Exercitiegenootschap

An exercitiegenootschap (Dutch pronunciation: [ɛksərˈsitsi.ɣəˌnoːtsxɑp], exercise company) or militia was a military organisation in the 18th century Netherlands, in the form of an armed private organization with a democratically chosen administration, aiming to train the citizens and the lower bourgeoisie in use of muskets.

Exercitiegenootschappen were propagated by Joan van der Capellen tot den Pol, who translated an old book (1732) by Andrew Fletcher on arming a nation's citizens and so got the idea from Scotland.

Immediately the war (which had begun badly) developed disastrously, a wave of deprivation spreading through the country, and this result of the attempted reform was widely felt as a matter of national shame, with the harrowing contrast between the famous past and the miserable present becoming clear to everyone.

After the Rotterdam exercitiegenootschap in 1784 was forbidden, more and more so-called "genootschappen in de wapenhandel" (societies for weapons training) sprang up, as in Bolsward, and they were very progressive for their time and would speak out regularly.

[1] An incident with the Austrian emperor Joseph II about the Scheldt, known as the kettle war - for two hundred years closed off by Holland and Zeeland - led to organization of the provincial armies in January 1785.

In the regulations of the exercitiegenootschappen, their underlying aim of bringing the people republican principles and petitioning for and demanding their participation in choosing the composition of the city administration had never been taken up.

A few weeks later Herman Willem Daendels, captain of the local exercitiegenootschap, was inspired to take action in Hattem, upon which all exercitiegenootschappen meetings and mutual support were banned in Friesland and Gelderland.

They tried to take the election of burgomasters and the member of the city counsils into their own hands, shortly before Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick the commander of the troops of king of Prussia occupied the Republic, on 13 September.