Flanders (Dutch: , French: Flandre) is the (political)
community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in
Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day
Belgium
, France
, and the
Netherlands
. Over the course of history, the
geographical territory that was called "Flanders" has varied.
In contemporary Belgium, Flanders might be understood as the
'country of the Flemings'.
This covers the north of Belgium Flemish Region
and includes the Brussels Capital Region
, the latter being shared with French
speakers.
For the last few decades, with the legal establishment of the
Flemish Community ( ), the
Flemings have their own political
institutions.
The parliament
and government
are the governing institutions of Flanders. There is also a
geographical, political and administrative entity called the
Flemish
Region ( ) but it has ceded all its competencies to
the Flemish Community.
Thus, the institutions of the Community govern both the Community
and the Region.
The capital city of Flanders is Brussels
.
Previously, Flanders formed a county, the
County of Flanders, which extended over:
Related to these geographical or political uses of the noun
'Flanders', and the adjective 'Flemish', they may also be used to
describe several other distinct (but inter-connected) cultural,
geographical, historical, linguistic or political items or
entities.
The term "Flanders"
In Belgium
The term "Flanders" has several main meanings:
- the social, cultural and linguistic, scientific and
educational, economical and political community of the Flemings; generally called the "Flemish community" (small "c") (others refer to
this as the "Flemish nation"). It has over 6 million inhabitants,
or about 60% of the population of Belgium.
- the
constituent governing institution of the federal Belgian state
through the institutions named the Flemish Community (capital "C"),
exercising the powers in most of those domains for the
aforementioned community, and the officially Dutch-speaking
Flemish
Region which has powers mainly on economical
matters. The Community absorbed the Region, leading
to a single operative body: the Flemish government and a single
legislative organ: the Flemish parliament;
- the
geographical region in the north of Belgium coinciding
with the federal Belgian state's Flemish Region but excluding the
bilingual Capital
Region
;
- the
geographical area comprising the two westernmost provinces of the
Flemish Region, West
Flanders
and East Flanders
, parts of a former county named Flanders.
In France
In the Netherlands
Evolution of the term
Vlaanderen literally means
Flooded Land or
Lowland. The name appeared first around the 8th century.
The precise geographical area denominated by "Flanders" has evolved
a great deal over the centuries.
In the
Middle Ages, the term Flanders
was applied to an area in western
Europe, the
County of Flanders, spread over:
- Belgium:
- France (French Flanders):
- in
the French language: La Flandre Lilloise comprising the
arrondissements
of Lille and Douai, in the north of France, to which
country it was ceded in the 14th century. Because French was spoken there, the area was also
called la Flandre romane (Romance Flanders) or la Flandre
gallicante (Gallic Flanders), or
incorrectly Flandre-wallonne (Walloon Flanders) though its language was
not Walloon but Picard. The city of
Lille
manifests itself as "Flemish", for instance by the
large TGV station
Lille-Flandres.
- the
originally Dutch-speaking remainder of what is now the département Nord
(Nord-Pas de Calais
), called Westhoek
or Maritime Flanders, ceded to France in the 17th and early 18th
century, during most of which latter century the area was the
province of Flanders
and that of Artois.
- The Netherlands:
The significance of the County and its
counts eroded through time, but the
designation remained in a very broad sense. In the
Early Modern, the term Flanders was associated
with the southern part of the Low Countries, the
Southern Netherlands.
During the 19th and
20th centuries, it became increasingly commonplace to refer to the
area from De
Panne
to Maasmechelen
, including the Belgian parts of the Duchy of Brabant and Limburg
, as "Flanders".
The ambiguity between this eastwardly much wider area and that of
the Countship (or the Belgian parts thereof), still remains.
In most
present-day contexts however, the term Flanders is generally taken
to refer to either the political, social, cultural and linguistic
community (and the corresponding official institution, the Flemish Community), or the geographical
area, one of the three institutional regions in Belgium, namely the
Flemish
Region.
In
history of art and other fields,
the adjectives Flemish and
Netherlandish are commonly used to designate
all the artistic production in this area before about 1580, after
which it refers specifically to the southern Netherlands. For
example the term
Flemish
Primitives, now outdated in English but used in French,
Flemish and other languages, is a synonym for
Early Netherlandish
painting, and it is not uncommon to see
Mosan art categorized as Flemish art. In music the
Franco-Flemish School
is also known as the
Dutch School
History
Early history
The area
roughly encompassing the later geographical meanings of Flanders,
had been inhabited by Celts until Germanic people began immigrating by
crossing the Rhine
, either
gradually driving them south- or westwards, or rather merging with
them. By the first century BC
Germanic languages had become prevalent,
and the inhabitants were called
Belgæ while
the area was the coastal district of
Gallia Belgica, the most northeastern
province of the
Roman Empire at its
height.
