Onze Plaats in de Zon: The Rise of Frederik de Grote (van Holland)

Alex: Once again, thank you for starting and maintaining the contest. I hope you'll still stick around now that It's over of course.

Tommy: Thank You! I'm glad you consider this to be the second best AAR in the contest, I'm even more glad that quite a few judges disagreed with you

Communitarian: You would definitely be a worthy winner, Had I been a Judge I would have given "Letters" a 99 score for sure. Thank You and enjoy your winnings! I guess now we can expect another AAR from you once "letters" is finished.

Timmie: Thank You too!

Qorten: Thank You! I certainly will stick around, I like it here! I knew you had given me only 58 points as soon as you announced your score of Planck's AAR, but I understand completely and aren't upset in the slightest, after all you were one of the first people to comment and tell me what you thought of my AAR. Thank you for your score and reading/commenting!

Dutchemperor: What do you mean exactly? Yes I am still going to finish it, but I'm not going to have it end abrubtly like Dios, Patria, Rey If that's what you mean. Leaving you readers on such a cliffhanger would make me a real asshole wouldn't it?

Good news everyone! I've played through the Spanish-Netherlands War, so you can definitely expect the conclusion within a week; I want to do another election update before I post the "National Glory" update, hopefully I'll get it done tomorrow.

Jape: Thank You!

Aldriq: I shall, If I ever receive them... Thank You!
As for the Liberales, they probably would get into power if I extended the voting franchise, but I don't have a liberal majority in the Upper House to do that (they're third behind the conservatives and socialists, who together make up over 70% in 1874), not that I would do that if I did.

Scholar: Thank you too. Enjoy your spritepack, since you seem to finish most of your games you might be able to actually see it in action.

Okay, this has been by far the hardest update to write yet. It will be much, much larger than any previous election update (a Communitarian size update, if you will) and has gone through at least five revisions and rewrites just to make it seem plausible. I promise to have it posted up by tomorrow, it's just about finished and I really need to get some sleep... I hope the long delay will be worth it.

GhostWriter: You're right, It's far from over! Good to have you along!

Communitarian: It has been quite fun, but I'm almost certain "Onze Plaats in de Zon" will not be finished in time for the next contest and thus me competing will be unlikely. I do wonder what you're planning for your next AAR though, only time will tell I suppose...

Rensslaer: And I thought I was the only one confused about why someone would give such a man a name so effeminate as Mei Ling! Thank you for your analysis and for taking the time to explain your scores, I guess now I can expect regular comments from you, no?

As for the Dutch and Belgians, from what I can gather the bit in the prologue about our timeline's King Willem II being sympathetic towards the Belgians and in favour of the Treaty of London is true, as is King Willem I being against the treaty and Belgian independence. As I am neither Belgian nor Dutch I can't really comment on whether or not a rivalry still exists today between the two countries, but it seems to me if one does exist it would be a friendly one, like say the US and the UK. Back during the AAR's timeline again I can't really say, I'd assume it would be a little less friendly that what it's like today, after all why else would Belgium secede?

Finally, I was shocked and surprised by your comment that "Onze Plaats in de Zon" was partially an Instructional/Gameplay AAR. You aren't the first person to say so (Slan also mentioned Gameplay elements in his analysis, and I even got an ACA nomination for "Best Vicky 2 Gameplay AAR, Q3") but I personally wouldn't consider it a Gameplay AAR and I definitely wouldn't consider it instructional. As opposed to the historybook and narrative elements, how pronounced would you say the gameplay and instructional elements are? I'm quite curious.

"Onze Tijd Is Gekomen!" The 1871 Election: Background and Aftermath

Historical Background:
The Revolution of 1868 didn't affect just the Spanish, anarchist movements across Europe sought to emulate the Spanish example and in the years following La Gloriosa anarchist uprisings spread like wildfire across Europe, The Netherlands being no exception.

