There is sometimes confusion about the name of this Country. People call the Netherlands, 'Holland'. But it is not the same. Holland is only a small part of the Netherlands and like Carolina and Virginia there are two Hollands. "North-Holland" (Capital = Haarlem) and "South-Holland" (Capital = The Hague).

Holland used to be an independent count(r)y. It had a Count, it's own coin (until the 19th century!), it's own measuring units and time. The Amsterdam foot (voet) was 28,27 cm (11 thumb (duim) of 2,57 cm each), the Rijnlandse (Rotterdam) voet was 31,3 cm and 12 duim of 2.61 cm each.

You could compare The Netherlands with Great Britain, Germany and Italy. Countries that were not always unified like they are today. Great Britain has Wales, Scotland, England and a part of Ireland. Germany has many former kingdoms in it and so does Italy. In fact the 's' in Netherlands, show you that this is a union. Holland gave up it's independence a very long time ago. So calling the Netherlands 'Holland', is like calling Great Britain 'Scotland' or 'Wales', or the U.S.A 'District Colombia'.

Holland means "Woodland" in old Dutch, but there are some theories that it is a Viking name. There is a region in Sweden that is called "Halland" and it's weapon shield looks very much like the weapon shield of Dutch Holland (with the lion on a shield). The Vikings often visited this part of Europe in the 10th and 11th century. Before that time Holland was called (West) Friesland and it's inhabitants were Frisians. After the name changed many wars were fought by the counts of Holland against a part that was still called West-Friesland.

Holland lost it's independence in 1300, when the last count of Holland died. At the end of the 16th century it allied with several Northern and Southern Netherlands against the armies of the King of Spain. The King of Spain was at that time officially 'count of Holland' and ruled over this whole area. He got the title because of marriages in the past and so he inherited it.

The King of Spain was a Roman Catholic, but the people in the North rather became Protestants. That was a reason to go to war, other reasons were disputes over tax and the fact that when some cities wanted to break free.

The responds of the Spanish forces was very harsh. They murdered whole populations. The more bloo on their hands, the more cities wanted to brake away. The Southern Netherlands gave up the fight and stayed occupied by foreign forces until 1830. We call the Southern Netherlands 'Belgium' now. The Northern Netherlands fought on and won.

These 7 counties became a free Republic in 1648 : Holland, Drente, Groningen, Friesland, Gelderland, Zeeland and Utrecht. They occupied Brabant and Limburg. All these Provinces (together with some new ones) are since 1813 'The Kingdom of the Netherlands'. Limburg still has a Governor though. Like a colony. Limburg and Brabant are still Roman Catholic areas. To say to someone from Limburg or Friesland that he or she is from Holland, is really an insult. They are not. They are from the Netherlands. People from Utrecht, Gelderland or any of the other Provinces (except N&S Holland of course) will perhaps not consider it a real insult, but still they are not from Holland.

People in Limburg and Friesland speak a language that is hard to understand for people from the other Provinces. In fact on TV there are subtitles when people speak Limburgs or Fries. People in Friesland are on average 10 to 15 centimetres taller than people in Limburg. People from Friesland are often blond, people in Limburg often are not.

Holland and Zeeland are the Provinces with the most powerful cities. Zeeland gave it's name to New Zealand. Holland to Australia (New Holland). The Hague was government centre and you could call it Capital of the Republic that was officially free in 1648. In the 17th and 18th century fantastic buildings were created. When the armies of France (Napoleon) occupied this area the Republic became a Kingdom.

Lodewijk Bonaparte (Napoleon's brother) became our first king. After the French were defeated (Waterloo), the English and German Kingdoms urged the new Dutch government to make Amsterdam capital. That was in 1813. Amsterdam is still capital. But that's only a name.