When Charles II of Spain died in , two dynasties of foreign relatives contested for the throne, the House of Bourbon , who ruled France, and the Habsburgs , who were emperors of the Holy Roman Empire as well as holding various territories in central Europe. The Austrian Habsburgs were supported by an alliance led by Britain, the Dutch Republic, and several other northern European Protestant states, and the French were supported by Bavaria. Much of the war occurred on Belgian soil, with the allies there being led upon the field by John Churchill, the Duke of Marlborough.
They were thus called Belgium Austriacum from to The Belgian Revolution of —90 overlapped with the French Revolution which began in The movement called for independence from Austrian rule. The new state was beset by factionalism between the radical " Vonckists ", led by Jan Frans Vonck and the more conservative " Statists " of the Henri Van der Noot. Businessmen with widescale operations generally supported the Statists, while the Vonckists attracted small business and members of the trade guilds.
They called for independence from Austria but were conservative in social and religious questions. The French invaded and controlled Belgium, —, imposing all their new reforms and incorporating what had been the "Austrian Netherlands" and the Prince-Bishopric of Liege into France. New rulers were sent in by Paris. Belgian men were drafted into the French wars and heavily taxed. Nearly everyone was Catholic, but the Church was repressed. Resistance was strong in every sector, as Belgian nationalism emerged to oppose French rule.
The French legal system, however, was adopted, with its equal legal rights, and abolition of class distinctions. Belgium now had a government bureaucracy selected by merit, but it was not at all popular. Until the establishment of the Consulate in , Catholics were heavily repressed by the French. The first University of Leuven was closed in and churches were plundered.
During this early period of the French rule, the Belgian economy was completely paralyzed as taxes had to be paid in gold and silver coin while goods bought by the French were paid for with worthless assignats. During this period of systematic exploitation, about , Belgians fled the Southern Netherlands. With the motto "one nation, one language", French became the only accepted language in public life as well as in economic, political, and social affairs.
The measures of the successive French governments and in particular the massive conscription into the French army were unpopular everywhere, especially in Flemish regions, where it sparked the Peasants' War. In , the Allies drove out Napoleon and ended French rule. The plan was to join Belgium and the Netherlands, under Dutch control. Napoleon briefly returned to power during the Hundred Days in , but was decisively defeated at the Battle of Waterloo , south of Brussels.
France promoted commerce and capitalism, paving the way for the ascent of the bourgeoisie and the rapid growth of manufacturing and mining. In economics, therefore, the nobility declined while the middle class Belgian entrepreneurs flourished because of their inclusion in a large market, paving the way for Belgium's leadership role after in the Industrial Revolution on the Continent.
Godechot finds that after the annexation, Belgium's business community supported the new regime, unlike the peasants, who remained hostile. Annexation opened new markets in France for wool and other goods from Belgium. Bankers and merchants helped finance and supply the French army. France ended the prohibition against seaborne trade on the Scheldt that had been enforced by the Netherlands.
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Antwerp quickly became a major French port with a world trade, and Brussels grew as well. After Napoleon 's defeat at Waterloo in , the major victorious powers Britain, Austria, Prussia, and Russia agreed at the Congress of Vienna on uniting the former Belgium Austriacum and the former Seven United Provinces, creating the United Kingdom of the Netherlands , which was to serve as a buffer state against any future French invasions. This was under the rule of a Protestant king, namely William I. The enlightened despot William I, who reigned from —, had almost unlimited constitutional power, the constitution having been written by a number of notable people chosen by him.
As despot, he had no difficulty in accepting some of the changes resulting from the social transformation of the previous 25 years, including equality of all before the law. However, he resurrected the estates as a political class and elevated a large number of people to the nobility. Voting rights were still limited, and only the nobility were eligible for seats in the upper house.
William I was a Calvinist and intolerant of the Catholic majority in the newly created United Kingdom of the Netherlands. He promulgated the "Fundamental Law of Holland", with some modifications. This entirely overthrew the old order of things in the southern Netherlands, suppressed the clergy as an order, abolished the privileges of the Catholic Church, and guaranteed equal protection to every religious creed and the enjoyment of the same civil and political rights to every subject of the king.
It reflected the spirit of the French Revolution and in so doing did not please the Catholic bishops in the south, who had detested the Revolution. William I actively promoted economic modernization. His position as monarch was ambivalent, however; his sovereignty was real, but his authority was shared with a legislature elected partly by himself and partly by the wealthy citizens under a constitution granted by the king.
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Government was in the hands of ministries of state. The old provinces were reestablished in name only.
The government was now fundamentally unitary, and all authority flowed from the center. The first 15 years of the Kingdom showed progress and prosperity, as industrialization proceeded rapidly in the south, where the Industrial Revolution allowed entrepreneurs and labor to combine in a new textile industry, powered by local coal mines. There was little industry in the northern provinces, but most overseas colonies were restored, and highly profitable trade resumed after a year hiatus.
