The Intellectual Origins of the Belgian Revolution

This book explores the political ideas of the Belgian Revolution of 1830, which led to the break-up of the Restoration state of the 'united' Kingdom of the Netherlands. It uncovers the origins of liberalism and political Catholicism in the Southern Netherlands in the wake of the French Revolution, and traces the development of political language in the context of the tensions between the Northern and Southern part of the united Netherlands. It shows how differences in 'Dutch' and 'Belgian' political and intellectual history resulted in different understandings of essential political concepts such as 'sovereignty' and 'balance of powers', as well as of the nature of the constitutional order of 1815. Finally, it traces the emergence of Belgian nationalism within the discourse of opposition against the government. Stefaan Marteel therefore provides a fresh perspective on the intellectual background of the rise of the nation-state in the nineteenth century.

Stefaan Marteel is an independent teacher and writer in Brussels, Belgium. He previously taught political history at the Radboud University Nijmegen.

Chapter 1. Introduction.- Part I: Liberals.- Chapter 2. Political Debates in the Wake of the Declaration of the Constitution: The Legitimacy Problem and the Origins of a Liberal Opposition.- Chapter 3. Opposition against National Uniformity and for Limited Government.- Chapter 4. Monarchical Government, Opposition and a Divided Political Nation.- Part II: Catholics.- Chapter 5. Political Catholicism in the Southern Netherlands between the Old Regime and the Restoration, 1787-1815.- Chapter 6. Ancient and Modern Rights: Continuity and Discontinuity in Catholic Political Thought, 1814-1830.- PART III: Revolutionaries.- Chapter 7. A Union of Catholicism and Liberalism.- Chapter 8. The Reception of French Catholic Philosophy within Belgian Catholicism: Towards a New Intellectual Matrix.- Chapter 9. Towards Belgian Nationalism and a National Revolution.- Chapter 10. The Belgian Constitution and Post-Revolutionary Politics in the Context of the History of Political Thought.- Index.