Zeeland (), also called
Zealand in
English and
Zeelandic, 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. With a population of about 380,000, 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 can be two to four times higher during high summer season. 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").
Constituent parts
From north to south, it consists of
Municipalities
A list of the municipalities, with links to maps:
Geography
The province of Zeeland is 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
Western Scheldt 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.
History
Nehalennia is a goddess of the ancient religion known around the province of Zeeland. Her worship dates back at least to the 2nd century BC,
[Lendering, 2006.] and flourished in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD.
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.
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.
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:
Zeeland in foreign names
New Zealand
The islands of
New Zealand were named by
Dutch navigator
Abel Tasman in 1642, but he did not land on New Zealand. 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 of Britain subsequently called the
archipelago New Zealand and soon after, British settlers arrived in New Zealand and English was the main language.
The Americas
The town of
Zeeland in the US state of
Michigan was settled in 1847 by Dutchman
Jannes van de Luyster 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, was named for the Zeeland birth place of Dutchman Philip Crouse who settled in the area in 1789.
Taiwan
Fort Zeelandia was a fortress built over ten years from 1624–1634 by the
Dutch East India Company, in the town of Anping (Tainan) on the island of
Formosa, present day
Taiwan, during their 38-year rule over the western part of it.
In Popular Culture
Zeeland has been featured in
HBO show
Flight of the Conchords, on a poster in the office of the band's manager Murray. The poster was intended to promote New Zealand, using the slogan "New Zealand, Better Than Old Zeeland".
See also
