Precarious Neutrality in World War I
That the Netherlands was able to stay out of World War I was little less than a miracle, beset as it was by so many dangers and difficulties. A small country and militarily weak, it nevertheless possessed important colonial territories in both Asia and America. The livelihood of many of its people was gained from the operation of a merchant fleet which was one of the largest in the world. A large transit traffic, especially with the German industrial hinterland, was of great importance in the economic life of the country. Geographically the country was precariously situated. Its eastern and southern borders were of a character to invite aggression in case of hostilities between its neighbors. A tongue of Dutch territory jutted downward between Germany and Belgium, extending half the distance to the Luxembourg border. A narrow strip of territory south of the Scheldt gave the Netherlands control over a river which is essentially Belgian and on which is situated the great ocean port of Antwerp. In the Rhine, Holland controlled the mouth of another international river— one of the utmost importance to one of the major belligerents. Still another international river, which emptied into the seas from Dutch territory, was the Meuse. After the occupation of Belgium the Netherlands had to guard its entire land frontier against belligerent violation. Across a comparatively narrow sea lay another belligerent, England, whose fleet dominated the seas.
Relations with Belgium
The relations between the Netherlands and Belgium after the separation in 1839 were much better than might have been expected. Both peoples realized that a separate existence and development was the best for each, consequently the separation left no brooding hostility on either side. But neither did the relations between the two peoples develop any warmth, at least not until after 1936 when Belgium moved out of the French orbit in foreign politics and adopted the Dutch policy of neutrality and independent action. For a decade after World War I relations between the two countries were strained, for reasons that will appear later.
Great Netherlands Idea
On the eve of World War II there were some 15,200,000 Dutch- speaking people in the world. Of these 9,000,000 were Nether- landers, 4,500,000 were Flemish, 1,200,000 were Afrikaners and 500,000 were Netherlanders, Eurasians and Indonesians living in the Netherlands Indies.1 Spoken Flemish deviates somewhat from Dutch but the written language is practically identical, but both written and spoken Afrikaans differ considerably from Dutch. Dutch was and still is the only official language of the Netherlands and of Surinam and the Dutch West Indies. In the former Netherlands Indies members of representative bodies were free to use Malay as well as Dutch, but official documents were published only in Dutch. While Dutch is the official language of Surinam and Curacao, it is spoken by few outside of official circles. Flemish and French are the two official languages of Belgium, all government publications being printed in these two languages. Dutch was one of the three official languages of the Union of South Africa, though it was not on a basis of full equality with Afrikaans and English. It could be used in representative bodies, in petitions and in all official examinations.