Belgian+Revolution+of+1830

Declan Vick Belgian Revolution The Belgian Revolution of the 1830s was the independence movement of Belgium to free itself from the Netherlands. It officially started in 1830, so it is more commonly known as the Belgian Revolution of 1830. There are a few factors that contributed to the beginning of the revolution. The previous Spanish occupation of the entire region was a problem because nobody wants to be occupied by another force. A second factor was the Dutch revolt against French occupation, which comes back to hurt the Dutch later on in their fight. As seen in a lot of other places, there was also a religious divide between the Netherlands and Southern Netherlands (Belgium). For a while, the Belgian people were unhappy but never entertained the idea of revolting, until in July of 1830 the French overthrew their king. Readers note that this July revolution is not the famous French Revolution that most are familiar with. With that the Belgians decided enough is enough and began to rebel in Brussels against their Dutch oppressors. William I sent his princes to go work out a deal with the rebels. However, political negotiations were futile because William I would not listen to Belgium’s counter-demands resulting in a lot of political arguments. Eventually the king had had enough and deployed an army to Belgium. This began the 10 Days’ Campaign, where the King William I tried to defeat the Belgian forces by daily battles, occurring from the 2nd and 12th of August in 1931. It was ultimately unsuccessful in stopping the revolution. During the campaign the Belgians asked the French for help, who happily obliged in order to damage their recent common enemy of the Netherlands. At this point the Netherlands realized that they had messed up when 70,000 French troops, led by Marshal Gerard, came to the aid of the rebels. Soon after, the Dutch ordered a full retreat and signed a ceasefire. The Belgians, however, had to wait a while for independence to become official, because the other European powers were divided on Belgium’s cry for independence. Eventually in 1839 the Treaty of London had the European powers, including the Netherlands, recognize Belgium as an independent state. Victory was won. The Belgian Revolution was a very important time for the Belgians, because is marked the beginning of their independence which they treasured greatly until they were brutally invaded by the Germans in 1914 and had no more independence to treasure. However, after the World Wars were over the Belgian independence was reinstated at the people still enjoy their autonomy to this day.