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United States of Belgium
United States of Belgium
History of the Low Countries Unis) was a confederation of the Southern Netherlands which existed from January to December 1790, during a short-lived revolt against the Habsburg Emperor Joseph II. Duchy of Other Luxembourg English translations are United Belgian integrated States or United Dutch States. 1441 1384–1477 Habsburg Netherlands 1477–1556
Bishopric of Liège 985–1790
Burgundian Netherlands
History
Influenced by the Enlightenment, Habsburg Emperor Joseph II pushed through a series of large-scale reforms in the Austrian Netherlands in the 1780s, designed to radically modernize and centralize the political, judiSpanish Netherlands cial and administrative system. The old de1556–1581 centralized system would be replaced with a Spanish 1581–1713 uniform judicial system for the whole empire, Netherlands United and the independent provinces of the AustriNetherlands 1713–1790 an Netherlands were to be replaced with 9 1581–1795 Austrian kreitsen and 35 districten. Joseph also secuNetherlands larized the education system and reorganized 1790 or abolished a number of religious orders. United States of Belgium Map Bishopric of Liège Austrian 1790–1795 Netherlands French Republic Batavian Republic 1795–1806 Kingdom of Holland 1806–1810 of 1790–1794 the Austri1795–1804 an Netherlands in 1804–1815 1786.
French Empire
In 1789, a popular revolt broke out in the Austrian Netherlands in reaction against the emperor’s centralizing policies. Two factions appeared: the Statists who opposed the reUnited Kingdom of the Netherlands Grand forms, and the Vonckists, named for Jan 1815–1830 Duchy of Frans Vonck, who initially supported the reLuxembourg but then joined the opposition, due to forms (in personal clumsy way in which the reforms were the Kingdom union with Kingdom of Belgium carried out. of the Neth- the Nethersince 1830 The uprising started in Brabant, which in erlands lands until January 1789 declared it no longer recogsince 1830 1890) nized the emperor’s rule, in what is called the Brabant Revolution. The leader of the The United States of Belgium, (Dutch: Statisten faction, Hendrik Van der Noot, Verenigde Nederlandse Staten or Verenigde crossed the border into the Dutch Republic Belgische Staten, French: États-Belgiques-
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and raised a small army in Breda in StaatsBrabant, the northern (Dutch) part of Brabant. In October, he invaded Brabant and captured Turnhout, defeating the Austrians in the Battle of Turnhout on October 27. Ghent was taken on November 13, and on November 17 the imperial regents Albert of Saxony and Archduchess Maria Christina fled Brussels. The remains of the imperial forces withdrew behind the citadel walls of Luxembourg and Antwerp. Van der Noot now declared Brabant independent, and all other provinces of the Austrian Netherlands (except Luxembourg) soon followed suit. On January 11, 1790 they signed a pact, establishing a confederation under the name Verenigde Nederlandse Staten / États-Belgiques-Unis (United States of Belgium) and a governing body known as the Sovereign Congress. The Dutch Act of Abjuration in 1581 and the American Declaration of Independence in 1776 stood model for the treaty of the United Belgian States. Independently, in 1789, a revolution had broken out in the Bishopric of Liège. The revolutionaries established a republic which joined the United States of Belgium in a kind of alliance. Realizing the fragility of the new state, Van Der Noot attempted to approach foreign states for support and suggested a unification with the Dutch Republic, with little
United States of Belgium
success. Also, the Statists and Vonckists factions were in constant conflict, bordering on civil war. Meanwhile, Joseph II had died and his brother Leopold II had succeeded him as emperor. Leopold quickly moved to recapture the Austrian Netherlands. On October 24 imperial troops took the city of Namur, forcing the province of Namur to recognize the authority of the emperor. Two days later, the province of West Flanders followed suit, and by December the entire territory was again in imperial hands.
Legacy
Though short-lived, the United States of Belgium had long-lasting repercussions. It had given the Southern Netherlands their first taste of independence, and had sparked a new political idea: the nation-state of Belgium. In 1830, the inhabitants of the Southern Netherlands successfully revolted against the United Kingdom of the Netherlands in the Belgian Revolution, creating the modern state of Belgium.
Links
• Treaty text (Dutch) • Treaty text (French)
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_of_Belgium" Categories: Former polities in the Netherlands, History of Belgium, Short-lived states, States and territories established in 1790, 1790 disestablishments This page was last modified on 19 April 2009, at 22:05 (UTC). All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details.) Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a U.S. registered 501(c)(3) taxdeductible nonprofit charity. Privacy policy About Wikipedia Disclaimers
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