TheSouthern Netherlands,[note 1] also called theCatholic Netherlands, were the parts of theLow Countries belonging to theHoly Roman Empire which were at first largely controlled byHabsburg Spain (Spanish Netherlands, 1556–1714) and later by theAustrian Habsburgs (Austrian Netherlands, 1714–1794) until occupied and annexed byRevolutionary France (1794–1815).
The region also included a number of smaller states that were never ruled by Spain or Austria: thePrince-Bishopric of Liège, theImperial Abbey of Stavelot-Malmedy, theCounty of Bouillon, theCounty of Horne and thePrincely Abbey of Thorn.
The Southern Netherlands comprised most of modern-dayBelgium andLuxembourg, small parts of the modernNetherlands andGermany (theUpper Guelders region, as well as theBitburg area in Germany, then part of Luxembourg), in addition to (until 1678) most of the presentNord-Pas-de-Calais region, andLongwy area in northernFrance. The (southern) Upper Guelders region consisted of what is now divided between Germany and the modern DutchProvince of Limburg (in 1713 largely ceded toPrussia).
As they were very wealthy, the Netherlands in general were an important territory of theHabsburg crown which also ruled Spain and Austria among other places. But unlike the other Habsburg dominions, they were led by a merchant class. It was the merchant economy which made them wealthy, and the Habsburg attempts at increasing taxation to finance their wars[note 2] was a major factor in the population's (merchants') efforts to defend their privileges. This, added to resistance to penal laws enforced by theHabsburg monarchy that madeheresy acapital crime, led to a general rebellion of the Netherlands against Habsburg rule towards 1570 (protests and hostilities started theEighty Years' Warc. 1566–1568). Although the northern seven provinces, led byHolland andZeeland, established their independence as theUnited Provinces after 1581, the ten southern Netherlands were reconquered by the Spanish generalAlexander Farnese, Duke of Parma. Liège, Stavelot-Malmédy and Bouillon maintained their independence.
The Habsburg Netherlands passed to the Austrian Habsburgs after theWar of the Spanish Succession in 1714. Under Austrian rule, the ten provinces' defence of their privileges proved as troublesome to the reforming EmperorJoseph II, Holy Roman Emperor as it had to his ancestorPhilip II two centuries earlier, leading to a major rebellion in 1789–1790. The Austrian Netherlands were ultimately lost to theFrench Revolutionary armies, and annexed to France in 1794. Following the war, Austria's loss of the territories was confirmed, and they were joined with the northern Netherlands as a single kingdom under theHouse of Orange at the 1815Congress of Vienna. The southeastern third of Luxembourg Province was made into the autonomous Grand Duchy ofLuxembourg, because it was claimed by both the Netherlands and Prussia.
In 1830 the predominantly Roman Catholic southern half became independent as theKingdom of Belgium (the northern half being predominantlyCalvinist)[citation needed]. In 1839 the final border between thekingdom of the Netherlands and Belgium was determined and the eastern part of Limburg went to the Netherlands as theprovince of Limburg. The autonomy of Luxembourg was recognised in 1839, but an instrument to that effect was not signed until 1867. The King of the Netherlands was Grand Duke of Luxembourg until 1890, whenWilliam III was succeeded by his daughter,Wilhelmina of the Netherlands – but Luxembourg still followed theSalic law at the time, which forbade a woman to rule in her own right; so the union of the Dutch and Luxembourgish crowns then ended. The northwestern two-thirds of the original Luxembourg remains a province of Belgium.
TheSpanish Netherlands (Dutch:Spaanse Nederlanden, Spanish:Países Bajos españoles) was a portion of theLow Countries controlled bySpain from 1556 to 1714, inherited from theDukes of Burgundy. Although the territory of the Duchy of Burgundy itself remained in the hands of France, the Habsburgs remained in control of the title of Duke of Burgundy and the other parts of the Burgundian inheritance, notably the Low Countries and the FreeCounty of Burgundy in the Holy Roman Empire. They often used the term Burgundy to refer to it (e.g. in the name of the Imperial Circle it was grouped into), until 1794, when the Austrian Netherlands were lost to the French Republic.
