Difference between revisions of "Belgium" - New World Encyclopedia

From New World Encyclopedia
Line 198: Line 198:
  
 
===Independent Belgium===
 
===Independent Belgium===
On July 21, 1831, Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, ascended the throne. Some days later, the Dutch army invaded. Belgium had no army, so the London Conference agreed to intervention by the French army, forcing the Dutch to withdraw. The conference divided the provinces of Limburg and Luxembourg, between Belgium and The Netherlands. Eastern [[Luxembourg]] became the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, while the western half became a Belgian province. The Treaty of London in 1839  recognized an independent and neutral Belgium in its borders of 1838. Since the installation of [[Leopold I of Belgium|Leopold I]] as king in 1831, Belgium has been a [[constitutional monarchy]] and [[parliamentary democracy]], although it was initially an [[oligarchy]] ruled mainly by the [[Catholic Party (Belgium)|Catholic Party]] and the [[Liberal Party (Belgium)|Liberals]].  
+
[[Image:Leopold I; King of the Belgians Order of the Garter .jpg|thumb|200px|right|Leopold I.]]
 +
On July 21, 1831, Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, ascended the throne. Some days later, the Dutch army invaded. Belgium had no army, so the London Conference agreed to intervention by the French army, forcing the Dutch to withdraw. The conference divided the provinces of Limburg and Luxembourg, between Belgium and The Netherlands. Eastern [[Luxembourg]] became the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, while the western half became a Belgian province. The Treaty of London in 1839  recognized an independent and neutral Belgium in its borders of 1838. Since the installation of [[Leopold I of Belgium|Leopold I]] (1790-1865) as king in 1831, Belgium has been a [[constitutional monarchy]] and [[parliamentary democracy]], although it was initially an [[oligarchy]] ruled mainly by the [[Catholic Party (Belgium)|Catholic Party]] and the [[Liberal Party (Belgium)|Liberals]].  
  
 
Independent Belgium lost the Dutch market, so the Belgian government in 1835 inaugurated a railway line between [[Brussels]] and [[Malines]] (Antwerp), completed the Antwerp-Cologne line in 1843, and in 1844 a favourable trade agreement with the German Zollverein (“Customs Union”). Modernized infrastructure stimulated industrial investment. Belgian banks financed Walloon heavy industry, creating a new industrial banking system, soon to be copied by the French, the Germans, and later the English-speaking world. But the Ghent cotton industry faced stiff competition from Britain, the Flemish woollen producers had lost out to competition from [[Verviers]] and northern [[France]], and famine caused by poor grain harvests and potato blight struck between 1844 and 1846.  
 
Independent Belgium lost the Dutch market, so the Belgian government in 1835 inaugurated a railway line between [[Brussels]] and [[Malines]] (Antwerp), completed the Antwerp-Cologne line in 1843, and in 1844 a favourable trade agreement with the German Zollverein (“Customs Union”). Modernized infrastructure stimulated industrial investment. Belgian banks financed Walloon heavy industry, creating a new industrial banking system, soon to be copied by the French, the Germans, and later the English-speaking world. But the Ghent cotton industry faced stiff competition from Britain, the Flemish woollen producers had lost out to competition from [[Verviers]] and northern [[France]], and famine caused by poor grain harvests and potato blight struck between 1844 and 1846.  
Line 216: Line 217:
 
Germany supported the Flemish Activists, a radical nationalist group in a bid to profit from Flemish-Walloon antagonism. Most Flemings rejected collaboration and refused to recognize either the Council of Flanders, founded during the occupation, or the University of Ghent, changed during the occupation to a Flemish-language institution.  
 
Germany supported the Flemish Activists, a radical nationalist group in a bid to profit from Flemish-Walloon antagonism. Most Flemings rejected collaboration and refused to recognize either the Council of Flanders, founded during the occupation, or the University of Ghent, changed during the occupation to a Flemish-language institution.  
  
The [[Treaty of Versailles]] (1919), a [[peace treaty]] that officially ended [[World War I]],  had subjected several German border towns, most notably [[Eupen]] and [[Malmedy]], to a [[plebiscite]], which led to their annexation by Belgium in 1925, thereby causing the presence of a small German community. After the defeat of Germany, the two former German colonies, [[Rwanda]] and [[Burundi]], were mandated to Belgium by the [[League of Nations]], of which it was a founding member.
+
===The interwar period===
 +
[[Image:Princess Astrid engaged in 1926.jpg|200px|thumb|right|King Leopold III with his first wife Astrid of Sweden.]]
 +
The [[Treaty of Versailles]] (1919), a [[peace treaty]] that officially ended [[World War I]],  had subjected several German border towns, most notably [[Eupen]] and [[Malmedy]], to a [[plebiscite]], which led to their annexation by Belgium in 1925, thereby causing the presence of a small German community. After the defeat of Germany, the two former German colonies, [[Rwanda]] and [[Burundi]], were mandated to Belgium by the [[League of Nations]], of which it was a founding member. In 1920, Belgium signed a treaty of military assistance with France, and in 1921, concluded an economic union with [[Luxembourg]]. Suffrage was extended to all men over the age of 21. Catholic-Liberal coalition governments predominated in the interwar period, while the Socialist Party, which had emerged in the late nineteenth century, became prominent.
  
===The interwar period===
+
The experiences of the Dutch-speaking soldiers on the front led by French speaking officers catalyzed a desire for Flemish emancipation. Perceived discrimination against Flemish soldiers at the Yser front during the war, as well as a lack of official response to postwar Flemish demands, resulted, in 1930, in the Belgian government making Flanders and Wallonia unilingual regions, with only Brussels and its surroundings remaining bilingual.
Belgium did not receive the war reparations that she was to receive from Germany. This had a significant effect on the Belgium economy, which, like the economies of many countries involved in World War One, had been bankrupted by the war.
+
 
 +
The war had wrecked parts of the country, and the Germans had dismantled Walloon heavy industry. Belgium did not receive the war reparations that she was to receive from Germany. This had a significant effect on the Belgium economy, as did soaring exchange rates, which generated a serious flight of capital, an imbalance of payments, and rampant inflation. The stock market crash of 1929 in the United States further jolted the Belgian economy.
  
After a period of alliance with France, Belgium tried to return to neutrality in the [[1930s]].
+
After a period of alliance with France, [[King Leopold III]] (1901-1983), who succeeded his father, [[Albert I]], in 1934, advocated a policy of neutrality, although at the same time the government constructed a line of defense from Namur to Antwerp.
  
 
[[Image:James Ensor kopie.jpg|thumb|left|150px|[[James Ensor]], Self-portrait on a Belgian poststamp]]
 
[[Image:James Ensor kopie.jpg|thumb|left|150px|[[James Ensor]], Self-portrait on a Belgian poststamp]]
  
xxxx
+
===World War II===
 +
[[Image:Battle of the Bulge.jpg|thumb|left|300px|American soldiers of the 75th Division photographed in the Ardennes during the Battle of the Bulge.]]
 +
[[World War II]] was a [[World war|worldwide]] military [[War|conflict]], the [[Amalgamation (politics)|amalgamation]] of what had initially been two separate conflicts. The first began in [[Asia]] in 1937 as the [[Second Sino-Japanese War]]; the other began in [[Europe]] in 1939 with the German [[Invasion of Poland (1939)|invasion of Poland]]. This global conflict split the [[Participants in World War II|majority of the world's nations]] into two opposing military alliances: the [[Allies of World War II|Allies]] and the [[Axis Powers]]. Spanning much of the globe, World War II resulted in the death of over [[World War II casualties|70 million people]], making it the deadliest conflict in [[human history]].
  
the country had evolved towards [[universal suffrage]] by [[World War II]] with the rise of the [[Belgische Werkliedenpartij|Labour Party]] and [[trade union]]s playing a strong role. French, once the single official language and adopted by the [[nobility]] and the [[bourgeoisie]], had by then lost its overall importance as Dutch had become recognized as well. However, it was not until 1967 that an official Dutch version of the [[Belgian Constitution|Constitution]] was accepted.
 
