The Dutch Empire Strikes Back

The Dutch Empire Strikes Back
Part VIII

February, 1895, the King realized that if the Netherlands wanted to have any chance of winning a war against the British, British India had to be occupied. At the moment there was no way, except with sheer luck, that they could mount an invasion of India. But soon that was too change. The troops stationed in Cambodia were reinforced till 68,000 men, a bit further south in Tekmoa, two Dutch division were reinforced and boarded the transports ships waiting for them.


Dutch Soldiers in South East Asia

April 4, the 6th Corps arrived near Bangkok. Before the Dutch could even establish a beachhead, the Siamese attacked. During the Battle of Bangkok, which lasted 12 days, the Dutch suffered just 870 losses while the Siamese forces were routed and lost over 6,000 men.
Bangkok still lay under siege when other Dutch troops from Cambodia crossed the border and defeated the small border garrisons without too much trouble.


Invasion of Bangkok


Battle of Bangkok

At home situation became stressed, some 2,000 factory workers rose up in arms against the King. Although the King was worried about the situation and if more people planned to cause trouble to the him. He had brought prosperty and power to the Dutch population, yet in comparison to other countries the Dutch had no social reforms and the King still had absolute power, but this was of secundary importance now. First the King had to focus on Siam.

Once the troops from Cambodia had reached Bangkok and created a stable supply line Siam was about to fall. Facing problems at home and the fear of having a border with Britain the King decided that it was wiser to make Siam a Dutch protectorate instead of fully annexing it.

Once the war was finished the King had to find a way to please his people. Lowering the taxes was a possibilty, but that wouldn’t be a lasting way. Social reforms were too expensive and if it was possible the King would avoid debt. Allowing trade unions, giving voting rights could possibly solve the problem. Rumor had it that an old acquintance of the King was behind the armed uprising in Maastricht, were this rumors true, then the King had bigger problems and no reform could possibly solve these problems.

The situation got worse when the population of Rotterdam went into open rebellion. Now the King had no choice but to grant the population some sort of constitution. So he granted voting rights to the wealthy, granted freedom to all parties and allowed all trade unions. After the armed uprising in Rotterdam evidence was found to support the claim that in some way the old advisor was involved. But how did he came to Holland again? Most likely he came with help from the British or Belgians, although the King didn’t exclude the possibilty of German involvement.


Armed uprising in Rotterdam

Out of the blue France declared colonial war upon the British in 1896. This was a war of which the Dutch could possibly profit, unfortunately the war came too early for the Dutch. Unfortunately 2 years later the French had to help their allies, the Spanish, against the US. Most likely this would mean that the Dutch, once again, lost an important ally.

In the next five years were quiet, with the exception of few armed uprisings in the Netherlands. Railroads were constructed in all industrial areas, but the most important chances came in the military. In 1898 6 divisions were trained in South Africa, of which 4 were sent to South East Asia. Two years later 34,000 Cambodian farmers were conscripted in the Dutch Colonial Army, in Vietnam 68,000 people were drafted. An additional 2 cavalry and 1 infantry division were trained in Holland to defend the country against a possible invasion or armed uprisings. Shortly after the new divisions were placed, an officers academy was founded in Groningen.


The newly created Officers academy

The initial plans for a future war against Britain were falling apart. Russia had been at war with the UK for more as 20 years now and was on the verge of collapse. France, just recently gotten in to war with the UK, but also in war with the US, was unlikely to come to the assistance of the Dutch, more over the French Navy was reduced to just 1 ship. Germany was the only viable option, the Germans were powerfull, unfortunately their navy was weak and their colonies badly defended. More over the Germans could harm Dutch interests in South Africa. This didn’t prevent the Dutch for signing a defensive alliance with them though, at least now the Dutch would get help against if the British attacked them, and it would prove to be a wise thing to do. It seemed that if the Dutch would fight the British on their terms, they had to do it alone.

Dutch military build up continued for a short while. 4 new Vietnamese infantry division were created, as were 4 cavalry divisions. In 1902 Dutch naval engineers developed 2 kinds of new ships, so called Modern Cruises and Dreadnoughts. Equiped with the latest technology, the Dutch might actually have a slim chance to inflict some serious damagous on the Royal Navy. However, both appeared to be extremely expansive, despite the cost 2 dreadnoughts were constructed in Amsterdam. Upon completion the Dutch were the first to have this kind of ship.


