Map of the walk in 2025
Map of the walk in 1830
Map of the battle front: September 23 to 26, 1830
Historical context
The Belgian Revolution in Brussels in 1830 was a pivotal uprising resulting in the separation of Belgium from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands and the establishment of an independent Belgian state. Discontent fueled by both social problems (unemployment, poor harvests) and political/religious grievances (Catholic southern Belgians vs. Protestant Dutch rule) culminated dramatically after the performance of the patriotic opera La Muette de Portici on August 25, 1830. Widespread riots broke out, and despite initial diplomatic efforts, King William I of the Netherlands sent troops to quell the rebellion. By early October, following bloody street fighting, a provisional government declared Belgium’s independence. We propose a walk around those streets at 1830; the battlefield of Brussels
Chronology: Brussels, September 23 to 26, 1830
September 23:
· Dutch troops under Prince Frederik entered Brussels at dawn via three city gates, advancing as far as the royal park and palace.
· Brussels citizens and volunteer militias, including revolutionaries and some from other Belgian towns, erected barricades and fortified their positions.
· Intense street fighting began, with the local population fiercely resisting the Dutch advance using barricades, makeshift weapons, and even shooting from windows and rooftops.
September 24–25:
· The battle continued almost without interruption.
· Despite being better armed and organized, Dutch forces struggled to penetrate beyond the park; resistance was unexpectedly strong and coordinated.
· The leadership of the revolutionary committee (including Charles Rogier, Felix de Mérode, and others) organized the defense and unified the citizen militia—volunteer fighters joined from across Belgium.
· Losses mounted on both sides, but the Dutch failed to gain further ground as urban guerrilla tactics held them back.
September 26:
· After three days of heavy fighting and realizing they could not suppress the uprising, Dutch troops began to withdraw from the city in the evening.
· The retreat marked a decisive victory for the rebels: it transformed a local insurrection into a full-blown national revolt.
· The revolutionary leadership swiftly formed a Provisional Government which would, in the following days, declare Belgium independent (October 4).
· The battle in Brussels from September 23–26, 1830, thus directly paved the way for Belgian independence by defeating Dutch military intervention and uniting various Belgian revolutionary factions.
We start our walk in a Mass grave. The history of this square is quite complex. In 1773 the city of Brussels acquired a piece of land belonging to laundry and built a square called saint-Michele, protector of the city. In 1776 the director of the theatre de la monnai (which we will visit later) named Ignaz Vitzthumb obtained permission to build a portable theatre (a small, light and removable iron building) where plays were offered in Dutch. In 1795 under French rule the square changed its name and was called laundry square (to remember its humble origins). But its current name has to do with the revolution of 1830. After the fighting, it took a place to bury the fallen and an administrative commission, in the absence of government at the time, chose this square as a mass grave. On October 2, 1830, the square was renamed Place des Martyres. The idea of building a memorial soon arose. In 1832 the chamber approved a budget of 15000 guilders to which was added a sum of 16000 guilders more offered by Felix de Merode. The project was entrusted to Guillaume Geefs.
The monument above all very allegorical. It consists of a statue representing freedom with an inscription of 23, 24, 25 and 26 September 1830. At its feet, a Belgian lion is lying on the broken chains of slavery. Four angels surround the central podium and represent combat, victory, burial and prayer. The four facades of the monument have bas-reliefs depicting scenes of the Belgian revolution: Belgium crowning its heroes, the blessing of the tombs of the heroes by the deacon of Saint Gudula, the oath of the patriots in the Grand Place and the attack on the park led by Van Halen. The monument is surrounded by a crypt where there are 27 black marble panels with the 467 names of the fallen revolutionaries.
What strikes me most is the name PATRIA written in Latin (not in Spanish, the Spaniards were only one of the occupants in the history of this city).
A concept that is currently very much in dispute with two opposing communities: the Flemish and the Walloon. And Brussels as an island nestled in Flemish territory and capital of a strange country (a drôle pays).
