Complex sentence: Drenthe, unlike many other parts of the Netherlands has always been a sparsely populated rural area, other parts of the Netherlands didn't really see this "territory" as a part that belonged to the rest of the Netherlands but more like "wasteland".
Split into simpler sentences: Drenthe, unlike many other parts of the Netherlands, has always been a sparsely populated rural area. Other parts of the Netherlands didn't really see this "territory" as a part that belonged to the rest of the Netherlands but more like "wasteland".