European Kingdoms

French Netherlands (Southern Netherlands) (Low Countries)
AD 1795 - 1815

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Coastal north-western Europe is known as the Low Countries. Today the region consists of Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. The Southern Netherlands were dominated by the Spanish Habsburgs (from 1555). They soon became known as the Spanish Netherlands in opposition to the rebellious Seven United Provinces in the north.

The War of the Spanish Succession between Spain and France (1701-1714), followed by the Treaties of Utrecht (1713-1715), resulted in the Spanish Netherlands becoming the Austrian Netherlands, but for less than a century. Revolutionary France twice invaded, in 1793 and 1794.

The sometimes shambolic state of the French army at the time resulted in occasional defeats to more organised opponents, but revolutionary fervour often turned the tables. In 1795 the Habsburg presence in the region was ended for good. The northern Netherlands were invaded in the same year and the territory was renamed the 'Batavian Republic' while, administratively, the southern Netherlands were drawn directly under republican rule as the French Netherlands.

This annexation took place on 1 October 1795, when the French National Convention voted to merge it with the principality of Liège. A revolution had already taken place there against the last prince-bishop, preparing it for assimilation. As a consequence the territory of Liège was permanently added to the Belgian provinces.

Commercial prospects in the Belgian lands initially looked promising, but in time they were ruined by Napoleon's 'Continental System' which was designed to blockade the British in reverse, by closing off all European trade to the island nation. In the end Britain's counter-blockade of Europe proved more effective and Napoleon's pursuit of his own system led him to utter disaster in Russia in 1812.

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(Information by William Willems and Peter Kessler, with additional information from Foreign Policy and the French Revolution: Charles-François Dumouriez, Pierre LeBrun, and the Belgian Plan, 1789-1793, Patricia Howe (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), and from External Links: The Belgian Dynasty (Royal Family of Belgium), and Belgium.be (Official Information & Services website), and A Short History of Holland, Belgium & Luxembourg (available for download as a PDF from Stanford University), and Encyclopaedia Britannica, and Belgium from Revolution to the War of the Sixth Coalition 1789-1814, Dale Pappas (The Napoleon Series Archive).)

1798

The French have introduced enforced conscription into the French army, generating quite a bit of local opposition. The Peasants Revolt or Peasants War is sparked in October 1798, primarily in the Belgian commune of Overmere (Flanders) and in Luxembourg.

Seen in some quarters as an early quest for independence for the Belgians within the French Netherlands, the revolt's members are highly motivated but poorly-equipped. Their efforts are crushed by December.

The Peasants War of 1798 ignited across the lands of what are now Belgium and Luxembourg, with extensions into the westernmost areas of Germany

1806

The French-controlled kingdom of Holland is created by Napoleon Bonaparte as he extends his new model of controlling his captured territories. He places on the throne Louis Bonaparte, one of his brothers, while the Belgian lands remain directly controlled from Paris.

1810

Napoleon Bonaparte throws his brother out of office and draws Holland directly into the French empire so that it occupies a position which is modelled on that of the French Netherlands.

1815

Two of the armies of the so-called Seventh Coalition, an Anglo-Allied army (commanded by Sir Arthur Wellesley) and a Prussian army (commanded by Field Marshal Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher) defeat Napoleon Bonaparte in an ultimate battle on 18 June 1815 at Waterloo (south of Brussels - see feature link). Napoleon is forced to flee back to Paris. The Belgians have been liberated.

This map shows the general dispositions of the allied and French imperial armies on 18 June 1815, along with approximate elevations - the allies clearly hold the ridge in front of Mont St Jean which runs between Hougoumont and Ohain

Shortly preceding the Waterloo campaign, the Congress of Vienna in June 1815 agrees on the creation of a unified state out of the various territories of the Low Countries. Much of the duchy of Luxembourg and even the prince-bishopric of Liège are also to be included in the new kingdom, dubbed the 'United Kingdom of the Netherlands'.