Hello, everyone. I'm Dr. Johan Enjan, professor of political theory here at the University. Today, we'll be talking about the events that have transpired in the eight or nine years since the Revolutions of 1842, and we'll look at what of this means for the Netherlands. I suppose I should say that, in spite of everything I'm about to say about the Dutch government, I will thank the king for his free speech laws, or else I'd be thrown in jail and get my head chopped off for this lecture.
Now, I'm no Luddite. I think that, as a general rule, progress is good. And, in the Netherlands, we've developed and imported a lot of new technology, infrastructure, and ideals since 1842.
We developed new ideas of looking at the marketplace, of buying and selling goods.
We imported those nifty steam ships from America, and built better railroads that are safe for people to ride on instead of just for transporting coal.
We started to look at the government in a new light.
Advances in medical technology have dramatically reduced mortality rates, especially among infants and children.
Really, the last decade has been wonderful for technology, and I think that we'll be seeing even more in the years to come. But what I want to address is not the technology, but what it means for the government, and for society. So, firstly, let's talk about the ships.
As you probably know, toward the end of the
Oranje War, the king ordered the construction of a new military steamship,
Castor. It's a multi-decked ship designed to transport entire regiments of soldiers en masse over waterways. That sounds fine, right? There's nothing wrong with a new flagship.
But it wasn't a flagship. Immediately afterward, alongside his professionalism reforms, several more ships of almost identical make were constructed.
Now we have a whole fleet of them, the
Koninkijke Stoomvloot, most of them named after Greco-Roman gods like Mercury and Jupiter. But again--surely defending the country can't be a bad thing, right? The Netherlands has traditionally had a large navy. We're a country on the sea, right on the British Empire's front door, with extensive colonial possessions in the East Indies. We need a navy.
So, really, the thing is, it's not just a defensive navy, or a colonial navy, or what have you. The Stoomvloot is also a critical part of the government's new imperialistic ambitions.
First they sent it to Japan, to expand our trading rights there. What could the Japanese do, with these menacing machine ships patrolling the bay off... "key-oo-shu"?... but accept? It's not like they have a navy to compete with ours. They have a bunch of literal junk ships!
And, of course, the government needed to use it to take out economic rivals, as well.
By 1847, they'd cowed Brazil and Colombia into submission, and made the Emperor of Brazil and the President of Colombia sign wildly unfair trade agreements.
You probably know that the Netherlands is the largest producer of coffee in the world. I don't know how you wouldn't know that, the foreign minister never shuts up about it. But did you know that the second- and third- largest producers of coffee in the world are Colombia and Brazil? You do now.
The Netherlands isn't the only country trying to get in on these new imperialistic trends. You've probably heard of the Second British-American War.
One of the bloodiest wars in American history! Thousands of Brits and Indians dead for a minuscule chunk of land. And for that matter, you've probably heard of the Mexican-American War.
I don't think Emperor Maximilian was too pleased with that one.
It is apparent to me that we're seeing the rise of a new form of imperialism of the likes not seen since the colonial period. The Dutch, British, and American imperialist ambitions I've outlined are part of a broader trend that the other powers of Europe are also engaging in. I fear that if we let it grow out of control, we'll see new a new age of colonialism, of the carving up of Asia and Africa, of worldwide warfare. The people of underdeveloped and primitive countries will continue to be exploited by imperialist ambitions in Europe and the United States, if they are not annexed outright. And, really, this all began with the Oranje War--it's a premonitory microcosm of everything that's happened since.
Now, bear with me for a moment. Let's just focus on the Netherlands, and the political situation here, where I think we can find a solution to this, or at least a small, local, short-term solution. Let's take a little trip back to 1847. This chart shows the party support makeup of the voting elite just before the election:
and this one shows the support makeup after the election:
So, of course, the liberal independents won in a landslide. But the day after the election...
the king appointed a new prime minister from the Conservative party in the place of the chosen leader of the independents.
And if we look at this year's election, which ended just a couple of days ago...
the moderate Conservative party won. But the day after the election, just like clockwork...
the king appointed a new prime minister, this time a step further right, from the reactionary wing.
This has been the general modus operandi of the Dutch kings since the days of William I, back when I was young. The voters--sparse as they are--vote in a monarch the king does not like, so he kicks out the prime minister and replaces him with one he likes. The government will stop at nothing to keep a repressive, regressive peace in place as long as possible.
I've been corresponding with a man living in London who's recently published a manifesto about political revolution. I don't quite share all of his views, but he makes a lot of good points. And one of them is that people have to work together, sometimes in counterintuitive ways, to get what is best for them.
So, how should we work together to stop new imperialism? We have to demand an expanded voting franchise!
The appointing of the reactionary prime minister a few days ago sparked widespread discontent among the general public, and as a result, of the States General. Even the conservatives are considering anti-reactionary measures in the form of expanded political liberties. Some of them are considering new voting systems or expanded party systems--tell them to vote for something harsher than this! If the middle class can vote, the middle class can get the lower class the vote. And once we, as a nation, have the right to decide our fate, we can put a stop to the government's imperialistic ambitions before they have a chance to blossom.
Thank you for your time. Remember--protest, send letters to your representatives, and do whatever you can to oppose imperialism!