Belgian Independence
Belgium broke from the Netherlands in 1830 and was recognised as an independent and permanently neutral state the following year. The union had been made at Vienna in 1815, joining the Catholic, largely French- and Flemish-speaking southern provinces to the Protestant Dutch north as a barrier against France. It suited the powers and almost nobody living in it. The grievances accumulated. William I made Dutch the official language in Flanders and Brussels, gave the south half the seats in the States General despite having a larger population, appointed northerners to most senior posts, and interfered in Catholic education and seminaries — which united the two groups that agreed on nothing else, the Catholic clergy and the liberal press. The rising began in Brussels on 25 August 1830 after a performance of Auber's opera La Muette de Portici, whose duet on love of country sent the audience into the street. Dutch troops entered the city in September and were fought out over four days. A provisional government declared independence on 4 October, and a national congress chose a constitutional monarchy. The powers met in London and, unusually, agreed. Britain wanted the Scheldt out of French hands and France wanted the Dutch out; both settled for a neutral state guaranteed by all of them. Leopold of Saxe-Coburg took the throne in 1831. William refused to accept it for eight years and invaded once. The guarantee of neutrality was the treaty Germany called a scrap of paper in 1914. The state that resulted has spent much of its history managing the division between Flemish and French speakers that the 1830 settlement did not address. It is now a federation of six governments.
- Year: 1830 CE
- Category: Political
