Chaotic Geography in the Netherlands

Geography

The Netherlands is a country that is relatively small compared to other countries. The country is surrounded and filled by deltas, which are like small rivers. Most of the country's land is below sea level and because of that most of its land is reclaimed from the sea. The country can be split into two areas: the low and flat lands in the west and north, and the higher lands with minor hills in the east and south.

Geographical map of the Netherlands

As you can see, the Netherlands is absolutely littered with rivers and deltas. Actually 3 of Europes major rivers pass through the Netherlands. These rivers are:

• The Rhine        (Shared with Germany, Switzerland, France, Austria and Leichenstein)
• The Meuse       (Shared with Belgium and France)
• The Eems         (Shared with Germany)
• The Schelde     (Shared with Belgium and France)

Generally, having rivers pass through your country is a good thing. Plants will flourish and there will be little need to irrigate farms. But, having too much rivers is bad. This is because a lot of space is used for the rivers. This coupled with some of the Netherland's land being below sea level also increases the risk of flooding as seawater can easily enter the land through one of the many river entrances. Because of this, riverside protection walls(Dikes) will be needed to reduce the risk of flooding in the nearby area, which also uses needed space. This drastically reduces available land in a already small country. No wonder why the Dutch turned to a colonial empire. They simply did not have the space to expand in Europe.