Holland / Netherlands

Factual Questions
21

The problem I have with this cite is calling Holland an “independent country”. It wasn’t - it was a dependent county. It started ( fromn the ninth century ) as a western chunk of the County of Fiesland/Frisia ( which stretched east to the Danish border ). Later it became a seperate county as West Frisia, later yet the County of Holland ( 14th century ). At all times it was a component chunk of the German Kingdom/Holy Roman Empire. Not only was it subject to the emperor/king of the Germans, it also was often vassal to the Dukes of ( successively ) Lorraine and Lower Lorraine. Later it passed to the French Dukes of Burgundy, thence to the Hapsburgs and Spain.

IMHO it can’t be said to have been an independent country until the Dutch War of Independence seperated it from Spain.

  • Tamerlane
22

Originally posted by Shade

Oh, I am.

And let us adopt “Nederlanders” - instead of the Dutch -. And “Nederlands” instead of [speaking] Dutch.

More on Nederland: Scroll to ‘history’

btw: There are also the Nederlandse dependencies: Aruba, Bonaire & Curaçao. And the Dutch Lesser Antilles to the north—Sint Eustatius, the southern part of Saint Martin (Nederlands: Sint Maarten), and Saba.

*About the use of ‘Holland’: I once was celebrating carnaval in Limburg [southern province of Nederland], when a Limburger asked me [in my own language - well, sorta :smiley: -] : “Are you from Holland?”.
I was flabergasted and asked: “Well, yeah. Aren’t you?”

Apparently he didn’t think so. :slight_smile: *

23

“Sjeng” is a first name common in Maastricht. IFRC it’s a regional form of John.