The boundaries were the Marne
and Seine
in the West,
with Armorica (Brittany), and the Rhine in the East,
with Frisia. This changed upon the
Count of Rouen's settlement with
the King of France, which made a cession of western Flanders and
eastern Armorica to the
Normans.
Historical Flanders: County of Flanders
Created in the year
862 as a
feudal fief in
West Francia, the County of Flanders was
divided when its western districts fell under French rule in the
late 12th century.
The remaining parts of Flanders came under
the rule of the counts of neighbouring Hainaut
in 1191. The entire area
passed in 1384 to the dukes of Burgundy, in 1477 to
the Habsburg dynasty, and in 1556 to the kings of Spain
. The
western districts of Flanders came finally under French rule under
successive treaties of
1659 (Artois),
1668, and
1678.
During
the late Middle Ages Flanders' trading
towns (notably Ghent
, Bruges
and Ypres
) made it one
of the richest and most urbanised parts of Europe, weaving the
wool of neighbouring lands into cloth for both
domestic use and export. As a consequence, a very
sophisticated culture developed, with impressive achievements in
the arts and architecture, rivalling those of Northern Italy.
Increasingly powerful from the 12th century,
the territory's autonomous urban communes were instrumental in defeating a
French attempt at annexation (1300–1302), finally defeating the
French in the Battle of the
Golden Spurs (July 11, 1302), near Kortrijk
. Two years later, the uprising was defeated
and Flanders remained part of the French Crown.
Flemish prosperity
waned in the following century, however, owing to widespread
European population decline following the Black Death of 1348, the
disruption of trade during the Anglo-French Hundred Years' War (1338–1453), and
increased English
cloth production. Flemish weavers had
gone over to Worstead
and North
Walsham
in Norfolk in the 12th
century and established the woollen industry.
Flanders in the Low Countries
The Reformation
Martin Luther's
95 Theses, published in 1517, had a profound
effect on the Low Countries.
Among the wealthy traders of Antwerp
, the Lutheran beliefs of
the German
Hanseatic traders found appeal, perhaps partly for
economic reasons in Dutch. The spread of Protestantism in
this city was aided by the presence of an
Augustinian cloister (founded 1514) in the St.
Andries quarter. Luther, an Augustinian himself, had taught some of
the monks, and his works were in print by 1518.
Charles V ordered the closing
of this cloister around 1525. The first Lutheran martyrs came from
Antwerp. The
Reformation
resulted in consecutive but overlapping waves of reform: a
Lutheran, followed by a militant
Anabaptist, then a
Mennonite, and finally a
Calvinistic movement. These movements existed
independently of each other.
The
Pragmatic Sanction of 1549,
issued by Charles V, established the Low Countries as the
Seventeen Provinces (or
Spanish Netherlands in its broad sense)
as an entity separate from the
Holy
Roman Empire and from France.The schism between the southern
Roman Catholics and northern
Calvinists resulted in the
Union of
Atrecht and the
Union of
Utrecht, respectively.
Beeldenstorm
One hallmark of the Reformation was the belief that excessive
commemoration of the saints and their images had become
idolatry. Efforts to end it led to the
iconoclasm of 1566 (the
Beeldenstorm) –
the demolition of statues and paintings depicting saints. This was
associated with the ensuing religious war between Catholics and
Protestants, especially the Anabaptists. The
Beeldenstorm
started in what is now the
arrondissement of Dunkirk in
French Flanders, with open-air
sermons ( ) .
The first took place on the
Cloostervelt near Hondschoote
. The first large sermon was held near
Boeschepe
on July 12, 1562. These open-air sermons,
mostly of Anabaptist or Mennonite signature, spread through the
country.
On August 10, 1566 at the end of the
pilgrimage from Hondschoote to Steenvoorde
, the chapel of the Sint-Laurensklooster
(Monastery of Saint Lawrence) was
defaced by Protestants. The iconoclasm resulted not only in
the destruction of Catholic art, but also cost the lives of many
priests. It next spread to Antwerp, and on August 22, to Ghent. One
cathedral, eight churches, twenty-five cloisters, ten hospitals and
seven chapels were attacked. From there, it further spread east and
north, but in total lasted not even a month.