Frederic de Merode
Close to the grave we can find the statue of Merode. The Count Frédéric de Merode (born in Maastricht on 9 June 1792, died in Mechelen on 4 November 1830) was a volunteer for the Belgian Revolution, brother of Félix de Merode, member of the Provisional Government.
A member of the Maison de Merode and involved from September 1830 in the bourgeois guard, which he helped to finance, he left Brussels in mid-October with Charles Niellon's troop when the Dutch army attacked the city on the run. Their determination forced the Dutch to withdraw to Antwerp, without taking Lierre. Seriously wounded on October 24th at the battle of Berchem, near Antwerp, he died in Mechelen at the house of Madame Op de Beeck ten days later after having been amputated of a leg, hit by several impacts. The painter Ferdinand de Braekeleer painted Death of Frederick de Merode. This painting is in the Museum of Antwerp.
The first member of the Belgian high nobility to fall victim to the fighting, he is considered a national hero by the new authorities. A mausoleum in white marble, the work of the sculptor Guillaume Geefs, which depicts him wounded, is erected for him in one of the side chapels of the Cathedral of Saints Michael and Gudule.
There's no waste in the history of this Theatre. The first building was built in 1700 by the Venetians Paolo and Pietro Bezzi, on a piece of land where coins were minted. During the 18th century, it was considered the second opera house in French repertoire after Paris, especially during the government of Prince Alexander of Lorraine, patron of the arts.
By 1795 during the occupation of the forces of the French Revolution, the theatre became a governmental institution, the dance corps was abolished and its importance diminished considerably. When Napoleon visited, he ordered the old building to be replaced by a monumental one built in 1818 by the Frenchman Louis Damesme.
It was here that the Belgian Revolution began on August 25, 1830. It all began during a performance of the opera "La Muda de Portici" (by Daniel-François Auber) forbidden by King William III. The audience, moved by the duet "Amour Sacré de la Patrie" (Sacred Love of the Homeland), took to the streets to push the Dutch out of the city, triggering the beginning of a movement that would lead to Belgium's independence from Holland.
Rarely in history has an opera been the spark that provokes a revolution, so it is interesting to tell a little about the plot of this work. The opera is loosely based on Masaniello's historic uprising against the Spanish government in Naples in 1647. A historical wink, as the Spaniards also occupied Belgium and in 1830 it was the Dutch who did the same.
It was in Act II that the spirits rose. The story that was represented was the following one: The Neapolitan fishermen had lamented the tyranny in silence. Masaniello is furious because of Fenella's seduction by the Spanish governor of the city and swears to take revenge. Then Masaniello incites the fishermen to take up arms and swear the doom of their country's enemy.
The words of the opera that provoked the revolution were:
Amour sacré de la patrie
Rends-nous l’audace et la fierté
A mon pays je dois la vie
Il me devra sa liberté
Mieux vaut mourir
Que rester misérable.
Pour un esclave est-il quelque danger ?
Tombe le joug que nos accable.
Et sous nos coups
Périsse l’étranger
Amour Sacré de la Patrie
Give us boldness and pride
To my country I owe my life
And he will owe me his freedom
It's better to die
That to live miserable
Is there any danger to a slave?
May the yoke that overwhelms us fall
And under our blows
Die the foreigner.
On January 21, 1855, a fire destroyed the theatre, leaving only the portico and the exterior walls intact. The new building built by José Poelaert was inaugurated in 1856. In 1985, the room was modernised and restored its original colours.
The Royale park as a battle field
During September 23–26 of the year 1830, the Park of Brussels saw relentless battle, with Belgian insurgents successfully defending against the Dutch army through organized barricades, defensive artillery, and mass volunteer support—culminating in the defeat and withdrawal of Dutch forces and the birth of Belgian independence.
During these crucial days of the Belgian Revolution, the Park of Brussels (Parc de Bruxelles / Warandepark) was the central battleground as Dutch royal troops under Prince Frederik attempted to retake Brussels, while revolutionary Belgian volunteers and citizen militias fiercely defended their city.
On September 23, early morning, Dutch forces stormed Brussels through several gates, quickly advancing to and occupying the Royal Park, which was strategically positioned between the royal palace and key city arteries.
