Aside: Holland vs the Netherlands

The Netherlands Today

Contrary to common usage, “Holland” and “the Netherlands” are not synonymous, Holland being the more industrialized and urban central-western part of the Netherlands (dark green areas on the map at left).

The distinction is not just geographic, but cultural. Economic might makes cultural right—or at least the ability to take yourself for granted. Although people in the west simply consider themselves Dutch, everybody else is apt to refer to them as Hollanders, not usually fondly.

Brash and oblivious, in the grip of an industrial urban lifestyle, the stereotypical Hollander stands accused of an unthinking superiority over his more traditional, countrified neighbors.

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