Charles'
son, King Philip II of Spain, a
devout Catholic and self-proclaimed protector of the Counter-Reformation who was also the
duke, count or lord of each of the Seventeen Provinces, suppressed Calvinism in Flanders,
Brabant and Holland
. What is now approximately Belgian
Limburg was part of the Bishopric of Liège
and was Catholic de facto.
Part of
what is now Dutch
Limburg
supported the Union of Atrecht, but did not sign
it.
The Eighty Years' War and its consequences
In 1568 the Seventeen Provinces that signed the Union of Utrecht
started a revolt against Philip II: the
Eighty Years' War.
Spanish troops
quickly started fighting the rebels, but before the revolt could be
completely defeated, a war between England and Spain had broken
out, forcing Philip's Spanish troops to halt their advance.
Meanwhile, the Spanish armies had already conquered the important
trading cities of Bruges and Ghent. Antwerp, which was then
arguably the most important port in the world, also had to be
conquered. On August 17, 1585, Antwerp fell. This ended the Eighty
Years' War for the (from now on)
Southern Netherlands. The
United Provinces (the Netherlands proper)
fought on until 1648 – the
Peace of
Westphalia.
While Spain was at war with England, the rebels from the north,
strengthened by refugees from the south, started a campaign to
reclaim areas lost to Philips II's Spanish troops.
They managed to
conquer a considerable part of Brabant (the later Noord-Brabant
of the Netherlands), and the south bank of the
Scheldt estuary (Zeeuws-Vlaanderen
), before being stopped by Spanish troops.
The front line at the end of this war stabilized and became the
current border between present-day Belgium and the Netherlands.
The Dutch
(as they later became known) had managed to reclaim enough of
Spanish-controlled Flanders to close off the river Scheldt
, effectively cutting Antwerp off from its trade
routes.
First the
fall of Antwerp to the Spanish and later also the closing of the
Scheldt were causes of a considerable emigration of
Antverpians. Many of the Calvinist merchants of Antwerp and
also of other Flemish cities left Flanders and emigrated to the
north.
A
large number of them settled in Amsterdam
, which was at the time a smaller port, only of
significance in the Baltic
trade. In the following years Amsterdam was rapidly
transformed into one of the world's most important ports. Because
of the contribution of the Flemish exiles to this transformation,
the exodus is sometimes described as "
creating a new
Antwerp".
Flanders and Brabant, due to these events, went into a period of
relative decline from the time of the
Thirty Years War. In the Northern
Netherlands however, the mass emigration from Flanders and Brabant
became an important driving force behind the
Dutch Golden Age.
1581–1795: The Southern Netherlands
1609 map of the county of
Flanders
Although arts remained at a relatively impressive level for another
century with
Peter Paul Rubens
(1577–1640) and
Anthony van Dyck,
Flanders experienced a loss of its former economic and intellectual
power under Spanish, Austrian, and French rule, with heavy
taxation and rigid imperial political control
compounding the effects of industrial stagnation and Spanish-Dutch
and Franco-Austrian conflict.
1795–1815: French Revolution and Napoleonic France
In 1794
the French Republican
Army started using Antwerp as the northernmost naval port of
France, which country officially annexed Flanders the
following year as the départements of Lys
, Escaut
, Deux-Nèthes
, Meuse-Inférieure and Dyle
. Obligatory (French) army service for all
men aged 16–25 was one of the main reasons for the people's
uprising against the French in 1798, known as the
Boerenkrijg (
Peasants' War), with the heaviest
fighting in the
Campine area.
1815–1830: United Kingdom of the Netherlands
After the
defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte at
the 1815 Battle of
Waterloo
in Waterloo
, Brabant
, sovereignty over the Austrian Netherlands – Belgium minus
the East Cantons and Luxembourg
– was given by the Congress of Vienna (1815) to the United Netherlands (Dutch: Verenigde
Nederlanden), the state that briefly existed under Sovereign
Prince William I of Orange Nassau, the latter King William I of the United Kingdom of
the Netherlands, after the French Empire was driven out of the
Dutch territories. The
United Kingdom of the
Netherlands was born. The Protestant King of the Netherlands,
William I rapidly started the industrialisation of the southern
parts of the Kingdom. The political system that was set up however,
slowly but surely failed to forge a true union between the northern
and the southern parts of the Kingdom. The southern
bourgeoisie mainly was
Roman Catholic, in contrast to the
mainly Protestant north; large parts of the southern bourgeoisie
also primarily spoke French rather than Dutch.
In 1815 the Dutch Senate was reinstated (Dutch:
Eerste Kamer
der Staaten Generaal). The nobility, mainly coming from the
south, became more and more estranged from their northern
colleagues. Resentment grew both among the Roman Catholics from the
south and the Protestants from the north and among the powerful
liberal bourgeoisie from the south and their more moderate
colleagues from the north.
