Holland
Holland (Dutch: Holland) is a historical and cultural region located on the west coast of the Netherlands. Since 1840, it has been divided into two provinces, North Holland (North Holland) and South Holland (South Holland).
Originally, the county of Holland was the main member of the United Provinces of the Netherlands (1581-1795) so due to its historical importance in the region the place name «Holland» is traditionally used as pars pro toto or synecdoche to refer to the whole of the country whose official name is "The Netherlands". However, during the reign of Luis Bonaparte (1806-1810) the State was called the Kingdom of Holland. This pars pro toto also occurs with the name of the language, Dutch, which is traditionally known as "Dutch" (although Dutch is actually a dialect of Dutch) as well as the adjective Dutch, often replaced by "Dutch". This use is informal and although it is not technically correct, it is very common in practice even by its own citizens.
Toponymy
Etymology
The place name "Holland" first appeared in sources from the Haarlem region in 866, and by 1064 it was used to refer to the entire county. Likewise, the inhabitants of the Netherlands referred to themselves as "Dutchmen". "Holland" derives from the Old Dutch Holtland ('wooded land'). This spelling variation persisted until the middle of the XIV, at which point it was standardized as Holland (or its alternate spellings Hollant and Hollandt). Popular etymology holds that "Holland" derives from hol land ('hollow land') and that the place name was based on the low geographical altitude of the territory.
Synédoche with the Netherlands
As of 2020, under the supervision of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the trademark “Holland” disappeared and the State began to be known as “The Netherlands”. The name "Netherlands" ("NL"), in English, became the protagonist of the new logo that replaced the toponymic "Holland", used until 2022. Embassies and consulates have always used the official name "Netherlands", due to because South and North Holland are just two of the twelve national provinces. The National Tourist Office, which until now promotes itself as Holland, will analyze how to adapt the new emblem, effective from January 1, 2020.[update]
History
Each region of the Netherlands has its own history however, to a certain extent, the history of the Netherlands as a region is the history of the Netherlands as a country, as it is the most influential region of the current sovereign state. See "History of the Netherlands" for more detailed content.
Netherlands County
Until the 9th century, the inhabitants of the territory that became the Netherlands were of Frisian origin. The area was part of Friesland. At the end of the s. IX, Holland became a county of the Holy Roman Empire. The first count of Holland known for certain was Theodoric I, who ruled from 896 to 931. He was succeeded by a long line of Dutch counts, who until 1101 were known as counts of Frisia. When Count Juan I died without issue in 1299, the county was inherited by Juan II de Avesnes, Count of Hainaut. In the time of William V (House of Wittelsbach, 1354-1388), the Count of Holland was also the Count of Hainaut and Zeeland.
Later, West Frisia was conquered and, as a result, most regional institutions referred to the Netherlands and West Frisia as a single unit. At the same time, armed confrontations took place and continued until Jacqueline I, Countess of Hainaut, was forced to cede all her possessions, including Holland, to her cousin Philip III of Burgundy, known as Philip the Good i>, in 1432.
As a consequence, Holland became part of the Burgundian Netherlands, and later, in 1477, it became part of the Seventeen Habsburg Provinces. In the 16th century, the county became the most densely urbanized region in Europe, with the majority of the population living in large cities. In the Burgundian Netherlands, Holland was the dominant northern region; the political influence of the Netherlands largely determined Burgundian rule over the area. The last count of Holland was Felipe II of Spain. He was officially deposed in 1581 through the Act of Abjuration, although the Spanish monarchs retained the title of "Counts of Holland" until the Peace of Münster, signed in 1648.
United Provinces
In the Dutch rebellion against the Habsburgs during the Eighty Years' War, the naval forces of the rebels—the "sea beggars"—established their first permanent base at Brielle in 1572. Thus, Holland, now With sovereign state status in a larger Dutch confederation, it became the center of the rebellion. In the 17th century, the Netherlands became the cultural, political and economic center of the United Provinces, becoming one of the greatest European powers, a process known as the Dutch Golden Age. After the King of Spain was deposed as Count of the Netherlands, executive and legislative power fell to the states that made up the United Provinces, which were led by the figure of the Grand Pensionary.
