Talleyrand partition plan for Belgium
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After the Belgian revolution of 1830, the Great Powers were divided over the Belgian cry for independence. France was in favour of the secession, hoping to annex all or at least part of the area. Whatever the reasons for the opposition may have been, the principal aim of most of the leaders of the insurgents seems to have been the reunion of Belgium to France. After this project had been rejected by the other European Powers, which supported the continued union of the Netherlands, Charles Maurice de Talleyrand, French ambassador to the United Kingdom, proposed a partition of the (Southern) Netherlands.
- the province of Antwerp - except the city of Antwerp itself - and the province of Limburg, west of the Meuse river - except Maastricht - would remain to the Netherlands, as was a small part of the province of Brabant, the former Oranje Lordship of Diest,
- the parts of the provinces of Liège, of Limburg and of Namur east of the Meuse river as well as the cities of Maastricht and Liège and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg would go to Prussia,
- part of the province of East Flanders, nearly all of the province of Brabant, the province of Hainaut and the province of Namur west of the Meuse would be assigned France,
- West Flanders, most of East Flanders, including Zeeuws-Vlaanderen, and the city of Antwerp were to form the Free State of Antwerp, under British protection. It would have been more or less a restored County of Flanders at the river Scheldt.
In the end the Powers accepted the idea of an independent Belgian state.
