Description

The Austrian Netherlands was the larger part of the Southern Netherlands between 1714 and 1797. It was a noncontiguous territory that consisted of what is now western Belgium as well as greater Luxembourg, bisected by the Prince-Bishopric of Liège.

The Brabant Revolution, sometimes referred to as the Belgian Revolution of 1789–90 in older writing, was an armed insurrection that occurred in the Austrian Netherlands between October 1789 and December 1790. The revolution, which occurred at the same time as revolutions in France and Liège, led to the brief overthrow of Habsburg rule and the proclamation of a short-lived polity, the United Belgian States, through the unification of the region's federated states.

By mid-1790, Habsburg Austria ended its war with the Ottoman Empire and prepared to suppress the Brabant revolutionaries. The new Holy Roman Emperor, Leopold II, a liberal like his predecessor, proposed an amnesty for the rebels. After a Statist army was overcome at the Battle of Falmagne, the territory was quickly overrun by Imperial forces, and the revolution was defeated by December.

The coinage of the United Belgian States was only produced during the state's one-year existence in 1790 but provided a strong numismatic influence for the coinage of Belgium after its independence in 1830. The coinage was issued in eight denominations divided into Liards, Sols, and Florins.