Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Kingdom of the Netherlands

Episode Date: July 17, 2021

When I mention the Kingdom of the Netherlands, you are probably thinking of the country in Europe that is really flat, where they ride bikes, have windmills, and grow tulips. Well, that is only partially correct. Well, technically 98% correct. There are other parts of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and they are actually located closer to Miami than they are to Amsterdam. Learn more about the Kingdom of the Netherlands on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If I say the Kingdom of the Netherlands, you're probably thinking to the country in Europe that's really flat where they ride bikes and have windmills and tulips. Well, that's only partially correct. Technically, 98% correct. There are actually other parts of the Kingdom of Netherlands, and they're located closer to Miami than they are to Amsterdam. Learn more about the Kingdom of the Netherlands on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? ThruLine is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed. It effectively turned day into night.

And how it shaped the world now. Time travel with us every week on the Thuline podcast from NPR. This episode is sponsored by Masterclass. If you've ever wanted to learn something new, wouldn't you want to learn it from the very best people in their field? Masterclass is exactly that. online courses where you can learn from the very top people in the world. You can learn how to play chess from Gary Kasparov or how to play poker from Phil Ivy,

gymnastics from Simone Biles, design and architecture from Frank Gary, acting from Helen Mirren, and filmmaking from Martin Scorsese. You can start learning from the world's best for only $15 a month. Just go to everything-dash everywhere.com slash masterclass or click on the link in the show notes. I'll start by noting that I was very specific in my word usage in the introduction to this episode. I spoke about the Kingdom of the Netherlands and not simply the Netherlands. That's because the Kingdom of the Netherlands is a distinct entity from the country of the Netherlands. To be sure, there is a great deal of overlap between the two, but they are not technically the same thing.

The Kingdom of the Netherlands is analogous to the United Kingdom, insofar as the kingdom is made up of four different countries. To explain how this came about, I first have to give a whirlwind history of the kingdom of the Netherlands. The Netherlands was actually a republic before it was a kingdom. It gained its independence from Spain in 1649 and declared itself a republic. And this was the high period for the Dutch trading empire. This was led by the Dutch East India Company, which established small trading colonies all over the world. This included trading posts in what is today India, Japan, Taiwan, South Africa, Malaysia, and Vietnam. There was also a Dutch West India Company that operated.

in the Americas. The Netherlands was conquered by Napoleon, and he established the Netherlands as a kingdom with his brother Louis Bonaparte as its king. In 1815, after Napoleon fell, William, the Prince of Orange, proclaimed himself king, because you can do that, and the modern kingdom of the Netherlands was born. The Dutch certainly weren't the biggest colonial power in Europe, but they were a colonial power. In 1799, the Dutch East India Company was dissolved, and the colony of the Dutch East Indies was established. By the time of World War II, the Dutch Empire consisted of the Netherlands, the Dutch East Indies, Netherlands New Guinea, Suriname, and several assorted islands in the Caribbean.

The Dutch East Indies became independent in 1949 and is known today as Indonesia. That's a story for another episode, but I will share this fun fact. The Indonesian flag can be thought of as the flag of the Netherlands, with the blue stripe at the bottom ripped off. When the Indonesians were fighting for independence, they would often take down the Dutch flag, tear off the blue stripe, and then raise the remaining red and white stripes, which is their flag today. Indonesia also took control over Dutch New Guinea, and today it's the provinces of Papua and West Papua. Surinam went from being a colony to a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1954 and became a fully independent republic in 1975 and left the kingdom. The remaining Dutch territories were a collection of five and a half islands in the Caribbean. Prior to 1954, these islands were called the colony of Curacao and Dependencies.

