Zeeland

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Provincie Zeeland Province of Zeeland
Image:Zeelandflag.JPG Image:WapenZeeland.gif Flag Coat of arms
Image:Zeeland position.svg
Capital	Middelburg
Queen's Commissioner	Karla Peijs
Religion (1999)	Protestant 35% Catholic 23%
Area  • Land  • Water	1,788 km² (10th) 1,146 km²
Population (2006)  • Total  • Density	380,186 (11th) 213/km² (10th)
Anthem	Zeeuws volkslied
ISO	NL-ZE
Official website	www.zeeland.nl

Zeeland (pronunciation (help·info)), also called Zealand in English, is a province of the Netherlands. The province, located in the south-west of the country, consists of a number of islands (hence its name, meaning "sea-land") and a strip bordering Belgium. Its capital is Middelburg. Its population is about 380,000 and its area is about 2930 km², of which almost 1140 km² is water. Large parts of Zeeland are below sea level. The last great flooding of the area was in 1953. Tourism is an important economic activity. Its sunny beaches make it a popular holiday destination in the summer. Most tourists are Germans. In some areas, the population quadruples in the summer. The coat of arms of Zeeland shows a lion half-emerged from water, and the text "luctor et emergo" (Latin for "I struggle and I emerge").

Contents 1 Constituent parts 1.1 Municipalities 2 Geography 3 History 4 Transportation 5 Zeeland in foreign names 5.1 New Zealand 5.2 The Americas 6 See also 7 External links

[edit] Constituent parts

From north to south, it consists of

• Schouwen-Duiveland
• Tholen
• Noord-Beveland
• Walcheren, Zuid-Beveland
• Zeeuws-Vlaanderen (Zealands Flanders)

[edit] Municipalities

<imagemap> image:Netherlands map large.png|thumb|Template:Pxpx|Map of the Netherlands, linking to the province pages; the red dots mark the capitals of the provinces and the black dots other notable cities or towns

poly 642 127 615 162 635 205 619 224 603 222 575 241 595 265 579 280 586 295 630 317 656 319 674 306 696 313 763 307 769 244 687 150 675 144 Drenthe

poly 481 243 420 297 376 406 441 445 513 390 532 323 557 312 518 259 Flevoland poly 518 258 573 247 601 220 617 221 632 206 611 164 581 143 606 84 597 57 625 19 459 26 356 62 323 124 383 197 425 237 449 266 482 239 Friesland poly 440 448 512 390 526 357 547 368 560 360 583 396 570 418 593 443 642 440 658 460 690 458 715 483 726 521 716 551 647 581 561 606 464 582 414 609 389 605 360 591 360 575 392 531 484 538 455 497 Gelderland poly 626 8 670 6 745 66 786 110 789 181 770 236 691 147 645 123 611 157 584 141 611 91 602 60 630 20 Groningen poly 535 603 574 669 531 667 552 727 496 749 477 776 527 809 490 903 503 928 572 932 595 872 553 841 550 836 610 800 583 776 621 731 602 661 573 609 Limburg poly 473 776 406 767 343 725 227 738 207 730 196 680 197 643 236 623 292 613 336 586 353 584 386 609 414 611 464 585 529 601 570 667 527 664 545 726 494 745 North Brabant poly 319 120 447 268 416 297 375 404 406 430 398 462 380 462 362 446 350 429 318 453 275 453 255 416 270 203 North Holland poly 699 316 751 365 772 394 772 444 721 482 692 456 656 456 642 438 595 441 576 419 589 395 562 359 547 365 527 355 533 327 562 313 523 261 574 249 590 265 574 276 583 295 626 320 658 323 677 308 Overijssel poly 252 416 154 525 112 594 159 620 196 639 234 620 290 610 337 581 356 583 389 532 381 523 339 544 319 520 326 501 315 484 337 474 318 455 273 455 South Holland poly 410 433 434 445 453 495 479 536 392 530 378 521 339 542 324 518 329 498 316 485 341 472 321 455 349 432 378 465 400 463 Utrecht poly 196 641 194 683 204 736 156 783 111 782 42 772 12 747 15 716 31 665 103 591 Zeeland </imagemap>

A list of the municipalities, with links to maps:

• Borsele
• Goes [1]
• Hulst
• Kapelle [2]
• Middelburg [3]
• Noord-Beveland [4]
• Reimerswaal [5]
• Schouwen-Duiveland [6]
• Sluis
• Terneuzen
• Tholen
• Veere [7]
• Flushing (Vlissingen) [8]

Municipality	Population
Borsele e	22,410
Goes e	36,763
Hulst e	27,988
Kapelle e	12,026
Middelburg e	47,308
Noord-Beveland e	7,276
Reimerswaal e	21,191
Schouwen-Duiveland e	34,102
Sluis e	24,369
Terneuzen e	55,261
Tholen e	25,222
Veere e	22,037
Flushing e	44,826

[edit] Geography

The province of Zeeland is in fact a large river delta situated at the mouth of several major rivers. Most of the province lies below sea level and was reclaimed from the sea by inhabitants over time. What used to be a muddy landscape, flooding at high tide and reappearing at low tide, became a series of small man-made hills that stayed dry at all times. The people of the province would later connect the hills by creating dikes, which led to a chain of dry land that later grew into bigger islands and gave the province its current shape. The shape of the islands has changed over time at the hands of both man and nature. The North Sea flood of 1953 inundated vast amounts of land that were only partially reclaimed. The subsequent construction of the Delta Works also changed the face of the province. The infrastructure, although very distinct by the amount of bridges, tunnels and dams, has not shaped the geography of the province so much as the geography of the province has shaped its infrastructure. The dams, tunnels and bridges that are currently a vital part of the province's road system were constructed over the span of decades and came to replace old ferry lines. The final touch to this process came in 2003 when the Westerschelde tunnel was opened. It was the first solid connection between both banks of the Westerschelde and ended the era of water separating the islands and peninsulas of Zeeland.