On August 25, 1830 (after the showing of the
opera 'La Muette de Portici' of
Daniel Auber in Brussels) the Belgian
Revolution sparked off and became a fact. On October 4,
1830, the Provisional Authority (Dutch:
Voorlopig Bewind)
proclaimed the independence which was later confirmed by the
National Congress that issued a
new Liberal Constitution and declared the new state a
Constitutional Monarchy, under the
House of
Saxe-Coburg.
Flanders now became
part of the Kingdom
of Belgium
, which was recognized by the major European Powers
on January 20, 1831. The de facto dissidence was only
finally recognized by the
United Kingdom of the
Netherlands on April 19, 1839.
Kingdom of Belgium
In 1830, the
Belgian Revolution
led to the splitting up of the two countries. Belgium was confirmed
as an independent state by the
Treaty of London of 1839, but
deprived of the eastern half of Limburg (now Dutch Limburg), and
the Eastern half of Luxembourg (now the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg)
. Sovereignty over Zeeuws Vlaanderen, south of the Westerscheldt
river delta, was left with the
Kingdom of the Netherlands, which
was allowed to levy a toll on all traffic to Antwerp harbour until
1863.
Rise of the Flemish Movement
The Belgian Revolution was not well supported in Flanders and even
on the 4th of October 1830, when the Belgian independence was
eventually declared, Flemish authorities refused to take orders
from the new Belgian government in Brussels. Only after Flanders
was subdued with the aid of a large French military force one month
later, under the leadership of the Count de Pontécoulant, Flanders
became a true part of Belgium.
The French-speaking bourgeoisie showed very little respect for the
Flemish part of the population. French became the only official
language in Belgium and all secondary and higher education in the
Flemish language was abolished. Belgium's co-founder, Charles
Rogier, wrote in 1832 to Jean-Joseph Raikem, the minister of
justice:
"Les premiers principes d'une bonne administration sont basés sur
l'emploi exclusif d'une langue, et il est évident que la seule
langue des Belges doit être le français. Pour arriver à ce
résultat, il est nécessaire que toutes les fonctions civiles et
militaires soient confiées à des Wallons et à des Luxembourgeois;
de cette manière, les Flamands, privés temporairement des avantages
attachés à ces emplois, seront contraints d'apprendre le français,
et l'on détruira ainsi peu à peu l'élément germanique en
Belgique."
"The first principles of a good administration are based upon the
exclusive use of one language, and it is evident that the only
language of the Belgians should be French. In order to achieve this
result, it is necessary that all civil and military functions are
entrusted to Walloons and Luxemburgers; this way, the Flemish,
temporarily deprived of the advantages of these offices, will be
constrained to learn French, and we will hence destroy bit by bit
the Germanic element in Belgium."
In 1838, another co-founder, senator Alexandre Gendebien, even
declared that the Flemish were "one of the more inferior races on
the Earth, just like the negroes".
In 1834, all people even remotely suspected of being "Flemish
minded" or calling for the reunification of the Netherlands were
prosecuted and their houses looted and burnt. Flanders, until then
a very prosperous European region, was not considered worthwhile
for investment and scholarship. A study in 1918 demonstrated that
in the first 88 years of its existence, 80% of the Belgian GNP was
invested in Wallonia. This led to a widespread poverty in Flanders,
forcing roughly 300.000 Flemish to emigrate to Wallonia to start
working there in the heavy industry.
All of these events led to a silent uprising in Flanders against
the French-speaking domination. But it was not until 1878 that
Dutch was allowed to be used for official purposes in Flanders,
although French remained the only official language in
Belgium.
A remarkable case happened in 1872. Jozef Schoep, a Fleming,
presented himself at the town hall of Sint-Jans Molenbeek to
declare the birth of his son. The civil servant noted the
declarations made in Dutch by Schoep in French and also addressed
him in French. Schoep didn't understand the language and left the
town hall as a sign of protest, without having signed the necessary
documents. The Brussels' court condemned him to a fine of 50 Francs
plus tax. Schoep rejected this verdict, accompanied by two
solicitors who both stated that they would plead in Dutch. The
president of the court at first didn't allow this, but afterwards
changed his mind. Eventually, the pleaders were allowed to use
Dutch on the condition that their pleas would be translated into
French by an official interpreter because the judges didn't know a
single word of Dutch. Schoep's sollicitors also demanded that the
State would have its plea translated, but this was again rejected
by the court. Eventually the case went to the supreme court, which
ruled that pleading in Dutch would be forbidden. Its verdict was
based on the so-called freedom of language and that no-one could
ask from any judge to know any other language but French. Mr.
