What was the impact of the Belgian Revolution on the rest of Europe?

Answer

Even before the Belgian revolution, 1830 was a year of liberal and nationalist revolutions against conservative governments:

• France: the July Revolution, in which Charles X was deposed and replaced by his cousin Louis-Phillipe, ‘le roi citoyen’ – and inspiration for Delacroix’ painting ‘La Liberté guidant le Peuple’.
• Belgium: the September revolution that actually broke out in August.
• Poland: the November uprising of officers in Congress Poland against the personal union with Russia, and against the conservative repression of Nicholas I after the liberal experiments of Grand Duke Constantine; an uprising that failed.
• Switzerland: The December Ustertag meeting decided to adopt a more liberal constitution with a federal form of government to replace the post-Napoleon ‘restoration’ constitution.
• Italy: From February to April 1831, United Italian Provinces existed in central Italy, captured from the Papal States and the Duchies of Parma and Modena, until they were captured by Austrian troops.
• Brazil: in March-April 1831 Emperor Pedro I, himself a liberal, was forced to abdicate by radical liberals and conservatives

Most of these reforms were achieved through mob violence or even coups – only in Switzerland were peaceful protest rallies and processions. There was not much direct influence, in the sense of insurgents who rushed to each other’s aid elsewhere in Europe. It was a broader political movement of romantic nationalism, which inspired one another with a mixture of liberalism, ideas about constitutional freedoms and parliamentary power, and aversion to everything the Congress of Vienna had decreed 15 years earlier. 18 years later a similar, but even stronger wave of revolution would pass through Europe, with insurgents supporting each other. Except for Belgium, which remained calm in 1848 except in Risquons-Tout. Some parts of Europe also remained very calm in 1830, especially in the German Confederation (only the Duke of Braunschweig was expelled), Austria and Great Britain.

The French and Belgian uprisings were the proverbial drops that caused the Polish revolution to overflow. Congress Poland had a fairly liberal constitution, with guaranteed autonomy and its own parliament, but the reigning monarchs (the Tsar and brother the Grand Prince) repeatedly flouted it. This also happened at the end of November 1830, when they also wanted to call in the Polish army for an invasion of Belgium and France, in clear violation of the Polish constitution. So Polish army officers stormed the palace…

Nevertheless, the Belgian Revolution of 1830 did have an impact in the longer term. The constitution of 1831, which mixed parliamentary democracy with monarchy, and basically molded the British polity into a written constitution, was copied and modified several times later decades later:

• Spain in 1837
• Greece in 1844
• Piedmont-Sardinia, Netherlands and Luxembourg in 1848
• Denmark in 1849
• Prussia in 1850
• Bulgaria in 1864
• Romania in 1866