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Basic information
Official name: [b]The Kingdom of the Netherlands[/b]
Official Language: Dutch
Capital city: de jure Amsterdam, de facto Den Haag
Demonym: Dutch

History: The Kingdom of the Netherlands was forged out of the Sovereign Principality of the United Netherlands
 (The territory of the Dutch Republic and the Batavian Republic), as well as the former Austrian Netherlands. Proclaimed a Kingdom in 1815, it was intended to form a northern buffer state against a potential French resurgence. The South was made to be the junior partner in this union; despite having a minimal debt it paid the same as the North did towards paying off the Kingdom's monstrous debt, which was mainly "supplied" by the North. Both North and South had fifty districts in parliament, despite the Southern population being considerably larger. State action against the Catholic Church, too, fueled unrest with the Belgians. In 1830, their anger boiled over into the Belgian Revolution. Backed by France, the Netherlands could not enlist Prussian support and in 1839 begrudgingly recognised Belgian independence. That year, Willem I abdicated the throne.

His son, Willem II, had his rule facing a severe crisis in 1848 when the liberal revolutions spread to the Netherlands, demanding an end to the royal autocracy. The King was approached by one of the country's most prominent liberals, Johan Rudolph Thorbecke, who had for a long time been a proponent of democracy. This time, the King turned him away again and coined a term common in Dutch: "to sleep a night over it". In one night, His Majesty is rumoured to have turned from a conservative into a liberal and called on Thorbecke to go ahead on implementing a new constitution. The 1848 constitution gave legislative power to a parliament elected by male voters under a system of census suffrage, and executive power to an elected government. The King still reigned but no longer ruled.

From the mid-19th century, industrialisation slowly picked up pace in the country, and kicking off in the 1870s. More and more rural dwellers migrated to the cities to work in deplorable conditions. It was during this time that the masses started becoming more politically conscious and socialism became a thing in the country. Furthermore, around this time equality of education became a focal point of confessionalist politics. Whereas state schools were subsidised, religious schools were not. An action led by Abraham Kuyper, a Minister and Protestant political leader, to change this was the first mass political action in the Netherlands. Over half a million signatures from around the country were presented, but no real action was undertaken. Knowing that confessionalists would never be able to gain a majority in parliament as long as there was no universal suffrage, it became clear to Kuyper that he had to organise the Protestants outside of parliament. In 1879, he founded the Anti-Revolutionaire Partij (ARP), the first political party in the country. On the Catholic side, Herman Schaepman worked to organise his flock, but his efforts would take off after the Rerum Novarum. After his death, the Catholics organised in the AB in 1904, and the RKSP in 1926. The socialist SDAP was founded in 1894 by the socialist icon Pieter Jelles Troelstra. These developments led to the pillarisation of Dutch society into the Protestant, Catholic, Socialist and Liberal/General pillars who formed their own societies within the greater Dutch society. This was reflected in the ever immovable exit polls where everyone voted according to their pillar. The parties had ideological issues, but still agreed to pass landmark social legislation from 1900 onwards. The biggest disagreement, however, was the 'School Battle', in which the Confessionalists demanded equal status for religious schools, and in turn the socialists demanded universal suffrage. This concluded with the pacification of 1917, where both groups threw their principles out of the window and enacted equal male suffrage and equality for the schools. In 1919, suffrage was extended to women.

The crisis of the 1930s saw a remarkable deviaton from pillarised voting, where protestant leader Colijn was able to attract support from outside his pillar, becoming the leader of four crisis cabinets. Meanwhile, the National-Socialists perform poorly, claiming only four seats in Parliament. In the interbellum years, the Netherlands maintained a strict policy of neutrality, hoping to be spared of the horrors of war. The rest is history. The Dutch army was poorly-trained and equipped, undermanned, and in Limburg had a hole in its defences. The country was expected to fall in less than a day. The country, however, fought like a cornered snake. The Dutch army was the first in the world to defeat an airborne assault, the defences at Kornwerderzand were unbroken after five days of German assault, the SS' Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler was stalled for two days at the Grebbeberg, and the Dutch Military Aviation and Anti-Aircraft Artillery shot down 328 German aircraft of the 929 deployed. Because 220 of the lost aircraft were JU-52s, it is speculated that a German airborne assault on Britain has been prevented. It took a terror bombardment on Rotterdam and a threat of another one on Utrecht to force the Dutch army to capitulate. Disregarding their orders, a group of soldiers in Zeeland continued to fight for another three days. On May 18th, 1940, the Dutch Armed Forces were finally broken by the Wehrmacht.

