Kingdom of Holland RE1936

1

Kingdom of Holland

for Rocketship Empires: 1936Version 0.1Written by Sean Holland

“I shall endure.”

Based on the Rocketship Empires:1936 setting owned by Edward Kannand published byStoryart.Layout: Sean Holland

Suggestions and corrections are welcome.Contact me at: akaihyo@tychesgames.com

H

ISTORY SINCE

1920

AND

C

URRENT

A

FFAIRS

While the Netherlands had been neutralduring the Great War, being caught between the warring blocs was still anextreme hardship for the countrycausing great hardships for the Dutch people and great disruption to trade.With the end of the war, the Dutchwere prepared to resume their place asa nation of traders, the arrival of theMartians came at just the right time toinspire the Dutch to undertake a newnational project, expansion to the stars!Queen Wilhelmina has been theconstant leader in this new goal, her charm and drive securing the support of successive Dutch governments and the people of Holland themselves. TheQueen was fortunate in being able tocontact the cautious Naz-Raln Sept inthe opening months of the Martianarrival and convince them to alignthemselves with the Kingdom of Holland. This early alliance hasflowered and continues to insure thatthe Dutch receives abundant buildingmaterials and hybrid components fromtheir allies in the Naz-Raln Sept.Dutch industry, especially ship building, were thus well positioned toconvert to the construction of starshipsin 1920. The initial decade of theKingdom of Holland in space wasdedicated to exploration and occupationof worlds and their systematicexploitation. The Dutch lack the large population and natural resources of theother powers in space, instead relyingon their mercantile traditions andexperience as traders andmanufacturers. The Kingdom of Holland has expanded at a steady rate,careful not to over extend itself andmore homogenous with fewconscripted workers from second rateand colonized nations.After the Great War, the Kingdom of Holland accepted the exiled Kaiser Wilhelm II. Which caused sometrouble with the British and French and,later, with the Germans as the Kaiser attempted to found a new GermanEmpire in space. This ambition wasfoiled by the rise of the Reich, thoughWilhelm remains a cadre of loyal

2fellow German exiles and has becomethe dominant political power on theDutch colony world of Wilhelmsberg.As a powerful trading nation, the Dutchoften find themselves in conflict withthe British, French and, less often,American interest. Old rivalries withthe British and French have led to theoccasional ‘incident’ between the rivalmerchants and industrial espionage andcut throat trade competition betweenmerchants and trading companies to theindependent colonies is rife. However,the Governments involved have donetheir best to smooth such troubles over as the European democraticgovernments in space are seeking,hesitantly, to make common causeagainst the Communist and, to a lesser extent, the Fascist threat.Recently, Dutch explorers came intocontact with the Tk’tk, a minor butadvanced alien race. The Tk’tk are aninsect-like humanoid race andcommunication has been hampered by but their alien nature and the need toshield them from the other powers.The Kingdom of Holland is hopefulthat an alliance will soon be struck withthe Tk’tk but time will tell.The civil war in Spanish space came asan unpleasant surprise to the Kingdomof Holland. The Dutch government isofficially neutral but Dutch merchantshave been accused of selling arms andsupplies to the Royalists and others.While other accusations claim thatDutch pirates have raided Nationalistconvoys. Both accusations are hotlydenied by the Kingdom’s government,which does not stop them from beingtrue. The Kingdom of Holland doesnot wish to see Spain fall into either theFascist or the Communist orbit. Themajority of the Royal Netherlands Navy has been moved along theSpanish frontier. The Dutchgovernment has stated that any hostileaction into its space will met withdeadly force. The Spanish situation hasalso forced the Dutch government toincrease its military spending,something they had hoped to avoid atthis juncture.

T

HE

G

OVERNMENT

The Kingdom of Holland is aconstitutional monarchy, currentlyQueen Wilhelmina, as head of state.The Dutch parliament is collectivelyknown as the

Staten Generaal

(StatesGeneral). The

Staten Generaal

iscomposed of the First Chamber, or upper House, of 75 members who areindirectly elected by the provincialcouncils with one-third of the members being elected every two years. TheSecond Chamber, or lower House, of 150 member directly elected every four years. The First Chamber isconstitutionally bound to only ratify or reject laws passed by the SecondChamber, it cannot propose or amend bills on its own.

3The Kingdom of Holland acts under a proportional electoral system with each political party being assigned seats based on the number of votes that the party's candidates receive in elections.Candidates are drawn from official listsfrom each party so that voters focustheir choices on parties rather than onindividual members. All citizens over eighteen are eligible to vote thoughvoting is voluntary.Political parties proliferate in the Netherlands with coalitiongovernments the norm since thenineteenth century. Followingelections to the Second Chamber or if the government should fall, themonarch appoints a

formateur,

who isdirected to assemble from among theelected parties a governing cabinet. Thegovernment is headed by a minister- president or prime minister. Thesovereign, the government, and theSecond Chamber each have the right tointroduce legislation, and all billsapproved by the

Staten Generaal

mustin turn be signed by the monarch.The two chambers of parliamenttogether with three other advisory bodies constitute the

Hoge Collegesvan Staat

(high colleges of state), all of which are explicitly recognized by theconstitution as independent institutions.The

Raad van Staat

(Council of State)is composed of specialists, judges, andother experts chosen by the monarchand chaired by the queen. The

Raad van Staat

advises on the constitutionaland judicial aspects of proposedlegislation. All cabinet bills must bevetted by the council, whose opinion,while not binding, often spurssignificant parliamentary debate. Thecouncil additionally acts as thecountry's high court of administrativelaw. The

Algemene Rekenkamer

(General Chamber of Auditors), whosemembers are appointed by the cabinet,audits the national government'saccounts and exercise considerable behind the scenes power.The Kingdom of Holland on Earthdivided into twelve

provincies

(provinces) and the major colonyworlds are organized as it own

provincie

, not quite having grown largeenough yet to be subdivided though both are coming close, each with itsown government. The government of each

provincie

consists of

ProvincialeStaten

(provincial legislatures), directlyelected every four years, a

Gedeputeerde Staten

(executivecouncil), whose members are elected by the legislature, and a

Commissaris

(queen's commissioner), who is directlyappointed by the monarch and thegovernment and who serves as president of both the provinciallegislator and the council. The

provincies

are further subdivided into

gemeenten

(municipalities) with their own local governments.Queen Wilhelmina has considerableinfluence in the government, boththrough her rank as monarch and her wealth, though she keeps her influence behind the scenes when possible. TheKingdom of Holland’s government isdivided among several parties, a problem of the proportionalrepresentation system, which mustcome together to form a majoritygovernment. The major parties are: