Kingdom of the Netherlands

The Kingdom of the Netherlands is a Puppet State of Germany that was created after Germany's conquest of the Netherlands to invade Britain. After World War I, Wilhelmina was banished with her mother, husband and daughter to Canada as Wilhelmina's cousin William Ernest, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach as the new King.

## History

### Origin

With the armed support of revolutionary France, Dutch republicans proclaimed the Batavian Republic, modelled after the French Republic and rendering the Netherlands a unitary state on 19 January 1795. The stadtholder William V of Orange had fled to England. But from 1806 to 1810, the Kingdom of Holland was set up by Napoleon Bonaparte as a puppet kingdom governed by his brother Louis Bonaparte to control the Netherlands more effectively. However, King Louis Bonaparte tried to serve Dutch interests instead of his brother's, and he was forced to abdicate on 1 July 1810. The Emperor sent in an army and the Netherlands became part of the French Empire until the autumn of 1813 when Napoleon was defeated in the Battle of Leipzig.

William Frederick, son of the last stadtholder, returned to the Netherlands in 1813 and proclaimed himself Sovereign Prince of the Netherlands. Two years later, the Congress of Vienna added the southern Netherlands to the north to create a strong country on the northern border of France. William Frederick raised this United Netherlands to the status of a kingdom and proclaimed himself as King William I in 1815. In addition, William became hereditary Grand Duke of Luxembourg in exchange for his German possessions. However, the Southern Netherlands had been culturally separate from the north since 1581, and rebelled. The south gained independence in 1830 as Belgium (recognised by the Northern Netherlands in 1839 as the Kingdom of the Netherlands was created by decree), while the personal union between Luxembourg and the Netherlands was severed in 1890, when William III died with no surviving male heirs. Ascendancy laws prevented his daughter Queen Wilhelmina from becoming the next Grand Duchess.

The Belgian Revolution at home and the Java War in the Dutch East Indies brought the Netherlands to the brink of bankruptcy. However, the Cultivation System was introduced in 1830; in the Dutch East Indies, 20% of village land had to be devoted to government crops for export. The policy brought the Dutch enormous wealth and made the colony self-sufficient.

The Netherlands abolished slavery in its colonies in 1863. Slaves in Suriname would be fully free only in 1873, since the law stipulated that there was to be a mandatory 10-year transition.

### Succession Craze

Under the Semi-Salic system of inheritance that was in place in the Netherlands until 1887, Wilhelmina was third in line to the throne from birth. Her father had had three sons with his first wife Sophie of Württemberg, but two of them had died before Wilhelmina's birth. The only other surviving male relatives from the House of Orange were his uncle Frederick, who died in 1881 when his daughter was one year old, and his third son Alexander, who died before she turned four. By 1887, the 70-year-old King finally abandoned the 'hope of a son' with his young wife and made the pragmatic decision to settle the throne upon his only surviving child.

King William III died on 23 November 1890 and 10-year-old Wilhelmina became Queen of the Netherlands, though her mother was named regent. In 1895, Wilhelmina visited Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, who penned an evaluation in her diary: "The young Queen ... still has her hair hanging loose. She is slender and graceful, and makes an impression as a very intelligent and very cute girl. She speaks good English and knows how to behave with charming manners."

On 6 September 1898, Wilhelmina was sworn-in at the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam. She was well aware what was expected by the elected representatives, but was a strong-willed, forceful woman who spoke and acted her mind. She "hated" politicians and instead stated a love for the people.

According to the Dutch constitution, Wilhelm Ernst was in the line for the throne of the Netherlands (as the grandson of Princess Sophie of the Netherlands) after Queen Wilhelmina. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Dutch feared the possibility of German influence or even annexation of the Netherlands. In order to prevent this, some lawyers tried to change the constitution to exclude Wilhelm Ernst from the succession. Another proposal, however, was this: if Wilhelmina would die childless, then he or his offspring would have to choose between the Dutch and the Weimar throne. The birth of Wilhelmina's daughter Juliana in 1909 lessened the chance for any member of the House of Wettin (Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach branch) to inherit the Dutch throne. With the amendment to the constitution of 1922, which restricted the right of succession to the offspring of Wilhelmina, the possibility disappeared entirely.

