|
|
“Nurse and Baby”
Nurse Holland (dangling Baby Luxemburg). "It's no use, Jentlemans, she vill not go to no vone."
This
unsigned Harper’s Weekly cartoon depicts the birth of
Luxembourg as an independent nation.
King Willem III of Holland cradles the infant Luxembourg, for
which he has been grand duke, while Napoleon III of France and Wilhelm I
of Prussia futilely try to gain the baby’s attention and affection
with baubles emblematic of their respective nations.
Authority over the small area
called Luxembourg, strategically nestled between France and Germany,
shifted over the centuries between various governing entities:
the Holy Roman Empire, Belgium, the Spanish Netherlands, the
Austrian Hapsburgs, and France. At
the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, the Congress of Vienna
designated Luxembourg as a Grand Duchy and placed it under the auspices
of King Willem I of the Netherlands.
Under this international agreement, the status of Luxembourg was
complex, if not contradictory. It
was officially independent, yet was the personal possession of the Dutch
monarch and was part of the German Confederation, thus quartering a
Prussian military garrison in its capital.
King Willem I, however,
ignored other aspects of the accord and levied high taxes on Luxembourg
as a conquered land, causing its standard of living to decline.
In retaliation, Luxembourgians supported the Belgian rebellion
against Willem in 1830, after which Belgium announced its assimilation
of the duchy. With Willem I
still claiming sovereignty, a Great Powers conference the next year
reaffirmed Luxembourg as a member of the German Confederation.
The conference also divided sovereignty between Willem, who got
the Luxembourgian-speaking region, and Belgium, which received the
French-speaking portion. Although
Belgium readily agreed, Willem I did not accept the settlement until
1839.
Willem II granted Luxembourg
its own limited constitution in 1841 and a more liberal one in 1848 that
allowed a representative legislature.
The Netherlands also ratified a trade treaty with Prussia in 1842
that made Luxembourg part of the Prussian Customs Union and transformed
the country from an agricultural to an industrial region.
In 1850, Willem III named his son as Luxembourg’s governor, and
Prince Henry moved the Grand Duchy steadily toward independence.
Despite the economic partnership with Prussia, most
Luxembourgians did not favor political union with Germany.
French culture exerted increased influence with the educated
middle class in Luxembourg, but nationalistic sentiments outweighed
thoughts of political alliance with France.
In the wake of the
Austro-Prussian War of 1866, the old German Confederation dissolved and
Luxembourg was consequently no longer beholden to Prussia, although the
military garrison remained. The
status of the Grand Duchy once again became the focus of European power
politics. In an effort to
appease Prussia and keep control of the province of Limburg (formerly
aligned with the old German Confederation), the Dutch king was willing
to relinquish his remaining authority over Luxembourg.
Meanwhile, the enmity between France and Prussia, which would
finally erupt in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, prodded both
nations to seek control over the Grand Duchy.
Willem III agreed to sell Luxembourg to Napoleon III (note the
“for sale” poster in the cartoon), but relented after pressure from
Chancellor Otto von Bismarck of Prussia.
As tensions rose between France and Prussia,
diplomats from other European nations, primarily Great Britain,
intervened to bring the parties to the negotiating table.
On May 11, 1867, an international accord recognized
Luxembourg’s status as an independent and perpetually neutral state
and stipulated the withdrawal of the Prussian garrison.
The Dutch royal house of Nassau remained as the titular rulers,
but essentially refrained from interfering in Luxembourg’s internal
affairs. Luxembourg was occupied by Germany in World War I and II, and
in 1949 gave up its official neutrality by joining NATO.
Robert C. Kennedy
|
|
|