Schoep's son had to wait until 1882 before he'd receive a legal
birth certificate. His father had died in the mean time.
One year later, Dutch was again allowed in secondary schools; the
first of which reopened in 1889. The Flemings had to wait until
1919—after many Flemish soldiers died in the trenches of World War
I—to have their language officially recognised and until 1930
before the first Flemish university was reopened.
The first translation of the Belgian constitution in Dutch was not
published until 1967.
World War I and its consequences
Flanders
(and Belgium as a whole) saw some of the greatest loss of life on
the Western Front of the First World War, in particular from the three
battles of Ypres.
Due to
the hundreds of thousands of casualties at Ypres, the poppies that sprang up from the battlefield
afterwards, later immortalised in the Canadian poem "In Flanders Fields
", written by John
McCrae, have become a symbol for lives lost in
war.
Flemish feeling of identity and consciousness grew through the
events and experiences of war. The German occupying authorities had
taken several Flemish-friendly measures. More importantly, the
experiences of many Dutch-speaking soldiers on the front led by
French speaking officers catalysed Flemish emancipation. The French
speaking officers barked the orders in French, followed by "et pour
les Flamands, la même chose", which basically meant, "Same thing
for the Flemish", which obviously did not help the Flemish
conscripts, who were mostly uneducated farmers and workers, who
didn't speak French at all.
The resulting suffering is still remembered
by Flemish organizations during the yearly Yser pilgrimage in Diksmuide
at the monument of the Yser Tower
.
Right-Wing Nationalism in the interbellum and World War II
During the interbellum and World War II, several right-wing fascist
and/or national-socialistic parties emerged in Belgium, of which
the Flemish ones drew unto the feeling of discrimination by the
Wallonians against the Flemish. Since these parties were promised
more rights for the Flemings by the German government during World
War II, some of them collaborated with the Nazi regime. After the
war, collaborators (or people who were "Zwart", "Black" during the
war) were of course prosecuted and punished, and amongst those were
much Flemish Nationalists, whose main goal was more rights for
Flanders. As a result, up until this day Flemish Nationalism is
often wrongly associated with right wing and fascist
ideologies.
Communautary quibbles and the Egmont pact
Recent events
Fake revolution
On 13 December 2006, a spoof news broadcast by the Belgian
Francophone public broadcasting station
RTBF
declared that Flanders had decided to declare independence from
Belgium, and that the King and Queen of Belgium had already left
the country by plane. Images were shown of people celebrating and
waving flags in the background. Within minutes of the beginning of
the broadcast, the news station was flooded with calls from
concerned French speaking Belgians. It was only half an hour after
the beginning of the broadcast that the disclaimer "This is
fiction" was displayed. It was revealed that the programme had been
broadcast to stimulate discussion of this subject.
Belgian federal elections
The 2007 elections showed an extraordinary outcome in terms of
support for Flemish autonomy. All the political parties that
advocated a significant increase of Flemish autonomy increased
their share of the votes and seats in the Belgian parliament. This
was especially the case for
CD&V and
N-VA (forming a cartel). In addition, the very
assertive
Lijst Dedecker gained a
spectacular entry in parliament. It got even slightly ahead of the
greens (
Groen!). The outright secessionist
Vlaams Belang remained strong, but
stalled. The main parties advocating more or less the current
Belgian institutions and only modest increases in Flemish autonomy
severely lost (
Groen!,
OpenVLD, and especially
SP.A).The 2009 regional elections have
strengthened the parties in favor a significant increase of Flemish
autonomy: CD&V and N-VA were the clear winners, while LDD
consolidated its position, whereas openVLD, SP.A and Groen! further
decreased their voters' share.
These victories for the advocates of much more Flemish autonomy are
very much in parallel with opinion polls that show a structural
increase in popular support for their agenda. Since 2006, certain
polls have started showing a majority in favor of Flemish
independence. Those polls are not yet representative, but they
point to a significant long-term trend.
Several negotiators having come and gone since
the last federal elections of
10 June 2007 without diminishing the disagreements between Flemish
and Walloon politicians regarding a further State reform, continues
to prevent the
formation of the federal
government.
Government and politics
Both the
Flemish Community and the Flemish Region are constitutional institutions of the Kingdom of
Belgium with precise geographical boundaries. In practice,
the Flemish Community and Region together form a single body, with
its own parliament and government, as the Community legally
absorbed the competences of the Region.
