Danish

• Common phrases in different languages

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Denmark was first united by Harold Bluetooth (Harald Blåtand) around 980. Up into the 11th century the Danes were known as Vikings, colonizing, raiding and trading in much of Europe.

At various times Denmark has controlled England, Norway, Sweden, parts of the Baltic coast and what is now northern Germany. Skåne was part of Denmark for most of its early history, but was lost to Sweden in 1658. The union with Norway was dissolved in 1814, when Norway entered a new union with Sweden (until 1905).

The Danish liberal and national movement gained momentum in the 1830s, and after the European revolutions of 1848 Denmark became a constitutional monarchy in 1849.

After the Second War of Schleswig in 1864 Denmark was forced to cede Schleswig-Holstein to Prussia, in a defeat that left deep marks in the Danish national identity. After this point Denmark adopted a policy of neutrality, following which Denmark stayed neutral in World War I.

On April 9, 1940, Denmark was invaded by Nazi Germany (Operation Weserübung) and remained occupied throughout World War II, despite some internal resistance. After the war, Denmark became a member of NATO and, in 1973, the European Union.

Since 1849, Denmark is a constitutional monarchy, governed by the monarch, whose powers are largely symbolical. Denmark's parliament is unicameral, and named the Folketing (179 seats). The Prime Minister is usually appointed from the largest party. The Prime Minister heads the executive branch of government, assisted by a cabinet of ministers.

Elections for parliament are usually held every four years; but the prime minister can call for an earlier election, if he so decides.

Denmark is divided into 13 counties (amter), and 271 municipalities (kommuner):

• Aarhus (Århus)
• Frederiksborg
• Funen (Fyn)
• Copenhagen (København)
• North Jutland (Nordjylland)
• Ribe
• Ringkjøbing
• Roskilde
• South Jutland (Sønderjylland)
• Storstrøm
• Vejle
• Viborg
• West Zealand (Vestsjælland)

• Bornholm (regional municipality)
• Copenhagen
• Frederiksberg

Greenland and the Faroe Islands also belong to the Kingdom of Denmark, but have autonomous status and are largely self-governing, and are each represented by 2 seats in the parliament.

Denmark consists of the Jutland peninsula (Jylland) and 405 named islands, of which 82 are inhabited, the most important are Funen (Fyn) and Zealand (Sjælland). The island of Bornholm is located somewhat east of the rest of the country, in the Baltic Sea. Many of the islands are connected by bridges; the Øresund Bridge connects Zealand with Sweden, and the Great Belt Bridge connects Funen with Zealand.

The country is mostly flat with little elevation (highest points are Ejer Baunehøj and Yding Skovhøj, both at about 173 meters). The climate is temperate, with mild winters and cool summers. Main cities are the capital Copenhagen (on Zealand), Aarhus (on Jutland) and Odense (on Fyn).

This thoroughly modern market economy features high-tech agriculture, up-to-date small-scale and corporate industry, extensive government welfare measures, comfortable living standards, a stable currency, and high dependence on foreign trade. Denmark is a net exporter of food and energy and has a comfortable balance of payments surplus. The government has been successful in meeting, and even exceeding, the economic convergence criteria for participating in the third phase (a common European currency) of the European Monetary Union (EMU), but Denmark, in a September 2000 referendum, reconfirmed its decision not to join the 11 other EU members in the euro. Even so, the Danish currency remains pegged to the euro.

The majority of the population is of Scandinavian descent, with small groups of Inuit (from Greenland), Faroese, and immigrants. Danish is spoken in the entire country, although a small group near the German border speaks German.

About 95% of the Danes are members of the state church, the Danish People's Church (Den Danske Folkekirke), a form of Lutheranism; the rest are primarily of other Christian denominations or are Muslims.

The best known Dane is probably Hans Christian Andersen, a writer mostly famous for his fairy tales, such as The Emperor's New Clothes and The Ugly Duckling.

Other well known Danes are existentialist philosopher Søren Kierkegaard and physicist Niels Bohr.

Holidays
NOTE: Not all of these are work holidays.

