The Second Spanish-Netherlands War: 1872-1874
A Tale of Two Princes
The war against the anarchists remains one of the proudest and most glorious moments in Dutch history, comparable to the victory against Spain in 1581 or King Frederik's victory over the southern separatists. The war is especially notable for being the first major intervention in a mainland European event by The Netherlands and also the proving ground for two of it's most ablest royal princes, Frederik, Prince of Orange and his younger brother Willem, both sons of the reigning King Frederik.
Prince Frederik was born in The Hague on the 22nd of August 1836, nearly a month before his uncle Prince Willem's assassination. The death of his uncle and his young son elevated the young prince from fourth to second in line to the Dutch throne at the age of only a month. This heightened his importance but also made his carers and especially his mother overprotective of him, lest he or his father end up like his late uncle. Although King Frederik disagreed with raising a son this way, lest he grow
"too weak and sissy" he was often away on campaign, drilling the military in preparation for another campaign or busy running the country so Queen Louise was left to raise young Prince Frederik the way she liked.
The young prince was said to have hated many of his carers, and his mother's overbearing and overprotective attitude towards him made him quite antagonistic towards her. Later scholars have pointed out than many palace aides at the time were themselves from, or had family connections in the southern provinces and this may have led to Prince Frederik's disdain for the Belgians in later life.
Despite the fact he rarely got to see his father, the young prince was filled with admiration for him, and paid special attention to his exploits against King Leopold and the Belgians during his history studies. What little time he did spend with his father was usually also spent with the army and it's generals and he soon grew fond of them too, especially the Napoleonic Wars veteran General Chasse who acted as a mentor to him. His father and the older generals would often speak affectionately of the late King Willem, which inspired a reverence by the young prince to the grandfather he had never met.
General Chasse's death in 1849 spurred the 12-year old prince to let go of all polite formality towards his carers and his mother, and he soon grew angry, disobedient and even violent towards them, he paid little attention to civil studies and mathematics and spent as much time as he could with the army. His mother was less than impressed but his father praised his young son, and suggested Prince Frederik spend some time with relatives in Prussia as he had done, to fuel his desire for generalship. By this time Prince Willem was six years old so the need for an immediate heir in case of King Frederik's death was no longer an issue, so Queen Louise agreed, albeit reluctantly, to let Frederik study in Berlin while she concentrated on raising Willem.
During his years in Berlin Prince Frederik excelled under the tutelage of Prussian General Helmuth von Moltke, who like his father was a disciple of the late Carl von Clausewitz. His ten years study in Prussia was augmented by practical military experience, serving with the Prussian army during the Second, Third and Fourth Austro-Prussian Border Wars. On returning to The Netherlands in 1860 Prince Frederik served as Undersecretary of the Army under his father, spearheading tactics using the new Chasse rifles which would be used in the war against Bali. He married Princess Amalia von Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach in a ceremony in The Hague in 1860.
Like his father King Frederik, The Prince of Orange relished the chance to go to war with Spain. He served as a General and second in command of the Dutch Forces, answering only to his father and to King Carlos VII, commander of the Royal Spanish Army in exile.
King Frederik's younger son Prince Willem was born in The Hague on the 4th of September 1842. Unlike his older brother, Willem's carers weren't so overprotective of him and he generally had a happy childhood with them and Queen Louise. When his brother Frederik left for Berlin Queen Louise spent extra time lavishing attention on the young Willem, spurring an interest in painting, reading and philosophy.
The young prince was quite eloquent for his age, and spent his days conversing with scholars and politicians of the day. He originally wanted an education at Leiden University, his father's alma matter, but having heard of the liberal education available in Great Britain asked his father if he could receive an education there.
King Frederik was disappointed that his young son preferred the liberal arts to the art of war but nevertheless saw the benefit in having his son educated in Britain. By the time Prince Willem was 18, the British navy were already upgrading it's old wooden fleet with ironclads powered by coal and steam, and not wanting the Dutch navy to lag behind, King Frederik sent his son to study naval tactics at the Royal Navy base in Plymouth Devonport, hoping that a disciplined naval education would
"knock all that liberalism out of him".
