Why are the Netherlands call Holland?

South Holland and North Holland — These are only two of the 12 provinces of the Netherlands.

So historically it happened that these most developed economically provinces were the most famous outside the Netherlands, and therefore the name «Holland» entered many European languages ​​as the name of the country.

Then, under the pressure of the Netherlands diplomats, the mistake corrected, but in a wide use of the country most often continued to call Holland, and its inhabitants – Dutch.

In our title «Holland» Distributed after the visit of King Peter I and his suits in 1697 in the Netherlands. The interests of the our monarch-reformer and high guests are understandable, concerned only the most technically and economically developed part of the country — Holland, and only they visited it. Peter even worked for some time a carpenter on shipyard in the city of Saardam (North Holland).

Talking at home about the visit, Peter and his associates are completely talked about Holland, not a mentioned name of the whole state. Since then, the name of Holland, as well as the Dutch, Dutch has become in Russia to mean the whole country to the Netherlands, its inhabitants, and all other related to the Netherlands.