Prince Willem Frederik Karel second son of King William Igrow upat the Prussiancourt. He gets his military training from Von Clausewitz. After this he takes service in the Prussian army. He takes part in the battle of Leipzig when he is16 years. After the house of Orange came back in the Netherlands he became Colonel in the Dutch army. From 1815 he takes part of the meetings of the State General.
In 1821 he became the heir of the throne after his brother was denied of his rights.
He marries in 1825 with Louise Augusta von Hohenzollern. Daughter of the Prussian King.
In 1826 he establish the military academy in Breda, he has now the function of Commisaris-Generaal, secretary of defense.
He works hard for the reformation of the army and promotion by exams rather than birth or class.
In 1821 hebecomes the second in line, after his older brother has abdicated this right.
In 1830 revolution brake out in Paris. The French refugees in Brussels are inspired by it after a theatre play and start making trouble. The council of Brussels asked for support of the army to stop the trouble makers. The army was in Vilvoorde just out side of Brussels. The army commanded by the king’s second son Prince Fredrik Karel and Luitenand-General Chasee marches into the city. Heavy fighting during three days. Casualties are high, progress is slow. Rebels fire from cellars and out of windows of houses. At the end of the third day the king’s army retreads to the royal park. When the evening falls the army has to retreat to the Royal Park, or Warande. The Prince want to retreat out of the city but General Chasee decide to storm the barricades during the night. To the surprise of the soldiers most of the barricades are deserted, the mob is getting pissed in the taverns. (Really happened) By day brake most of the barricades are taken and the mob is arrested or those who resist are simply shot at the spot. The remaining barricades are cleaned up at the end of the day. Most of the revolutionairs had left the city before the army entered it. The French revolutionaries Alexandre Gendebien andEdouard Ducpétiaux one of the main agitators were shot dead in the aftermath by officers of the army when they tried to escape to Luik and from there to France.
General Van Geen, a man from Gent, commander of Namen had to stop some riots also inflicted by French agitators. And after that he left with a large body of troops to Luik. In that city he rounded up as well rioters and preventing so that the revolutionaries left Luik to support the revolutionaries in Brussels.
General Wilmars commander in Luxemburg mobilized his troops in case some revolution army from France would cross the border. His troop’s arrested Mr. Rogier several months later when he tried to come back. After a short trial the man was expelled to France for the rest of his life.
After the order was restored Liberals from the South and from the North, with amongst them Van Hoogendorp, asked for a special meeting of the State General.
The meeting had as main purpose to settle the grieves of the South.
They implemented reforms and tied down the King to follow the rules written down in the constitution. Almost all the grieves of the Liberals of the South are met, how ever there will be no administrative division of the Kingdom.
The King can not rule any more by Royal Decreed.
There will be more freedom of press and a King who will let the country ruled by his ministers instead of himself. These ministers are responsible for their policy and have to report to the parliament.
The division of seats in the State General and Parliament will be according to population so the denser populated Flanders has the most seats. The members of the senate, will be chosen by the provinces so that most of the French aristocracy from the South is bypassed. They were demanding the institution of the senate, like the House of Lords in the United Kingdom.
Voting right is only for men and depend on the amount of tax you contribute, like all early democracies in Europe.
The South doesn’t have to pay for the enormous State debt, which was a legislation of the old Republic.
Only Dutch, Flemish-speaking clerks will populate the burocratic institutes of the government. The exception is in the French parts of the country, parts of Henegouwen and the Ardennes.
The elite of Flanders remain Francophone.
After some negotiations and threats to the King, he agrees in the new constitution. It is almost similar as the constitution of the Belgian independence in OTL.
The residence of the Parliament will now be in Brussels for permanent and not any more every 6 months in The Hague and 6 months in Brussels.
This now still united Netherlands has the opportunity to become a real mid sized power. Already in OTL the combination of the trade network of the North together with her overseas possessions and the emerging industry in the South proved to be a success.
