The Netherlands Demands on Germany: A Post-War Problem in Political Geography

Abstract

T HE Netherlands claims for numerous changes along her 525 km boundary with Germany, and various claims in the economic sphere which arose at the end of World War II, add one more problem to the political geography of the post-war period' (Fig. 1). The Dutch frontier rectification claims are part of a whole series of border changes demanded by Germiany's western neighbors at the end of World War IIFrance in the Saar, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands.2 In spite of the number of people involved, the area and the resources concerned are relatively insignificant compared with. the changes along Germany's eastern border. Nevertheless, the Germans regarded-the proposed changes on the west as a most serious matter, of equal importance to the changes on her eastern boundary. Britain and the United States were quite willing to consider boundary adjustments on Germany's western ibLti-dary as long as they did not effect Germany's post-war rehabilitation and did not play into the hands of Russia's propaganda. The changes contemplated in the west add to the complexity of the European jigsaw boundary pattern. The Netherlands demands were originally most extensive, but, through circumstances discussed later in this paper, they were reduced to relatively minor changes under pressure from the United States and the United Kingdom.