The Intellectual Origins of the Belgian Revolution: Political Thought and Disunity in the Kingdom of the Netherlands, 1815-1830

Description

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. Front Matter ....Pages i-viii Introduction (Stefaan Marteel)....Pages 1-35 Front Matter ....Pages 37-37 Political Debates in the Wake of the Declaration of the Constitution: The Legitimacy Problem and the Preliminaries of a Liberal Opposition (Stefaan Marteel)....Pages 39-65 Opposition Against National Uniformity and for Limited Government (Stefaan Marteel)....Pages 67-92 Monarchical Government, Opposition and a Divided Political Nation (Stefaan Marteel)....Pages 93-120 Front Matter ....Pages 121-121 Political Catholicism in the Southern Netherlands Between the Ancien Régime and the Restoration (Stefaan Marteel)....Pages 123-147 Ancient and Modern Rights: Continuity and Discontinuity in Catholic Political Thought After 1814 (Stefaan Marteel)....Pages 149-189 Front Matter ....Pages 191-191 A Union of Catholicism and Liberalism (Stefaan Marteel)....Pages 193-225 The Reception of French Catholic Thought: Towards a New Intellectual Matrix (Stefaan Marteel)....Pages 227-248 Towards Belgian Nationalism and a National Revolution (Stefaan Marteel)....Pages 249-277 Conclusion and Epilogue: The Belgian Constitution and Post-revolutionary Politics (Stefaan Marteel)....Pages 279-312 Back Matter ....Pages 313-319