Alberto Monteiro schreef:
> Jeroen van Baardwijk wrote:
> >
> > Can anyone explain why you foreigners keep calling it
> > "Holland"? It's annoying has hell. Oh, and saying
> > "Because it's easier" isn't good enough
> > as an explanation...
> >
> In Portuguese, there are two synonyms that we use to
> refer to the Nederlands: _Holanda_ and _Paises Baixos_,
> meaning "Low Countries". But 99% of the times, we use
> Holanda. Maybe it's time to try to create a new word,
> _Nederlandia_, that would fit nicely with
> Pt rules and would be more... err... politically
> correct.
>
> BTW, when was the name _The Netherlands_ first used?
1579 by the declaration of independence from Spain. At that time large
parts of (our province) Holland didn't even exist. That area was still
largely a part of the North sea.
Sonja
