Editing Zuiderzee (section)

==Geography==
Around the Zuiderzee many fishing villages grew up and several developed into walled towns with extensive trade connections, in particular [[Kampen (Overijssel)|Kampen]], a town in [[Overijssel]], and later also towns in [[Holland]] such as Amsterdam, [[Hoorn]], and [[Enkhuizen]]. These towns traded at first with ports on the [[Baltic Sea]], in England, and in the [[Hanseatic League]], but later also with the rest of the world when the Netherlands established its [[Dutch Empire|colonial empire]]. When that lucrative trade diminished, most of the towns fell back on fishing and some [[Industrial sector|industry]] until the 20th century when tourism became the major source of income.{{Citation needed|date=July 2024}}

Contained within the Zuiderzee were five small islands,<ref name="EB1911"/> the remains of what were once larger islands, [[peninsula]]s connected to the [[mainland]], or in the case of [[Pampus]], an artificial island.{{Citation needed|date=July 2024}} These were [[Wieringen]], [[Urk]], [[Schokland]], Pampus and [[Marken]].<ref name="EB1911"/> The inhabitants of these islands also subsisted mainly on fishing and related industries and still do in the case of Urk and Wieringen. All of these islands, except for Pampus, are now part of the mainland or connected to it.{{Citation needed|date=July 2024}}