This proved to be an error on King Frederik's part, as Prince Willem was placed under the tutelage of Rear-Admiral Michael Seymour, hero of the Crimean and Chinese Wars and a member of the British Liberal Party. Under Seymour, Willem learned both Naval tactics and Liberal politics and excelled at both. After five years in Plymouth and on the advice of his mentor, Willem went to further his study at Oxford University unbeknownst to his father but with tacit support from his mother, where he became further involved with Liberal politics and served as a secretary to the local Liberal MP, William Gladstone.
During his long stay in Great Britain, Prince Willem led the life of an enlightened liberal gentleman, and made many friends in both liberal academic and naval circles. He was popular among the royal family too, and was seen as a natural choice for a son-in-law by Queen Victoria. He married Princess Alice in a ceremony in London in 1865, attended by Prime Minister Gladstone and the aging former Prime Minister Palmerston, as well as Duke Seymour, First Lord of the Admiralty, Johan Rudolf Thorbecke and in a rare public appearance, the Dutch naval hero and explorer David Tasman. Upon his return to The Netherlands he was put in charge of modernising the somewhat archaic Royal Dutch Navy: he instituted the transition from wooden ships powered by sail to ironclads powered by steam, founded a new naval base and academy in Ghent and spearheaded the introduction of a Dutch Marine Corps, based on British lines.
Named Willem in honour of his late uncle, Prince Willem was like his namesake in many ways. A gentleman and a liberal, British Prime Minister Gladstone called him "the second great Liberal hope for The Netherlands" the first of course being Thorbecke. During the war with Spain Prince Willem served with the Navy and led the escort during the Bilbao landing.
The Bilbao Landings
As in the First Carlist War, the support of the northern Basque peoples were integral to the success of any future Carlist government. King Carlos was adamant that a quick liberation of the Basques in Bilbao would swell the ranks of the Carlist Resistance and petitioned the Dutch Command to strike there first.
Prince Frederik's plans for the Bilbao Landings. The Dutch Army would be divided into two waves due to transport concerns, The majority of the Dutch Army would make up the first wave while 18'000 infantry will make up the second wave. The first wave would lay siege to Bilbao and prepare for a counter-attack by the Spanish Army, when the Spanish army are defeated the first wave will pursue the routed Spaniards while the second wave would continue besieging Bilbao before joining up with the rest of the first wave.
Prince Willem however, was more concerned with a threat much closer to home, the French. Emperor Napoleon III had already showed his taste for military intervention having invaded Bolivia three years earlier, he had also received an audience from the Pope begging him to intervene on behalf of Spain's Catholics. Indeed, a fragmented Spain would be a prime target for an expansionist France and unlike the Dutch, the French were after conquest, not liberation.
Prince Willem believed that France would likely strike at the heart of the Radical movement, Catalonia. He proposed launching a daring three-pronged amphibious assault there first, while using the second wave to siege Bilbao. By occupying the Spanish-French border as quickly as possible Prince Willem hoped to keep Napoleon III out of the war while striking at the heart of the Radical movement he hoped would leave Spain's anarchists in disarray.
By striking at four places at once, Prince Willem hoped to knock the Radicals out of the war before France could. This plan did however leave the Dutch army fragmented and easier to defeat and thus it was rejected by Kings Frederik and Carlos, the latter not willing to risk any show of weakness in front of the Basques.
The Spanish Theatre
Due to Prince Willem's impeccable organisation, the amphibious landing at Bilbao went off without a hitch and Dutch Armies were laying siege to Bilbao within a week. The Radical government due to it's decentralised nature was slow to respond to the combined Dutch/Carlist threat and with most of the
directorio high command and around 42'000 of the Radicals best troops fighting in Arabia had to resort to mobilising peasants to fill the ranks of it's home army. The Radical Home Army was led by General Pedro de Albornoz, a maker of bathrobes who changed his name in honour of his day of birth according to the new Revolutionary calendar. Inexperienced, Indecisive and Haemophobic he was no match for King Frederik's experienced leadership.
