Provinces of the Netherlands
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.  This kingdom also contained (then) South Brabant, a province in Belgium. This new unified state featured the provinces in their modern form. Today, they are non-autonomous subdivisions of the national state. There are again numbering 17 provinces, though not all are the same as the 16th century ones. In 1839, with the independence of Belgium, the original single province of Limburg was divided between the two countries. Each country now has 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.