Page 49 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Belgium & Luxembourg

THE HIST OR Y OF BEL GIUM  47

scored famous victories at Ramillies (north transformed as the Place Royale and
of Namur) and Oudenaarde, which Parc de Bruxelles were laid out in
pushed France out of the Spanish a fashion able Neo-Classical style,
Netherlands. Under the 1713 which also spread to other cities.
Treaty of Utrecht, it was However, this prosperity did
ceded to Austria. not filter down to the masses.
Emperor Charles VI ruled The people lived in crowded,
Austria after Leopold, but unsanitary conditions and
failed to produce a male heir. unemployment was rife. During
His death resulted in another this time, lace became the
eight years of war, the War industry of the downtrodden.
of the Austrian Succession, to The Austrian Netherlands
resolve whether his daughter were essentially conservative
Maria Theresa should inherit The Treaty of Utrecht that ended the War of and Catholic. When Joseph II
the crown. The Austrian the Spanish Succession (r.1780–90) succeeded Maria
Netherlands (as they now Theresa, he enforced a series
were) were also drawn into the war. French of liberal reforms including freedom of
troops took Tournai, Oudenaarde, Bruges, religion. Monasteries closed, education
Dendermonde and Ghent in 1745, and was secularized and administration was
most of the country the following year. increasingly based in Vienna. These
With the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen), measures stoked up deep resentment
the French withdrew from the south ern in the citizens. In 1787, a conservative
Netherlands, and Maria Theresa’s rule was rebellion, led by the Brussels lawyer Henri
finally acknowledged. van der Noot, escalated into the Brabançon
Revolt (1787–90). The French Revolution
Boom and Revolt of 1789 further inspired a mood of
In 1744, Empress Maria Theresa installed insurrection. A battle
her sister Maria Anna of Habsburg and at Turnhout put the
her husband Charles of Lorraine as joint Austrians to flight,
governors of the Austrian Netherlands. although the revolt was
Maria Anna died in childbirth the same crushed by Austrian
year, but Charles remained governor until troops dispatched by
his death in 1780. His rule was a period Joseph’s successor,
of revival – under the influence of the Leopold II. This
Enlightenment, Charles’s court attracted episode offered a brief Maria Theresa of Austria
intellectuals and artists, and Brussels taste of independence, (1717–80)
became the most glamorous city in Europe. but Belgium had to
Industry boomed with the construction of endure further decades of foreign
new roads and waterways. Brussels was intervention before that could be achieved.

A silver thaler depicting Maria Theresa
1713 The Treaty of 1782–4 Under
Utrecht marks the 1740–48 The succession of Maria Austrian reforms,
beginning of Austrian Theresa to the throne causes the medieval walls in
rule in the Netherlands War of Austrian Succession Bruges are demolished
1700 1720 1740 1760 1780
1719 François Anneessens, 1745 French troops led by Louis XV 1790 The Republic of
a guildmaster in Brussels, invade the Austrian Netherlands United Belgium, formed by
leads a revolt against the Barbançon Revolt, is
Austrian taxes in Brussels 1744 Charles of Lorraine takes crushed by the Austrians
and is beheaded up his post as Governor of the
Austrian Netherlands Charles of Lorraine

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