Holland or the Netherlands?

Two provinces

The name Netherlands means low-lying country. A large part of it lies no more than about a metre above sea level, and more than a quarter of the country is below it.^[1]

Holland, from Houtland, “wooded land”, was the name of one of the medieval cores of the later country.^[1] It began in the early 12th century as a fief of the Holy Roman Empire, ruled by a dynasty of counts.^[2] Since 1840 it has been divided into two provinces, North Holland and South Holland, which cover the flat northwest of the country.^[2] Amsterdam is in North Holland, and Rotterdam and The Hague are in South Holland.^[5]

Why the whole country got called Holland

In 1579 Holland and six other northern provinces declared independence from Spain as the United Provinces of the Netherlands.^[2] In the 17th century Holland was the dominant power in this Dutch Republic, and its city Amsterdam became Europe’s leading commercial centre.^[2]

Because Holland dominated, both the Republic and today’s Kingdom of the Netherlands are often called “Holland”.^[2] Britannica calls Holland an unofficial name for the whole country.^[1]

The one time it was official

France conquered the Netherlands in 1794–95 and set up the Batavian Republic. In June 1806 Napoleon replaced it with the Kingdom of Holland under his brother Louis.^[3] Britannica says the name Holland is proper for the whole country only for this Napoleonic kingdom, which lasted from 1806 to 1810.^[2]

Napoleon appointed Louis King of Holland on 5 June 1806, meaning him to be a puppet. Louis instead took the Dutch form of his name, Lodewijk, and tried to learn Dutch.^[6] On 1 July 1810 Napoleon forced him to abdicate, and on 9 July Holland was annexed to France.^[6]

After Napoleon fell, the Netherlands had a king of its own again. William of Orange-Nassau proclaimed himself king on 16 March 1815, as Napoleon returned from Elba.^[6] Britannica dates the Kingdom of Holland and the French Empire period to 1806–13.^[7]

Dropping Holland

Since January 2020 the Netherlands has promoted itself abroad under the official name “Netherlands”, in place of the tourist board’s Holland brand with its tulip logo.^[4] The new logo is the letters NL with a stylised orange tulip, and companies, universities, ministries and embassies were expected to use the country’s proper name.^[5]

Part of the reason was tourism. Amsterdam and the bulb fields of South Holland were crowded, and the tourist board wanted visitors to see other parts of the country.^[5] A Foreign Ministry spokesperson told the news agency EFE that it was “a little strange” to promote only a small part of the Netherlands abroad.^[5]