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This article is about the ethnic group known as the Dutch. For information on the population of the Netherlands, see Demographics of the Netherlands.
The Dutch people (Dutch: Nederlanders ) are an ethnic group forming the majority (80.9%) of the population in the Netherlands.(Dutch) 13,186,600, autochtone population at 1 January 2006, Central Statistics Bureau, Integratiekaart 2006, (external link) Historically the Dutch chiefly lived in the Low Countries and Northern France but since the 12th century have migrated all over the world.See the Dutch diaspora section.
The Dutch predominantly descend from various Germanic tribes,(Dutch) The first Dutch people (in Dutch language) (Dutch)Germanic heritage of the Dutch. and speak Dutch, one of the three most spoken Germanic languages today.English has 400 million and German 100 million native speakers, respectively. Dutch comes in 3rd with 22 million speakers. When Afrikaans is included, the Dutch language totalls 36 million speakers. Though primarily Germanic, the Dutch have some Celtic ancestry also.
[http://www.ibiblio.org/gaelic/Celts/celtshistory.html Celtic heritage of the Dutch.
The Dutch region has been permanently inhabited since Neolithic times. After Ceasar\'s conquest of Gaul the Roman Empire had its border at the Rhine river. North of the Rhine lived Germanic tribes of Frisians, Salic Franks and Saxons. The majority of Dutch descend from the Salic Franks, who originated from the east banks of the IJssel river and expanded their realm during the migration period southward, conquered Gaul under Clovis I and then created the Frankish Realm by uniting with the Ripuarian Franks in the Rhineland.(Dutch) The first Dutch people.
Charlemagne the Frankish king who became Emperor, originated from towns north of Liege, and spoke Low Franconian a language that transformed into Old Dutch and whose succeeding Dutch dialects were spoken up to the end of the 19th century from roughly the area just above Cologne, toward the coastal Flanders and Holland. The Franconian dialects from Cologne up on the Rhine and Main rivers, merged with surrounding languages to create Middle German and High German.
Charlemagne\'s grandsons split the Empire in three realms. The Dutch areas became the northern part of Middle Francia. Its Salic Law, that required equal split of heritage among (male) heirs, and the difficult to control terrains in the realms of Middle Francia, caused centuries of regular area splits and invasions and led to governance by a weak aristocracy.
The feudal weakness in the Middle Franconian regions turned into a strength in the Late Medieval period as it allowed the rise of powerful free cities, with strong negotiation power against and a rise of Republicanism. Initially in Northern-Italy Renaissance, then via West-Switzerland (Free city of Geneva), Burgundy, Lorraine, toward the Rhineland and Low Countries Flemish and Dutch Renaissance.
The Dukes of Burgundy shifted their court towards Brussels and around 1500 Flanders and Holland, then called the Seventeen Provinces became the first substantive area in the world with more than 50% urban population.
When the house of Habsburg inherited the Low Countries and later on moved the court to also inherited Madrid, a growing alienation arose between the Burghers in the cities in the Low Countries and king Philips II. The Flemish and Dutch then revolted against Europe\'s most powerful nation, Habsburg Spain, for political (a new imposed sales tax), religious, and cultural reasons, in what became a struggle for independence lasting eighty years (1568–1648). Due to easier military control the Southern Netherlands ended up under Spanish, control and experienced a huge outflow of merchants and craftsmen toward the northern cities, who then exploded in wealth.
The Dutch emerged victorious and established the first truly independent Dutch state in history: the Dutch Republic, which would soon manifest itself as one of Europe\'s Great Powers and have complete global naval dominance for nearly a century. Without a king with a treasury, the Dutch merchants needed to share the financial risks of their fleets. They invented the joint stock company, set up the central bank of Amsterdam and founded the first stock exchange. This made the Dutch Republic the first state with a capitalist economic system and turned Amsterdam into the world\'s financial capital from 1600 until roughly 1800.
After ultimately breaking a joint attack from England, France and the neighbouring German bishops of Cologne and Muenster in 1672, the then military leader of the Dutch Republic, William III of Orange, created an anti-French coalition and invaded England in 1688 to block a switch of King James II to Catholicism and the French side. This invasion, now called Glorious Revolution by the English was followed by financial and economic reforms in the United Kingdom in the Dutch Republic\'s mold and installed a parliamentary system. It however also lead to a gradual take-over of global naval dominance in the 18th century by the more populous English people.