As the home of the Carlist Government in exile, supporting the Dutch anarchists were a priority for the Spanish government, who offered both training and arms to budding revolutionaries. One such revolutionary was Adriaan Rochussen, a relative of the current Prime Minister who despite his upper-class upbringing had strong leftist tendencies. Like his famous relative, Adriaan had a knack for leadership and he quickly rose through the ranks of the Spanish Revolutionary Army, serving as a Major at the Battle of Barcelona and Madrid while he was supposedly studying in Paris. His frontline experience and close ties to both the anarchists in Spain and the "establishment" at home made him the perfect candidate to lead a Dutch La Gloriosa.

Adriaan knew that the Dutch army was a modern, powerful and centralised force, and that tackling it head on as the Belgians did was foolhardy. Instead, Adriaan planned to use the Dutch's army's centralised structure against it, by launching simultaneous rebellions in The Netherlands and Java. As the Dutch Army would undoubtedly move as a single force, Adriaan hoped that he could hold the army at bay in one area for long enough for rebellions in other parts of the country to succeed.


The anarchists erected barricades and forts throughout The Netherlands and Java to disrupt the Dutch Army, like this one in Brussels' French quarter.

Adriaan put his plan into action on the 4th of April 1870, with simultaneous rebellions occurring in Brussels, Ghent, Bruges, Breda and Surabaya. The rebellions were crushed in a matter of days, as Adriaan had failed to take the Dutch Army's use of railways into account. What made the April 1870 revolt different from the numerous other Anarcho-Liberal rebellions which occurred across was the outrage which followed once Adriaan Rochussen's involvement in the rebellion was known and revealed. Vicious rumours soon circulated all the way to the Ridderkamer that Prime Minister Jan Rochussen had some involvement in the April 4 revolt and that he thus should be tried for treason.

Like many rumours this was one with no basis in reality or fact, and many people saw these rumours for what they were, after all Jan Rochussen was a respected public servant who had spent a lifetime in loyal service to the Dutch Empire and it's monarch. However never the types to let the truth get in the way of a good story, newspaper editors ran with the accusations while leftist politicians used them to attack Rochussen and the Royalists.

By this time King Frederik was bent on war with Spain and was keen to exploit what he saw as anti-anarchist sentiment. Rather than dissolve the government immediately or punish Jan Rochussen he convinced the Prime Minister to step down after the next election and retire to Java, where he was granted a life pension and a small plantation in Surabaya. As the people had clearly lost faith in the Prime Minister and his cabinet, King Frederik called for an early election to be held on November the 27th.

Multa tuli
Eduard Dekker's term as Governor of Formosa was a fruitful one for the Island, one which saw increased immigration and economic prosperity mainly due to the Tea boom of the 1860's. Dekker himself however grew bored with his life in Frederikstad and yearned to return to The Netherlands, which he did once his term was up in 1870. While in The Netherlands Dekker reacquainted himself with his writing, traveling across the country by train in search of inspiration. He found it in Brussels, amongst the chaos of the rebellion of 1870 and the conditions of the Dutch working man.

Brussels had long been a centre for the European textile industry and with the coming of the Industrial Revolution, the wealthy Flemish textile merchants were quick to modernise production in order to keep up with competition overseas. With modernisation came harsher working conditions, lower pay, longer hours and more accidents, many of which were completely unnecessary had a proper health and/or safety platform been implemented. The plight of the textile worker greatly moved Dekker and like a man possessed wrote his first play in only a week, titled Multa tuli, or I have suffered much.

The two-act play centres around the life of a Flemish working-class mother and her family during the 1850's, 1860's and 1870. The mother, who despite her humble upbringing is well-educated marries a soldier who fought in the War of Unification. The couple settle down and have a son while the father, now too old to fight, gets a job at the local Textile Mill in order to support his family.

Act two begins in 1870 with a series of misfortunes, first the father loses an arm in an industrial accident and, without basic medical treatment, dies. This disillusions his son, now a young man, who falls in with Adriaan Rochussen and the anarchists much to the dismay of his now elderly mother. The son dies during the Brussels revolt leaving his mother alone and without any income or means to support herself. Ironically, she gets a job at the same textile mill which her late husband worked (one of the few jobs available to women in those days) and struggles under the exhausting physical demands of the job.