  
===World War II===
 
 
Belgium was again invaded by Germany in 1940 during the [[Blitzkrieg]] offensive, and occupied until its liberation by [[Allies|Allied]] troops in the winter of 1944–45. The Belgian Congo gained independence in 1960 during the [[Congo Crisis]]; Ruanda-Urundi followed two years later.
 
Belgium was again invaded by Germany in 1940 during the [[Blitzkrieg]] offensive, and occupied until its liberation by [[Allies|Allied]] troops in the winter of 1944–45. The Belgian Congo gained independence in 1960 during the [[Congo Crisis]]; Ruanda-Urundi followed two years later.
  

Revision as of 07:36, 10 December 2007

(Dutch) Koninkrijk België
(French) Royaume de Belgique
(German) Königreich Belgien

Kingdom of Belgium
Flag of Belgium Coat of arms of Belgium
Flag Coat of arms
Motto: Eendracht maakt macht (Dutch)
L'union fait la force" (French)
Einigkeit macht stark (German)
"Strength through Unity"
Anthem: The "Brabançonne"
Location of Belgium
Location of  Belgium (dark green)
– on the European continent (light green  dark grey)
– in the European Union (light green)
Capital Brussels
50°54′N 4°32′E
Official languages Dutch, French, German
Government Federal constitutional monarchy and bicameral parliamentary democracy
 - King Albert II
 - Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt
Independence  
 - Declared 4 October 1830 
 - Recognized 19 April 1839 
Accession to EU 25 March 1957
Area
 - Total 30,528 km² (139th)
11,787 sq mi 
 - Water (%) 6.4
Population
 - 2007 estimate 10,584,534[1]
 - 2001 census 10,296,350
 - Density 344.32/km²
892/sq mi
GDP (PPP) 2006 estimate
 - Total $342.5-billion
 - Per capita $33,000
HDI  (2004) Straight Line Steady.svg 0.945 (high)
Currency Euro (€)1 (EUR)
Time zone CET (UTC+1)
 - Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2)
Internet TLD .be²
Calling code +32

The Kingdom of Belgium is a country in northwest Europe bordered by the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, and France, with a short coastline on the North Sea.

Straddling the cultural boundary between Germanic and Latin Europe, Belgium's two largest regions are Dutch-speaking Flanders in the north, with 58 percent of the population, and the French-speaking southern region of Wallonia, inhabited by 32 percent.

The Brussels-Capital Region is an officially bilingual enclave within the Flemish and near the Walloon Region, and has 10 percent of the population.

Historically, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg were known as the Low Countries, which used to cover a somewhat larger area than the current Benelux group of states. From the end of the Middle Ages until the seventeenth century, it was a prosperous centre of commerce and culture. From the sixteenth century until the Belgian revolution in 1830, many battles between European powers were fought in the area of Belgium, causing it to be dubbed "the battlefield of Europe" – a reputation strengthened by both World Wars. Upon its independence, Belgium eagerly participated in the Industrial Revolution, generating wealth and also a demand for raw materials; the latter was a factor during the era of its African colonies.

Geography

Main areas and places in Belgium.
High Fens (Hautes Fagnes).
Dunes in Koksijde, at the North Sea.
The distribution of some of the main culture complexes in Neolithic Europe, ca.4500 B.C.E.
The Roman province Gallia Belgica in around 120 C.E.

The name "Belgium" is derived from Gallia Belgica, a Roman province in the northernmost part of Gaul that was inhabited by the Belgae, a mix of Celtic and Germanic

Belgium shares borders with France, Germany, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands, and covers an area of 11,787 square miles (30,528 square kilometers), which is about the size of the state of Maryland in the United States.

Belgium is a low-lying country, with a broad coastal plain extending to the south-east from the North Sea and The Netherlands and rising gradually into the Ardennes hills and forests of the southeast, on which the Signal de Botrange forms the country's highest point at 2277 feet (694 meters).

Belgium has three main geographical regions: the coastal plain in the north-west, the central plateau, and the Ardennes uplands in the south-east. The coastal plain consists mainly of sand dunes and 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, further inland, by fields that have been drained with canals. The second geographical region, the central plateau, lies further inland. This is a smooth, slowly rising area that has many fertile valleys and is irrigated by many waterways. Here one can also find rougher land, including caves and small gorges.

The climate is maritime temperate, with significant precipitation in all seasons. The average temperature is lowest in January (winter) at 37°F (3°C) and highest in July (summer) at 64°F (18°C) The average precipitation per month varies between 2.1 inches (54mm) in February or April, to 3.1 in (78mm) in July.

The low-lying plain of Flanders is drained by the Leie, Schelde, and Dender rivers flowing northeast to the Schelde estuary, plus several shipping canals. The Ardennes is a plateau cut into by the Meuse River and its tributaries.

Natural resources include construction materials, silica sand, and carbonates.

Belgium's flora includes digitalis, wild arum, hyacinth, strawberry, goldenrod, lily of the valley, and other plants common to temperate zones, while beech and oak are the predominant trees. Boar, fox, badger, squirrel, weasel, marten, and hedgehog are still found in Belgium. Aquatic life includes pike, carp, trout, eel, barbel, perch, smelt, chub, roach, bream, shad, sole, mussels, crayfish, and shrimp.

Flooding is a threat along rivers and in areas of reclaimed coastal land, protected from the sea by concrete dikes. The environment is under intense pressure from human activities, including urbanization, a dense transportation network, industry, extensive animal breeding, and crop cultivation. Air and water pollution have repercussions for neighboring countries. Uncertainties regarding federal and regional responsibilities have slowed progress in tackling environmental challenges.

Brussels is the capital of Belgium and it is the headquarters of most of the European Union's institutions. The metropolitan area had between 2.1 to 2.6 million people in 2006.

History

Prehistory

The oldest primitive flint tools found on the area of today's Belgium date to about 250,000 before present (BP). Evidence of Mousterian culture (c. 80,000–35,000 BP) has been found in the Ardennes caves in southern Belgium and in Belgian Limburg. A dugout pine canoe dating to 8500 BP, the oldest vessel known, was found at Pesse. Neolithic remains can be found today at Spiennes where there was a flint mine. Beaker culture, of the late Neolithic period (3300–2000 B.C.E.), left both megalithic and individual burial monuments and an array of collared flasks, buckets, bowls, battle-axes, and daggers. The first signs of Bronze age activity in Belgium date from around 1750 B.C.E., with evidence of farmhouses, and stables. Cattle were the main livestock. From 500 B.C.E., Celtic tribes settled in the region and traded with the Mediterranean world. Warrior chieftain graves at Hainaut, and Eigenbilzen were stocked with chariots and harnesses, and bronze weapons. From c. 150 B.C.E., the first coins came into use.

The earliest named inhabitants of Belgium were the Belgae (after whom modern Belgium is named). The population covered a significant area of Gaulish or Celtic Europe, living in northern Gaul at the time of the Roman occupation. The distinction between the Belgae to the North and the Gauls to the south of them is disputed, but it seems clear that the Gauls were the dominant group in the area until the Roman and Germanic influence came to dominate.

Roman rule

In 54 B.C.E., the Belgae were over-run by the armies of Julius Caesar, as described in his chronicle De Bello Gallico. In this same work Julius Caesar referred to the Belgae as "the bravest of all the Gauls" ("horum omnium fortissimi sunt belgae"). He cited the arrival of Germanic tribes from the north and east. What is now Belgium flourished as a province of Rome. This province was much larger than the modern Belgium and included five cities: Nemetacum (Arras), Divodurum (Metz), Bagacum (Bavay), Aduatuca (Tongeren), Durocorturum (Reims). At the northeast was the neighbouring province of Germania Inferior.

