New Holland
The province of Holland gave its name to a number of colonial settlements and discovered regions that were called
Nieuw Holland or
New Holland. The most extensive of these was the island continent presently known as
Australia:
New Holland was first applied to Australia in 1644 by the Dutch seafarer
Abel Tasman as a
Latin Nova Hollandia, and remained in international use for 190 years. On the same voyage he named
New Zealand after the Dutch province of
Zeeland. In the Netherlands
Nieuw Holland
would remain the usual name of the continent until the end of the 19th
century; it is now no longer in use there, the Dutch name today being
Australiƫ.
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