The play ends outside of the textile mill, with two of the factory owners debating the future of the mill in the aftermath of the Brussels revolt. As "organs of capitalism" factories were a frequent target of anarchist attacks, the textile mill in the story being no exception. As the two owners discuss their losses of material, machinery and workers because of the revolt, they exclaim together "Oh! how we have suffered" at which point the old mother corrects them, uttering her immortal final words "you have suffered nothing, I have suffered much" before collapsing of exhaustion.

The play hit a chord with many people and was an instant success, especially in Brussels and is widely credited with "awakening" Socialism in The Netherlands. Dekker realised that he couldn't rely on a play to change things, he would have to change them himself. He got involved with the burgeoning SDP and was offered the position of party leader which he accepted, albeit with many concessions to the party's manifesto.

Eduard Dekker and Socialism
Despite their success in the last election, the SDP were still seen as a radical fringe party not too dissimilar to the Walloon National Party or even the anarchists and thus, had no hope of election under the rather conservative Dutch electoral system. Dekker knew enough about the political climate to know that the SDP would have to drastically curb it's radicalism, even if that meant sacrificing socialism itself for social justice.

Dekker's appointment as SDP leader stunned and fascinated many, after all Socialists of the day were dangerous radicals hell-bent on removing religion, the monarchy and the establishment and Dekker was a Protestant, Royalist and a Conservative. In an interview with the Staatscourant Dekker stated that he believed in the Ethics of Socialism (that is, social justice, religious and racial equality, nationalised industry, free healthcare, pensions, etc.) but not the "mumbo-jumbo" or more radical concepts (such as class struggle, revolution, statelessness, destruction of capitalism, atheism, etc.) When asked whether he was a Marxist Dekker replied "No, most certainly not"

Socialism With Dutch Characteristics
One of the reasons that socialism took longer to catch on and was less prevalent in The Netherlands as opposed to Great Britain or Germany was that the Dutch economy was based on agriculture, banking and trade, just as it was and had always been since the days of Willem van Oranje. In a nation where merchants and investors were so numerous and factories and their proletarians so few, (The Netherlands was the 8th most industrialised nation on earth in 1868, but still way behind the top 5 in terms of factories, output and workers) proletarian revolution had little appeal.

The reason for The Netherlands lack of factories despite having such a well-structured and prominent financial and banking sector was simple, market forces. Investing in commodities and resource gathering operations offered less risk for greater, quicker return whereas investing in a factory was more costly, took longer to make a return on investment and ran the likely possibility of early closure if the state felt it's product was "unsuitable".

To combat this, Dekker proposed a massive state industrialisation scheme which would be supported by a reformed Ministry for Trade and Industry. Unlike the current MTI which was mainly responsible for closing factories down, the new Ministry would be charged with creating and sustaining them: Firstly, the Ministry would encourage industries which were favourable to the state (such as cement, shipbuilding and steel) by using it's funding to subsidise the cost of creating cement, steel and shipbuilding factories. Secondly it would subsidise the wages of these, and only these factories. Thirdly, MTI would use discriminatory tariffs to ensure that Dutch products remained competitive, the proceeds of which would pay subsidization of further factories and wages.

This was a three-pronged assault by Dekker: cement was direly needed by the state for construction while steel and shipbuilding could be used to boost the military. By subsidising factory construction and wages they would be a safer and more profitable investment for capitalists and investors, who coincidentally made a large portion of the electorate and most importantly for Dekker, by having the government pay workers' wages he could ensure that standard wages were high, improving workers' quality of life.

Dekker also promised an expansion of The Netherlands social welfare. Pensions had long existed for the nobles and aristocracy, but not for anyone else. Dekker promised to extend this to soldiers and officers who had served a minimum of 25 years in the armed forces. Dekker's cause celebre however was his plan for a free, nation-wide health service which if implemented, would be the first of it's kind in Europe.