Romans abandoned forts in the area in the mid-third century, as a result of resurging Germanic tribes and encroachment of the sea. Julian, Caesar of Gaul, waged wars in the Low Countries between 355 and 360 and was able to strengthen the Rhine border. A great invasion by Germanic tribes in 406–407 ended Roman occupation. The Franks were given the task of defending the frontier.

Early Middle Ages

A portrait of Charlemagne by Albrecht Dürer that was painted several centuries after Charlemagne's death.

Childeric I (437-481) the first king of the Merovingian Franks, established his capital at Tournai, while his son Clovis I (466–511) extended the kingdom to include much of Gaul. He converted to Christianity. Christian scholars, mostly Irish monks, preached Christianity to the populace and started a wave of conversion (Saint Servatius, Saint Remacle, Saint Hadelin). The Merovingians were short-lived and were succeeded by the Carolingian Dynasty. After Charles Martel (686-741) countered the Moorish invasion from Spain (732 - Poitiers), the King Charlemagne (742/7-814) (born close to Liège) brought a huge part of Europe under his rule and was crowned the "Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire" by the Pope Leo III (800 in Aachen).

The Vikings were defeated in 891 by Arnulf of Carinthia near Leuven. The Frankish lands were divided and reunified several times under the Merovingian and Carolingian dynasties, but eventually were firmly divided into France and the Holy Roman Empire. The parts of the County of Flanders stretching out west of the river Scheldt (Escaut in French) became part of France during the Middle Ages, but the remainders of the County of Flanders and the Low Countries were part of the Holy Roman Empire.

As the Holy Roman Emperors lost effective control of their domains in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the territory more or less corresponding to the present Belgium was divided into mostly independent feudal principalities: County of Flanders, Marquisate of Namur, Duchy of Brabant, County of Hainaut, Duchy of Limburg, Luxemburg, and the Bishopric of Liège. The rulers of these — both secular and spiritual — had a feudal relationship with the German king (the Holy Roman emperor). The count of Flanders held most of his land as the vassal of the French king, with the eastern part of his county being held in fealty to the German king.

In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, many cities gained their independence, there was huge trade within the Hanseatic League, huge gothic cathedrals and city halls were built.

During the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the Mosan art movement flourished in the region moving its centre from Cologne and Trier to Liège, Maastricht and Aachen. Some masterpieces of this Romanesque art are the shrine of the Three Kings at Cologne Cathedral, the baptistry of Renier de Huy in Liège, the shrine of Saint Remacle in Stavelot, the shrine of Saint Servatius in Maastricht or, Notger's gospel in Liège.

Part of Burgundy

Philip the Good, painted c. 1450 by Rogier van der Weyden

By 1433, most of the Belgian and Luxembourgian territory along with much of the rest of the Low Countries became part of Burgundy under Philip the Good (1396-1467). When Mary of Burgundy, granddaughter of Philip the Good married Maximilian I (1459– 1519) , the Low Countries became Habsburg territory. Their son, Philip I of Castile (Philip the Handsome) was the father of the later Charles V (1500–1558). The Holy Roman Empire was unified with Spain under the Habsburg Dynasty after Charles V inherited several domains.

Especially during the Burgundy period (the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries), Ypres, Ghent, Bruges, Brussels, and Antwerp took turns at being major European centers for commerce, industry (especially textiles) and art. The Flemish Primitives were a group of painters active primarily in the Southern Netherlands in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries (for example, Van Eyck and van der Weyden). Flemish tapestries hung on the walls of castles throughout Europe.

The Seventeen Provinces

The Seventeen Provinces (orange, brown and yellow areas) and the Bishopric of Liège (green)
Map of the Spanish Netherlands, the Union of Utrecht and the Union of Arras (1579).
Rubens' Adoration of the Magii.
The Butte du Lion.

The Pragmatic Sanction of 1549, issued by Charles V, established the Seventeen Provinces (or Spanish Netherlands in its broad sense) as an entity separate from the Empire and from France. This comprised all of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg except for the lands of the Bishopric of Liège. However, the northern region now known as the Netherlands became increasingly Protestant (i.e. Calvinistic), while the south remained primarily Catholic. The schism resulted in the Union of Atrecht and the Union of Utrecht in 1579. When Philip II (1527-1598), son of Charles ascended the Spanish throne, he tried to abolish all Protestantism.

Eighty Years' War

Portions of the Netherlands revolted, beginning the Eighty Years' War (1568–1648), between the Netherlands and Spain. For the conquered Southern Netherlands the war ended in 1585 with the Fall of Antwerp. This can be seen as the start of Belgium as one region. That same year, the northern Low Countries (i.e. the Netherlands proper) seized independence in the Oath of Abjuration (Plakkaat van Verlatinghe) and started the United Provinces and the Dutch Golden Age. For them, the war lasted until 1648 (the Peace of Westphalia), when Spain recognized the independence of the Netherlands, but held onto the loyal and Catholic region of modern-day Belgium which was all that remained of the Spanish Netherlands.

Spanish rule

While the United Provinces gained independence, the Southern Netherlands remained under the rule of the Spanish Hapsburgs (1519-1713), although it enjoyed a large degree of autonomy. A governor-general, usually a Spanish royal family member, represented the king in Brussels. Local leaders held most positions on the Council of State, the Privy Council, and the Council of Finances. The president of the Privy Council became a kind of prime minister. The bishopric of Liège was ruled as a separate principality.

The revolt against Spain in 1567 and the subsequent military campaigns harmed industrial activity in the south, and caused merchants and skilled artisans to leave. Amsterdam replaced Antwerp as the chief trading centre of Europe. To rebuild its economic base, Antwerp fostered silk weaving, diamond processing, and the production of fine linen, furniture, and lace. The Brueghels, Peter Paul Rubens and Van Dyck's baroque paintings were created during this period.

Austrian Habsburg rule

Maria Theresa.
Emperor Joseph II

In 1700, Charles II (1661–1700) died, ending the Spanish Habsburg dynasty, and a new conflict with France arose. By the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), ending the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714), the territory comprising present-day Belgium and Luxembourg (excepting Liège) passed under the sovereignty of Austrian Habsburg, the Holy Roman emperor Charles VI (1685–1740), when the French Bourbon Dynasty inherited Spain at the price of abandoning many Spanish possessions. The Austrians allowed political autonomy, introduced more efficient administration, rationalized public finances, and improved the country's infrastructure.

Charles VI died in 1740, and the southern Netherlands passed to his daughter Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa (1717-1780). The War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748) resulted in a French occupation in 1744. The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748) restored Austrian rule. During the regime of empress Maria Theresa, increased agricultural productivity, especially the spread of potato cultivation, coincided with population growth, and the development of various industries.

Brabant revolution

Influenced by the Enlightenment, Habsburg Emperor Joseph II (1741-1790), pushed through a series of large-scale reforms in the Austrian Netherlands in the 1780s, designed to modernize and centralize the political, judicial and administrative system. The old decentralized system would be replaced with a uniform judicial system for the whole empire, and the independent provinces of the Austrian Netherlands were to be replaced with nine kreitsen and 35 districten. Joseph also secularized the education system and reorganized or abolished a number of religious orders.

In 1789, a popular revolt broke out in the Austrian Netherlands in reaction against the emperor's centralizing policies. Two factions appeared: the Statists who opposed the reforms, and the Vonckists, named for Jan Frans Vonck, who initially supported the reforms but then joined the opposition, due to the clumsy way in which the reforms were carried out. The uprising started in Brabant, which in January 1789 declared it no longer recognized the emperor's rule, in what is called the Brabant Revolution. The leader of the Statisten faction, Hendrik Van der Noot, crossed the border into the Dutch Republic and raised a small army in Breda in Staats-Brabant, the northern (Dutch) part of Brabant.

The revolution had support in the towns, but the peasants supported the Austrians. When emperor Leopold II (1747-1792), had imperial troops reoccupy Brussels on December 2, 1790, he encountered no opposition from the masses. The Statists briefly looked to revolutionary France for support, until on October 1, 1795, the French National Convention voted to annex the southern Netherlands and the principality of Liège. From then, Liège was amalgamated with the Belgian provinces.

