United Belgian States

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Verenigde Nederlandse Staten
États Belgiques Unis
United Belgian States
1790
Flag of Belgium
flag
Official language French , Dutch
Capital Brussels
Verenigde Nederlandse Staten.svg

The United Belgian States (Dutch: Verenigde Nederlandse Staten or Verenigde Belgische Staten , French: États Belgiques Unis , in German also called United States of Belgium and sometimes United Dutch States ) was a confederation in the southern Netherlands, now Belgium , which was made up of Existed January through December 1790 during a short-lived revolt against Emperor Joseph II .

history

prehistory

Influenced by the Enlightenment , Joseph II tried to carry out a series of reforms in the Austrian Netherlands during the 1780s, which were characterized by efforts to modernize and centralize the political, legal and administrative system. The old decentralized system was to be replaced by a uniform legal system for the entire empire and the independent provinces of the Austrian Netherlands were to be replaced by nine counties and 35 districts. Joseph also secularized the school system and reorganized or abolished some religious orders.

Brabant Revolt

In 1789 a popular revolt broke out in the Austrian Netherlands against the imperial centralization policy. Two factions emerged, the static, which rejected reforms, and the Vonckists, named after Jan Frans Vonck , who originally supported the reforms but then went into opposition to them because, in his opinion, they were ineptly implemented. The uprising began in Brabant , which announced in January 1789 that it would no longer recognize imperial rule. It was the beginning of the Brabant Revolution . The leader of the static faction, Hendrik van der Noot, crossed the northern border with the United Netherlands and raised a small army in Breda in the generational lands .

In October 1789 he marched into Brabant. On October 27, he took Turnhout after the successful Battle of Turnhout against the Austrians. Ghent was taken on November 13th. On November 17th, the Governor General of the Austrian Netherlands, Albert Kasimir von Sachsen-Teschen fled Brussels with his wife Maria Christina of Austria . The remaining imperial troops withdrew to the citadels of Luxembourg and Antwerp .

Proclamation of the independent state

Van der Noot now declared Brabant independent, and soon all the other provinces of the Austrian Netherlands, with the exception of Luxembourg, joined. On January 11, 1790, they signed a pact that set up a confederation called Verenigde Nederlandse Staten / États-Belgiques-Unis (United States of Belgium) and a government called the Sovereign Congress . The Plakkaat van Verlatinghe and the United States' Declaration of Independence served as models for the founding treaty.

Regardless of the Brabant events occurred in 1789 in the Bishopric of Liège to Liège Revolution . The revolutionaries established a republic and joined the United States of Belgium in a kind of alliance.

Since he was aware of the fragility of the new state, Van der Noot tried to win the support of other states and recommended a union with the United Netherlands, but without success. In addition, the static faction was in constant conflict with the vonck faction, close to a civil war.

Recapture by Austria

In the meantime Joseph II had died and his brother succeeded him as Leopold II on the throne. Leopold soon set about retaking the Austrian Netherlands. On October 24th, the imperial forces took Namur and forced the province of Namur to recognize imperial authority. Two days later, the province of West Flanders followed and in December the entire territory was again in imperial hands.

Web links

Wikisource: Treaty establishing the United States in Dutch  - sources and full texts
Wikisource: Treaty establishing the United States in French  - sources and full texts

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Patricia Carson: Magic and Fate of Flanders , p.224 , Lannoo Uitgeverij, ISBN 90-209-3277-2