Holland is a geographicalregion[3] and formerprovince on the western coast of theNetherlands.[3] From the 10th to the 16th century, Holland proper was a unified political region within theHoly Roman Empire as acounty ruled by thecounts 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 independentDutch Republic.
The nameHolland has frequently been usedinformally torefer to the whole of the country of the Netherlands.[3] This casual usage is commonly accepted in other countries, and is even employed by manyDutch themselves.[4] However, some in the Netherlands (particularly those from regions outside Holland or the west) find it undesirable or misrepresentative to use the term for the whole country.[5] In January 2020, the Netherlands officially dropped its support of the wordHolland for the whole country, which included a logo redesign that changed "Holland" to "NL".[6]
The nameHolland first appeared in sources for the region aroundHaarlem, and by 1064 was being used as the name of the entire county. By the early twelfth century, the inhabitants of Holland were calledHollandi in aLatin text.[7]Holland is derived from theOld Dutch termholtlant ('wood-land').[8] This spelling variation remained in use until around the 14th century, at which time the name stabilised asHolland (alternative spellings at the time wereHollant andHollandt). A popular but erroneousfolk etymology holds thatHolland is derived fromhol land ('hollow land' in Dutch), purportedly inspired by thelow-lyinggeography of the land.
"Holland" is informally used inEnglish and other languages, including sometimes theDutch language itself, to mean the whole of the modern country of theNetherlands.[5] This example ofpars pro toto orsynecdoche is similar to the tendency to refer to the United Kingdom as "England",[9][10] and developed due to Holland's becoming the dominant province and thus having the majority of political and economic interactions with other countries.[11]
Between 1806 and 1810 "Holland" was the official name for the country as a whole, afterNapoleon made his brotherLouis Bonaparte the monarch of theKingdom of Holland.
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 Dutch, the wordHollands is the adjectival form forHolland.Hollands is also colloquially used by some Dutch people in the sense ofNederlands (the Dutch language), occasionally with the intention of contrasting with other types of Dutch people or forms of the language—for exampleLimburgish, the Belgian varieties of the Dutch language ("Flemish"), or even any southern variety of Dutch within the Netherlands itself.
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, and is occasionally also used by historians and when referring to pre-Napoleonic Holland.
Initially, Holland was a remote corner of theHoly Roman Empire. Gradually, its regional importance increased until it began to have a decisive, and ultimately dominant, influence on theHistory of the Netherlands.
Until the start of the 12th century, the inhabitants of the area that became Holland were known asFrisians. The area was initially part ofFrisia. At the end of the 9th century, West-Frisia became a separatecounty in theHoly Roman Empire. The firstcount known about with certainty wasDirk I, who ruled from 896 to 931. He was succeeded by along line of counts in the House of Holland (who were in fact known as counts of Frisia until 1101). WhenJohn I died childless in 1299, the county was inherited by CountJohn II of Hainaut. By the time ofWilliam V (House of Wittelsbach; 1354–1388) the count of Holland was also the count ofHainaut andZealand.
In 1432, Holland became part of theBurgundian Netherlands and since 1477 of theHabsburgSeventeen Provinces. In the 16th century the county became the most denselyurbanised 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 asPhilip II, king of Spain. He was deposed in 1581 by theAct of Abjuration, although the kings of Spain continued to carry the titular appellation of Count of Holland until thePeace of Münster signed in 1648.
In the Dutch Rebellion against the Habsburgs during theEighty Years' War, the naval forces of the rebels, theWatergeuzen, established their first permanent base in 1572 in the town ofBrill. 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 theUnited Provinces (Dutch:Verenigde Provinciën), in the 17th century, theDutch Golden Age, the wealthiest nation in the world. After theKing 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 ofGrand Pensionary.
The largest cities in theDutch Republic were in the province of Holland, such asAmsterdam,Rotterdam,Leiden,Alkmaar,The Hague,Delft,Dordrecht andHaarlem. From the great ports of Holland, Hollandic merchants sailed to and from destinations all overEurope, 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 asHolland rather than as theRepublic of the Seven United Provinces of the Netherlands. A strong impression ofHolland 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 thestandard language.
The formation of theBatavian Republic, inspired by theFrench Revolution, led to a more centralised government. Holland became a province of aunitary state. Its independence was further reduced by an administrative reform in 1798, in which its territory was divided into several departments calledAmstel,Delf,Texel, and part ofSchelde en Maas.
