'O Willem! ... Wat hebt ge met het leger gedaan?' The Deprivatisation, Centralisation, and Nationalisation of the Dutch Army during the Batavian Revolution (1795-1799)

Abstract

With the revenge of the revolutionary Patriots in 1795 in the form of the Batavian Revolution (1795-1799), the Dutch state was transformed according to its beliefs. What often happens after a revolution, is that the military organisation is also drastically rearranged to encompass the revolution’s ideology. This is exactly what happened in the Batavian Republic. In this thesis, I argue that this transition period between the ancien régime’s Staatse Leger and the revolutionary Bataafse Leger consisted of the deprivatisation of its military entrepreneurs, the centralisation of the military administration, and the nationalisation of the troops themselves. All of these radical changes in the organisation of the Dutch army can be traced back to the ideologies of the Patriot, French and Batavian Revolutions. This study thus confirms the strong intertwinement between these revolutions, which has been debated heavily over the last centuries. Moreover, these conclusions also add a new perspective to the much-discussed current trend in modern warfare in which military tasks are once again regularly outsourced to foreign professionals which brings along grave consequences. This study aims to shine a light on how the Dutch state once before turned this tide by taking control of its own army during the Batavian Revolution.