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[b]Amsterdam, The Kingdom of the Netherlands; An address by King William III,[/b][/center]

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In 1815, after the Napoleonic scourge had finally been removed from the face of Europe, William I formally announced the founding of a state that became known as the Kingdom of the Netherlands. This new kingdom consisted of all of the former territory of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands, the former Austrian Netherlands, and the Prince-Bishopric of Liège. All three of these entities were primarily Dutch speaking, and all three, for nearly a quarter of a century, enjoyed their status in a united Dutch Kingdom that consisted of almost all of the Dutch speaking areas of the European continent. It was one of Europe's first examples of a true nationalist struggle, a fight against a foreign force that sought to extinguish the existence of a people with a long and proud history, who had at one time been the premier technological and naval superpower of the world. As spectacular as unity for the Dutch-speakers of the world was, it did not come without its loses. During the Napoleonic interregnum, the Netherlands' colonial empire was almost entirely seized by foreign powers. Long-standing Dutch colonies like Ceylon and the Cape were taken away, never to be transferred back to their rightful masters by the empires—actually, let us not pretend, it is in truth the singular 'empire'—that opportunistically stole them. But as one door closes, another opens, and so the Dutch people were happy to have surrendered so much of their colonial might if it meant that their nation could at long last be fully unified. To their dismay, though, while one empire had seized the Dutch colonies, another was planning to seize the Dutch homeland.

The French Empire that was imposed on the Netherlands brought with it a spectacular amount of evils, but its most enduring evil, which has been so perverted over the years that the Great Corsican himself, Napoleon, would surely not recognize it, is the existence of the state known as 'Belgium'. During the 30's, the French-speaking aristocracy that had been planted in the Southern Netherlands revolted. Napoleon's attempted destruction of Dutch nationhood had been most successful in the south, and so, many of the common men south of Brussels, the city that was my birthplace and the former capital of the Netherlands, joined this revolt. It was a war not of liberation, but of Francization, that these rebels waged against the Dutch crown. With the eager aid of the French empire, this Francophone-dominated aristocratic swath spread throughout the Dutch homeland, through Brussels and to all of Flanders. The brave William I led an army to defeat the rebellion, and did, but the rebels' newly adopted Mother France poured as many men as were necessary into the Netherlands to ensure he did not succeed. Years later, the Netherlands was forced at the point of a foreign sword to accept the southern rebellion's independence. As our empire was stripped from us, was stolen during a time of hardship, so to was our homeland.

As of today, I am formally announcing that the government of the Netherlands will no longer ignore the hardships forced upon Flanders by a French government that does not hold the welfare of the Flemish in their first interests. Flanders was the Netherlands, and if the imported French thugs that call themselves 'Belgian' continue to treat the region as a backwater worthy of contempt and conversion to their holier-than-thou French-Belgian identity, the formerly united Dutch people, inside Flanders and out, will not hesitate to move in the defence of the land of Flanders and its people. 

We hope that the powers that be in Europe will sympathize with the oppressed peoples of Flanders, and not continue to deny the Dutch people their unity as a nation. Indeed, I have the utmost confidence that many have already taken note of their plight. I urge King Leopold I to think very carefully about what his next actions should be. I hold in my heart the best interests of all of the people of the Netherlands; I would hate for violence to have to occur, unless it were absolutely necessary.

Vorstin en Vaderland! God zal mij regeren als een goed instrument, dat ik zal wederkeren in mijnen regiment!