'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", although the origin could also be from "Suaven"-land, a Germanic tribe) 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").
Constituent parts
From north to south, it consists of
★
Schouwen-Duiveland
★
Tholen
★
Noord-Beveland
★
Walcheren,
Zuid-Beveland
★
Zeeuws-Vlaanderen (Zealands
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]
★
Kadzand
★
Zuidzand
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.
History
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:
★ 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.
Zeeland in foreign names
New Zealand
The islands of
New Zealand were first discovered by Europeans by the
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.''
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.
See also
★
List of cities, towns and villages in Zeeland
★
Zeeland, Michigan, USA
★
Zeeland, North Dakota, USA
★
Zealand, New Brunswick, Canada
★
Zwin
★
New Zealand
External links
★
Provincial Government
★
Zeeland at a glance
★
Zeeland Zakelijk Links
★
Deltaworks Online - Flood Protection of Zeeland and Deltaregion
★
Zeeland Photography
العربية
中国
Français
Deutsch
Ελληνική
हिन्दी
Italiano
日本語
Português
Русский
Español
