Congress of Amsterdam

Congress of Amsterdam
Host country	Netherlands
Dates	11 September 1938 – 20 April 1939 (7 months, 9 days)
Venue(s)	Sloterplas Palace (to 18 November 1938) Rondpunt Hotel (from 18 November 1938)
Cities	Amsterdam
Participants	Benjamin Kaylock Ozero Murmsky Miguel de Azevedo Teng Acoy Mouhamet Aravai Domenico Papafava

The Congress of Amsterdam (Dutch: Congres van Amsterdam) was an international political conference that was held in the aftermath of the Cordial League's victory in the Great War. It sought to plan the geopolitical future of the defeated Tripartite Coalition and their allies. It was held from 11 September 1938 to 20 April 1939. The main agreement of the Congress, known as the Treaty of Amsterdam, was signed by all relevant parties in the presence of William II of the Netherlands on 18 April 1939.

Six world leaders attended the conference: Prime Minister Benjamin Kaylock of the United Kingdom, Chairman Ozero Murmsky of Russia, Prime Minister Miguel de Azevedo of Portugal, President Teng Acoy of China, Director Mouhamet Aravai of Kirignaga-Loloue, and Doge Domenico Papafava of Venice. Carolina, Ireland, New England, Brazil, Naples, Illyria, Norway, Egypt, Tunisia, Mesopotamia, Ha'il, and Poland—the remaining League nations—all sent lower-ranking representatives of their own, usually ministers or ambassadors plenipotentiary. As for the members of the Tripartite Coalition, France, the Ottoman State, Austria, and Corea also sent representatives of similar rank. Sicily and Turkestan refused to send any official delegates to the Congress, though their interests were represented by private individuals advocating on behalf of their governments.

Other states which just had recently gained sovereignty such as Albania, Greece, Bulgaria, Rumelia, Tripolitania, Galicia, Slovakia, Magyaria, Bohemia, Australie, Kampuchea, and Niger sent occassional envoys particular to each government's capacity. As the event was hosted by the Netherlands in Amsterdam, various members of the Orange-Nassau dynasty and the Dutch government made regular appearances over the course of the Congress.

The Congress consisted of twenty-one consecutive sessions, spanning a total seven months and nine days including recesses in between. On 18 November, an arson attack carried out by Austrian Faramundists resulted in an unusually lengthy thirteen-day break from 19 November to 2 December 1938. Participants eventually decided on a set of terms that dramatically altered the territorial composition of Europe, the Near East, northern Africa, and eastern Asia. The Congress also foreshadowed the establishment of various international organizations such as the Organization of Democratic Nations, the International Republican Coalition, and others.

Background

Prime Minister Kaylock reached out to the Supreme Commander of the All-Russian Forces, Mikhail Orlov, on 3 April 1938, shortly after the Russians firmly established their occupation of the Ottoman city of Constantinople. Confident of a full Cordial League victory, he proposed the arrangement of a political meeting in Venice. This request was transmitted to Chairman Murmsky who proposed a new location, the Netherlands, on the twenty-eighth of the same month. Both parties reached an agreement in early June; soon, invitations were sent out to future participants.

18 November attack

Picture of smoke billowing from Sloterplas Palace in the early hours of 19 November 1938.

Around 22:10 on 18 November 1938, explosive devices attached to Sloterplas Palace were detonated by a group of Faramundist militants. Two of these men were later identified as George Zuckerberg and Gunter Possiejpal, both veteran soldiers originally from Pressburg, a Danubian city with a combined German-Hungarian majority that was to become part of postwar Slovakia. Nine people were killed in the minutes following the explosion, including Russian ambassador M. A. Humarian and Ottoman envoy Hadschi Schewket Efendi. The remaining 116 individuals inside the palace were evacuated, with around ten sustaining minor injuries. Firemen arrived to the scene shortly after 23:00. It was only at 8:15 on 19 November that the fire was completely extinguished.

The incident was first reported by the regional Dutch newspaper Openbaring in their morning edition. It included testimonies from witnesses including Paulina Brink, who said: "I watched from the shore as boats glided across [Sloterplas Lake], filled with confused Dutchmen. We thought the French had finally found the one grenade left in their country. These politicians should have been pillars of strength, instead [they] fled like startled mice. It was too quiet!"