The crushing weight of the French army was brought to bear on the Belgian population after its victory at Fleurus in June 1794. From that summer until the formal annexation of the Belgian provinces by the French Republic on 1 October 1795, the region was under military rule, devastated by warfare and relentlessly exploited by both the army and the representatives of the civilian government in Paris. In these conditions, law and order broke down and both economic protest and large‐scale brigandage flourished. Efforts at policing and at establishing a legal and administrative apparatus struggled against widespread apathy or outright hostility. The problem of collaboration and resistance, an issue explored in other parts of Europe by historians of this period, is discussed in light of these circumstances. Some Belgian officials supported annexation as the only immediate means of escape from the brutality of military occupation.