Austria was forced to cede its territories in the southern Netherlands to France under the terms of the 1797 Treaty of Campo Formio. At the Congress of Vienna this area was joined with the united Netherlands, which were supposed to act as a buffer zone to France. However confessional, political, and cultural differences led to the separation of Belgium in 1830. At this point in time the industrialization process in the Netherlands and in Belgium began. The Belgian economy benefitted from colonial territories in Africa. The Dutch kings also ruled over Luxembourg as Grand Dukes. Differences in the laws of succession led to Luxembourg's separation from the Netherlands in 1890.

The Netherlands and Luxembourg
 

Democratic structures were gradually implemented in the Netherlands, which was ruled by the Orange-Nassau dynasty. Luxembourg became independent in the 1890s.

The Congress of Vienna in 1815 created the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, including present-day Belgium, the former Austrian Netherlands.

During the course of the Revolution of 1845, King 2 William II, son of the conservative  1 William I, was forced to agree to a constitutional monarchy.

After his death the following year, his son 3 William III took the throne.


1 William I, King of the Netherlands
2 William II, King of the Netherlands
3 William III, King of the Netherlands and Grand Duke of Luxembourg, ca. 1865


During his reign, the parliament was able to significantly expand its authority.

In the 1880s, the Netherlands experienced an economic boom that also promoted the development of the 4 workers movement, out of which the Social Democratic Workers party emerged in 1894.
 

4 Congress of the socialist Second Internationale in Amsterdam, August 14-20, 1904 see also collection: Vincent van Gogh

Worker at the loom, one of many paintings by Vincent van Gogh of weavers working at machines, 1884

Luxembourg had been granted the status of a grand duchy at the Congress of Vienna but was governed over until 1867 by the Netherlands. It was thus able to profit from the Netherlands' new liberal constitution in 1848.

In 1898 5 Queen Wilhelmina ascended the throne.


5 Queen Wilhelmina wearing her coronation robe in 1898

Luxembourg law did not allow for a female monarch, however, and the country was therefore released from its union with the Netherlands.

When 6 Napoleon III purchased the country in 1867, this created a crisis, as Prussia did not approve. The London Conference of May 11, 1867, ended the Luxembourg crisis by assuring its independence and neutrality. This agreement was disregarded by the Germans at the beginning of World War 1 when they occupied the country.

6 Napoleon III, French Emperor, painting by F.X. Winterhalter, 1857

Belgium's Political and Economic Progress
 

Belgium had a liberal state system as early as 1830, was the most industrialized country in Europe after Great Britain, and also endeavored to gain colonies in Africa.

In 1815, the Congress of Vienna merged the Catholic region of the Austrian Netherlands with the Republic of United Netherlands situated north of it, which was reigned over by the Protestant House of Orange-Nassau. Dutch became the official language, which wounded the national pride of the French-speaking population. This and other discriminatory policies, as well as political and economic restrictions, led to a rebellion in Brussels on August 25,1830, in the wake of the Parisian July Revolution.

Dutch soldiers were then chased out of Brussels during the September Revolution 8 on September 26, and on October 4,1830, the provisional Belgian government proclaimed the country's independence.


8 Revolution of the Belgians against
the Dutch rule under William I in 1830,
wood engraving, 1864


Belgium adopted a liberal constitution on February 7,1831, and installed a constitutional monarchy.

The anglophile Leopold I of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld was crowned 9 king on June 4, 1831.


9 Coronation ceremony of King Leopold I on 4 June 1831 at the Palace Royale in Brussels,
painting from 1856


In 1839, Luxembourg ceded the western Walloon region to the newly independent Belgium. The Netherlands, however, did not recognize Belgium's independence until the London Protocol of April 19,1839, but then the country's borders were fixed and its neutrality guaranteed by the Great Powers.

7 Belgium led the Continent economically in the first half of the 19th century.

Domestically, the conflict between Catholic and liberal thought over the educational policies of 1879 were resolved with a liberal school law. Differences between the French-speaking Walloons in the south and the Flemish speakers in the north were not only linguistic and cultural but also represented a difference in wealth as industrialization had been more advanced in the south.

Universal male suffrage was first implemented in 1893 as a result of a 10 general strike initiated by the Social Democrats.