The Economist has marked the Dutch purchase of Manhattan and the founding of New Amsterdam on the island as the smartest deal of the 2nd Millennium. Its later sale in exchange for Surinam definitively agreed upon in 1674 in the Treaty of Westminster was however considered as the stupidest deal. It however laid the basis for the strong Anglo-American orientation of the Dutch.
During the age of Imperialism the Dutch Empire controlled 3.7 million km2 (1.4 million sq mi) of the Earth\'s surface and had a total of 80,000,000 inhabitants in 1940.1940 population of the Dutch Empire 8,729,000 in the Netherlands (ethnic Dutch) 70,476,000 in the Dutch East Indies(link) (mostly Indonesians, but also ethnic Dutch and Dutch Indonesians) and another 500,000 (mostly of African descent) in the Dutch West Indies.
Today, Dutchmen and their descendants can be found all over the world, most notably in Europe, the Americas, Southern Africa and Oceania, ranging from (near) completely assimilated to isolated communities.
The strong ties with Anglo-Saxon nations since the 17th century, made the USA, Canada, Australia and New-Zealand favorite destinations for emigration for Dutch people after World War II. The many historical economic and military ties with Anglo-Saxons are still visible today and also causes confusion between Dutch and Flemish people. Despite speaking the same Dutch language they talk to eachother with a very different social frame of reference.
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The origins of the word Dutch go back to Proto-Germanic, the ancestor of all Germanic languages, *theudo (meaning "national/popular"); akin to Old Dutch dietsc, Old High German diutsch, Old English þeodisc and Gothic þiuda all meaning "(of) the common (Germanic) people". As the tribes among the Germanic peoples began to differentiate its meaning began to change. The Anglo-Saxons of England for example gradually stopped referring to themselves as þeodisc and instead started to use Englisc, after their tribe. On the continent the situation was different, and *theudo evolved into two main forms: Diets (Dutch meaning "Dutch (people)", alongside Nederlanders) and Deutsch (German, meaning "German (people)"). At first the English language used (the contemporary form of) Dutch to refer to any or all of the Germanic speakers on the European mainland. Gradually its meaning shifted to the closest Germanic people near them: the Dutch.www.etymonline.com and (Dutch) Etymologisch Woordenboek van het Nederlands entries "Dutch" and "Diets".
Nederlanders is the endonym the Dutch use to refer to themselves. Until the Second World War it was used alongside Diets, when the latter was dropped due to extensive use of the word by the German Nazi occupiers and Dutch fascists. The geographical term Nederland (and its plural Nederlanden) originated in the early Middle Ages and was used to denote the low-lying lands situated in the delta of the river Rhine and its tributaries.(Dutch) See J. Verdam, Middelnederlandsch handwoordenboek (The Hague 1932 (reprinted 1994)): "Nederlant, znw. o. I) Laag of aan zee gelegen land. 2) het land aan den Nederrijn; Nedersaksen, -duitschland."(Dutch) Source on the Low Countries. (De Nederlanden)(Dutch) neder- corresponds with the English nether-, which means "low" or "down". See Online etymological dictionary. Entry: Nether. In addition, Low Countries (Lage Landen in Dutch) is a commonly used name for the historical region of the Netherlands and Belgium taken together. Although not as old as Diets, the term Nederlands has been in continuous use since 1250.(Dutch) Etymologisch Woordenboek van het Nederlands entry "Diets".
In English, the gentilic or demonym of the Netherlands is Dutch, not Netherlander. As general adjectives, Netherlandic and Netherlandish (for example, as in Early Netherlandish art, where it actually refers to all of the Low Countries) are acceptable, but far surpassed by Dutch in both daily and official use.
An ethnic group or ethnicity is a population of human beings whose members identify with each other, usually on the basis of a presumed common genealogy or ancestry.Smith, 1987. The Ethnic Origins of Nations. Oxford: Blackwell. Ethnic groups are also often united by common cultural, behavioural, linguistic, ritualistic, or religious traits. The defining characteristics of the Dutch as an ethnic group (although no longer as obvious as before) are:
The term Dutch can reflect different definitions, which are listed below.
