Draft:Uprising of Brussels

The uprising of Brussels (also known as "Night at the Opera"), is the cause and start of the Belgian Revolution.

23-26 september
The attacks on 23-26 was a second invasion by the Dutch Army on Brussels.King William I attempted to restore the established order by force, but the 8,000 Dutch troops under Prince Frederik were unable to retake Brussels in bloody street fighting. The Dutch Army was withdrawn to the fortresses of Maastricht, Venlo, and Antwerp, and when the Northern commander of Antwerp bombarded the town, claiming a breach of a ceasefire, the whole of the Southern provinces was incensed. Any opportunity to quell the breach was lost on 26 September when a National Congress was summoned to draw up a Constitution and the Provisional Government was established under Charles Latour Rogier.

Aftermath
To avenge this defeat, King William I sent a larger number of troops to Belgium on August 2, 1831. This force overran the Belgian army, which consisted of a collection of partly inexperienced officers, mercenaries and rebels. After a few days the Belgians asked for an armistice. William I did not respond to this.

He wanted to beat the Belgians definitively. France decided to intervene and sent an army of 40,000 men to the Southern Netherlands. William I then withdrew his army. All in all the battle had lasted 10 days. It would take another 8 years before Willem I sulkily threw in the towel. With the Treaty of London in 1839, secession became a fact. This happened under less favorable conditions than the Belgians had offered during the Ten Days Campaign.