Belgian revolutionaries rapidly organized, fortified barricades, and positioned fighters along park perimeters—including the Montagne du Parc and adjacent streets—while locals fired from rooftops and windows.
The Dutch attempted to break through barricades and dislodge the rebels, leading to intense close-quarters combat. The fighting was marked by urban guerrilla tactics, with insurgents using the park’s terrain, trees, and statues for cover.
The battles continued almost without pause for 48 hours. The Dutch, equipped with artillery and rifles, tried to secure the park and penetrate deeper into Brussels.
Belgians, most volunteers with little military training, capitalized on local knowledge. They managed the park’s barricades, fired upon Dutch troops from the adjacent buildings, and coordinated surprise counterattacks.
The Passage de la Bibliothèque (linking Rue Royale and Rue d’Isabelle) was a hotspot for heavy exchanges.
Jean-Joseph Charlier, a legendary insurgent with a wooden leg, famously manned two cannons at Montagne du Parc and became a symbol of resistance.
New waves of volunteers, some from cities like Liège and even abroad, boosted morale and fighting capacity. Leadership under Charles Rogier and Félix de Mérode helped unify defenses.
On September 26, fighting peaked. The Dutch attempted a last mass assault on rebel positions near the park and Palais de Bruxelles but met fierce opposition.
Heavy casualties occurred on both sides, with bodies found scattered among the park’s trees and pathways.
By evening, realizing defeat and that a military victory was impossible, Dutch commanders ordered a full retreat from Brussels.
Rebels surged into the park and city center, taking back occupied areas and marking outright victory. This moment galvanized support across Belgium, inspiring national unity.
Immediately following the withdrawal, the revolutionaries established a Provisional Government and prepared the declaration of Belgian independence. The fighting in and around the Park of Brussels was notorious for its brutality and urban tactics—including sniper fire from windows, rapid barricade erection, and artillery exchanges at close range.
La colonne du congres
From the same square, if we look to the right along the Rue du Congres (as we see everything very related to the new political institutions of the newly created Belgium of 1830), we will see in the distance the column of the congress. We don't have to go near it, just look at it in the distance. It commemorates the formation of the Belgian State and the constitution by the National Congress in 1830. It was erected on the initiative of Charles Rogier (the same one we saw in the previous chapter fighting against the Dutch with their volunteers in Liège) with a design by Joseph Poelaert between 1850 and 1859. It was inspired by Trajan's column in Rome... it will not be for lack of imperial pretensions for the newly born kingdom of Belgium.
The column with the statue of King Leopold I of Belgium included has a total height of 47 m. A 193-step spiral staircase inside the column leads to a platform surrounding the pedestal of the statue of King Leopold I, the first king of the Belgians.
If we continue along the rue du Nord we will come across history again, symbolised by the Flemish parliament. It may seem strange that the Flemish parliament is in Brussels, a mostly French-speaking city, but it all makes sense. In fact the parliament is not only regional but also communitarian and also exercises its powers over the territory of the 19 communes of Brussels capital, recognised as a bilingual linguistic region by the Belgian constitution. The parliament of the French-speaking community is also located in Brussels. I do not intend to explain in this guide the Belgian institutional gibberish that costs taxpayers so much money and sustains a whole caste of politicians and civil servants who make a living from it. To give just a couple of historical brushes. In 1971 the Cultural Council for the Flemish Cultural Community met for the first time. Since then Flanders has become an autonomous state within the Belgian Federal State. In 1996 the Flemish Parliament was installed in a completely renovated building, which is what we are dealing with. I am going to finish talking about politics with a little joke in French:
Que dire d'un Parlement à part qu'il parle et qu'il ment ? (What can we say about a parliament other than that it speaks, and lies?).