French rule

Napoleon in His Study by Jacques-Louis David (1812)

The First French Republic invaded and annexed the Southern Netherlands in 1795, dividing the territory into nine united départements making it an integral part of France. The Bishopric of Liège was dissolved. Its territory was divided over the départements Meuse-Inférieure and Ourte. Austria confirmed the loss of the Austrian Netherlands by the Treaty of Campo Formio, in 1797. Under French rule, administration was centralized, and aristocratic privileges abolished, and the French civil code was introduced. Military conscription provoked a peasants' revolt (1798–1799). A concordat with the papacy regulated the position of the clergy. The Industrial Revolution reached Belgium at the end of the eighteenth century. Mechanization made Ghent (cotton mills) and Verviers (woollen mills) the leading textile centres of the country, while the coal and metal industries expanded.

Battle of Waterloo

In 1814, Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821) was forced to abdicate by the Allies and was exiled to Elba, ending the French period. However, Napoleon managed to escape from Elba and quickly returned to power during the Hundred Days. Napoleon knew that his only chance of remaining in power was to attack the existing Allied forces in Belgium before they were reinforced. He crossed the Belgian frontier with two armies and attacked the Prussians under the command of General Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher at the Battle of Ligny on June 16, 1815. Meanwhile, Ney engaged the forces of the Duke of Wellington and the Prince of Orange in the Battle of Quatre Bras on the same day.

Napoleon was finally defeated by the Duke of Wellington and Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher at Waterloo in present-day Belgium on June 18, 1815. Napoleon's strategy failed and his army was driven from the field in confusion, by a combined Allied general advance. The next morning the Battle of Wavre ended in a hollow French victory. Napoleon was forced to surrender and was exiled to Saint Helena.

King William I of the Netherlands had the Butte du Lion erected on the battlefield of Waterloo to commemorate the location where his son, William II of the Netherlands (the Prince of Orange), was knocked from his horse by a musket ball to the shoulder and as a tribute to his courage. It was completed in 1826. The younger William had fought as commander of combined Dutch and Belgian forces at the Battle of Quatre Bras and the Battle of Waterloo.

United Kingdom of the Netherlands

William I.

After Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo in 1815, the major victorious powers (Britain, Austria, Prussia, Russia) agreed at Congress of Vienna, in June 1815, on reuniting the former Austrian Netherlands and the former Dutch Republic, creating the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, which was to serve as a buffer state against any future French invasions. Protestant Prince William of Orange ascended the throne on March 16, 1815, under the title William I (1772–1843). Most of the small and ecclesiastical states in the Holy Roman Empire were given to larger states at this time, and this included the Prince-Bishopric of Liège which became now formally part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands.

The two parts of The Netherlands had developed in different ways since the sixteenth century, when the two regions had last been under one administration. The north was commercial, Protestant and Flemish (Netherlandic) speaking, and the south was industrial, Roman Catholic, and partly French speaking. The elite spoke French. Dutch William I made Dutch the official language, and promulgated a constitution that gave Belgium and Holland the same number of representatives in the assembly despite Belgium's population being twice that of the Dutch area. The king encouraged the industrialization of the south, invested in roads and canals, and set up universities in Ghent and Liège, and put the university at Louvain under state control to lessen Catholic influence.

Belgian Revolution

Episode of the Belgian Revolution of 1830, Egide Charles Gustave Wappers (1834), in the Musée d'Art Ancien, Brussels

The Belgian Revolution was a conflict in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands that began with a riot in Brussels in August 1830 and eventually led to the establishment of an independent, Roman Catholic and neutral Belgium (William I, king of the Netherlands, would refuse to recognize a Belgian state until 1839, when he had to yield under pressure by the Treaty of London).

The Belgian Revolution had many causes; principally the treatment of the French-speaking Catholic Walloons in the Dutch-dominated United Kingdom of the Netherlands, and the difference of religion between the Belgians and their Dutch king. The main cause of the Belgian Revolution was the domination of the Dutch over the economic, political, and social institutions of the United Provinces. The Belgians had little influence over the economy and resented Dutch control. At the most basic level, the Dutch were for free trade, while less-developed local industries in Belgium called for the protection of tariffs. Free trade lowered the price of bread, made from wheat imported through the reviving port of Antwerp; at the same time, these imports from the Baltic depressed agriculture in Belgian grain-growing regions.

Catholic partisans watched with excitement the unfolding of the July Revolution in France, details of which were swiftly reported in the newspapers. The opening phase was a riot the night of August 25, 1830, following a performance of Daniel Auber's sentimental and patriotic opera La Muette de Portici, a tale suited to fire National Romanticism, for it was set against Masaniello's uprising against the Spanish masters of Naples in the seventeenth century.

The revolutionaries demanded separate administrations for the northern and southern Netherlands, but the actions of radical patriots and the unyielding attitude of the king meant a provisional Belgian government was established on September 25, and this government proclaimed the country's independence on October 4. William I prepared for war, but on December 20 the great powers imposed an armistice. On January 20, 1831, an international conference in London recognized an independent, Catholic, and neutral Belgium under a provisional government and a national congress.

Independent Belgium

On July 21, 1831, Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, ascended the throne. Some days later, the Dutch army invaded. Belgium had no army, so the London Conference agreed to intervention by the French army, forcing the Dutch to withdraw. The conference divided the provinces of Limburg and Luxembourg, between Belgium and The Netherlands. Eastern Luxembourg became the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, while the western half became a Belgian province. The Treaty of London in 1839 recognized an independent and neutral Belgium in its borders of 1838. Since the installation of Leopold I (1790-1865) as king in 1831, Belgium has been a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy, although it was initially an oligarchy ruled mainly by the Catholic Party and the Liberals.

Independent Belgium lost the Dutch market, so the Belgian government in 1835 inaugurated a railway line between Brussels and Malines (Antwerp), completed the Antwerp-Cologne line in 1843, and in 1844 a favourable trade agreement with the German Zollverein (“Customs Union”). Modernized infrastructure stimulated industrial investment. Belgian banks financed Walloon heavy industry, creating a new industrial banking system, soon to be copied by the French, the Germans, and later the English-speaking world. But the Ghent cotton industry faced stiff competition from Britain, the Flemish woollen producers had lost out to competition from Verviers and northern France, and famine caused by poor grain harvests and potato blight struck between 1844 and 1846.

In 1846, middle-class, anticlerics formed a national liberal party independent of the Unionist movement which drove the revolution. The first Liberal government came to power in 1847, and withstood the revolutionary pressure that shook Europe in 1848. While in government, the Liberals curtailed the church's influence in charity and education — sparking the so-called School War when religious education was eliminated from public primary schools. The School War triggered a conservative backlash that gave the Catholics a majority in both chambers of the parliament in the elections of 1884.

The Berlin Conference of 1885 gave the Congo Free State to King Leopold II as his private possession. In 1908, it was ceded to Belgium as a colony, henceforth called the Belgian Congo. The integration of traditional economies in the Congo within the framework of the modern, capitalist economy was brilliantly executed; for example, several railroads were built through dense regions of jungle. Leopold's fortune was greatly increased through the proceeds of Congolese rubber, which had never been mass-produced in such surplus quantities. Many atrocities were committed in the colony, especially when it still was Leopold II's personal possession. The behaviour of the Belgian colonists in Congo remains a conflict-laden topic in Belgium.

World War I

A Belgian machinegunner on the front lines in 1918.

World War I was a global military conflict which took place primarily in Europe from 1914 to 1918. Over 40 million casualties resulted, including approximately 20 million military and civilian deaths. The Entente Powers, led by France, Russia, the British Empire, and later Italy (from 1915) and the United States (from 1917), defeated the Central Powers, led by the Austro-Hungarian, German, and Ottoman Empires.

