In the middle of the seventeenth century (by the Treaty of West-
phalia, 1648), the independence of the United Proyinces of the Nether-
lands was acknowledged h; the rest of Europe. Early in the nineteenth
century, through the efforts of Napoleon, it was made a kingdom and
later joined to France. The Congress of Vienna, which settled the polit-
ical affairs of Europe after Napoleon's overthrow, re-established the
Kingdom of Holland and joined to it Belgium, then known as the
Spanish Netherlands, The differences of nationality and of language, of
religion and of customs, between the Dutch and the Belgians, were too
great, and in 1830 they separated into two of the smallest states of



112. The Scandinavian Countries.
Poaltion — Norway, Sweden, and Denmark compnse the
Scandinavian ooiintriea They occupy the two peninanlaa
west of the Baltic, which prob-
ably were at one time united
while the Baltic was an inland
sea. Their people speak Idn
guages similar, and the nations
have had in the main a common
history (53 )

Scandinavian Peninsula — This
peninsula is the largest one
of Europe It comprises two
kingdoms, Norway and Swe-
den, separated by long ranges
of mountains which extend
nearly the whole length of the pemnsula Norway and
Sweden, like Austria and Hungary, have separate parlia-




238 GRAMMAR SCHOOL GEOGSAPHT.
