1815 - Kingdom of the Netherlands
After the decisive and memorable battle of Waterloo, Flanders and Holland were formed into one kingdom, styled that of the Netherlands, and Prince William Frederic IV of Orange Nassau, was proclaimed king at Brussels, on the 21st of September, 1815.
After Napoleon, the allied powers found in Holland and Belgium what they hoped would be a solid and permanent kingdom as a barrier against France. It was felt that Napoleon had shown Europe the importance of this district in connection with his scheme for European domination. The new kingdom under the house of Orange was therefore the subject of great and anxious consideration at Vienna. The king, an hereditary sovereign, received, full executive powers, and the initiative in proposing laws. He had also the power of appointing his own council of state. As a legislative body there were the States-General, divided into two chambers; each province had also its own local states. Freedom of worship and Political equality were secured for all.
A highly artificial arrangement like this, however, could not stand long, if Europe came to throw off the trammels of the monarchical reaction, and to give freer course to those liberal tendencies which had survived the drama of the French Revolution.
In religious belief, in laws and usages, in language, in interests, the Belgic and Batavian provinces had little in common. Their inhabitants were different peoples, with instincts and feelings not merely diverse but opposed. The Belgic provinces spoke French or Walloon, the Batavians, Dutch. The Belgians were strict Catholics, while the Dutch were Protestants. The Dutch were chiefly a commercial and seafaring people, with interests in distant lands and colonial possessions; the Belgians were agriculturists, except where their abundance of minerals made them manufacturers. The Dutch connected themselves with Germany and (though often only by way of rivalry) with England; the Belgians drew their chief inspirations from France, and connected themselves with the French in traditions, religion, and commercial interests.
Such a diversity could not possibly stand the brunt of any great political movement; especially as the Dutch were oppressive towards their Belgian partners in the kingdom.
In 1830 the revolution aroused the strongest sympathy at Brussels. The obstinacy of William I. had emphasized the divergence, and his narrow and antiquated policy rendered an outburst inevitable. The revolt at Brussels, which began on 25 August 1830, spread instantly throughout the whole of Belgium. After a short struggle in November, a conference of France, England, Prussia, Austria, and Russia, sitting in London at the request of William I, proposed an armistice, to which both parties agreed.
In the following January the conference attempted to settle the terms of a separation, and proposed that Holland should have Luxembourg and part of the left bank of the Scheldt; this the Dutch accepted, while the provisional Government at Brussels protested against it. The assembly at Brussels constructed a new and liberal constitution, with a broad representative government, liberty of teaching, of the press, of public meeting; and in April 1831 the crown was offered to Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, who, after ascertaining that he would be recognized by England and king France, did not hesitate to accept it.
This appointment caused the utmost irritation at the Hague, and the Dutch suddenly invaded Belgium; the opportune appearance of a French army checked the Dutch advance, and gave diplomacy time to interfere. The citadel of Antwerp, however, was still in Dutch hands, and the allied powers used in vain all their influence to persuade William I to give it up to the Belgians. War was hereon declared, and France and England blockaded the Dutch ports, while a French army attacked the citadel, and, after a sharp struggle, compelled it to capitulate.
The forts of Lille and Liefkenshoek were left in the hands of the Dutch; on May 21, 1833, there was signed at London by the plenipotentiaries of Holland on one side, and those of England and France on the other, a convention in which William I engaged not to recommence hostilities against Belgium, and to leave the Scheldt navigation open, till the relation between the two countries should be definitely settled by treaty.
The final settlement of outstanding questions, however, was not reached till six years later, when Limburg and the eastern part of Luxembourg were secured to Holland, and heavy tolls were imposed on the navigation of the Scheldt; then the two kingdoms finally parted company on 19 April 1839.
