1931). Ethnic Chinese directors dominated the colony's cinema for the remainder of its existence. The first native director, Bachtiar Effendi, made his debut in 1932 with the talkie Njai Dasima; another native director would not appear until Andjar Asmara and Rd Ariffien made their debuts in 1940. (Full article...)
Image 3
Since 1 January 2023, there have been 342 regular municipalities (Dutch: gemeenten [ɣəˈmeːntə(n)] ; sing. gemeente [ɣəˈmeːntə] ) and three special municipalities (Dutch: bijzondere gemeenten [biˈzɔndərə -]) in the Netherlands. The latter is the status of three of the six island territories that make up the Dutch Caribbean. Municipalities are the second-level administrative division, or public bodies (Dutch: openbare lichamen), in the Netherlands and are subdivisions of their respective provinces. Their duties are delegated to them by the central government and they are ruled by a municipal council that is elected every four years. Municipal mergers have reduced the total number of municipalities by two-thirds since the first official boundaries were created in the mid 19th century. Municipalities themselves are informally subdivided into districts and neighbourhoods for administrative and statistical purposes.

These municipalities come in a wide range of sizes, Westervoort is the smallest with a land area of 7.01 km2 (2.71 sq mi) and Súdwest-Fryslân the largest with a land area of 522.7 km2 (201.8 sq mi). Schiermonnikoog is both the least populated, with 972 people, and the least densely populated municipality at 23/km2 (60/sq mi). Amsterdam has the highest population with 931,298 residents as of January 2024, whereas The Hague is the most densely populated with a density of 6,868/km2 (17,790/sq mi). (Full article...)
Image 4
Film poster for Loetoeng Kasaroeng, the first locally produced film released in the Dutch East Indies

A total of 112 fictional films are known to have been produced in the Dutch East Indies (modern-day Indonesia) between 1926 and the colony's dissolution in 1949. The earliest motion pictures, imported from abroad, were shown in late 1900, and by the early 1920s imported serials and fictional films were being shown, often with localised names. Dutch companies were also producing documentary films about the Indies to be shown in the Netherlands. The first reports of fictional film production in the Indies date from 1923, although the work in question was not completed. The first locally produced film, Loetoeng Kasaroeng, was directed by L. Heuveldorp and released on 31 December 1926.

Between 1926 and 1933 numerous other local productions were released. Although Dutchmen like Heuveldorp and George Krugers continued to be active in the industry, the majority of filmmakers and producers were ethnic Chinese. The Tan brothers (Khoen Yauw and Khoen Hian) and The Teng Chun were major producers during this period, while the Wong brothers (Nelson, Othniel, and Joshua) were among the more prominent directors. During the mid-1930s, production dropped as a result of the Great Depression. The release of Albert Balink's commercially and critically successful Terang Boelan (Full Moon) in 1937 led to renewed interest in filmmaking, and 1941 saw thirty locally produced films. This rate of production declined after the Japanese occupation beginning in early 1942, closing all but one film studio; this resulted in several films which had begun production in 1941 being released several years later. The majority of films produced during the occupation were short propaganda pieces. Following the Proclamation of Indonesian Independence in 1945 and during the ensuing revolution several films were made, by both pro-Dutch and pro-Indonesian backers; the Dutch formally recognised Indonesia's sovereignty on 27 December 1949, leaving the Dutch East Indies defunct. (Full article...)
Image 5
The Amsterdam Tournament (Dutch: Amsterdam Toernooi) was a pre-season association football competition, held in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The competition was hosted by Eredivisie club Ajax at the Amsterdam Arena. It was inaugurated in 1975 as the Amsterdam 700 Tournament to celebrate 700 years of history in the city. It was held annually each summer until 1992, when the last edition of the original tournament was played. It returned in 1999 with the backing of the International Event Partnership (IEP). Four teams participate in the competition, played in a league format since 1986.