When part of the Netherlands separated from Spanish rule and became theUnited Provinces in 1581 the remainder of the area became known as the Spanish Netherlands and remained under Spanish control. This region comprised modern Belgium, Luxembourg as well as part of northern France.
The Spanish Netherlands originally consisted of:
The capital,Brussels, was in Brabant. In the early 17th century, there was a flourishing court at Brussels, which was under the government of KingPhilip III's half-sisterArchduchess Isabella and her husband,Archduke Albert of Austria. Among the artists who emerged from the court of the "Archdukes", as they were known, wasPeter Paul Rubens. Under the Archdukes, the Spanish Netherlands actually had formal independence from Spain, but always remained unofficially within the Spanish sphere of influence, and with Albert's death in 1621 they returned to formal Spanish control, although the childless Isabella remained on as Governor until her death in 1633.
The failing wars intended to regain the 'heretical' northern Netherlands meant significant loss of (still mainly Catholic) territories in the north, which was consolidated in 1648 in thePeace of Westphalia, and given the peculiar, inferior status ofGenerality Lands (jointly ruled by the United Republic, not admitted as member provinces):Zeelandic Flanders (south of the riverScheldt), the present Dutch province ofNorth Brabant andMaastricht (in the present Dutch province of Limburg).
As Spanish power waned in the latter decades of the 17th century, the territory of the Spanish Netherlands was repeatedly invaded by the French and an increasing portion of the territory came under French control in successive wars. By theTreaty of the Pyrenees of 1659 the French annexedArtois whileDunkirk was ceded to the English. By the Treaties ofAix-la-Chapelle (ending theWar of Devolution in 1668) andNijmegen (ending theFranco-Dutch War in 1678), further territory up to the current Franco-Belgian border was ceded, includingCambrai,Walloon Flanders (the area aroundLille,Douai andOrchies), as well ashalf of the county of Hainaut (includingValenciennes). Later, in theWar of the Reunions and theNine Years' War, France temporarily annexed other parts of the region that were returned in the 1697Peace of Ryswick.
Under theTreaty of Rastatt (1714), following theWar of the Spanish Succession, what was left of theSpanish Netherlands was ceded to Austria and thus became known as theAustrian Netherlands orBelgium Austriacum. However, the Austrians themselves generally had little interest in the region (aside from a short-lived attempt by EmperorCharles VI to compete with British and Dutch trade through theOstend Company), and the fortresses along the border (theBarrier Fortresses) were, by treaty, garrisoned with Dutch troops. The area had, in fact, been given to Austria largely at British and Dutch insistence, as these powers feared potential French domination of the region.
Throughout the latter part of the eighteenth century, the principal foreign policy goal of theHabsburg rulers was to exchange the Austrian Netherlands forBavaria, which would round out Habsburg possessions in southern Germany. In the 1757Treaty of Versailles, Austria agreed to the creation of an independent state in the Southern Netherlands ruled byPhilip, Duke of Parma and garrisoned by French troops in exchange for French help in recoveringSilesia. However the agreement was unimplemented and revoked by theThird Treaty of Versailles (1785) and Austrian rule continued.
In 1784, its ruler,Emperor Joseph II, took up the long-standing grudge ofAntwerp, whose once-flourishing trade was destroyed by the permanent closing of theScheldt, and he demanded for theDutch Republic to open the river to navigation. However, his stance was far from militant, and he called off hostilities after the so-calledKettle War, so called because its only "casualty" was a kettle. Though Joseph secured in the1785 Treaty of Fontainebleau that the territory's rulers would be compensated by the Dutch Republic for the continued closing theScheldt, this failed to gain him much popularity.
