Pre-Revolutionary Provinces in a Post-Napoleonic State. Piecing Together the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, 1813-1815

Brecht Deseure; Diederik Smit

doi:10.18352/bmgn-lchr.10589

Author(s)

Brecht Deseure Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
Diederik Smit Leiden University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18352/bmgn-lchr.10589

Keywords:

citizenship

Abstract

The United Kingdom of the Netherlands was a state of contrasts. Not only did its political system combine elements from the Old Regime with the modern, postrevolutionary Napoleonic administration; it also brought together two territories with very different political backgrounds. This article explores how the new regime in the Netherlands dealt with these contrasts by focusing on the establishment of the provinces in the years 1813-1815. It argues that the appropriation of pre-modern institutions and sentiments by the authorities in post-Napoleonic Europe was an important asset for the development of the new unitary state, but that at the same time a regionally differentiated approach was indispensable to lending this policy credibility.

This article is part of the special issue 'Political Change and Civic Continuities in the Age of Revolutions'.

Het Verenigd Koninkrijk der Nederlanden was een staat vol tegenstellingen. Niet alleen verenigde het elementen uit het Ancien Régime met een modern, Napoleontisch bestuursapparaat, ook bracht het gebiedsdelen samen met geheel verschillende politieke achtergronden. Dit artikel verkent hoe het nieuwe bewind in de Nederlanden omging met deze tegenstellingen door de aandacht te vestigen op de herinrichting van de provincies in de jaren 1814-1815. Het laat zien dat voor de nieuwe bestuurders de toe-eigening van vroegmoderne instellingen en gevoelens een belangrijk instrument was in het creëren van een nieuwe eenheidsstaat, maar ook dat een regiospecifieke aanpak noodzakelijk was om de geloofwaardigheid van dit beleid te waarborgen.

Dit artikel maakt deel uit van het themanummer 'Political Change and Civic Continuities in the Age of Revolutions'.

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Author Biographies

Brecht Deseure, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

Dr. Brecht Deseure (1985) is a historian specialising in the political, cultural and constitutional history of the revolutionary era in the Southern Netherlands and Belgium. His dissertation, obtained at the University of Antwerp, was on the politics of history pursued by the French revolutionary and Napoleonic governments in the Belgian departments. It was published in 2014 as Onhoudbaar verleden. Geschiedenis als politiek instrument tijdens de Franse periode in België. Recent publications include ‘The Faces of Power. History and the Legitimation of Napoleonic Rule in Belgium’, French Historical Studies 40:4 (2017) 555–585 and a special issue of the Journal for Constitutional History/Giornale di Storia Costituzionale 35:1 (2018) on the history of the Belgian Constitution, which he co-edited with Christophe Maes. He is currently employed as a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Philosophy of the KU Leuven, where he investigates the intellectual origins of the Belgian Constitution of 1831. Email: brecht.deseure@kuleuven.be.
Diederik Smit, Leiden University

Dr. Diederik Smit (1983) is a postdoctoral researcher in Dutch history at Leiden University. He studied at the University of Groningen and obtained his PhD at Leiden University in July 2015 with a thesis on the relationship between architecture and politics in the Netherlands in the 19th and 20th century (Het belang van het Binnenhof. Twee eeuwen Haagse politiek, huisvesting en herinnering, Amsterdam 2015). He co-edited a study on the institutional culture of the lower house of the Dutch parliament (In dit Huis. Twee eeuwen Tweede Kamer, Amsterdam 2015) and recently published an article on the architecture of Dutch city halls (‘De lokalen van lokaal bestuur. Nederlandse raadhuizen en raadzalen in historisch perspectief’, in: Hans Vollaard et al. (eds.), De Gemeenteraad, Amsterdam 2018). His current research project focuses on the persistence of provincial identities in the Netherlands between 1750 and 1850. This project is part of the NWO Free Competition Programme ‘The Persistence of Civic Identities in the Netherlands, 1747–1848’. Email: D.E.J.Smit@hum.leidenuniv.nl.