The largest cities of the United Provinces were in the Netherlands—Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Leiden, Alkmaar, The Hague, Delft, Dordrecht, and Haarlem. From the region's large ports, Dutch merchants sailed to other European destinations, and major European merchants ran the continental market from Amsterdam and the other Dutch port cities.
Many Europeans referred to the United Provinces as "Holland" and not as "Republic of the Seven United Netherlands". A strong Dutch influence was planted in the minds of fellow Europeans, which was then projected into the Republic as a whole. In the Republic itself, a slow gradual process of cultural expansion took place, standardizing the cultures of the other provinces and making them more similar to the Dutch. The language of urban Holland became the standard language.
French satellite state
The formation of the Batavian Republic, inspired by the French Revolution, led to a more centralized government. Holland became the province of a unitary state. The independence of the region was stopped due to an administrative reform in 1789, in which the Dutch territory was divided into several departments: Amstel, Delf, Texel, and part of the Scheldt and Meuse basins.
From 1806 to 1810, Napoleon Bonaparte controlled the vassal state, the Kingdom of Holland, ruled de iure by Louis I Bonaparte and, for a short time, by Louis's son Louis Napoleon Bonaparte. The kingdom covered much of the territory that makes up the current Netherlands. The kingdom's naming reflects how common it was to equate the rest of the territories as part of the Netherlands region.
During the period when the Netherlands was annexed by the First French Empire and incorporated into France (1810–1813), the Netherlands was divided into the departments of Zuyderzée and Bouches-de-la-Meuse.
Kingdom of the Netherlands
After 1813, the Netherlands became a province of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. Later, in 1840, the Netherlands was divided into the current provinces of North Holland and South Holland, as a result of the Belgian Revolution of 1830. Since 1850, a strong nation-building process caused the Netherlands to be culturally unified and economically modernized, making the cities of the Netherlands the base of its economy.
Geography
Holland is located in the west of the Netherlands. Being a maritime region, the Netherlands lies on the North Sea coast, at the mouth of the Rhine and Meuse rivers. It has numerous rivers and lakes and an extensive inland channel. It borders: to the south, with Zeeland; to the north, with Friesland; and to the east, with the IJsselmeer and the regions of Flevoland, Utrecht and North Brabant.
The Netherlands is protected from the sea by a long line of dunes along the coast. Most of the area behind the dunes is made up of polders, land surfaces reclaimed from the sea that lie well below sea level. Currently, the lowest point in the Netherlands is a polder, the Zuidplaspolder, located at about 6.75 meters below sea level, near Rotterdam. Continuous drainage is necessary to keep the Netherlands safe from flooding. In previous centuries, windmills were used for this purpose. The landscape was – and in some parts still is – littered with these wooden structures, which have become a symbol of the Netherlands.
It covers 7,494 km², including land and water, which is about 13% of the area of the Netherlands. As for the mainland alone, it has an area of 5,488 km². The population, combining that of the two provinces, is about 6.1 million inhabitants, which is 36.7% of the population of the Netherlands.
The main cities in the Netherlands are Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague. Amsterdam is officially the capital of the Netherlands and its most populous city. The port of Rotterdam is the largest and most important port in Europe. The Hague, capital of South Holland, is the seat of the executive and legislative power of the Netherlands and seat of the International Court of Justice. These cities, together with Utrecht and other smaller municipalities, form the largest Dutch conurbation, the Randstad.
The Randstad is one of the most densely populated regions in Europe, but still free from urban sprawl, due to strict zoning laws. Population increases, high property prices and constant urban development are constant on the periphery of urbanized areas. Despite this, most of the region continues to have a rural character. The agricultural and natural areas that still persist are highly valued and protected. Most of the arable land is used for intensive agriculture, including horticulture and greenhouses.
Recovery of land from the sea
The current territory of the Netherlands has never been stable. For millennia, the region's geography had been dynamic. The west coast shifted thirty kilometers to the east, and the tides regularly passed the line of dunes. The Frisian Islands, which were originally attached to the mainland, became separate islands in the north. The main rivers, the Rhine and the Meuse, flooded the area regularly and changed course several times and dramatically.
