United Belgian States facts for kids

Quick facts for kids United Belgian States Verenigde Belgische Staten  (Dutch) États-Belgiques-Unis  (French)
1790
The United Belgian States' territory in 1790
Status	Unrecognized state Vassal state of Holy Roman Empire
Capital	Brussels
Government	Confederal republic
President of the Sovereign Congress
• 1790	François de Nélis
• 1790	Henri de Crumpipen
President of the National Congress
• 1790	Henri Van der Noot
Legislature	Sovereign Congress
Historical era	Brabant Revolution
• Manifesto of Brabant	24 October 1789
• Treaty of Union	11 January 1790
• Battle of Falmagne	22 September 1790
• Surrender of Brussels	2 December 1790
Currency	See Brabant Revolution coinage
ISO 3166 code	BE
Preceded by Succeeded by Austrian Netherlands Austrian Netherlands
Today part of	Belgium Luxembourg

The United Belgian States was a short-lived country in Western Europe that existed throughout the year 1790. People also call it the United States of Belgium. In Dutch, people called it Verenigde Nederlandse Staten or Verenigde Belgische Staten. In French, its name was États-Belgiques-Unis.

This new nation was formed as a confederation (a loose union of states working together) during the Brabant Revolution. It broke away from the Habsburg monarchy, which was an empire based in Austria. Before declaring independence, this region was called the Austrian Netherlands.

The territory of this country covered the central and western parts of modern-day Belgium. Even though the country lasted for only eleven months, it holds a very special place in European history. It was the very first time that the local provinces joined together and took the name "Belgium" as an independent republic.

What Was the United Belgian States?

Meaning of the Name and Geography

The name "United Belgian States" sounded very modern in 1790. It was inspired by the newly formed United States of America. The word "Belgian" came from the Belgae, an ancient group of tribes described by Julius Caesar. During the late 1700s, people living in the Southern Netherlands used the word to describe themselves.

The new confederation brought together several historic provinces. These included:

• The Duchy of Brabant
• The County of Flanders
• The County of Hainault
• The County of Namur
• The Lordship of Mechelen
• Tournai and the Tournaisis
• Gelderland
• West Flanders

These territories were among the richest and most populated regions in Europe. They were famous for busy trading ports, textile workshops, and productive farms. The city of Brussels served as the capital and main meeting place for the government.

Why Was the Union Formed?

The country formed because local people were deeply unhappy with foreign imperial rule. Austrian monarchs ruled the land from Vienna, which was hundreds of miles away. Local citizens felt their traditional liberties and ancient privileges were being ignored.

By joining forces, the separate provinces wanted to protect their local customs and manage their own taxes. They believed that uniting under a single national banner would make them strong enough to resist an imperial army.

Life in the Austrian Netherlands Before 1789

The Habsburg Rule and Old Traditions

For centuries, the provinces of the Southern Netherlands belonged to the powerful Habsburg monarchy. Before that, Spanish kings had ruled them, which is why historians often call that earlier era the Spanish Netherlands. After a major European conflict called the War of the Spanish Succession, Austria took control in 1714.

Under Empress Maria Theresa, the region enjoyed decades of peace and economic growth. Maria Theresa ruled with care and respected the local customs. Each province had its own historic charter, known in Brabant as the Joyous Entry. These charters acted like early constitutions. They promised that the ruler would consult local assemblies before raising taxes or changing laws.

The Roman Catholic Church held great influence in daily life. Monasteries ran schools, helped the poor, and cared for sick people. Guilds (associations of craftspeople and merchants) regulated trade, fixed prices, and trained apprentices. People were proud of these ancient local arrangements.

Emperor Joseph II and His Radical Reforms

When Maria Theresa died in 1780, her son Joseph II became the sole ruler. Joseph II was an educated man who believed in the Age of Enlightenment. This movement promoted reason, science, and efficient government. Joseph II wanted to bring his empire into modern times as quickly as possible.

However, Joseph had a very stubborn personality. He believed that he knew what was best for everyone. He issued thousands of brand-new decrees without asking local leaders or consulting the provincial assemblies. Historians sometimes describe his style of rule as "enlightened absolutism" (ruling with total authority while attempting to modernize society).

Reforming the Church

Joseph II believed the Catholic Church had too much independence and wealth. In 1781, he issued the Patent of Toleration, granting religious freedom to Protestants and Jewish communities. While this was a progressive move, it upset conservative church leaders who wanted Catholicism to remain the only official religion.

