A history of Belgium from the Roman invasion to the present day . ceforthknown as Flanders of the States, ensured theirposition on the left bank of the stream, that ofNorth Brabant with Bergen-op-Zoom, Breda andBois-le-Duc, ensured the protection of their centralprovinces, while Maestricht, together with Fauque-mont, Daelhem and Rolduc, secured their posi-tion on the Meuse. These were purely strategicannexations, prompted by strategic motives andby the desire to keep a firm hold on some keypositions from which the United Provinces couldcheck any attack, either from Spain or fromFrance, with th
A history of Belgium from the Roman invasion to the present day . ceforthknown as Flanders of the States, ensured theirposition on the left bank of the stream, that ofNorth Brabant with Bergen-op-Zoom, Breda andBois-le-Duc, ensured the protection of their centralprovinces, while Maestricht, together with Fauque-mont, Daelhem and Rolduc, secured their posi-tion on the Meuse. These were purely strategicannexations, prompted by strategic motives andby the desire to keep a firm hold on some keypositions from which the United Provinces couldcheck any attack, either from Spain or fromFrance, with the least effort. By the treaty of the Pyrenees PhiUp IV aban-doned to France the whole of Artois and a seriesof fortified positions in Southern Flanders, Hainault,Namur and Luxemburg. These latter demandswere prompted by an evident desire to extendFrench territory towards the Netherlands and toobtain a position which should afford a goodstarting-point for such extension. The treaties of Miinster and of the Pyreneeshad, broadly speaking, determined the new status. PROJECTS OF PARTITION 237 of the Southern provinces, considerably dimin-ished to comply with the wishes and the interestsof the United Provinces and of France. Thisstatus was not considerably altered by the suc-cession of wars which took place during thesecond half of the seventeenth century and theearly years of the eighteenth, and which endedby the substitution of Austrian for Spanish was, however, considered as provisional byLouis XIV, whose territorial ambitions extendedfar beyond Walloon Flanders, and, before obtain-ing the right to live within her new frontiers,Belgium had still to undergo the ordeal of fivedevastating wars. At the time of the death of Philip IV (1665),the Southern provinces, impoverished and inade-quately defended, were an easy prey to foreignterritorial greed. The Dutch Grand Pensioner DeWitt returned to the old plan of 1634, wherebyHolland and France should agree to the constitu-tion of
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, bookpublishernewyo, bookyear1921
