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Holland is the name of a region in the central-western part of the Netherlands.
Holland is a former county of the Holy Roman Empire and later the leading
member of the Republic of the Seven United Provinces of the Netherlands
(1581–1795). The area is today divided between two
provinces of the Netherlands: North Holland (Noord-Holland) and South
Holland (Zuid-Holland) that were created in 1840. A few regions historically
Hollandic became part of other provinces as a result of reforms during
the French occupation (1795-1813): Willemstad and surroundings, Biesbosch
and the Land of Altena became part of North Brabant, the islands of
Vlieland and Terschelling went to Friesland, and the island of Urk to
Overijssel (later Flevoland). The name Holland in this and the other
entries on this page ultimately stem from holt land ("wooded land").
A popular, but incorrect, fake etymology holds that it is derived from
hol land ("hollow land"), inspired by the low-lying geography
of both the Dutch and the English region (Holland, Lincolnshire). The
province of Holland was the cultural, political and economic center
of the United Provinces. The greatest cities of the provinces were located
within the province of Holland such as Amsterdam (the capital), Rotterdam,
Leiden, the Hague (the seat of government), Delft, and Haarlem. From
the great port cities of Holland, Dutch 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. As a result, many Europeans heard of the United Provinces first
as "Holland" rather than "Republiek der Zeven Verenigde
Nederlanden". This tradition continues to this day. Thus, even
though it is officially incorrect, the word Holland is often used by
both Dutch (speaking) and foreign people to denote the entire Netherlands,
possibly because "The Netherlands" ("Nederland"
in Dutch) is more cumbersome. It is a common misconception for someone
to refer to the Netherlands as Holland, because what they are suggesting
is the province mentioned above. People from the other provinces of
the Netherlands (such as Friesland, North Brabant, Zeeland etc) can
be quite offended when referred to as "Hollanders". For a
short time (1806–1810), however, there was the Napoleonic Kingdom
of Holland, which did encompass the entire Netherlands.
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