Dutch History: V - Modern Age Trivia Quiz

Answer: Royal Navy and the Russian Expeditionary Force

After the failed campaigns in Russia and Germany, Napoleon and the French had retreated to Belgium and France. The Netherlands were abandoned by the French and the advancing Russian Army easily entered the Netherlands from the east and proclaimed themselves liberators, while the Royal Navy reconquered the Dutch city of Scheveningen and established a beachhead for the returning Stadtholder.

The other armies were all fightning in France and Spain.

Answer: William VI of Orange-Nassau

In 1815 Stadtholder William VI of Orange-Nassau was crowned King William I of the United Netherlands. William V was the father of the king and William IV his grandfather. Wilhelmina was queen of the Netherlands during the first half of the 20th century.

Answer: True

At the Congress of Vienna the victors thought that the Netherlands should be large and strong enough to be able to protect itself from French conquest. The Netherlands hasn't fought another war with France since then.

Answer: Belgium

To counter the British industrial revolution, Napoleon started the industrial revolution on the European continent. Wallonia (Belgium) served as the industrial heartland for the French Empire and later for the United Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Answer: Influence from Britain

During the reign of William I the Belgians felt discriminated, because their resources were drained by Holland. The Dutch and Belgians had an equal number of representatives, but the Belgians wanted more representatives because they had 4 million citizens more than the Dutch. Dutch became the official language and thanks to the opera "la muette de Portici", Belgian anger reached boiling point.

They started revolting and demanded more rights and a superior position; as a reaction the Dutch army was sent to Antwerp.

After two weeks the newly crowned King Louis Philippe I of France threatened to declare war and the Belgians declared independence. William I pulled the army back and surrendered Belgium.

Answer: True

The Netherlands started to industrialize again in 1850 and was among the last countries in Europe to industrialize.

Answer: Johan Rudolph Thorbecke

All of them were Prime Ministers of the Netherlands at some stage, but Thorbecke made the constitution. The fear of William II was uncalled for. The citizens in the Netherlands didn't really care much for democracy at that time. William II and his son William III tried to regain their power unsuccessfully. However, the Netherlands became democratic.

Answer: Protestant

After the constitution of 1848 the Church and State were separated and religious freedom was granted. The Roman Catholics, under influence of the Pope, took the opportunity to reinstate the dioceses. The Protestants started the Aprilbeweging as a protest.

While the Dutch government and Prime Minister Thorbecke stayed neutral, the Protestant king took the side of the Protestants. The embarrassed cabinet resigned. However, the actions of the king only further limited of his power. The king could no longer do (or say) as he wished.

Answer: The king was stripped of his personal functions

William III once again lost more power. He could no longer give titles and all his personal public acts were to be approved by the Prime Minister.

Answer: Prussia

1867 saw the Luxembourg Crisis. Luxembourg was a personal possession of the Prince of Orange-Nassau as well as part of the North German Confederation. Both France and Prussia wanted territorial expansion, so Emperor Napoleon III offered 5 million guilders for Luxembourg and William III accepted the offer. Bismarck however saw Luxembourg as part of the German realm and didn't want the French to enter 'Germany'. Bismarck warned the Dutch government that a the king's action would be seen as a 'casus belli'.

This sparked once again enormous tumult in Dutch politics.

Answer: False

The old William III became increasingly mad. He punished his servants without any good reason or he made his servants behave badly so he could punish them, just for fun. He refused to greet foreign diplomats. He gave his own mayor the death penalty and he tortured a soldier who didn't greet him while the king himself was incognito.

He also called the Rijksmuseum of Amsterdam a monastery. All these acts and many more irritated people and sometimes caused fear among the Dutch populace.

Answer: They refused to accept a women as head of state

Wilhelmina became queen of the Netherlands at the age of 11 in 1890. Luxembourg refused to accept the queen because she was a woman.

Answer: Britain

Britain conquered the last Dutch speaking lands in Africa during the Boer Wars. The Boer republics saw themselves as Dutch and as a Dutch protectorate. They thought that if the British invaded, they would get support from the Netherlands. They were wrong.

Answer: Neutral

The Netherlands remained neutral in the World War mainly because of the excellent governing of Prime Minister Cort van der Linden.

Answer: They did not

Most Belgians did nothing in Dutch society because they thought they would return home soon. Also many Dutch were still angered by the Belgians and saw them as traitors. The Belgians lived in disgusting conditions in refugee camps; they were dirty and sick, and this only annoyed the Dutch people more.

Answer: False

The Dutch traded resources like iron and oil to the British, Germans, French and Belgians. This greatly filled the Dutch treasury, and with the newly acquired money the Dutch expanded the KNIL (Koninklijk Nederlands Indish Leger/Royal Netherlands East Indies Army).

The KNIL invaded the Sultanate of Aceh, the last independent country in Indonesia. At that time the KNIL was regarded as the strongest and most advanced army in the East Indies.

