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The birth of Belgium

Appears in
Dark Rye and Honey Cake: Festival baking from the heart of the Low Countries
Dark Rye and Honey Cake

By Regula Ysewijn

Published 2023

  • About

The bourgeoisie of the Southern Netherlands (what is currently Belgium), Catholic and French-speaking, were looking at the French revolutions when the Republic was overthrown and replaced by a constitutional monarchy with Louis XVIII. The bourgeoisie wanted to break away from the Dutch Willem I and become independent. In 1830 an uprising broke out during a performance of La muette de Portici, an opera about a revolt in Napoli (Naples) against an unlawful (Spanish) king.

The working class in the Southern Netherlands was struggling and they blamed those in charge, so this was just a match to light the bonfire that had been sitting there waiting to be lit. This political strife is what ended the United Kingdom of the Netherlands: even though most of the people shared a language and much of a food culture, there were too many other differences – especially according to the French-speaking bourgeoisie – to unify us into one single nation.
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