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The revolutionaries have been assaulting the traditional order of the Netherlands for years. Ever since the Belgian War ended in 1837, the liberals have tried to upset the ways of life of the Dutch in a foolish, Napoleonic capacity!



Under the enlightened leadership of William I, we joined the Great Powers of Europe. We have beaten back the Belgian rebels and fought off British imperialism to reclaim our rightful place among the nations of the world.



We have begun researching glorious new technologies, to further our goals as premier power of the world.



And still, the liberals, Bonapartists, and Jacobins assault us. They first forced us to give up control of the presses, to allow them to print their foul drivel in the papers and plaster it to our walls on posters.




We began war against the barbarians of Zululand, to take back what is rightfully ours. And what did we get for it?



They forced our hand again, demanding further press rights! Pick up a paper, any paper, and you'll see absurdities that fly in the face of all that is good and right in the world. That all began when the army left to battle the Zulus. And still, they have demanded more!



And then came the accursed "Springtime of Nations". God! It disgusts me, as it should disgust you. The revolutionaries marched in the streets! They rioted and rebelled! They attacked the police, smashed windows! All for what? This pathetic semblance of government!




We beat back the Zulu to the dark from whence they came, and the war was nearly over. Yet still the revolutionaries screamed and yelled, in the streets, in the hills and forests, in the schools and churches!




And that was when King William's hand was forced. That is when he created this godforsaken parliament. Why have we need of this when we have His Majesty? It is my belief that this entire building is wholly unnecessary. It is a Jacobin plot to undermine all that is rightful and Dutch.



1842 has been the worst year in all the history of the Low Countries, simply because of that fool election.




We ended the war and developed great machines to bring about new wealth in our country. The liberals will claim these achievements as their own--but both of these endeavours were begun by His Majesty in his enlightenment!




And the results of the election! You damnable liberals hide behind "independent parties" and "unaffiliated political positions", but you can't escape the long arm of the Conservative Order! You especially, Schimmelpennick! Everyone knows that your cohorts tried to install you as prime minister! It was only because of His Majesty that I, defender of the Low Countries, have stopped you!




We began war on the Oranje Boer mongrels! Marched against them in a glorious reclamation of our South African colonial empire! We already plan the Transvaal offensive--it is nothing but a matter of time!



But now? The rebels, damn them!



You liberals--this is your fault! You gave them an inch, and they took a mile! If it weren't for you, Schimmelpennick, and your little conspirators over there, we wouldn't be barricaded in here and surrounded by musket-armed college students!

Stop them, I say! Your Majesty, it is my sincere advice that you give the military the order to fire upon them and end this little charade. If we do not put a hard stop to this liberal tide, a new future, fell and terrible, will be upon Europe. Anarchy! Free elections! Secret ballots! If we do not stop the rebels, the Netherlands will be smothered by the unwashed masses!

Ahem. Forgive me, gentlemen. As you know, I become quite passionate when I speak about matters of national security.

Thank you for your time, fellow Dutchmen. I can only pray that you see reason. Let us put an end to this pathetic "revolution", and return to the peace and prosperity that we have known for so long.

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...Subjects. We are at a crossroads. If we kill the rebels, then we may resume our day-to-day lives. Our own convictions are not as strong of those of the Prime Minister, and it is the opinion of the royal person that allowing the landed elite to vote and keeping this Prussian model of constitutionalism is not necessarily bad. ...But we do not know if it is right to fire upon Dutchmen. This is not the Belgian revolt, after all.

If we accept the demands of the rebels, then we will likely enter into a state of full, British-style constitutional monarchy. Voting rights will likely be expanded, among other political changes. We do not think they seek to end the kingship. The royal person is opposed to this outcome, but would greatly prefer to not slaughter fine young men such as those who are currently slamming themselves into the parliamentary door.

I understand that this is a rather pressing issue, gentlemen, but we pray that you keep a cool head. Making this decision is the culmination of your duty to your country--and your king. States General, we--no, I--leave this decision to you. Should I give the order to fire?

It was less than a month since that Prussian minister of war came to discuss alliance terms. The king gave the order to attack the Belgian provinces, I gave the order for my men to mobilize, we marched over the de facto border. The Belgisch Invasieplan went exactly as planned.




