Holland and The Netherlands?

Question

can someone xplain to me this whole thing about Holland and The Netherlands because I could swear they were 2 different countries.

Answer 1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlands...

Answer 2

They are different names used for the same country.

The official name in Dutch is Koninkrijk der Nederlanden, in short, Nederland. The English translation for that name is the Netherlands.

In the west of that country there is a region that has been called Holland for a very long time.

Holland was a county or a duchy, one of many at that time, when they went together it was still the best known and the one with the most big towns.

Amsterdam, Rotterdam and the Hague, and many of the smaller towns known abroad, are in that region, now two provinces in a country that has 12 provinces in total.

Internet has several sites with explanations and more facts, I like the Wikipedia pages:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holland

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlands