1798   


In the Eighteenth century the Dutch Republic was slowly torn apart by internal and external tensions. The old controversy between federalists and those who wanted a more unified state was stirred up by the advance of the Enlightenment, the philosophers of which, tried to achieve a reform of the state that put the good of all people up front by egalitarianism and use of reason. Any change was a difficult thing to achieve in the Republic. Since the Dutch uprising had in effect been a conservative Revolution against the shift of power from the medieval institutions to the Sovereign. The Republic was stuck with institutions that were inert, very decentralized and medieval. Any attempt to change the law was paralysed by the fact that endless authorities had to agree to it. Even medieval forms of torture and execution that were done away with in many, if not all other European countries, survived in the Republic, because its institutions were powerless to reform them. Furthermore the Princes of Orange, now Hereditary Stadtholders of all Provinces, were not a force for change. William IV died young and his son William V was not yet of age, so another long Regency by his mother Anne, Princess Royal of Great Britain, and later by the Duke of Brunswick-Wolffenbüttel, followed. William V, when becoming of age, proved to be a weak willed ruler, dominated by his rather formidable wife Wilhelmine, Princess of Prussia. The dynasty of this semi-monarchical system did not prove to be a force for unity. Two parties emerged in Dutch politics. The Patriotic movement was in favour of an enlightened democratic Republic, without a state church (public office was only open to the small Dutch-Reformed majority) and without Stadtholders. The Pro-Prince party wanted to keep things as they were. In the eighties the Patriotic movement came to power in some of the Provinces, notably Holland, the most important Province. The Stadtholder and his court were forced to leave The Hague and set up court in Arnhem, Gueldres. Princess Wilhelmine travelled back to Holland to claim the lost privileges of her husband but was stopped by Holland’s Patriotic militia. The King of Prussia (his territories are coloured yellow on these maps), who could not accept this affront to his sister, invaded the Republic and restored the Stadtholder. The Pro-Orange party had won the day and Patriots had to flee to France, an ally of the American Revolution, which had greatly inspired Patriotic feeling in the Netherlands. A few years later the French Revolution broke out. During the Coalition wars against France (see pages on Europe from 1772 to 1815) The Southern Netherlands, the German Rhineland and the Republic were conquered by the French. The Southern Netherlands and the Rhineland were annexed to France. The French took the Patriotic refugees back to the Republic and installed them in government in 1795. The egalitarian and modern Batavian Republic was founded. The term Batavian refers to a Celtic tribe that lived in the Central Northern Netherlands in Roman times, and led a widely spread uprising against the Romans, which ravaged Northern Gaul in 69–70 AD. Using ancient terms for the new revolutionary states of Europe was a great fashion in those days (Genoa became the Ligurian Republic, Milan became the Cisalpine Republic, Switzerland became the Helvetian Republic and Naples briefly became the Parthenopeïc Republic. Furthermore France begot its Illyrian Province).

The Dutch provinces were done away with altogether and new arbitrarily departments were set up, as can be seen on this map. This immediately stirred up the old conflict between federalists and unitarians. When General Bonaparte took control of the French Republic, the matter was settled in favour of a unitarian state, but new departments resembling the traditional Dutch Provinces were set up. In the later days of the Batavian Republic a Head of State with the title of Pensionary of the  Council, reminiscent of the title of Johan van Oldenbarneveldt., (see Benelux page on 1609) was installed, equivalent to the First-Consul (Bonaparte) in France. The office was held by Rutger-Jan Schimmelpenninck van der Oyen.

The Southern Netherlands in the meantime had enjoyed the governement of Austria's enlightened despots, notably Maria-Theresia and Joseph II. Joseph tried enlightened reforms in his Burgundian. A conservative revolution broke out, paradoxically inspired by the progressive American revolution. A short lived Republic, that for the first time used the name Belgium (ancient names were much in fashion as we have seen), was the result. Strangely both antagonists of Absolutism (be it enlightened or not) saw eye to eye in those days. Those nostalgic for their pre-Absolutism medieval privileges, and those post-Absolutism egalitarian democrats, united in their opposition to Absolutism. It is the tragedy of the Dutch Republic and the Netherlands as a whole in a nutshell. The Belgian revolution was quashed, but Joseph II and his successors Leopold II and Francis II, had to do away with much of the reforms Joseph had introduced. Eventually the Austrian Netherlands were done away with altogether in 1795 when they were annexed to France. Belgium however would prove to be a very stubborn feature on the map of Europe, propping up again and again in spite of the French (Royal and Republican), Dutch and German to do away with it, since its Lotharingian and Burgundian origins.