On this day (September 27th) in 1830 the Dutch army left Brussels.

19 comments
  1. Hello neighbours!

    In 1830 the situation in the Southern Netherlands (what was to become Belgium) was quite… special. Willem I, king of the Netherlands, was not making himself very popular with several policies that went against the will of his Belgian countrymen.

    Since august 1830 Brussels (and other Belgian cities) were in turmoil against the ‘Dutch occupation’.

    On the 23rd of September the Dutch army, under command of Willem’s son Frederik, entered Brussels. Fights broke out in the city center and after 4 days the Dutch army fled Brussels.

    A victory for the Belgian patriots and one step closer to Belgian independence.

  2. Note that at the time the vast majority of the people in Brussels spoke Dutch. Goes to show how much of an elite rebellion this was. They were very disgruntled that Dutch was being promoted as a language of administration, as well as being demoted in favor of Hollandic elites. The latter is to be understood and often stressed, but the former laid the basis for heavy Frenchification of much of Belgian society in the following century and eventually the language strife of the 60’s (taalstrijd).

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