Background
In early 1814 Napoleon I of France's empire was reeling under the onslaught of the Allies. The Netherlands, annexed to the Empire by the Rambouillet Decree of July 9, 1810, had already been evacuated by the French occupation troops. In that country power had been assumed by the eldest son of the late last Stadtholder of the former Dutch Republic on December 6, 1813, under the new title "Sovereign Prince." In the former Austrian Netherlands, conquered by France in 1794 and annexed in 1795, the Allies made quick progress also. This presented the problem of what to do with this country. The thirty most prominent families of Brussels expressed the wish to restore the old Governorate-general of the Austrians, and this was provisionally instituted by the Allies in February, 1814, as their military government. However, Austria itself expressed little interest in resuming its rule. Therefore the Allies in the secret annexes to the Treaty of Chaumont provisionally apportioned the country to the new Dutch state. This was further formalized in the Treaty of Paris of May 30, 1814, in which Belgium on the left bank of the river Meuse was apportioned to the (future) Netherlands (whereas the fate of the right bank area was to determined later). How this was to be structured was, however, still to be decided, while certain expectations had been raised by the representatives of the Belgian people at Chaumont in February, that also needed to be honored in some way. These "loose ends" were taken care of in the protocol that came to be known as "The Eight Articles of London."
Read more about this topic: Eight Articles Of London
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