ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the repeated reference to the French Revolution. Comparison with the patriotic movement in the Northern Netherlands and with the Liege Revolution might also cast a good deal of light, indirectly, on the specific nature of the revolt in the Austrian Netherlands. The Brabant Revolution is comparable only with the initial stage of the French Revolution. The ultra-conservative party that defeated Vonck's progressivist followers wished to defend the rights of the privileged classes and to perpetuate the power of the provincial estates whose composition no longer corresponded to that of contemporary society. During the Brabant Revolution riots were most frequent in villages with many cottage industries. One village was bitterly opposed to the abbey of Val-Dieu which, exceptionally for this area, owned about half the land. The privileges of the nobility and clergy, who were all-powerful in the Estates, were no longer tolerated.
