Holland (redirected from Hollands)

Holland, former county, Holy Roman Empire; former province, the Netherlands

Holland, former county of the Holy Roman Empire and, from 1579 to 1795, chief member of the United Provinces of the Netherlands. Its name is popularly applied to the entire Netherlands. Holland has been divided since 1840 into two provinces, North Holland and South Holland. The county was created in the early 10th cent. and originally controlled not only present North and South Holland, but also Zeeland and part of medieval Friesland. William II was elected (1247) German king, but was unable to exert his authority; he died (1255) in a campaign against the independence-minded West Frisians. In 1299, John of Avesnes, count of Hainaut, seized Holland, which came (1345) into the hands of the Bavarian house of Wittelsbach through marriage. The house of Wittelsbach retained possession of Holland until 1433, when Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy, wrested it from Jacqueline (or Jacoba), countess of Hainaut, Holland, Zeeland, and Friesland. In the civil strife that accompanied this event the party of the Kabeljauws [codfish], representing the cities, fought the Hoeks [fish hooks], the nobles who supported Jacqueline. The Hoeks again rebelled when Archduke Maximilian (later Emperor Maximilian I) assumed the guardianship over the Netherlands after the death (1482) of Mary of Burgundy; their fleet was annihilated and their leaders executed in 1490. The cloth industry and commerce of Holland, though they developed later than those of Flanders and Brabant, began to rival those of Bruges and Antwerp in the 15th cent. The ports of Holland were closely linked with the Hanseatic League and later became, after the Netherlands had gained independence, major entrepôts and shipbuilding centers. Holland led in the struggle (16th–17th cent.) for Dutch independence, and because it dominated the States-General, its history became virtually identical with that of the Netherlands.

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Holland, city, United States

Holland, city (1990 pop. 30,745), Allegan and Ottawa counties, SW Mich., near Lake Michigan, on Lake Macatawa, in a dairy and poultry area; founded 1847 by Dutch settlers, inc. 1867. Furnaces have been made there since 1906. Other products include food and beverages, machinery, metal products, electronic equipment, furniture, delftware, chemicals, and boats. Tulip growing is an important industry, and the city's many Dutch descendants hold a week-long tulip festival each spring. Points of interest include a replica of a 19th-century Dutch village and an operating windmill. The Dutch Reformed Church operates Hope College and Western Theological Seminary. A Coast Guard station is on Lake Macatawa, and Holland State Park is nearby. The city is a popular summer resort.

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Holland

Historic region, The Netherlands, occupying the northwestern portion of the modern country. It originated in the early 12th century as a fief of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1299 Holland was united with Hainaut. Members of the house of Wittelsbach served as counts of Holland, Zeeland, and Hainaut until 1433, when they ceded the titles to Philip III (the Good), duke of Burgundy. It passed to the Habsburgs in 1482 and became a centre of the revolt against Spain in 1572. Holland and six other northern Netherlands provinces declared their independence from Spain in 1579, proclaiming the United Provinces of the Netherlands. Its capital, Amsterdam, became Europe's foremost commercial centre in the 18th century. The Napoleonic kingdom of Holland occupied the territory (1806–10). In 1840 it was divided into the provinces of North Holland and South Holland.

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Holland¹

1.  Henry. 1745--1806, British neoclassical architect. His work includes Brooks's Club (1776) and Carlton House (1783), both in London

2. Sir Sidney George. 1893--1961, New Zealand statesman; prime minister of New Zealand (1949--57)

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Holland²

1. another name for the Netherlands

2. a county of the Holy Roman Empire, corresponding to the present-day North and South Holland provinces of the Netherlands

3. Parts of. an area in E England constituting a former administrative division of Lincolnshire

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Holland 

a medieval county, later a province of the Netherlands.

The county of Holland as a feudal territory (fief), originally bound by vassal relations to the Holy Roman Empire, was formed in the tenth century. (The name Holland appeared later.) As a result of conflict with neighboring feudal holdings, it gradually expanded, annexing West Friesland in 1287 and almost all of Zeeland in 1323. From 1299 to 1354 it was joined with Henegouwen (Hainaut) under the dynasty of the Avesnes. From 1433 to 1477 it was part of the Burgundian state, and from 1477 to 1482 it came under the control of the Hapsburgs as one of the 17 provinces of the Netherlands.

Holland was the most developed province in the northern Netherlands, with cloth manufacture, fishing, shipping, shipbuilding, and trade being especially important. The 15th and 16th centuries witnessed the development of early capitalist relations in this area, which played a leading role in the Dutch bourgeois revolution of the 16th century. As a result of the revolt of 1572. it was virtually freed from the Spanish Hapsburg yoke and became the political and economic nucleus of the newly formed bourgeois Republic of the United Provinces. Its history in the 17th and 18th centuries was linked with that of the United Provinces (often known as Holland or the Dutch Republic) and later with that of the modern Kingdom of the Netherlands (also sometimes known unofficially as Holland). In the modern Netherlands, the territory of Holland is divided into two provinces: Noord-Holland, with its administrative center at Haarlem, and Zuid-Holland, with its center at The Hague.

A. N. CHISTOZVONOV