World War I and the Years Thereafter: In 1914 Germany invaded Belgium in its strategy to conquer France. Among the Great European powers there had long been agreement that Belgium would be neutral. As a consequence of Germany's violation of Belgium's neutrality, Great Britain felt compelled to declare war upon Germany and War I began. For four years the war raged. Since the re-establishment of the Dutch kingdom in 1815 (after the Napoleanic occupation) Holland declared itself neutral and determined to stay neutral during this new war. Although were some times, especially in late 1917, when it seemed Holland would be dragged into the war, the country did manage to protect its neutrality. Initially, Holland was able to profit economically from its neutral status, but the longer that the war dragged on the more economy began to suffer. Holland was (and remains a nation of trade) and the British naval embargo imposed on Germany cut into that trade; raw products needed for Dutch factories could not be imported and unable to produce to anything, these factories began having to let their employees go. Unemployment took an alarming rise upwards. Worse yet, food began to grow scare and in 1917 food riots broke out in the working districts of Amsterdam. Still, when the War the over, the Dutch considered themselves immensely lucky to have been spared the terrible loss of life and destruction which had consumed France and neighboring Belgium. So grateful was Queen Wilhelmina to Kaiser Wilhem for having respected Dutch neutrality that in 1918 she granted the deposed emperor asylum in Holland. This was an act which did not please the British and French who would have liked him to be tried for war crimes.
After the War Holland found itself in a most advantageous economic position in regards to many other European counties, Holland not being burdened with war debts and/or having to rebuild its infrastructure. The Dutch economy began to grow in the 1920's. There was a short time when the disastrous inflationary period in Germany had repercussions in Holland, the Dutch economy being so tightly connected with that of Germany's. Once the inflation was in check and the German economy on a much firmer footing, the Dutch economy began really to take off. And stayed that way until the time of the great Depression. Initially, Holland was spared the worst of the Depression, the country's rich holdings in the Dutch East Indies (present day Indonesia) continued to bring in wealth. But eventually the Depression hit Holland as bad as any country in Western Europe, if not worse; bankruptcies rose with an alarming rate as did unemployment. The policies of the ruling Dutch government in dealing with the economic crisis remained most conservative, retaining the gold standard (even after it had been abandoned in most of the rest of the world) and providing little of the way of work relief projects (such as were being undertaken in England and the U.S.) Wide spread dissatisfaction manifested itself and there were many Dutch people who felt more radical solutions were needed, either of a Communistic nature or a fascistic one. Already in the late 1920's a fascist party had been founded in Holland. After Hitler took power in Germany in 1933 and established his Nazi state, and was able to achieve some striking (if deceptive) improvements in German economy, there was some Dutch who felt the new Germany was a model for Holland to emulate. The Dutch Nazi party in 1935 did achieve some striking gains in that year's election, gaining something like 7.9 & in the country's provincial elections, but never did anywhere as well again after that. The next year the Catholic Church in Holland proclaimed that to being a Christian and a Fascist were not compatible, and other churches in the Netherlands raised protests. By 1937 the Dutch Nazis garnered only 4.2%; two years later they did even worse.
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