History of The Furbish Islands

The first human settlement of The Furbish Islands occurred circa 800.

In 1805, independence was declared, and colonial forces were driven out by the end of that year. However,

Second republic

Hrvadan-Furbish war

A group of Furbish pirates were captured in Hrvada in 1869 and sentenced to death. Carnell sent a letter protesting this, then was insulted, so he sent a punitive expedition lead by Gabriël van Aarle. The Furbish withdrew after they met all their objectives, though both countries declared victory.

Time of Troubles

Three different dates are debated by historians as the start of the time of troubles. On 24 May, the Burger rebellion began after the northern railroad strike was violently suppressed. On 23 June, a Gendarmerie company deserted, sending a signal to the high command that their own gendarmes can no longer be trusted. On 29 July, Drumpf was overthrown, and all order broke down.

Northern railroad strike and Burger rebellion

On 14 March 1873, five thousand Army Railroad Company workers in the north went on strike after wages were cut despite increasing inflation. The strike lasted little over two months before being put down by the Gendarmerie.

19 Dutch gendarmes from the force, including Sibren van Aalzum, Maup Dorman, Sijbrand Kortum, Jan-Willem Martini, and Lindert Roltvoort, deserted on 20 May when they learned the purpose of their mission. After gaining support from some villages, they declared on the 24th that they will take arms against the federal government, calling themselves "citizens", or "Burgers". Drumpf knew about the Burgers early on, but ordered no action to be taken against them, instead he ordered the Gendarmerie to open concentration camps for innocent northerners, and to protect only major cities and strategic locations.

Attack on camp III

Jean de Flandre was a captain of the Gendarmerie on 21 June when he received an order to put more people in concentration camps. He refused, instead sending his company to attack camp III, the largest of the concentration camps. The company's and camp's disappearances went unknown by the Gendarmerie high command and the federal government due to coverups by lower ranked officers until newspapers published letters sent by de Flandre one week later.

De Flandre was covertly assisted by van Aarle and by his commander, Phillippe Bessette. Niklas Rozenkrantz was sent to investigate de Flandre's disappearance, where he arrested Bessette and van Aarle. On 10 July, mercenaries he hired, led by Thomas Cnossen, attacked camp III and captured most of the company, but de Flandre escaped and joined the Burgers.

29 July Coup

A coup against Drumpf was attempted by some officers on 15 July but failed when one officer exposed it. Another coup was planned by Carnell, which he ordered on 29 July, shortly after Burgers lead by de Flandre set off an explosion inside the Central Armory. Though the original plan failed, Carnell convinced Gendarmerie chief of staff Ignatius Risewell to overthrow Drumpf in exchange for betraying the rest of his coconspirators, who were united more by their dislike of Risewell than Drumpf. The day became known as "the day all hell broke loose", because following the coup, different military commanders lost all trust of each other.

The next year and a half saw thirteen more successful coups and many more were attempted. With no strong federal government, regions, provinces, and territories, maintained order through local militias. In the absence of the Army, the interior wars were fought by these militias. Some provinces formed alliances, including the Northern League, which was made up of mostly Dutch speaking northern provinces, and the XXX Alliance. These alliances offered mutual defense from federal forces and from the indigenous population. The Northern League aligned with the Burgers, and they kept federal forces out of the north, while gaining land to the south.

15 February Coup

Jozef van Biddinghuizen, who previously was a Gendarmerie officer before being purged, first met de Flandre in a bar on 10 July when de Flandre escaped. Seeing the government collapse, van Biddinghuizen met with officers he knew at the Gendarmerie, and on 15 February 1874, he overthrew Stadtholder Smith Bethune. The day became known as "the day hell reigned in".

Van Biddinghuizen quickly worked to gain public support for his administration.