[edit] History

Grafschaft Zeeland (de) Graafschap Zeeland (nl) County of Zeeland State of the Holy Roman Empire ← Image:Counts of Holland Arms.svg   ← Image:Blason Nord-Pas-De-Calais.svg 1299 – 1581 Image:Prinsenvlag.svg → Capital Middelburg Government Monarchy Historical era Middle Ages  - Personal union with    County of Holland   1299  - Joined Burgundian    Netherlands   1432  - Habsburg Seventeen    Provinces founded   1477  - Burgundian Circle founded 1512  - Foundation of    United Provinces   July 26, 1581

Nehalennia is an ancient religion goddess known around the province of Zeeland. Her worship dates back at least to the 2nd century BCE^[1], and flourished in the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE.^[1] She was possibly a regional goddess, either Celtic or pre-Germanic - sources differ on the culture that first believed in her. During the Roman Era, her main function appeared to be the protection of travelers, especially seagoing travelers crossing the North Sea. Most of what is known about her comes from the remains of over 160 carved stone offerings (votives) which have been dredged up from the Oosterschelde since 1970. Two more Nehalennia offering stones have also been found in Cologne, Germany.^[1]

Zeeland was a contested area between the counts of Holland and Flanders until 1299, when the count of Holland gained control of the countship of Zeeland. Since then, Zeeland followed the fate of Holland. In 1432 it became part of the Low Countries possessions of Philip the Good of Burgundy, the later Seventeen Provinces. Through marriage, the Seventeen Provinces became property of the Habsburgs in 1477. In the Eighty Years' War, Zeeland was on the side of the Union of Utrecht, and became one of the United Provinces. The area now called Zeeuws-Vlaanderen was not part of Zeeland, but a part of the countship of Flanders (still under Habsburg) that was conquered by the United Provinces, hence called Staats-Vlaanderen (see: Generality Lands). After the French occupation (see département Bouches-de-l'Escaut) and the formation of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1815, the present province Zeeland was formed. The catastrophic North Sea Flood of 1953, which killed over 1,800 people in Zeeland, led to the construction of the protective Delta Works.

[edit] Transportation

There is one passenger railway, line 12, here with municipalities and official station abbreviations:

Vlissingen (vs, vss) - Middelburg (mdb, arn) - Goes (gs) - Kapelle (bzl) - Reimerswaal (krg, kbd, rb) - connecting to Bergen op Zoom (bgn) (Noord-Brabant).

Bus connections (of Connexxion, except # 395) include:

• bus 133: Vlissingen - Middelburg - Vrouwenpolder - Oosterscheldedam - Renesse - Zierikzee - Grevelingendam - connecting to Oude-Tonge, Rotterdam-Zuidplein
• Interliner Express bus 395: Zierikzee - (Grevelingendam) - connecting to Rotterdam-Zuidplein
• bus 104: Renesse - Brouwersdam - connecting to Ouddorp - Spijkenisse
• bus 20 and 50: see Westerschelde.

[edit] Zeeland in foreign names

[edit] New Zealand

The islands of New Zealand were named by Dutch navigator Abel Tasman in 1642. Tasman named it Staten Landt, believing it to be part of the land of that name off the coast of Argentina. When that was shown not to be so Dutch authorities named it Nova Zeelandia in Latin, Nieuw Zeeland in Dutch. The two major seafaring provinces of the Netherlands in its Golden Age were Holland and Zeeland, and originally the Dutch explorers named the largest landmass of Oceania and the two islands to the southeast respectively Nieuw Holland and Nieuw Zeeland. The former was eventually replaced by the name Australia, but the name New Zealand remained in place for the latter. Captain James Cook subsequently called the archipelago New Zealand.

[edit] The Americas

The town of Zeeland in the US state of Michigan was settled in 1847 by Dutchman Jannes Vande and was incorporated in 1907. The town still maintains a distinctive Dutch flavour. Flushing, a neighborhood within the borough of Queens, New York, is named after the city Flushing (Vlissingen in Dutch) in Zeeland. This dates from the period of the colony of New Netherland, when New York was still known as New Amsterdam. The Dutch colonies of Nieuw Walcheren and Nieuw Vlissingen, both on the Antillian island of Tobago, were both named after parts of Zeeland. The Canadian town of Zealand, New Brunswick, may have been named for the Zeeland birth place of Dutchman Philip Crouse who settled in the area in 1789.

[edit] See also

• List of cities, towns and villages in Zeeland
• Zeeland, Michigan, USA
• Zeeland, North Dakota, USA

[edit] External links

• Provincial Government
• Zeeland at a glance
• Zeeland Zakelijk Links
• Deltaworks Online - Flood Protection of Zeeland and Deltaregion
• Zeeland Photography

v • d • e Provinces of the Netherlands
Drenthe • Flevoland • Friesland • Gelderland • Groningen • Limburg • North Brabant • North Holland • Overijssel • South Holland • Utrecht • Zeeland	Image:Flag of the Netherlands.svg

Coordinates: 51°34′N, 3°45′E

v • d • e Image:Banner of the Holy Roman Emperor (after 1400).svg Seventeen Provinces (1477) — Burgundian Circle (1512) Image:Flag - Low Countries - XVth Century.svg
States	Artois | Brabant | Drenthe | Flanders | Friesland | Groningen | Guelders | Hainaut | Holland | Limburg | Luxembourg | Mechelen | Namur | Overijssel | Utrecht | Zeeland | Zutphen	Image:Burgundian Circle-2005-10-14-en.png
Dependent territories	Antwerp | Besançon | Breda | Burgundy

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