Is Amsterdam in Holland or the Netherlands? The Best Internet Answer

Can you believe that the question of whether Amsterdam is in Holland or the Netherlands is one of the most frequently asked questions? Amsterdam is so awesome that the answer to this question is that Amsterdam is in both places. Before you puzzle your brain over how Amsterdam is located in both places, read my explanation, which is the best on the internet. Trust me, there have been epic failures by many blogs to explain.

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Amsterdam, Netherlands and Holland

The Travel Virgin will start by explaining a bit of history.

Amsterdam is located in the Netherlands. Actually, it is located in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Netherlands and the Kingdom of Netherlands are the same place, persons have just shortened the official name from Kingdom of Netherlands to the Netherlands. Who really wants to say 3 words when they can say 2? The Netherlands. The Netherlands is made up of 12 administrative provinces where 2 provinces contain the name Holland (please see map above). Pause a minute, and let that information assimilate in your brain.

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The two provinces in the Netherlands that has the word Holland are Noord-Holland or North Holland and Zuid-Holland, or South Holland. These two provinces together make up Holland. Amsterdam, which is the capital city of the Netherlands, is located in Noord-Holland. A Simple explanation, do you understand?

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How Did the Confusion Start Regarding Amsterdam?

So how did all this confusion start regarding Amsterdam? Why do we need an entire blog article to write on this matter? Well, The Travel Virgin realized that some questions have to be answered a million times in different ways for full comprehension.

The confusion started because Amsterdam, the largest city in Netherlands became filthy rich. Historically, it was the epitome of wealth in the Netherlands based on its contribution to the wealth of the Netherlands. Since it was located in Noord-Holland, everyone just started to call the entire country Holland. Since all was well and the Holland brand was advantageous, the government even started to erroneously use it on government documents. Additionally, it became a brand name in the tourist industry with the use of Holland on logos and other tourist paraphernalia. In some instances, Amsterdam and Holland was referred to as the entire country, because the brand was so strong. Then one day all that changed!! Now many are confused and will ask ‘Is Amsterdam in Holland or the Netherlands?’

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The Government of Netherlands Branding The Netherlands Name with New Logo And Removing Holland from Official Documents

The government of the Netherlands, realized that there were many other areas of the Netherlands that had great tourism potential. In order to market the country of Netherlands, they realized that they needed to get rid of the confusion and start marketing the Netherlands brand? What did they do? They removed the name Holland from all government documents. Additionally, the tourist board reinvented its official logo which used the word Holland. So instead of the orange tulip next to the word Holland, a new logo for the Netherlands was created in November 2019 that had a stylized tulip embedded in the word NL, which stands for Netherlands.

Let’s just say that when the new logo was unveiled, the Dutch were less than pleased and it was roasted in all corners of social media, with complaints such as the tulips on the NL not being symmetrical.

Why Are The People From The Netherlands Called Dutch?

In writing about the response to the new logo, we referred to persons from the Netherlands as Dutch. Did we open another can of worms? Do we need an entire article to explain why people from the Netherlands are called Dutch? I will explain right here, didn’t we promise the best answer to the most confusing question? Let me start to explain another confusion!!

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Originally the meaning of the word ‘Dutch’ in Old English was ‘nation’ or ‘people’. In the early 1500’s both people from the Netherlands and Germany were referred to as ‘Dutch’. At that time, the Netherlands and some parts of Germany were apart of the Holy Roman Empire. At that time, there were two terminologies to distinguish this group of ‘Dutch’ people based on their location. ‘High Dutch’ referred to people who lived in the mountainous region, which is now south Germany. ‘Low Dutch’ referred to people who lived on flat lands, this area is now known as the Kingdom of Netherlands, or rather the Netherlands.

When Netherlands became a separate country in 1815, it retained the name ‘Dutch’ for the people whilst the people from Germany are called ‘Germans’. ‘Dutch’ and ‘Netherlanders’ is now used to generally refer to the people of Netherlands. The people from South and North Holland are commonly called Hollanders.

Do you fully understand? Please leave comments below.

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