They met us, in Hasselt. God, the blood. Ran through the fields like so much spilled wine. King Leopold led the Belgians! Fancied himself some sort of new Napoleon, perhaps. They fell, of course. The Prussians marched in on our heels. I'll never forget that moment. They're like machines. No emotion, no hesitation. Not like Private van Loon, who hesitated long enough for some Flemish bastard to shoot his throat out. No. The Prussians fired, reloaded, fired again. Never looked back, never flinched.

Christ, if I never see one of those heartless freaks again, it'll be too soon. If those Prussians hadn't shown up, I wouldn't be here, drinking my sorrows away.

But I wouldn't be here at all, either.



At least we got paid. Thank God for those gold miners in the Indies, or I'd have deserted then and there...



Four months later, Belgium was overrun with Dutchmen and Prussians. We occupied, packed up, occupied again. Women spat in my face, children threw rocks at us, but we secured the provinces. They still pretended to have an army, one propped up by the British, but frankly, the war was decided by June.



I was there in Brussels, too. Nothing but conscripts, as far as the eye could see. It was a massacre.I don't want to think about how many women my men widowed that day.

Hey, barmaid! Another biertje!



January 9th was probably the best day of my life. That was the day we got the order to stand down. The Prussians stuck around, of course. They fought off a couple lost British regiments that tried to make incursions over the French border. War wasn't technically over yet, but Belgium was no more.



Maybe it wasn't all bad. All the blood certainly got people thinking.



A brief aside--Christ, what's the King thinking with the army? Upsizing the military with newly-conquered Belgians days after the end of the war?



Ugh... anyway. I can't stop thinking about the Royal Institute of Science... they finished their medicinal research nearly a year after the war ended. King William promised us we'd have new battlefield medicine, that hardly a soldier would die out there. So much for that.

...Hey. Thanks... thanks for listening. I think I just needed to talk about it a little...




So, uhm. Those court politics last year. The king's surrounded himself with liberals! They outlawed slavery, at last! Thank God for that. I wonder if that played into the British peace settlement a couple days afterward?



Or maybe it was just the new queen's ascension? Could be.



D'you hear about the war in the colonies, by the way? It was a small one. The "New Colonial Army", they called it. Staffed almost entirely by East Indians, with some Dutchmen in positions of command and accounting and such.



War wasn't even a year long. The king's got a hold on the entire island of Sumatra now. They say that the he's looking into conquering the other local East Indian sultanates, sometime.

Well, I've had enough for one night. Barmaid! The tab, if you would.

By the way, Klaas--did you hear about that speaker, at the town hall tonight? The Welsh one?



Robert Owen, I think. Professing some new ideology. "Socialism", I think he calls it. I'm curious what he has to say.

1815, Vienna. Rogue French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte has, at long last, been defeated and exiled to Elba, an island off the coast of Italy. The great powers of Europe--Great Britain, Prussia, Russia, and Austria--get together, along with various other national representatives, at the Congress of Vienna, to fix Europe's borders. Napoleon escapes for a little under four months, but loses at the Battle of Waterloo and is sent further away to St. Helena in the middle of the Atlantic ocean; the negotiations change little, though the French get penalized harder for supporting Napoleon after his return.

The borders of Europe are redrawn like so under the guidance of Klemens von Metternich, foreign minister of the Austrian empire. Europe's new shape is based on the idea of creating a "balance of power", the idea being that no single power could dominate the others should a new Napoleon rise. This new system, the conservative order, kept the peace in Europe until World War 1, but stifled individual liberties in the name of peace; much of Europe was denied Napoleonic civil liberties and put under the control of absolutist states, some of which would not decay until the 20th century.

But the people have not forgotten. They have not forgotten the codes, the laws, the justice, the ideals. They remember liberté, égalité, et fraternité!

I know I have a lot of other LPs waiting, but I've wanted to do a Victoria 2 LP for a long time and I'm finally really satisfied with what I have going here. Victoria 2 is pretty short, as far as Paradox games go, so I'll probably have it done at a reasonable pace.