In this article only the latter 2 definition will be used, as this article only concerns the Dutch as an ethnic group and Dutch ethnicity.
When concerning Dutch citizenship the Netherlands employ a policy largely based on jus sanguinis ("right of blood"). In other words, citizenship is conferred primarily by birth to a Dutch parent, irrespective of place of birth.
For example, a child of a foreign father and a Dutch mother can automatically receive Dutch citizenship. A child with a Dutch father and a foreign mother can also automatically receive Dutch citizenship, with the added requirement that the father recognize the child as his own.
However, having a single Dutch parent does not make one an autochthonous inhabitant of the Netherlands, as two Dutch parents are required for that status. Nevertheless, having a single Dutch parent or (some) Dutch ancestry does make one (at least partly) ethnically Dutch, but this notion has no legal status in the Netherlands and will not grant easier acces to citizenship.
The Dutch are a relatively small ethnic group, making up about 0.4% of the world population,Percentage of ethnic Dutch, including those of Dutch ancestry, (≈25 million) when compared to the total world population (6.7 billion) = 0,37% and 1.9% of the European population.Percentage of ethnic Dutch, only those living in Europe, (13,5 million) when compared to the total European population (728 million) = 1,85% (2.8% of the European Union is ethnically Dutch).Percentage of ethnic Dutch, only those living in the European Union, (≈13,5 million) when compared to the total population of the European Union (493 million) = 2,73%
In the narrowest sense the total number of ethnic Dutch is about 14 to 15 million people. In this sense only people with full Dutch ancestry are counted. The number of people outside the Netherlands, mostly post 1950 emigrants and their children, with full Dutch ancestry is roughly 1,600,000 to 2,000,000.In the 1950s (the peak of traditional emigration) about 350,000 people left the Netherlands, mainly to Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United States and South Africa. About one-fifth returned. The maximum Dutch-born emigrant stock for the 1950s is about 300,000 (some have died since). The maximum emigrant stock (Dutch-born) for the period after 1960 is 1.6 million. Discounting pre-1950 emigrants (who would be about 85 or older), at most around 2 million people born in the Netherlands are now living outside the country. Combined with the 13,1 million autochtoon inhabitants there are about 15 million people who are Dutch, in a minimally accepted sense. Autochtone population at 1 January 2006, Central Statistics Bureau, Integratiekaart 2006\', ((Dutch) external link)
First-generation emigrants with Dutch nationality are officially treated as Dutch, resident overseas. The children of two Dutch-born emigrant parents are defined by Statistics Netherlands as "autochtoon". This means that the children of the Dutch immigrants to Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, who left the Netherlands after the Second World War (often while still in their twenties) are considered autochthone, even if they do not have Dutch nationality (they may qualify for it).
In a broader sense the number of Dutch people is much higher. This is when for example people with partial Dutch ancestry are included. This way the number of Dutch totals at around 25 million people.
The Dutch nation was defined in the middle of the 19th century, when the current state of the Netherlands emerged after the secession of Belgium, thus also the Dutch-speaking Belgians. This however, did not coincide with the Dutch ethnic group, which had long since emerged.
The Dutch republic for example was the first truly independent Dutch state, before its establishment there had been various personal unions between a number, and in the end all, Dutch fiefs/provinces.
The exact date when the Dutch emerged as a new ethnic group is, like with most other ethnic groups, difficult to determine.(Dutch) The first Dutch people (in Dutch language) The Franks arrived in the Northern and Central Low Countries around the 3rd and 4th century AD (after the retreat of Roman troops) and started the development of a people later known as the Dutch. The Dutch language was spoken and attested around 450 AD,(Dutch) The linguistic magazine Onze taal on the oldest and earliest Dutch. and emerged from Old Frankish. The first people to speak the language did speak Dutch, but they would most likely be classified as being Franks today.
The cultural and linguistic distance between the modern Germanic peoples is rather large. Although in the beginning the Germanic tribes were united by mutual intelligible dialects (and a more or less single mythology), today, of about 50 related Germanic languages, only Afrikaans (a Dutch semi-creol mainly spoken by the Afrikaners, partly the descendants of Dutch colonists) is mutually intelligible with Dutch.Linguistic difference between Dutch and AfrikaansThere exists intelligibility with other Germanic languages to some degree, but Afrikaans is the only language in which a native speaker of Dutch who does not have command of any other language may be able to have an advanced conversation with mutual intelligibility. For further information see this article/website
The Batavians were a relatively small Germanic tribe, allied to the Roman Empire and romanized, who between 69 and 70 AD rebelled against Rome. The rebels led by Gaius Julius Civilis managed to destroy four legions and inflict humiliating defeats on the Roman army. After their initial successes, a massive Roman army led by Quintus Petillius Cerialis eventually defeated them.