This all will continue and even increase, more than in OTL. There will be still big political clashes between the Catholic Church, the French speaking minority and the Protestant North but none of these cases will erupt in big uprisings.
1816, Erection of the University of Ghent in order of William I.
Start of the channel Ghent –Terneuzen in order of William I, to give this city an direct opening to the sea.
1817, Van Hoogendorp is sacked.
Generaal Van den Bosch establish the "Maatschappij van Weldadigheid" ,with this he want to battle the poverty by cultivating rough land by unemployed.
1818, Weapon alterliers in Liege still exported arms to South America.
1819, the streets of Brussels were lighted by gas lanterns, the gas produced, from coal, in a gas factory. Other cities soon followed.
The port infrastructure in the South was improved. The first steamships were put into service to cruise the rivers and canals.
1821, Prince Willem Frederik Karel second son of King William I becomes crown prince. His elder brother lost the support from his father and the confidence of the parliament, after a series of scandals, with French revolutionairs.
1822, Erection of the ´Algemene Nederlandse Maatschappij ter Begunstiging van de Volksvlijt´, for the promotion of the industry in the kingdom.
1823, Language decreed, from now on only Dutch is allowed in the Flemish provinces.
In Rotterdam establish G.M. Roentgen the "Nederlandse Stoombootmaatschappij", after he invented an improvement for the steam engine. The society opens in 1825 a new shipyard in Feyenoord, close to Rotterdam.
1824, during the revolution and the following Napoleontic age the Dutch colonies were occupied by British forces. The British and Dutch sign a treaty in which the Dutch cede all possessions in Hither India, Ceylon and on the Malay peninsula (Malacca), the British cede all their possessions in the Insulinde archipelago; mutual spheres of interest were defined.
The Cape Colony was sold in 1816.
The "NV Nederlandse Handelsmaatschappij" is erected. King William invests in this enterprise 4 million gilder for a period of 20 year.
The purpose is to reclaim back, for the Netherlands, a large part of the world trade.
1825, The administration of the Dutch East Indies, seated at Batavia, engaged in a policy of expansion, subjugating the Sultanate of Palembang in 1825 In order to make the colony self-sufficient, the Cultivation system was introduced in 1830. The money raised with it was used to pay off the huge state debt, made by the North in the decades before and later paid a lot of railroads.
Collegium Philosophicum established, this college is a state school for priest, and it let to a big confrontation with the Catholic Church.
Frederik der Nederlanden maries Louise of Pruisen, daughter of King Frederik Willem III of Pruisen.
Paul van Vlissingen starts the "Amsterdamse Stoombootmaatschappij". Two years later he will expand this with a machine factory which will later produce railroad material.
1826 Start of the Channel Brussels to Charleroi.
Opening of the Military Academy at Breda.
1827 Sea channel Gent to Terneuzen is opened this give Gent opening to the Westerschelde.
Paul Louis Isidore Delvaux (°1801 +1880), Belgian lawyer, pleads for a union between Liberals and Catholics.
1828, The Port of Antwerp is booming and Gent is flourishing because of its textile exports to the East Indies and the new build sea canal.
1829, Parliament reject the budget for the next year as a protest against the autocratic reign of the king and in favor for press freedom.
King William I am willing to comply with the questions.
1830 Social and political unrest in Brussels ignited by French revolutionairs in exile.
Revolt is repelled, see above.
1831 Antoine Lipkens, in order of the Military staff, designed and build a net work of optical sign post from Amsterdam to Bergen in the South. This to make swift and reliable communication possible.
Establishment of nation wide post network.
1834 A group of businessmen from Brussels, financed a private owned optical signpost-line between Brussels, Antwerp and Amsterdam. To exchange information on of the stock exchange and other trade information in these cities and to use the fast information for there profits, in exchange of money every one can use this system.