Date	English Name	Local Name	Remarks
January 1	New Year's Day	Nytårsdag
Seven weeks before Easter Sunday	Carnival	Fastelavn	Children dress up in costumes and go door-to-door in search of sweets.
The Thursday before Easter Sunday	Maundy Thursday	Skærtorsdag
The Friday before Easter Sunday	Good Friday	Langfredag
March/April	Easter Sunday	Påskesøndag	The Danish celebrate three days of Easter.
The day after Easter Sunday	Easter Monday	2. Påskedag
May 1	Labour Day	Arbejdernes kampdag	Not everybody has this day off.
June 5	Constitution Day	Grundlovsdag	The signing of the Danish constitution in 1849.
Varies		St. Bededag	A collection of minor christian holy days consolidated into one holy day.
40 days after Easter	Ascension Day	Kr. Himmelfartsdag
7 weeks after Easter	Pentecost	Pinse	The Danish celebrate two days of Pentecost.
November 10	The Feast of Saint Martin	Mortensaften	Danes eat goose traditionally this evening.
December 24	Christmas Eve	Juleaften	The children get presents on the eve before Christmas day.
December 25	Christmas Day	Juledag	The Danish celebrate three days of Christmas.
December 26	2. Christmas Day	2. Juledag

See also:

• Music of Denmark

Miscellaneous topics

• List of towns in Denmark
• Communications in Denmark
• Transportation in Denmark
• Military of Denmark
• Foreign relations of Denmark
• Danish colonization of the Americas
• List of notable Danish people
• List of Danish monarchs
• Danish nation
• Tourism in Denmark
• Stamps and postal history of Denmark
• Trees of Denmark

External Links

Under Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and king of Spain, the region was part of the Seventeen Provinces of the Netherlands, which also includes most of present-day Belgium. After gaining formal independence from Philip II, the son of Charles V in 1648, the Dutch, as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands, grew to become one of the major seafaring and economic powers of the 17th century, referred to as the Golden Age in the Netherlands, establishing colonies and trade posts all over the globe.

After being incorporated in the French empire under Napoleon, a Dutch kingdom was formed with present-day Belgium and Luxembourg in 1815. The Belgians soon gained independence however (1830); Luxembourg fell under the Dutch monarchy as well but had different rules of ascendancy and broke away after the death of King William III. During the 19th century, the Netherlands was slow to industrialize compared to neighbouring countries.

After remaining neutral in World War I, the country was occupied by Nazi Germany in May 1940, to be fully liberated only in 1945. After the war, the Dutch economy prospered again, being a member of the economic Benelux and European Economic Community unions. The Netherlands also became a member of NATO.

The Netherlands was among the founding members of the European Union when it was formed in 1992.

The Netherlands has been a constitutional monarchy since 1815, after it had been a republic from 1581 to 1806 (it was occupied by France between 1806 and 1815).

Head of state, since 1980, is Queen Beatrix of the House of Orange-Nassau. Formally, she appoints the members of the government. In practice, once the results of parliamentary elections are known, a coalition government is made (a process which might take several months), after which the government formed in this way is officially appointed by the queen.

The parliament consists of two houses. Elections for the 150 members of the Lower House (Tweede Kamer, or Second Chamber) take place every four years, or earlier when the Lower House has taken a no-confidence motion against the government. The less important Senate (Eerste Kamer, or First Chamber) is chosen every four years after the provincial elections by the just chosen members of the provincial parliaments. Together, the First and Second Chamber are known as the Staten Generaal, the States General.

Political scientists consider the Netherlands a classic example of a consociational state.

The Netherlands has a prosperous and open economy in which the government has successfully reduced its role since the 1980s. Industrial activity is predominantly in food-processing, chemicals, petroleum refining, and electrical machinery. A highly mechanised agricultural sector employs no more than 4% of the labor force but provides large surpluses for the food-processing industry and for exports. The Dutch rank third worldwide in value of agricultural exports, behind the US and France. The Netherlands successfully addressed the issue of public finances and stagnating job growth long before its European partners.

As a founding member of the Euro, the Netherlands replaced its former currency, the guilder, on January 1 1999 along with the other adopters of the single European currency, with the actual euro coins and banknotes following on January 1 2002.

Dutch population pyramid
(in % of total population)

%	Male																						Age	Female																						%
0.36																							85+																							1.05
0.60																							80-84																							1.18
1.14																							75-79																							1.74
1.55																							70-74																							1.95
1.93																							65-69																							2.13
2.30																							60-64																							2.33
2.77																							55-59																							2.69
3.73																							50-54																							3.60
3.65																							45-49																							3.54
3.93																							40-44																							3.81
4.27																							35-39																							4.08
4.25																							30-34																							4.05
3.63																							25-29																							3.54
3.04																							20-24																							2.93
2.96																							15-19																							2.83
3.11																							10-14																							2.97
3.20																							05-09																							3.06
3.11																							00-04																							2.98
Data: International Data Base (2000)

The Netherlands is one of the most densely populated countries in the world, with more than 400 inhabitants per square km.

