The Spanish Netherlands: 1579-1714
Although Belgium has existed as an independent state since 1831, Belgium's identity dates back to 1579. This year, three Catholic provinces in the south of the Netherlands formed the Union of Arus against Protestants in the north. Later that year, the provinces signed an agreement with Spain, granting King Philip II of Spain great administrative independence, recognizing him as their king and his strict Catholic religion.
Management works. Robbins' hometown, Antwerp has been a prosperous and fashionable city for the first decades of the next century.
However, the Spanish Netherlands remains strategically dangerous, with Protestant neighbors being Spain's perennial enemy in the north and west (United Provinces and England) and in the south. By the end of the 17th century, war along the southern border was almost permanent. This location becomes even more sensitive when the Spanish throne itself meets the Bourbon family of France.
The Spanish Netherlands is a key factor in the war resulting from the Spanish succession, as well as the site of many battles in the war. The Treaty of Resist, in 1714, resolved the issue by transferring the province from the Spanish to the Austrian branch of Habsburg.
However, the French are the current imperial power to impose power on the region, having been the Spanish Netherlands and the Austrian Netherlands for three centuries in a row. There was no lasting desire to become the French Netherlands, and the Allied forces - which finally came into effect in 1814 - were hailed as liberators.
Later, in a question posed to the Congress of Vienna in 1814, the future of the region became a question. Without consulting the Catholic Belgians, it was decided that they would reunite with their very different neighbors, the Dutch Protestants. In a newly formed state of the Netherlands, ruled by the House of Orange.
The Austria Netherlands: 1714-1794
The southern Netherlands settled under Austrian rule over Hasburg (as it was under the Spanish branch of the family), until they were once again at stake in a great European war against the Habs family. During the Austrian Succession War, the province was invaded and occupied by the French from 1745.
The southern Netherlands was returned to Austria in 1748 by the Treaty of Essex La-Chapel. He then enjoyed extraordinary peace from time to time under Maria Theresa and underwent many reforms under his son Joseph II. Dissatisfaction with his rule, coupled with interesting events south of the French border, led to a revolt that ousted Austria from Brussels in 1789.
Over the next five years, Austrian forces recaptured the area twice (in 1790 and 1793) and were twice evicted by French Revolutionary Forces (1792 and 1794). The French occupation of the Austrian Netherlands after the decisive battle of Flores in June 1794 is an established fact.
A year later, the Paris Convention annexed Belgium as part of the French Republic (a fact reluctantly accepted by the Emperor of Austria at Campo Formio in 1797, and confirmed four years later in Lunéville). After 1799, Belgium benefited from many of Napoleon's reforms, both administrative and legal, applicable here and anywhere in France. Similarly, industries are taking advantage of the large market of the French Empire.
The Kingdom of the Netherlands: 1815-1830
One of the most controversial questions among historians is whether the above-mentioned political alliance in the whole region of the Netherlands in 1815 was naturally correct and could be maintained. For the most part, countries with a geographical identity have emerged in the last centuries of European history.
Geography including the Netherlands, which is a lowland in the Rhine Delta (as the name suggests). But history is deeply divided by languages (Dutch and Flemish in the north, French in the south) and religion (Protestant in the north, Catholic in the south). More complex, linguistic and religious boundaries are not the same.
These historical issues and the resulting mistrust have complicated William I's efforts to rule the entire region. Adopt the appropriate currency Government seats are exchanged annually between The Hague and Brussels. Dutch became the official language. (North and South are spoken by many each), but this rule only applies to the Flemish region.
Inevitably, it was about a lot of complaints. Standard religious freedom in the North and now in practice with the South pleases liberals in the South. But it has angered Catholics in the South. The sparsely populated north has as many seats in the Commonwealth as the South, and French Catholics are ruled by a Dutch Protestant monarch.
William I took advantage of the rise of prosperity in both parts of his empire and the bitter conflict between liberals and Catholics in the south in the early 1820s. Together they support a petition that has caught the attention of Southern complainants. By the end of 1829, there were more than 300,000 signatures, one-tenth of Belgium's population.
Unrest thus erupted when news from Paris in July 1830 escalated tensions in Brussels and presented an event that eventually divided the Netherlands into two independent states.
