Zeeland
Zeeland (), 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").
From north to south, it consists of
*
Schouwen-Duiveland*
Tholen*
Noord-Beveland*
Walcheren,
Zuid-Beveland*
Zeeuws-Vlaanderen (Dutch Flanders)
Municipalities
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]
|
Location of Zeeland in the Netherlands |
The province of Zeeland is in fact one big river delta, situated as it is at the mouth of several big rivers. Most of the province lies beneath
sea level and was reclaimed from the sea by the people over time. What used to be a muddy landscape flooded at high tide and reappearing at low tide, first became the scene of small man-made hills that would stay dry at all times. Later the people of the province would connect the hills by creating dikes, which lead 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 been changing through time both by the hands of man and nature. The
North Sea flood of 1953 claimed 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) hasn't shaped the province as much as the geography of the province has shaped the infrastructure. The dams, tunnels and bridges that are currently a vital part of the province's road system were constructed over the space 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.
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 1,000 people in Zeeland, led to the construction of the protective
Delta Works.
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.
The country of
New Zealand (
Māori name:
Aotearoa), practically the antipodes of the Low Countries, was first made known to Europeans by Dutch navigator
Abel Tasman. He named it
Staten Landt, believing it to be part of the land of that name off
Argentina. When that was shown not to be so, Dutch authorities named it
Nova Zeelandia in
Latin, followed by
Nieuw Zeeland in
Dutch, which
Captain James Cook subsequently called
New Zealand in
English language. The name is only one letter away from the literal translation to English, New Sealand. The Z was possibly retained to partially preserve the Dutch pronuncation. It has also been suggested that Captain Cook assumed Nieuw Zeeland was named after the island of
Zealand,
Denmark. New Zealand is more than 100 times larger than Zeeland and has about 10 times the population.
*The Dutch colonies of
Nieuw Walcheren and
Nieuw Vlissingen, both on the Antillian island of
Tobago, were both named after parts of Zeeland.
*
Zwin*
Zealand, New Brunswick, Canada*
Province government*Map, also showing municipalities: http://www.zeeland.nl/getfile.php?/zeeland/kaarten/gemeenten/zeeland2003.pdf (2003) (pdf, 570 KB)
*Basic information: http://www.sdu.nl/staatscourant/scdata/prov/zeeland.htm (2002)
*
province map showing subdivision in municipalities, link for each municipality to basic data page (2002)
*
Geography of Zeeland*
Deltaworks Online - Flood protection of Zeeland and Deltaregionnds-nl:Zeelaand