Despite outnumbering the Dutch by 5000 men the Spanish troops were poorly trained, poorly equipped and poorly led, suffering three times the number of casualties as their better led, trained and equipped opponents at the Battle of Bilbao. The Radicals artillery failed to play a part in the battle and hence were left unscathed.
The Radicals fled westward like rats with their tails between their legs to the province of Santander. The arrival of the reserves left the bulk of the Dutch army free to pursue, although this time the Radicals were better prepared. General de Albornoz having seen the effectiveness of the Dutch cavalry in the Battle of Bilbao was finally convinced to let his men ride horses into battle, although he was still unconvinced by artillery.
The Battle of Santander was another resounding victory for the Dutch forces, with the Radicals losing half their army. Despite the valiant efforts of the Basque Volunteer Corps Pedro managed to keep his head while 13'000 Radical infantrymen were not such good runners.
Word of the victories in Spain soon reached home, and it was not too long before word crossed the border and reached the Emperor in Paris. On August the 18th, Emperor Napoleon III declared war on Radical Spain under the pretense of "liberating" the Catholics of Catalonia from Spanish rule. Prince Willem's fears were soon realised as the French stormed through Catalonia while the bulk of the Radical (and Dutch) forces were in Leon.
Having realised the errors of his ways Pedro de Albornoz was finally convinced to let the Radical artillery partake in battle, this however severely hampered their running ability and over half the Radical Spanish Artillery Corps were wiped out in one battle
The
directorio soon lost faith in de Albornoz and sent 18'000 regulars under General Pascual Alcala-Zapata, a veteran of the Hedjaz campaign to relieve Leon. The second Battle of Leon was notable as being the only battle of the Spanish theatre to have been fought by forces on relatively equal footing.
Nevertheless it was an easy victory for the Dutch: the Spaniards lost over half of their 18'000 troops, the Dutch inflicting nine times the number of casualties than the Spaniards inflicted on the Dutch.
With most of their regular army either trapped by Prince Willem's naval blockade of Hedjaz or regrouping from their defeats at Leon, the
Directorio was forced to rely solely on volunteers and conscripts. Prince Willem's marines launched a daring amphibious assault on both Seville and Valencia closing in on Madrid on three fronts: Victories against the haphazard radicals were won in Vigo, La Coruna, Valladolid, Seville, Valencia, Granada, Cordoba, Salamanca, Teruel and Caceres.
Things went from bad to worse for the Radicals as Montenegro, the sole ally of Radical Spain and ironically an Orthodox Christian Theocracy sought a white peace on St. Valentine's day 1873. The Radicals negotiated an unpopular peace deal with the French, ceding Catalonia and the Balearic isles to the Second French Empire. The deal was so unpopular that anarchists across Spain rose in rebellion against both the Carlists and the
directorio, such as the "Traitors Uprising" in Bilbao.
The "Traitors Uprising" in occupied Bilbao was openly hostile to the Carlists and the Directorio alike
Madrid was captured by Dutch forces on the 21st of April 1874 with peace being signed on the 17th of June, coinciding with the restoration of the Carlist monarchy to the Spanish throne.
Territory annexed by France during the War of French Aggression (1873)
The Pacific Theatre: The Illustrado's Rebellion
While King Frederik focused his attentions on Spain and restoring the Carlists, the real war wast to be fought in the Pacific, where territorial gain or religious zeal rather than legitimacy was the prime motivation. Governeur-Generaal Pieter Mijer appointed the recently disgraced Graaf van Java, Jan Jacob Rochussen as Commander in chief of the Dutch Colonial Army, who was reportedly keen on clearing his family's name.