From the 16th century until the early 20th century, the Batavians were falsely regarded as the sole ancestors of the Dutch. Dutch intellectuals saw a parallel between the Dutch revolt against Spain and the Batavian revolt against the Roman Empire. As a result a number of things related to the Dutch are and were named after this tribe. Some examples include:
Modern historians view the Batavians as a minor contributor and historical sources indicate the Batavians most likely joined the much larger tribe of the Franks when they arrived in the Low Countries.
Before the large-scale political developments of 1384 (the establishment of the Burgundian Netherlands) and for some time afterwards, there was no sense of overlapping political unity among the Dutch, and Dutch soldiers from various regions often fought each other during this largely feudal period, and allegiance towards ones own county or even city was often more important to the Dutch than towards their people as a whole.Illustrated by the various wars between the Dutch fiefs. (for example the Guelderian Wars) This began to change as the Dutch entered a proces in which they were being gradually politically unified into a single country/political entity. Today, there is still very much a regional identity among the Dutch, though not nearly as strong as 700 years ago, which is primarily expressed in the continuation or restoration of local traditions and the speaking of a certain dialect of Dutch.
The Dutch descend from groups of people who settled in Europe during the Paleolithic and Neolithic eras. These people originated in what is now the Middle East and brought with them a distinct set of Y chromosomal and mitochondrial haplotypes as well as Indo-European languages, agriculture and pottery. Hence, the Dutch share a lot of their genetics with other European people; nevertheless, there are some mutations that arose among the Dutch.Scientific study of the Dutch genes. The percentages of hair colour for the Dutch population are 43% brown, 40% blond and 17% other (note that this includes non-western ethnic minorities, so the actual percentages of blond or brown hair for the Dutch ethnic group are likely to be higher)(Dutch)Source. It says the Dutch have 43% brown, and 40% blonde hair and thus 17% other). Generally the Dutch are described as being very tall, and they are indeed among the tallest people on earth, but this is a relatively recent development. It was only in the 1950s that the Dutch passed Americans, who stood tallest for most of the last 200 years. In fact, in 1848, one man out of four was rejected by the Dutch military because he was shorter than 5\' 2" (157 cm).Dutch, World\'s Tallest People, Just Keep Growing, last line.
Other West-Germanic peoples/tribes
Dutch
= Strong linguistic connections.
= Strong cultural connections.
† = Exinct/No longer used.
The relation between the Dutch and Flemings is a complicated one. The existence of Flemings as an ethnic group is itself debated, and the idea of a Flemish nation or ethnic group is itself fairly recent.(Dutch) \'Ons volk bestaat niet\' (Our people doesn\'t exist).
The Flemish once were, and sometimes still are, regarded as "Dutch". It is, however, inaccurate to view the Flemish as a Dutch offshoot. A more accurate view would be to consider the modern Dutch and Flemish as having been a single people which subsequently (due to all kinds of factors) split, with the Dutch \'keeping\' the groups name in the international sphere. When this exact split occurred is open to debate (as is, in some circles, the split itself). Some claim it began when the Dutch Republic signed the Treaty of Münster, thus creating essentially the first political division between the Dutch, while others say it wasn\'t until the start of the Flemish movement at the beginning of the 20th century.When the Flemish movement became most active, and hence (started to) create(d) a new sub-Belgian national identity. As a result of this the Flemish people are generally not regarded as identical nowadays, and most Dutch people see them as a separate ethnic group. At the same time however, the Dutch and Flemish see themselves as the most similar people,(Dutch) Perceptie van similariteit, page 21. and some institutions see "Fleming" as an alternative term for "Dutch".
The situation in Belgium itself was/is very vague. Until 1980, for example, the Flemish community was called the Nederlandse Cultuurgemeenschap (Dutch for "Dutch cultural community") and there are people who deny the existence of the Flemish as an ethnic group, and refer to them as Dutch-speaking Belgians instead.