While his economic and social policies were embraced by the party, Dekker's stances on the military and especially on colonial policy were widely unpopular. Like many socialist parties of the era, the SDP was vehemently anti-military and favoured unilateral disarmament. This was simply unacceptable to Dekker (a defence hawk) and contrary to his party's wishes proposed increasing defence spending. Dekker correctly believed that King Frederik was hell-bent on a war with Spain, and any attempt to cut defence spending would never be approved by the King.

Dekker's changes to the SDP's Colonial policy were even more unpopular among the party's members. In the past the SDP made it no secret that they supported an independent state in the East Indies, protesting at every subsequent colonial acquisition the Dutch made (ironically, many of which were spearheaded by Dekker). The SDP would change from the main anti-imperialist lobby to a pro-Imperialist lobby overnight, with Dekker promising to achieve his "Oranje Map" plan within five years.

Dekker's radical (from a socialist point of view) manifesto disillusioned many of the more orthodox socialist members of the party and led to a large walkout of party members. To combat this, Dekker appealed to his supporters and friends from his old party to defect to the SDP. These Dekkerites as they were dubbed by the foreign press (a reference to the British Peelites) would form the base of Dekker and his party's support into the next election. Even with the support of the Dekkerites, the SDP didn't have enough MPs to contest enough seats required to win the next election on their own, If Dekker wanted to push his reforms through he'd have to seek help of another party in the form of a coalition.

Dekker and Thorbecke: An Unholy Alliance
In contrast to when he entered politics nearly twenty years ago, Thorbecke was by the 1870s a tired and bitter old man presiding over a lifetime of failures and missed opportunities. During the anarchist riots, Thorbecke's wife of nearly forty years died suddenly, sending Thorbecke into a deep depression. Pierre de Decker convinced the elderly statesman to take a short break from politics, which Thorbecke devoted to writing his memoirs and taking up painting, his favourite subject being his hometown of Zwolle.

On his return to politics in October of that year, Thorbecke entered negotiations with his longtime nemesis. At the time Dekker was merely keeping his options open; he would later admit in his own memoirs that he didn't "expect in the slightest" Thorbecke would actually agree to a coalition but thought it would be worth pursuing, as the Liberales were more favourable to electorate reform which would strengthen the position of the SDP (then still a minor party) in the long run than the Royalists. Thorbecke saw the potential in Dekker's economic policy, although he was said to be vehemently against the idea of National Healthcare, although de Decker would later admit he convinced Thorbecke in private that in a SDP-Liberale government the Liberales and Royalists would hold the balance of power in the Ridderkamer and block any proposed reforms, thus giving Thorbecke the confidence to enter the coalition with Dekker and the SDP.

Many scholars and theorists of Dutch politics have since debated the impact the death of his wife had on Thorbecke, and whether the alliance with the SDP had been possible otherwise. Thorbecke had a reputation as a hardliner without compromise, having refused a coalition offer with the Rooms-Katholieke faction in 1862 and refusing to back social reforms in 1867, resulting in him losing his seat of Zwolle via vote splitting (another possible factor). For Thorbecke to even consider entering a coalition, with one of his greatest rivals no less, marked quite a turnaround in his personality. Whether his wife's death had reminded him of his own impending demise and spurred him to leave a legacy of reforms behind him before he died or whether he tried to use Dekker and his friendship with King Frederik to his advantage, scholars have been unable to determine.

The 1871 Election: Parties and Results

The SDP-Liberale Coalition
After fierce negotiations throughout October and November, the SDP-Liberale Alliance presented it's dual manifesto in early December, combining Dekker's Economic, Colonial and Defence policy with Thorbecke's electoral and press reform proposals. Although Thorbecke had long campaigned for a Free Press, Dekker convinced him that such a proposal would never be accepted by King Frederik. Under the negotiated proposal, the Alliance would support the legalisation of newspapers run by private publishers while reserving the right of the King (or a royal censor) to edit out articles or ban certain papers outright (such as anti-monarchist papers) at His Majesty's discretion.

