Batavian Revolution in Amsterdam - Background

Background

Amsterdam had been a hotbed of Patriot revolutionary fervor during the Patriot Revolution of 1785–87. After the Prussian intervention of 1787 and the subsequent Orangist repression, the city reverted to control by the ancien regime of the stadtholder. The Dutch Republic became an Anglo-Prussian client state whose foreign policy was determined in London and Berlin, while the exiled Patriots plotted its overthrow in France. When the revolutionary French Republic declared war on the powers of the First Coalition in 1792, the exiles strongly favored the inclusion of the Dutch Republic. The exiles formed their own "Batavian Legion" that (like its Belgian equivalent) fought side-by-side with the armies of general Charles François Dumouriez under command of general Herman Willem Daendels. However, despite an incursion into North Brabant (then part of the non-selfgoverning Generality Lands and as such pro-French) the French attack on the Republic was unsuccessful in 1793.

In 1794 the campaign was more successful for the French and their Batavian allies. North Brabant was again invaded by the French army under general Charles Pichegru (Dumouriez had defected to the Austrians the year before) and occupied up to the Waal river. This proved as yet too much of an obstacle for the French. Nevertheless, the French success had emboldened the Patriot partisans that had remained in Amsterdam. Despite the vigilance of the political police of the stadtholder they had been able to form secret societies, masquerading as "reading clubs" that spread revolutionary propaganda, and prepared for insurrection by secretly amassing arms in an arsenal on the Roeterseiland. Ringleaders were Alexander Gogel and Cornelis Rudolphus Theodorus Krayenhoff, the latter acting as Military Officer of the Amsterdam Revolutionary Committee.

On 14 October 1794, the stadtholder (aware that something was afoot) ordered the city council of Amsterdam to take measures to ensure that civil order would be preserved. The garrison under General Golowkin was reinforced with 4,000 British troops from the British army of occupation. That same day, however, the Patriot insurrection began. The Patriots presented a petition to the city regents, protesting the billeting of the British troops, and this was supposed to be the signal for the revolt. This did not materialize, due to the intimidation by the garrison troops, that occupied strategic points with cannon and barricades. The petition had inadvertently provided the political police with the names and addresses of the would-be revolutionaries and these were rounded up following 17 October. Gogel and Krayenhoff fled the city; the latter joined the central Patriot Revolutionary Committee at the French headquarters in 's-Hertogenbosch.