Dutch Dreadnought on the way to Africa


Time was running short for the King as in the last couple of years his health started to worsen. Seeing that Britain was relatively weak, or at least occupied in Western Africa and China, the King started to think that perhaps the time to strike was now. The most valuable asset of the British was their navy with almost 1,442 ships, they even had acquired a dreadnought, where as the dutch just had 46 ships. On the seas the dutch would be outnumber 31 to 1.


British and Dutch Navies compared

The British army however, despite the vast amounts of land they held, was relatively small. They outnumbered the Dutch by just 20 infantry divisions and 9 cavalry division. Most likely most of those division would be fighting the French in Africa now. Intelligence reports that even the remaining troops, not engaged in combat, are spread thinly throughout the world. Even where there are larger concentration, most likely the border regions with the US and Russia. But the UK has a large border with Russia, although the Russians had proven to be no match for the British they could releave pressure from Dutch troops in India.


Britsh and Dutch Armies compared

March 18, 1904, war was declared upon the UK. Would the Dutch prove right, and be capable of defeating the British, or would they be crushed under their boots?​

The Dutch Empire Strikes Back
Part IX

March 18, 1904. The fifth Anglo-Dutch war had begon. On various places Dutch troops crossed the Anglo-Dutch border. For logistical reasons the Dutch army command had chosen to first oust the British from Guyana and South Africa.


Dutch troops on their way to fight the British.

Guyana the first target for occupation. The element of surprise cought this British outpost unguarded and within one month it was completely occupied by the Dutch.


Guyana occupied by the Dutch

The chief of army of South East Asia decided that with the element of surprise an invasion of Singapore had to be conducted to avoid British reinforcements landing there and use it as a base for operations against the Dutch East Indies. To the surprise of the Dutch troops and their commanding officers they found the Malay peninsular completely unguarded and subsequently it was quickly occupied.
Troops from Cambodia and Vietnam were brought to the Siamese-British border to launch a succesfull invasion of India. But without South Africa completely under Dutch control an invasion of India would be unwise. As soon as South Africa was under Dutch control the invasion of India would commence, and the Dutch East India command knew, this wasn’t going to be easy.


Invasion of South Africa

South Africa, unlike Guyana and Singapore, wouldn’t be as easily occupied by the Dutch. British troops, defending South Africa against the French, found that they were now being surrounded by 2 sides. 48,000 Dutch troops, with artillery support, approached the British lines from the south, a side which was ill-defended, and after a short battle, which lasted 6 days and costed 4,301 Dutch lives, the British forces were pushed back further into Africa.
Unlike the North, the South was quickly occupied and the Dutch met little resistance of the British. Many Boers in British South Africa greeted the Dutch soldiers as their liberators.


Dutch Forces greeted by the Boer population

On 15 August, Dutch forces liberated Cape Town from the British. South Africa was almost conquered except for a small region in the north which was defended by 30,000 British soldiers. Realizing those soldiers could pose a threat to the Dutch occupation of South Africa, 48,000 soldiers were ordered to attack their posistions. The battle lasted for almost a month and was one of the bloodiest seen in Dutch recent history. 14,803 soldiers were either dead or wounded and several hundreds were missing in action. Although the Dutch took heavy losses they secured a victory, killing over 11,000 British soldiers and taking another 19,000 as prisoners..


South Africa in Dutch hands again

In October a British Invasion forces occupied Groningen. The Dutch navy was quickly dispatched to intercept further transport ships. Unfortunately a part of the Royal navy, about 15 cruisers, 10 battleships and some other smaller ships were waiting, and during the Battle of Helgoländer Bucht the Dutch lost 5 cruisers and 5 battleships were sunk. Although the British suffered heavier losses, the Dutch lost 50% of their cruisers and had no battleships left anymore. Local divisions tried to throw the British out, but each time the British repelled their attacks and inflicted heavy losses on the Dutch.


British Occupation of Groningen

During the last months of 1904 the Dutch started the invasion of British India. Between 240,000 and 300,000 troops crossed the Siamese border. The exact number of soldiers is unknown, since a lot of Burmese and Siamese joined the Dutch ranks in order to throw the British out of their homelands. In January 1905 the Dutch reached Rangoon and liberated it from British hands.


Dutch forces are advancing in Asia

It seemed that the Dutch were right and that beating Britain in a land war wasn’t as difficult as others had suspected. Although the British Navy, especially with an non-existant German and French navy and a severely weakend Dutch navy, now were indeed rulers of the sea.
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