Belgium, Brussels.
This was once one of Europe's most prosperous commercial cities, and one of the regions whose economy had grown fastest, surpassed only by Luxembourg.
However, when the War of Luxembourg's Restoration began, Belgium lost vast tracts of territory. The Netherlands reclaimed the entire Flanders Region, West Luxembourg returned to Luxembourg, and Namur and Liège became the Duchy of Liège.
Four-fifths of the country had fallen, and the remaining fifth had become a French protectorate.
While Louis Philippe was still on the throne, the French king had to save face, after all, Belgium's king—or Archduke—Leopold I was his son-in-law.
The French officials had not dared cause trouble, if only out of consideration for the Crown Princess. But times had changed.
Having lost its access to the sea, Belgium now depended entirely on the French market, and the French clearly had no intention of letting the Belgians earn a share of the profits.
France wanted markets and cheap labor.
On top of that, the economic crisis had caused Belgian businesses to collapse in droves, leaving masses of workers unemployed and agriculture in even worse shape.
Belgium was one of the European countries hit hardest by Potato Late Blight, and repeated natural and man-made disasters had brought harvests close to total ruin.
Industries lay in decay, and the people were barely scraping by. Those were the words that best described Belgium at the time.
To make matters worse, after the House of Orleans fell, the French Provisional Government chose to stop pretending to be human.
In the past, they had imposed nothing more than unequal tariff agreements and trade barriers. Now, tax officials from the French Provisional Government were preparing to take over the tax bureau.
Worse still were the so-called French advisers. Leopold I had never hired a single French