Can anybody tell me why there are two countries on chess.com Holland and the Netherlands. What is the difference

"Holland" is a region within the Netherlands...I thought you'd know that ;)

In English-speaking countries it is common (though ultimately incorrect) to refer to the Netherlands by the name of this smaller region. In the same way, we often call the United Kingdom "England" and used to refer to the Soviet Union as "Russia." Given this fact, it's not surprising that these two entries should appear on a list...it's a mistake, but an understandable one.

All that said, I should check to see whether the more local-minded user can select his nation rather than his state, e.g. can you identify yourself as Welsh rather than a citizen of the UK? Here in the US, we have the commonwealth of Puerto Rico, whose citizens can boast their own Olympic teams and whose flag is the source of much pride.

Answering my own questions, Yes and Yes. But where's Catalonia??

DimKnight wrote: Answering my own questions, Yes and Yes. But where's Catalonia??

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 Catolonia is the welthiest region of Spain, its most important city is Barcelona. There are separatist movements that want its independence.

yes thank you for opening this thread for it's something that always bothers me!

Holland is just a part on the west of the country but many refer to it as a substitute for the word the Netherlands, which is actually the kingdom including some colonies.

We have programs on television like holland's next top model or on soccer matches people yell Hup Holland! It's horrible. As if Holland is all that matters in our country. I suppose it's some kind of common ignorance or just plain arrogance, but I always use the Netherlands.

I don't live in Holland anyways

The difference between Holland and the Netherlands is not the same as the difference between England and the UK. England and the United Kingdom are both a country (that's weird; one country being part of another country) while Holland is not (but the Netherlands is).

Furthermore, the word Holland or the reference to the country with the word Holland is barely ever used by the Netherlands itself (certainly not in official documents) while the United Kingdom and England is both used. For example, for the Euro 2008 (Football) qualification, England took part as a country, while for the Eurovision Song contest, the United Kingdom is counted as one country. But in both cases, the Netherlands just took part as the Netherlands.

 

More similar to Holland/Netherlands would be confusing United States for America. "He's an American" is just alot shorter than "He's a United States citizen" ;)

When I was living in Amsterdam, Dutch people always referred to their country as "Holland" (when they were speaking English), and seemed to be pretty scornful of the name "The Netherlands". I think that might have been because it's kind of a bastardization of the word "Nederland" which is what the country is called in Dutch.

But this was in Amsterdam which is part of the province Holland anyway, so that might have had something to do with the difference between my answer and bastiaan's ;)

In portuguese Netherlands is spoken either "Holanda" or "Países Baixos" (equivalent to the french "Pays-Bas"), there's no other name.

The Holland region has always been arrogant :)

But the fact that they think Holland is the only region in the Netherlands that matters doesn't mean we should refer to our country as Holland. Maybe half of the Netherlands is not from Holland, so the Netherlands is a much better name :)

 

And no, I'm not from Holland, and I'm proud of it ;)  (but I am from the Netherlands)

:) Interesting topic cheers. I had wondered myself about this before and assumed the confusion was only for English speakers as in "holland" was the English name while "Netherlands" was the Dutch name. Then i remembed in football the excellent Dutch team was always referred to as "Holland"...

There is some useful info here which helps shed some light on it though

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlands_(terminology)

I had fergotten that the Dutch had laid claim to Australia and called it "New Holland"... heh

Pistoleer wrote:

:) Interesting topic cheers. I had wondered myself about this before and assumed the confusion was only for English speakers as in "holland" was the English name while "Netherlands" was the Dutch name. Then i remembed in football the excellent Dutch team was always referred to as "Holland"...

There is some useful info here which helps shed some light on it though

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlands_(terminology)

I had fergotten that the Dutch had laid claim to Australia and called it "New Holland"... heh

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Did you know New York comes from New Amsterdam, and was sold to America later. There is still names from the Netherlands all over the world. Like New Zealand wich is just from Zeeland. That's all because of the VOC (united east indian company) taking colonies overseas.

why do some people choose holland then? :) we can get rid of holland, but again, why did 10% of "dutch" folks choose holland? :)

(btw, i'm 1/2 dutch) 

Wow.  I do not consider myself to be an ignorant guy, but I was completely ignorant of this, and now I am appreciative to all of you for educating me.  Now can somebody straighten me out on the UK vs. England vs. Britain?  Reference was made, but I did not see a definitive distinction drawn.  By the way, even as an American living less than an hour from DC (District of Columbia), I have always wondered if Washington was a proper subset of DC, or synonymous with DC.  I still don't know the answer to this question.  But hey, at least I did know that New York was once New Amsterdam, and I even know of Peter Stuyvesant and his peg leg.  Well, maybe that's because I attended Stuyvesant High School.  Oh well.  Apparently New Caledonia is New Scotland, since from what I understand Scotland was once called Caledonia?  Who gets to change the name of a country anyway?  Persia becomes Iran.  Siam becomes Thailand.  Burma becomes Myanmar.  Cathay becomes China.  Flanders Belgium.  Was Zaire the Belgian Congo?

As well as I know, United Kingdom is a union of four countries: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Great Britain is the name of the major island of the archipelago, the second bigger is the island of Ireland.

About Washington D.C. I don't know exactly, but imagine how surprised I was when I discovered there's also a state called Washington in the West coast, far, far away from D.C.?

And New Caledonia is an island in the Pacific Ocean that belongs to France and new scotland, to my knowledge is in Canada.

 

Four countries occupy the 'British Archipelago, England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales.  There is also the Isle of Man.  The term 'Great' Britain came into being with the unification of Scotland and England in 16?? (Wales was amalgamated with England during the reign of Henry 8th in 15??)  The term United Kingdom came into being when Ireland broke away in 1918 and describes the The union of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. 

Ok i know that holland is a region in the Netherlands, but on Chess.com you have to fill in your COUNTRY not region. Holland is not a country so why is it in the list of COUNTRIES?

ThomasK wrote: Four countries occupy the 'British Archipelago, England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales.  There is also the Isle of Man.  The term 'Great' Britain came into being with the unification of Scotland and England in 16?? (Wales was amalgamated with England during the reign of Henry 8th in 15??)  The term United Kingdom came into being when Ireland broke away in 1918 and describes the The union of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. 

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Thomas, this idea of "Great Britain" is something I've wondered about from time to time, but never actually taken the trouble to chase up.  

In her Merlin  trilogy Mary Stewart refers to Brittany as Less Britain  and without taking it any further I had assumed that the two names came into usage during the Norman/Saxon invasion when all the real Brits (yup, my father was Welsh!) were pushed to the west and north.

Do you know if there's any connection between Great Britain and Brittany/Bretagne? 

Also, Harlem comes from Haarlem, a dutch city..

 

People who say they're from Holland are actually just wrong. They are from The Netherlands, and can come from a province called Noord-Holland or Zuid-Holland.

 

I'm Dutch, easyer to type :P

brooklyn also (Breukelen)

very interesting issue actually.

Here's a fact: 

In europe in middle ages, criminals, thieves, raperst, murderers had one choise: die or pick up a sword and fight for the king oversea in the collonies.

Most did not return but stayed there. That why we can say that the entire country of America is build by thieves, murderers and raperst from europe..

-Is that explaining the highest numbers of killing in the US of the whole world?

??????

It could be..    ;-)

don't be affended americans, you simply can't pick your own ancestors..   sorry

lol