In the current (2007) political stalemate in Belgium, between the Francophone and Dutch-speaking inhabitants (alongside other tensions) the question whether, if it should come to a dissolution of Belgium, Flanders should join the Netherlands has become a considerable issue.\'2/3 of the Dutch would like Flanders to join the Netherlands\'.
Walloons, the French-speaking Belgians, generally do not speak Dutch today, but in many cases (some) heritage can be linked to the (historical) Dutch. Many Walloon surnames for example are of Dutch originSurnames in Belgium and some of the most well-known Walloons, such as Jacques Brel, Goswin de Stassart and Paul Émile de Puydt were (often partly) of Dutch(-speaking) heritage. In Northern France Dutch has been the traditional language for over 1,400 years. As a result of this, as well as migration of other Dutch towards the south, over 1,250,000 French people (out of a population of roughly 60 million) have Dutch surnames.According to \'Nederlands. Het verhaal van een taal.\' (Dutch. The story of a language) by O. Vandeputte The position of these people is somewhat vague as they, although relatively close to the Dutch-culture area, are often frenchified if not entirely French. For example, in the now French city of Calais one can still find people singing traditional Dutch songs, even though the people who sing them have no idea what they mean.Voor wie Nederland en Vlaanderen wil leren kennen. By J. Wilmots
The Afrikaners are an ethnic group who live in South Africa and Namibia and who are mainly (though not exclusively) of Dutch descent, much in the same way as Dutch Americans, Dutch Australians or Dutch Canadians. There is however one major difference. The Dutch emigrants and, more importantly, their descendants in Canada, the U.S. and Australia, have adopted English as their first language, while Afrikaners did not and today speak a creolized version of Dutch. Their language, Afrikaans, is mutually intelligible with Dutch and it was hence easier to maintain cultural bands between the two, now separate, groups.
Until the early 20th century, at the time of the First and Second Boer Wars, there was a strong sense of unity, this has gradually faded. Most Afrikaners acknowledge that they descend from the Dutch, but they generally do not consider themselves to be ethnic Dutch, and they may not be considered "Dutch" in the Netherlands itself.According to Dutch nationality law, an Afrikaner (or South African in general for that matter) can become a Dutch citizen. However, whether he or she would be considered an allochtoon or autochtoon (the latter close to "ethnic Dutch" in English) would depend on the fact if their (grand)parents where born in the Netherlands. An Afrikaner with one Dutch-born parent would be considered an allochtoon, while two Dutch-born parents would make him or her an autochtoon.
Frisian may refer to an ethnic group, a regional or cultural identity, to inhabitants of the Province of Friesland, or to speakers of the West Frisian language.
Historically, Frisia was a county that was relatively uninvolved with Guelders, Utrecht, Holland, Zeeland and Flanders until the early Middle Ages. However, after a series of wars (often followed by revolts) between the Dutch fiefs and the Frisians they were eventually defeated. From the 1400s onwards Hollandic government and civil servants were installed and from then the fortunes of Friesland are intertwined with those of the present-day Netherlands.Frisian history. (English)
Though along with Dutch many Frisians speak the West Frisian language, which is not a Dutch dialect but a historically separate language and have (to some degree) a separate culture they are not treated as a separate group in Dutch official statistics. In this way Frisians are both Dutch and Frisians. It should be noted that the term Frisian in both Dutch and West Frisian is used virtually exclusively for the West Frisians. Frisians in the Netherlands generally do not feel or see themselves as part of a larger group of Frisians, namely the East and North Frisians of Germany and Denmark, but, according to a 1970 inquiry, identify themselves more with the Dutch than with speakers of the other Frisian languages.Frisia. \'Facts and fiction\' (1970), by D. Tamminga.
There has been some call for a "Greater Netherlands", combining the Dutch-speaking regions in Belgium with the Netherlands, since the late 19th century. This wish was voiced by Dutch, and especially Belgian, fascists during the 1930s, but the occupation of Belgium and the Netherlands by Nazi Germany brought only some tiny border changes. After the Second World War interest in enlarging the Netherlands dwindled.
