Treaty of London (1839) - Chiffon de Papier

Chiffon De Papier

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 recognised 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 bringing about World War I. When the German Empire invaded Belgium in August 1914 in violation of the treaty, the British declared war on 4 August. Informed by the British ambassador that Britain would go to war with Germany over the latter's violation of Belgian neutrality, German Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg exclaimed that he could not believe that Britain and Germany would be going to war over a mere 'scrap of paper' (French: chiffon de papier).

Although the British media played up the "Rape of Belgium", in reality, the German invasion led to Britain's decision to go to war for reasons that were felt by the British government to be more significant: it was considered inconceivable that Germany, with her expanding navy, should be allowed to control Belgium's sea ports. On August 2, Kaiser William II unsuccessfully asked General Moltke to cancel the invasion in order to keep Britain out of the war. At the same time, the German armies also invaded Luxembourg, whose neutrality had been guaranteed by the great powers under the Treaty of London (1867).