Netherlands

The Netherlands, also called Holland, is a country in northern Europe, in the region often called the "Low Countries" or "low lands". It borders Germany, Belgium, and the North Sea. It is a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy, one of the first parliamentary democracies in Europe. Economically and politically, the Netherlands has been one of Europe's most liberal countries.

Netherlands in Atlantis
The Netherlands was unable to establish a presence in Atlantis. Instead, the Dutch turned their attention to colonizing the east coast of northern Terranova.

In the 1650s, the Netherlands' shipping and colonies were threatened by pirates operating out of Avalon, Atlantis. The Netherlands joined England and English-Atlantis in successfully crushing the Avalon pirates.

Netherlands in Days of Infamy
The Netherlands had already been conquered by the Germans when the Japanese entered World War II. The East Indies were the major goal of the Japanese and being completely unprepared in the Far East, the Dutch were soundly defeated on both land and sea, and thrown out of the Pacific.

Netherlands in The Guns of the South
Some Confederate people believed that the Rivington Men came from the Netherlands, as they were often overheard to speak to each other in a foreign language which sounded very Dutch. Interpreter Avram Goldfarb disproved this when he examined a book written in their language, and found that it was neither Dutch nor German, but appeared to be a "mishmash" of several languages including these.

Netherlands in In the Presence of Mine Enemies
The Netherlands was occupied by Germany in 1940, and, after the Axis victory in the Second World War, integrated into the German Reich. The Dutch were declared Aryans by the Nazis, and so escaped persecution.

When Heinz Buckliger became Führer in 2010, he initiated reforms which allowed more freedom for citizens and subjects of the German Reich. In response, the Dutch began demanding more national independence. Several Dutch demonstrators protested on the Adolf Hitler Platz, yelling the slogan Vrijheid (Dutch for Freedom and close to the German Freiheit) and carrying their flags. They were rounded up and arrested by the Security Police. However, they were not summarily executed as had been the custom.

The Netherlands denounced the 2011 SS-led putsch against Buckliger. Shortly after the putsch failed, the Dutch held a general election without German interference and elected a parliament with a non-Fascist majority. The Germans did not intervene.

Netherlands in Ruled Britannia
In the sixteenth century, The Netherlands were a group of small principalities in northwestern Europe. They were claimed by King Philip II of Spain as part of his Empire, and the militantly Catholic governor, the Duke of Parma, persecuted the Dutch Protestant majority. A Dutch rebellion against Spanish rule was supported Queen Elizabeth of England, herself a Protestant, giving Philip casus belli against England. In 1585, an English army landed in the Netherlands and was defeated by Parma's forces.

In 1588, a falling-out between the Dutch and the English allowed the Spanish Armada to rendezvous with Parma's forces unopposed and land the Spanish army in England, which it conquered. Thereafter, the Protestant rebellion in the Netherlands was suppressed.

However, the embers of rebellion remained smouldering in the Netherlands as in England. After the uprising in London restored Queen Elizabeth to her throne, the English took up supporting a renewal of the Dutch Protestant uprising.

Netherlands in Southern Victory
The Netherlands was perhaps the only country in northwestern Europe to remain neutral in the Great War. Its only land borders were with Central Powers member Germany and German-occupied Belgium, but it had a North Sea coast which gave it easy access to Entente member Britain. Throughout the war, The Netherlands traded with both belligerents and sided with neither.

In 1917, The Netherlands became the first truly neutral country to extend diplomatic recognition to the Republic of Quebec.

In the interwar period, The Netherlands became more involved economically with victorious Germany. This relationship was not enough to keep Japan from taking Dutch possessions in Asia. Although the Japanese compensated The Netherlands, there was an underlying threat of force in the transaction.

In the Second Great War, the pro-German Netherlands were overrun by Franco-British troops, leading the country to formally join the Central Powers. In 1943, the German Army beat back British forces across The Netherlands, liberating the country from the Entente. After liberating the whole country, the German Air Force started using bases there to bomb British cities.

Netherlands in The Two Georges
By the end of the 20th century, Holland was a minor world power, whose modest position was assured as long as there were no major wars or upheavals. The Dutch time of glory and great power in the 17th century was long gone, and in the generations that followed, Holland lost some its colonial possessions: Britain took South Africa and the Holy Alliance incorporated Holland's Caribbean islands into Nueva España. Holland retained the Dutch East Indies, its most important colony, as well as Dutch Guiana in South America. In Europe, Holland shared a southern border with France after the Austrian-ruled buffer zone which once separated them ceased to exist.

Literary Note
In OTL, "Holland" is strictly the name of only part of the Netherlands, though often used informally for the whole; in The Two Georges timeline it evidently became the official name. In OTL, Britain gained South Africa in the Napoleonic Wars; these did not happen in the TG timeline, but Britain got South Africa anyway. In OTL, the Dutch Antilles in the Caribbean remain Dutch up to the present. The scale of The Two Georges map makes it difficult to determine whether the territory of OTL Belgium was annexed by Holland, by France or partitioned between them; in any case, it ceased to exist as a separate political unit.

Netherlands in The War That Came Early
In the First World War the Netherlands successfully maintained their neutrality and had profitable trading relations with both sides. In the 1930s, when the specter of a new war in Europe became increasingly manifest, the Dutch expected to repeat the same role as before, and did not build up their armed forces. They did not invest their resources in creating an armored corps or a large air force, both of which had become indispensable for waging a war. This proved a major miscalculation, as German plans for an offensive on the Western Front did include the occupation of the Netherlands and use of its territory to invade Belgium and France.

The German plan was implemented with a surprise mid-winter attack on the Netherlands, a few months after Germany completed the conquest of Czechoslovakia. A massive invasion on land was accompanied by heavy bombings from the air and the dropping of parachutists behind Dutch lines - a method never before used in warfare.

Dutch soldiers resisted courageously but hopelessly, as did Dutch police who were not trained or equipped to oppose regular soldiers. Dutch resistance was broken after five days by German planes bombing and devastating the defenseless Rotterdam, with enormous loss of life among its civilian population. Rather then have others of their cities suffer the same fate, the Dutch government capitulated, and the German Army continued southward into Belgium.

Literary Note
The above German attack on the Netherlands is virtually identical with that in OTL, simply placed a year and a half ahead of schedule; both the five days of Dutch resistance and devastating attack on Rotterdam occurred also in OTL, in May 1940. The German westward offensive of this timeline significantly diverges from OTL only in a later stage.

Netherlands in Worldwar
The Netherlands were conquered by Germany in May, 1940. Under the terms of the Peace of Cairo, the Netherlands remained part of the Greater German Reich. It remained so after the Race-German War of 1965.

Netherlands in "The Eighth-Grade History Class Visits the Hebrew Home for the Aging"
Anne Frank, later Berkowitz, and her family immigrated to the Netherlands from Germany due to the rising tide of anti-Semitism under the Nazis. Anne was particularly good at speaking Dutch, which she teased her parents about.

After the German invasion of Holland, the Franks went into hiding in the Secret Annexe of an office building. They were forced to share the congested space with another family and a dentist. Like the rest of the Netherlands, they experienced starvation.

After the war, Anne left Holland for America, not wanting to live with her family anymore. Her elder sister, Margot, stayed behind.