The Belgian revolution, domination by a francophone elite, and structural disadvantage for Dutch-speaking Belgians led, at the end of the 19th century, to an oppositional "Flemish" (ie. Dutch-speaking Belgian) cultural movement, which soon politicised. It revived interest in the idea of reunification - at present in the form of unity between the Netherlands and Flanders, rather than a recreation of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. Support for the idea has varied: at present no political party represented in the Dutch parliament actively supports it. In Flanders, there are several parties who openly strive for independence (such as the N-VA, Vlaams Belang, VLOTT and Lijst Dedecker), but none of them actively support or reject an union with the Netherlands. Support for the break-up of Belgium is less strong in Wallonia, as Flanders is financially much stronger and independent, and there is no major political support there for unification with France. An obstacle to any break-up of Belgium is that both groups claim the capital Brussels, historically a Dutch-speaking city, currently near 80% francophone, although officially bilingual.
Emigrants from the Netherlands since the Second World War went mainly to the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, (until the 1970s) to South Africa, and Dutch immigrants can be found in most developed countries. In several former Dutch colonies and trading settlements, there are isolated ethnic groups of full or partial Dutch ancestry.
The Dutch have had a profound effect on the history of South East Asia, Taiwan and Japan; the Dutch settlement on Deshima provided for centuries the only means of cultural exchange between Japan and European civilization, and indeed most of the outside world. In many cases the Dutch were the first Europeans the natives would encounter. As a result there has been some considerable ethnic stereotyping. The Japanese described the Dutch as red-haired barbariansPrints were sold as souvenirs to Japanese who visited Nagasaki and hoped to catch a glimpse of these strange "red-haired barbarians".Red-haired barbarians, the Dutch in Japan (link). and in Malay, the language of the former Dutch East Indies, the name for the Long-nosed Monkey literally translates as "Dutchman", as in Eastern Asian eyes the noses of Europeans were exceedingly large.
After the Indonesian Revolution, most Dutch were either evacuated or evicted from Indonesia. Ever since the earliest days of the VOC several waves of mainly Dutch males decided to stay in the islands now known as Indonesia. Through the centuries there developed a relatively large Dutch-speaking population of mixed Dutch and Indonesian desccent, known as Indos or Dutch-Indonesians. Nowadays the majority of this group lives in the Netherlands.
I really accuse my fellow Dutch people of being too quiet and too polite here. We should have made waves, because other groups did and got something for it!Quote taken from The Undutchables by C. White and L. Boucke (5th edition, 2006, 1-888580-32-1), page 271.– A Dutch New Zealander.
Perhaps the most successful integration of Dutch people took place in Australia and New Zealand. After the second World War thousands of Dutch people emigrated to Australia, peaking in the late 1950s and early 1960s. There are 24 Dutch language programmes around Australia and weekly and monthly Dutch news papers plus many social, community and religious clubs. Despite these figures, in both Australia and New Zealand Dutch people are highly integrated. Apart from the typical Dutch surnames many descendants bear, they are largely indistinguishable from the largest ethnic groups, the Anglo-Celtic Australians (85%Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2003, "Population characteristics: Ancestry of Australia\'s population" (from Australian Social Trends, 2003). Retrieved 1 September 2006. ) in Australia and other New Zealand Europeans in New Zealand. One major exception exists though. and this concerns senior citizens of Dutch decent, many of whom (because of old age or dementia) have lost the ability to speak English and fall back on their mother tongue; Dutch. A major social problem as they largely lack a way to communicate. Their children generally do not speak Dutch natively or sufficiently.
The Dutch had settled in America long before the establishment of the United States of America.The U.S. declared its independence in 1776; the first Dutch settlement was built in 1614: Fort Nassau, where presently Albany, New York is positioned. For a long time the Dutch lived in Dutch colonies, owned and regulated by the Dutch Republic, which later became part of the Thirteen Colonies. Nevertheless, many Dutch communities remained virtually isolated towards the rest of America up until the American Civil War, in which the Dutch fought for the North and adopted many American ways.How the Dutch became Americans, American Civil War (1861-1865).
Most future waves of Dutch immigrants were quickly assimilated. There have been three American presidents of Dutch descent: Martin van Buren (8th, first president who was not of British descent, first language was Dutch), Franklin D. Roosevelt (32nd, elected to four terms in office, he served from 1933 to 1945, the only U.S. president to have served more than two terms) and Theodore Roosevelt (26th).