Next, Joseph closed down hundreds of monasteries that were purely contemplative (focused on prayer rather than running schools or hospitals). He called them "idle institutions." He banned religious brotherhoods, limited the number of religious festivals, and even dictated how many candles could be burned on church altars! To take control of education, he closed local seminaries and opened a single state-run school in Leuven.

Changing the Government and Courts

Joseph II did not stop with religion. He attempted to reorganize the entire political and legal system:

• He abolished the ancient provinces of Flanders, Brabant, and Hainault.
• He replaced them with nine large circles (administrative districts) run by Austrian officials.
• He canceled the power of traditional guild courts and local judges.
• He established brand-new central courts controlled directly by the imperial crown.
• He tried to introduce German as the administrative language to streamline paperwork.

Why the People Were Angry

Joseph's reforms caused massive anger across all levels of society. The nobles and church leaders felt their ancient rights were being stripped away. Craftspeople and merchants were terrified that their guilds would vanish. Even educated city residents who agreed with modernization disliked how the emperor forced changes without permission.

A common protest slogan emerged across the cities: "No representation, no obedience!" The people felt the emperor had broken his coronation oath to respect their ancient charters.

Two Revolutionary Factions: Statists and Vonckists

The Statists: Defending Ancient Traditions

As opposition to Joseph II grew, two distinct rebel groups emerged. The largest and most influential group was known as the Statists. They were led by a wealthy Brussels lawyer named Henri Van der Noot.

The Statists were traditionalists and conservatives. They wanted to return everything to the way it had been before Joseph II started making changes. Their main goals were:

• Restoring the power of the Catholic Church and protecting monastic property.
• Bringing back the provincial estates and ancient charters.
• Keeping the traditional guild privileges for local trades.
• Removing Austrian officials from the country entirely.

Van der Noot was a charismatic public speaker. He used simple slogans, wore colorful clothing, and gave stirring speeches in public squares. The majority of common townspeople, peasants, and clergymen strongly supported the Statists.

The Vonckists: Dreaming of Democratic Change

The second major group was called the Vonckists. They took their name from their leader, Jan Frans Vonck, who was also a skilled lawyer from Brussels.

The Vonckists had a very different vision for the future. Unlike the Statists, they did not want to return to old feudal habits. Instead, they were inspired by the democratic ideas of the American and French Revolutions. Their key ideas included:

• Expanding voting rights to the middle class, such as doctors, small merchants, and teachers.
• Limiting the absolute power of wealthy nobles and high church officials.
• Creating a fairer tax system where everyone contributed equally.
• Setting up a modern, representative parliament.

The Vonckists formed a secret society called Pro Aris et Focis (Latin for "For Altars and Hearths"). They secretly gathered money, published pamphlets, and bought weapons to prepare for a fight.

A Fragile Alliance Against Austria

Although the Statists and Vonckists had opposing ideas about running a country, they realized they had a common enemy: Emperor Joseph II. They agreed to work together temporarily to drive out Austrian troops.

Jan Frans Vonck used his network to recruit volunteer soldiers, while Henri Van der Noot became the political spokesperson. This fragile partnership set the stage for an armed uprising.

The Brabant Revolution of 1789

The Battle of Turnhout on 27 October 1789

The Spark: The Manifesto of Brabant

By 1789, protests had turned into open defiance. In January of that year, the leaders of Brabant refused to pay their imperial taxes. In response, Joseph II sent troops to shut down the provincial assemblies and cancel the Joyous Entry.

Rebel leaders fled across the northern border into the Dutch Republic to plan their next moves. In the Dutch town of Breda, Henri Van der Noot helped gather a volunteer rebel army. A military officer named General Jean-André van der Mersch was appointed commander of the patriot forces.

On 24 October 1789, the rebels published a famous document called the Manifesto of the People of Brabant. This declaration claimed that Emperor Joseph II had broken his social contract with the people. Therefore, the people of Brabant declared him deposed and announced their freedom.

Famous Battles and Military Victories

The Battle of Turnhout (27 October 1789)

General van der Mersch led his volunteer army across the border into the town of Turnhout. The Austrian military sent professional soldiers to crush the rebels quickly.

The two forces met in the streets of Turnhout on 27 October 1789. The local citizens joined the battle by throwing paving stones, furniture, and boiling water down onto imperial soldiers from their rooftops. Van der Mersch used clever street-fighting tactics, trapping the Austrian troops in narrow alleys. The patriot forces won a dramatic victory! News of this success spread like wildfire and inspired volunteers across the entire territory.