1835, The European continent's first steam-powered railway line was opened between Mechelen and Brussels, it was quickly expanded, and by 1843 the Netherlands had a railroad network, connecting Amsterdam and Brussels. Most of the Netherlands's railroads were constructed by the State Railways - thus the lines were built with a standard gauge, also mostly paid by the colonial cultivation system in Indonesia. The chaos of having numerous private lines of different gauge width other countries had to deal with, was avoided. Most of the track was in the South were the industry was. Private companies did the exploitation.
In Antwerp the Zoo is opened.
King William I maries a Catholic Baroness from the South. Giving him good will in the Catholic South but protest in the Protestant North.
1838, Several laws are implemented to replace the ‘Code Napoleon’.
Cacao Plantation started at the slave coast, Ghana, after recommendations of the late governor Daendels. In his function Daendels concluded an agreement with the Ashanti and supervised the construction of a road from fort Elmina to the capital of the Ashanti inland.
1840, King William I abdicates in favor of his second son Frederick.
The modest king Frederick became popular monarch and traveled frequently through his Kingdom using the Royal train.
Transit trade from ports in the Netherlands to the German Zollverein to increase tenfold in the later 1840es.
The ongoing Industrial Revolution had a strong effect on South.
The existence of a railroad system exacerbated the consequences of the industrial revolution; the Flemish non mechanical weaving industry vanished in the 1840es, shifted to mechanized textile mills in Gent finding employment in the expanding industries, many joining the poor (unemployed).
Many of the textile products from Gent find its way in the over seas parts of the Kingdom.
Liberals of the North and South are finding each other. Catholic Church elite of the South become more and more political isolated due to their harsh resistance against the King and the increasing literate of the Flemish people.
1842, Dutch Royal Navy commissioned its first submarine, designed by Antoine Lipkens. It remains by one experimental vessel.
1843, William I dies.
1846, Potato harvest is a disaster, famine in Flanders, Groningen and in Guilderland. Poverty is everywhere on the countryside. Flax harvest is also bad. People are forced to move to cities and industrial centers.
1846 - 1850, Hunger years in Flanders, Brabant and other Provinces; the problem of poverty only worsened. Families were given (marginal) subsidies. Many families from the provinces of Flanders, Brabant, Zeeland and Groningen immigrated, mostly into the industrial centers of Walloon or to the port cities of Antwerp, Rotterdam and Amsterdam. Migration from the North and Eastern Provinces to Walloon made the French speaking population shrink.
Even when the official policy of unification i.e. making the Kingdom Dutch, was abandoned after the unrest of 1830. The migration of Dutch speaking people to the South decreased the French speaking population. It was still remembered that the unrest in 1830 was caused by manly French or French speaking agitators. How ever the upper class throughout the country spoke French. ( so the maid could not listen)
The government decides to relieve the import of weed so that the price of bread decreases.
When the Sultan of Brunei approached the Dutch administration for assistance in 1841, accepted –even Brunei was too remote, the costs high. It raised questions because of this.
(In OTL they refused, so the stage was set for British adventurer James Brooke to appear.)
In the other colonies, the Netherlands pursued the policy of holding on to the status quo.
1848, Social unrest around Europe. Riots around the Netherlands caused by poverty and hunger. Riots in Gent, Antwerp, Luik, Bergen, Charleroi, Rotterdam, Utrecht, and Amsterdam and the Province Groningen.
Liberals united from North and South under Thorbecke, urge the King to sign a constitution witch makes the Netherlands a real constitutional monarchy.
The constitution guaranties freedom of religion press and meeting.
King Frederik reluctantly agrees after a month and some guaranties (not in 24 hours like his brother William II in OTL)
At the end of the year the storm of revolution is over in Europe and much is the same.
1850, After much negotiation Great Britain gives back British Guyana, former Essequibo, Berbice and Demerarycolonies.
These territories were not so valuable any more after the decline of the sugar price and the abolishment of the slave trade. In exchange the Netherlands will leave the Malacca peninsula.
As a claim Dutch soldiers build a fortress at the west side of the Orinoco River which led to protests of Venezuela.
