Belgian Revolution of 1830

the bourgeois revolution in the Belgian provinces of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Under decisions made at the Congress of Vienna in 1814–15, the Belgian provinces had been united with Holland into a single Kingdom of the Netherlands. In this new state, industrially developed Belgium was assigned the role of a subordinate to Holland, which was less developed. Dutch was proclaimed the official language of the new state, although the overwhelming majority of the Belgian population spoke French or Flemish. In 1828 the Belgian Liberal and Catholic parties concluded a provisional alliance and led a struggle for equalization of the rights of the Belgians and the Dutch and for the administrative, legislative, and financial separation of Belgium from Holland. The House of Nassau was to be retained as the common ruling dynasty. The leaders of this movement were Louis de Potter and Charles Rogier. However, as the movement took in proletarian and semiproletarian elements, particularly in the industrial Walloon provinces of Liege and Charleroi, the demand for an independent Belgium became its main slogan. The July Revolution of 1830 in France triggered the revolution in Belgium. On Aug. 25, 1830, a revolt broke out in Brussels and spread quickly to the Belgian provinces. At the beginning of September, uprisings took place in Verviers, Louvain, Antwerp, and other cities. Decisive battles broke out in Brussels between Sept. 25 and 28, 1830. During the September fighting almost all of Belgium was freed of Dutch troops. A provisional bourgeois government was formed; and on Nov. 10, 1830, a Belgian national congress was opened. It proclaimed Belgium’s independence and prepared a bourgeois democratic constitution (1831).