Anchobi
Banned
Decided to continue this dead-end TL https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/uit-de-blauwe-a-european-south-africa.399045/ , you'll have to read it to understand what the hecks going on.
Please be merciful this is my first attempt at a TL.
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Part 6:
Catholic bishops in the south viewed the Protestant-majority north with suspicion, and had forbidden working for the new government.
The more numerous Northern provinces represented a majority in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands' elected Lower Assembly, and therefore the more populous Southerners felt significantly under-represented.
The traditional economy of trade and an incipient industrial revolution were also centered in the Dutch-region, particularly in the large port of Amsterdam. At the most basic level, the North was for free trade, while less developed local industries in the South called for the protection of tariffs. Free trade lowered the price of bread, made from wheat imported through the reviving port of Antwerp; at the same time, these imports from the Baltic depressed agriculture in Southern grain-growing regions.
King Willem I was from the North and largely ignored the demands for greater autonomy. His more progressive and amiable representative living in Brussels, which was the twin capital, was the Crown-Prince Willem, later King Willem II, who had some popularity among the upper class but none among peasants and workers.
A linguistic reform in 1823 was intended to make Dutch the official language in the Flemish provinces, since it was the language of most of the Flemish population. This reform met with strong opposition from the upper and middle classes who at the time were mostly French-speaking. On 4 June 1830, this reform was abolished.
The Belgian Revolution of 1830 crystallized this antagonism. Catholic partisans watched with excitement at the unfolding of the July Revolution in France, details of which were swiftly reported in the newspapers. On 25 August 1830 crowds had poured into the streets shouting patriotic slogans. The rioters swiftly took possession of government buildings.
Willem I sent his two sons, Crown-Prince Willem II and Prince Frederik to quell the riots. Willem II was asked by the Burghers of Brussels to come to the town alone, with no troops, for a meeting, this he did, despite the risks. The affable and moderate Crown Prince Willem II, who represented the monarchy in Brussels, was convinced by the Estates-General on 1 September that the administrative separation of north and south was the only viable solution to the crisis. His father rejected the terms of accommodation that he proposed. King Willem I attempted to restore the established order by force, but the 8,000 Dutch troops under Prince Frederik were unable to retake Brussels in bloody street fighting. A Declaration of Independence followed on 4 October 1830.
On 20 December 1830 the London Conference brought together five major European powers, Austria, Britain, France, Prussia and Russia. At first the European powers were divided over the Belgian cry for independence. The Napoleonic Wars were still fresh in the memories of Europeans, so when the French, under the recently installed July Monarchy, supported Belgian independence, the other powers unsurprisingly supported the continued union of the Provinces of the Netherlands. Russia, Prussia, Austria, and Great Britain all supported the somewhat authoritarian Dutch king, many fearing the French would annex an independent Belgium.
The Dutch did not receive support from the other Great Powers to reclaim Brussels and crush the revolt. Although at the moment they were supporting the Dutch King, if this instability carried on too long their fear of French intervention might make them support Belgian independence. Much of the Dutch's army had deserted due to a significant part of it having been Belgian. Willem I had other plans however. He had not forgotten how a well organized force such as the British had failed to subdue the Dutch settlers in that far-off colony in Africa during the Napoleonic Wars 30 years prior. Hermanus Steyn along with Adriaan van Jaarsveld were able to keep British forces at bay with small militias highly skilled in accurate shooting while firing from their horses. Such marksmanship was required in order to survive the South African frontier.
Due to the desperate situation regarding manpower, he had letters sent to the men who still commanded great respect from their peers in their old age for securing their new found economic freedom. In the letters he explained that revolutionary moods were about to tear the fatherland apart. He talked of (and without a doubt exaggerated) the plight of Calvinist Christians being oppressed and marginalized under Catholic Belgian revolutionary rule. He asked of them to gather willing marksmen to help retake Brussels and end the revolution. The men felt obligated to save their Brethren from the “Catholic Heretics”, but also felt they had not yet fully re-payed their King for his intervention in their affairs. The men rallied the populace with talk of a “Crusade” and managed to gather a combined force of around 12 000 men within a few months. This army gathered at Kaapstadt and boarded Dutch warships; each man bringing his own horse and rifle. The Dutch army offered proper uniforms which they struggled to convince the men to wear, because it made them “look like pish-posh city-folk”. They preferred their normal attire, which consisted of neutral or earth coloured farm-clothes, their only identifying trait being an arm-band of the Dutch tri-colours.
