General League of Roman Catholic Caucuses

The General League of Roman Catholic Caucuses (in Dutch: Algemeene Bond van Roomsch-Katholieke Kiesverenigingen; informally called General League or Algemeene Bond) was a Dutch Catholic political party. It is one of the ancestors of the Christian Democratic Appeal, currently a major party in the Netherlands.

During the 19th century, Catholics were a disadvantaged minority in the Netherlands. They enjoyed considerable independence in the southern provinces North Brabant and Limburg, where they formed 90% of the population. In the North, Catholics were forbidden to organize religious rallies and demonstrations. Until 1848 the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church was forbidden in the Netherlands. A mix of Protestantism and nationalism, inspired by the struggle for independence against the Catholic Spanish lay at the basis of this.

Until the 1890s the most important ally of the Catholics were the liberals, who advocated freedom of religion. Catholic supported several liberal governments. Internally the Catholics were divided between two groups, those around progressive Schaepman and those around the conservative Bahlman. The progressives favoured a corporatist economy and extension of suffrage while the conservatives, who represented business interests opposed both. Meanwhile, the organization of the Catholics was concentrated on the district or province. The Brabant caucuses was exceptionally strong.

In the late 1880s the Catholics became disillusioned with the liberals, because although they supported the freedom of religion, they refused to finance Catholic, or otherwise religious, schools. This became an important issue which united the Catholics. In 1888 the Catholic parliamentary party switched their allegiances to the Protestant Anti Revolutionary Party and became part of the first coalition cabinet led by Aeneas Mackay. This new cabinet also jump started the formation of a new party, in 1896 all Catholic candidates rally around one program, written by Schaepman. The program was insipred by the encyclical Rerum novarum, which advocated social Catholic politics. From 1897 Catholic MPs began to meet regularly.

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