Provinces of the Netherlands

Map of the Netherlands | Larger size

The modern day Netherlands are divided into twelve provinces (provincies in Dutch), listed below. Follow their links for more detailed information on that individual province:

• Drenthe
• Flevoland
• Friesland
• Gelderland
• Groningen
• Limburg
• North Brabant
• North Holland
• Overijssel
• South Holland
• Utrecht
• Zeeland

Structure

A Dutch province represents the administrative layer in between the national government and the local municipalities, having the responsibility for matters of subnational or regional importance. The government of each province consists of three major parts: the Provinciale Staten which is the provincial parliament elected every four years. Elected from its members are the Gedeputeerde Staten, a college charged with most executive tasks, presided by the Commissaris van de Koningin or royal commissioner, appointed by the Crown.

Historical background

Nearly all Dutch provinces can trace their origin to a mediaeval state such as a county or a duchy, as can the provinces of Belgium. Their status changed when they came under a single ruler who centralised their administration, somewhat relegating the separate states to provinces, 17 in total. From these unified Netherlands, seven northern provinces would form the Republic of the Seven United Provinces in the 16th century, namely Holland, Zeeland, Gelderland, Utrecht, Friesland, Overijssel and Groningen. The Republic's lands also included Drenthe (one of the 17, but without the autonomous status of the others), and parts of Brabant, Limburg and Flanders, which were considered to be "conquered lands" and were governed directly by the Staten-Generaal, the parliament. They were called Staats-Brabant, Staats-Limburg and Staats-Vlaanderen, meaning "of the state". Each of these "Netherlands" had a high degree of autonomy, co-operating with each other mainly on defense and on the international level in general, but keeping to their own affairs elsewhere.

On January 1, 1796, during the Batavian Republic, Drenthe and Staats-Brabant became the eighth and ninth provinces of the Netherlands; the latter known as Bataafs Brabant, Batavian Brabant, changing its name to Noord Brabant, North Brabant, in 1815 when it became part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, which also contained (then) South Brabant, a province in Belgium. This new unified state featured the provinces in their modern form, as non-autonomous subdivisions of the national state, and again numbering 17 provinces, though not all the same as the 16th century ones. In 1839, with the independence of Belgium, the original single province of Limburg was divided amongst the two countries, each now having a province called Limburg. A year later, Holland, the largest and most populous of the Dutch provinces, was also split into two provinces for a total of 11. The 12th member was to be Flevoland, a province consisting almost entirely of reclaimed land, established on January 1, 1986.

The Departments of the French Period

During the Batavian Republic, the Netherlands were from 1798 to 1801 completely reorganised into 8 new departments, most named after rivers, inspired by the French revolutionary example, in an attempt to do away with the old autonomous provincial status. They are listed below, with their capitals and the territory of the former provinces they mostly incorporated:

Batavian Departments

English name	Dutch name	Capital	Contained the territory of
Department of the Ems	Departement van de Eems	Leeuwarden	Northern Friesland, Groningen
Department of the Old IJssel	Departement van de Oude IJssel	Zwolle	Southern Friesland, Drenthe, Overijssel, northern Gelderland
Department of the Rhine	Departement van de Rijn	Arnhem	Central Gelderland, eastern Utrecht
Department of the Amstel	Departement van de Amstel	Amsterdam	The area around Amsterdam
Department of Texel	Departement van Texel	Alkmaar	Northern Holland minus Amsterdam, northwestern Utrecht
Department of the Delf	Departement van de Delf	Delft	Southern Holland up to the Meuse, southwestern Utrecht
Department of the Dommel	Departement van de Dommel	's-Hertogenbosch	The eastern part of Batavian Brabant, southern Gelderland
Department of the Scheldt and Meuse	Departement van de Schelde en Maas	Middelburg	Zeeland, Holland south of the Meuse and the western part of Batavian Brabant

After only three years, following a coup d'etat, the borders of the former provinces were restored, though not their autonomous status. They were now also called "departments" and Drenthe was added to Overijssel. In 1806 the Kingdom of Holland replaced the republic to further French interests. It was during this administration that Holland was first split in two, with the department of Amstelland to the north and that of Maasland to the south. East-Frisia[?], then as now in Germany, was added to the kingdom as a department in 1807 and Drenthe split off again making a total of 11 departments.

When the Netherlands finally did become fully part of France in 1810, the departments of the kingdom and their borders were largly maintained, with some joined together. They were however nearly all renamed, again mainly after rivers, though the names differed from their Batavian counterparts. Following are their names and the modern day province they corresponded for the most part to:

French Departments in the Netherlands

English name	French name	Dutch name	Modern province(s)
Department of the Zuiderzee	Département du Zuiderzee	Departement van de Zuiderzee	North Holland & Utrecht
Department of the Mouths of the Meuse	Département des Bouches-de-la-Meuse	Departement van de Monden van de Maas	South Holland
Department of the Mouths of the Scheldt	Département des Bouches-de-l'Escaut	Departement van de Monden van de Schelde	Zeeland
Department of the Two Nethes	Département des Deux-Nèthes	Departement van de Twee Nethen	Western North Brabant & Antwerp
Department of the Mouths of the Rhine	Département des Bouches-du-Rhin	Departement van de Monden van de Rijn	Eastern North Brabant
Department of the Upper IJssel	Département de l'Issel-Supérieur	Departement van de Boven IJssel	Gelderland
Department of the Mouths of the IJssel	Département des Bouches-de-l'Issel	Departement van de Monden van de IJssel	Overijssel
Department of Frisia	Département de la Frise	Departement Friesland	Friesland
Department of the Western Ems	Département de l'Ems-Occidental	Departement van de Wester Eems	Groningen & Drenthe
Department of the Eastern Ems	Département de l'Ems-Oriental	Departement van de Ooster Eems	(East-Frisia)

With the defeat and withdrawal of the French in 1813, the old provinces and their names were re-established, Holland was reunited and East-Frisia went its separate way. The 17 provinces of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands were for a significant part based on the former French departments and their borders, in particular in what would later become Belgium.