There are two official languages, Dutch and Frisian, both of which are Germanic languages. Frisian is only spoken in the northern province of Friesland, and it is the language which most resembles English. In addition to Dutch and Frisian, several dialects of Low Saxon are spoken in much of the north; they have no official recognition. At the national borders in the south, the Dutch language shifts into other varieties of Low Franconian speech, which may or may not be best classified as Dutch, most notably West Flemish.

The Netherlands has produced many great painters. The 17th century, when the Dutch republic was prosperous, was the age of the "Dutch Masters" such as Rembrandt van Rijn, Johannes Vermeer, Jan Steen and many others. Famous Dutch painters of the 19th and 20th century are Vincent van Gogh and Piet Mondriaan. M. C. Escher is a well-known graphics artist. A both famous and infamous Dutch master art forger is Han van Meegeren.

The Netherlands is the country of philosophers Erasmus of Rotterdam and Spinoza, and all of Descartes' major work was done there.

In the Golden Age, Dutch literature flowered as well, with Joost van den Vondel, P. C. Hooft as the two most famous names. Important 20th century authors include Harry Mulisch, Jan Wolkers, Simon Vestdijk, Cees Nooteboom, Gerard van het Reve and Willem Frederik Hermans. The Diary of Anne Frank was also written in the Netherlands.

See also: Sport in the Netherlands, Music of the Netherlands

Holidays

Date	English Name	Local Name	Remarks
January 1	New Year's Day	Nieuwjaar
March/April	Easter	Pasen	The Dutch celebrate two days of Easter.
April 30	Queen's day	Koninginnedag	Originally, Koninginnedag was celebrated on the birthday of the queen, Queen's day is now celebrated on the birthday of the current queen's mother, as this gives better weather.
May 4	Remembrance of the dead	Dodenherdenking	Remembrance of those who died during the Second World War.
May 5	Liberation day	Bevrijdingsdag	Celebration of the 1945 capitulation of German forces in World War II.
40 days after Easter	Ascension Day	Hemelvaartsdag
7 weeks after Easter	Pentecost	Pinksteren	The Dutch celebrate two days of Pentecost.
December 5	Saint Nicholas's Eve	Sinterklaas	A predecessor of Santa Claus, Sinterklaas gives presents to the children.
December 25, December 26	Christmas	Kerstmis	The Dutch celebrate two days of Christmas.

Replicas of Dutch buildings can be found in Holland Village, Nagasaki, Japan. A similar Holland Village is being built in Shenyang, China.

External links

They founded cities such as Jorvik (York), Kiev and Dublin. A colonisation of America was started but was never completed.

Some also think the Vikings made it as far south as the Canary Islands and Mexico.

The Danes sailed south, to Friesland, France and the southern parts of England. In the years 1013-1016, Canute the Great succeeded to the English throne.

The Swedes sailed to east into Russia, where Rurik founded the first Russian state, and on the rivers south to the Black Sea, Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire.

The Norwegians travelled to the north-west and west, to the Faroes, Shetland, Orkney, Ireland and the northern parts of England. Except in Britain and Ireland, Norwegians mostly found largely uninhabited land and established settlements.

In about the year 1000 A.D, North America was discovered by Bjarni Herjólfsson and settlement attempted by Leif Ericsson and Thorfinnur Karlsefni from Greenland who called it Vinland. A small settlement was placed on the northern peninsula of Newfoundland, near L'Anse aux Meadows, but previous inhabitants and a cold climate brought it to an end within a few years (see Freydis). The archaeological remains are now a UN World Heritage Site. It has now been scientifically established that at the height of the Viking expansion, the northern hemisphere entered into a period of unusual and long lasting cold which lasting for several hundred years. This mini-iceage decimated the Greenland colonies, stopped the Viking westward expansion and hampered the Viking homelands.

Besides allowing the Vikings to travel far distances, their longships gave them tactical advantages in battles. They could perform very efficient hit-and-run attacks, in which they attacked fast and unexpectedly and left quickly before a counteroffensive could be launched. Longships could also sail in shallow water, allowing the Vikings to get far inland along rivers. A reason for the raids is believed by some to be overpopulation caused by technological advances such as the use of iron, although another cause could well be pressure caused by the Frankish expansion to the south of Scandinavia. For people living along the coast it seems natural to seek new land by sea. Another reason is that in that period several European countries (particularly England, Wales and Ireland) were in internal disarray and easy prey; the Franks, however, had well-defended coasts and heavily fortified ports and harbours. Pure thirst for adventure may also have been a factor. The reliance on Longships was also detrimental to the Vikings later on. As other cultures developed larger, faster and more powerful ships, the Viking failed to maintain the technological ship building race.

The related Celts may have used horned helmets for ceremonial purposes however.