Car Rental Netherland

The History :

The dream efforts came true in 1957, when a European Community was born and The Netherlands became one of the six founder members of the European Community. The second half of 1991 saw the organization of the crucial summit at Maastricht, which was held to determine the future of European Union integration in economic, monetary policy as well as other areas.

On February1, 1953, a spring tide and fierce gales caused the North Sea to breach the coastal dykes and dunes in the southwestern province of Zeeland. Some 162,000 hectares (400,000 acres) were inundated, killing more than 1,800 people. Exactly 42 years later, more than 250,000 people were evacuated from the east and centre of the country. Torrential rains in France and Germany had caused the Rhine and Meuse rivers to flood, and it was feared that the dykes on the Lek, Maas, and Waal rivers, their tributaries in the Netherlands, would be breached by the pressure of draining floodwater. The dykes held, but following the emergency it was announced that a US$1.2 billion programme to reinforce more than 800 km (500 mi) of river dykes, originally due to be completed in 2008, would be speeded up.

In the 1950s and 1960s large natural gas reserves were discovered in Groningen Province. Smaller deposits of crude oil are located in the north-eastern and western parts of the country.

The North Sea coastline of the Netherlands consists mostly of dunes. In the south-west are gaps in the dunes formed by river mouths, creating a delta of islands and waterways. In the north, the sea broke through the dunes, creating the West Frisian Islands and behind them a tidal sea called the Waddenzee. Inland of the coastal dunes is an area lying below sea level that is protected by dykes and kept dry by continuous mechanical pumping.

The former Zuider Zee, originally an estuary of the Rhine, and later an inland sea, is being reclaimed. A dyke separating it from the Waddenzee and North Sea was completed in 1932, when work was begun to drain about 225,000 hectares (556,000 acres) to form polders such as the South and East Flevoland polders and the North East Polder. About three quarters of the area had been reclaimed by the early 1980s. In 1986 the Netherland's 12th province, Flevoland, was created from the two Flevoland polders and the North East polder. The remainder of the Zuider Zee was transformed into a freshwater lake called the IJsselmeer.