Holland is a geographical regionG. Geerts & H. Heestermans, 1981, Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal. Deel I, Van Dale Lexicografie, Utrecht, p 1105 and former province on the western coast of the Netherlands. From the 10th to the 16th century, Holland proper was a unified political region within the Holy Roman Empire as a county ruled by the counts of Holland. By the 17th century, the province of Holland had risen to become a maritime and economic power, dominating the other provinces of the newly independent Dutch Republic.
The area of the former County of Holland roughly coincides with the two current Dutch provinces of North Holland and South Holland, into which the county was divided, and which together include the Netherlands' three largest cities: the capital city (Amsterdam), the home of Europe's largest port (Rotterdam), and the seat of government (The Hague). Holland has a population of 6,583,534 as of November 2019, and a population density of 1203/km2.
The name Holland has frequently been used to refer to the whole of the country of the Netherlands. This casual usage is commonly accepted in other countries, and is even employed by many Dutch themselves.Netherlands vs. Holland , Netherlands Board of Tourism & Conventions However, some in the Netherlands (particularly those from regions outside Holland or the Randstad) find it undesirable or misrepresentative to use the term for the whole country. In 2019, the Netherlands officially dropped its support of the term Holland for the whole country, which included a logo redesign that changed "Holland" to "NL".
Etymology and terminology
Etymology The name Holland first appeared in sources for the region around Haarlem, and by 1064 was being used as the name of the entire County of Holland. By the early 12th century, the inhabitants of Holland were called Hollandi in a Latin text.Antheun Janse, "Een zichzelf verdeeld rijk" in Thimo de Nijs and Eelco Beukers (eds.), 2003, Geschiedenis van Holland, Vol. 1, p. 73 Holland is derived from the Old Dutch term holtlant ('wood-land').Oxford English Dictionary, "Holland, n. 1," etymology. This spelling variation remained in use until around the 14th century, at which time the name stabilised as Holland (alternative spellings at the time were Hollant and Hollandt). A popular but erroneous folk etymology holds that Holland is derived from hol land ('hollow land' in Dutch), purportedly inspired by the low-lying geography of the land.Lodovico Guicciardini. 1567. Descrittione di tutti i Paesi Bassi. Antwerp, Willem Silvius, p. 178
Derivative forms The people of Holland are referred to as "Hollanders" in both Dutch and English, though in English this is now unusual. Today this refers specifically to people from the current provinces of North Holland and South Holland. Strictly speaking, the term "Hollanders" does not refer to people from the other provinces in the Netherlands, but colloquially "Hollanders" is sometimes used in this wider sense.
In English, Dutch refers to the Netherlands as a whole, but there is no commonly used adjective for "Holland". The word "Hollandish" is no longer in common use. "Hollandic" is the name linguists give to the dialect spoken in Holland,Willemyns, Roland. 2012. "Dutch." Revue Belge de Philologie et d'Histoire, vol. 90, no 3, pp. 1005–1016 and is occasionally also used by historians and when referring to the pre-Napoleonic province.Fatah-Black, K.J. 2013, October. Suriname and the Atlantic World, 1650-1800 dissertation University of Leyden, p 215
Regional implication in Dutch In regional contexts, Holland, Hollands (adjectival form and the language), or Hollanders (people of Holland) may be colloquially used with the intention of contrasting with other types of Dutch people or forms of the language. By the Flemish (Belgian Dutch-speakers) it is often used to denote the Dutch people and language in the Netherlands. By the southern Dutch people (those living "below the great rivers"; a natural cultural, social, and religious boundary formed by the rivers Rhine and Meuse) it is used to refer to the northern Dutch (those living north of these rivers). The use of the term in this context by the southern Dutch is in a derogatory fashion. In the southern province of Limburg, the term may apply to people and (non-Limburgish) dialects from the other 11 provinces.
Holland as pars pro toto
Historically, "Holland" served as the official national name only between 1806 and 1810, during the Napoleonic Kingdom of Holland; otherwise, it has always been a region or county within the historical countries of the Dutch territory. In today's Netherlands, Holland comprises the provinces of North Holland and South Holland, representing two of the country’s twelve provinces, covering about 13% of its national territory and approximately 38% of the Dutch population.
'Hollandocentrism'
'' refers to the tendency to centre Holland in representations of the Netherlands. This is partly explained by the historical cultural, political, and economic dominance of Holland within the Netherlands, which (inter)nationally became the most influential region of the country and positioned it as the primary point of international contact. This dominant position resulted in the incorrect use of "Holland" as a pars pro toto or synecdoche for the entire country, akin to tendency to refer to the United Kingdom as "England". The practice of referring to the entire country as "Holland" is controversial within the Netherlands. Many Dutch people, particularly those from outside Holland, object to this usage as inaccurate or misrepresentative, drawing parallels to Northern Irish, Welsh or Scottish objections when the UK is referred to as England.George Mikes, How to be an Alien, "When people say England, they sometimes mean Great Britain, sometimes the United Kingdom, sometimes the British Isles - but never England."