At the beginning of the 20th century, socialism began to develop in the industrial centers. Although the first socialist party, the Social Democratic League, was founded in the 19th century, the electoral system, combined with a policy of containment and repression, prevented the development of the socialist movement. In the 1901 election, the Social Democratic Workers' Party increased its representation from two to six seats in the lower house of parliament, to the great unease of the confessional and liberal elite. This unease became even greater during the railway strike of 1903, which disrupted the functioning of Dutch society. The railway strike was followed by a general strike in protest at the harsh treatment of the railway workers by the confessional government. In contrast to Germany, the majority of Dutch socialists did not complain about imperialism and the East Indies.

After the 1913 elections, in which the social democrats doubled their number of seats (from 7 to 15), the Liberal Union tried to form a coalition government with the social democrats but the social democrats refused to cooperate with what they perceived as bourgeois (or "middle class") parties.

### World War I

During World War I, Britain invaded the Netherlands to invade Germany, but it only gained negative attention from the Germans who then repelled the British. Wilhelmina supported the British in invading the Netherlands to prevent German Hegemony in Europe and the fact she honored the British as allies of the Dutch since they returned many of the Dutch Colonial Possessions during the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814. Many Pro-German Dutch politicians overthrew Wilhelmina and replaced her with a German collaborationist political party which replaced Wilhelmina with her cousin Prince Heinrich XXXIII Reuss of Köstritz who had taken charge. Heinrich allowed the Japanese to take the Dutch East Indies as a goodwill present later on to help them on their conquest of Asia. Pro-German politicians had trouble with Pro-Wilhelmina opposition for being weak in kindly giving up Indonesia to an aggressive warlike nation and letting Dutch citizens in the East Indies fall into the grasp of the Japanese.

### After the War

After the war, Wilhelmina remained in exile with her husband and daughter Juliana in the Kingdom of Britain. She knows that she will never return to the Netherlands due to it being Pro-German. Liberal Parties were banned in the Netherlands as only Conservative Parties were allowed in the Parliament of the Pro German Netherlands.

## Government

The Government is a Constitutional Monarchy ruled by a King and governed by the Reichskommissariat Niederlande which is headed by a Reichskommissar who has a deputy who is called a Prime Minister. The Reichkommissar is appointed into power by the Germans as he and the King appoint members of the Dutch Reichkommissariat who then elect the Prime Minister to be the Reichkommissar's deputy and the Reichkommissar then appoints the Prime Minister as his deputy. The Prime Minister then elects his cabinet to represent the Dutch Government as they are appointed by the King himself.

#### **Administrative Cabinet of the Netherlands**

* **King:** Heinrich I
* **Reichkommissar:** Alexander von Falkenhausen
* **Prime Minister:** Anton Adriaan Mussert
* **Foreign Minister:** Graaf de Marchant et d'Ansembourg
* **Armament Minister:** Gerrit van Burink
* **Minister of Defense:** Corneliis van Geelkerken
* **Minister of Intelligence:** Henk Feldmeijer
* **Chief of Staff:** Hendrik Seyffardt
* **Chief of Army:** Adrianus Zondervan
* **Chief of Navy:** Pieter Koenraad
* **Chief of Air Force:** Claes Douw van der Krap

## Military

### Army

The Royal Netherlands Army is surprisingly large for such a small country. Eight infantry divisions are stationed in the Netherlands.

### Navy

The small yet capable Royal Netherlands Navy consists of 1 carrier, 4 battleships, 3 battlecruisers, 1 heavy cruiser, 7 light cruisers, 20 destroyers, and 21 submarines.

### Air Force

Dutch air assets are under the control of the Royal Netherlands Air Force. While the smallest of the three service branches, a few dozen fighters, and naval bombers are located in both the Netherlands.

## Foreign Relations

* Great Relations with the Imperial State of France and it's master state the German Empire.
* Bad Relations with the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and Kingdom of Belgium.