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| 1939, June 30 |
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| Resignation of the Colijn government, which was reformed amid much party dissension. | 1 |
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| 1940, May 10 |
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| GERMAN ARMED FORCES INVADED THE NETHERLANDS (See 1940, May 10). | 2 |
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| May 14 |
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| The Dutch army surrendered as the government and Queen Wilhelmina escaped to London (May 13). | 3 |
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| Aug. 18 |
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| The German commission in the Netherlands suppressed all representative bodies in the country. Instead of being under direct military control, the Netherlands became a protectorate (Schutzstaat). | 4 |
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| Nov |
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| Resistance was first organized nationwide by the Order Service (Orde Dienst), which concerned itself mainly with maintaining calm until the peace. The National Organization for Assistance to Divers (those who went underground), founded in 1942, and the National Action Groups, founded in 1943, focused upon the protection of those who went into hiding. The Council of Resistance in the Kingdom of the Netherlands, founded in 1943, concerned itself primarily with armed resistance. The government in exile attempted to organize these groups and others in 1944 under the Netherlands Forces of the Interior. | 5 |
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