Guarded neutrality : diplomacy and internment in the Netherlands during the First World War / / by Susanne Wolf.

• Author: Wolf, Susanne.
• Year of Publication: 2013
• Language: English
• Series: History of warfare, v. 86; History of Warfare 86.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (217 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

Traditionally isolated from mainstream European affairs, in 1914 the Dutch had no major allegiances that bound them to any one side of the conflict. Geographically and economically caught between two of the major belligerents, Great Britain and Germany, the Netherlands was constantly vulnerable to attack from either side. In adopting a position of neutrality at the beginning of the war, the Dutch took a huge gamble. The internment of approximately 50,000 foreign troops in the Netherlands, some for almost the entire four years of the war, provided an important showcase for the Dutch Government to demonstrate its adherence to international law and its impartiality towards the all of the belligerents.

Table of Contents

Preliminary Material -- Introduction -- A Neutral Country -- The Netherlands in World War One -- The First Few Weeks: Applying the Rules in Practice -- Administering Military Internment: The Camps -- The Middle Years of the War; Consolidation -- 1917: Deserters, Politics and Religion -- Internment in a Neutral Country: The Arrival of the Prisoners of War -- Going Home -- Dutch Cabinet 1913–1919 -- Foreign Representatives in the Netherlands 1914–1918 -- List of Internment Camps -- Further Reading -- Bibliography -- Index.