Le quartier de la revolution
The independence of Belgium is also related to this district. When the insurrection against the Dutch broke out in Brussels on August 1830, Rogier went to the fight with a militia of 300 liègeans. The inhabitants of Saint Josse cheered him on his arrival. And here he lived until his death in 1885. The events that took place in September 1830 deserve to be told because they happened in the lands that we have just visited. Fifty Liege fighters held a fierce siege on the buildings of the observatory that had just been built. The terraces of the botanical garden had Dutch cannons that forced the barricades and penetrated the city. The elite of the Dutch troops under the orders of Prince Frederick concentrated their efforts on the Louvain Gate and all the houses around it were turned into ruins. The Dutch managed to pass through the Louvain Gate, and the fighting intensified in the city
On September 27, the defeated Dutch troops again crossed the same gates of Louvain and Schaerbeek not to return. The hardest fights for independence took place here.
La brabançonne
In this square we find a monument to the Brabançonne, which is not a person but a song, in reality, the national anthem of Belgium the original version is in French, but there are versions in Dutch and German, the three official languages of the country. It was written in 1830 by the French actor Dechet, known as Jenneval, born in Lyon in 1801, who performed in a theatre in Brussels. He took part in the struggle for Belgian independence and fell in Lierre in 1830. The original version is in French, but there are versions in Dutch and German, the three official languages of the country.
Oh Belgium, oh dear mother,
To you our hearts, to you our arms,
To you our blood, oh fatherland!
We all swear, you will live!
You will always live great and beautiful!
And your invincible unity
His motto will be immortal:
The King, the Law, Freedom!
His motto will be immortal:
The King, the Law, Freedom!
The King, the Law, Freedom!
The most fascinating thing is that the monument refer to the frist belgian revolution, not in 1830, but in 1789. The Brabançon Revolution (1789–1790) was a short-lived armed uprising in the Austrian Netherlands (now Belgium) against the Habsburg emperor Joseph II, resulting in the temporary independence of the United Belgian States before Austrian rule was restored.
This revolution began in response to Joseph II's centralizing and liberal reforms, which threatened the privileges of the Catholic Church and traditional institutions. Dissidents formed a rebel army in exile, which defeated Austrian forces at Turnhout in October 1789 and rapidly liberated most southern provinces. The rebels declared independence, founding the United Belgian States, but internal division—between conservatives supporting the Church and liberals seeking reform—quickly weakened the new polity. By late 1790, the Austrian army reconquered the territory, ending the revolution.
Place des barricades
If we imagine the ancient walls of the city, these form a pentagon that surrounds Brussels. We are in the upper right corner, where the old astronomical observatory used to be. Today it is the park of Henry Frick, former mayor of the commune of Sint Josse.
We will continue our walk through these ancient walls that today are wide boulevards (heritage of the French who after the revolution demolished the walls and replaced them by these avenues). We will cross just where the avenue of Galileo and the bishop's (Galilee laan and Bishoffheim laan) converge.
The first square we come across is called the square of the barricades. If we finish the previous chapter talking about the revolution of 1830, the first thing we will do in this one is to talk about the same thing. These popular revolts lasted several years and exploded in different countries of Europe. When I went to school, I never understood very well why they happened, but now I have it a little clearer... You can't go against the times. After the French revolution and the defeat of Napoleon, the imperial powers sought to restore the old absolutist regime. They restored the king in France and pretended that nothing had happened here... But if it had happened, and liberal ideas cannot be buried so easily.
The first liberal revolution occurred in Spain in 1820, with the pronouncement of Riego. In Cadiz, a constitution had been promulgated in 1812 called the Pepa because it seems to have been born on the day of St. Joseph. Pepe is the short name of Joseph in Spanish.
Without a doubt, this constitution was the most advanced in its time. But the lousy King Ferdinand VII refused to sign it until an army uprising (where there were so many liberals) forced him to swear it, with the famous phrase, let's go together, and I'll go first on the constitutional path...
Thus, began the liberal triennium that lasted just, three years, until the invasion of the one hundred thousand sons of St. Louis (almost all French by the way) ended with this liberal ideal that had changed a lot in the history of Spain. What a paradox, the Spaniards fought to expel the French and bring back a king. And this same king imposed his absolutism with the help of a French army...
The revolutionary flame not only caught fire in Spain, but there were also revolts in Italy, Portugal and Greece. It was the first revolutionary cycle called the Mediterranean.