The neutrality of Belgium was violated in 1914 when Germany invaded Belgium as part of the Schlieffen Plan, which was the German General Staff's strategic plan for victory both on the Western Front against France and against Russia in the east, by taking advantage of expected differences in the three countries' speed in preparing for war. The Germans were stopped by the Allies at the front-line along the Yser, the battle of the Yser. King Albert I stayed in Belgium with his troops to lead the army while the government withdrew to Le Havre, France.

Much of the Western Front fighting of World War I occurred in western parts of the country. Flanders saw some of the greatest losses of life of the First World War including the first in 1914, and the four-stage second battles of Ypres in 1915. Due to the hundreds of thousands of casualties, the poppies that sprang up from the battlefield and that were immortalized in the poem In Flanders Fields, have become an emblem of human life lost in war. It is perfectly normal for poppies to invade disturbed arable ground. More important for the course of history is the resentment some felt of being used as cannon fodder, as a whole nation, and not as single soldiers. Belgium lost 104,987 people to that war.

Germany supported the Flemish Activists, a radical nationalist group in a bid to profit from Flemish-Walloon antagonism. Most Flemings rejected collaboration and refused to recognize either the Council of Flanders, founded during the occupation, or the University of Ghent, changed during the occupation to a Flemish-language institution.

The interwar period

King Leopold III with his first wife Astrid of Sweden.

The Treaty of Versailles (1919), a peace treaty that officially ended World War I, had subjected several German border towns, most notably Eupen and Malmedy, to a plebiscite, which led to their annexation by Belgium in 1925, thereby causing the presence of a small German community. After the defeat of Germany, the two former German colonies, Rwanda and Burundi, were mandated to Belgium by the League of Nations, of which it was a founding member. In 1920, Belgium signed a treaty of military assistance with France, and in 1921, concluded an economic union with Luxembourg. Suffrage was extended to all men over the age of 21. Catholic-Liberal coalition governments predominated in the interwar period, while the Socialist Party, which had emerged in the late nineteenth century, became prominent.

The experiences of the Dutch-speaking soldiers on the front led by French speaking officers catalyzed a desire for Flemish emancipation. Perceived discrimination against Flemish soldiers at the Yser front during the war, as well as a lack of official response to postwar Flemish demands, resulted, in 1930, in the Belgian government making Flanders and Wallonia unilingual regions, with only Brussels and its surroundings remaining bilingual.

The war had wrecked parts of the country, and the Germans had dismantled Walloon heavy industry. Belgium did not receive the war reparations that she was to receive from Germany. This had a significant effect on the Belgium economy, as did soaring exchange rates, which generated a serious flight of capital, an imbalance of payments, and rampant inflation. The stock market crash of 1929 in the United States further jolted the Belgian economy.

After a period of alliance with France, King Leopold III (1901-1983), who succeeded his father, Albert I, in 1934, advocated a policy of neutrality, although at the same time the government constructed a line of defense from Namur to Antwerp.

File:James Ensor kopie.jpg
James Ensor, Self-portrait on a Belgian poststamp

World War II

American soldiers of the 75th Division photographed in the Ardennes during the Battle of the Bulge.

World War II was a worldwide military conflict, the amalgamation of what had initially been two separate conflicts. The first began in Asia in 1937 as the Second Sino-Japanese War; the other began in Europe in 1939 with the German invasion of Poland. This global conflict split the majority of the world's nations into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis Powers. Spanning much of the globe, World War II resulted in the death of over 70 million people, making it the deadliest conflict in human history.


Belgium was again invaded by Germany in 1940 during the Blitzkrieg offensive, and occupied until its liberation by Allied troops in the winter of 1944–45. The Belgian Congo gained independence in 1960 during the Congo Crisis; Ruanda-Urundi followed two years later.

After World War II, Belgium joined NATO, headquartered at Brussels, and formed the Benelux group of nations with the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Belgium became one of the six founding members of the European Coal and Steel Community in 1951, and of the 1957 established European Atomic Energy Community and European Economic Community. The latter is now the European Union, for which Belgium hosts major administrations and institutions, including the European Commission, the Council of the European Union, and the extraordinary and committee sessions of the European Parliament.

Government and politics

The Palace of the Nation in Brussels, the seat of the Belgian Federal Parliament.
File:Hemisphere Debate 50 Years Europe.JPG
The chamber of the Belgian Senate.

Constitutional structure

Belgium is a constitutional, popular monarchy and a parliamentary democracy.

The Constitution of Belgium was established in 1831, and revised in 1970 in response to conflict between the Dutch-speaking and French-speaking communities, to diffuse power to the communities and the regions. It was revised again in 1993, creating a federal state. The constitution is the primary source of law and the basis of the political system in Belgium.

The King of the Belgians is the constitutional head of the Belgian state and holds office for life. As head of state, the king plays a ceremonial and symbolic role. Following legislative elections, the leader of the majority party or the leader of the majority coalition is usually appointed prime minister by the monarch and then approved by parliament.

The bicameral Parliament consists of a Senate of 71 members, 40 of whom are directly elected by popular vote and 31 indirectly elected, to serve four-year terms, and a Chamber of Deputies of 150 members who are directly elected by popular vote on the basis of proportional representation to serve four-year terms. Suffrage is universal to those aged 18 years and over. Voting is compulsory so more than 90 percent of the population participates.

Belgium is a federation with a multi-party political system, with numerous parties have no chance of gaining power alone, and therefore must work with each other to form coalition governments. Almost all Belgian political parties are divided into linguistic groups, either Dutch-speaking parties, Francophone parties, or germanophone parties. The Flemish parties operate in Flanders and in the Brussels-Capital Region. The Francophone parties operate in Wallonia and in the Brussels-Capital Region. There are also parties operating in the comparatively small German-speaking community.

Political parties are thus organised along community lines, especially for the three main communities. There are no representative parties active in both communities. Even in Brussels, all parties presenting candidates are either Flemish parties, or French-speaking. As such, the internal organisation of the political parties reflects the fundamentally dual nature of Belgian society. There are no significant parties left who exist, or operate on a national, Belgian level.

From the creation of the Belgian state in 1830 and throughout most of the nineteenth century, two political parties dominated Belgian politics: the Catholic Party (Church-oriented and conservative) and the Liberal Party (anti-clerical and progressive). In the late nineteenth century the Labour Party arose to represent the emerging industrial working class.

Belgium is a highly unionised country, and organised labour is a powerful influence in politics. About 53 percent of all private sector and public service employees are labour union members. Not simply a "bread and butter" movement in the American sense, Belgian labour unions take positions on education, public finance, defence spending, environmental protection, women's rights, abortion, and other issues. They also provide a range of services, including the administration of unemployment benefits. Belgium's three principal trade union organizations are the Confederation of Christian Trade Unions (1,705,000 members), the General Federation of Belgian Labour (1,198,000 members) and the General Confederation of Liberal Trade Unions of Belgium which has 230,000 members.

The Court of Appeals is one level below the Court of Cassation, an institution based on the French Court of Cassation. The Court of Cassation is the most important court in Belgium. Judges are appointed for life by the Belgian monarch. The judicial system is based on civil law and originates from the Napoleonic code. It has a judicial review of legislative acts. It accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations.

Political crisis

Guy Verhofstadt, Prime Minister of mainly Liberal - Social Democrat governments for two full terms.

A string of Christian Democrat coalition governments from 1958 was broken in 1999 after the first dioxin crisis, a major food contamination scandal which led to the establishment of the Belgian Food Agency. The government led by Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt from 1999 to 2007 achieved a balanced budget, some tax-reforms, a labour-market reform, scheduled nuclear phase-out, and instigated legislation allowing more stringent war crime and more lenient soft drug usage prosecution. Restrictions on withholding euthanasia were reduced and same-sex marriage legalized. The government promoted active diplomacy in Africa. Verhofstadt's coalition fared badly in the elections of 2007. Since then, as of November 2007, the country has been experiencing a long lasting political crisis. This crisis is such that many observers have speculated a possible partition of Belgium.

