page_title: Belgium in "the long nineteenth century"
section_title: Reign of Leopold I
hierarchical_section_title: Belgium in "the long nineteenth century" / Periods / Reign of Leopold I
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: L'Epaulette à 10 centimes. Léopold Ier. Belgique (1849) English: The first 10 c. stamp of Belgium (1849).
context_page_description: The history of Belgium from 1789 to 1914, the period dubbed the "long 19th century" by the historian Eric Hobsbawm, includes the end of Austrian rule and periods of French and Dutch occupation of the region, leading to the creation of the first independent Belgian state in 1830.
  In the years leading up to 1789, the territory today known as Belgium was divided into two states, called the Austrian Netherlands and Prince-Bishopric of Liège, both of which were part of the Holy Roman Empire. The area was captured by the French during the French Revolutionary Wars and incorporated into the French First Republic from roughly 1794 to 1815. In the aftermath of Napoleon's final defeat in 1815, the Congress of Vienna added the territory of Belgium to the United Kingdom of the Netherlands.
  In 1830, with the Belgian Revolution the Belgian provinces declared their independence, but only finally gained it in 1839. From 1885 the creation of a personal colony by Leopold II, the Congo Free State caused and international outcry over human rights abuses, and forced the Belgian state to annex the region in 1908, forming the Belgian Congo.
context_section_description: Leopold I was crowned on 21 July 1831, replacing Baron Surlet de Chokier, who had served as regent since February. Before his selection by the National Congress, Leopold had been Duke of the minor German state of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. He had pursued a distinguished military career fighting for the Russian Empire during the Napoleonic Wars and was well connected to other European monarchies.
  Despite the Congress of London's verdict in 1830, the Dutch continued to resist Belgian independence for much of Leopold I's early reign. On 2 August 1831, days after Leopold's coronation, the Dutch launched an invasion known as the Ten Days' Campaign. The 50,000-strong Dutch force crossed the border and rapidly pushed the small Belgian army back as far as Leuven. Faced with a military disaster, the Belgian government appealed to the French for support. Without international support of their own and faced with an entire French army under General Étienne Gérard, the Dutch withdrew on 12 August. In 1832 the French pushed the Dutch out of Antwerp, their final garrison in Belgium. Much of the city was destroyed in the fighting. Sporadic skirmishes along the border continued until 1839, when the Dutch signed the Treaty of London. The Ten Days' Campaign revealed the fragility of the Belgian position, and although the Dutch finally recognized the independence of Belgium, the Belgians were forced to give up some disputed territories, including Zeelandic Flanders and the Duchy of Limburg. Part of Luxembourg, equivalent to the modern state, remained as a semi-independent protectorate of the Dutch until 1890.
caption: Leopold I, depicted on the first Belgian postage stamp, issued in 1849
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