Under the terms of the Alliance the two parties would still campaign as separate, but not contest the same seats. The SDP contested Amsterdam (Dekker's seat), Utrecht, Groningen, Antwerp, Brussels and Charleroi while the Liberales contested all other seats, including Zwolle (Thorbecke) and Ghent (de Decker). In the event of an alliance victory, Thorbecke would be sworn in as Prime Minister by virtue of being leader of the larger party with Dekker serving as deputy PM.

The issue of social reforms remained a contentious issue between the two parties, the SDP candidates campaigned for them during their rallies while most of the Liberale candidates did not.

The Royalist Party (Oranje Partij)
Despite losing their leader during the Adriaan Rochussen scandal, the Royalists remained cautiously optimistic that a sixth-straight election win was still possible, after all Jan Rochussen may have been gone but his policies had been both successful and popular with the Dutch people.

To fill the void left by Jan Rochussen's departure, the party elected Theodoor van Lynden van Sandenberg (henceforth referred to as Theodoor van Lynden) as party leader. Theodoor was a "true" aristocrat and a devout Calvinist, making him popular with the CZP yet something of a Liberal Conservative (he favoured press and electoral reform but was also in favour of retaining the power of the King and Church), which the party hoped would help him win over Liberale voters.

Theodoor van Lynden tried to appeal to pro-military voters by promising to increase the defence budget for the army and navy, he also tried to cast doubts on the Alliance, pointing out the socialists and Liberales' previous anti-military stance. Theodoor and the Royalists were strongly in favour of declaring war with Spain, and tried to paint themselves as strong, decisive and capable of leading a wartime government.


Theodoor van Lynden, the man tasked with restructuring the Royalists in the wake of the Adriaan Rochussen scandal

Calvinistische Zuil Partij (CZP)
Reeling from their losses in 1867, van Prinsterer braced his party for a similar result this time around, with Dekker returning to politics it would be unlikely that the CZP would hold on to their seat of Amsterdam, their one gain from 1867. Instead, van Prinsterer focused CZP campaigning on the province of Friesland, previously Agricultural Party/CZP heartland, Friesland defected to the Royalists during the 1867 election. With the rise of Dekker and the SDP, van Prinsterer thought that a hung parliament was likely and hoped that like in 1862, the CZP would hold the balance of power.

The CZP made no major changes to their manifesto for the 1871 election, this would also be the last election which Guillaume Groen van Prinsterer would contest for the CZP.

Election Results


The 1871 Election was a runaway success for the Alliance, with the SDP winning all six seats they contested, narrowly taking Groningen and Utrecht and the Liberales, with Thorbecke retaking Zwolle and de Decker retaking Ghent in addition to gains in Breda and Eindhoven. The Liberales won 11 seats in total bringing the SDP-Liberale Alliance total to 17. The Royalists were devastated, winning only five seats as opposed to thirteen in 1867, their only gain was Maastricht from the Liberales. The CZP put up a tough fight in the north, but made no gains and only managed to hold Rotterdam-The Hague and Arnhem.


The Royalists recorded their lowest percentage of the popular vote in recent memory with only 27%, down 16% from 1867. The CZP returned to their pre-1862 results with only 10.5%, around 5% less from 1867 and 10% less from 1862 while the Walloon National Party scored less than 1%. The Alliance all but dominated the popular vote with a massive 62%


The Ridderkamer after the 1871 election: Royalist Party 34.9%, Liberale Party 30.7%, Social-Demo Party 26.7%, CZP 6.9% and the WNP 0.9%

The 1871 Election: Analysis and Aftermath
The 1871 Election was arguably the most important in Dutch history, marking an end to 24 years of Conservative rule. What is clear is that although Thorbecke had won the election as leader of the Alliance, Dekker and the SDP had played a large part in his success by Dekker campaigning for the Liberale candidates in seats his party did not have the manpower to contest, such as Eindhoven and Breda. Indeed, without Dekker's economic policy it would have been unlikely that the Liberales would have won Eindhoven, Breda or Hasselt nor would such a high percentage of the popular vote have been possible, as the SDP's economic policy was hugely popular in the industrial, coal producing south.