In its 2007 Worldwide Press Freedom Index, Reporters Without Borders ranked Belgium (along with Finland and Sweden) 5th out of 169 countries.

Political authority

The Federal State retains a considerable "common heritage". This includes justice, defense, federal police, social security, nuclear energy, monetary policy and public debt, and other aspects of public finances. State-owned companies include the Post Office and Belgian Railways. The Federal Government is responsible for the obligations of Belgium and its federalized institutions towards the European Union and NATO. It controls substantial parts of public health, home affairs and foreign affairs.

Communities exercise their authority only within linguistically determined geographical boundaries, originally oriented towards the individuals of a Community's language: culture (including audiovisual media), education, and the use of the relevant language. Extensions to personal matters less directly connected with language comprise health policy (curative and preventive medicine) and assistance to individuals (protection of youth, social welfare, aid to families, immigrant assistance services, etc.).

Regions have authority in fields that can be broadly associated with their territory. These include economy, employment, agriculture, water policy, housing, public works, energy, transport, the environment, town and country planning, nature conservation, credit, and foreign trade. They supervise the provinces, municipalities, and intercommunal utility companies.

In several fields, the different levels each have their own say on specifics. With education, for instance, the autonomy of the Communities neither includes decisions about the compulsory aspect nor allows for setting minimum requirements for awarding qualifications, which remain federal matters.[2] Each level of government can be involved in scientific research and international relations associated with its powers.

Military

The Belgian Armed Forces have about 41,000 active troops. They are organised into one unified structure which consists of four main components: The Army, the Air Force, the Navy, and the Medical Component.

Economy

Brussels Great Market Square.
Steelmaking along the Meuse River at Ougrée, near Liège

Belgium operates a modern, private-enterprise economy has capitalized on its central geographic location, highly developed transport network, and diversified industrial and commercial base. It is one of the world's 10 largest trading nations. The economy is characterized by a highly productive work force, high GNP, and high exports per capita. The Belgian economy is heavily service-oriented and shows a dual nature: a dynamic Flemish economy, with Brussels as its main multilingual and multi-ethnic centre, and a Walloon economy that lags behind.

The people of Belgium enjoy a high standard of living. Belgium ranks ninth in the 2006 HDI, 24th on The Economist's 2005 world-wide quality-of-life index, and it has an average per capita income that has been estimated at $33,000 for the year 2006, 14th on the IMF list of 179 countries, and comparable to that of the United Kingdom, and Sweden.

Belgium was the first continental European country to undergo the Industrial Revolution, in the early 1800s. Liège and Charleroi rapidly developed mining and steelmaking, which flourished until the mid-20th century. However, by the 1840s the textile industry of Flanders was in severe crisis and the region experienced famine from 1846–50.

After World War II, Ghent and Antwerp experienced a rapid expansion of the chemical and petroleum industries. The 1973 and 1979 oil crises sent the economy into a recession; it was particularly prolonged in Wallonia, where the steel industry had become less competitive and experienced serious decline. In the 1980s and 90s, the economic centre of the country continued to shift northwards and is now concentrated in the populous Flemish Diamond area.

By the end of the 1980s, Belgian macroeconomic policies had resulted in a cumulative government debt of about 120 percent of GDP. As of 2006, the budget was balanced and public debt was equal to 90.30 percent of GDP. In 2005 and 2006, real GDP growth rates of 1.5 percent and 3.0 percent, respectively, were slightly above the average for the euro area. Unemployment rates of 8.4 percent in 2005 and 8.2 percent in 2006 were close to the area average.

One of the founding members of the European Union, Belgium strongly supports an open economy and the extension of the powers of EU institutions to integrate member economies. In 1999, Belgium adopted the euro, the single European currency, which fully replaced the Belgian franc in 2002. Since 1922, Belgium and Luxembourg have been a single trade market within a customs and currency union: the Belgium-Luxembourg Economic Union.

With few natural resources, Belgium must import substantial quantities of raw materials and export a large volume of manufactures, making its economy unusually dependent on the state of world markets. Exports totalled $283.8-billion in 2006. Export commodities included machinery and equipment, chemicals, diamonds, metals and metal products, and foodstuffs. Export partners included Germany 19.7 percent, France 16.9 percent, Netherlands 12 percent, UK 7.9 percent, and the US 6.2 percent, Italy 5.2 percent. Imports totalled $279.9-billion in 2006. Import commodities included machinery and equipment, chemicals, diamonds, pharmaceuticals, foodstuffs, transportation equipment, and oil products. Import partners included Netherlands 18.3 percent, Germany 17.3 percent, France 11.2 percent, UK 6.6 percent, Ireland 5.7 percent, and the US 5.4 percent.

Demographics

Population

Belgium's total population in 2007 was 10,296,350. Recent immigration has brought its population of foreign origin to 56 percent. The population density of Belgium is 886 per square mile (342 per square kilometre) – one of the highest in Europe, after that of the Netherlands and some microstates such as Monaco. The median age for the total population of 41.1 years in 2007. Almost all of the Belgian population is urban - 97 percent in 2004. Belgians had an average life expectancy at birth of 78.92 years (75.75 years for males and 82.24 years for females) in 2007.

Ethnicity

File:Flemish region colours.png
The Flemish community is to the north in Belgium, and the Walloonian community is towards the south.

The country is ethnically split between its Fleming majority, 58 percent of the population, its Walloonian minority, 31 percent of the population, and about 73,000 Germans. The other 11 percent consists mostly of Europeans, Turks, Moroccans and Algerians.

The terms Fleming and Flemings denote respectively a person and people, and the Flemings or the Flemish or the Flemish people the population forming a community of more than six million people and the majority of all Belgians, of Flanders, the northern half of the country. The native Flemings descend from Germanic tribes, predominantly Franks, and mixed Celtic-Germanic "Gaulish" tribes who had lived in the same region even before Roman times. Flemish culture is defined by its West Germanic language, Dutch, shared with most people in the Netherlands.

The term Walloons refers, in daily speech, to Belgians from Wallonia, roughly the southern half of the country. The name is derived from "walhaz", which was a term used by the ancient Germanic Tribes to refer to "Celtic" people. The heartland of Walloon culture is the Meuse Valley, Dinant, Namur (the regional capital), Huy and Liège. Brussels has been the major town of the region. Under the long Spanish and French rule, it ended up that the sole official language was French; after independence in 1830 this was maintained, and the Walloon region, being a major coal and steel producing area, developed very quickly into the economic powerhouse of the country. Walloons were therefore politically dominant, and many Flemish immigrants came to work in Wallonia. Between the 1930s and the 1970s, the gradual decline of steel and more especially coal, coupled with the imbalance in investment in service industries and light industry which came to predominate in Flanders, started to tip the balance in the other direction and Flanders became gradually politically dominant, and in their turn Walloon families have moved to Flanders in search of jobs.

The prevalent foreign nationals were Italian (183,021), French (114,943), Dutch (100,700), Moroccan (81,763), Spanish (43,802), Turkish (41,336), and German (35,530).

Religion

Since independence, Catholicism, counterbalanced by strong freethought movements, has had an important role in Belgium's politics. However Belgium is largely a secular country as the laicist constitution provides for freedom of religion, and the government generally respects this right in practice. Nevertheless, the monarchy has a reputation of deeply-rooted Catholicism. In 1990, for instance, as King constitutionally obliged to sign a law legalizing abortion after it had been passed by both chambers, Baudouin asked the then Christian-Democrat Prime Minister Wilfried Martens to find a way out, causing the Parliament to declare him "temporarily unfit to reign", with his consent. On the yearly national holiday, the King and Queen and other members of the royal family officially attend Te Deum celebrations.

Symbolically and materially, the Roman Catholic Church remains in a favourable position. Belgium's concept of 'recognized religions' about 47 percent of the population identify themselves as belonging to the Catholic Church, while Islam is the second-largest religion at four percent. A 2006 inquiry in Flanders, considered more religious than Wallonia, showed 55 percent to call themselves religious, and that 36 percent believe that God created the world.

