Outbreak of the Liège Revolution

Background. Discontent in the Prince-Bishopric of Liège had built through the 1780s. In 1787 the middle-class leader Fabry proposed abolishing indirect taxation on the middle classes and the poor, replacing it with a tax on financiers' fortunes. All classes were also disgusted by grain exports that worsened famine in the principality, with 75% of its grain exported in 1787–1788.

Political Programme. The opposition's political programme proposed the establishment of a constitutional monarchy, as emerges from a text by Jean-Nicolas Bassenge, a future revolutionary. Prince-bishop Hoensbroeck had also provoked opposition through authoritarian actions, including sending 200 men and two cannons to Spa in June 1787 to shut down Levoz's gambling house, an event whose long trial became a pretext for rising opposition.

The Outbreak of 18 August 1789. The outbreak of the French Revolution in July 1789 provided the final trigger for Liège's own revolution. On 18 August 1789, Jean-Nicolas Bassenge and other democrats met at the hôtel de ville, demanding the magistrates' dismissal and their replacement with the popular mayors Jacques-Joseph Fabry and Jean-Remy de Chestret. The revolution against the reigning prince-bishop of Liège had begun.

Historiographical Context. The Liège Revolution was concurrent with the French Revolution, and historians have debated its relationship to the Brabant Revolution in the Austrian Netherlands. While the Brabant Revolution contested the egalitarian reforms of Joseph II, the Liège and French revolutions both aimed to profoundly modify the social and political system of the Ancien Régime through deeply egalitarian questions.