{"population":17942942,"blurb":{"text":"The Netherlands, also informally known as Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The Netherlands consists of twelve provinces and three overseas special municipalities. European Netherlands has land borders with Germany to the east and with Belgium to the south, and a coastline to the north and west. It shares maritime borders with the United Kingdom, Germany, and Belgium in the North Sea. The official language is Dutch, with West Frisian as a secondary official language in the province of Friesland. Dutch, English, and Papiamento are official languages in the Caribbean territories. People from the Netherlands are referred to as Dutch.","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlands"},"vexillology":{"text":"The national flag of the Netherlands is a horizontal tricolour of red, white, and blue. The current design originates as a variant of the late 16th century orange-white-blue Prinsenvlag, evolving in the early 17th century as the red-white-blue Statenvlag, the naval flag of the States-General of the Dutch Republic, making the Dutch flag the oldest tricolour flag in continuous use. As a flag that symbolises the transformation from monarchy to republic, it has inspired both the derivative Russian flag, and after the French Revolution in 1789, the vertically striped French tricolour; both flags in turn influenced many other tricolours.\nDuring the 1920s and the economic crisis of the 1930s, the old Prince's Flag with the colour orange gained some popularity among Protestants, Orangists, conservative liberals, fascists, and others. To end the confusion, the colours red, white and blue and its official status as the national flag of the Kingdom of the Netherlands were reaffirmed by royal decree on 19 February 1937.","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_the_Netherlands"},"flagDesign":{"text":"According to heraldic traditions, red symbolizes bravery, strength, valor, and hardiness, white symbolizes peace and honesty, and blue symbolizes vigilance, truth, loyalty, perseverance, and justice.\n\nAnother theory is that the colors used to be a symbol of society: red symbolizes the people, white the church and blue the nobility.","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_the_Netherlands"},"photos":["https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a3/Christmas_flood_1717.jpg/500px-Christmas_flood_1717.jpg","https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/78/Bulb_Fields.jpg/500px-Bulb_Fields.jpg","https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e0/20220525.Rijksmuseum_Amsterdam.-011.jpg/500px-20220525.Rijksmuseum_Amsterdam.-011.jpg","https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2b/A1-Hoog_Buurlo.jpg/500px-A1-Hoog_Buurlo.jpg"]}