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From Napoleon 'till Napoleon

Minor POD; after the incorporation of the Austrian Netherlands the area of French Flanders was joined with de Westhoek area to create the departement Yser, with Ypres as its capital.

Mid July 1815 the punitive Treaty of Wavre was signed between all parties who were involved in Napoleon's Waterloo Campaign, as an extention of the Vienna Congress. The treaty was made and signed in the aftermath of the Battle of Wavre and out of a furious reaction of the Algo-Dutch-Prussian allies for the unnecessary destruction and loss of life. France was forced to ceded the city of Calais to Britain to house a British Force tasked with maintaining European peace and stability. They were also forced to cede French Flanders to the United Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Départements Bas- and Haut-Rhin to Prussia

Minor POD; The Nord department was split into the department Dêule, with its capital in Lille and the departement Escaut, with its capital in Valenciennes. With Calais now being British, the departement Pas de Calais was renamed departement Scarpe. In the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, the departement Lys became the province of West-Vlaanderen while the departement Yser became the Province of Zuid-Vlaanderen.

The Belgian Revolution broke out on the 25th of August 1830 when crowds spilled out onto the streets singing patriotic songs. Violent street fighting soon broke out, as anarchy reigned in Brussels and Liége. The revolution broke out for numerous reasons. On a political level, the Belgians felt significantly under-represented in the Netherlands' elected Lower Assembly and disliked the unpopular Dutch prince, the future William II who was the representative of King William I in Brussels. The French-speaking Walloons also felt ostracised in a majority Dutch speaking country. There were also significant religious grievances felt by the majority Catholic Belgians in a nation controlled by the Dutch Protestants. Order was restored briefly after William committed troops to the Southern Provinces but rioting continued and leadership was taken up by radicals, who started talking of secession.Dutch units saw the mass desertion of recruits from the southern provinces, and pulled out. The States-General in Brussels voted in favour of secession and declared independence.


A romantic view of the Belgian Revolution


King Leopold I of Saxe-Coburgh Gotha, King of the Belgians

The resulting 1830 London Conference of major European powers recognized independence to all Belgian provinces who had rebelled against the Dutch Crown... meaning they could keep the whole of Luxemburg and OTL Dutch Limburg but not Zeelandic Flanders, also the City of Maastricht was to become a Dutch exclave. Following the installation of Leopold I as "King of the Belgians" in 1831, King William made a belated military attempt to reconquer Belgium and restore his position through a military campaign. This "Ten Days' Campaign" failed because of Anglo-French military intervention, which ended with a British occupation of The Hague where he was forced to recognize Belgian Independence and punished by having to cede Zeelandic Flanders. William however refused to do so until 1835, when a British blockade finally persuaded him to do so.


The British Navy blockade off the Dutch coast

Minor POD; with Maastricht being a Dutch exclave, the capital of the (all Belgian) province of Limburg became Venlo, because of its historical context of being the capital of Spanish Guelders. Also for its historical context as a portcity for Bruges, the municipality of Sluis went from the Province of Oost-Vlaanderen to West-Vlaanderen.

Since both King Leopold I and his son Prince Leopold II considered Northern Brabant to be rightful belgian territory, King Leopold I tasked his son Leopold II with secret mission to prepare an invasion of The Netherlands. Leopold II's spy however was caught while passing through Maastricht with maps and drawing of the Dutch river fortification. Late 1855, King Willem III launched a precautionary attack on Belgium.


Dutch gunships on the Scheldt bombarding Antwerp

Intially Belgium stood without allies as both the French and British were busy with the Crimean War. The Dutch had Naval superiority with Antwerp being bombarded by Dutch gunships on the Scheldt River and the coast being besieged by the Dutch Navy, Belgium had a better funded Army which gave them the force needed to conquer Maastricht and Eindhoven before the British joined their side in March 1856 when the Crimean war was over. The British Navy soon made quick work of the Dutch Navy and the Battle-hardened Crimean War veterans, together with the Belgian Army, soon had a great portion of the Netherlands conquered.


