Batavian Republic

The Batavian Republic (in Dutch Bataafse Republiek ) (1795 - 1806), also called Batavie , was a République which included the major part of the current territory of the Netherlands. Batavie is the most durable first and of the republics sisters of the France. In independent theory, it was actually very dependant on the supervision of France.

The “Batavian” term refers to the Bataves, people German which revolted against the supervision of Rome at the 1st century. The enlightened Netherlanders see in the Batavians their ancestors and gradually, Batave tends to designate the “patriotic” Netherlanders then becomes the official Gentilé inhabitants of the Batavian Republic.

Foundation

See also: Batavian Revolution

The Batavian Republic is the result of a revolutionary movement started as of the Années 1780, marked by the Lumières and the American revolution. The urban elites, joined together under the name of “patriots”, oppose the Stathouder, Guillaume V of Orange-Nassau, which they suspect of wanting to transform the République of the United Provinces into monarchy. This Batavian Révolution is held in two times: a first revolt crushed in 1787, then the escape of the stathouder following the invasion of the country by the French troops in January 1795.

The 1793, the French Convention declares the war with the England and the United Provinces. At the end of December 1794 and at the beginning of January, the French troops ordered by the general Pichegru cross the cold arms of the Meuse and the the Rhine. The revolutionary committees raise themselves in the big cities. Guillaume V is thorough with the exile in England on January 18th and the same day, the committee of Amsterdam takes the control of the municipality of the city “in the name of the Batavian Republic. ”

Arrived as liberators, the French behave soon as occupants and the Comité of public hello refuses to recognize the new republic as long as it will not have signed with him a peace treaty. The negotiations are tended between the Batavian envoys Jacob Blauw and Caspard Meijer and the French commission made up of Merlin of Douai, Reubell and Sieyès, so that Reubell and Sieyès is sent to $the Hague at the end of April to negotiate directly with the Batavian General states. These negotiations lead to the treaty of $the Hague, signed on May 16th. It envisages an offensive and defensive alliance, the transfer of the Flanders zélandaise, Maastricht and Venlo, as well as the maintenance with a French Army of 25.000 men and a contribution of 100 million Florin S, enormous nap intended to reinflate the cases of the French Republic.

Centralism or federalism?

Within the General states and in the Batavian political community, the patriots divide on the question of the type of mode to adopt, between “unitarists” - in favor of a State centralized - and the “federalists” - in favor of light modifications of the Union of Utrecht, regarded as the constitution of the United Provinces. The unit party, sometimes called the Jacobins, is taken along by men like Pieter Paulus, Pieter Vreede, Alexander Gogel or the general Daendels. These divisions are translated in the geography, the provinces of Holland and Zealand being for a unit constitution, the provinces of Frise or Gueldre being favorable to a federal constitution.

If these differences are dictated by the ideology, inspired by the French revolution on the one hand and by the tradition Dutchwoman of the other, they can however be dictated by pragmatism. The unit of the republic supposes in particular the amalgam of the debts of the provinces. However the debt of Holland reaches 454 million guilders, that is to say 70% of the debt of the whole of the provinces. As comparison, the debt of the the Brabant (which has just become a province with whole share, just as Drenthe) is of less than 2 million. The provinces thus have completely different interests which find their echo in the question of the unitary or federalistic character of the republic.

The first thing is to replace the General states to establish a constitution. There still, the representatives clash on the type of assembly to convene. New General states, representing the provinces, or should be convened should an National Assembly be convened, representing the whole of the Batavian citizens? The discussions trail in length with the General states until January 1796. On this date, some inhabitants of Leeuwarden, the capital of the Plank, stop representatives of the Plank to the General states and replace them by representatives unitarists. That is enough to make rock the majority towards the decision to convene an National Assembly for on March 1st 1796.

The first Batavian National Assembly is elected in the current one of the month of February 1796. Composed of 127 deputies, it is with federalistic majority. It is, for the majority, of the new men: only 34 had political experience before the Batavian revolution. A constitutional commission is founded, there too with federalistic majority. The debate lasts until the month of December 1796. The project relates to a unit republic but granting a broad autonomy to the provinces. The government is a directory of seven members and the legislative body is bicameral. The status quo is adopted for the question of the debts. This project will be adopted only the May 30th 1797 by the Parliament to be subjected to a Référendum. Plan of compromise not satisfying anybody ultimately, it is rejected by the Batavian people the August 8th 1797.

A new assembly is elected in the continuation of the advertisement of the rejection of the constitutional project. It joined together for the first time on September 1st. Three days later, takes place with Paris the Coup d'etat of the 18 fructidor year V, which marks a transfer on the left Directoire, by invalidating the elections of the royalist deputies. The unitarists intend to benefit from this change and return in secret negotiations with Paul Barras. Pierre Daunou, which had already taken part in the development of the Constitution of year III, is charged to write a secret project while taking as a starting point this one and by the project rejected in August. This new project is put in the hands of the new French ambassador at $the Hague, Charles Delacroix, which must make it adopt by the new assembly. 43 deputies unitarists publish on December 12th a declaration in which they claim the establishment of a responsible popular government before the assembly. This one is purified a few days after the arrival of Delacroix, the January 22nd 1798. The general Daendels, with the assistance of the general Joubert makes stop 18 federalistic deputies and pushes the other with the resignation. About fifty deputies remaining, taken along by Pieter Vreede works to write a new constitution, with for base the declaration of the 43; the Daunou project is isolated. The executive Directory is tiny room to five members and the legislative body is divided into two rooms, a room of discussion and a room of deliberation. The debts are amalgamated in a national debt and the provinces are removed and replaced by departments: it is a question of substituting a national feeling for a provincial feeling.

This project is adopted by referendum the April 25th. the provisional government undertakes to convene a new legislative body, in accordance with the new constitution. May 4th, the purified assembly in January decides, thorough by Delacroix which acts without order of Paris, that two thirds of her members will be automatically re-elected. The June 12th, furious of this abuse of power, Daendels reverses the men of January 22nd and replaces them by the moderate ones, among which figure Rutger Jan Schimmelpenninck, which is sent to Paris at the end of the summer as ambassador.

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