On the morning of 2 August 1831, just days after Leopold's coronation, the Dutch crossed the border near Poppel. Belgian scouts noticed the advance, and a number of roads were blocked with felled trees. The first skirmishes took place around Nieuwenkerk. The Dutch supreme commander, the Prince of Orange, arrived in the afternoon to support his troops and, at the same time, Zondereigen was taken by the Dutch, with some 400 Belgians repulsed. Near Ravels, the Belgian army was rapidly driven into the surrounding forests by the Dutch and subsequently into a swamp. The Belgians later retreated to Turnhout, allowing the Dutch to set up camp. The sound of the Dutch artillery alarmed the population of Turnhout, who fled en masse towards Antwerp. The next day a Dutch force of about 11,000 prepared to take Turnhout, while another Dutch corps made a diversion towards Antwerp (in reality they would attack Turnhout from another direction). In the following battle, the Dutch smashed the Belgian forces, whose morale broke down early in the battle when the Belgian banner was torn apart by Dutch artillery and a soldier lost a leg to a cannonball. The Belgians were unable to hold their ground and fled.
On 4 August, the Dutch took the city of Antwerp. The flag of Brabant was taken down and the Dutch flag was hoisted. The Prince of Orange demanded that the flag be taken down again, because it symbolized occupation rather than a restoration of Dutch power. At the same time the Dutch armies split up and moved further into Belgium, defeating numerous militias and two regular Belgian armies with ease. The division led by Prince Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar moved upon Geel and Diest, and the Third division moved into Limburg. On 8 August, the Dutch defeated the Belgian Army of the Meuse near Hasselt. On 11 August the advance guard of the Belgian Army of the Scheldt was defeated near Boutersem. The next day the Dutch army attacked and defeated the Belgians near Leuven.
For the Belgians all seemed lost. Fearing the total disintegration of the army, Leopold called for international support on 8 August. Sylvain Van de Weyer was sent to attempt to solicit support from Great Britain while François Lehon was sent to France. Although the British government was reluctant to send troops to support Belgium, the French immediately dispatched a force without informing the other Great Powers. The movement of French troops into Belgium particularly worried the British, who felt that it could represent a threat to Europe's balance of power. The French army under Marshal Étienne Gérard crossed the border the next day. The Dutch had taken a risk by invading Belgium without the support of its allies: Russia had wanted to assist but was having trouble suppressing the Polish revolution, and Prussia would not risk sending troops without Russia being able to secure its western borders; now they faced war with the French. The British diplomat Robert Adair urged King Willem I to halt the Dutch advance on Brussels. However the King brushed aside his pleads for peace and continued to press forward; famously quoting "De Fransen zullen ons nooit meer uit ons land drijven!" (“The French will never drive us from our land again!”).
The Dutch Army numbering some 40 000 men gathered South-East of Brussels and met the French on August 12 1831. The French bolstered by Belgian troops had about double the manpower of the Dutch, initially. The Prince of Orange Willem II issued a proclamation to the French and Belgians. He made it clear that he arrived as the heir to the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, and that the Belgians among the French were traitors to their Kingdom and should stand-down least they face execution. He advised the French to retreat from “non-French soil” if they valued their lives. King Leopold was among the armies on the opposing side and mocked the Dutch demands.
The French-Belgian armies, confident in their numerical superiority advanced on the Dutch forward positions to the East. The Prince detached a section of his army to march towards the outskirts of Brussels North of them. The rest swung towards the North East in a feigned retreat which encouraged the French-Belgian army to pursue. The re-positioning detached the 10 000 Belgian army, much less trained and more disorganized, towards Brussels to defend their capital from the Dutch detachment; exposing the weak left side of the allied force to reinforcements coming from the South West. These reinforcements were a 12 000-man cavalry force that had been recruited from the Cape Colony.
The French and Belgian cannon were moving much slower than the rest of the army, a few had decided that the Dutch retreat meant the battle was already won and hadn’t bothered to pursue. They were the first casualties when a barrage of bullets fell upon their positions. The Dutch colonial troops charged forward, briefly paused and fired highly accurate volleys into the rear positions of the Belgian force. After half an hour the Belgians had been decimated and were already in a disorganized retreat towards the city while being fired upon by the Dutch detachment from the North East and the cavalry from the South West. During this commotion the French army realized the encirclement attempt and stopped their pursuit of the main Dutch force. Marshal Étienne Gérard ordered the French to regroup and attempted to retreat South East, but not before the Dutch could inflict massive casualties. There was not enough Dutch forces to envelope the French so most of the army managed to escape through the South Eastern gap.
