Book contents
- Frontmatter
- CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
- CHAPTER II ECONOMIC CHANGE IN ENGLAND AND EUROPE, 1780–1830
- CHAPTER III ARMED FORCES AND THE ART OF WAR
- CHAPTER IV REVOLUTIONARY INFLUENCES AND CONSERVATISM IN LITERATURE AND THOUGHT
- CHAPTER V SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
- CHAPTER VI RELIGION: CHURCH AND STATE IN EUROPE AND THE AMERICAS
- CHAPTER VII EDUCATION, AND PUBLIC OPINION
- CHAPTER VIII SOME ASPECTS OF THE ARTS IN EUROPE
- CHAPTER IX THE BALANCE OF POWER DURING THE WARS, 1793–1814
- CHAPTER X THE INTERNAL HISTORY OF FRANCE DURING THE WARS, 1793–1814
- CHAPTER XI THE NAPOLEONIC ADVENTURE
- CHAPTER XII FRENCH POLITICS, 1814–471
- CHAPTER XIII GERMAN CONSTITUTIONAL AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT, 1795–1830
- CHAPTER XIV THE AUSTRIAN MONARCHY, 1792–1847
- CHAPTER XV ITALY, 1793–1830
- CHAPTER XVI SPAIN AND PORTUGAL, 1793 TO c. 1840
- CHAPTER XVII LOW COUNTRIES AND SCANDINAVIA
- A THE LOW COUNTRIES
- B THE SCANDINAVIA
- CHAPTER XVIII RUSSIA, 1798–1825
- CHAPTER XIX THE NEAR EAST AND THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE, 1798–1830
- CHAPTER XX EUROPE'S RELATIONS WITH SOUTH AND SOUTH-EAST Asia
- CHAPTER XXI EUROPE'S ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL RELATIONS WITH TROPICAL AFRICA
- CHAPTER XXII THE UNITED STATES AND THE OLD WORLD, 1794–1828
- CHAPTER XXIII THE EMANCIPATION OF LATIN AMERICA
- CHAPTER XXIV THE FINAL COALITION AND THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA, 1813–15
- CHAPTER XXV INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, 1815–30
- APPENDIX Note on the French Republican Calendar
- References
A - THE LOW COUNTRIES
from CHAPTER XVII - LOW COUNTRIES AND SCANDINAVIA
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008
- Frontmatter
- CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
- CHAPTER II ECONOMIC CHANGE IN ENGLAND AND EUROPE, 1780–1830
- CHAPTER III ARMED FORCES AND THE ART OF WAR
- CHAPTER IV REVOLUTIONARY INFLUENCES AND CONSERVATISM IN LITERATURE AND THOUGHT
- CHAPTER V SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
- CHAPTER VI RELIGION: CHURCH AND STATE IN EUROPE AND THE AMERICAS
- CHAPTER VII EDUCATION, AND PUBLIC OPINION
- CHAPTER VIII SOME ASPECTS OF THE ARTS IN EUROPE
- CHAPTER IX THE BALANCE OF POWER DURING THE WARS, 1793–1814
- CHAPTER X THE INTERNAL HISTORY OF FRANCE DURING THE WARS, 1793–1814
- CHAPTER XI THE NAPOLEONIC ADVENTURE
- CHAPTER XII FRENCH POLITICS, 1814–471
- CHAPTER XIII GERMAN CONSTITUTIONAL AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT, 1795–1830
- CHAPTER XIV THE AUSTRIAN MONARCHY, 1792–1847
- CHAPTER XV ITALY, 1793–1830
- CHAPTER XVI SPAIN AND PORTUGAL, 1793 TO c. 1840
- CHAPTER XVII LOW COUNTRIES AND SCANDINAVIA
- A THE LOW COUNTRIES
- B THE SCANDINAVIA
- CHAPTER XVIII RUSSIA, 1798–1825
- CHAPTER XIX THE NEAR EAST AND THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE, 1798–1830
- CHAPTER XX EUROPE'S RELATIONS WITH SOUTH AND SOUTH-EAST Asia
- CHAPTER XXI EUROPE'S ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL RELATIONS WITH TROPICAL AFRICA
- CHAPTER XXII THE UNITED STATES AND THE OLD WORLD, 1794–1828
- CHAPTER XXIII THE EMANCIPATION OF LATIN AMERICA
- CHAPTER XXIV THE FINAL COALITION AND THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA, 1813–15
- CHAPTER XXV INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, 1815–30
- APPENDIX Note on the French Republican Calendar
- References
Summary
The Low Countries did not remain unperturbed by the political unrest which affected Europe at the end of the eighteenth century. Both halves of them were involved in the 1780's in reform movements, some aspects of which were forerunners of the French revolutionary ideas.
Dutch intervention in the American War of Independence (1780–4) had only brought the United Provinces economic losses and a feeling of impotence. The naval reverses they suffered were imputed to the stadholder William V's neglect, and gave new impetus to the opposition against the hereditary stadholderate, restored in 1747. At the same time, certain quarters, inspired by the ideology of Enlightenment, criticised also with increased vigour the inefficiency of the selfish urban oligarchies, upon which the whole system of provincial and federal representative assemblies was based, and demanded actual elections by the substantial citizens instead of de facto cooption of magistrates. Thus, at the very beginning, the ‘Patriot’ movement was split into two wings: a conservative one whose sole aim it was to count the stadholder out and revest the plenitude of authority in the patrician oligarchy, and a democratic one which intended a limited progressive reform of power. The latter was the more active. It even organised militias to resist, if need be, the stadholder's standing troops. The Conservatives used them at first for their own purpose as a pressure group against the stadholder. However, their unnatural alliance could not last. It broke down after the Democrats had seized power in Utrecht in 1785 and increased elsewhere their influence so as to counterbalance the Conservatives.
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- Information
- The New Cambridge Modern History , pp. 462 - 480Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1965