Netherlands (Imperial Machines)

The Netherlands (Dutch: Nederland) is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, consisting of twelve provinces in North-West Europe. The European part of the Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, France to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders with France, Germany and the United Kingdom. It is a parliamentary democracy organised as a unitary state. The capital is Amsterdam and the seat of government is The Hague. The Netherlands in its entirety is often referred to as "Holland", although North and South Holland are actually only two of its provinces.

The Netherlands is a geographically low-lying country, with about 20% of its area and 21% of its population located below sea level, and 50% of its land lying less than one metre above sea level. This distinct feature contributes to the country's name: in Dutch (Nederland), English, and in many other European languages, its name literally means "(The) Low Countries " or "Low Country". Most of the areas below sea level are man-made, caused by centuries of extensive and poorly controlled peat extraction, lowering the surface by several metres. Even in flooded areas peat extraction continued through turf dredging. From the late 16th century land reclamation started and large polder areas are now preserved through elaborate drainage systems with dikes, canals and pumping stations. Much of the Netherlands is formed by the estuary of three important European rivers, which together with their distributaries form the Rhine-Meuse-Scheldt delta. Most of the country is very flat, with the exception of foothills in the far south-east and several low hill ranges in the central parts.

The Netherlands was one of the first countries to have an elected parliament and was constitutional empire, ruled by Emperor William IV and is part of the  European Empire. The Netherlands had the tenth-highest per capita income in the world in 2011. In May 2011, the Netherlands was ranked as the "happiest" country according to results published by the OECD.