Dutch Remnant Republic (1962: The Apocalypse)

Doomsday 1962
Belgium and the Netherlands were not as badly damaged as the UK and Germany. Survival was still possible, but tough decisions were to be made. The towns closed their town borders and martial law in the face of growing refugee tides and falling resources. There was panic on the streets of most towns as terrifyed Bergomasters unilaterally closed their city borders under the strain of handeling the refugees. The Dutch government declared a state of emergency in their country 4 days after Doomsday.

The local authorities in the Hague (Dutch: Den Haag), Katwijk aan den Rijn, Katwijk aan Zee, Hoornes-Rijnsoever, Rijnsburg, Tilburg, Vaught, Valkenburg, Leiderdorp, Delft, Middelburg, Axel, Den Haag and Leiden then sealed their local borders, declared martial law and took control of the local situation the next day.

It became horrific in Tilburg, were 3 local Dutch Churchill tanks saw off hostile German and desperate Flemish refugees came pouring in it, until the tanks ran out of ammunition and retreated in to the town.

The local authorities for the towns of Flanders Zeeland, the towns of Dutch Zeeland, Zandvoort, Nijmegen, Eindhoven, Son en Breugel, Breda, Knokke-Heist, Bruges (Dutch: Brugge, French: Bruges, German: Brügge) and Haarlem all took similar action 8 days after Doomsday. Each Burgomaster feared the worst and tried to save what little he could, as the Dutch nation imploded in to chaos and died. 9 days after Doomsday, the towns of Zotermeer, s’Hertogenbosch, Oss, Dordesecht and Gouda all witnessed savage food riots and panic buying the next day and the Dutch police declared martial law to try and stop the chaos. Looters (especially German ones) were to be shot on sight. The terrified Dutch government closed the nation's borders and declared martial law in the country 12 days after Doomsday and hid in Den Haag, hoping things would some how improve in time. Their actions were too late, Venlo, Valkenburg aan de Geul, Schin op Geul and Maastricht were overrun by panicked refugees, Groneigen was lost to mob rule and Eindhoven had been looted of anything of worth.

Food rationing and resource sharing was enacted in the varicose city states as an attempt to minimalize losses as the region was badly overrun by hostile German and Flemish refugees.

Denmark was quick to send aid to Slizewig-Holstine in Germany and to the Netherlands, but this stopped when the nuclear winter/summer and radioactive fallout began to take there toll.

Many dykes were damaged polders around the Zuid Holland region, which became partially flooded and finaly failed after the storm and floods of 1968. Most of it would be reclaimed between 1975 and 2004.

Survival
A severe famine and a cholera outbreak hit the region, killing many people during 1962 and most of 1963. The Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV), also known among farmers as 'blue-ear pig disease' also killed some pigs in late 1966.

Many dykes were damaged polders around the Zuid Holland region and Flevopolder and Rozenburg, which had became partially flooded and finally failed after the storm and floods of 1968. The storm of 1968 badly flooded much of Zeeland, Haarlem and the costal onclave of Zandvoort was nigh on destroyed, with 12% of its people ding and many were left homeless.

1969-1987
By 1969, the nation’s then still city states and varicose Flemish refugees-come-tribal groups had come to see the obvious, a more organised nation was needed. Bruges and its satellite village of Knokke-Heist were in the former Belgium, but chose to join the growing ‘Dutch Remnant Federation’ on ethnic Flemings are a form of Dutch, Walloons are a form of French). The Hague (Dutch: Den Haag), Katwijk aan den Rijn, Katwijk aan Zee, Hoornes-Rijnsoever, Rijnsburg, Valkenburg, Leiderdorp, Delft, Middelburg, Axel, Den Haag and Leiden all joined in over the next 3 years. They started with a free trade and resources sharing zone, ended in a full union by 1972.

Farming began to improve and small scale land reclamation started up in the mid 1970's.

Nijmegen joined the fledgling state of Kleve in 1972. North Brabant (Dutch: Noord-Brabant) was gradualy and some times forcibly reintergrated between 1977 and 1987. The nation was the officaly renaimed the 'Dutch Remnant Republic' in late 1987.

First contact
First contact was made with Kentshire, Lower Saxony and Kingdom of Lille-Wallonia in May 4th 1967. Fishermen from the Republic of East Anglia, Somme Republic (1962: Doomsday), Socialist Durhamshire all landed there during a bad gale, more by good luck than planning in 1973, since most nations wrongly reckoned on the region being uninhabited and/or badly overrun by hostile German or Flemish tribesmen.

Earthquake and tornado
2 separate tornados ripped through Bruges and Zeeland island killing 3 and 7 people respectively in the winter of 2001, the winter of 2009-10 was the worst in 50 years (as in OTL),killing 30 people and 2 Richter scale 4.5 earthquake caused major damage and 2 deaths in Bruges in 2009.

Military
The armed forces abandoned the use of bows and swords in favour of rifles and pistols in 1995. The army is a volunteer force of 2,500 and a conscript force of 500. Some guns are imported from Lower Saxony since 2000 and soon replaced swords and bows.

Transport
Horses are still popular in the nation, despite the resent, but short lived, outbreak of equine ethnocide hematoma.

Economy
It is agrarian by nature largely dependent on agriculture, forestry and selling looted metal from the ruins of nearby towns. A growing food processing, brewing, bread and scrap metal trading industry is beginning to develop. Up-market organic bread is sold to Lille-Wallonia, Lower Saxony and Frisia.

The main agricultural products are wheat and sugar beet, while cows and pigs are held as livestock. The chief industries are the production of farm equipment, carpentry (both mainly in Eindhoven), textiles and shoes.

Healthcare
Thyroid and skin cancers are no longer major issues, and are markedly less than they were before 1974.

Media
Posters a nailed up as and when nessasery by the local authorities. A national once monthly newspaper was launched in 2007 and regional monthly news sheets for Breda/Tilburg and Bruges in 2001.

The death penalty
Murderers, sex predators, rapists, child molesters, traitors and enemy spies were executed by hanging. A moratorium on hanging has been in place since 1998.

Also see:

 * 1) 1962: Doomsday
 * 2) Add-hock weapons at hand (1962: Doomsday)
 * 3) Editorial Guidelines- (1962: Doomsday)
 * 4) Radioactive animals (1962: Doomsday)
 * 5) Survivor Nations (1962: Doomsday)
 * 6) A song in Europe (1962: Doomsday)
 * 7) Alcohol (1962: Doomday)
 * 8) Sports (1962: Doomsday)
 * 9) Transport (1962: Doomsay)
 * 10) Afghanistan (1962: Doomsday)
 * 11) The Europa Alliance (1962: Doomsday)