Economic liberalism combined with moderate monarchical authoritarianism to accelerate the adaptation of the Netherlands to the new conditions of the 19th century. The country prospered until a crisis arose in relations with the southern provinces. Protestants controlled the new country although they formed only a quarter of the population. Few Catholics held high state or military offices.
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The king insisted that schools in the South end their traditional teaching of Catholic doctrine, even though everyone there was Catholic. There was also growing outrage at the king's insensitivity to social differences. According to Schama , there was growing hostility to the Dutch government whose "initiatives were met at first with curiosity, then with apprehension and finally with fierce and unyielding hostility".
Finally, all factions in the South complained of unfair representation in the national legislature. The south was industrializing faster and was more prosperous than the north, leading to resentment of northern arrogance and political domination. The outbreak of revolution in France in was used as a signal for revolt.
History of Belgium
The demand at first was autonomy for Belgium, as the southern provinces were now called. Eventually, revolutionaries began demanding total independence. The Belgian Revolution broke out in August when crowds, stirred by a performance of Auber's La Muette de Portici at the Brussels opera house of La Monnaie , spilled out onto the streets singing patriotic songs. Violent street fighting soon broke out, and anarchy reigned in Brussels.
The liberal bourgeoisie, who had initially been at the forefront of the burgeoning revolution, were appalled by the violence and became willing to accept a compromise with the Dutch. The revolution broke out for numerous reasons. On a political level, the Belgians felt significantly under-represented in the Netherlands' elected Lower Assembly and disliked the unpopular Prince of Orange, the future William II who was the representative of King William I in Brussels.
The French-speaking Walloons also felt ostracised in a majority Dutch speaking country. There were also significant religious grievances felt by the majority Catholic Belgians in a nation controlled by the Dutch Protestants. The king assumed the protest would blow over. He waited for a surrender, announcing an amnesty for all revolutionaries, except foreigners and the leaders.
When this did not succeed he sent in the army. Dutch forces were able to penetrate the Schaerbeek Gate into Brussels, but the advance was stalled in the Parc de Bruxelles under a hail of sniper fire. Royal troops elsewhere met determined resistance from revolutionaries at makeshift barricades. It is estimated that there were no more than 1, revolutionaries described by the French Ambassador as an "undisciplined rabble" [43] in Brussels at the time, faced with over 6, Dutch troops.
However, faced with strong opposition, Dutch troops were ordered out of the capital on the night of 26 September after three days of street fighting. There were also battles around the country as revolutionaries clashed with Dutch forces. In Antwerp, eight Dutch warships bombarded the city following its capture by revolutionary forces. Belgian independence was not allowed by the Congress of Vienna ; nevertheless the revolutionaries were regarded sympathetically by the major powers of Europe, especially the British.
At the end of November Britain and France came up with a proposal — no military intervention and the establishment of an independent kingdom of Belgium — which was accepted by the other three more conservative participants, who had favored a military intervention to restore the absolutist regime of William I. The new kingdom would be obliged to remain neutral in foreign affairs. The British foreign secretary Lord Palmerston strongly backed the Prince of Orange as the new king, a choice which would have maintained a dynastic link between the Netherlands and the new kingdom.
The Prince proved to be unacceptable to William I, his father, as well as to the French, who wanted a clear break with the Netherlands.
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Finally, Palmerston came up with his second choice, Leopold I of Saxe-Coburg — Princess Charlotte of Wales ' widower, and an admirer of the British constitutional model — who was accepted by all. The date of his acceptance of the constitution — 21 July — is marked a national holiday. The liberal bourgeoisie, who had been thrown off balance by the early stages of the revolution, hastily formed a provisional government under Charles Rogier to negotiate with the Dutch, officially declaring Belgian independence on 4 October The Belgian National Congress was formed to draw up a constitution.
Under the new constitution, Belgium became a sovereign, independent state with a constitutional monarchy. However, the constitution did severely limit voting rights to the French-speaking haute-bourgeoisie and the clergy, in a country where French was not the majority language.
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The Catholic church was afforded a good deal of freedom from state intervention. The state of conflict but not open warfare with the Netherlands lasted another eight years, but in , the Treaty of London was signed between the two countries. By the treaty of , the eastern part of Luxembourg did not join Belgium, but remained a possession of the Netherlands until different inheritance laws caused it to separate as an independent Grand Duchy the western, French-speaking part of Luxembourg became the Belgian province of that name.
Belgium lost Eastern Limburg , Zeeuws Vlaanderen and French Flanders and Eupen : four territories which it had claimed on historical grounds. Most of society was highly traditional, especially in the small villages and rural areas and the quality of education was low.