The French Occupation and the Transformation of the Dutch Public Sphere (1795-1813)

Abstract

First, this chapter shows how the French Revolution and occupation facilitated, between 1795 and 1798, the development of a centralized Dutch public sphere, based on universalistic principles. In reaction to the failure of the Patriot Revolt (1780-1787), the Dutch revolutionaries were quick to embrace the French unitary democratic state model. Subsequently, the much welcomed invasion of 1795, gave them the opportunity to revive the revolutionary clubs and press, and start the reform of the Dutch state. This reform process was driven by a series of temporary coalitions with the French authorities, which allowed the revolutionary politicians to eliminate the opposition against the centralization and democratization of the Dutch state. Second, the investigation demonstrates that the collapse of the public sphere, after 1798, can only partially be attributed to the rise of French authoritarianism. In fact, the Dutch revolutionaries themselves played a crucial role in the breakdown of the political press and the elimination of revolutionary associations. Public political activities, as well as official democratic procedures, were, after the establishment of the unitary democratic constitution of 1798, increasingly considered by the revolutionaries as obstacles for political reform. In turn, the French authorities only became truly repressive after the Dutch state had been annexed by the French Empire in 1810. By this time, the Dutch public sphere, at least what remained of it, was increasingly mobilized in direct opposition to the French occupiers.

Keywords: public sphere, Dutch Revolution, French Revolution, Patriot Revolt, revolutionary clubs, press, periodicals, democratization