Treaty of London (1839)
The Treaty of London of 1839, also known as the First Treaty of London, the Convention of 1839 or the London Treaty of Separation, was a treaty that was signed on 19 April 1839 between the European great powers, the United Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Kingdom of Belgium.
The treaty was needed because the Netherlands refused to sign the 1831 Treaty of the XXIV Articles. The Treaty of London statated that Belgium was its own country, and it also confirmed the independence of the German-speaking part of Luxembourg. The most important parts of the treaty were that Belgium should always be neutral and that it would be protected by the countries that signed the treaty.[1]
The treaty is said to be one of the causes of World War I. When the German Empire invaded Belgium, the United Kingdom declared war that day, on 4 August 1914. Many countries then began to declare war on one another.
References
[change | change source]- ↑ Eric Van Hooydonk (2006). "Chapter 15: Places of Refuge for Ships: Emerging Environmental Concerns of a Maritime Custom". In Aldo E. Chircop, O. Lindén (ed.). Places of Refuge: The Belgian Experience. Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff. p. 417. ISBN 9789004149526. Retrieved 30 May 2012.
