United Provinces of the Netherlands (1701-1701)

[Middle Snu]

Backstory and general information

[Middle Snu]

United Provinces of Netherlands
Population: 2 Million People
Financial Centers: Amsterdam
Port: Rotterdam
Entrepot: Amsterdam
Craft Centers: Rotterdam 1, Amsterdam 1
Resources: 1 fishing fleet, 10 merchant flotillas

Dutch West India Company
Financial center (Hoorn, represents shareholders)
1 Flota
2 merchant flotillas

New Netherlands (RL Eastern New York[the Hudson River valley and Long Island], New Jersey, Delaware, Eastern Pennsylvania, Maryland)
settled in the 1600s by the Dutch, but population bolstered by those fleeing the essentially theocratic regime of New England as well as Mennonites from Germany. Settlement of the colony was light up until the aftermath of the war with England which devastated much of the country, sending impoverished Dutchmen fleeing to the colony.  
Population: 100,000, 60% of Dutch extraction, 20% English, 10% German, 10% slave
Ports: New Amsterdam (RL Manhattan), New Rotterdam (Philadelphia)
Towns: Trenton, Annapolis, Wilmington,
Villages: Albany
Resources: 3 (1 Lumber, 1 Fur, 1 agriculture--mostly corn and wheat, but some tobacco down north of the Potomac)
Slave Import Center: New Rotterdam

Dutch Caribbean
Aruba, Curacao, St Maartin, Bonaire, St Eustatius, Saba, Guyana, Suriname (.25 points each)
Population: 30,000 people (80% Black slaves), varies per island.
Village: Paramaribo
Resources: Each possession is worth .25 points (generally sugar cane production, though Aruba's value is found in livestock feeding the rest of the region as it is too arid for agriculture)
Natives: 50,000 Indians in the jungles beyond the coast in Dutch Guyana, intermixing with the runaway slaves.

Dutch East India Company (controls Dutch East Indies, Ceylon, presence in Southern India)
Financial center (Rotterdam, represents shareholders)
2 Flota
4 merchant flotillas
Villages: Capetown
Trading Posts: Walvis Bay, Diego Suarez, Surabaya, Makassar, Ambon, Cochin
Slave Centers: Gold Coast, Dahomey, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone
Port Batavia, Tricomlee
Resources: Ceylon 1
Trade Income 3 (2 East Indies, 1 India)

Military - New Netherlands
2 Fortress (New Amsterdam, New Rotterdam)
Naval Yard (New Amsterdam)
Infantry Regiment (New Amsterdam)
7 Militia Brigades (New Amsterdam x2, Albany x2, New Rotterdam, Trenton, Wilmington)

Military - United Provinces
2 Naval Yards (Amsterdam, Rotterdam)
10 Fortresses (Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Utrecht, Nijmegen, Breda, Tilburg, Schoonhoven, Maastricht, Groningen)
2 infantry brigades (1 Rotterdam, 1 Amsterdam)
1 cavalry brigades (1 Amsterdam)
33 militia brigades (dispersed around country)
4 Heavy Batrons (laid up in Rotterdam)

Military - VOC
12 BatRon (4 laid up in Rotterdam, 5 Rotterdam, 3 Batavia)
6 CruRon (2 Ceylon, 2 Batavia, 1 Cape, 1 India)
6 PatRon (2 Africa, 2 Batavia, 1 Ceylon)
4 Fortresses (Makassar, Cape, Ceylon, Batavia)
4 Infantry Regiments (3 Batavia, 1 Ceylon)
1 Naval Yard (Batavia)

Military - WIC
1 Fortress (Curacao)
2 BatRon, 2 CruRon, 3 PatRon (Based in Curacao but mostly on anti-pirate patrol)

[Middle Snu]

Recent History of the Netherlands

1667-1668 As one of the key planks uniting the disparate factions of the Commonwealth is ardor and zeal for the Protestant faith, a series of naval incidents which threatened to spark war with the Netherlands is papered over by recognition of the strength of character of the Dutch Grand Pensionary, Johan de Witt. de Witt is an ardent Republican, who finds much to admire in the Commonwealth, and while less zealous than many of the most extreme Englishmen believes that England is a natural ally.

This is put to the test when, in 1667, the French invade the Spanish Netherlands. Fearing an all-powerful Catholic France to his South, de Witt mobilizes the English and Swedes to come to Spain’s aid. Under the Commonwealth Lambert had called for tactical alliances with Spain to hamper France--whose King is married to an exiled English so-called Princess--and the English agree. France is routed.

1672 -- Seeking revenge for their failure in 1668, France launches a war against the Netherlands aimed at destroying de Witt. England is summoned once again to assist the Netherlands, but de Witt is killed by an angry mob following a disastrous series of battles. William of Orange becomes Stadtholder, but England feels that it owes no loyalties to what is, in effect, a dangerous precedent for backsliding from Republicanism and withdraws from the war. The younger de Witt flees into England. France is eventually defeated by the Netherlands and her allies in 1678.

1680-1683 -- The Commonwealth of England launches the Second Anglo-Dutch War, which consists of the mobilization of the English fleet and the New Model Army en masse and an invasion of the Netherlands itself to restore de Witt as Grand Proprietor. William III’s armies, and indeed country, are exhausted from the recently ended war, and the English are able to take Zeeland, North, and South Holland in short order. In the New World, the English overrun New Netherlands, while across the seas the English fleet keeps the Dutch on the back foot. By mid-1681, the Dutch are already in dire straits. However, William is able to raise the specter of English resurgence in the courts of Europe. He notes that many of Europe’s most radical thinkers have fled to England, and that if England is able to establish a pliant regime of their model in the Netherlands, the contagion could well spread. The Emperor of Austria is thus swayed to answer the call of his ally from the Franco-Dutch War, as are the Spaniards.

1684-1690 -- The English expedition in the Low Countries, buoyed by the devastating blow the Austrians and granted a reprieve by their disarray, is able to hold on for a few more seasons, but by 1684 the English are holding on to Zeeland by their fingertips alone. After the war, the Dutch colony of New Netherlands is restored and even expanded (New Jersey, Pennsylvania east of the Appalachians, New York up the Hudson River).

1690-1701 TBD

[Middle Snu]

One more placeholder

[Middle Snu]

1701 - De Nederlander Tekort

As Netherlands recovers from the Anglo-Dutch war (which is variously called the Republican War, the War of English Aggression, or the Stadtholder's war), it becomes clear that the United Provinces have a shortage of working-age Dutchmen. The need to maintain a standing army, the fleets of the VOC and WIC, and the continued draw of the New Netherlands and Cape Colony mean that wages in Holland continue to rise and fields begin to go untended.

The VOC and WIC have always enlisted a fair number of foreigners in their merchant adventuring fleets, but now begin to actively recruit for settlers in the Cape Colony, Ceylon, and the East Indies. One natural pool is the small stream of refugees from the Northern War that begins to arrive in the Netherlands, seeing it as a potential safe haven. Included in their number are a number of deserters from the combatant armies.

OOC: The Dutch are totally out of prime-age manpower and stretching the limits of reserve manpower as well.

[Sponsored content]