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Article: VISIONS OF THE 21ST CENTURY DUTCH.(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- Europe
- Article date:
- December 1, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 Delegation of the European Commission. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Looking back on the twenty-first century, perhaps the biggest change for the Dutch was that the 400-year-old Kingdom of the Netherlands ceased to exist as an independent nation. That country, which started in the sixteenth century as an independent union of seven provinces, formally became a small state within the hugely expanded European Federation (formerly the European Union).
The Royal family decided to leave the country. Luckily, thanks to the marriage of Prince (later: king) William Alexander to a woman from the Argentine landowning class with whom he fell in love in 1999, the family was able to move to Argentina and continue a life of tranquility on the ...