Zeelandic Flanders ( ) is the southernmost region of the province of Zeeland in south-western Netherlands. It lies south of the Western Scheldt that separates the region from the remainder of Zeeland to the north. Zeelandic Flanders is bordered to the south by Belgium.

Geography

Zeelandic Flanders is the north-western part of the large historical region of Flanders which today lies mostly in Belgium. It shares a land border with the Belgian provinces of East and West Flanders. It is a latitudinally oriented strip of land along the Western Scheldt, a North Sea estuary, and has no land access with the rest of the Netherlands. The area of Zeelandic Netherlands is of which is land and is water.

The region is bordered by the Zwin nature reserve in the West and the Drowned Land of Saeftinghe in the East.

Since 2003, Zeelandic Flanders consists of only three municipalities: Sluis in the west, Terneuzen in the middle and Hulst in the east.

Transport

Zeelandic Flanders is connected to Flushing on Walcheren to the north of the Western Scheldt by the Western Scheldt Tunnel and the ferry it replaced which is for pedestrians and cyclists. A ferry that formerly ran from Perkpolder to Kruiningen in South Beveland was discontinued upon opening of the tunnel.

The Ghent-Terneuzen Canal passes through Zeelandic Flanders.

History

Except for some formerly insular areas, the region now called Zeelandic Flanders was not part of the historical County of Zeeland, but a part of the County of Flanders initially ruled by the House of Habsburg. The region was front line in the Eighty Years' War and was conquered by the Dutch Republic near the end of the war. As such, it was the only part of Flanders, which took part in the insurgency, to become part of the new republic.

Zeelandic Flanders was subsequently ruled directly by the Dutch States-General (parliament) as one of the Generality Lands and called Flanders of the States (Staats-Vlaanderen). After occupation by the French in 1795, the area accrued to the département of Escaut. With the formation of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1815, the present province Zeeland was formed and Zeelandic Flanders remained a part of it even after the 1830 Belgian Revolution that separated the remainder of Dutch Flanders from the Netherlands.

Population

, the population of Zeelandic Flanders was 107,853 with  .

Language

The native dialect of the western part of the region is Zeelandic Flemish, a variety of West Flemish. In the central regions, the Land-van-Axels and Land-van-Cadzands dialects of Zeelandic, itself a transition between West Flemish and Hollandic, are spoken. In the eastern part, East Flemish with some Brabantian influence is spoken.

See also

• Flanders
• Zeeland
• Western Scheldt