Government encourages the re-locating people to the Guyana’s and the establishment of cacao plantations in Ghana. The goal is to remove the poor out of the Kingdom and to develop this South American colony and African possession. Due to the harsh tropical climate the people come in conditions even worse than in the mother country. After very difficult start the colonial economy starts to grow and the prospects for re-settlement to this colony become brighter. Plantations for indigo, cacao and dyewood grew, even the capital of the colony, Nieuw Amsterdam, gets finally shape in the form of the city plan from 1785. Most of these immigrants came from the Catholic Provinces Brabant and Flanders. With these migrants also came Catholic priest who started to convert the black population to the Catholic believe and start to build schools.
1852, Haarlemmer-meer, a former inland lake in Holland is turned in to a polder with the help of steam powered pumps.
Tin was discovered in large quantities on Biliton. In 1858, the Sultan of Siak (Sumatra) recognized Dutch suzerainty
Cacao plantations at the Slave Coast turn after a difficult start a success especially after the introduction of quinine against malaria. Result of the increasing number of colonist is an increase of tensions with the Ashanti.
Political tensions between France and the Netherlands due to aggressive politics of Napoleon III and the support of this for the Francophone population. This detoriate the atmosphere between the countries more.
1854, Japan's opening to the west, the lucrative Dutch monopoly of the only foreign trade post in Japan was ended.
As a result of the success of the cacao plantations, the last Dutch outposts in Africa, mainly Elmina, located at the Gold Coast, was not abandoned to the pressing Ashanti. With the Ashanti were a treaties made and land for plantations bought. The trade of slaves dried up but was replaced by a new marked for textile from Gent and later cacao plantations after the ideas of Daendels.
(The Dutch claims sold to Britain in 1871.In OTL.)
This trade with Africa and the possibility of production plantations gets the interest of some traders and industrialist, from Amsterdam and Brussels.
1856, Establishment of a trading post at the estuary of the Congo River.
1857 start of the first plantation along the Congo River.
1858, First expedition upstream the Congo River with a steam paddle boat.
1859, Slavery was abolished.
1860, The Sultanate of Banjermasin (Borneo) was conquered.
1860, South Netherlands engineer Jean Joseph Etienne Lenoir patented the world's first internal combustion engine. Only about 500 were built, as German engineer Nicolas Otto soon came up with a much improved engine which was to set the industrial standard.
1862, Walloon industrial chemist Ernest Solvay (1838-1922) developed the ammonia process or Solvay process for the industrial production of Soda. Industrial production began in 1865.
1863, School reforms, in an attempt to end the ongoing dispute between the government and the Catholic Church and Protestant churches.
1864, First iron clad of the Netherlands Royal Navy enters service. The ship is built in England by Laird. Antwerp expands his port by the building of a Dock.
1865, Political tensions between the Netherlands and France, because of the claims of Napoleon III over Luxembourg.
1866, Bruder Krieg between Prussia and Austria-Hungary. Luxemburg is a part of the German- bund but stays neutral. Luxemburg leaves the German Bund.
Modernization program of the Dutch Royal navy. It has four ‘monitor’ ironclads for the river and coast defense and ten tower ironclads. Half of them are constructed in France or Great Britain. The last ship build in Great Britain was the ZMS Frederik Henderik with two revolving towers. All others were build on yards in the Netherlands and with iron from Iron works in Wallon.
Two larger ships as ZMS Frederik Henderik are completely built in the Netherlands, with the help of British engineers from Laird. The ZMS Koning der Nederlanden and the ZMS Insulinde. The iron is made in Charleroi; guns are made in Luik and the ships are built on a yard in Amsterdam.
1867 Change of laws make it now possible to start workers unions or organize strikes.
New rings of forts around Antwerp are build.
On a new ship yard in Antwerp six new iron clad are build, these are improved and larger versions of the ´´Koning der Nederlanden´´ class.
A second 'submarine' is build as an experimental vessel for the royal navy. The design is a combination of the first Lipkens vessel and designs used in the American civil war.
I doubt there would be a WW1 even, at least as we know it.