Answer: Germany

Many Dutch people wanted to enter the war at the side of Germany. They wanted to retake Belgium and Luxembourg and they could maybe even take control of the cities of Dunkirk and Reims. The Queen and the Prime Minister didn't want to go to war, and they were right. A few weeks later the American armies broke through the German lines.

Answer: Rotterdam

After the socialist Troelstra called the revolution, many civilians of Rotterdam started to organize themselves in militias. This was a strange phenomena, because Rotterdam is regarded as a socialist bastion. The citizens asked for help from Queen Wilhelmina and seized factories, docks and the main streets.

The day after, Troelstra said that he never called for a revolution, after all he never said the word 'revolution' in his speech. The socialist party was forbidden to take part in the Dutch cabinet till 1946.

Answer: Anton Mussert

Anton Mussert (aka the 'Great Leader') was the leader of the fascist party NSB or 'Nationaal Socialistische Beweging' ('National Socialist Movement'). Despite the name the NSB wasn't a Nazi party, they didn't really hate the Jews and they took Mussolini as their great example. The NSB never got much support because Prime Minister Colijn was a great leader in the eyes of the Dutch.
Troelstra was the leader of the socialist party. Ruijs de Beerenbrouck was Prime Minister before Colijn.

Answer: Hitler became Führer of Germany

The Dutch were outraged by the fact that Hitler seized power in Germany and they certainly didn't want a madman in power. During the Great Depression the Fascists gained almost 20 percent of the votes but they lost almost all their votes when Hitler took power. The invasions of Poland and Ethiopia also disgusted the Dutch. Mussert never staged an coup d'etat.

Answer: 4 days

The Dutch surrendered after 4 days. Despite Hitler's ambitions, the Dutch Army put up a good fight against the Wehrmacht. The German advance in the east stopped after a few hours and the paratroopers in Rotterdam were stranded because the civilians blew up the bridges.

Hermann Göring was frustrated and demanded surrender and threatend to destroy Rotterdam. The Dutch High Command didn't forget Warsaw and they surrendered. However, due a radio communication failure, the message to call off the attack didn't came through.

A few minutes later Rotterdam was set ablaze. The Rotterdam Blitz killed over 30,000 people. The Germans said it was the fault of the Dutch, because they hadn't evacuated the city.

Answer: Westerbork

The Dutch were very early with the concept of concentration camps. In the 18th century the VOC built camps to support their apartheid regime. In 1920 the Dutch opened the first modern concentration camps in the East Indies. Political prisoners and Indonesian nationalist were imprisoned and 'reeducated'.

The Dutch opened the concentration camp at Westerbork in 1939, because the Netherlands refused to take any refugees from the war. Ironically the camp was financed by wealthy Dutch Jews and Jews of German origin. During the German occupation the camp was mainly used as an concentration camp. Vught and Herzogenbusch are the same and were opened in 1943. Amesfoort was mainly used as a prison and was opened in 1941.

When the Nazis took control they were delighted to see this kind of organization.

The Dutch bureaucracy was admired by senior German officials like Himmler and Goebbels. The Dutch opinion of the Germans was in many cases ambiguous. Some Dutchmen didn't really had a grudge against the Germans ...

After all, Kaiser Wilhelm II lived in the Netherlands and many Dutch saw him as 'their' emperor. Most Dutch felt betrayed by their government and their queen. People didn't mind being governed by the 'friendly' Germans. However, when the Germans tried to deport the Jews from Amsterdam the Dutch began to strike: it was the only pro-Jewish protest in the war. The SS and NSB weren't happy with this and opened fire on the crowd. When the Dutch children had to learn German on schools, people started to hate the Germans even more.

Answer: March 1942

On 6 March 1942 the KNIL surrendered. The Japanese and the Indonesians under command of Sukarno installed concentration camps in Indonesia for captured ABDA soldiers and Dutch civilians. The last camps were liberated in November 1945, after the Japanese surrender, when the British and Dutch armies reconquered Indonesia and Malaysia.

Answer: Arthur Seyss-Inquart

Although Mussert was named 'Fuhrer' by Hitler real power was held by the SS-officer Seyss-Inquart. After the Battle of Arnhem the Northern Netherlands remained occupied until 10 May 1945. After the attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Netherlands regained control of the East Indies.

Answer: The Dutch Army

The Dutch, despite of the recent war in their homeland, raised a formidable army complete with airplanes, battleships, submarines and tank divisions - all within a few weeks. The Indonesians were overwhelmed by the Dutch army and their Papua and Malaccan allies.

The Dutch army was plagued by desertion and vengeance. Some soldiers, tired of war, deserted or even joined the Indonesians, while many other soldiers enraged by Nazi occupation, Indonesian arrogance, indoctrination with ideas of Aryan superiority and discrimination unleashed their vengeance on Java, Sumatra and Borneo. Only when the United States threatened to stop the Marshall Aid did the Dutch surrendered Indonesia. Strangely the Americans supported the French, who did similar acts in Indochina.

The Dutch lost Suriname in 1975. The islands of Aruba, Bonaire, St. Maarten, St. Eustatius, Saba and Curacao is all what is left of the once great Dutch Empire.