Prince Leopold II leads his Belgian troops into Maastricht

The resulting Treaty of Cleves made the Netherlands sign that they had violated Belgian neutrality as the British believed the Belgian in denying that they had plans to invade the Netherlands first. The Treaty made them cede most of Northern Brabant to Belgium (the Netherlands were allowed to keep the Western Breda portion) ; Friesland was, while remaining at the same time a province of the Netherlands, made a member of the German Confederation and Maastricht was declared a Principality in Personal Union with the Netherlands.

In 1865 the Virton Crisis took place. It started when French troops coming from back from a night patrol along the Franco-Prussian Border at the Mossele mistook the Belgian city of Virton for the French city of Longwy. At the Franco-Belgian border they killed Belgian Customs officers after they had fired a warning shot in the air. Thinking France had fallen to a revolution against Napoleon III, they rounded up the men of Virton (which they still thought was Longwy) and fusilladed them for rebelling before riding to Paris. When Leopold I heard this, he was furious: sending message to his diplomat in Paris to prepare for war and arresting and executing the French Ambassador in Brussels. Britain however stepped in and made the two countries discuss a diplomatic solution. Belgian initial demand to cede Thionville (thus partially undoing the First partition of Luxemburg) were denied and they were forced to settle with a recognition of Flemish in the departement Dêule and a stop to Francification of the departement.


The French patrol fusillading the men of Virton

The recognition of Flemish in the departement Dêule helped fuel the Anti-Prussian sentiment the French had more. In aftermath of the Virton Crisis revanchism reached boiling point and Napoleon III ordered a battle plan to be made up to reconquer the lost Alsace Region. The French battle plan suggested a secondary attack against the unsuspecting Rhine Province through Belgium would cripple Prussian economy and war waging ability. In case Belgium would resist a French demand to use their territory freely, they made up a plan that would return the Namur, Liége and Luxemburg provinces under French rule and make the rest of Belgium a French puppet state. in 1866 Napoleon III passed laws to make free funding for French army and navy in preparation of this conflict to come.

In July of 1870 declared war on Prussia and its allies. about a week into the Franco-Prussia war, Belgium was given an ultimatum to either grant French troops free entrance into its territory on the way to the Rhine Province or to face a French occupation. King Leopold II refused the ultimatum and ordered the Army to set up defensive positions. The might of the French Army however was to big and the Belgian army retreated to the Scheldt river.


The French advance throughout Belgium

Britain in honoring its agreement with Belgium to help retain their independence as stated in the 1835 agreement, sent their British Continental Forces stationed in Calais to help the Belgians. Napoleon III was aware that a war with Britain could not be won and ordered the army to hold positions on the Belgian Front and to not engage with British forces. The British Continental Force had quickly occupied the departements Scarpe, Dêule and Escaut and the Belgians were able to reconquer the Western half of Hainaut. London, eager to resolve this disputed diplomatically, also order their BCF as well as their Belgian allies to hold all military action; leading in a stalemate.


French troops take their position in Oudenaarde as a result of the stalemate

Meanwhile in Paris, Napoleon III acted his backup plan for the Prussia occupation and sent a ultimatum to Switzerland. Switzerland gave in to the ultimatum but not after warning Berlin about it and also opening their borders for the Germans. In a furious reaction Napoleon III ordered the French speaking portion of Switzerland to be „liberated for the pro-German Swiss government” and created the Romandie puppet state. However Prussia and its allies swept through Lorraine and Romandie al the way to Paris. Where they forced the French government, who had fallen without leadership since Napoleon III fled to Orléans, to engage in peace talks with the now German Empire and the British. in the following Congress of Barcelona Napoleon III was disposed of, the entire Opale Coast was ceded to British Calais, Belgian Territory was restored, the departements Dêule (added to Zuid-Vlaanderen) and Escaut (added to Hainaut) and the municipality of Thionville (added to Luxemburg) were ceded to Belgium and a plans were made for a partitioning of Switzerland with the German Empire.


The French clash with the Prussians near Solothurn, Switzerland

The treaty of Turin of 1874 sealed the Swiss partition. Romandy was annexed by the French; Basel, Aargau, Zurich, Schaffhausen and Thurgau were annexed by the Germans; Geneva, Ticino and Italian speaking municipalities in Graubunden were given to Italie. The rest remained Swiss.
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