How The Dutch Dug Up Their Country From The Sea

As someone who grew up in Almere. I have my childhood memories of digging in our garden and finding small sea shells every where.

Im Dutch, and what you are seeing here, is our coverup. Our actual country is only accesible if you have 12 obsidian blocks, and flint and steel. With this, you can create a portal to our real country.

Can't conquer land ? Easy, just create land.

Imagine that after years of hard work, you finally retire and buy a home for yourself by the sea..... And then the government to simply come and make it so your lovely seaside beach house is now 20 miles from the sea... i'd be mad

You forgot to say WHY the Reeds were Burned. Very important. The ground was far too salty to grow crops. They chose plants that grew well in Salty soil AND would take up the salt into its cells. By burning it, they let the salt get carried away in the wind.

My grandfather helped create one of the polders, where he settled as a farmer after its completion. I was born there myself and I can say it's very unnatural looking land, extremely flat and divided into perfect road and farm grids. About 15 years ago we had very heavy rainfall and the pumps couldn't keep up. Our village was covered in half a meter of water. Strange idea that we live 4 meters below sea level, sometimes I wonder if I should feel as safe as I do.

For somebody who grew up in Central Amsterdam, this makes so many of the names in NL make sense such as AmsterDAM, RotterDAM, VenserPOLDER, SloterDIJK etc. I really never knew

This is so fascinating to me. The fact that parts of the country have not existed in the lifetime of my parents, is fascinating. Cool video.

Nice video. My wife spent most of her childhood living in Flevoland (Biddinghuizen). One of her cousins was shocked when I told him that there was no English word for Polder.

This video in a nutshell; Water: I’m here Dutch: No Water: ok *water left the chat* Lmao how did this get 60 likes

To turn a swamp into the second biggest food exporting country in the world by using wind & hard work is an amazing achievment. Dutch can be proud world leaders.

Netherlands to Belgium: "Gib clay" Belgium: "No" Netherlands to Germany: "Gib clay" Germany: "No goes away" Netherlands to the sea: "Gib clay" Sea: "..." Netherlands: "AM NOT HEAR A NO"

So, Dutch can create land from the sea but Spanish can't deal with a lake without creating caos and misery?

I never understood the reason for het Veluwemeer. Thank you! This old Dutchman now living in Colorado still remembers riding his motorcycle on the dikes of Zuid Flevoland in the seventies. With all this draining and drying land, just imagine the amount of mosquitos I ran into! My sister insisted on using the garden hose to clean me off before I was allowed to enter her home. Thanks for the memories! 😊

I have to say that this is probably the best video explaining the creation of the Zuiderzee- and IJsselmeerpolders I have come across. One thing you left out (or may have been unaware of), not to diminish what you have made, is that each polder reflects the time in which it was created. The Wieringerpolder has villages that are within walking distance (they used to walk more and longer then we do now), while the Noordoostpolder has towns within biking distance, as biking became ever more popular. Now they where further separated. With the creation of the Flevopolder cars had become immensely popular, and so no the cities and towns were even further separated as they only needed to be within driving distance. Also, Almere gets its name from the former name of the salty lake that once existed there after the Flevomeer changed due to erosion from storm activity. Still, a very good description of the process (especially with the planting of, for example, rape seeds to steady the land) that made this whole process possible.

i kept hearing Flevoland as "flavour land", like a dutch Guy Fieri

wow I just visited Marken before watching this...things would have made a lot more sense

China to Netherlands: how much to fix the Three Gorges Dam? Netherlands to China: throw in Hong Kong, and we'll think about it.

2:47 ''..were *BURNED*..'' dramatic music starts.