According to the most recent Eurobarometer Poll 2005 43 percent of Belgian citizens responded that "they believe there is a god", whereas 29 percent answered that "they believe there is some sort of spirit or life force" and 27 percent that "they do not believe there is any sort of spirit, god, or life force", the third-equal (with Netherlands) highest rate of non-believing after France and the Czech Republic.

Language

Bilingual signs in Brussels.

Belgium's three official languages are Dutch, spoken by 60 percent of the population, French, spoken by 40 percent, and German, spoken by less than one percent. Both the Dutch spoken in Belgium and the Belgian French have minor differences in vocabulary and semantic nuances from the varieties spoken in the Netherlands and France. Many Flemish people still speak dialects of Dutch in their local environment. Walloon, once the main regional language of Wallonia, is now only understood and spoken occasionally, mostly by elderly people. Its dialects, along with those of Picard, are not used in public life. Belgium is a country where language is a major political issue. Despite numerous constitution revisions, by 2007 the matter had not been settled.

Men and women

The gap between men and women in the work place has been narrowing, especially among younger generations. Part-time jobs in services have increased, and more women than men work part-time jobs. Belgian women earn on average 91 percent of a man's salary, the lowest pay gap in the European Union.

Marriage and the family

There are no social or ethnic barriers to marriage. People choose their own marriage partners, young people marry and have children less often and later than former generations, and the divorce rate has increased to about 30 percent. The domestic unit is composed of a nuclear family with up to three children, although immigrants from North Africa often have more children. Women do more of the domestic work. Regarding inheritance, the children inherit equally.

Education

Education is compulsory from six to eighteen for Belgians, but many continue to study until about 23 years of age. Among OECD countries in 2002, Belgium had the third-highest proportion of 18–21-year-olds enrolled in postsecondary education, at 42 percent. Highly politicized conflicts between freethought and Catholic segments of the population during the 1950s caused a split in educational organization. A secular branch of schooling is controlled by the community, the province, or the municipality, while religious, mainly Catholic branch education, is organized by religious authorities, although subsidized and supervised by the community.

Free pre-primary schooling is provided to every child from the age of two years six months. Although it is not compulsory, more than 90 percent of all children in the age category attend pre-school. Children start primary school aged six and remain there for six years, and the subjects given are generally the same at all schools. Primary schooling is free and age is the only entrance requirement. Attendance at secondary school starts at age 12 and lasts to age 18. Here they have to choose a direction that they want to follow, depending on their skill level and interests. Secondary school is divided into four general types: General secondary education, technical, vocational, and art. Higher education in Belgium includes university and polytechnic. Anybody with a qualifying diploma of secondary education is free to enroll at any institute of higher education, except for medicine/dentistry, arts or engineering sciences, which have specific entrance exams.

Regarding literacy, 99 percent of the total population over the age of 15 could read and write in 2003.

Class

There is a relatively even distribution of wealth, most of the population is middle class, there are equal opportunities for education and a professional life, and there is an inclusive social security system. The major divisions are between Flemish speakers versus Francophones, the church versus liberals, and economic. Wealth is displayed through houses and cars. The upper classes act discreetly. In youth culture, where fashion can act as social distinction.

Culture

A discussion of Belgian culture requires discussing both those aspects of cultural life shared by 'all' or most of the Belgians, regardless of what language they speak, and also, the differences between the main cultural communities, the Flemish people from Flanders and Brussels and the French-speakers from Brussels and Wallonia.

Most Belgians tend to view their culture as an integral part of European culture or Western culture; nevertheless, both main communities tend to make their thousands of individual and collective cultural choices mainly from within their own community, and then, when going beyond, the Flemish draw intensively from both the English-speaking culture (which dominates sciences, professional life and most news media) and French and other Latin cultures, whereas French-speakers focus on cultural life in Paris and elsewhere in the French-speaking world (la Francophonie), and less outside. A truly scientific discussion would also include discussion of the different cultures of Belgian ethnic minorities such as the Jews who have formed a remarkable component of Flemish culture - in particular that of Antwerp for over five hundred years.

Architecture

The Cinquantenaire Arch in winter

There are still many old monuments visible in Belgium, like the romanesque Collégiale Saint-Gertrude de Nivelles (1046) and Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Tournai, gothic Antwerp cathedral (15th century) and baroque Brussels Grand' Place.

At the end of the nineteenth century and at the beginning of the twentieth century, the historicism style dominates the urban Belgian landscape (e.g. Justice Palace of Brussels, 50th-Anniversary Park in Brussels). Nevertheless, Brussels became one of the major European cities for the development of the Art Nouveau (Victor Horta, Henry van de Velde).

Art

The Tower of Babel (oil on board, c. 1563)
by Pieter Brueghel the Elder,
in Vienna's Kunsthistorisches Museum.

Contributions to painting and architecture have been especially rich. The Mosan art, the Early Netherlandish, and major examples of Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque architecture are milestones in the history of art. Famous names in this classic tradition include the Flemish artists Jan van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden and, Pieter Brueghel the Elder as well as Lambert Lombard and Theodore de Bry from Liège. The historical artistic production of the Flemish before the early seventeenth century Baroque style of Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck is often not distinguished from that of the Dutch. In the southern Netherlands it gradually declined thereafter, although high quality tapestry continued to be created until well into the eighteenth century.

During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries many original romantic, expressionist and surrealist Belgian painters emerged, including Egide Wappers, James Ensor, Constant Permeke and René Magritte. The avant-garde CoBrA movement appeared in the 1950s, while the sculptor Panamarenko remains a remarkable figure in contemporary art.

The multidisciplinary artist Jan Fabre and the painter Luc Tuymans are other internationally renowned figures on the contemporary art scene. Belgian contributions to architecture also continued into the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, including the work of Victor Horta and Henry van de Velde, who were major initiators of the Art Nouveau style.

Cinema

Belgian cinema, often influenced by the Dutch or French, has brought a number of mainly Flemish novels to life on-screen.[3] The absence of a major Belgian cinema company, however, has forced several talented directors to emigrate, such as Carl Colpaert or participate in low-budget productions such as Marc Didden's Brussels by Night (1983).

Other Belgian directors include André Delvaux, Stijn Coninx, Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne; well-known actors include Jan Decleir and Marie Gillain; and successful films include Man Bites Dog and The Alzheimer Affair.

In the 1980s, Antwerp's Royal Academy of Fine Arts produced important fashion trendsetters, known as the Antwerp Six.

Clothing

Cuisine

Belgium is well known for its cuisine. Many highly ranked restaurants can be found in the high-impact gastronomic guides, such as the Michelin Guide. Brands of Belgian chocolate, like Neuhaus, Guylian and Godiva, are world renowned and widely sold. This reputation of very high quality extends to sweets like the 'Caramella Mokatine', created by Confiserie Roodthooft in Antwerp in 1934.

Belgium produces over 500 varieties of beer. The biggest brewery in the world by volume is Inbev based in Belgium. Belgians have a reputation for loving waffles and French fried potatoes, both originated in their country. The national dishes are steak-fries and lettuce, and mussels-fries. A challenge for a television program caused no less than 307 different Flemish local or regional dishes to be presented on a 118-metre long table in Tivoli Park in Mechelen on 1 September 2007.

xxxx


Good cooking and fine beers are seen by many as part of Belgian culture. One of the many beers with the high prestige is that of the Trappist monks. Technically, it is an ale and traditionally each abbey's beer is served in its own glass (the forms, heights and widths are different). There are only seven breweries (six of them are Belgian) that are allowed to brew Trappist beer.

Although Belgian gastronomy is connected to French cuisine, some recipes were reputedly invented there as e.g. french fried potatoes (regardless that name), Vlaamse stoofkarbonnaden aka carbonnades flamandes (a beef stew with beer, mustard and laurel), speculaas (a sort of cookie), Belgian waffles, waterzooi (a broth made with chicken or fish, cream and vegetables), endive with bechamel sauce, Brussels sprouts, Belgian pralines (Belgium has some of the most renown chocolate houses), and Paling In 't Groen (river eels in a sauce of green herbs).

