Kingdom of the Netherlands

The Kingdom of the Netherlands is a sovereign state made up of four constituent countries that stand as equal partners under one monarch, who serves as head of state: Aruba, Curacao, Sint Maarten and the country called the Netherlands. The Netherlands itself lies mostly in Northwestern Europe, while the three smaller island countries and three special municipalities (Bonaire, Saba and Sint Eustatius) lie in the Caribbean. Each of the four countries runs its own parliament and internal affairs, but the Kingdom as a whole is administered from within the constituent country of the Netherlands, which holds roughly 98 percent of the realm's land area and population, and foreign policy and defence are carried out on behalf of all four. In everyday and diplomatic use the shorter name Netherlands often stands for the Kingdom, so readers should keep the sovereign state and its largest constituent country apart. This entry treats the Kingdom as the present-day state that exists in international law.