ABSTRACT

When originally published in 1945 this book was the first to give a detailed account, based largely upon original sources, of the ‘Scheldt Question’ from its medieval origins to the settlement of 1839 and to set it against an adequate background of political and economic history. The river Scheldt, the waterway giving access to the port of Antwerp which was so much in the news during the Allied liberation of Belgium and Holland was for centuries the subject of an international question in which all the leading states of Europe were at different times involved. The later part of the book is based on archival researches including the private papers of Lord Palmerston.

chapter |5 pages

Introduction

The River Scheldt and the “Scheldt Question”

part One|76 pages

Origins, 1200–1572

chapter Chapter One|25 pages

To the Close of the Fourteenth Century

chapter |30 pages

(Chapter Two) The Fifteenth Century

chapter Chapter Three|20 pages

The “Golden Age”

part Two|25 pages

The Closure, 1572–1780

chapter Chapter Four|25 pages

The Eighty Years’ War, 1572–1648

chapter Chapter Five

The Munster Regime, 1648–1780

part Three|93 pages

The Reopening, 1780–1839

chapter Chapter Six|17 pages

The End of the Closure, 1780–1830

chapter Chapter Seven|27 pages

The Belgian Revolution and the Treaty of November 1831

chapter Chapter Eight|21 pages

The Theme of Lord Palmerston

chapter Chapter Nine|27 pages

The Convention of May 1833 and the Treaties of April 1839