The area
of the Flemish Community is represented on the maps above,
including the area of the Brussels-Capital Region (hatched on the relevant map). Roughly, the
Flemish Community exercises competences originally oriented towards
the individuals of the Community's language: culture (including
audiovisual media),
education, and
the use of the language. Extensions to personal matters less
directly associated with language comprise sports, health policy
(curative and preventive medicine), and assistance to individuals
(protection of youth, social welfare, aid to families, immigrant
assistance services, etc.).
The area of the Flemish Region is represented on the maps above. It
has a population of around 6 million (excluding the Dutch-speaking
community in the Brussels Region, grey on the map for it is not a
part of the Flemish Region). Roughly, the Flemish Region is
responsible for territorial issues in a broad sense, including
economy, employment, agriculture, water policy, housing, public
works, energy, transport, the environment, town and country
planning, nature conservation, credit, and foreign trade. It
supervises the provinces, municipalities, and intercommunal utility
companies.
The number of Dutch-speaking
Flemish
people in the Capital Region is estimated to be between 11% and
15% (official figures do not exist as there is no language census
and no official subnationality).
According to a survey conducted by the
Université Catholique de
Louvain
in Louvain-La-Neuve
and published in June 2006, 51% of respondents from
Brussels claimed to be bilingual, even if they do not have Dutch as
their first language. They are governed by the Brussels
Region for economics affairs and by the Flemish Community for
educational and cultural issues.
As of 2005, Flemish institutions such as Flanders' government,
parliament, etc. represent the Flemish Community and the Flemish
region. The region and the community thus
de facto share
the same parliament and the same government. All these institutions
are based in Brussels. Nevertheless, both bodies (the Community and
the Region) still exist and the distinction between both is
important for the people living in Brussels.
Members of the
Flemish
parliament
who were elected in the Brussels Region cannot vote
on affairs belonging to the competences of the Flemish
Region.
The
official language for all
Flemish institutions is
Dutch.
French
enjoys a limited official recognition in a dozen
municipalities along the borders with French-speaking Wallonia
, and a large recognition in the bilingual Brussels
Region. French is widely known in Flanders, with 59%
claiming to know French according to a survey conducted by the
Université catholique de
Louvain
in Louvain-La-Neuve and published in June 2006.
Politics
Many new political parties during the last half century were
founded in Flanders: the nationalist
Volksunie of which the right nationalist
Vlaams Blok (
Vlaams
Belang) split off, and which later dissolved into the former
SPIRIT (now SLP), moderate nationalism rather
left of the spectrum, and the
NVA, more conservative moderate
nationalism; the leftist alternative/ecological
Groen!; the short-lived anarchistic libertarian spark
ROSSEM and more recently the
conservative-right liberal
Lijst
Dedecker, founded by
Jean-Marie
Dedecker.
Flemish nation
For many Flemings, Flanders is more than just a geographical area
or the federal institutions (Flemish Community and Region).
Some even
call it a nation: a people of over 6 million living in the Flemish
Region and in the Brussels-Capital Region. Flemings share many
political, cultural, scientific, social and educational views.
Although most Flemings identify themselves more with Flanders than
with Belgium, the largest group defines itself as both Flemish and
Belgian.The idea of an independent Flanders finds its root in the
romantic nationalism of the
19th century.
Administrative divisions
The Flemish Region covers and contains over 300 municipalities.It
is divided into 5
provinces:
- Antwerp
(Antwerpen)
- Limburg (Limburg)
- East Flanders (Oost-Vlaanderen)
- Flemish Brabant
(Vlaams-Brabant)
- West Flanders (West-Vlaanderen)
Independently from the provinces, Flanders
has its own local institutions in the Brussels-Capital Region, being the Vlaamse
GemeenschapsCommissie (VGC), and its municipal antennae
(Gemeenschapscentra, community centers for the Flemish
community in Brussels). These institutions are independent
from the educational, cultural and social institutions which depend
directly on the Flemish government. They exert, among others, all
those cultural competences that outside Brussels fall under the
provinces.
Geography and climate
Antwerp, Ghent, Bruges and Leuven
are the
largest cities of the Flemish Region. Antwerp has a population of more than 470,000 citizens and
is the largest city, Ghent has a
population of 240,000 citizens, followed by Bruges with 100,000
citizens and Leuven counts
almost 100,000 citizens. Brussels is a part of Flanders as far as community matters
are concerned, but does not belong to the Flemish
Region.