Since its return, the tournament has used an unusual point scoring system. As with most league competitions, three points are awarded for a win, one for a draw and zero for a loss. An additional point, however, is awarded for each goal scored. The system is designed to reward teams that adopt a more attacking style of play. Each entrant plays two matches, with the winner being the club that finishes at the top of the table. The original competition was held at Amsterdam's Olympic Stadium, where Ajax played its international games until 1996. The Amsterdam Arena, now named the Johan Cruyff Arena, has played host to the event since the return until 2009. (Full article...)
Image 6
Twenty-two people are recorded as having produced fictional films in the Dutch East Indies between 1926, when L. Heuveldorp released Loetoeng Kasaroeng, the colony's first domestically produced film, and 1949, when the Dutch formally recognised Indonesia's sovereignty after a four-year revolution, leaving the Dutch East Indies defunct. Altogether, they are credited for 93 of all known films produced in the Indies, and four of them remained active after independence. All were men; the first female film producer in Indonesia, Ratna Asmara, produced her first film in 1953.

The colony's first producer, Heuveldorp, was of European descent. He was followed in 1928 by the ethnic Chinese businessmen Tjan Tjoen Lian and Liem Goan Lian, who began work on Lily van Java but soon pulled out, to be replaced by David Wong. By 1930 Chinese producers had dominated the industry. The most active of these, The Teng Chun, made his debut in 1931 with Boenga Roos dari Tjikembang; he would go on to produce another 27 films before independence. No native Indonesian film producers are recorded from this period, although several productions were credited only to companies. (Full article...)
Image 7
This page is a list of films that received the Golden Film since its introduction in 2001 by the Netherlands Film Festival and the Netherlands Film Fund. In 2001 and 2002, films from the Netherlands received the award once they had sold 75,000 tickets. From 2003 to date, the Golden Film is awarded to films from the Netherlands once they have sold 100,000 tickets. This page shows, for both audience criteria, which films received the Golden Film and how soon they received it after their releases.

In the following tables, the 'year' column contains the years in which the films received the Golden Film, the '#' column contains the number of the Golden Film, the 'film title' column contains the titles of the receiving films, the 'film release' column contains the dates on which the films were first released in the cinemas, and the 'Golden Film' column contains the days when the Netherlands Film Festival and the Netherlands Film Fund announced that the receiving films reached the audience criterion of the Golden Film. (Full article...)

edit

Selected biography

Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, OM, RA (January 8, 1836, Dronrijp, the Netherlands.- June 25, 1912 Wiesbaden, Germany) was one of the most renowned painters of late nineteenth-century Britain. Born in Dronrijp, the Netherlands, and trained at the Academy of Antwerp, Belgium, he settled in England in 1870 and spent the rest of his life there. A classical-subject painter, he became famous for his depictions of the luxury and decadence of the Roman Empire, with languorous figures set in fabulous marbled interiors or against a backdrop of dazzling blue Mediterranean sea and sky. Universally admired during his lifetime for his superb draftsmanship and depictions of Classical antiquity, he fell into disrepute after his death and only in the last thirty years has his work been reevaluated for its importance within nineteenth-century English art.

More selections

Read more

Featured pictures - show another

Featured pictures are displayed here, which represent the finest images on English Wikipedia.

Image 1
Mary of Hungary
Painting: Jan Cornelisz Vermeyen
Mary of Hungary (1505–1558) was queen of Hungary and Bohemia as the wife of King Louis II. After their short, childless marriage ended with Louis' death, Mary's brother Ferdinand I came to power and made her regent – and later governor – of the Netherlands. She created unity between the provinces and was an enthusiastic patron of literature, music, and hunting.
More selected pictures
Image 2
Japanese government-issued currency in the Dutch East Indies
Banknotes: Empire of Japan. Reproduction: National Numismatic Collection, National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institution
The Japanese-issued Netherlands Indies gulden was the currency issued by the Japanese Empire when it occupied the Dutch East Indies during World War II. Following the Dutch capitulation in March 1942, the Japanese closed all banks, seized assets and currency, and assumed control of the economy in the territory. They began issuing military banknotes, as had previously been done in other occupied territories. These were printed in Japan, but retained the name of the pre-war currency and replaced the Dutch gulden at par. From 1943 the military banknotes were replaced by identical bank-issued notes printed within the territory, and the currency was renamed the roepiah from 1944. The currency was replaced by the Indonesian rupiah in 1946, one year after the Japanese surrender and the country's independence.