In 1954, its name was changed to the Netherlands and Tilly's, and it was a full constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The Netherlands and Tilles consisted of the islands of Aruba, Curacao, Bonnere, Sabah, St. Eustaceous, and half of the island of St. Martin. Around 1980, the Kingdom of the Netherlands had just... two countries, the Netherlands and the Netherlands and Tilly. However, these islands didn't necessarily have much in common other than being in the Caribbean and having been colonized by the Dutch. This started to come to a head in 1986, when Aruba left the Netherlands and

Tilly and became a constituent country in the kingdom of the Netherlands, bringing the number of countries to three. The Netherlands and Tilles wasn't a happy marriage. Some of the islands were very far apart from each other, and they had very different concerns. The Dutch addressed this issue in the 1990s by holding a series of referendums on each island. Each island was given four options. One, become closer to the Netherlands. Two, continue the status quo with the Netherlands and Tilly. Three, autonomy as a constituent country of the kingdom. And four, complete independence. The results were kind of all over the place. St. Martin and Curacao, the two largest islands, voted to become constituent countries. As for the smaller islands, Saba and Bonnare

voted for closer ties to the Netherlands, and St. Eustaceous voted for the status quo. After lengthy negotiations in the 2000s, the Netherlands and Tilly's was dissolved in 2010. Curacao and St. Martin became constituent countries alongside Aruba and the Netherlands. So, yeah, the islands of Saba, Bonner, and St. Eustaceous are as much a part of the country of the Netherlands, that flat place in Europe, as Hawaii is a part of the United States. If you aren't familiar with the islands, they're geographically in two groups. Aruba, Bonerre, and Curacao are known as the ABC Islands. All three are located right off the coast of Venezuela. Curacao is the largest of the Dutch islands in the Caribbean in both area and

population. It has about 163,000 people on the island. Aruba is the second largest in both area and population, and it is a population of about 116,000. Bonerre only has about 20,000 people. All three of the islands are rather arid. Succulents, such as Aliva, are grown on all the island. Islands and are its biggest cash crop. The primary language spoken by most people in the ABC Islands is Papamento. Papamento is a Creole language that was derived from Portuguese and Spanish, but it also has elements of French, Dutch, and English. This is what most people speak at home and in everyday life. Most people in the ABC Islands, however, will also speak Dutch in English. Dutch is the administrative language, and English is taught in schools at a very early age, as their islands are highly dependent on

tourism from the United States. About a third of the population will also know Spanish, given their close proximity to South America. I've actually been to all of the ABC Islands, and there are some of the most multilingual places on Earth. The other three islands are about five to six hundred miles to the northeast of the ABC Islands. They are in the leeward islands in the northern part of the lesser Antilles. Poppimento usually isn't spoken on these islands. The primary language is English, and most people also know some Dutch and maybe some French. The main island is St. Martin. It makes up the southern half of the island of St. Martin, with the northern part being controlled by France. The legend holds that the border between France

and the Netherlands on the island was determined by two people walking from opposite points on the island and where they met the border was made. Saba and St. Eustaceous are two islands that most people aren't as familiar with. They aren't very big, they have small populations, and they don't get many visitors. Both are located very close to St. Martin. In fact, on a clear day, you can see the islands from each other. Sabah is a volcanic island with a population of about 1,900 people. It's known for its creative names. The island has one main road, which is known as the road. The capital is at the bottom of a volcanic caldera, and it's called The Bottom. There's also a settlement on the windward side of the island called Windward Side. Saba is also the answer to the

great trivia question. What point in the Netherlands has the highest elevation? And the answer is Mount Scenery, the highest point on Saba. It also has the shortest commercial airport runway in the world, and the flight from Saba to St. Martin is only 12 minutes. Pilots have to be specially trained to fly there. St. Eustaceous has a great deal of history. It used to be the richest country in the Caribbean back in the 18th century. It was the first place in the world to recognize an independent United States, and it was a huge supplier of arms during the Revolutionary War. You can still see the ruins of some of the trading warehouses on the beach, and the ruins of Fort Orangestad can still be visited. All the places I've just mentioned in the Caribbean only make up about 2% of the total land area and population of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

For all practical purposes, most of the administrative, defense, and other diplomatic functions of the kingdom are performed by the country of the Netherlands. It's the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which is a member of the United Nations and other international organizations, save for the fact that Aruba has its own Olympic team. So, the next time you think about the Netherlands, remember that it isn't just canals and windmills. It's also beaches and volcanoes as well. The associate producer of Everything Everywhere daily is Thor Thompson. If you'd like to support the show, please donate over at patreon.com. There is content only available to supporters, merchandise, and even opportunities for a show producer credit. If you know someone you think would enjoy the show, please share it with them.

Also remember, if you leave a five-stop review, I'll read your review on the show.