| dc.description.abstract | At the end of the First World War, Europe was shocked by rising socialism. Dynasties that had ruled enormous empires for centuries fell to make place for socialist republics. In November 1918, Troelstra, the leader of the Dutch social-democrats was encouraged by unrest in the Dutch society and armed forces and called for a revolution. The revolution failed, partly because a large section of the population formed a countermovement. This movement presented itself surprisingly loyal to the Dutch monarchy, the Orange-Nassau dynasty. This conflict is placed in a broad tradition of both support for the Orange dynasty, commonly referred to as orangism, and opposition of its role in the Dutch political system or society. This thesis studies the role of orangism in the counterrevolutionary movement by relating its function in Dutch political culture to the reasons for countering the revolution attempt. Several aspects of the historical context are taken into account, for instance the influence of mobilization and pillarization. Orangism has shown great flexibility through the centuries and its uses have been very diverse. In 1918, it proved its use as a weapon against political extremism, but more importantly as an instrument against pillarization. | |