From 1806 to 1810,Napoleon styled his vassal state, governed by his brotherLouis Napoleon and shortly by the son of Louis,Napoleon Louis Bonaparte, as the "Kingdom of Holland". This kingdom encompassed much of what would become the modern Netherlands. The name reflects how natural at the time it had become to equate Holland with the non-Belgian Netherlands as a whole.[12]
In 1815, Holland was restored as a province of theUnited Kingdom of the Netherlands. Holland was divided into the present provincesNorth Holland andSouth Holland in 1840, after theBelgian Revolution of 1830. This reflected a historical division of Holland along theIJ into a Southern Quarter (Zuiderkwartier) and a Northern Quarter (Noorderkwartier),[14] but the present division is different from the old division. From 1850, a strong process ofnation formation took place, the Netherlands being culturally unified and economically integrated by amodernisation process, with the cities of Holland as its centre.[15]
Holland is located in the west of the Netherlands. A maritime region, Holland lies on theNorth Sea at the mouths of theRhine and theMeuse (Maas). It contains numerous rivers and lakes, and has an extensive inland canal and waterway system. To the south isZealand. The region is bordered on the east by theIJsselmeer and four Dutch provinces.
Holland is protected from the sea by a long line of coastaldunes. The highest point in Holland, about 55 metres (180 ft) above sea level,[16] is in theSchoorlse Duinen [nl] (Schoorl Dunes). Most of the land area behind the dunes consists ofpolder landscape lying well belowsea level. At present the lowest point in Holland is a polder nearRotterdam, which is about 7 metres (23 ft) below sea level. Continuous drainage is necessary to keep Holland from flooding. In earlier centuries,windmills were used for this task. The landscape was (and in places still is) dotted with windmills, which have become a symbol of Holland.
Holland is 7,494 square kilometres (2,893square miles), land and water included, making it roughly 13% of the area of the Netherlands. Looking at land alone, it is 5,488 square kilometres (2,119 square miles) in area. The combined population was 6.5 million in 2018.[17]
The Randstad area is one of the most densely populated regions of Europe, but still relatively free ofurban sprawl. There are strictzoning laws. Population pressures are enormous, property values are high, and new housing is constantly under development on the edges of the built-up areas. Nevertheless, much of the province still has a rural character. The remaining agricultural land and natural areas are highly valued and protected. Most of the arable land is used forintensive agriculture, including horticulture andgreenhouse agri-businesses.
The land that is now Holland has not been geographically "stable" since prehistoric times. The western coastline shifted up to 30 kilometres (19 miles) to the east and storm surges regularly broke through the row of coastal dunes. TheFrisian Isles, originally joined to the mainland, became detached islands in the north. The main rivers, theRhine and theMeuse (Maas), flooded regularly and changed course repeatedly and dramatically.
The people of Holland found themselves living in an unstable, watery environment. Behind thedunes on the coast of the Netherlands a highpeat plateau had grown, forming a natural protection against the sea. Much of the area wasmarsh andbog. By the tenth century the inhabitants set about cultivating this land by draining it. However, the drainage resulted in extreme soil shrinkage, lowering the surface of the land by up to 15 metres (49 feet).
To the south of Holland, inZeeland, and to the north, inFrisia, this development led tocatastrophic storm floods literally washing away entire regions, as the peat layer disintegrated or became detached and was carried away by the flood water. From the Frisian side the sea even flooded the area to the east, gradually hollowing Holland out from behind and forming theZuiderzee (the present IJsselmeer). This inland sea threatened to link up with the "drowned lands" of Zealand in the south, reducing Holland to a series of narrow dunebarrier islands in front of alagoon. Only drastic administrative intervention saved the county from utter destruction. The counts and large monasteries took the lead in these efforts, building the first heavy emergencydikes to bolster critical points. Later special autonomous administrative bodies were formed, thewaterschappen ("water control boards"), which had the legal power to enforce their regulations and decisions onwater management. They eventually constructed an extensive dike system that covered the coastline and the polders, thus protecting the land from further incursions by the sea.
However, the Hollanders did not stop there. Starting around the 16th century, they took the offensive and beganland reclamation projects, converting lakes, marshy areas and adjoining mudflats intopolders. This continued well into the 20th century. As a result, historical maps ofmedieval and early modern Holland bear little resemblance to present maps.
This ongoing struggle to master the water played an important role in the development of Holland as a maritime and economic power, and has traditionally been seen as developing the presumed collective character of its inhabitants: stubborn, egalitarian and frugal.
The stereotypical image of Holland is a contrived amalgam oftulips,windmills,clogs,Edam cheese and the traditional dress (klederdracht) of the village ofVolendam, far from the reality of everyday Holland. These stereotypes were deliberately created in the late 19th century by official "Holland Promotion" to attract tourists.