The Liberation of Ghent and Brussels

In November 1789, rebel units marched toward Ghent, one of the largest cities in Flanders. For four days, fierce fighting took place around ancient city castles and town gates. Once again, ordinary citizens joined the volunteer army, building barricades and attacking the Austrian garrisons. The imperial soldiers were forced to surrender the city on 13 November.

Panic gripped the Austrian rulers in Brussels. The imperial governors, Duke Albert Casimir and Duchess Maria Christina, packed their belongings and fled. By December 1789, rebel units marched into Brussels without facing much resistance. The remaining Austrian soldiers retreated toward the strong stone fortress of Luxembourg in the south.

Creating a New Nation: The United Belgian States

The Treaty of Union (11 January 1790)

With Austrian troops gone from almost the entire country, the victorious provinces met in Brussels. On 11 January 1790, representatives signed the historic Treaty of Union. This treaty created the United Belgian States.

The leaders modeled their new government partly on the American Articles of Confederation. Each province kept its own local parliament, laws, and customs. They were sovereign and independent, but agreed to share responsibilities for national defense, foreign affairs, and national currency.

How Was the Government Organized?

The central government consisted of two main bodies:

• The Sovereign Congress: This was the national parliament where delegates from all provinces met to discuss major laws, national taxes, and treaties. A church leader, François de Nélis (the Bishop of Antwerp), served as an important leader alongside Henri de Crumpipen.
• The President of the National Congress: Henri Van der Noot took on the duties of head of government, holding the title of Minister Plenipotentiary.

The new nation also minted its own coins. These silver and copper coins featured a proud lion holding a sword and shield, known as the Belgian Lion (Leo Belgicus).

A Sister Revolt: The Republic of Liège

At the same time as the Brabant Revolution, another uprising took place right next door: the Liège Revolution. The Prince-Bishopric of Liège was an independent territory ruled by a prince-bishop. Its citizens overthrew their ruler in August 1789 and established the Republic of Liège.

The leaders of Liège were deeply influenced by the French Revolution. They were much more radical than the conservative leaders in Brussels. However, because both territories faced potential invasions by imperial armies, the United Belgian States and the Republic of Liège formed an alliance to assist one another.

Internal Conflict: Statists Against Vonckists

Growing Suspicion and Distrust

No sooner had the Austrians left than the alliance between the Statists and Vonckists fell apart. Now that the common enemy had retreated, both groups fought over how to run the new nation.

The Statists held nearly all the seats in the Sovereign Congress. They made sure that traditional aristocrats and churchmen retained full power. Jan Frans Vonck and his followers were deeply disappointed. They argued that the common people, who had shed blood on the barricades in Turnhout and Ghent, deserved a real voice in the government.

The Vonckists began publishing pamphlets demanding fair elections and reforms to provincial assemblies. They argued that a government controlled by a tiny group of aristocrats was not truly free.

Street Clashes and Political Unrest

Henri Van der Noot and the Statist leaders viewed the Vonckists as dangerous radicals who wanted to destroy the Catholic Church and bring the chaos of the French Revolution to Brussels.

In March 1790, Statist organizers rallied huge crowds of conservative craftspeople, peasants, and guild members. Mobs marched through Brussels, looting the homes of prominent Vonckists and shouting loyal slogans in support of Van der Noot.

Fearing for their lives, Jan Frans Vonck and many of his supporters fled the country or went into hiding. General van der Mersch, who sympathized with the Vonckists, was arrested by the Sovereign Congress and locked in a fortress. This intense political infighting badly damaged the new country, leaving its military divided and weak.

The Return of the Imperial Army

The Death of Emperor Joseph II

On 20 February 1790, Emperor Joseph II passed away in Vienna at the age of 48. On his deathbed, he felt deeply saddened that his modernizing reforms had caused so much rebellion.

His younger brother, Leopold II, became the new emperor. Leopold was a far more patient and practical politician than Joseph. He quickly realized that pushing stubborn reforms had damaged the empire. Leopold offered an olive branch: he promised that if the Belgian provinces returned to imperial rule, he would pardon the rebels and restore all their historic charters and privileges.

The Statist government in Brussels proudly refused the emperor's offer. Van der Noot believed foreign powers would step in to defend the young republic.