The predominance of Holland has fostered regionalist sentiments among other provinces, which perceive Holland as a threat to their local culture and identity. Holland and its inhabitants are often associated with strong, frequently negative stereotypes,Rob van Ginkel, "Hollandse Tonelen" in Thimo de Nijs and Eelco Beukers (eds.), Geschiedenis van Holland, Vol. 3, p. 688 to whom certain qualities are ascribed within a mental geography, a conceptual mapping of spaces and their inhabitants.Hans Knippenberg and Ben de Pater, "Brandpunt van macht en modernisering" in Thimo de Nijs and Eelco Beukers (eds.), 2003, Geschiedenis van Holland, Vol. 3, p. 556 Conversely, some Hollanders take their region's cultural centrality for granted, treating "Holland" and "the Netherlands" as interchangeable and identifying primarily as Dutch rather than specifically as Hollanders,Thimo de Nijs, "Hollandse identiteit in perspectief" in Thimo de Nijs and Eelco Beukers (eds.), 2003, Geschiedenis van Holland, Vol. 3, p. 700 excluding the majority of the Dutch citizens in this definition. The phenomenon known as hollandocentrism encompasses both the perspective and the broader cultural dominance of Holland.Rob van Ginkel, "Hollandse Tonelen" in Thimo de Nijs and Eelco Beukers (eds.), 2003, Geschiedenis van Holland, Vol. 3, p. 647
In 2009, members of the Senate stated that "if in addition to Holland a recognisable translation of the Netherlands does exist in a foreign language, it should be regarded as the best translation" and that "the Kingdom of the Netherlands has a right to use the translation it thinks best, certainly on official [Dutch] documents". Since 2019, the Dutch government has officially favoured "the Netherlands" in all international communications. They stated: "It has been agreed that the Netherlands, the official name of our country, should preferably be used."
Official exonym
Whilst "Holland" has been replaced in English as the official name for the country of the Netherlands, several other languages still use it, or a calque of it, as the official contemporary terminology to refer to the Netherlands. This is predominantly the case in Southeast Asia, but can for example be seen in:
History Initially, Holland was a remote corner of the Holy Roman Empire. Gradually, its regional importance increased until it began to have a decisive, and ultimately dominant, influence on the History of the Netherlands.
County of Holland
Until the start of the 12th century, the inhabitants of the area that became Holland were known as Frisians. The area was initially part of Frisia. At the end of the 9th century, West-Frisia became a separate county in the Holy Roman Empire. The first count known about with certainty was Dirk I, who ruled from 896 to 931. He was succeeded by a long line of counts in the House of Holland (who were in fact known as counts of Frisia until 1101). When John I died childless in 1299, the county was inherited by Count John II of Hainaut. By the time of William V (House of Wittelsbach; 1354–1388) the count of Holland was also the count of Hainaut and Zealand.
After the St. Lucia's flood in 1287 the part of Frisia west of the later Zuiderzee, West Friesland, was conquered. As a result, most provincial institutions, including the States of Holland and West Frisia, would for more than five centuries refer to "Holland and West Frisia" as a unit. The Hook and Cod wars started around this time and ended when the countess of Holland, Jacoba or Jacqueline was forced to cede Holland to the Burgundian Philip III, known as Philip the Good, in 1432.
In 1432, Holland became part of the Burgundian Netherlands and since 1477 of the Habsburg Seventeen Provinces. In the 16th century the county became the most densely urbanised region in Europe, with the majority of the population living in cities. Within the Burgundian Netherlands, Holland was the dominant province in the north; the political influence of Holland largely determined the extent of Burgundian dominion in that area. The last count of Holland was Philip III, better known as Philip II, king of Spain. He was deposed in 1581 by the Act of Abjuration, although the kings of Spain continued to carry the titular appellation of Count of Holland until the Peace of Münster signed in 1648.
Dutch Republic
In the Dutch Rebellion against the Habsburgs during the Eighty Years' War, the naval forces of the rebels, the Watergeuzen, established their first permanent base in 1572 in the town of Brill. In this way, Holland, now a sovereign state in a larger Dutch confederation, became the centre of the rebellion. It became the cultural, political and economic centre of the United Provinces (), in the 17th century, the Dutch Golden Age, the wealthiest nation in the world. After the King of Spain was deposed as the count of Holland, the executive and legislative power rested with the States of Holland, which was led by a political figure who held the office of Grand Pensionary.
The largest cities in the Dutch Republic were in the province of Holland, such as Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Leiden, Alkmaar, The Hague, Delft, Dordrecht, and Haarlem. From the great ports of Holland, Hollandic merchants sailed to and from destinations all over Europe, and merchants from all over Europe gathered to trade in the warehouses of Amsterdam and other trading cities of Holland.
Many Europeans thought of the United Provinces first as Holland rather than as the Republic of the Seven United Provinces of the Netherlands. A strong impression of Holland was planted in the minds of other Europeans, which then was projected back onto the Republic as a whole. Within the provinces themselves, a gradual slow process of cultural expansion took place, leading to a "Hollandification" of the other provinces and a more uniform culture for the whole of the Republic. The dialect of urban Holland became the standard language.
Under French rule