Netherlands in World War I
The Kingdom of the Netherlands was neutral during World War I. This was part of a strict policy of neutrality in international affairs that started in 1830 with the secession of Belgium, or the Southern Netherlands, from the north. It would end with the German invasion of 10 May 1940. In World War I the Netherlands would be in a tight spot as the country was relatively close to the Western Front and geographically positioned in between the German Empire, German-occupied Belgium and the United Kingdom. Both warring factions would regularly intimidate the Netherlands and put demands on it.
Position prior to World War I
Prior to the First World War, the Netherlands hosted two major international peace conferences in The Hague. The First Hague Conference was held in May 1899 on the initiative of the Russian Tsar Nicholas II. Representatives of twenty-six nations conferred on the limitation of certain types of weapons, including poison gas, hollow point bullets and aerial bombardment from hot air balloons. The conference was a surprising success and agreements were made on the laws of war and subsequent war crimes.
In 1907, there was a Second Hague Conference at the instigation of the American president, Theodore Roosevelt. It had been planned for 1904 but had to be postponed because of the Russo-Japanese War. The second conference is generally considered a failure. The philanthropic American steel magnate Andrew Carnegie financed the building of the Peace Palace in The Hague to house the International Court of Justice. Today The Hague still is a centre of international law.
Dutch Politics
Royal House
The head of state of the Netherlands was Queen Wilhelmina. She was known as fiercely patriotic and strong-willed. Queen Wilhelmina leaned towards sympathy for France and Belgium, but only in private. In public she remained purely neutral. Her husband, the German prince-consort Henry Duke zu Mecklenburg-Schwerin, was openly pro-German. The army of his nephew, Frederick Francis IV Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, was part of the German army.[1] Within the Prussian army there was the 'Husaren-Regiment Königin Wilhelmina der Niederlande (Hannoversches) Nr. 15', a Prussian cavalry regiment named after Wilhelmina of which she was honorary commander.
Government
On 29 August 1913 a centrist liberal minority cabinet was appointed under leadership of prime minister Pieter W.A. Cort van der Linden, an independent liberal MP. His cabinet would reign until 9 September 1918, an unusual long period for a Dutch cabinet. During this period the important post of minister of Foreign Affairs was taken by Jonkheer John Loudon. Minister of War was former general Nicolaas Bosboom (until 15 May 1917). Although the government as a whole was strictly neutral, the individual members had their preferences. Some ministers were in favour of France, but prime minister Cort van der Linden was privately seen as ‘German friendly’ and nicknamed ‘Kurt unter der Linden’ after Berlin’s main boulevard.[2]
Declaration of neutrality
After the Austro-Hungarian Empire declared war on the Kingdom of Serbia in the aftermath of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie, the Netherlands declared themselves neutral on 30 July 1914. According to international law neutrality had to be declared in each instance of a war declaration between two sovereign nations. During the month of August many the Dutch declaration of neutrality had to be repeated regularly. The declaration consisted of eighteen articles. The most important were that hostilities were not allowed within the territory and waters of the Dutch Empire; that it was not allowed to use said territory and waters as a base for military operations; and that foreign soldiers whom, for whatever reason, crossed into Dutch territory would be interned in POW camps for the duration of the war.[3]
The military
On 31 July, the Dutch government ordered a full military mobilisation of its 200,000 man-strong conscript armed forces, including reserves and regional militias. The chief of staff lieutenant-general Cornelis Snijders was promoted to full general and supreme commander, a function that only existed in war time.
The Dutch military strategy was purely defensive and rested on three pillars. First there was the ‘Nieuwe Hollandse Waterlinie’ (New Holland Waterline), a defensive ring of rivers and lowland surrounding Holland proper that would be inundated. An older version had existed since the sixteenth century. A second line of defence was formed by a circle of nineteenth-century fortresses and further inundations surrounding the capital Amsterdam, called the Vesting van Amsterdam (Fortress of Amsterdam). The third pillar was the Veldleger, or mobile field army, that would operate outside the Waterline in the rural eastern and southern provinces.
During the war, militarily sensitive border areas and places essential to the national defence would be declared in ‘state of siege’, a phase preceding the ‘state of war’. There, military authorities would rule under martial law and non-residents could only go there with a special permit. These prohibited border areas would expand during the war in order to fight espionage and expel suspect individuals.