The anti-revolutionaries had ties with the April movement [nl], which opposed the official re-establishment of Roman Catholic bishoprics, and a mixed relationship with (liberal-) conservatives in the House of Representatives, who also opposed reforms to the social and political system but often on the basis of a mix of liberal Protestantism and secular humanism.

In 1864 Groen van Prinsterer began to correspond with a young Dutch Reformed theologian named Abraham Kuyper.

The ARP was divided on the issue: Kuyper and a majority of the parliamentary party voted in favour of the law, while Alexander de Savornin Lohman vehemently opposed it.

The split results in the foundation of the Free Anti Revolutionary Party in 1898, which would become the Christian Historical Union in 1904.

A cabinet was formed out of the ARP, the Catholics and the group around De Savorin-Lohman, now called the Christian Historical Party.

This can best be seen by the railway strike of 1903, in which Kuyper showed no mercy to the strikers and instead pushed several particularly harsh anti-strike laws through parliament.

Although a relatively small opposition party, the ARP played an important role in Dutch politics.

The liberal minority cabinet, led by Cort van der Linden sought to resolve two important issues in Dutch politics: the conflict over the equalisation of payment for religious schools and universal suffrage.

The ARP was given equal payment for religious schools, but it had to accept women's suffrage and proportional representation.

After the Pacification of 1917, marked by the introduction of universal suffrage, the party never received more than twenty percent of the vote.

The confessional parties formed a new cabinet, led by the Catholic Charles Ruijs de Beerenbrouck.

A group of concerned anti-revolutionaries, led by Gerrit Kersten, founded the Reformed Political Party, which opposed universal suffrage and cooperation with the Catholics.

In the 1930s, with the growing international political threats and economic crisis, the ARP began to regain its popularity, under the leadership of Colijn.

During World War II, members of the ARP played a role in both the governments-in-exile, of which many were led by Pieter Sjoerds Gerbrandy and the resistance movements.

The Labour Party (PvdA) and the Catholics however favoured decolonisation, under heavy pressure from the United States.

In the 1956 election in which Jelle Zijlstra became political leader the ARP kept its 10% of the vote, but due to the enlargement of the House of Representatives it got 15 seats.

This led to considerable conflict with the KVP, which also spilled over into the ARP, as the younger generation wanted to govern with the PvdA.

They faced competition from the left-wing Christian Political Party of Radicals (PPR), which was formed by former KVP members and joined by some prominent anti-revolutionaries, including Bas de Gaay Fortman, son of Wilhelm de Gaay Fortman, one of the party's ministers.

After long coalition talks several prominent anti-revolutionaries, including Wilhelm de Gaay Fortman, joined the progressive cabinet led by Joop den Uyl.

Some prominent anti-revolutionaries, like Aantjes did not agree the CDA/VVD cabinet that was formed after the election and wanted to continue with the PvdA.

A group of these anti-revolutionaries left the CDA in 1981 to found the left-wing Christian Evangelical People's Party.

While the ARP was one of the dominant forces in the merged party, it was not until 2002 that a CDA member with anti-revolutionary roots became Prime Minister, Jan Peter Balkenende.

[6] The Anti-Revolutionary Party derived its name from its opposition to the ideals of the liberal French Revolution (and certainly against those of Marxists).

The label conservative was already taken by a parliamentary group of monarchists and colonialists, who fell out of favour in the late 19th century.

With the split between the ARP and the Christian Historical Union the terms began to gain their own separate meanings.

The ARP started out as an orthodox Protestant party, heavily opposed to the ideals of the French revolution.

[7] The ARP was a confessional Protestant party which based its politics on the Bible and opposed the concept of popular sovereignty.

It was socially conservative: it opposed mixed-sex education, mandatory vaccination, divorce, pornography, euthanasia, abortion etc.

The ARP favoured monarchy, and saw the House of Orange as historically and religiously linked to the Dutch people.

After World War II, the ARP became more isolated because of its position on the decolonisation of the Dutch East Indies.