Cornelis Jacobus Snijders
Cornelis Jacobus Snijders was a Dutch military leader. He was born in Nieuwe Tonge on 29 September 1852. In 1865 he went to study in Middelburg but did not finish his education there. 1869 he joined the Royal Military Academy in Breda, becoming an engineer. In 1883 he married Johanna Adriana Everdina. On 1 july 1910 he was made chief of the general staff. He was a proponent of military aviation. In 1913 Snijders created the Aviation Department. Later the navy received an airforce as well. Snijders was also First Chairman of the Dutch Association for Aviation. When tensions grew in anticipation of World War I he was made Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. Shortly after he was promoted to full general. In April 1918, one month after the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk which freed Germany on her Eastern Front, he opposed war with Germany, making it clear that if war was to be fought he preferred to fight the Entente as he now expected the Germans to be able to defend their northwestern borders against the numerically smaller Dutch Army. He died in Hilversum on 26 May 1939.
