Treaty of London, 1839

Categories: Treaties | History of Belgium | World War I

The Treaty of London of 1839, also called the Convention of 1839, was signed on April 19, 1839. In this treaty, the European powers recognised the independence and neutrality of Belgium. Its main historical significance was Article VII, which required Belgium to remain perpetually neutral, and by implication committed the signatory powers to guard that neutrality in the event of invasion.

Territorial consequences of the treaty

Since 1815, Belgium had been a part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. With the treaty, the southern provinces of the Netherlands became the Kingdom of Belgium, while the province of Limburg was split into Belgian and Dutch parts. The same happened to the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg which in turn was split into a Belgian part and the current Grand Duchy which was under a personal union with the Netherlands under King William III until 1867. Zeeuws-Vlaanderen was detached from Belgium as well and became part of the Dutch province of Zeeland because the Dutch didn't want Belgium to have co-control of the Scheldt estuarium. In return they had to guarantee the free navigation on the Scheldt into the Port of Antwerp.

The Treaty of London also guaranteed Belgium the right of transit by rail or canal over Dutch territory as an outway to the German Ruhr. This became actual again in 2005 when on May 24, 2005 the Permanent Court of Arbitration reaffirmed this right in a dispute between Belgium and the Netherlands on the Ijzeren Rijn railway track.

Significance of the Treaty

Belgium's de facto independence had been established through nine years of intermittent fighting, the Belgian Revolution. The signatories of the treaty (the United Kingdom, Austria, France, Prussia, Russia, and the Netherlands) now officially recognized the independent Kingdom of Belgium, and (at the United Kingdom's insistence) agreed to its neutrality.

The treaty was an important document, especially in its role in expanding World War I. The German government asked the British government, in 1914, to ignore the "scrap of paper" compelling the UK to guard Belgium's neutrality. Britain refused, and eventually, Germany invaded Belgium. At that point, British Prime Minister Herbert Henry Asquith declared war on August 4 of the same year.

See also

• Treaty of London, a list of other treaties of London.