The war was extremely popular throughout the Empire, and especially in the predominately Muslim Dutch East Indies. Rochussen was quick to capitalise on the show of support by the Javanese population by appointing a Javanese royal, Sultan Hamengkubuwana VI as deputy commander of the Dutch Colonial forces. Like the war itself, this move was extremely popular amongst East Indians from all walks of life and even the Indonesian independence activist Imam Bonjol supported the war, to the point of proclaiming a Jihad against Spain. These two actions further encouraged many thousands of Dutch colonial subjects to enlist in the army and navy.
Sultan Hamengkubuwana VI, MWO, GNR, HOCS was the first ever ethnic Javanese to be appointed a General of the Dutch Army. His bravery and valour as a frontline general won him the acclaim of both his soldiers and peers, including the King.
Paradoxically, the Spanish Colonial Army division in The Philippines (Ejército de Fillipinas) was stationed in Puerto Rico for most of the war, and spent more time fighting in South America than in Southeast Asia. Early Reconnaissance reports from the Dutch Colonial Navy showed that Spain left The Philippines completely undefended. The Dutch forces marched into Spain's Asian possessions with high spirits and the expectation of a quick and easy victory, Rochussen famously proclaiming the war "would be over by Christmas".
The Filipinos however had a rude surprise for the optimistic Rochussen: The Philippines was practically a theocracy, with the Catholic clergy holding more power than the governor-general. Obviously this was out of step with the direction the anti-theist regime were taking in mainland Spain, and the Radicals tasked the new governor-general with cracking down on the clergy and religious practice in general.
These measures led to a protest by influential members of the Filipino clergy and their supporters, with three priests leading the counter-revolutionary charge: Mariano Gómez, José Burgos and Jacinto Zamora. The Radicals were quick to silence the three priests and had them executed publicly in order to set an example to the rest of the clergy.
Marcelo Hilario del Pilar, a leading Spanish-educated Filipino thinker and scholar (known as an
Illustrado in Spanish) was outraged by the actions of the Radical government and proposed that the only way to safeguard Filipino morals and ethics (such as religious practice) was for The Philippines to become an independent nation. His ideas quickly spread from the middle class to the common man and young men across the country began organising revolutionary brigades in the name of God and Nation.
A band of Filipino Revolutionaries
Unfortunately for Jan Rochussen the rebellion couldn't have come at a worse time, with the small Spanish presence defeated within a few days, the nationalists quickly turned their attention to the invading Dutch. What they lacked in numbers and equipment they made up with zeal and an intimate knowledge of the land and were able to wage a long and protracted guerrilla war against the Dutch Colonial Army. Despite the resilience of the Filipino revolutionaries, their shortness in number and lack of organisation and equipment meant that defeat at the hands of the Dutch was inevitable, although it is worth noting that the Dutch delayed signing a peace with Spain by three months in order to fully pacify The Philippines.
The Ejército de Fillipinas
made a belated appearance in the Pacific Theatre when it besieged Banda Aceh, the only Dutch-Spanish engagement in the pacific to take place during the war.
The Treaty of Madrid
The reconstruction of Spain and Hedjaz began during the conference of Madrid, held at the Palacio Real de Madrid. King Carlos VII of Spain (as he was now officially known) had already agreed before the war to hand over Spain's Asian colonies to The Netherlands on practical grounds: The revolution and subsequent anarchist regime had greatly depleted the Spanish treasury to the point of near bankruptcy, the Carlist government couldn't hope to afford both an Atlantic and Pacific fleet and Cuba was much cheaper to maintain. As compensation The Netherlands paid a sum of 15 million Guilders as compensation in addition to a further 5 million for Guam and the Caroline islands.
Territory ceded to The Netherlands during the Treaty of Madrid.
Dutch possessions in Southeast Asia (1874)
The next issue of contention was Hedjaz. King Frederik insisted that Hedjaz be granted independence and that the holy cities of Makkah (Mecca) and Madinah (Medina) be rebuilt. King Carlos reluctantly agreed to pay a sum of 120 million Pesetas (50 million Guilders) as compensation for the radical invasion and subsequent destruction of the two holy cities. Hedjaz was to become a protectorate of The Netherlands with a government, military, constitution and law based on Dutch lines. In lieu of a monarch, a Grand Ayatollah was appointed head of state with a head of government elected by the people, while Islam was made the state religion and Arabic the official language Jews and Christians were not to face discrimination and Dutch was to be taught as a second language in schools out of respect to the Dutch liberators. Finally a new secular capital was to be built in-between Makkah and Madinah by dutch labour and funds, this was done to allow Dutch administrators to assist in the governance of the new state who as non-Muslims couldn't otherwise if the capital was in either holy city.
