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RealityLicks -> RE: Anarchy in Western Europe (11/14/2007 4:17:56 PM)
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Belgium as a region goes back to Celtic times. I have checked and am happy to stand by the assertion that Britain set the region up as an independent state. It may well have been a behind the scenes role but the French were in no position to argue after the fall of Napoleon and no other great power had an obvious strategic advantage to be gained by its existence. Prussia would not have welcomed an open back door for the British, but both signed the Treaty in London in 1830. It certainly wasn't set up in 1815 at Vienna. That was about unifying it with Holland - as the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
I'd guess that having a Saxe-Coburg-Gotha on the throne in the form of Leopold I calmed the Germans doubts, anyway. But that is also a clear link to Britain.
I used to fall asleep in History at school talking about this stuff and feel extremely nerdish discussing it now. But hey, its a dead Wednesday in November.
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