Abel Tasman and country named after him
New Zealand is a country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two large islands (North Island and South Island) and a number of smaller islands. New Zealand is a constitutional monarchy (a Commonwealth realm), a member of the Commonwealth of Nations (the former British Commonwealth). This makes Elizabeth II the head of state. She is represented by a governor general. New Zealand forms the southwestern corner of Polynesia and is thus also part of Oceania.
Abel Tasman (* 1603 in Lutjegast, Republic of the United Netherlands; † October 10, 1659 in Batavia, Java)
Name
Abel Tasman, who was one of the first Europeans to see New Zealand, called it 'Stateland', on the assumption that it was connected to the Staten Island of South America. After Hendrik Brouwer proved that this was not the case in 1643, the name was changed by Dutch cartographers to 'Nova Zeelandia', after the Dutch province of Zeeland. British Lieutenant James Cook in turn translated this to New Zealand.
In Maori, New Zealand is called Aotearoa, which means 'land of the long white cloud'. According to tradition, when the Maoris discovered the island, several centuries before the Europeans arrived, they saw the land as a cloud on the horizon. At that time, the Maori had no name for the entire New Zealand archipelago, 'Aotearoa' only referred to the present North Island or North Island. In current language, however, 'Aotearoa' can be seen as an alternative to 'New Zealand'.
The adjective is New Zealand and the inhabitants are called New Zealanders.
People of Dutch descent also live in New Zealand who left for the country after the Second World War. A survey showed that 0.7% of the New Zealand population spoke Dutch as their mother tongue. That's a number of about 29,000 people. Research (Crezee, 2008; 2012) has shown that a large proportion of Dutch migrants who emigrated to New Zealand between 1950 and 1965, under pressure from the Anglophone population, also switched to English at home.
Zeeland (province)
Zeeland is a province in the southwest of the Netherlands. Zeeland borders the Dutch provinces of South Holland and North Brabant and the Belgian provinces of West Flanders, East Flanders and Antwerp. Zeeland has 383,488 inhabitants (January 2020), the administrative center of the province is the capital Middelburg, also the largest city in the province, followed by the port city of Vlissingen and the centrally located Goes. However, the municipality with the most inhabitants is Terneuzen in Zeeuws-Vlaanderen. The adjective is Zeeland and the inhabitants are called Zeeland.