This left the Netherlands East Indies a colony without a motherland. When the Japanese invaded, the mistake was made in the battle of the Java Sea to engage the Japanese fleet at night. The ABDA fleet was routed and the Japanese occupied the Indies relatively quickly. The surface fleet had been destroyed, but the submarine fleet took a very agressive stance. So much so, that in one week they sank more Japanese ships than the combined US and UK surface and submarine fleets did. In 1945 the Dutch came back to the Indies, but the flame that the Japanese had lit was not to be easily extinguished. 

After the Second World War, the East Indies were effectively divided into two. Most of the vast archipelago, " was under British military control directly after the cessation of hostilities, being transferred to Dutch authorities in January 1946. On Java and Sumatra, however, a revolutionary movement had broken out and declared independence on August 17th 1945. In November 1946 the Linggadjati agreement was drafted, which ostensibly paved the way for Indonesian independence. The Dutch government coalition partner, the KVP, was unhappy with these accords and the Labour party had to concede heavily to maintain the current government. The treaty was subject to vast changes in parliament, and when they were signed in March 1947 a difference in interpretation between the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Republic of Indonesia prevented even forming a basis for future cooperation between the two, and another interpretation allowed the Dutch to take "Police action", practically invading Indonesia and trying to subdue it. The United States pressured the Dutch into a ceasefire after it captured vast amounts of territory on Java. A political squabble later the Dutch attacked the republic again, yielding considerable result; Sukarno and the Indonesian leadership were captured very early in this campaign and Yogyakarta, the provisional capital, was captured in December. 

But more important was American support. Douglas MacArthur, the new man in the White House, permitted Dutch action in the Indies and blocked attempts by the UN to oppose the politional actions. In 1950, the Dutch army landed in South and East Sumatra, and finding the support of the Chinese, the Sultans, the Malayans and common peasants who had enough of the unrest it took only a year for formal military control to be established over all major highways and cities on the island. This did not mark the end of the Indonesian conflict: A bloody guerilla erupted on both islands, with a clear high point being mid-to-late 1951. Since then the TNI has subsided, drawing less and less volunteers as stability has returned to parts of the islands. At the start of the game, a low-level conflict still exists in parts of Java and Sumatra's interior, but the cities, coasts, Sumatra's oil fields and Java's plantations, as well as the areas surrounding those, have been completely pacified with the exception of the occasional act of terrorism. The military and political leadership of the PNI are currently awaiting trial in the Netherlands.

Currently, the Netherlands is in the process of rebuilding after the Second World War. In 1952 Suriname and the Dutch Antilles were granted a degree of independence within the kingdom. Heavily impoverished, the country has been hit by a disastrous flood with damage equaling 5% of the GDP. Willem Drees' socialist government, passing major social legislation, has recently ordered the Delta Works Project, the world's largest flood barriers. 

Politics and Government: Parliamentary democracy under a Constitutional Monarchy. The current government is formed by the Second Drees cabinet. 

Military: Broken down numbers are hard to find, but the Dutch military does not reflect the country's economical condition. Bolstered by equipment from the US and UK, it is well-trained and equipped. The navy even possesses an (aging) aircraft carrier, the Hr. Ms. Karel Doorman. Deployments in Korea and the Indies put an enormous strain on the treasury.

Geography: The Netherlands is a country where everything is flat (except for the women). The country's highest point is 322 meters above sea level, on the three-country point of the Netherlands, Belgium, and West Germany. Over the seas, it owns Suriname, Indonesia, and five and a half islands in the Carribean.

Economy: Experiencing strong growth, based on services. The country's rebuilding effort recently took a punch to the gut with massive flooding in Zeeland. 

Culture: Due to the increase in welfare, sub-cultures such as greasers are becoming common. I have shed light on the pillarisation of society earlier.

Infrastructure , science and development: The Netherlands has a history of scientific glory, and its infrastructure is becoming a fine one again by 1953's standards. Motorways/Highways aren't a thing quite yet.

Analysis: The country is expected to continue growing economically. Overseas, it works with hearts and minds campaign to end the guerilla in Indonesia, which has worked well thus far. The Hague has also made very clear that as soon as the guerilla stops steps can be taken to grant autonomy to the States of Indonesia, which could perhaps have played a role in the weakening of the guerilla.