Flanders
has two main geographical regions: the coastal Yser
basin
plain in the north-west and a central plain. The first
consists mainly of sand dunes and
clayey
alluvial soils in the
polders. Polders are areas of land, close to or below
sea level that have been reclaimed from the sea, from which they
are protected by
dikes or, a
little further inland, by fields that have been drained with
canals.
With similar soils along the lowermost
Scheldt basin starts the central plain, a smooth, slowly
rising fertile area irrigated by many waterways that reaches an
average height of about five metres (16.4 ft) above sea level
with wide valleys of its rivers upstream as well as the Campine region to the east having sandy soils at
altitudes around thirty metres Near its southern edges close to
Wallonia one can find slightly rougher land richer of
calcium with low hills reaching up to
150 m (492 ft) and small
valleys, and at the eastern border with the Netherlands, in the
Meuse
basin, there are marl caves
(mergelgrotten). Its exclave around
Voeren
between
the Dutch border and
the Walloon province of Liège
attains a maximum altitude of 288 m
(945 ft) above sea level.
The climate is maritime
temperate, with
significant precipitation in all seasons (
Köppen climate
classification:
Cfb; the average temperature is
3 °C (37 °F) in January, and 18 °
C
(64 °
F) in July; the average
precipitation is 65 millimetres (2.6 in) in January, and
78 millimetres (3.1 in) in July).
Economy
Total
GDP of the Flemish Region in 2004 was
€ 165,847 million (
Eurostat figures).
Per capita GDP at
purchasing
power parity was 23% above the EU average.
Flanders was one of the first continental European areas to undergo
the
Industrial Revolution, in
the 19th century. Initially, the modernization relied heavily on
food processing and textile. However, by the 1840s the textile
industry of Flanders was in severe crisis and there was famine in
Flanders (1846–50).
After World War II, Antwerp and Ghent experienced
a fast expansion of the chemical and
petroleum industries. Flanders also
attracted a large majority of foreign investments in Belgium, among
others thanks to its well-educated and industrious labour force.
The
1973 and
1979 oil crises sent the economy into a
recession. The steel industry remained in relatively good shape. In
the 1980s and 90s, the economic centre of the Belgium continued to
shift further to Flanders. Nowadays, the Flemish economy is mainly
service-oriented, although its diverse industry remains a crucial
force.
Flemish productivity per capita is between
20 and 25% higher than that in Wallonia.
Flanders has developed an excellent transportation infrastructure
of ports, canals, railways and highways.
The Port of
Antwerp
is the second-largest in Europe, after Rotterdam.
In 1999, the
euro, the single European
currency, was introduced in Flanders. It replaced the
Belgian franc in 2002. The Flemish economy is
strongly export oriented, in particular of high value-added goods.
The main imports are food products, machinery, rough diamonds,
petroleum and petroleum products, chemicals, clothing and
accessories, and textiles. The main exports are automobiles, food
and food products, iron and steel, finished diamonds, textiles,
plastics, petroleum products, and nonferrous metals.
Since 1922, Belgium
and Luxembourg have been a single trade market within a customs and currency
union—the Belgium-Luxembourg Economic
Union. Its main trading partners are Germany, the
Netherlands, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, the United States
and Spain.
Demographics
The
highest population density is found in the area circumscribed by
the Brussels-Antwerp-Ghent-Leuven agglomerations that surround
Mechelen and is known as the Flemish
Diamond, in other important urban centres as Bruges and
Kortrijk to the west, and notable centres Turnhout
and Hasselt
to the east. As of April 2005, the Flemish
Region has a population of 6,058,368 and about 15% of the 1,018,029
people in the Brussels Region are also considered Flemish.
The (Belgian)
laicist constitution
provides for freedom of religion, and the various government
generally respects this right in practice. Since independence,
Catholicism, counterbalanced by strong
freethought movements, has had an important role
in Belgium's politics, since the 20th century in Flanders mainly
via the Christian trade union (
ACV) and the Christian Democrat party
(
CD&V). According to the
2001
Survey and Study of Religion, about 47 percent of the Belgian
population identify themselves as belonging to the Catholic Church
while Islam is the second-largest religion at 3.5 percent. A 2006
inquiry in Flanders, considered more religious than Wallonia,
showed 55% to call themselves religious, 36% believe that God
created the world. (See also
Religion in Belgium).
Education is compulsory from the ages of six to 18, but most
Flemings continue to study until around 23.
Among the
OECD countries in 1999, Flanders had
the third-highest proportion of 18–21-year-olds enrolled in
postsecondary education.
Flanders also scores very high in international comparative studies
on education. Its secondary school students consistently rank among
the top three for mathematics and science. However, the success is
not evenly spread: ethnic minority youth score consistently lower,
and the difference is larger than in most comparable
countries.
