The Founding of the NetherlandsApproximately twenty percent of the area of ​​the Netherlands and twenty-one percent of its population lie below sea level, and fifty percent of their territory it lies less than one meter above sea level (Molenaar) This makes the Netherlands, of all the countries in the world, the country with the most land below sea level. The Netherlands currently has more than seventeen thousand kilometers of flood defenses (Molenaar). The dams were the foundation of the Netherlands because they made the Netherlands grow, made them known and made them professionals in their construction, but the dams also hurt the Netherlands. There have not always been dams in the Netherlands. Before dams existed, the lower lands overflowed at high tide. The inhabitants who were hunters, fishermen and farmers built artificial mounds on which to live and protect themselves. These mounds were called terpenes. As the terpen grew, entire villages and churches were built on them. There are still many villages in the Netherlands that began as terp villages. The word "terp" comes from an old Frisian word for village meaning height (Wintle). Churches have been built on terpen for a long time. The church was usually built on the highest point of the terp, so that it was the most protected building during floods. If the highest point had already been built, a new terp was built next to the village, especially for the church (Wintle). This means that people would flee to church in the event of a flood and that churches are the oldest buildings on terpen. The terpenes are a great help, but the soil is still getting wet. So the Dutch inhabitants began reclaiming the swamps and shallow lakes, transforming them into livable spaces. By building a dam... middle of paper... and inland rivers made this trade possible. Dikes are the foundation of the Netherlands. The Netherlands is built of dykes literally and figuratively. Literally because the first houses were already built with terpen. Later dams protected them. If there had been no dams, much of the Netherlands would have been submerged. Figuratively speaking because they also derived their prosperity from dams. The extra land provided income, especially since building all those dams made the Netherlands good at hydraulic engineering. And this gave the Netherlands the chance to help other countries with their flood defenses. Therefore the Netherlands would not have been the same without the dams. Dams are part of the Netherlands and no one can change that. It gave the Dutch the opportunity to cycle through a Dutch polder and think that meters above their heads there were fishermen fishing.