The Dutch Protectorate of Hedjaz, rebuilt with Spanish money, Dutch ideas and Dutch labour: thousands of Muslims from across the Dutch Empire volunteered to assist in the reconstruction of the holy cities.
Finally came the reconstruction of Spain itself, obviously the Carlists would be restored to power and Carlos VII instated as King but changes would have to be made in order to stop an anarchist rebellion from ever occurring again. King Carlos' first goal was to restore the Church to it's former glory, and grand cathedral building projects began popping up all over the Spanish Empire, financed by generous low-interest loans provided by Banks in Amsterdam and Rotterdam. Second came the army, which in light of France's recent aggression was considered a top priority by both Kings Carlos and Frederik. Once again the Dutch came to the rescue with money, equipment and expertise offering to equip, train and fund a modern Spanish army in order to curb against French aggression. Finally came political change within Spain itself which was to be achieved by 1877 by what would later be called the "Three Year Plan"
The Three Year Plan had three main goals, the first and most important was to establish a government on Dutch lines which was very attractive to King Carlos, as it gave him tremendous power while satisfying the demands of his more Liberal aristocrats, thus removing their incentive to rebel. The second goal was to reward the "loyal provinces" of the basque population by reinstating the
Fueros or local laws. Under the condition that the Basque peoples respected the authority of the Spanish king and remained loyal subjects of the Spanish Empire they were granted special rights, such as self-government in the form of a devolved assembly (like the one in Java) and the right to set their own tax rates and their own provincial flag.
Flag of the Basque Autonomous Province. The green represents the Basque peoples while the white cross represents Catholicism and the holy church. The Burgundy cross is obviously a mark of respect and gratitude to Spain and the Carlist king while the orange sinister is a mark of respect and gratitude to the Dutch people for their role in Spanish (and thus Basque) liberation.
Whereas the Basques were rewarded for their loyalty the Catalans were punished for their disloyalty, perceived or real. The third point was the purging of anarchist and radical elements in society, and the deliverance of justice to those who collaborated with the Radicals. Although it is indeed true that many Catalans supported the Radical government and that many of it's leaders were Catalan or of Catalan ancestry, many Catalans were accused of collaboration and discriminated against, tortured by vengeful mobs or killed on the basis of being Catalan, rather than by where their actual loyalties lay. Just as "Basque" became synonymous with "Loyalist" and "Resistance" "Catalan" became synonymous with "traitor" and "Collaboration" and many Catalans fled to sanctuary in France. The number of Anarchists and Radical Collaborators to be tried and either imprisoned and/or executed by the Carlist Government is estimated at 40'000 though this number does not include victims of vigilante or mob violence. For decades after many people who were identified as or perceived to be collaborators were shunned while those who were identified as or lied about involvement with the Carlist resistance were revered and treated as heroes.
Flag of the Spanish Empire from 1874-1877, the Burgundian Cross was a symbol of the Carlist monarchy since the days of Carlos V. From 1877 onwards King Carlos reinstated the former Spanish flag as an act of reconciliation and as a sign that the "transition period" was over and that the goals enshrined in the three year plan had been achieved. The Burgundian Cross Flag henceforth became the Royal Standard, and is still flown from properties owned by the Spanish Crown or when the monarch or any member of the royal family is present.
The warming of relations between two formerly bitter enemies and rivals would later translate into a full-blown alliance between Spain and The Netherlands known as the Entendimiento Cordial, signed in 1877 and still in force to this very day.
Coming up next: Three Hurrahs for The Netherlands!