This note, denominated one gulden, is part of the 1942 series.

See other denominations: One cent · Five cents · Ten cents · Half gulden · One gulden, Five gulden, Ten gulden
More selected pictures
Image 3
Antonie Frederik Jan Floris Jacob van Omphal
Painting: Herman Antonie de Bloeme
Antonie Frederik Jan Floris Jacob van Omphal (1788–1863) was a Dutch lieutenant general and extraordinary aide-de-camp to William III of the Netherlands. He fought in Napoleon's Imperial Guard in the Battle of Leipzig and the invasion of Russia, then under the United Kingdom of the Netherlands in the Battle of Waterloo. He was awarded a knighthood in the Military Order of William, among other honors.
More selected pictures
Image 4
Raden Saleh
Painting: Friedrich Carl Albert Schreuel
Raden Saleh (1811–1880) was a Romantic painter of Arab-Javanese ethnicity from the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). Born in Semarang, in 1829 he was sent to the Netherlands to study portraiture and landscape painting under artists such as Cornelis Kruseman and Andreas Schelfhout. Upon returning to Java in 1851, Saleh focused predominantly on the day-to-day lives of the Javanese, although he also completed his magnum opus, The Arrest of Pangeran Diponegoro, in this period.

This painting, though long thought to be a self-portrait, is now attributed to Friedrich Carl Albert Schreuel, a German artist whom Saleh knew during his time in Europe.
More selected pictures
Image 5
Schutterij
De Magere Compagnie (completed 1637), which depicts a company of schutterij, a voluntary city guard or citizen militia in the medieval and early modern Netherlands. Frans Hals was commissioned to create this, but he was unable to complete it after three years, and the company hired Pieter Codde to finish it. Group portraits such as this of schutterij were known as schuttersstuk, and were popular among the guards themselves.
More selected pictures
Image 6
Clitocybe nebularis
Photograph credit: Dominicus Johannes Bergsma
Clitocybe nebularis, commonly known as the clouded agaric or the cloud funnel, is a common gilled fungus that grows both in conifer-dominated forests and broad-leaved woodland in Europe and North America. This C. nebularis mushroom was photographed growing among fallen beech leaves in Famberhorst nature reserve, the Netherlands.
More selected pictures
Image 7
Waterloo Campaign
Map credit: Gsl/I. Pankonin
A map of troop movements during the Waterloo Campaign, leading up to the Battle of Waterloo where Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated. Napoleon's Army of the North came up against a coalition army composed of forces from the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Prussia, Hanover, Nassau, and Brunswick. Beginning 15 June 1815, the combatants fought successively in the Battle of Quatre Bras, the Battle of Ligny, the Battle of Waterloo, and lastly the Battle of Wavre.
More selected pictures
Image 8
Herman Willem Daendels
Portrait: Raden Saleh
A posthumous portrait of Herman Willem Daendels (1762–1818), a Dutch politician. He was the 36th Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies, between 1808 and 1811, and was responsible for several infrastructure developments, including the Great Post Road. When the Netherlands was incorporated into France in 1810, Daendels returned to his homeland and became a major general in Napoleon's army. Daendels was later sent to govern the Dutch Gold Coast, dying there of malaria.
More selected pictures
Image 9
Netherlands Indies gulden
Banknote: De Bank Courant en Bank van Leening (image courtesy of the National Numismatic Collection, National Museum of American History)
A banknote for one Netherlands Indies gulden. This note was issued in 1815 as part of the first Dutch government-issued paper money in the Netherlands Indies. However, in 1818 the issuing bank—De Bank Courant en Bank van Leening—was dissolved due to a lack of capital, and six months later, this first series of notes was declared worthless.
More selected pictures
Image 10
Marken
Photo: Massimo Catarinella
A panoramic view of Grote Werf, a community in the municipality of Waterland, located on the Marken peninsula in the Netherlands. Marken is a tourist attraction, well-known for its characteristic wooden houses. The island is connected to the mainland by a causeway and was a separate municipality until 1991, when it was merged into Waterland.
More selected pictures
Image 11
The Threatened Swan
Painting: Jan Asselijn
The Threatened Swan is an oil painting made around 1650 by Dutch Golden Age painter Jan Asselijn. Depicting a life-size swan defending its nest, it has been interpreted as an allegory of grand pensionary Johan de Witt protecting the Netherlands from its enemies. The work is in the collection of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam in the Netherlands.
More selected pictures
Image 12
Card money
Card: Government of Dutch Guiana; image courtesy of the National Numismatic Collection
Card money, printed on plain cardboard or playing cards, was issued from the 17th to the 19th century to supplement the supply of money in several countries and colonies.

