Why is there a "The" in "The Netherlands" or "The Hauge" ?

Question

...at least that is what we say in North America.

We don't say "The Spain" or "The France".

Answer 1

Ya do in Spanish and French!

La España, and La France.

Cause it's translated from the Dutch.

Answer 2

Same reason you say The United States of America... Originally the name for the country was something like The Republic of United States of The Netherlands... Now the Official name is Kingdom of The Netherlands... You can also just say Netherlands or Holland. In Dutch we don't call our country the plural De Nederlanden but simply Nederland. Therefore it has to do with the English language and not the Dutch. In French it's Pays-Bas (lowlands) and in German it's Niederlande and not Den or Der Niederlaende (I think).

The Hague or Den Haag in Dutch is an abbreviation. The original name was Des Graven Haeghe, later abreviated to 's-Gravenhage and more recently to Den Haag. Des, 'S and/or Den means The, Graaf means Count and Graven means of the Count and Hague/Haeghe/Haag means woods. So the original name was "The Count's Woods" or "The Count's Hague" and over time it has been modified and abbreviated to simply Den Haag/The Hague. The city was formed around the hunting lodge of some noble guy hundreds of years ago and this former hunting lodge is now the seat of the national government, Het Binnenhof/Inner Court with the Ridderzaal/Knight's Hall as the place where the Queen reads her annual "State of the Nation" speach.

There's another city in The Netherlands with the same thing called Den Bosch which is also known as 's-Hertogenbosch or "the forest of the Duke"...

Answer 3

Vincent's answer about The Hague is fully correct.

About the Netherlands, I would like to add it is indeed a translation from the lowlands. This name was chosen because more or less 65% of the country lies below sea level and would be flooded without the dikes.

Therefore there is an old Dutch ('modest') saying:

"God created the world, but the Dutch created the Netherlands".

By the way: in Dutch we don't use "the" anymore, the country is simply called Nederland, i.e. Netherlands.

In the past the country consisted of a confederation of several 'provinces' with an earl as governar, the country was then called (the republic of) the seven provinces (later (until 1830) a region of Belgium (Flanders) became part of 'the kingdom of the Netherlands').

Another funny detail: many people think The Hague is the capital of the Netherlands. This is not correct: our government resides in the Hague but Amsterdam is the capital. The government moved to the Hague when Amsterdam remained loyal to the Spanish during the 80-year war.

And yet another funny fact: The Hague never officially received city priviliges, meaning that according to old principles the city would still be a 'village' in stead of a city.

Regards from Holland,

Kick

Answer 4

"the Netherlands" literally means "the lowlands", so that explains the "the". I'm not sure about "den Haag" (the Hague), but I think "the Netherlands" has the "the" because it's a plural word, and "the Hague" has the "the" because it's not actually a town but a place description by word, like "the malls".

I'm a German native, and all I know is that the Dutch call their country by the article, but they don't say "the Amsterdam", as well as we don't say "das Berlin" or "das Deutschland". Country and place names are always something special. Don't ask for reasons; just take it as it is. And don't ask the locals. More often than not, they won't know either.