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I once heard how the border between the 2 countries close to Maastricht was established: Maastricht was the first city not conquered by the Belgian revolutiona

I once heard how the border between the 2 countries close to Maastricht was established: Maastricht was the first city not conquered by the Belgian revolutionaries. There were some military units stationed there, and 1 or more canons. As a result, the border was defined as everything that could reasonably be reached by shooting these canons from Maastricht.

overkalix 8y ago
Quite a literal application of sovereignty - if you can defend it, you can keep it.
- ovi256 8y ago
  That was the original reasoning for the 3 (now 12) mile territorial water limit, which was how far coastal artillery of the time could reach. The US lobbied for extending this repeatedly, and applies a de facto larger limit to the continental US. This makes sense if you consider that modern coastal artillery uses over the horizon radars and missiles. But a reasonable argument can be made that contemporary coastal defense is not artillery, but air-launched missiles whose range can be considered to be the missile range plus the combat range of the launching aircraft.
  - petre 8y ago
    Not to mention ICBMs and other ship launched missiles.
roel_v 8y ago
The cannons are still there, they're down the street from my house. The general who was then in charge of Maastricht was much despised by the locals because of his decision then to be loyal to the Dutch king. So when his remains were ordered to be moved when a new road was build (decades later), the workers who were supposed to do it didn't, and a lamp post was built on his grave. They're redoing that area now and the new park that is being built there, will have an old lamp post in a weird spot as a reminder of this historical quirk. (Very OT but I find it such a cool story that I thought I had to share :) )
- hyperman1 8y ago
  I always get the impression that Belgium never really intended to split off from The Netherlands. Unfortunately, the Dutch king of the time was completely out of touch with what his new subjects wanted, even while heavily investing in his new country. Efforts to finally get the stubborn guy to at least give some token gestures to a small number of mostly irrelevant demands got so completely out of hand, that people more or less accidentally started a revolution. The feelings of the newborn Belgium governement seemed more or less : Oh shit, we accidentally liberated this country. How did we become the governemnt in the first place? What are we gonna do? Then asking some French noble to be the king and getting a 'no' from him wasn't helping much either.

overkalix 8y ago

Quite a literal application of sovereignty - if you can defend it, you can keep it.

ovi256 8y ago
That was the original reasoning for the 3 (now 12) mile territorial water limit, which was how far coastal artillery of the time could reach. The US lobbied for extending this repeatedly, and applies a de facto larger limit to the continental US. This makes sense if you consider that modern coastal artillery uses over the horizon radars and missiles. But a reasonable argument can be made that contemporary coastal defense is not artillery, but air-launched missiles whose range can be considered to be the missile range plus the combat range of the launching aircraft.
- petre 8y ago
  Not to mention ICBMs and other ship launched missiles.

roel_v 8y ago

The cannons are still there, they're down the street from my house. The general who was then in charge of Maastricht was much despised by the locals because of his decision then to be loyal to the Dutch king. So when his remains were ordered to be moved when a new road was build (decades later), the workers who were supposed to do it didn't, and a lamp post was built on his grave. They're redoing that area now and the new park that is being built there, will have an old lamp post in a weird spot as a reminder of this historical quirk. (Very OT but I find it such a cool story that I thought I had to share :) )

hyperman1 8y ago
I always get the impression that Belgium never really intended to split off from The Netherlands. Unfortunately, the Dutch king of the time was completely out of touch with what his new subjects wanted, even while heavily investing in his new country. Efforts to finally get the stubborn guy to at least give some token gestures to a small number of mostly irrelevant demands got so completely out of hand, that people more or less accidentally started a revolution. The feelings of the newborn Belgium governement seemed more or less : Oh shit, we accidentally liberated this country. How did we become the governemnt in the first place? What are we gonna do? Then asking some French noble to be the king and getting a 'no' from him wasn't helping much either.