Low Countries

A term used to refer to The Netherlands and Belgium. It derives its name from the low-lying coastal plain of both countries.

The Low Countries, the historical region of de Nederlanden, are the countries on low-lying land around the delta of the Rhine, Scheldt, and Meuse (Maas) rivers.

In 1713, under the Treaty of Utrecht following the War of the Spanish Succession, what was left of the Spanish Netherlands was ceded to Austria and thus became known as the Austrian Netherlands.

In English, the plural form Netherlands is used for the present-day country, but in Dutch that plural has been dropped, with the pleasant side-effect that one can thus distinguish between the older, larger Netherlands and the current country.