FEDERATION OF THE LOW COUNTRIES - TIMELINE
Here's the finished timeline (I altered the beginning a little bit).
THE FEDERATION OF THE LOW COUNTRIES
TIMELINE OF AN ALTERNATE HISTORY
In 1801, Europe still was a scattered continent. Whereas many would expect powerful countries to arise after the fall of the Holy Roman Empire in 1701, 53 years after the end of the Thirty Years' War, this did not happen. From a wealthy state in the middle of Europe that controlled many nations, that had been able to withstand and survive the Lesser Industrial Revolution—which had taken place between 1598, with the invention of steam engines, and 1679—and that had managed to endure the Religious Revolution and many wars, Europe changed to fragmented, shredded land. Yet, in contrast to the common predictions, the continent stayed rather peacefully. Only a few wars occurred, among minor states concerning insignificant disputes. Apart from that, life went on and on, until something extraordinary happened.
On 15 March 1761, coincidentally on the day of Julius Caesar's death in 44 BC, a perfectly normal, ordinary, mainstream boy was born. This boy was born in one of the few areas that were being ravaged by war—Silesia. This initially strong, powerful state was at war with its southern neighbour, Bohemia. Nevertheless, the boy was neither Silesian, nor Bohemian; his father was born in a poor, Moravian peasants' family, and his mother was Dutch. He spoke both Dutch and Moravian, as well as German, Bohemian, French and Russian—a result of the cultural patchwork or mosaic Europe had become.
This boy, named Fabian Neisser, moved to the Low Countries in the year 1767, to escape from war. Many wars at the time were useless wars that wasted soldiers as cannon fodder—and so was the war Fabian had fled from, together with his mother and sister; his father had not been able to escape the country and both of his older brothers had died in the war. The Low Countries where they moved to, was no real country. The region most people referred to as 'the Low Countries', was actually an empty, poor area of peasants and labourers in the industry, that comprised too many separate states to count. Fabian had to work in a factory, being only seven years old, and his mother and sister started a farm. At first, he disliked the dirty, muddy, wet region. As time passed by, though, he started to admire the Dutch perseverance and determination.
However, it was not going well at the farm, and—after having saved only little money—they were forced to leave. Fabian and his family, or at least what had remained of that, migrated to a region called the 'Achterhoek'. Fabian could not even pronounce it, even though he spoke Dutch quite good, let alone that he liked going there.
The Achterhoek was indeed was he expected it to be, even worse than Holland's landscape. Actually the same, but without the sea and the rare sunny days. But, anyway, he was not used to much better—Silesia was not very different, except that it had a lot colder winters, and many wonderful forests in which one could get lost within a minute.
Fabian grew up here, in the Achterhoek. After a few years, he felt as if he had not lived anywhere else before—he felt Dutch. Only one thing, though, still annoyed him: the fact that the Achterhoek was part of a mighty state called Guelders, or 'Gelre' in Dutch, the language which he by now spoke more fluently than Silesian. Guelders ruled over the people of the Achterhoek, while they had not much in common. Only the language was in theory the same, but he could hardly make him understood when he went to the market Nijmegen, and when a merchant or farmer would answer him, he had to indicate that he did not understand a single word, or he would just nod and walk away.
In the early beginning of the year 1801, this situation of inequality started to cause unrest among the people of the Achterhoek. And, apparently, the same occurred in other regions of the Netherlands; the Prince of Guelders reigned in areas called the Betuwe and the Veluwe too, the region of Twente was under the rule of the Duke of the IJssel, and similarly the Frisians had power in the poor north-eastern part of the Netherlands called Drenthe. It did not really come as far as riots or revolts, that was something the Dutch were not used to. However, there was definitely a general feeling of unrest among the ordinary people. Fabian too felt this and he was certain that something was about to happen.
On 29 May 1801, something happened, though, that even Fabian could not have expected. The Duke of the IJssel had been found dead on the market of Zutphen. Immediately, the people of Twente were accused of having done this, but there was no proof or evidence.
After a month, the murderer had been found—it was a drunkard from Cambrai. This was nonetheless no use. The real unrest had started. People living in the Duchy of the IJssel always had to be aware when people from Twente came to the big cities in the Duchy of the IJssel. Simultaneously, the tensions between other groups of people grew by the day. However, Fabian did not notice a lot of difference with two months ago. He did not—until both a schepen from the Betuwe and the schout of Duetinghem were assassinated by a radical Guelderian. Not that this angered all of the people in the Betuwe and the Achterhoek, but some people are simply very easy to incite. Nor Fabian found it reasonable to attack market traders from Nijmegen, but what he did find important was to let peace return to the Low Countries. Somehow, he felt it his task to maintain peace in his new country. Perhaps he did not want such a beautiful country to be destroyed as he had witnessed with Silesia.
Meanwhile, Fabian had become forty-one years old and he had started a flourishing, prosperous bakery. His seventy-one year-old mother still lived with him and she frequently took care of the three children of Fabian and his wife Cornelia.
Also, Fabian had become schepen of Winterswijk and he was regarded as a hardworking, rightly highly respected man with ideals. It was unknown, though, that these ideals were considerably drastic.
In short, Fabian worked his way up in society and eventually became the mayor of Winterswijk and surroundings. Together with friends, other rulers and prominent politicians, he proposed an idea in which the Federation of the Low Countries was suggested. He mainly wanted to achieve a political, social and economic union, which would make the Low Countries prosperous and wealthy, in which trade would be far easier and which would prevent stupid disputes over minor issues.
Surprisingly, most states observed the plan and quickly, the basis of the union was formed. A few states hesitated, but as the federation grew, it appeared impossible not to join. In 1823, the last state joined, Burgundy, and Fabian Neisser had accomplished his task of unification when he died at a very old age in 1852. A statue was made in remembrance of his deeds in Winterswijk and this major historical event was often called "Fabian's One-day War" because there was only one fight or battle in the war. The union namely had forced the state of Bentheim to join, when a referendum or plebiscite had been held which indicated that 80 per cent of the state's people wanted to join. The Grand Duke of the state, however, did not, and was thus overthrown in a war that lasted merely one day, with no civil casualties.