{"id":6241,"date":"2010-10-14T17:22:59","date_gmt":"2010-10-14T22:22:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/?p=6241"},"modified":"2022-06-16T18:36:57","modified_gmt":"2022-06-16T23:36:57","slug":"netherlands-highpoint","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/netherlands-highpoint\/","title":{"rendered":"New Highpoint for the Netherlands"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

My brief vacation in Vermont<\/a> over the weekend must have distracted me. Somehow I completely missed the news about the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles on October 10, 2010. So it took an email message from loyal reader Greg to bring its true significance to my attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not referring to the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles per se, or the resulting creation of two new component nations within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. I\u2019ll leave that story for all the normal geo-bloggers to cover. I\u2019m not even talking about the date they chose to make this all happen, 10-10-10, although that\u2019s really cool. Greg mentioned something completely different. And I have to agree that a certain special feature here creates a genuine geo-oddity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We need to walk through a little history<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"International<\/a>
Dutch border on St. Martin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Dutch cobbled together their colonies in the Caribbean Sea to create the Netherlands Antilles in 1954, an autonomous country within the larger Kingdom of the Netherlands. Thus, islands from two distinct groupings formed the nation: three from the Leeward Islands located southeast of the Virgin Islands (Saba, Sint Eustatius, and Sint Maarten); and three from the Lesser Antilles off the coast of Venezuela (Aruba, Bonaire and Cura\u00e7ao).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aruba split from the Netherland Antilles in 1986, forming its own distinct nation within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The remaining five islands continued onward within the structure of the Netherlands Antilles. Then three things happened on October 10, 2010:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. The Dutch government dissolved the Netherland Antilles and it ceased to exist<\/li>
  2. Cura\u00e7ao and St. Maarten followed the Aruban example and became autonomous nations within the Kingdom of the Netherlands.<\/li>
  3. Bonaire, Saba and Sint Eustatius became Public Bodies of the Netherlands, informally known as \u201cspecial municipalities\u201d<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n
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    The Oddity<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    It\u2019s the third point that creates a geo-oddity. Bonaire, Saba and Sint Eustatius are no longer part of an autonomous nation within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. They are in fact now a part of the Netherlands proper. The Province of North Holland, which includes Amsterdam, has even invited them to join their state. They were still considering the offer as of the time I drafted this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Former Highpoint<\/h3>\n\n\n\n