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Holland vs the Netherlands
Poziom:
Temat: Geografia
Welcome to the Great nation of Holland: where
the tulips grow, the windmills turn, the breakfast
is chocolatey, the people industrious, and
the sea tries to drown it all.
Except, this country isn't Holland. It's time
for:
The Difference Between Holland, the Netherlands
(and a whole lot more)
The correct name for this tulip growing, windmill
building hagelslag eating, container ship
moving, ocean conquering nation is the Netherlands.
But confusion is understandable -- the general
region been renamed a lot over a thousand
including as: The Dutch Republic, The United
States of Belgium, and The Kingdom of Hollande
But it's not just history that makes this
country's name confusing because the Netherlands
is divided into twelve provinces:
* Groningen
* Drenthe
* Overijssel
* Gelderland
* Limburg
* Brabant
* Zeeland (Which, by the way, is the Zeeland
that makes this Zeeland, new)
* Friesland (With adorable little hearts on
its flag)
* Flevoland
* Utrecht, and here's the confusion:
* Noord (North) Holland and
* Zuid (South) Holland
These provinces make calling the Netherlands
'Holland' like calling the United States 'Dakota'.
Though unlike the Dakotas, which are mostly
empty, save for the occasional Jackalope,
the two Hollands are the most populated provinces
and have some of the biggest attractions like,
Amsterdam and Keukenhof.
Chances are if it's Dutch, and you've heard
of it, it's in one of the Hollands.
Even the government's travel website for the
country is Holland.com -- officially because
it sounds friendlier, but unofficially it's
probably what people are actually searching
for.
Confusion continues because: People who live
in the Hollands are called Hollanders, but
all citizens of the Netherlands are called
Dutch as is their language. But in Dutch they
say: Nederlands sprekende Nederlanders in
Nederland which sounds like they'd rather
we call them Netherlanders speaking Netherlandish.
Meanwhile, next door in Germany, they're Deutsche
sprechen Deutsch in Deutschland. Which sounds
like they'd rather be called Dutch.
This linguistic confusion is why Americans
call the Pennsylvania Dutch Dutch even though
they're Germans.
To review: this country is the Netherlands,
its people are Dutch, they speak Dutch. There
is no country called Holland, but there are
provinces of North and South Holland.
Got it? Great, because it's about to get more
complicated.
The Netherlands is part of a Kingdom with
the same name: The Kingdom of the Netherlands
-- which is headed by the Dutch Royal Family.
The Kingdom of the Netherlands contains three
more countries and to find them we must sail
from the icy North Sea to the Caribbean and
Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten.
These are no territories, but self-governing
countries within the Kingdom of the Netherlands
and as such they have their own governments,
and their own currencies.
Geography geek side note here:
While Aruba and Curaçao are islands, Sint
Maarten is just the Southern Half of a tiny
island also named Saint Martin the other half
of which is occupied by France and also named
Saint Martin. So despite being separated by
Belgium on the European map, The Kingdom of
the Netherlands and the French Republic share
a border on the other side of the world on
an island so nice they named it thrice.
But why does the Kingdom of the Netherlands
reach to the Caribbean anyway? Because, Empire.
In the 1600s the Dutch, always looking to
expand business, laid their hands on every
valuable port they could. For a time, America's
East Coast was 'New Netherland' with its capital
city of New Amsterdam. There was New Zealand,
as mentioned previously, and nearby, the king
of the islands, New Holland. Though the empire
is gone, these three Caribbean nations remain.
And while four countries in one kingdom, isn't
unheard of, it doesn't stop there, because
the country of the Netherlands, also extends
its borders to the Caribbean and three more
islands: Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba.
These are not countries in a Kingdom, but
are cities of the Country of the Netherlands
and they look the part. Residents of these
far-flung cities vote in elections for the
Dutch government just as any Hollander would.
Though, weirdly, they don't belong to any
province and they don't use the Dutch currency
of Euros, they use Dollars instead. It's kind
of like if Hawaii wasn't a state, but technically
part of the District of Columbia, all the
while using the Yen.
These cities of the Country of the Netherlands
and these countries in the Kingdom of the
Netherlands, are together are known as the
Dutch Caribbean. And their citizens are Dutch
citizens. Which, because the Kingdom of the
Netherlands is a member of the European Union,
means these Dutch Caribbeans are also Europeans.
So in the end, there are 6 Caribbean islands,
four countries, twelve provinces, two Hollands,
two Netherlands and one kingdom, all Dutch.