The 1830s was the second cycle called the Atlantic. It was a process that began in France (Paris) with the so-called July Revolution of the Three Glorious (Trois Glorieuses). It spread throughout much of the European continent, especially in Belgium, which gained independence from Holland. In August 1830, stimulated the Belgian by news from France, a revolutionary process begins in Brussels that could not be suffocated by the intervention of the army (September 12). On 4 October independence was declared, which received decisive support from the United Kingdom and Prussia at an international conference convened for this purpose in London (20 December).
As we can see, the month of September 1830 was key to the history of Belgium, and the main stage took place in Brussels. We will come back to these facts later in our walks. For the moment imagine the Dutch troops trying to enter the city and the Brussels village defending themselves behind barricades and shooting from the balconies of the adjacent buildings in this square.
All the names of the squares and streets have their history. And this is no exception. In fact this character has a lot to do with the struggle between several pretenders to the throne of Belgium Erasmo Luis, baron of Surlet de Chokier, was appointed baron in 1816. After the revolution of 1830, he was chosen to preside over the National Congress. Shortly afterwards, King Louis Philippe of France opposed totally against his son's accession to the throne of Belgium (not because he did not want to, but by political calculation, a king of French origin in Belgium would have meant war with England and Germany), which led to the fall of the provisional government. The National Congress then appointed Erasmus Louis regent of the Kingdom of Belgium, a position he held until 1831 when he acceded to the Leopold I throne. He was a controversial character, and today would not be too appreciated. His foreign policy was based solely on the alliance with France, which is why Erasmus Louis supported the candidacy of Louis de Orleans to the throne of Belgium, facing Joseph Lebeau and Paul Devaux. After Luis Felipe's rejection, Erasmo Luis was unable to determine the policy to follow. He created a government that quickly dissolved and then withdrew to his domains of Gingelom, where he held the position of mayor until his death. He was part of that linguistic minority, in Flanders, of those who were called Franquillons, something like afrancesados. Represent the opposition to the rebirth of the culture of Flanders (with the language as a standard) of the later century. Today he would be considered a traitor by his Flemish nationalist.
The astronomical observatory
If we continue moving forward, we will arrive at the Place de Quetelet, which was the director of the first observatory in Brussels. Quetelet received a doctorate in mathematics in 1819 from the University of Ghent. After achieving this, he convinced government officials and private sponsors of the need to build an astronomical observatory, which could be built-in 1828. He founded and directed the Royal Observatory of Belgium. He was also criticized for the application of statistical methods to the social sciences. It was quite ahead of its time, at the very time when the Belgian state was created.
In the same square of Quetelet we find a monument to the fallen in the two wars. Something that the Belgians still have very much in mind. And in 2014 it will be 100 years since the First World War, the Great War or the War of Wars. For many, the worst war was the Second, but for the Belgians, it was undoubtedly the first. The allegory of the image is clear, the lion symbol of Belgium and Flanders wounded next to a soldier. And victory rising above them.
The great miseries of the First World War are still marked in the collective imaginary of this country that does not reach two centuries of its own entity as an independent nation. If 1914 was the year of the invasion, 1830 was the year of liberation.
The neighbourhood Sint Josse ten Noode
Before finish this book, it's time to talk a little about this neighborhood with two names like all Brussels: Sint-Joost or Saint Josse. It extends from the Gare du Nord to the church of Santa Maria. Its Centre, so to speak, would be St Joseph's Square, where there was a modest oratory as early as 1361. For centuries it was a small village outside the walls because Brussels ended in the pentagon that today is called the petite ceinture (the small belt).
One left Brussels through the Louvain Gate (now disappeared) and the first village to be reached was Sint-Joost. It was a land with small hills and many lagoons where the iris grew (those of the coat of arms of the Brussels region). An idyllic landscape often ravaged by war, because the history of Brussels has much to do with foreign troops that either besieged it or occupied it. In fact, Ten-Noode could mean in a state of need. During the wars of religion, the chapel was burned down by the Calvinists (like many other churches in Brussels).
