Holland
In many languages including English, 'Holland' (Hollande, Holanda etc.) is a common name for the Netherlands as a whole. Even the Dutch use this sometimes. Strictly speaking, Holland is only the central-western region of the country comprising two of the twelve provinces, North Holland and South Holland, and thus linguistically a pars pro toto related to use of Russia for the (former) Soviet Union, and England for the United Kingdom. The use is sometimes discouraged. For example, the 'Holland' entry in the style guide of The Guardian and The Observer newspapers states: "Do not use when you mean the Netherlands (of which it is a region), with the exception of the Dutch football team, which is conventionally known as Holland". The Times style guide states "use the Netherlands...for all contexts except sports teams, historical uses, or when referring to the provinces of North and South Holland".
Historically Holland was the most powerful region in the current Netherlands. The counts of Holland were also counts of Hainaut, Friesland and Zeeland from the 13th to the 15th centuries. Holland remained most powerful during the period of the Dutch Republic and the cities in Holland were important trading cities. Since Holland was the most economically developed region of the Netherlands, it was historically the region that dominated foreign trade, and hence most of the Dutch traders encountered by foreigners were from Holland, which explains why the Netherlands is often called Holland overseas. After the demise of the Dutch Republic under Napoleon, that country became the Kingdom of Holland (1806–1810). Today the two provinces making up Holland, including the cities of Amsterdam, The Hague and Rotterdam, remain politically, economically and demographically dominant – 37% of the Dutch population live there.
The name 'Holland' for the Netherlands is used colloquially by the Dutch themselves, especially in relation to football, where the national team is sometimes cheered on with the cry 'Holland!'.
In most other Dutch provinces and sometimes Flanders, the word Hollander is sometimes used in a pejorative sense, to refer to the perceived superiority or supposed arrogance of people from the Randstad – the main conurbation of Holland and of the Netherlands.
Read more about this topic: Netherlands (terminology)
Famous quotes containing the word holland:
“The tragedy of Northern Ireland is that it is now a society in which the dead console the living.”
—Jack Holland (b. 1947)
“Naggers always know what they are doing. They weigh up the risks, then they go on and on and on until they get what they want or until they get punched.”
—Jools Holland (b. 1958)