Casualties numbered 4 000 Dutch regulars wounded and killed while the colonial troops suffered about 700 casualties. The Belgians had suffered 7 000 casualties, mostly from the Dutch rear attack while the French suffered 15 000 casualties in the process of escaping the encirclement and further skirmishes during strategic retreat. In the battle King Leopold was wounded in the chest while trying to rally the fleeing Belgians. He was carried into the city center but later died of blood loss.
The French interventionist forces performed a strategic retreat, but they were constantly being peppered guerrilla-style by the Dutch cavalry until they were nearing the border between France and Belgium. Meanwhile the remaining Dutch forces occupied Brussels.
France was already planning a renewed invasion but upon hearing of the Dutch victory the other great powers felt confident enough to threaten France if they turned it into a general war. To reduce embarrassment and risk souring relations more, the French stood down.
Willem I had, with the help of his force of marksmen, decisively put an end to the Belgian revolution and defeated the French forces in what was later called the “De Grote Ruiters Wonder” (The Great Riders Miracle).
The Boers paraded alongside the Dutch army in Amsterdam and received military honors from Willem I before departing a few months later back to their homes on the African continent. Only a hand-full decided to stay due to the Boers general dislike of the landscape. "Waar de fok is die berge?!" (“Where are the f###ing mountains?!”) they asked.
Johan jumped off his horse and landed on the dusty ground beneath him. He made his way to the front porch of his farmhouse. His wife, Maria, was sitting there with their 4 year old daughter and holding their 2 year old son who he had not seen in more than a year. He kissed his wife and took his daughter up into his arms. “I have a present for you Pappa!” she told him and took out a small shiny stone from her left pocket while her father held her. Johan gazed at the stone with a shocked expression. Maria herself was not aware of this late birthday present. “What did you get Pappa?” she asked while leaning forward to look at what she was holding. “I found this by the river and brought it to Oom Tiaan, he said it’s a diamond. Pappa it’s for you!”
@Stuyvesant @Sevarics @General Ripper @Sceonn @Ameck16 @Jürgen @Dunois @assasin @Taloc13 @Janprimus @Vnix @MERRICA @Kurt_Steiner @joho6411 @traveller76 @fluttersky@Germania09 @dirtyjapaneseman @J. de Vos
Please be merciful this is my first attempt at a TL.
_______________________________________________________________
Part 6:
Catholic bishops in the south viewed the Protestant-majority north with suspicion, and had forbidden working for the new government.
The more numerous Northern provinces represented a majority in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands' elected Lower Assembly, and therefore the more populous Southerners felt significantly under-represented.
The traditional economy of trade and an incipient industrial revolution were also centered in the Dutch-region, particularly in the large port of Amsterdam. At the most basic level, the North was for free trade, while less developed local industries in the South called for the protection of tariffs. Free trade lowered the price of bread, made from wheat imported through the reviving port of Antwerp; at the same time, these imports from the Baltic depressed agriculture in Southern grain-growing regions.
King Willem I was from the North and largely ignored the demands for greater autonomy. His more progressive and amiable representative living in Brussels, which was the twin capital, was the Crown-Prince Willem, later King Willem II, who had some popularity among the upper class but none among peasants and workers.
A linguistic reform in 1823 was intended to make Dutch the official language in the Flemish provinces, since it was the language of most of the Flemish population. This reform met with strong opposition from the upper and middle classes who at the time were mostly French-speaking. On 4 June 1830, this reform was abolished.
The Belgian Revolution of 1830 crystallized this antagonism. Catholic partisans watched with excitement at the unfolding of the July Revolution in France, details of which were swiftly reported in the newspapers. On 25 August 1830 crowds had poured into the streets shouting patriotic slogans. The rioters swiftly took possession of government buildings.
Willem I sent his two sons, Crown-Prince Willem II and Prince Frederik to quell the riots. Willem II was asked by the Burghers of Brussels to come to the town alone, with no troops, for a meeting, this he did, despite the risks. The affable and moderate Crown Prince Willem II, who represented the monarchy in Brussels, was convinced by the Estates-General on 1 September that the administrative separation of north and south was the only viable solution to the crisis. His father rejected the terms of accommodation that he proposed. King Willem I attempted to restore the established order by force, but the 8,000 Dutch troops under Prince Frederik were unable to retake Brussels in bloody street fighting. A Declaration of Independence followed on 4 October 1830.
