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Holland
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about a region in the Netherlands, not the country. For other uses of the word Holland, see Holland (disambiguation). For the country of the Netherlands as a whole, seeNetherlands.
Holland

Area | 5,488 square kilometres (2,119 sq mi) |
Population | 6,065,459 (2006 est.) |Density | 1105.22/km2(3032.72/sq mi) |
Regions | 2 |
Demonym | Hollander |
Languages | Dutch
(mainly Hollandicdialects) |
Time Zones | CEST (UTC+1)
Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2) |
Largest
cities
(2010) | Amsterdam (739,290)
Rotterdam (607,460)
The Hague (473,940)
Zaanstad (147.141)
Haarlem (146,960)
Dordrecht (118,540) |

Coat of arms of the formerCounty of Holland
Holland is aname in common usage given to a region in the western part of the Netherlands. The term Holland is also frequently used as apars pro toto to refer to the whole of the Netherlands. This usage is generally accepted but disliked by many Dutch people in the other parts of the Netherlands.[1]
From the 10th century to the 16th century, Holland proper was a unified political region, a county ruled bythe Count of Holland. By the 17th century, Holland had risen to become a maritime and economic power, dominating the other provinces of the Dutch Republic.
Today, the former County of Holland consists of the two Dutch provinces of North Holland and South Holland, which together include the Netherlands' three largest cities: country capital Amsterdam; seat of government The Hague; and Rotterdam, homeof Europe's largest port.
Contents  [hide]  * 1 Etymology * 2 Usage * 3 Geography * 4 Language * 5 History * 5.1 Reclamation of the land * 5.2 County of Holland * 5.3 Holland's prominence in the United Provinces and Dutch Republic * 5.4 Kingdom of Holland * 5.5 Provinces like any other * 6 Image of Holland at home and abroad * 7 New Holland * 8 References* 9 External links |
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[edit]Etymology
Pliny the Elder (AD 23–79) referred to this region as the land between the Helinium and Flevo ("inter Helinium ac Flevum"), the names of the mouths into which the Rhine divided itself, the first discharging its waters in the Mosa in the neighbourhood of Brielle and the second into "the lakes of the north"(present IJsselmeer).[2] The name Holland first appeared in sources in AD 866 for the region around Haarlem, and by 1064 was being used as the name of the entire county. By this time, the inhabitants of Holland were referring to themselves as "Hollanders".[3]Holland is derived from the Middle Dutch term holtland ("wooded land"). 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). Popular, but incorrect etymology[citation needed] holds that Holland is derived from hol land ("hollow land") and was inspired by the low-lying geography of Holland.
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[edit]Usage
The proper name of the area in both Dutch and English is"Holland". "Holland" is a part of the Netherlands. "Holland" is informally used in English and other languages, including sometimes the Dutch language itself, to mean the whole of the modern country of the Netherlands.[4] (This example of pars pro toto orsynecdoche is similar to the tendency to refer to the United Kingdom as "England".)
The people of Holland are referred to as "Hollanders" in bothDutch and English. 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 mistakenly used in this wider sense.
In Dutch, the Dutch word "Hollands" is the adjectival form for "Holland". The Dutch...