The people of the Austrian Netherlands rebelled against Austria in 1788 as a result of Joseph II's centralizing policies. The different provinces established theUnited States of Belgium (January 1790). However, waylaying Joseph's intended concessions to the Belgians to restore the height of their autonomy and privileges, Austrian imperial power had been restored by Joseph's brother and successor,Leopold II, by the end of 1790.
| History of theLow Countries | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Frisii | Belgae | |||||||
| Cana– nefates | Chamavi, Tubantes | Gallia Belgica(55 BC–c. 5th AD) Germania Inferior(83–c. 5th) | ||||||
| Salian Franks | Batavi | |||||||
| unpopulated (4th–c. 5th) | Saxons | Salian Franks (4th–c. 5th) | ||||||
| Frisian Kingdom (c. 6th–734) | Frankish Kingdom(481–843)—Carolingian Empire(800–843) | |||||||
| Austrasia(511–687) | ||||||||
| Middle Francia(843–855) | West Francia (843–) | |||||||
| Kingdom of Lotharingia(855– 959) Duchy of Lower Lorraine(959–) | ||||||||
| Frisia | ||||||||
.svg) Frisian Freedom (11–16th century) |  County of Holland (880–1432) |  Bishopric of Utrecht (695–1456) |  Duchy of Brabant (1183–1430)  Duchy of Guelders (1046–1543) |  County of Flanders (862–1384) |  County of Hainaut (1071–1432)  County of Namur (981–1421) |  P.-Bish. of Liège (980–1794) |  Duchy of Luxem- bourg (1059–1443) | |
 Burgundian Netherlands(1384–1482) | ||||||||
Habsburg Netherlands(1482–1795) (Seventeen Provincesafter 1543) | ||||||||
 Dutch Republic (1581–1795) | Spanish Netherlands (1556–1714) | |||||||
 Austrian Netherlands (1714–1795) | ||||||||
 United States of Belgium (1790) |  R. Liège (1789–'91) | |||||||
 Batavian Republic(1795–1806) Kingdom of Holland(1806–1810) |  associated withFrench First Republic(1795–1804) part ofFirst French Empire(1804–1815) | |||||||
 Princip. of the Netherlands(1813–1815) | ||||||||
| Kingdom of the Netherlands(1815–1830) |  Gr D. L. (1815–) | |||||||
Kingdom of the Netherlands(1839–) |  Kingdom of Belgium(1830–) | |||||||
Gr D. of Luxem- bourg (1890–) | ||||||||
In the course of theFrench Revolution, the entire region (including territories that were never under Habsburg rule, like thePrince-Bishopric of Liège) was overrun byFrench armies after they won theBattle of Sprimont in 1794. The territory was then annexed to the Republic (October 1, 1795).
Only a minority of the population – mostly the localJacobins and other members of "Societies of Friends of Liberty and Equality" in urban areas – supported the annexation. The majority were hostile to the French regime, above all because of the imposition of theassignat, wholesale conscription, and the ferocious antireligious policies of the French revolutionaries. The opposition was first led by the Catholic clergy, which became an irreducible enemy of the French Republic after it dissolved convents and monasteries and confiscated ecclesiastical properties, ordered the separation of Church and State, shut down theUniversity of Louvain and other Catholic educational institutions, regulated church attendance and introduced divorce. In 1797, nearly 8000 priests refused to swear the newly introduced Oath of Hatred of Kings ("serment de haine à la royauté"), and went into hiding to escape arrest and deportation. The situation, particularly in the religious field, eased with the rise to power of Bonaparte in 1799, but soon, the intensification of conscription, the police state and theContinental System, which brought ruin toOstend and Antwerp, reignited opposition to French rule.[1] During that period Belgium was divided into ninedépartements:Deux-Nèthes,Dyle,Escaut,Forêts,Jemmape,Lys,Meuse-Inférieure,Ourthe andSambre-et-Meuse.
Austria confirmed the loss of its territories by theTreaty of Campo Formio, in 1797.
In anticipation of Napoleon's defeat in 1814, it was hotly debated inside Austrian ruling circles whether Austria should get the Southern Netherlands back or, in view of the experience gained after the War of the Spanish Succession about the difficulty of defending non contiguous possessions, whether she should not instead obtain contiguous territorial compensations in Northern Italy.[2] This latter viewpoint won and the Congress of Vienna allotted the Southern Netherlands to the newUnited Kingdom of the Netherlands. After theBelgian Revolution of 1830, the region separated to become the independent Kingdom ofBelgium.
Media related toSouthern Netherlands at Wikimedia Commons
