The Netherlands in A Changing World

Abstract

HITLER'S attack on the Netherlands on May 10, 1940 was wholly unexpected by the Dutch people, who up to the last moment had believed in the possibility of maintaining peace. Nevertheless the country had been uneasy for a very long time. When Hitler, ignoring Roosevelt's urgent appeal to substitute discussion for' violence, bluntly asked the Dutch Government whether the country felt threatened, he received an emphatic denial. But this answer did not in fact reflect the truth, for the people knew the danger of living so near to Germany's increasing and unscrupulous might. The country's neutral position, however, forbade them to say so openly; and in any .case it is doubtful whether they would have voiced their fears since public opinion was not in a position, for reasons which will be described, to judge the situation clearly. Having enjoyed more than a century of peace, the country had developed an extremely well balanced, but at the same time a very intricate and vulnerable, political and social structure. This alone had made it possible, to create and maintain a high standard of living for a steadily growing population on an area of no more than 34,000 square kilometres. By the middle of the nineteenth century the population was roughly 3 mnillion; at the beginning of the first world war it had doubled; and at the outbreak of the second world war 9 million were crowded into this tiny part of the globe. Of these, almost 30 per cent lived in cities of more than 100,000 inhabitants, and well over 50 per cent in cities of 20,000 or more inhabitants. Four million people lived in the provinces of north and south Holland, a total area of under 6,000 square kilometres. The density there thus reached the extremely high figure of roughly 700 per square kilometre. The yearly increase was about 17 per cent, and though it was apparent that this high rate would not be maintained, the population was steadily increasing. Estimates of future population varied between 10.2 and 12 million by 1970. Because of this internal situation, the nation instinctively realized that to become involved in war would expose the country's structure to mortal danger. But, again instinctively, public opinion stopped there; it dared not construct a clearer picture of what war would mean. Love of country, pride in the happy circumstances resulting from the painstaking efforts of many generations, made it almost sacrilegious to contemplate the possibility of such a disaster. A further factor contributing to the vulnerability of the Netherlands in-