The predominance of Holland in the Netherlands has resulted inregionalism on the part of the other provinces, a reaction to the perceived threat that Holland poses to their local culture and identity. The other provinces have a strong, and often negative,[18] image of Holland and the Hollanders, to whom certain qualities are ascribed within amental geography, a conceptual mapping of spaces and their inhabitants.[19] On the other hand, some Hollanders take Holland's cultural dominance for granted and treat the concepts of "Holland" and "the Netherlands" as coinciding. Consequently, they see themselves not primarily as Hollanders, but simply as Dutch (Nederlanders).[20] This phenomenon has been called "hollandocentrism".[21]
The predominant language spoken in Holland isDutch. Hollanders sometimes call the Dutch language "Hollands,"[22] instead of the standard termNederlands. Inhabitants of Belgium and other provinces of the Netherlands use "Hollands" to mean aHollandic dialect or strong accent.
Standard Dutch was historically largely based on the dialect of theCounty of Holland, incorporating many traits derived from the dialects of the previously more powerfulDuchy of Brabant andCounty of Flanders. Strong dialectal variation still exists throughout theLow Countries. Today, Holland proper is the region where the original dialects are least spoken, in many areas having been completely replaced by standard Dutch, and theRandstad has the largest influence on the developments of the standard language—with the exception of the Dutch spoken in Belgium.[23]
Despite this correspondence between standard Dutch and the Dutch spoken in the Randstad, there are local variations within Holland itself that differ from standard Dutch. The main cities each have their own modern urban dialect, that can be considered asociolect.[24] Some people, especially in the area north of Amsterdam, still speak the original dialect of the county, Hollandic. This dialect is present in the north:Volendam andMarken and the area around there,West Friesland and theZaanstreek; and in a southeastern fringe bordering the provinces ofNorth Brabant andUtrecht. In the south on the island ofGoeree-Overflakkee,Zeelandic is spoken.[25]
The province of Holland gave its name to a number of colonial settlements and regions that were calledNieuw Holland orNew Holland. The largest was the island continent presently known asAustralia:[3]New Holland was first applied to Australia in 1644 by the Dutch seafarerDirk Hartog as aLatinNova Hollandia, and remained in international use for 190 years.New Zealand was likewise named after the Dutch province ofZealand, after an exploratory voyage lead by the Dutch explorerAbel Tasman landed there. In the NetherlandsNieuw Holland would remain the usual name of the continent until the end of the 19th century; it is now no longer in use there, the Dutch name today beingAustralië.
While "Holland" has been replaced in English as the official name for the country of the Netherlands, many other languages use it or a variant of it to officially refer to the Netherlands. This is the case in Southeast Asia particularlyIndonesia,Malaysia, andCambodia for example:
^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."
^Willem Frijhoff, "Hollands hegemonie" in Thimo de Nijs and Eelco Beukers (eds.), 2002,Geschiedenis van Holland, Vol. 2, p. 468
^C.F. Gijsberti Hodenpijl (1904) Napoleon in Holland, pp. 6–7.
^G. Geerts & H. Heestermans, 1981,Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal. Deel II, Van Dale Lexicografie, Utrecht, p 1831-1832
^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. 548
^Rob van Ginkel, "Hollandse Tonelen" in Thimo de Nijs and Eelco Beukers (eds.),Geschiedenis van Holland, Vol. 3, p. 688
^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
^Thimo de Nijs, "Hollandse identiteit in perspectief" in Thimo de Nijs and Eelco Beukers (eds.), 2003,Geschiedenis van Holland, Vol. 3, p. 700
^Rob van Ginkel, "Hollandse Tonelen" in Thimo de Nijs and Eelco Beukers (eds.), 2003,Geschiedenis van Holland, Vol. 3, p. 647
^Dutch: An Essential Grammar,p. 15Archived 2015-05-20 at theWayback Machine, William Z. Shetter, Esther Ham, Routledge, 2007
^Sijs, Nicoline van der, 2006,De geschiedenis van het Nederlands in een notendop, Amsterdam, Uitgeverij Bert Bakker, pp. 127–128
^Sijs, Nicoline van der, 2006,De geschiedenis van het Nederlands in een notendop, Amsterdam, Uitgeverij Bert Bakker, p. 123
^E.J. van den Broecke-de Man, D.K. Soldaat-Poortvliet & F. Heerschap, 1988,Dialect op Goeree-Overflakkee, Zeeuwsche Vereeniging voor Dialectonderzoek, Ouddorp, 271 pp
