The Netherlands is/was Holland. It is the same thing...... Technically since they are the same regional area and have only switched names, and government
((I’m pretty sure that you think your point of view is factual and that my extensive research and being a native Dutch person is not enough to provide real information on this topic <3
But let me assure you that The Netherlands is not and never was ‘Holland’. The County of Holland was first and foremost a state at the beginning when it was under the Holy Roman Empire’s rule. It later on in 1581 [when the Low Countries started their rebellion against Spain in the 80 years war and declared themselves independent] became one of the 8 7 provinces of “The 7 United Provinces of The Netherlands”. In 1840 it has been split into Noord-Holland and Zuid-Holland as it became too dominant of a province for The Netherlands.
The Netherlands itself used to be for a long time called The Low Countries, consisting of modern day Belgium, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, a small part of Northern France and a small part of Western Germany. It has gotten its current name [The Netherlands] after Belgium had split off from it in 1815 and consisted roughly of the area it covers today, meaning it covered Holland as well as many, many other provinces and regions.
Confusion may have occurred to you when you’ve read about the Kingdom of Holland, which was a brief period of only four years where The Netherlands had this name. It was only named this because of Napoleon Bonaparte’s brother, Louis Bonaparte, tried to make it easier to control The Netherlands this way as it lead to more less confusion.
Or perhaps confusion occurred when you’ve read about the VOC company operated from the province of Holland that acted as a sovereign state with its own governmental rights to establish monopolies in trade in the 17th century. As they were mostly people from this province, and people in provinces felt very patriotic and proud of their roots, they would call themselves Hollanders instead of Nederlanders. Provinces in The Netherlands can be seen as the states in for example Germany, where each had their own little governments and leaders and would even wage war against each other at times.
Of course our old trusty friend Wikipedia will always clear up misunderstandings:
In the national anthem of The Netherlands in the 10th stanza, which was written in the 16th century, it speaks of Neerland which was old-fashioned Dutch for The Netherlands.
Therefore, long story short:Holland is merely a region of The Netherlands and has never been the entirety of the country nor vice versa.
I hope this has cleared up any confusion you’ve had about Holland and The Netherlands, because if not I recommend you watching this video that I’ve shared here before and has a bit more information:
I’ve just crammed a year’s worth of education on The Netherlands from my blog into a small post and I’m just thrilled to know that you’ve never read any of it, it really makes my day.
But thankfully I’m always up for talking and giving out information about my country and I’m pretty well educated in it so it didn’t take me too long to wrap this up for you. Have a nice day! <3))
Just a little something to make it visual for you that ‘Holland’ does not in fact cover the entire country <3
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