Treaty of London, 1839

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The Treaty of London of 1839, also called the Convention of 1839, was signed on 19 April 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.

[edit] 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 did not want Belgium to have co-control of the Scheldt estuary. 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 right was reaffirmed in a 24 May 2005 ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in a dispute between Belgium and the Netherlands on the Iron Rhine railway track.

[edit] 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 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 Germans 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 infamously exclaimed that he could not believe that Britain and Germany would be going to war over a mere "scrap of paper."

In reality, the German invasion lead to Britain's decision to go to war for reasons that were felt in Britain to be more significant: it was considered inconceivable that Germany, with her expanding Navy, should be allowed to control Belgium's sea ports.

This much was apparent; on 2 August, Kaiser William II actually asked Moltke to cancel the invasion in order to keep Britain out of the war.