After 15 years of perceived misrule and growing opposition, the southern provinces of the Kingdom rebelled in August 1830, beginning the Belgian Revolution.

Believing that the Belgians could be pacified and encouraged to abandon their insurrection through negotiation, the Dutch king William I attempted to prevent confrontations with his troops which could radicalise the insurgents.

[9] Therefore, when William learned that the revolutionary National Congress had asked Leopold of Saxe-Coburg to become King of the Belgians, he began to prepare his invasion.

[3] The Belgian army across the border numbered just 24,000, including both regular soldiers and the poorly-trained and equipped militia units of the Garde Civique.

Sylvain Van de Weyer was sent to attempt to solicit support from Great Britain while François Lehon was sent to France.

[11] Although the British government was reluctant to send troops to support Belgium, the French immediately dispatched a force without informing the other Great Powers.

[12] The movement of French troops into Belgium particularly worried the British, who felt that it could represent a threat to Europe's balance of power.

Although the Dutch population, especially the Protestants, rejoiced over the victorious campaign against the "Belgian rebels", King William reluctantly accepted that his dream of a United Netherlands was lost.

The resulting Treaty of XXIV Articles ceded territory occupied by the Belgians, including parts of Limburg and Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, to the Netherlands and imposed various economic restraints on Belgium.

[9] The King of the Netherlands, refusing to abandon the citadel at Antwerp, ordered the Dutch General David Hendrik Chassé to hold it at all costs.

From the citadel, Chassé bombarded the city of Antwerp, setting fire to hundreds of homes and causing many casualties among the civilian population.

The French commander had wanted to conduct the siege alone, fearing the volunteers would spread the idea of revolution beyond the borders of Belgium.

The Dutch finally signed the Treaty of XXIV Articles in 1839, effectively recognising Belgium's de facto independence.

In his Histoire de Belgique series, the Belgian historian Henri Pirenne argued that, despite acts of individual bravery, "the weakness of the resistance was such that the advance of the victors almost resembled a military parade.