Netherlands-world war one

[piccadilly]

Does anybody know why Holland was neutral in the First world war?

[kempie]

I presume they had no treaty/pact with any of the participants, this being the reason why it escalated into the bloody mess it became.

Serb kills Austro-Hungarian.

Austro-Hungarians threaten to destroy Serbia.

Russia protects Serbia.

Germans join Austro-Hungarians against Russia.

France joins Russia.

Italy joins Austria and Germany.

Britain joins France and Russia.

etc. etc. etc.  You get the point.

[zmudge]

The Netherlands, which was an important neutral country, obtained and maintained its neutrality during WW1 only by Queen Wilhelmina skilfully and carefully using  to full advantage her family ties to Germany�s Emperor Wilhelm II, Russian Tsar Nicholas II, and George V.  A significant portion of the Netherlands population was pro-German as a result of perceived British brutality in the Boer War when the Netherlands strongly sympathized with the Afrikaners (1899-1902). There still was a strong anti-British feeling in the country at the outset of WW1. The Netherlands initially opened its doors for Belgian refugees when the Germans occupied that country in 1914 and left the doors open to later care for almost one million Belgian and British army and civilian refugees, of whom 300,000 were in the country the full four years of the war. The Netherlands also sent food and clothes to the remaining Belgians as far as the Germans would allow it. Immediately after the war the Netherlands took in hundreds of starving Austrian children and some of them stayed in the country and later married Dutch citizens. The German Kaiser was granted asylum in the Netherlands in 1918 and lived in a castle at Doorn whilst his compatriots had to endure extremely hard times after Germany had lost the war. Kaiser Wilhelm II died in 1941. Several countries remained neutral in WW1, amongst them America for much of the War until in 1917 the Germans declared unrestricted submarine warfare.

[piccadilly]

Thanks Smudge and kempsie, what you both say makes sense

[JohnPPotts]

I'm pretty sure Italy was on the side of the Entente (ie. Britain, France, Russia et al). Which prompted Churchill to comment that it was only fair that Italy was on the Axis side as they'd been ours in the last war (and given their performance in Africa and elsewhere, they were probably more of a liability than an asset to Germany).

[kempie]

You are correct JohnPPotts, Italy had been nominally allied to the German and Austro-Hungarian Empires since 1882, but had her own designs against Austrian territory in the South Tyrol, Istria and Dalmatia, and a secret 1902 understanding with France effectively nullified her alliance commitments. Italy refused to join Germany and Austria-Hungary at the beginning of the war and joined the Entente by signing the London Pact in April and declaring war on Austria-Hungary in May 1915; it declared war against Germany fifteen months later.

The other great player of the Central Powers was the Ottoman Empire.

[Oneeyedtic]

Entente, meaning a diplomatic "understanding", may refer to a number of agreements:
(1) The Entente Cordiale, 1904 between France and the United Kingdom,
(2) The Anglo-Russian Entente, 1907 between the United Kingdom and Russia,
(3) The Triple Entente, 1907 between France, Russia and the United Kingdom,
(4) The Little Entente, 1920 to 1938 between Czechoslovakia, Romania and Yugoslavia, and
(5) The Council of the Entente, 1959 between C�te d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Benin, Niger and (in 1966) Togo.
 
D�tente is the general reduction in tension between the Soviet Union and the United States and the "thawing" of the Cold War that occurred from the late 1960s until the start of the 1980s. More generally, it is applied to any international situation where previously hostile nations not involved in open war "warm up" to each other and threats de-escalate.