In January 1942, now as an ally of the United States, Holland declared war on fascist Italy, after breaking diplomatic ties; in December of that year in London the queen, with an official speech, declared Indonesian peoples independent.
With the prolongation of the war in Holland, a war that the Germans had considered little more than a walk, and as all the genres necessary for survival were lacking in Germany, looting and confiscations took place until all the Dutch warehouses were emptied. According to Abbreviationfinder, an acronym site which also features history of Netherlands, the Germans also took away doors and windows from the houses in order to partially remedy the deficiencies of the German cities continuously bombed. And after the goods fell to men. In 1943 a revolt broke out and the Germans began deportations. On November 10, 1944, 52,000 men between the ages of 18 and 40 were arrested in Rotterdam alone. In all, nearly 600,000 men disappeared from Holland and were diverted to various concentration camps in Germany, Belgium and France. Not to mention the Jews who deported 110,000 survived only 6000.
When the landing in Normandy took place, with the presence also of Dutch soldiers, the Germans implemented a real terror regime in the country, and also requisitioned all food leaving the population, in that freezing winter of 1944/45, literally to starve. Thousands were the victims and more than a tenth part of the territory was flooded by floods.
Until the first supplies from British planes began to arrive on 30 April 1945. On May 5 the Germans surrendered unconditionally.
As soon as he freed the territory, Professor Gerbrandy, as head of the government in exile, announced the formation of a provisional government. The Prime Minister of this government was Professor Schermerhorn; Van Kleffens was confirmed to the foreigners and all the other ministers were taken from the ranks of the resistance. But the war, which ended in Europe, was not in Japan. Over 200,000 Dutch volunteers went to England to be educated. In August, however, Japan surrendered and in Indonesia 40% of the Dutch residents there died of starvation and the rest were hostages of the Indonesian Republic.
Elections took place in 1946. The Catholic and Socialist parties were the strongest so they formed a coalition government under the presidency of the Catholic Beel. Previously the collaborationists had been punished. The first to be shot was Mussert.
A vast economic recovery began immediately as the political picture gradually changed due to a strong deflection of the communists.
In March 1948 the Netherlands signed a pact of mutual economic and military assistance with England, France, Belgium and Luxembourg, while the emergence of a new entity, the Dutch Indonesian Union, was envisaged. Which was agreed at the Round Table Conference in The Hague between August and November 1949, in which Indonesia gained independence. However, this was not the case for New Guinea, so much so that the young Indonesian state in January 1951 asked for the revision of the Union’s statute postponing the new adhesion to the recognition of the sovereignty of New Guinea. As a consequence of this there was a crisis of government and the then Prime Minister W. Drees, socialist, composed another, always in a coalition.
At the outbreak of the Korean war, Holland found itself discussing rearmament, having entered the Atlantic Pact as early as August 1949.
In June 1952 new elections gave the majority relative to the socialists and Drees still formed a coalition government between the socialists and the counter-revolutionary Catholics, with the collaboration of the unions. In July 1953 the Netherlands joined the European Defense Community, with Belgium and Luxembourg, but difficulties that arose in France made the initiative fail.
Negotiations for the ratification of the Union continued with Indonesia, but not having reached agreements on New Guinea, the whole matter was transferred to the United Nations. The new negotiations, which took place in Geneva, failed on February 4, 1956, Indonesia abolished the Union and in December 1958 nationalized all the plantations owned by Holland.
Various conflicts over the country’s economic policy led to the economic union of the Benelux and the fall of Drees. The early elections of March 1959 entrusted the majority to Catholics. The shift to the right produced the De Quay cabinet made up of Catholic, liberal, anti-revolutionary and Christian-social. Socialists took up office in the opposition.
Diplomatic relations with Indonesia were interrupted on August 16, 1960, again regarding the unresolved issue of New Guinea. The crisis resolved on July 31, 1962 with the passage of New Guinea under the direct control of the United Nations, starting from October 1. Suriname and the Netherlands Antilles continued to remain under Dutch dependency.
In the elections of May 15, 1963, Catholics and Protestants maintained their positions and a new government, formed with the same coalition, was formed on July 23 by VGM Marijnen, and remained in office until February 26, 1965, when it fell due to disagreements over the controversial reform of radio and television. On April 12, a new government was formed by the popular Catholic J. Cals, with a certain tendency to the left.