In 1556 it was inhabited by 400 people. At the time of Joseph II, the village already had 700 inhabitants. In 1830 it had 2380 souls and 849 houses. By 1913 it had grown to 32,359. On 1 January 2007, the municipality had a total population of 23,785 inhabitants. A large majority of the inhabitants are of foreign origin: Turks, Moroccans, Africans, which gives it a very international appearance. As a curiosity, it seems that the third most spoken language in Brussels is Arabic.
The true history of the Belgian revolution
Historical facts are more complex than we think. Revolutions are not created out of nothing. Often there are hidden political and economic interests that disguise themselves as romanticism.
The name of Belgium was already mentioned by Julius Caesar in his conquest of Gaul. But it was much larger than the current Belgium. The Seventeen Provinces was the name given during the 16th century to the 17 territories that comprised the current countries of the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, the North of France and a small part of the Netherlands. This territory was also called at that time Pays-Bas, Nederland, Belgia, the Netherlands. In 1549, the Pragmatic Sanction established that the territories of the Netherlands would form an indivisible territorial entity, the Seventeen Provinces. Charles V created the title of Lord of the Netherlands (Heer der Nederlanden).
The wars of religion between Catholics and Calvinists destroyed this unity, with the separation of the Netherlands from the Spanish Low Countries. In practice the northern territories would be the United Provinces: Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Gelderland, Overijssel , Friesland and Groningen, as well as parts of Brabant, Flanders and Limburg. And the southern territories under Habsburg sovereignty formed the Spanish Netherlands: Flanders, Artois, Hainaut, Namur, Luxembourg, Brabant, Antwerp, Mechelen, Limburg. And let us not forget the bishopric of Liega, which was independent until the later revolutions.
After the war of Spanish succession, the Austrians replaced the Spanish Ausburgs and the Austrian stage of Belgium began. It was at the end of this period that the first Belgian revolution began, called the Brabançone, which is not the name of a woman, but of a song. This revolution, also known as the Counter-Revolution (Révolution brabançonne or contre-révolution in French) took place, between 1787 and 1790, under the reign of Joseph II of Habsburg and led, in 1790, to the creation of the United Belgian States, which did not reach the year of life.
Here began the first conspiracy. It seems that it was the Prussians who sent arms, instructors and money to foment the revolt. In those days Prussia was an ascendant power with a clear enemy: Austria. A revolt in the far west was very useful to them in weakening their rival in central Europe. Remember that a few years earlier it had taken the rich Silesian region from Austria. The principality of Liège also had its own revolution in a clearly anticlerical style to expel the prince bishop
This revolt triumphed, but the total absence of international support and the withdrawal of the Prussian advisers allowed the Austrians to recover all the territory. The province of Namur capitulated on 27 November 1790. The Austrians also intervened to restore Prince Bishop Hoensbroeck. The revolutionaries of Liège took refuge in France, just as the defeated Belgians fled like Vonck to Lille and Walckiers and their supporters who formed a legion in Paris whose aim was to relaunch the revolution.
In politics, and in general in all historical processes, the enemies of today will be the friends of tomorrow. This is what happened between Austria and Prussia. The French Revolution was the great enemy of old Europe. A republican monster, anti-religious and anti-monarchist. In other words, the devil for the kings of the continent.
The French revolution came to sweep away the recently recovered Austrian Low Countries and Liège itself. But the Belgians soon discovered that their French Republican friends were not so magnificent. Their main interest was not to export the revolutionary ideals but to plunder all the country's possible riches. Nevertheless, Napoleon invested a lot in the country, especially in Antwerp. A city he considered to be like a gun pointed at the heart of England.
Napoleon lost his last battle at Waterloo and the congress in Vienna confirmed a new united country: The Netherlands, which encompassed what is now the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. The great nation of the 15th century recovered again and with a bright future. It had everything to succeed in the new Europe of restoration: overseas colonies supported by the great Dutch fleet, a powerful textile industry in Flanders and a mining and steel Wallonia. These were the beginnings of the industrial revolution in Europe.