On 20 December 1830 the London Conference brought together five major European powers, Austria, Britain, France, Prussia and Russia. At first the European powers were divided over the Belgian cry for independence. The Napoleonic Wars were still fresh in the memories of Europeans, so when the French, under the recently installed July Monarchy, supported Belgian independence, the other powers unsurprisingly supported the continued union of the Provinces of the Netherlands. Russia, Prussia, Austria, and Great Britain all supported the somewhat authoritarian Dutch king, many fearing the French would annex an independent Belgium.
The Dutch did not receive support from the other Great Powers to reclaim Brussels and crush the revolt. Although at the moment they were supporting the Dutch King, if this instability carried on too long their fear of French intervention might make them support Belgian independence. Much of the Dutch's army had deserted due to a significant part of it having been Belgian. Willem I had other plans however. He had not forgotten how a well organized force such as the British had failed to subdue the Dutch settlers in that far-off colony in Africa during the Napoleonic Wars 30 years prior. Hermanus Steyn along with Adriaan van Jaarsveld were able to keep British forces at bay with small militias highly skilled in accurate shooting while firing from their horses. Such marksmanship was required in order to survive the South African frontier.
Due to the desperate situation regarding manpower, he had letters sent to the men who still commanded great respect from their peers in their old age for securing their new found economic freedom. In the letters he explained that revolutionary moods were about to tear the fatherland apart. He talked of (and without a doubt exaggerated) the plight of Calvinist Christians being oppressed and marginalized under Catholic Belgian revolutionary rule. He asked of them to gather willing marksmen to help retake Brussels and end the revolution. The men felt obligated to save their Brethren from the “Catholic Heretics”, but also felt they had not yet fully re-payed their King for his intervention in their affairs. The men rallied the populace with talk of a “Crusade” and managed to gather a combined force of around 12 000 men within a few months. This army gathered at Kaapstadt and boarded Dutch warships; each man bringing his own horse and rifle. The Dutch army offered proper uniforms which they struggled to convince the men to wear, because it made them “look like pish-posh city-folk”. They preferred their normal attire, which consisted of neutral or earth coloured farm-clothes, their only identifying trait being an arm-band of the Dutch tri-colours.
On the morning of 2 August 1831, just days after Leopold's coronation, the Dutch crossed the border near Poppel. Belgian scouts noticed the advance, and a number of roads were blocked with felled trees. The first skirmishes took place around Nieuwenkerk. The Dutch supreme commander, the Prince of Orange, arrived in the afternoon to support his troops and, at the same time, Zondereigen was taken by the Dutch, with some 400 Belgians repulsed. Near Ravels, the Belgian army was rapidly driven into the surrounding forests by the Dutch and subsequently into a swamp. The Belgians later retreated to Turnhout, allowing the Dutch to set up camp. The sound of the Dutch artillery alarmed the population of Turnhout, who fled en masse towards Antwerp. The next day a Dutch force of about 11,000 prepared to take Turnhout, while another Dutch corps made a diversion towards Antwerp (in reality they would attack Turnhout from another direction). In the following battle, the Dutch smashed the Belgian forces, whose morale broke down early in the battle when the Belgian banner was torn apart by Dutch artillery and a soldier lost a leg to a cannonball. The Belgians were unable to hold their ground and fled.
On 4 August, the Dutch took the city of Antwerp. The flag of Brabant was taken down and the Dutch flag was hoisted. The Prince of Orange demanded that the flag be taken down again, because it symbolized occupation rather than a restoration of Dutch power. At the same time the Dutch armies split up and moved further into Belgium, defeating numerous militias and two regular Belgian armies with ease. The division led by Prince Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar moved upon Geel and Diest, and the Third division moved into Limburg. On 8 August, the Dutch defeated the Belgian Army of the Meuse near Hasselt. On 11 August the advance guard of the Belgian Army of the Scheldt was defeated near Boutersem. The next day the Dutch army attacked and defeated the Belgians near Leuven.
For the Belgians all seemed lost. Fearing the total disintegration of the army, Leopold called for international support on 8 August. Sylvain Van de Weyer was sent to attempt to solicit support from Great Britain while François Lehon was sent to France. Although the British government was reluctant to send troops to support Belgium, the French immediately dispatched a force without informing the other Great Powers. The movement of French troops into Belgium particularly worried the British, who felt that it could represent a threat to Europe's balance of power. The French army under Marshal Étienne Gérard crossed the border the next day. The Dutch had taken a risk by invading Belgium without the support of its allies: Russia had wanted to assist but was having trouble suppressing the Polish revolution, and Prussia would not risk sending troops without Russia being able to secure its western borders; now they faced war with the French. The British diplomat Robert Adair urged King Willem I to halt the Dutch advance on Brussels. However the King brushed aside his pleads for peace and continued to press forward; famously quoting "De Fransen zullen ons nooit meer uit ons land drijven!" (“The French will never drive us from our land again!”).