This playing card from Dutch Guiana (now Suriname), dated 1801, has a face value of one guilder. In that colony, card money was first issued in 1761, initially backed by bills of exchange from the Netherlands; but later it was released unsecured, and inflation was an issue for much of the currency's lifetime, with the value fluctuating wildly until it was replaced with paper money in 1826 and formally discontinued two years later.
More selected pictures
Image 13
Mark Rutte
Photo: Nick van Ormondt
Mark Rutte is (as of 2011) the incumbent Prime Minister of the Netherlands. He has been the leader of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) party since 2006. In the 2010 general election, the VVD won the highest number of votes cast, resulting in their occupying 31 of the 150 seats in the House of Representatives. When he was sworn in on 14 October 2010, he became the first liberal Prime Minister in the Netherlands in 92 years.
More selected pictures
Image 14
Louis-Marie Autissier
A self-portrait of Louis-Marie Autissier (1772–1830), a French-born Belgian portrait miniature painter. He is considered the founder of the Belgian school of miniature painting in the nineteenth century. Born at Vannes, in Brittany, he joined the French Revolutionary Army at Rennes in 1791. On leaving the army in 1795, Autissier went to Paris and trained his art by studying paintings at the Louvre. In 1796 he settled in Brussels, but continued to divide his time between Belgium, the Netherlands, and France. Although he enjoyed great success in his career, serving as court painter to Louis Napoleon, French King of the Netherlands, and later to Willem I, Autissier died penniless.
More selected pictures
Image 15
Japanese government-issued currency in the Dutch East Indies
Banknotes: Empire of Japan. Reproduction: National Numismatic Collection, National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institution
The Japanese-issued Netherlands Indies gulden was the currency issued by the Japanese Empire when it occupied the Dutch East Indies during World War II. Following the Dutch capitulation in March 1942, the Japanese closed all banks, seized assets and currency, and assumed control of the economy in the territory. They began issuing military banknotes, as had previously been done in other occupied territories. These were printed in Japan, but retained the name of the pre-war currency and replaced the Dutch gulden at par. From 1943 the military banknotes were replaced by identical bank-issued notes printed within the territory, and the currency was renamed the roepiah from 1944. The currency was replaced by the Indonesian rupiah in 1946, one year after the Japanese surrender and the country's independence.

This note, denominated one cent, is part of the 1942 series.

See other denominations: One cent · Five cents · Ten cents · Half gulden · One gulden, Five gulden, Ten gulden
More selected pictures

Did you know (auto-generated)

... that Bulkboeken ('bulk books') were cheap reprints of Dutch literary classics, published from 1971 to the late 1990s, and again from 2007?
... that Storm Poly caused hundreds to be stranded at Amsterdam's central station as it passed the Netherlands?
... that Bearded Man with a Beret by the Dutch artist Jan Lievens is an example of a tronie?
... that Leonie ter Braak made her film debut in The Marriage Escape, the film of Dutch origin with the most cinema ticket sales in 2020?
... that the letters on the platform walls of Wibautstraat metro station refer to the offices of Dutch newspapers that were located on the street above?
... that Dutch rabbi Meijer de Hond, who grew up in poverty, was known as the Volksrebbe ('people's rabbi') for his popularity among the Jewish poor of Amsterdam?