A Desperate Search for International Friends

The leaders of the United Belgian States knew their small army could not hold out alone forever against a major empire. Van der Noot sent diplomats across Europe to search for allies:

• They asked the Dutch Republic to form a military partnership, or even combine into a single federation.
• They reached out to Great Britain, hoping British merchants would want to trade with an independent Belgium.
• They sent messages to Prussia, a powerful German kingdom that was a rival to Austria.

Unfortunately, none of these countries were willing to fight for the United Belgian States. In July 1790, Great Britain, Prussia, and the Dutch Republic signed an agreement with Austria called the Convention of Reichenbach. They agreed that the Austrian Netherlands should be returned to Emperor Leopold II in exchange for peace in Central Europe. The young republic stood entirely alone.

The Battle of Falmagne (22 September 1790)

The Battle of Falmagne on 22 September 1790

In the late summer of 1790, the Sovereign Congress attempted an offensive to drive the remaining Austrian forces out of Luxembourg. The patriot military was now commanded by an energetic German general named Baron von Schönfeld.

On 22 September 1790, the two armies clashed at the Battle of Falmagne, near the Meuse River. Although the Belgian volunteers fought bravely, they were poorly equipped, lacked discipline, and ran short of ammunition. The well-trained Austrian cavalry and artillery routed the patriot forces, forcing them to retreat in disorder. This defeat shattered the morale of the young republic.

The Fall of Brussels and the End of the Nation

Following their victory at Falmagne, Austrian imperial armies advanced quickly under Field Marshal Blasius Columban, Baron von Bender:

• On 24 October 1790, imperial troops marched into Namur, and the province surrendered.
• Two days later, West Flanders agreed to lay down its arms.
• By late November, imperial forces were at the gates of Brussels.

Henri Van der Noot and the rest of the Statist government fled to the Dutch border. On 2 December 1790, Austrian forces entered Brussels, ending the United Belgian States after eleven months of existence. Leopold II kept his word and restored the ancient charters, bringing back traditional local laws.

Fast Facts about the United Belgian States

What Happened Afterward?

French Invasion and Annexation

The restoration of Austrian power in the Southern Netherlands did not last long. Just a few years later, the French Revolutionary Wars erupted across Europe.

In 1792, and again decisively in 1794 at the Battle of Fleurus, French armies marched into the Southern Netherlands and defeated the Austrians. In October 1795, revolutionary France officially annexed the region, dividing it into French administrative departments.

During twenty years of French rule, feudalism was completely abolished, ancient church lands were confiscated, and modern laws (the Napoleonic Code) were introduced. The ancient world that the Statists had fought so hard to save was gone forever.

The Birth of Modern Belgium (1830)

After the defeat of Napoleon in 1815, the major European powers combined the Belgian provinces with the northern provinces to create the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. King William I ruled over this unified Dutch kingdom.

However, the people of the south were once again unhappy with rule from a distant capital. In 1830, the Belgian Revolution broke out. This time, the lessons of 1790 were well remembered:

• Liberals (the modern spiritual successors of the Vonckists) and Catholics (the successors of the Statists) set aside their quarrels and cooperated. This political partnership was called "Unionism."
• Instead of keeping separate provincial governments, they created a single, unified country.
• They chose a constitutional monarchy that guaranteed basic human rights, freedom of the press, and freedom of religion.

The revolution was a complete success, creating modern Belgium as an independent nation recognized across the globe.

Why Does the United Belgian States Matter Today?

The First True Idea of a Belgian Nation

Before 1789, the people of Flanders, Brabant, Hainault, and Namur saw themselves primarily as citizens of their own home provinces. A person was a Fleming or a Brabantine first, and rarely thought about a larger national identity.

The creation of the United Belgian States changed that mindset forever:

• It was the first time these separate territories gathered under one national council.
• It introduced the red, yellow, and black colors that form the modern Belgian flag today.
• It popularized the name "Belgium" for the entire region.

Lessons in Teamwork and Unity

The story of the United Belgian States provides an important lesson about cooperation. When the Statists and Vonckists worked together in 1789, they managed to defeat an imperial army and earn their freedom. But when they let their differences turn into hatred and mob violence in 1790, their new country fell apart in less than a year.

Forty years later, during the Revolution of 1830, the founders of modern Belgium remembered this painful lesson. They selected a national motto that remains on the Belgian coat of arms to this very day: "L'union fait la force" in French, or "Eendracht maakt macht" in Dutch. In English, it means: "Unity Gives Strength."

See Also

• Brabant Revolution
• Republic of Liège
• Belgian Revolution
• Age of Enlightenment
• Habsburg monarchy