The Dutch Army numbering some 40 000 men gathered South-East of Brussels and met the French on August 12 1831. The French bolstered by Belgian troops had about double the manpower of the Dutch, initially. The Prince of Orange Willem II issued a proclamation to the French and Belgians. He made it clear that he arrived as the heir to the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, and that the Belgians among the French were traitors to their Kingdom and should stand-down least they face execution. He advised the French to retreat from “non-French soil” if they valued their lives. King Leopold was among the armies on the opposing side and mocked the Dutch demands.
The French-Belgian armies, confident in their numerical superiority advanced on the Dutch forward positions to the East. The Prince detached a section of his army to march towards the outskirts of Brussels North of them. The rest swung towards the North East in a feigned retreat which encouraged the French-Belgian army to pursue. The re-positioning detached the 10 000 Belgian army, much less trained and more disorganized, towards Brussels to defend their capital from the Dutch detachment; exposing the weak left side of the allied force to reinforcements coming from the South West. These reinforcements were a 12 000-man cavalry force that had been recruited from the Cape Colony.
The French and Belgian cannon were moving much slower than the rest of the army, a few had decided that the Dutch retreat meant the battle was already won and hadn’t bothered to pursue. They were the first casualties when a barrage of bullets fell upon their positions. The Dutch colonial troops charged forward, briefly paused and fired highly accurate volleys into the rear positions of the Belgian force. After half an hour the Belgians had been decimated and were already in a disorganized retreat towards the city while being fired upon by the Dutch detachment from the North East and the cavalry from the South West. During this commotion the French army realized the encirclement attempt and stopped their pursuit of the main Dutch force. Marshal Étienne Gérard ordered the French to regroup and attempted to retreat South East, but not before the Dutch could inflict massive casualties. There was not enough Dutch forces to envelope the French so most of the army managed to escape through the South Eastern gap.
Casualties numbered 4 000 Dutch regulars wounded and killed while the colonial troops suffered about 700 casualties. The Belgians had suffered 7 000 casualties, mostly from the Dutch rear attack while the French suffered 15 000 casualties in the process of escaping the encirclement and further skirmishes during strategic retreat. In the battle King Leopold was wounded in the chest while trying to rally the fleeing Belgians. He was carried into the city center but later died of blood loss.
The French interventionist forces performed a strategic retreat, but they were constantly being peppered guerrilla-style by the Dutch cavalry until they were nearing the border between France and Belgium. Meanwhile the remaining Dutch forces occupied Brussels.
France was already planning a renewed invasion but upon hearing of the Dutch victory the other great powers felt confident enough to threaten France if they turned it into a general war. To reduce embarrassment and risk souring relations more, the French stood down.
Willem I had, with the help of his force of marksmen, decisively put an end to the Belgian revolution and defeated the French forces in what was later called the “De Grote Ruiters Wonder” (The Great Riders Miracle).
The Boers paraded alongside the Dutch army in Amsterdam and received military honors from Willem I before departing a few months later back to their homes on the African continent. Only a hand-full decided to stay due to the Boers general dislike of the landscape. "Waar de fok is die berge?!" (“Where are the f###ing mountains?!”) they asked.
Johan jumped off his horse and landed on the dusty ground beneath him. He made his way to the front porch of his farmhouse. His wife, Maria, was sitting there with their 4 year old daughter and holding their 2 year old son who he had not seen in more than a year. He kissed his wife and took his daughter up into his arms. “I have a present for you Pappa!” she told him and took out a small shiny stone from her left pocket while her father held her. Johan gazed at the stone with a shocked expression. Maria herself was not aware of this late birthday present. “What did you get Pappa?” she asked while leaning forward to look at what she was holding. “I found this by the river and brought it to Oom Tiaan, he said it’s a diamond. Pappa it’s for you!”
@Stuyvesant @Sevarics @General Ripper @Sceonn @Ameck16 @Jürgen @Dunois @assasin @Taloc13 @Janprimus @Vnix @MERRICA @Kurt_Steiner @joho6411 @traveller76 @fluttersky@Germania09 @dirtyjapaneseman @J. de Vos
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