Austrian Netherlands

The Austrian Netherlands was the territory of the Burgundian Circle of the Holy Roman Empire between 1714 and 1797. The period began with the Austrian acquisition of the former Spanish Netherlands under the Treaty of Rastatt in 1714 and lasted until Revolutionary France annexed the territory during the aftermath of the Battle of Sprimont in 1794 and the Peace of Basel in 1795. Austria relinquished its claim on the province in 1797 by the Treaty of Campo Formio. History Under the Treaty of Rastatt (1714), following the War of the Spanish Succession, the surviving portions of the Spanish Netherlands were ceded to Austria. The Circle continued to give a single seat to the Reichstag to its owner, now the Emperor himself as Duke of Burgundy. Administratively, the country was divided in four traditional duchies, three counties and various lordships. Brabant Revolution