Many Dutch expatriated as well as Americans living in the Netherlands have often described parallels/differences between their respective peoples. According to the American K. A Carrol the Dutch/Netherlands can be compared to the Americans/United States as follows:List/Comparison taken from The Undutchables by C. White and L. Boucke (5th edition, 2006, 1-888580-32-1), page 278.
It\'s hard to get close to Canadians because they are reserved. They are always helpful in emergencies, but then they go back in their shell and want to be private. We Dutch are very open and always ready with comments, criticism and advice. We\'re not afraid to come out straight and ask, "How much money do you make?" The Canadians think we are rude for this.Quote taken from The Undutchables by C. White and L. Boucke (5th edition, 2006, 1-888580-32-1), page 276.– A Dutch Canadian.
According to the 2001 Canadian census 923,310 Canadians claim full or partial Dutch ancestry.
The first Dutch people to come to Canada were Dutch-Americans among the United Empire Loyalists. The largest wave was in the late 19th and early 20th century, when large numbers of Dutch helped settle the Canadian west. During this period significant numbers also settled in major cities like Toronto. While interrupted by the First World War this migration returned in the 1920s, but again halted during the Great Depression and Second World War. After the war a large number of Dutch immigrants moved to Canada, including a number of war brides of the Canadian soldiers who liberated the Netherlands.
Dutch Canadians, like Dutch Australians, have a reputation of being highly, if not perfectly, integrated ethnic groups. Nevertheless many Canadians of Dutch descent and recent Dutch expatriates still judge Canadian society by their own, Dutch, standards and morals. Generally they view other Canadians to be slow, laid back and passive, traits that the Dutch find to be irritating.The Undutchables by C. White and L. Boucke (5th edition, 2006, 1-888580-32-1), page 276.
They (Canadians) never seem to protest, but just accept most things.Quote taken from The Undutchables by C. White and L. Boucke (5th edition, 2006, 1-888580-32-1), page 276.– A Dutch expatriate.
Some examples of people of Dutch descent among other nations/peoples:
The history of the Dutch, as of most European peoples, is complex and intertwined through migrations and shifting empires. In this section, a short overview of these issues in relation to the approximate area of the current Netherlands is sketched.
In the Roman Empire, the imperial boundary ran east-west through the present Netherlands, along the Rhine. Within the empire, tribal groups included the Belgae (whose name was adopted in 1830 for the new Kingdom of Belgium), and the Batavi (whose name was adopted for the Dutch Batavian Republic). After the Fall of the Roman Empire, by the end of the Migration Period, the Low Countries were inhabited by Frisians, Saxons and the Franks, a Germanic people first recorded living in Pannonia. Of these three groups, the Franks were most dominant,Map of Frankish kingdoms, (image) and would in fact conquer large areas of Europe in the subsequent centuries. In 843, the Treaty of Verdun divided the (Frankish) Carolingian Empire into three kingdoms for the three sons of Louis the Pious. The Low Countries became part of Middle Francia under Emperor Lothair I.
In 962, the Holy Roman Empire was established with the coronation of Otto the Great, extending from the Low Countries to Italy. The Holy Roman empire was a largely decentralised state and its authority within the low countries was never very strong. Later, semi-independent fiefdoms formed in the Low Countries; the most powerful being Brabant, Flanders, Guelders, Holland and Luxembourg. The first steps towards political unification of the Low Countries took place under the dukes of Burgundy (until 1473). The Pragmatic Sanction of 1549, issued by Charles V, established the Low Countries as an independent entity, the Seventeen Provinces, with boundaries approximating to the present Benelux, as an entity separate from the Holy Roman Empire and France.
Although the Seventeen Provinces had become a political unity, there were still great regional differences. The eastern (e.g., Guelders and Liege) and southern provinces (Artois) were less densely populated and agrarian. These provinces were also partially oriented towards their (German or French) neighbours. A division between North and South was not foreseeable at the time. The primary contrast was between the rich urbanised coastal provinces (Flanders, Zealand and Holland), and the less developed peripheral domains.(Dutch) J. H. C. Blom et al. Geschiedenis van de Nederlanden (First edition), p. 107).
