Talk:Batavian Republic

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[edit] Fleshing out

Though the article is adequate as a stub, I think it would benefit from fleshing out, and providing notes and references (as requested). I intend to give a little more detail about the several Constitutions of the new Republic, the three coups d'etat, and the dismal story of the Schimmelpenninck regime. The relationship with the French republic and empire and its vicissitudes may also bear a little more description. This will take a while, so please bear with me.--Ereunetes (talk) 00:11, 22 March 2008 (UTC) This is taking more time than I expected :-) I try to put as many pertinent wikilinks in this article as possible and it makes for slow going. Let me therefore set out my "program" for those maybe anxiously following my progress. I intend to complete the following subsections of the "Stages of the history of the Republic" section:

• "revolutionary" States-General
• Struggle for a constitution
• The Uitvoerend Bewind
• Russo-British invasion of 1799
• The Staatsbewind
• The Peace of Amiens and aftermath
• The Schimmelpenninck regime

And then an Aftermath section and a Note about the historiography of the Batavian Republic. Until this program is complete the article will look a bit ragged, so please bear with me a bit longer.--Ereunetes (talk) 19:23, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

I have now finished the rewrite, though there are always details to take care of.--Ereunetes (talk) 22:02, 28 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Worries about writing style

I think the improvements are very good. But, I notice a colloquial style which does not fully fit the serious nature of Wikipedia. Could you please try to use a more scientific style of writing for future improvements. One of the problems with the very narrative style used is that it introduces problems with neutral point of view. For example consider this opening line: "The final days of the Dutch Republic were quite eventful. After the disastrous Fourth Anglo-Dutch War the Patriot party staged a revolt against the authoritarian regime of stadtholder William V that was struck down by an intervention of William's brother-in-law Frederick William II of Prussia in June 1787.".
IMHO this has several subjective elements that do not fit WP:NPOV. "Quite eventful" - sais who. "Disastrous Fourth A-D war" - disastrous value judgement. "Authoritarian regime" - a very derogatory phrase, either give a source, or use a less controversial phase. I hope this helps. Arnoutf (talk) 20:04, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

I suppose one could always write more "scientifically"; it is an ever-receding fata morgana :-) However I stand by my qualifications "disastrous" for the 1780-1784 war, and "authoritarian regime" for William V. I have added citations from the sources I already used, but I could easily find many other historians who share my opinion on these points.--Ereunetes (talk) 23:08, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Batavian Republic box

I think the box is nice in itself, but I think Amsterdam only became the capital under the Kingdom of Holland in 1808 (there was a flap about this anniversary not being properly celebrated this year). In as far as there was a capital this should be The Hague, I think (de facto, as under the old Republic). I don't think there was an official language, but next to Dutch at least Frisian should be mentioned as a de facto spoken language (and maybe other regional languages).--Ereunetes (talk) 22:44, 11 June 2008 (UTC)