The biggest shock of the 1871 election was Theodoor van Lynden's inability to hold his safe seat of Utrecht, which had been won and held by the Royalists since the very first election in 1852 and by van Lynden since 1862. Even more embarrassing for van Lynden was that he lost the seat to a non-resident, Jan Heemskerk, a former Royalist who defected to the SDP. Jan Heemskerk had entered politics upon receiving a peerage in 1851 for his services to Law and contested Dekker's old seat of Amsterdam for the Royalists and lost to the CZP. Losing what was considered a safe Royalist seat had effectively ended his political career with the Royalists, leading to his defection to the SDP. His unexpected victory had raised his standing within the SDP considerably with Dekker appointing him Deputy Leader shortly after the election.

Thorbecke was sworn in as Prime Minister on the 12th of December, his first major duty as Prime Minister was to declare war on Spain which he did on New Year's Day, 1872. During his first month as PM, Thorbecke caught pneumonia and grew gravely ill, spending the second, third and fourth months of his term mostly bedridden and as a result unable to push through the reforms and policies he had spent a lifetime campaigning for. On the Fourth of June, 1872 Thorbecke became the first Prime Minister to die in office. Dekker as Deputy PM was quickly sworn in as PM and ordered a fairly modest state funeral for his nemesis, after all the country was at war. The funeral was also the only Prime Ministerial funeral in Dutch history not to have been attended by the reigning monarch as King Frederik was waging war in Spain at the time, many thought this was a fitting display of the rather strained relationship between King Frederik and Thorbecke.

Now Prime Minister for the third time, Eduard Dekker was tasked with keeping the country afloat while King Frederik was away fighting the Spanish. He was able to push though his economic policies with little hassle and maintain his colonial efforts in Southeast Asia despite war with Spain straining the Colonial Office's resources. His popularity surged both during and after the war, and it soon became apparent that electoral reform would not be needed to keep the SDP in power, in fact it might even hurt their chances of doing so.

Dekker used excuse after excuse to delay enacting the Liberale's electoral reforms, which strained relations between the parties. Pierre de Decker who was anything but a fool used his and the Royalist Party's combined majority in the Ridderkamer to block the SDP's social reforms while Dekker used to the SDP and Royalists combined majority to do the same to the Liberales' political reforms. The ensured deadlock frustrated MPs of both parties, much to the delight of the right-honourable opposition. By 1876 the only thing the SDP and Liberale parties could agree on is how much they hated each other, the alliance was over.

Timmie0307 said:

Very thorough description of the Dutch Political System, although another system now, the battling is very familiar ...I do believe though that the SDP will probably split between the pro-Imperialst Dekker's...and the ''old school'' social democrats. Furthermore, the Liberals will look to another government together with the Royalists.

Nevertheless nicely written! However your title is slightly incorrect, I don't know what you want to say in English, but it is either ''Onze Tijd Is Gekomen'' or ''Onze Tijd Is Geweest'' (Our time has come; We've had our time..) The inconsistency lays here in the translation of the ''has'', Dutch is just difficult, even for the Dutch speakers...

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It's meant to be "Our Time Has Come", "Our" meaning Thorbecke and the Liberales. I really wanted to make Thorbecke PM as a reward for being in opposition for so long, but I didn't want to have to put up with his party and it's economic policy, this was the best solution I could come up with.

So what should I change the title to again? "Onze Tijd Is Gekomen"?

__SuperFly_ said:

"Onze Tijd Is Gekomen" is grammatically correct, though personally "Onze Tijd Is Aangebroken" looks better.

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Thank you, though I must admit I prefer Gekomen. Welcome aboard BTW