1947 Dutch coup d'état

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The 1947 Dutch coup d'état took place on the 24th of April 1947 and resulted in the overthrow of the Beel Cabinet and the instalation of a new government of national unity under the leadership of Pieter Sjoerds Gerbrandy. The coup was organized by the Nationaal Comité Handhaving Rijkseenheid. The coup was a reaction to the government signing the Linggadjati Agreement, which many in the Nationaal Comité Handhaving Rijkseenheid saw as unconstitutional.

Background
After the Allied victory in the Second World War, the Netherlands regained possesion of it's colonies in the east. These colonies however declared their independence under the leadership of Sukarno. The Dutch government oppossed an independent Indonesia and made harsh re-colonization efforts, which evolved into a full on war.

On 2 December 1946, former Prime Minister Pieter Sjoerds Gerbrandy gave a fiery radio speech against the Linggadjati Agreement of 15 November 1946, in which he stated that the Netherlands would lose World War II after all through its own fault, if it ceded the Dutch East Indies (the use of the word 'Indonesia' was avoided). He argued that the Agreement betrayed the principles of Queen Wilhelmina's wartime radio speech from London on 7 December 1942, because although the East Indies were to receive their own status, they were also to remain within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. This broadcast received national acclaim and encouraged conservative liberals Willem Feuilletau de Bruyn and E.J. van Rees Vellinga to organize a signature campaign with a 'supplication' to the Queen under the motto "we demand the maintenance of unity of the Kingdom", which yielded 300,000 signatures within two weeks.

The success of this broadcast and the petition led Gerbrandy to found the Nationaal Comité Handhaving Rijkseenheid, a group of prominent like-minded people. The committee included many important politicians of the time. Members of the ARP, CHU, PvdV and SGP were all part. Initially it was not the intention of the committee to create a new political party, instead its members could exert pressure through their respective parties.

In November 1946 the Dutch government signed the Linggadjati Agreement, to the dissmay of many in the army and the committee. The agreement created a path to Indonesian independence, which many in the committee saw as unconstitutional.

The Coup
The coup began as two associates of Gerbrandy attempted to assassinate the leader of the PvdA, Koos Vorrink. The assassination of Vorrink would serve as a warning to any politicians brave enough to oppose the coup. The Assassins immediately ran into problems when upon arriving to Vorrink's residence, when it turned out he wasn't home.

As the assassins returned to Gerbrandy for further instructions, Hendrik Johan Kruls, chief of the army, announced the implementation of marshal law and the firing of the Beel Cabinet and the appointment of Simon Spoor as the colonial governor of the Dutch-Indies. All over the country radio stations, newspapers and pamphlets informed the Dutch public about the governments firing and the appointment of Gerbrandy as the new prime minister, before he was appointed by either the monarch or parliament.

In reaction to the coup queen Wilhelmina resigned in a bid to rob the potential government of legitimacy. She just like many realised that monarchy was not in a position to stop the formation of the new government. The new queen Juliana was forced to acquiesce to the formation of a 4th Gerbrandy cabinet, and appointed Gerbrandy as formateur.