The inhabitants of the Netherlands found themselves living in an unstable, flood-prone area. After the coastal dunes of the Netherlands, a high peat plateau formed, forming a natural protection from the sea. Much of the territory was covered by marshes and swampy areas. Around the 10th century, the inhabitants of the area dedicated themselves to cultivating the land, draining it. However, the drainage caused the contraction of the soil and the reduction of the surface by about fifteen meters.
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To the south of the Netherlands, in Zeeland, and to the north, in Friesland, this development resulted in catastrophic floods, literally destroying entire regions and the peat layer, which broke off and was washed away in the floods. From the Frisian coast, the eastern area began to flood, forming the Zuiderzee – the current IJsselmeer. This inland sea threatened to join the flooded lands of Zealand to the south and reduce the Netherlands to just a few narrow island-dunes off the great Zuiderzee. Only drastic administrative intervention saved the region from total devastation. The first emergency breakwaters began to be built to reinforce critical coastal points. Later, the special autonomous body, the waterschappen, was established, which had the power to enforce its laws and decide on water management. As the centuries passed, a network of dikes was eventually built along the shoreline, thus protecting the land from flooding.
However, the Dutch did not stop. In the 16th century, they began to reclaim land from the sea, turning lakes, marshes, and swampy areas into polders. This continued into the 20th century; for this reason, the old maps of the Netherlands are not very similar to the current ones.
This ongoing struggle for domination of the water plays an important role in the development of the Netherlands as a maritime and economic power and in the development of the character of the Dutch people.
Demographics
The Netherlands has a population of 6.3 million, accounting for approximately one third of the population of the Netherlands.
Culture
Holland tends to be associated with a particular image. The stereotypical image of the Netherlands is an artificial amalgamation of tulips, windmills, clogs, cheese and traditional dress (klederdracht). As is the case with many stereotypes, this is far from the truth and reality of life in the Netherlands. This, in part, is explained by the exploitation of stereotypes in promotions from Holland and the Netherlands. In fact, only in some of the most traditional towns, the traditional dress and clogs are used by the inhabitants.
Dutch dominance in the Netherlands has resulted in regionalism by other provinces. This is a reaction to the perceived threat that the Netherlands poses to the local identities and cultures of the other regions. The other provinces have a strongly mistaken, and sometimes negative, image of the Netherlands and the Dutch. On the other hand, other Dutch people acknowledge Dutch cultural dominance and treat the synonymy of "Holland" and "Netherlands" as commonplace. Consequently, they see themselves not primarily as Dutch, but as Dutch (Nederlanders). The phenomenon has been called Dutch-centrism.
Languages
The predominant language in the Netherlands is Dutch. The Dutch generally refer to Dutch as "Dutch", rather than the standard term. The inhabitants of Belgium and the other provinces of the Netherlands refer to "Dutch" as the dialect of Dutch spoken in the region.
Standard Dutch was based on the dialect of the province of Holland, which incorporates many features derived from the languages spoken in the Duchy of Brabant and the County of Flanders. A strong dialectal variation still exists in the Netherlands today. Today, the Netherlands is the region in which the original Dutch dialects are least used, in many areas superseded by the standard dialect. The Randstad is the major source of influence on the evolution of the standard language, with the exception of the Dutch spoken in Belgium.
Despite the correspondence between Standard and Randstad Dutch, there are local variations within the Netherlands itself that differ from the Dutch dialect. Each of the major cities has its own modern dialect, considered sociolects. A small number of people, especially in the northern part of Amsterdam, still speak the original county dialect. The original dialect is present in the north: in and around Volendam and Marken, in West Frisia and in the Zaan region; it is also spoken in the provinces of North Brabant, Utrecht and south of the island of Goeree-Overflakkee, in Zealand.
Economy
Industry and commerce are mainly concentrated in the Randstad, the largest conurbation in the Netherlands.
New Holland
The province of Holland gave its name to a series of colonial settlements and discovered regions that were called Nieuw Holland or New Holland. The largest of these was the island of Australia. The name "New Holland" was first used in Australia in 1644 by the Dutch sailor Abel Tasman, who gave it the Latin name Nova Hollandia, and remained in use for 190 years. On the same trip, he named New Zealand after the Dutch province of Zeeland. In the Netherlands, "New Netherland" would be the common name for Australia until the late 19th century.
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