Netherlands History - Belle Epoque
The new century brought a solution of some very important questions in Holland. The cabinet formed in 1905 by Theodoor Herman de Meester had to resign in 1907 on account of the rejection of the war budget by the Second Chamber. In its place came a cabinet of moderate anti-revolutionaries and Roman Catholics under the leadership of Theodorus Heemskerk.
The task assigned to this cabinet was to settle the quarrel with Venezuela, which had opposed the economic development of the colony of Curacao as much as possible, and finally forbade the Dutch consul-general the country. When lengthy negotiations with Pres. Castro of Venezuela remained fruitless, the Dutch government sent some men-of-war to the West Indies. In the beginning of November 1908 a naval demonstration was made and two Venezuelan ships were taken by Dutch war-vessels. The stagnation of trade and the internal difficulties in the republic, which caused the fall of Castro, led in December to the reopening of negotiations with Pres. Gomez. He sent the minister of foreign affairs, Paul, to Europe to carry on the negotiations, and revoked the measures directed against Curacao.
The elections of June 1907 assured a majority of 60 to the Heemskerk cabinet. Meanwhile it appeared that the opinion of this majority about different political questions was not so undivided that they could set to work energetically on social reform. There was a change in the cabinet, when towards the end of 1909 the minister for the colonies, A.W.F. Idenburg was made governor general of the Dutch East Indies. He was succeeded by the anti-revolutionary Jan Hendrik de Waalialenjt. In June 1909 the accusation brought against the ex-premier Abraham Kuyper, that during his ministership he had conferred orders of knighthood in a way that was not quite correct, caused a great stir in the country, and a council of honor was appointed, which acquitted Dr. Kuyper.
After the resignation of the Liberal Cabinet of De Meester in 1908, the Government passed into the hands of the "Right" (clerical) Cabinet of Heemskerk (1908-13), which, thanks to the gifted minister Talma, succeeded in passing an act for compulsory insurance.
The Heemskerk Cabinet, in the person of its vigorous Minister for War, Mr. Colyn, was able to carry out a reorganization of the army which made it possible for Holland to mobilize very rapidly in 1914 and to strengthen its forces very considerably during the war. The building of a fortress near Flushing aroused at first some dissatisfaction in Belgium, France and England, owing to fear of German influence; but it appeared that Holland aimed merely at an energetic maintenance of its neutrality on the Western Scheldt in the event of war. The World War showed that Holland's neutrality benefited the Allies by preventing the German invaders in Belgium from using the Western Scheldt for submarine warfare.
A revised labor bill of considerable importance was passed in 1911; it protected the labor of young people from 13 to 17 years old and of women. There was also passed a stone-cutters' bill for the protection of men working in that trade.
Political interest during the first half of 1911 centered in the reform of the suffrage. The Social-democratic Labour party, together with the Liberal-democratic league, or against a petition for extending the franchise, which was signed by 317,522 persons, 115,000 of whom were women. On September 19, the day of the opening of the States-General, a procession of 20,000 men and women took it to the minister for home affairs.
During this year the militia bill was also introduced into the chambers, and after prolonged discussion it was passed, as was also bill for raising officers' pay. In 1912 a bird bill was passed which made it possible for Holland to join the convention of Paris, and also a bill (Bouwwet) which all important subsidies for the building of private sectarian schools. In May; the naval minister, Jan Wentholt (b. 1851), left the cabinet, his bill for the building of an ironclad of 7,000 tons for the defense of the Dutch Indies having been rejected and the naval department and the war department were temporarily combined in his office. A new copyright bill was passed in 1912, as a consequence of Holland's joined the convention of Berne.
A bill which caused great difficulties was that for the regulation of the bakers' trade and the prohibition of night labor in it. Discussion was repeatedly postponed, and when at last was taken up, the measure was rejected in June 1912, a new bill being subsequently undertaken.
Another bill, for the regulation of the defense of the coast met with still greater opposition, not only from military experts but from the public. It would require an expenditure of 46 million guilders, and many people doubted both its necessity and its practical efficiency. The bill attracted considerable attention in France, England and Belgium. In particular, the proposed fortress at Flushing, in regard to which pressure was believed to have been applied from Germany, a supposition strengthened by not very clear communications from the former ambassador in Sweden, van Heekeren, concerning intimations from the German Emperor to Holland's means of defense, was persistently opposed.
Meanwhile the naval minister of the De Meester cabinet, W.J. Cohen Stuart, had introduced a naval defense bill, which entailed an expenditure of 80 million guilders. Before it came into the chambers the war minister, Wouter Cool, had to resign, on another bill for the raising of officers' pay, in which a regulation of pensions was not included. His successor was the Dutch-Indian, Major H. Colijn, who had only been a member of the Second Chamber for a short time.
In 1913 the Heemskerk Cabinet made way for that of Cort van der Linden, which came into power after the refusal of the Social Democrats to accept seats in the Cabinet and the consequent refusal of the Liberal parties to take upon themselves any responsibility. The State Councilor and professor emeritus, Cort van der Linden, had been Minister for Justice in 1897-1901.
This Liberal, who was highly respected both by the Crown and by all parties, formed an "extra-parliamentary" Cabinet, that is, a Cabinet desiring not to be regarded as a mandatory of the Liberal-Socialist majority, though taking over the program of these parties victorious in the voting. In this way the new Cabinet achieved a revision of the Constitution in 1917. Herein it succeeded in solving the school question which had dominated political life for half a century, and which the parties of the Left also wished to see settled. The talented minister Lely, who for the third time was at the head of the Department of Public Works (1892-94, 1897-1901, and 1913-8), saw his life's work crowned with success in that the States-General resolved to barrage the Zuider Zee.
To a large extent the success of the Cabinet was due to the party truce brought about by the war. But otherwise the war gave rise to great difficulties, even if the country did escape the direct catastrophe of conflict. The geographical position of Holland caused the belligerents on either side to desire that she should not get entangled in the war. In order to protect vigorously her neutrality against any eventuality, Holland herself increased her army to 500,000 men, well trained and equipped as efficiently as possible. Repeated diplomatic differences of increasing poignancy were as repeatedly settled to the satisfaction of all parties by Jonkheer Loudon, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, who inspired great confidence both at home and abroad, adopting throughout the standpoint of recognized positive international law. Nevertheless, Holland suffered greatly from the blockade and the U-boat warfare.
