The formation of a provisional national government on 26 September was followed on 4 October by a Belgian declaration of independence and then by the calling of a national Congress. Demonstrating the enduring influence of the American Revolution in European political thought, the Congress issued a ringing condemnation of the Dutch government for reducing Belgium to the status of a colony, accompanied by ‘the despotic imposition of a privileged language’ and ‘taxes, overwhelming in their amount, and still more in the manner in which they were apportioned’.