Mirroring the historical political conflicts between the
freethought and Catholic segments of the population, the Flemish
educational system is split into a
laïque branch
controlled by the communities, the provinces, or the
municipalities, and a
subsidised
religious—mostly Catholic—branch controlled by both the communities
and the religious authorities—usually the
dioceses. It should however be noted that—at least
for the
Catholic schools—the
religious authorities have very limited power over these schools.
Smaller school systems follow 'methodical pedagogies' (
Steiner,
Montessori,
Freinet, ...) or serve the Jewish and
Protestant minorities. During the school year 2003-2004, 68.30% of
the total population of children between ages 6 and 18 went to
subsidized private schools (both religious schools or 'methodical
pedagogies' schools).
Language and culture
The standard language in Flanders is
Dutch; a single authority, the
Nederlandse Taalunie, comprising
appointees of the Belgian and Netherlands governments, sets
standards for spelling and grammar. The term
Flemish can be applied to the Dutch spoken in
Flanders; it shows many regional and local variants.
At first sight,
Flemish culture is defined by its
language and its gourmandic mentality, as compared
to the more Calvinistic Dutch culture. Some claim
Flemish literature does not exist,
because it is 'readable' by both Dutch and Flemings. This is
correct for the vast majority of the literature written by
Flemings, although one might argue a distinct Flemish literature
already began in the 19th century, when most of the European
Nation-states arose, with writers and
poets such as
Guido Gezelle, who not
only explicitly referred to his writings as Flemish, but actually
used it in many of his poems, and strongly defended it:
Original
"Gij zegt dat ‘t vlaamsch te niet zal gaan:
‘t en zal!
dat ‘t waalsch gezwets zal boven slaan:
‘t en zal!
Dat hopen, dat begeren wij:
dat zeggen en dat zweren wij:
zoo lange als wij ons weren, wij:
‘t en zal, ‘t en zal,
‘t en zal!"
Translation
"You say Flemish will disappear:
It will not!
that Walloonish rantings will prevail:
It will not!
This we hope, this we crave:
this we say and this we swear:
as long as we defend ourselves, we:
It will not, It will not,
It will not!"
This distinction in literature is also made by some experts such as
Kris Humbeeck, professor of Literature at the University of Antwerp
[1343].
Nevertheless, the near totality of Dutch-language literature read (and
appreciated to varying degrees) in Flanders is the same as in the
Netherlands.
Influential Flemish writers include
Ernest
Claes,
Stijn Streuvels and
Felix Timmermans; their novels
mostly describe rural life in Flanders in the 19th and beginning of
the 20th century. They were widely read by the elder generation but
are considered somewhat old-fashioned by present day critics. Some
famous Flemish writers from the early 20th century wrote in French,
like Nobel Prize winners (1911)
Maurice Maeterlinck and
Emile Verhaeren. Still widely read and
translated into other languages (including English) are the novels
of authors like
Willem Elsschot,
Louis Paul Boon and
Hugo Claus. The younger generation is represented
by novelists like
Tom Lanoye,
Herman Brusselmans and the poet
Herman de Coninck.
Flanders is also famous for its
Flemish
art.
See also
References
- The birth and growth of Utrecht
- Footnote: An Antverpian, derived from
Antverpia, the Latin name of Antwerp, is an inhabitant of this city; the term is
also the adjective
expressing that its substantive is from or in that city or belongs
to it.
-
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Fictional_documentary_about_Flemish_independence_causes_consternation_in_Belgium
- Report of study by the Université Catholique de
Louvain
- Article at Taaluniversum.org summarising report
- * Report of study by Universite Catholique de Louvain
(in French)
- * Article at Taaluniversum.org summarising report (in
Dutch)
- The altitude of Mechelen, approximately in the middle of the
central plain forming the large part of Flanders, is 7 m
(23 ft)
above sea level. Already closer to the higher southern
Wallonia, the more
eastern Leuven and Hasselt reach altitudes up to about 40 m
(131 ft)
- Official
statistics of Belgium
- Inquiry by 'Vepec', 'Vereniging voor Promotie en Communicatie'
(Organisation for Promotion and Communication), published in Knack
magazine 22 November 2006 p. 14 [The Dutch language term 'gelovig'
is in the text translated as 'religious', more precisely it is a
very common word for believing in particular in any kind of God in
a monotheistic
sense, and/or in some afterlife.
External links
Advertisements
(Zeeuws-Vlaanderen) in the province of
Zeeland
in the province of Hainaut
)
, the Flemish publicly-funded
broadcaster
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