page_title: Republicanism in the Netherlands
section_title: Patriots
hierarchical_section_title: Republicanism in the Netherlands / Historical development / 1581–1795: Dutch Republic / Patriots
caption_attribution_description: Portret van Joan Derk van der Capellen tot den Pol
context_page_description: Republicanism in the Netherlands is a movement that strives to abolish the Dutch monarchy and replace it with a republic. The popularity of the organised republican movement that seeks to abolish the monarchy in its entirety has been suggested to be a minority among the people of the Netherlands, according to opinion polls. On the other hand, there has shown to be political and popular support in the Netherlands for reducing the political powers and the subsidies of the royal house.
context_section_description: From the 1770s onwards, the Patriots emerged as a third faction besides the Orangists and Loevesteiners. The Patriots were themselves divided: the aristocratic oudpatriotten or "Old Patriots" (the Loevesteiners' successors) either sought to enter the existing power factions, or to reduce or eliminate Orange's power, but had no desire for democratisation that could threaten their own privileges. The democratic Patriots wanted to found a democratic republic, sought complete equality and the eventual abolishment of the aristocracy as well. As the latter group grew in size and radicalised, this led some Old Patriots to reverse their allegiance back to Orange.
  Discontented with the hereditary system of allocating posts, the decline of the Dutch East India Company's Asian trade, unemployment in the textile industry and the desire of democratisation, the middle and upper classes looked towards the American Revolution and its Declaration of Independence and the Dutch Act of Abjuration and began to reclaim their rights (first written down in the 1579 Union of Utrecht). The lower classes largely remained supportive of the existing Orange stadtholderian regime, which supported the British Empire against the American rebels. 1780 is generally regarded as the outbreak of the major conflict between Patriots and Orangists, when their opposing policies on the American War of Independence stirred up domestic conflict. When the Republic threatened to join the First League of Armed Neutrality to defend its right to trade with the American colonies in revolt, Britain declared war: the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War (1780–1784). The Patriots seized the occasion to try and rid themselves from Orange altogether, and allied themselves with the American republican revolutionaries. This was most clearly expressed in the 1781 pamphlet Aan het Volk van Nederland ("To the People of the Netherlands"), anonymously distributed by Joan van der Capellen tot den Pol. Partly thanks to his influence in the States General, the Netherlands became the second country to officially recognise the young American Republic in 1782. Between 1782 and 1787, democratic Patriotism managed to establish itself in parts of the Republic. From 1783 onwards, the Patriots formed militia or paramilitary groups called exercitiegenootschappen or vrijcorpsen. They tried to persuade the prince and city governments to allow non-Calvinists into the vroedschap. In 1784, they held their first national meeting. The total number of Patriot volunteer militiamen is estimated to have been around 28,000.
  The provinces of Holland and Utrecht became strongholds of democratic Patriots in 1785, and William V fled from The Hague to Nijmegen that year. In 1787, he was finally able to restore his power with the Prussian invasion of Holland. Many Patriots fled the country to Northern France. French revolutionaries supported by the Batavian Legion (consisting of fled Patriots) conquered the Dutch Republic in 1795, founding the vassal Batavian Republic.
caption: Patriot leader Van der Capellen, famous for his 1781 democratic republican pamphlet.
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