As the Reformation gained influence in Europe, Calvinism became very influential in the Seventeen Provinces, including Artesia and Flanders, the base of the Spanish governors. When Catholic Habsburg Spain turned to repressive policies, this added to general dissatisfaction in the Seventeen Provinces. In 1566, a wave of iconoclastic attacks on Catholic churches began what is now known as the Dutch Revolt. During the succeeding rebellion, the Spanish forces managed to re-establish their power in the southern provinces. In the north, the Dutch Republic emerged, defining for the first time an independent Dutch nation. The economic golden age, and spread of Calvinism, redefined the Dutchman across Europe as a Hollander rather than a Fleming, as had previously been the case.(Dutch) In J. H. C. Blom et al. Geschiedenis van de Nederlanden. (First edition. p 118).
As the Spanish forces reconquered the Southern cities (in present-day Belgium), of which the fall of Antwerp in 1585 was most notable, many Calvinists, including much of the local economic and cultural elites, fled north. The Southern Netherlands remained under Spanish rule, and remained almost entirely Catholic. In 1648, the Peace of Westphalia recognised the de facto geopolitical division of the former Seventeen provinces. The Dutch Republic prospered and created the trade-based Dutch Empire overseas, while the Southern Netherlands had lost their leading economic role in Europe. In the 18th century, the power of the Dutch republic started to diminish.
After a short lived existence as the Batavian Republic supported by French revolutionaries, and as the vassal state Kingdom of Holland, the Low Countries were for a short time (1810–1813), annexed by the French Empire. At this time, the English occupied the Dutch colonial possessions. Except for the Cape Colony (South Africa) and Ceylon (Sri Lanka), the colonial possessions were returned after Napoleon had been defeated. The lasting division between the Dutch and the Boers (who were Dutch settlers in South Africa) started here. When France was defeated in 1814 and again after the Hundred Days Campaign in 1815, the winning coalition, created the United Kingdom of the Netherlands comprising of the Northern and the Southern Netherlands at the Congress of Vienna. The new state, intended to act as a semi-buffer state between France and Prussia, proved to be unworkable; not only did it include different ethnic and linguistic groups (Walloons, Germans and Dutch), the state was also divided by cultural, religious, and internal economic differences. In 1830, the southern provinces declared their independence in the Belgian revolution. In 1839, the independence of Belgium was recognised by the northern Kingdom of the Netherlands. With the resolution of the status of Luxembourg in 1890, the three states acquired most of their present boundaries. The Netherlands are a constitutional monarchy.
Although comparatively small in numbers, the Dutch have definitely made their mark on the world, as we know it today. The Dutch Republic was an economic and military power during much of the 17th century, and involved in many conflicts of the time, such as the Anglo-Dutch Wars.The economy was carried by private enterprises, for the first time on that scale and the Dutch East India Company issued the first freely tradable stock, one of the cornerstones of modern economy.
Dutch colonialism still influences the lives of many today. Beginning in the 16th century, Europeans such as the Dutch began to establish trading posts and forts along the coasts of western and southern Africa. Eventually, a large number of Dutch, augmented by French Huguenots and Germans, settled in the Cape Colony. Their descendants in South Africa, the Afrikaners and the Coloureds, are the largest European-descended groups in Africa today, see Demographics of Africa. The Dutch also controlled what is now known as Indonesia, and waged various wars against its native inhabitants in a series conflicts raging from the early 16th to the late 20th century. The area surrounding New York was a Dutch colony and in fact many street names and geographical locations still bear Dutch (though Anglicised) names, see Legacy of the Dutch in New York for more information.
A significant number of painters and philosophers are Dutch, despite its small population. Remarkable persons include painters like Van Gogh, Rembrandt and Vermeer, and philosophers like Spinoza (though not of Dutch heritage), Both Spinoza and Anne Frank are of non-Dutch heritage. While Anne Frank was born a German national and was later stripped of this (she died stateless in a concentrationcamp), she did have some Dutch blood from her mothers lineage, Spinoza has none since he and his family were originally Iberian Jews. Nevertheless, they are considered Dutch in the sense that they were raised with Dutch language and culture (alongside their own Jewish heritage) who considered themselves to be Dutch, as well. (Geschiedenis van de Joden in Nederland by R. Fuksmansfeld) This respect goes both ways as is illustrated by Anne Frank\'s inclusion in a recent game show aiming to identify the Greatest Dutchman of all times
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