Netherlands, country located in northwestern Europe, also known as Holland. “Netherlands” means low-lying country; the name Holland (from Houtland, or “Wooded Land”) was originally given to one of the medieval cores of what later became the modern state and is still used for 2 of its 12 provinces ( Noord-Holland and Zuid-Holland ).

Our story begins in the 16th century, but the Netherlands origins travel much farther back than that. The earliest known human life to inhabit the area now known as the Netherlands did so some 40,000 years ago. At the time, the people were hunter-gatherers and roamed across the country for wild game.