Pan-Netherlands

Map of the Low Countries. In the main variant, Pan-Netherlands entails a union of these three countries.

Pan-Netherlands[1][2] (Dutch: Heel-Nederland), sometimes translated as Whole-Netherlands, is an irredentist concept which aims to unite the Low Countries (Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg) into a single state.[3] It is an example of Pan-Nationalism.

Some variants do not include Luxembourg. In less common variants, the French Netherlands (Nord-Pas-de-Calais) are also involved in the merger as well as some border territories in Germany (e.g. East Friesland). Some Pan-Netherlandic groups also want to include South Africa due to the relation of the Dutch to the Afrikaners and the Afrikaans language.[4]

The goal is to unite these territories into one multilingual state (unitary, federal or confederal). This differs from Greater Netherlandism which aims to unite all Dutch-speaking areas.[5] The name of this state differs per organization, some commonly used names are the (united/reunited) Netherlands/Low Countries and mainly before 1945 the name Dietsland was also used.

  1. ^ Vos, Louis. "Reconstructions of the Past in Belgium and Flanders" (PDF). Vrije Universiteit Brussel: 189–193. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-07-31. Retrieved 2021-08-30.
  2. ^ Duke, Alastair; Spicer, Andrew (2016-12-05). Dissident Identities in the Early Modern Low Countries. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-351-94348-2.
  3. ^ Waltmans, H. J. G. (1962). "De Nederlandse politieke partijen en de nationale gedachte" (PDF). Tilburg University: 121. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-11-08. Retrieved 2021-08-24.
  4. ^ "Verbond van Dietsche Nationaal Solidaristen (Verdinaso) - NEVB Online". nevb.be. Archived from the original on 2021-07-09. Retrieved 2021-08-24.
  5. ^ "Groot-Nederlandse gedachte" (in Dutch). Network of War Collections. Archived from the original on 2021-07-09. Retrieved 2021-08-24.