The name Altes Land sounds as if it means "old country" but in fact the name has nothing to do with "old": it comes from the history of the area's settlement. In Low German the name is Olland, going back to the area's colonisation by the Dutch. The first colonisation agreement goes back to 1113 and was made during the time of Archbishop Friedrich I of Bremen. One of the municipalities of the Altes Land is the Hollern, a name which comes from Holländer - the Dutch.
The Archbishopric of Bremen was an ecclesiastical state in the Holy Roman Empire. It did not include the city of Bremen, but rather the area to the north of it, between the Weser and Elbe Rivers. The foundation of the bishopric belongs to the period of the missionary activity of Willehad on the lower Weser. The Saxon territory on both sides of the Weser from the mouth of the Aller, northward to the Elbe and westward to the Hunte, and the Frisian territory for a certain distance from the mouth of the Weser.
The diocese was probably at that time ecclesiastically subject to Cologne. Rimbert, the "second apostle of the north," was troubled by onslaughts first of the Normans and then of the Wends, and by renewed claims on the part of Cologne. The see of Bremen attained its greatest prosperity and later had its deepest troubles under Adalbert. The next two archbishops, Liemar and Humbert, were determined opponents of Gregory VII.
The title of archbishop, with the secular jurisdiction, was borne for a time by Protestant princes. The Peace of Westphalia (1648) secularized it and made it (with Verden) a duchy and an appanage of the crown of Sweden, which also fully recognized the secularization, and changed the territory's status from an Archbishopric to that of a duchy. Verden (Aller) is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, on the river Aller. Verden is famous for the alleged massacre of Saxons in 782, committed on the orders of Charlemagne (the "Bloody Trial of Verden"), for its cathedral, and for its horse breeding.
The Reformation was introduced in Verden in 1568 with the conversion of its bishop, Eberhard of Holle. Verden had gained the status of an imperial free city in the 15th century, but lost this status at the end of the Thirty Years' War when it became, together with the former bishopric, a Swedish possession as imperial fief, under the name of Principality of Verden. Hanover purchased the Principality of Verden in 1719, and when Hanover was annexed in 1866, the city became Prussian.
The Southern Netherlands were a part of the Low Countries controlled by Spain , Austria, and France. The region comprised most of Belgium and Luxembourg as well as, before 1678, much of north-western France. The Northern Netherlands in 1581 of Spain departed from the Hapsburg Netherlands. The Spanish Netherlands in broad sense were the Seventeen Provinces, that came under Habsburg rule after 1482. After 1556 they were under the Spanish Habsburg branch. The northern provinces separated from Habsburg rule during the Eighty Years' War (1568-1648) and became the independent United Provinces after the Oath of Abjuration of 1581. The capital was Brussels in Brabant.
The Spanish Netherlands originally consisted of the whole of the: County of Flanders, Walloon Flanders, County of Artois, Tournai, Cambrai, northern Pas-de-Calais, Luxembourg, Limburg, Hainault, Namur, Mechlin, Brabant, Guelders.
The Austrian Netherlands rebelled against Austria in 1788 as a result of Joseph II's centralizing policies. The different countries established the United States of Belgium (January 1790). Austrian imperial power was restored by Joseph's brother and successor, Leopold II by the end of 1790. After Napoleon in 1815 the region was given to the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, however after the Belgian Revolution of 1830 it separated and became the independent state of Belgium. The Congress of Vienna created a kingdom for the House of Orange-Nassau, combining the United Provinces of the Netherlands with the former Austrian Netherlands, in order to create a strong buffer state north of France. It was not until April 19, 1839 however, that the Treaty of London signed by the European powers (including the Netherlands) recognized Belgium as an independent and neutral country comprising West Flanders, East Flanders, Brabant, Antwerp, Hainaut, Namur, and Liège, as well as half of Luxembourg and Limburg.
The Northern European Lowlands are a geomorphological region in Europe. They consist of the low plains between the Central European Highlands to the south and the North Sea and the Baltic Sea to the north. On the North Sea coast, one finds marshes and the Wadden Sea, a large tidal area, while mostly used as farmland, the region also contains bogs, heath, and lakes. Northern European Lowlands are shared among Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, and Poland. Major rivers are, from west to east, Rhine, Ems, Weser, Elbe, Oder, and Vistula.
The Northern European Lowlands are the heart of Russia. In the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period, the western section has been known as the Low Countries. To the East of the Northern European Lowlands is the Ural Mountains.
The North Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, located between Norway and Denmark in the east, the UK (England and Scotland) in the west, and Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and France in the south. An offshoot of the North Sea is the Skagerrak, between Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, which connects to the Baltic Sea through the Kattegat, Öresund, the Great Belt and the Little Belt. In the south, the North Sea connects with the rest of the Atlantic through the Strait of Dover into the English Channel and in the north through the Norwegian Sea. Its name originates from its relationship to the land of the Frisians. The East Sea is the Baltic Sea or Middle Sea. In classical times this body of water was Mare Germanicum, meaning German Ocean. In Danish the North Sea is also named Western Ocean as it is located west of Denmark.
The bed of the North Sea forms two basins, the main northern one lies to the north of a ridge between north Norfolk and Frisia. The southern basin, if not flooded, would now drain towards the Strait of Dover thence to the English Channel.
Major rivers that drain into the North Sea include the Forth (at Edinburgh), Elbe (at Cuxhaven), the Weser (at Bremerhaven), the Ems at Emden, the Rhine and Meuse (at Rotterdam), the Scheldt (at Flushing), the Thames, and the Humber (at Hull). The Kiel Canal, one of the world's busiest artificial waterways, connects the North Sea with the Baltic.