Between 1815 and 1848, The empires who defeated Napoleon, devised a new international order to prevent new revolutionary adventures, which they called The Restoration. The aim was to prevent the aggrandizement of France and the spread of revolutionary ideas by creating buffer states (Holland, Westphalia, Switzerland, Piedmont) and restoring absolute monarchies (Spain, Portugal, Naples...) This Holy Alliance became the police of Europe with the mission to intervene militarily against any revolutionary attempts in Europe and America. And the system worked greatly at first. In 1820 Commander Riego rebelled in Spain and forced the king to restore the 1812 Constitution. In only three years the powers send to Spain the "One Hundred Thousand Sons of Saint Louis", who restore King Ferdinand VII, the worst king Spain ever had. Insurrections in Naples, Sicily and Piedmont were quelled. In Russia the military conspiracy of December 1825 was harshly suppressed by Tsar Nicholas I.
In 1830 there was another wave of revolutions in France, Belgium, Italy, Germany. All were destroyed except the Belgian one. Why did it triumph in this country? The only explanation is the foreign plot (especially the French-British one, but with strong Prussian support). We will explain it step by step.
In August 1830, stimulated by the communist revolt in Paris, a revolutionary process began in Brussels which was not succeeded in being quelled by the intervention of the Dutch army (September 12). On October 4, independence was declared, which received decisive support from the United Kingdom and Prussia at an international conference convened for the purpose in London (December 20).
This is the official version, but let's break down the political interests at stake.
France: After Napoleon's defeat, it renounced the revolution and returned to the monarchical rule. But the old ideas of grandeur were still alive, especially the dream of reaching the "natural" borders of France: the Rhine. For almost all French people, Belgium was part of France itself, and they were just waiting for the moment to get it back. Separating it from Holland was the first step towards this ultimate goal.
England: It was the country that could lose the most with a strong Holland. Let's think in an economic way about the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. The only country that could compete and take over the world's commercial market was the New created Holland. They had a large fleet and colonies on several continents. The textile industry in Flanders was very powerful, they only needed ships to export their products. And finally (and most seriously) Wallonia had a new and powerful industry that could openly compete with England. In fact, it was the first industrialised country on the continent to produce iron and coal. Its factories could produce cheaper than the English ones and sell it on the five continents with the help of the important Dutch fleet. The old Latin motto divide et vinces is the most logical and practical way to maintain power in Europe. Curiously, the Belgian motto is the opposite: L'union fait la force. Ironies of fate.
Now let's return to the revolutionary myth. A play at the Brussels Opera House with a patriotic theme made the spectators take to the streets and attack the house of the Dutch governor, soon after they occupied the whole city. The theatre's capacity was less than 1000 people. How could so few people stage such a coup d'état?
Hardly anyone mentions the mercenaries who arrived in Brussels, dressed in rags but with the best weapons of the time. 200 volunteers from Liège under Rogier's command arrived in the capital and stationed themselves at the entrances to the city. They made it very difficult for the Dutch troops when they tried to attack. And they managed to surround them in the royal park. Professional snipers who decimated the Dutch troops They were so effective that the British extended their contract and from Ostend they embarked for Portugal, where they participated in the civil war between the recent King Miguel de Bragança and the aspiring Pedro (future Pedro IV of Portugal. ) On 8 July Pedro disembarked on the beach of Memory, near Porto, taking the city the next day. English support was decisive in enthroning a new king perfectly aligned with English policies.
Returning to Belgium, the determined English and French support made possible the new State that adopted a liberal regime of parliamentary monarchy, putting on the throne a German prince closely linked to the English royal house: Leopold I.
Without this Franco-English economic and military support, the Netherlands would surely have recovered the territories and formed a single country until the German invasions of the 20th century. Although perhaps history would have changed radically. A strong Dutch empire would have helped its former Boer colonists in South Africa and perhaps the first world war would have been continental Europe against the British Empire and the Zaristic Russia.
Leaving speculation aside, the truth is that the Franco-British plot was decisive in the creation of the Belgian state with a monarchy related to the English one. The dream of Queen Victoria, the hemophiliac grandmother of Europe's royal families.
