Brabant Revolution

The Brabant Revolution or Brabantine Revolution (French: Révolution brabançonne, Dutch: Brabantse Omwenteling), sometimes referred to as the Belgian Revolution of 1789–90 in older writing, is an armed insurrection that occurs in the Austrian Netherlands (modern-day Belgium) between October 1789 and December 1790.

The revolution, which occurs at the same time as revolutions in France and Liège, leads to the brief overthrow of Habsburg rule and the proclamation of a short-lived polity, the United Belgian States, through the unification of the region's federated states.

The revolution is the product of opposition that emerges to the liberal reforms of Emperor Joseph II in the 1780s.

These are perceived as an attack on the Catholic Church and the traditional institutions in the Austrian Netherlands

Resistance, focused in the autonomous and wealthy Estates of Brabant and Flanders, grows.

In the aftermath of rioting and disruption, known as the Small Revolution, in 1787, many dissidents take refuge in the neighboring Dutch Republic where they form a rebel army.

Soon after the outbreak of the French and Liège revolutions, the émigré army crosses into the Austrian Netherlands and decisively defeats the Austrians at the Battle of Turnhout in October 1789

The rebels, supported by uprisings across the territory, soon take control over virtually all the Southern Netherlands and proclaim independence.

Despite the tacit support of Prussia, the independent United Belgian States, established in January 1790, receives no foreign recognition and the rebels soon become divided along ideological lines.

The Vonckists, led by Jan Frans Vonck, advocate progressive and liberal government, whereas the Statists, led by Hendrik Van der Noot, are staunchly conservative and supported by the Church.

The Statists, who have a wider base of support, soon drive the Vonckists into exile through a terror.

By mid-1790, Habsburg Austria ends its war with the Ottoman Empire and prepares to suppress the Brabant revolutionaries.

he new Holy Roman Emperor, Leopold II, a liberal like his predecessor, proposes an amnesty for the rebels.

After a Statist army is overcome at the Battle of Falmagne, the territory is quickly overrun by Imperial forces, and the revolution is defeated by December.

The Austrian reestablishment is short-lived, however, and the territory is soon overrun by the French during the French Revolutionary Wars.

Because of its distinctive course, the Brabant Revolution has been extensively used in historical comparisons with the French Revolution.

Some historians, following Henri Pirenne, will see it as a key moment in the formation of a Belgian nation-state, and an influence on the Belgian Revolution of 1830.

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