In 1966 widespread protests began, especially youth, aimed at obtaining a political and social rehabilitation of the country and in September of that year Queen Juliana, in an official speech, confirmed her commitment because the renewal, requested by many parties, had been reached up. And between 1967 and 1973, when the Socialists returned to lead the government with their leader J. Den Uyl, there were three more calls for early elections.
Meanwhile, the international oil crisis forced Parliament to apply special powers in January 1974 to deal with the country’s economic situation. Between April and May 1975 there were various discussions about Holland’s membership of the Atlantic Alliance and the installation of nuclear weapons. Meanwhile, the government had chosen to purchase the American F-16 plane, preferred to the French Mirage F-1, confirming the dependence of the national economy on US power.
In March 1977 there was a crisis between socialists and Catholics whereby new elections took place in May and the socialists had a relative majority. In January 1978 a center-right government was launched, led by the Catholic A. Van Agt, who remained in office until May 1981. Many issues were debated during that period: unemployment, cuts in public spending, the installation of “Cruise” Euro-missiles. Until the crisis came in May 1982 and in September of the same year there were new elections which saw a strong advance of the liberals. There was a new center-right government led by the Christian Democrat R. Lubbers. In order to decrease the strong state deficit, he made cuts in public spending and this caused serious union tensions.
In November 1985 the installation of the “Cruise” was accepted, with effect from 1988. But this question resolved spontaneously when an agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union abolished the nuclear warheads. But previously, in 1983, a new Constitution had been approved which made several changes to the previous one, namely:
– the lowering of the voting right to 18 years of age;
– the introduction of the “social right” to public assistance for all citizens;
– the extension of freedom of opinion to all forms of communication;
– the abolition of any religious, sexual or ethnic discriminatory element;
– the abolition of the death penalty –
And since the new Constitution, by virtue of a previous amendment, had lifted the ban on female succession to the throne, Queen Juliana in 1980 had abdicated in favor of her daughter Beatrice.
With the political elections of May 1986 the Lubbers government was confirmed which, among other things, in 1989 launched a twenty-year plan for the restoration of the environment. This led to a limitation and greater control in the construction sector, the increase in taxes on petrol and the abolition of tax exemptions for commuters who used private means of transport.
The liberals, however, opposed the plan and decreed a new government crisis which, of course, led to new elections. And following these there was a center-left government always chaired by Lubbers. His much-discussed twenty-year plan of 1989 was revisited in August 1990 and was launched with the elimination of the chapter on commuting taxes. However, this led to a further increase in the fuel consumption tax.
In March 1991 the provincial elections were characterized by a large drop in liberals. And this forced to revise some norms included in the economic plan because with the increase of the state deficit the chapter of social assistance was called into question. And this led to the privatization of some services; without prejudice to the government’s commitment to the defense of the environment and civil rights.
In 1993 the presence of the premises where prostitution was practiced was legalized and also, in part, for those special cases that were judged by the doctors from time to time, euthanasia was allowed. To all this was added the decision to reduce military expenses by almost 50% with the commitment of the gradual abolition of military service, to be carried out by 1998.
Just the much debated issue of social assistance made the votes for both Christian Democrats and Labor in the 1994 elections drop considerably. So much so that Labor Wim Kok was called to form a coalition government between Labor, liberals and members of the “Democraten”. 66 ”, while for the first time, after about 80 years, the Christian Democrats passed in the opposition. The same, however, in the elections of June 1994 for the renewal of the European Parliament, were able to show their supremacy by winning 10 seats against the 8 of the Labor and 6 of the liberals.
Under the new government, however, the disputes between Labor and liberals continued, always regarding social assistance.
In 1995 there was a partial privatization in the postal and telecommunications sector and a project was developed to reduce the professional military contingent.
Furthermore, between 1996 and 1997, following vibrate and repeated protests by other European states on drugs, the government had to review national decrees on soft drugs, which were widely allowed.
In 1998 policies, Labor benefited from strong voter support, to the detriment of other parties, including the Christian Democrat who continued to lose consensus. Instead, those who saw their quota increase satisfactorily were the party “Grien Links”, born in 1991 from the alliance of some small leftist parties, such as radicals, social-pacifists and communists.
However, the new government, allowed by the result of the last elections, maintained the same coalition as the previous one.
In the meantime, however, in March of that same year, in the provincial elections for the renewal of the Upper House, the precariousness of the majority emerged, in the governing parties, since the strongest ones were the Christian Democrat and the Groen Links.