What’s the difference between “Holland” and “The Netherlands”? Both titles refer to the same country, so what gives? “Holland” is just the name of two western provinces and are the location of the majority population, but is nonetheless widely used to refer to the entire country. It is perhaps equivalent to the usage of England in reference to Great Britain or the United Kingdom.
People from the rest of the country will often object to this name, and there’s even a religious and historical background to this mini-culture war. The southern provinces of Limburg and Noord Brabant are mainly Roman Catholic while western Holland is Protestant. During the time of the United Provinces these areas had few political liberties—some might even say they were exploited as colonies. It wasn’t until after WWII, with modernization of Dutch society, did the rest of the country feel its relative power increase. Even so, anti-Holland sentiment remains in much of the same way as many Dixie Southerns disdain the Yankee north.
I suppose part of the reason that many Westerners prefer Holland is that the word “Netherlands” sounds a place in a different dimension.
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COMMENTS / 5 COMMENTS
Rika added these pithy words on 07 May 06 at 10:19 pm‘Netherlands’ does sound like a place in a different dimention. Actually, on occasion I’ve foolishly thought it sounded similar to ‘Neverland’, as in Michael Jackson’s Neverland ranch. A disturbing thought for you, there.
I favour ‘Holland’ over ‘Netherlands’ for that reason. :) A little silly, but true none the less.
Rika
lirelou added these pithy words on 08 May 06 at 1:02 amHet Nederlands is a country. Holland is a province. The Dutch war of independence from Spain was the longest such war in European history. Essentially, the Catholic kings married their daughter Juana off to a Hapsbourg, and via several accidents of history her son Karl (Carlos) ended up being King of Castille, and soon after King of Spain. With that treasury safely in his hands, he bought himself the votes necessary to become Holy Roman Emperor. Not particularly liking Spain, he decamped to Germany where he ran into, among others, Martin Luther. After a few years of trying to deal with German princes, he appointed his brother King of the Germans and went back to Madrid, where he learned Spanish. When the Spanish tried to implement the “casa de contratacion” system they had for controlling Latin America in the Netherlands, the seven western (northern) provinces revolted, fighting a primarily sea campaign. Marguerite of Parma asked for assistance against the “Sea Beggars”, and the Duke of Alba was sent in. His solution was to hang anyone suspected of wavering in their sympathies to the crown, and … voila… as the Walloons would say, civil war. The English, former allies of Spain, threw their support to the Dutch, as did Catholic France (for geopolitical reasons). Anyone interested in some light reading that imparts the flavor of both the campaign and the Spanish Army of the period might try Arturo Perez-Reverte’s fairly recent “El Sitio de Breda”. The Dutch civil war changed trade patterns in Europe, required the opening of the “Spanish Road” from Northern Italy up through Eastern (modern day) France and parts of Germany into the Netherlands. It also set both Holland and England on the road to becoming maritime powers, and laid the bases for piracy in the Caribbean. A small appreciation of the war can be obtained from the French film “Cyrano de Bergerac” starring Gerard Depardieu, made nearly 20 years ago. If you notice the flags of both the “Spanish” and “French” regiments fighting each other, you’ll notice that both flags identify the participants as Basques. The Irish and Scotch likewise fought in that war on both sides (as did the Dutch).
Elizabeth added these pithy words on 08 May 06 at 5:08 amTo me, “Holland” represents an old fairy-tale type nation, one that doesn’t exist, in which everyone wears wooden shoes and funny white hats. The Netherlands represents coffeemilk, delicious coffee, gorgeous architecture and great museums with fun people for good parties in late summer. When I was young it used to really bother me when people mixed up Holland and the Netherlands, and Russia and the USSR (fortunately the latter is a mistake few make nowadays). I had no idea people were still mixing this up.
Admiral added these pithy words on 08 May 06 at 8:20 amCan it be a mix-up if they never knew the difference to begin with? :) I think it’s fairly common for English speakers to simply use the terms interchangeably, and who really cares? They’re in the Coalition of the Willing and that’s what counts.
lambert added these pithy words on 09 May 06 at 7:27 pmIt’s not just people in the southern parts of the Netherlands that don’t like the name Holland. Those from the western parts (not only the two provinces of Holland) often aren’t aware there is a difference and in my experience people from Brabant are just as ignorant about this as people from Holland -but then again people from Brabant in general tend to be ignorant anyway.
Oh and we’re in the coalition of the willing with a country that claims the name of a complete continentor rather two continentsfor itself and calling it’s citizens “americans”, whereas most other people of the continent speak of unitedstatians (strictly speaking this isn’t unambiguous either, e.g. Brazil is also a “United States of”
Isn’t that worth a discussion?
