Prosperity and European Unity (1945-today)
The post-war years were a time of hardship, rebuilding, punishment of collaborators, natural disaster large-scale public works programmes, economic recovery, European integration and the gradual introduction of a welfare state. The Netherlands failed to hold the Dutch East Indies, as Indonesia became independent and 300,000 colonial Dutch (and Indonesian allies) left the islands.
Wages were kept low and the recovery of consumption to prewar levels was delayed to permit rapid rebuilding of the infrastructure. Rationing was in place, including cigarettes, textiles, washing powder, and coffee--as well as traditional wooden shoes. There were severe housing shortages.
Postwar politics saw shifting coalition governments. The 1946 Parliamentary elections saw the Catholic People's Party (KVP) come in first just ahead of the socialist Labour party (PvdA). Louis J. M. Beel formed a new coalition cabinet. The United States began Marshall Plan aid in 1948 that pumped cash into the economy, fostered modernization of business, and encouraged economic cooperation. The 1948 elections led to a new coalition led by Labor's Willem Drees. He led four successive cabinets Drees I, Drees II, Drees III and Drees IV until late 1958. His terms saw four major political developments: the traumas of decolonization, economic reconstruction, the establishment of the Dutch welfare state, and international integration and co-operation, including the formation of Benelux, the OEEC, NATO, the ECSC, and the EEC.
Read more about this topic: History Of The Netherlands
Famous quotes containing the words prosperity, european and/or unity:
“To provoke dreams of terror in the slumber of prosperity has become the moral duty of literature.”
—Ernst Fischer (1899–1972)
“Americans want action for their money. They are fascinated by its self-reproducing qualities if it’s put to work.... Gold-hoarding goes against the American grain; it fits in better with European pessimism than with America’s traditional optimism.”
—Paula Nelson (b. 1945)
“The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.”
—Bible: New Testament, Ephesians 4:11.