History of Westerzee

Premodern history

Early settlement (1755-1795)

De Welparend Dags (1795-1840)

The pre-Dutch-Mexican War settlement patterns of the Pacific Northwest region.

Russo-Dutch territorial disputes

The Russian Empire had also claimed parts of Westerzee. In 1815, the Kolchak Expedition was conducted by the Russian Imperial Navy along the Pacific Northwest coast and into the Salish Sea. The Russian Pacific Company organized the settlement of the short-lived Fort Alexander colony in 1816. However, after a series of harsh winters and devastating native raids, the colony was abandoned and Russian colonial ambitions were restricted to the Alyeska colony. In 1832, the disputed areas between the Russians and the Dutch were settled in the 1832 Russo-Dutch Treaty.

The Voor Republics

The Voortrekkers, a group of conservative Amerikaner settlers mostly from central and eastern North America, established several independent Boer Republics in the northern frontier of New Spain from 1800 to 1850. These Amerikaner migrants formed sparsely populated communities that developed into five different polities called the Boer Republics. Spain laid claim to the region and began using force to annex the Boer Republics in the 1830s, making them semi-autonomous provinces under New Spain. When New Spain gained independence as the Mexican Empire, Mexico continued to meddle in the internal politics of these provinces, leading to the Dutch-Mexican War of 1901-1903. After the war, three southern provinces elected to remain under Mexican rule, while the two northern provinces became the Amerikaens Free State. However, several voortrekker communities had also

Anti-Dutch insurrections and societal chaos (1903-1911)

Starting in 1903, anti-Dutch sentiment rose considerably in Westerzee province, aiming to shed the area's colonial past. Several local administrations in Westerzee and throughout Tussenland dramatically and simultaneously shed ties with the Netherlands. The Convention of 1905 declared the end of dominionship and the formal establishment of the Federation, a protocol which many district governments in Westerzee had enthusiastically ratified. In response, a Royal Dutch fleet arriving from the East Indies blockaded the Strait of Juan de Fuca in 1905 in an effort to re-establish their influence in the area. The blockade only lasted for a few weeks before being forced to retreat in the summer of 1905.

In the last few months of 1906, the central administration at Melenssel had finally accepted the pro-independence Governor Sjaak Vanetten as the primary executive of the province. This was achieved with the aid of regional militias and the Free Corps who had finally drove the Dutch garrison out of Schackiet District earlier that year. Westerzee was ultimately the last province of the Federation to capitulate to the revolutionaries and restored political stability in early 1907.