Belgian cookies are noted for their aroma and unique texture.

xxxx

Dance

Folklore

File:Binche MCL01.jpg
The Gilles of Binche, in costume, wearing wax masks

Folklore plays a major role in Belgium's cultural life: the country has a comparatively high number of processions, cavalcades, 'ommegangs' and 'ducasses',[4] 'kermesse', and other local festivals, nearly always with an originally religious background. The Carnival of Binche with its famous Gilles, and the 'Processional Giants and Dragons' of Ath, Brussels, Dendermonde, Mechelen and Mons are recognized by UNESCO as Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.

Other examples are the Carnival of Aalst; the still very religious processions of the Holy Blood in Bruges, Virga Jesse in Hasselt, and Hanswijk in Mechelen; the August 15 festival in Liège; and the Walloon festival in Namur. Originated in 1832 and revived in the 1960s, the Gentse Feesten have become a modern tradition. A major non-official holiday is the Saint Nicholas Day, a festivity for children and, in Liège, for students.

Literature

Belgian literature as such does not exist. Flemish share their authors with the Dutch (see Dutch literature, Flemish literature), and French-speakers with the French (see French literature), which tend to confuse people on Belgian authors', several great French authors went to Belgium for refuge (e.g. Apollinaire, Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Verlaine) and conversely, top French-speaking writers often settle in Paris (e.g. Simenon, Amélie Nothomb). It is also sometimes difficult to cast Belgian authors into the French or Flemish category because many Flemish authors have written in French (e.g. Suzanne Lilar) and spent a large part of their lifes outside of Flanders or of Belgium (e.g. Emile Verhaeren or Maurice Maeterlinck). The confusion is also enhanced by the fact that many French-speaking individuals are coming from originally Dutch-speaking families (particularly in Brussels, e.g. Jacques Brel).

Belgium has produced several well-known authors such as poets: Guido Gezelle (1830-1899), Emile Verhaeren (1855-1916), Max Elskamp (1862-1931), Maurice Maeterlinck (1862-1949), Paul van Ostaijen (1896-1926), Henri Michaux (French born and educated in Belgium, 1899-1984) and Jacques Brel (1929–1978) and writers: Hendrik Conscience (1812-1883), Charles de Coster (1827-1879), Willem Elsschot (1882-1960), Michel de Ghelderode (1898-1962), Georges Simenon 1903-1989, Louis Paul Boon (1912-1979), Hugo Claus (born in 1929), Pierre Mertens (born in 1939) Ernest Claes (1885 - 1968), [[and, Amélie Nothomb (born in 1967).

Music

The vocal music of the Franco-Flemish School developed in the southern part of the Low Countries and was an important contribution to Renaissance culture. Most significant musically was the pervasive influence of musicians from the Low Countries, whose domination of the musical scene during the last half of the 15th century is reflected in the period designations the Netherlands school and the Franco-Flemish school.

The nineteenth and twentieth-centuries witnessed the appearance of major violinists, such as Henri Vieuxtemps, Eugène Ysaÿe and Arthur Grumiaux, while Adolphe Sax invented the saxophone in 1846. Belgium has also produced music of contemporary note. The first Belgian singer to successfully pursue an international career is Bobbejaan Schoepen, pioneer of varieté and pop music.

xxx


Many important classical composers were born in Belgium. The most famous is undoubtedly César Franck but Henri Vieuxtemps, Eugène Ysaÿe, Guillaume Lekeu and Wim Mertens are also noteworthy.

Well-known singers include pioneer Bobbejaan Schoepen, Jacques Brel, Johnny Hallyday (before he became French), Arno, and Maurane.

Adolphe Sax, the inventor of the saxophone, was born in Belgium. The country has also a very active jazz scene that is achieving international recognition with bands like Aka Moon, Maak's Spirit and Octurn. Harmonicist Toots Thielemans and guitarist Philip Catherine are probably the best known Belgian jazz musicians.

Hooverphonic, formed in the mid-1990s, is a Belgian pop / trip hop band that achieved international recognition through their inclusion on the soundtrack Bernardo Bertolucci's 1996 film Io Ballo da Sola (English: Stealing Beauty). Other popular Belgian pop music comes from Axelle Red, Vaya Con Dios, and K's Choice.

Belgium has also influenced electronic music with a.o. Front 242, Praga Khan (also known as Lords of Acid) and 2 Many DJ's, and rock music with dEUS.

Belgian hip-hop started with the rise of Starflam, CNN (a Brussels-based crew) and 't Hof van Commerce in the mid 1990s.


xxx

Philosophy

Science and technology

Gerardus Mercator

Contributions to the development of science and technology have appeared throughout the country's history. The sixteenth century Early Modern flourishing of Western Europe included cartographer Gerardus Mercator, anatomist Andreas Vesalius, herbalist Rembert Dodoens, and mathematician Simon Stevin among the most influential scientists. In the first half of the seventeenth century, the Walloon method of making bar iron found its way to Sweden where it remained in use for more than two hundred and sixty years.

The quickly developed and dense Belgian railroad system caused major companies like Brugeoise et Nivelles (now the BN division of Bombardier) to develop specific technologies, and the economically important very deep coal mining in the course of the First Industrial Revolution has required highly reputed specialized studies for mine engineers.

The end of the nineteenth century and the twentieth saw important Belgian advances in applied and pure science. The chemist Ernest Solvay and the engineer Zenobe Gramme gave their names to the Solvay process and the Gramme dynamo, respectively, in the 1860s. Georges Lemaître is credited with proposing the Big Bang theory of the origin of the universe in 1927. Three Nobel Prizes in Physiology or Medicine were awarded to Belgians: Jules Bordet in 1919, Corneille Heymans in 1938, and Albert Claude and Christian De Duve in 1974. Ilya Prigogine was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1977.

Theatre

Sport

Architecture

Sports

Football and cycling are especially popular amongst Belgians. Eddy Merckx is considered one of the greatest cyclists ever, given five victories of the Tour de France and numerous other bicycle races records; his hour speed record set in 1972 stood for twelve years. Belgium has produced two female tennis champions who repeatedly ranked number one of the world, Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin.

The Spa-Francorchamps motor-racing circuit hosts the Formula One World Championship Belgian Grand Prix. The Belgian driver Jacky Ickx won eight Grands Prix and six 24 Hours of Le Mans, and twice finished as runner-up in the Formula One World Championship. Thierry Boutsen also won three races in 1989 and 1990. Belgium also has a strong reputation in motocross; world champions include Roger De Coster, Joël Robert, Georges Jobé, Eric Geboers, Joël Smets and Stefan Everts.

Belgium has played a major part in the promotion and development of Duathlon. More specifically Benny Vansteelant has made a lasting legacy concquering a stunning 8 World Champion titles and 5 European Champion titles.

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

General online sources


Bibliography

  • Arblaster, Paul (2005-12-23). A History of the Low Countries, Hardcover 312pp, Palgrave Essential Histories, Palgrave Macmillan, New York. ISBN 1-4039-4827-5 [Also edition (2005-12-23), Paperback 312pp, Palgrave Macmillan, New York, ISBN 1-4039-4828-3]. 
  • Blom, J. C. H., Dutch State Institute for War Documentation, ed.; Lamberts, Emiel, Professor in Modern History KULeuven, ed.; Kennedy, James C., translator (May 1999). History of the Low Countries, Hardcover 503pp, Berghahn Books, Oxford/New York. ISBN 1-5718-1084-6 [Also newer edition (2006-06-29), Paperback 516pp, Berghahn Books, New York, ISBN 1-8454-5272-0]. 
  • Cammaerts, Émile L. [1913] (1921). A History of Belgium from the Roman Invasion to the Present Day, 357pp, D. Appleton and Co, New York. OCLC 1525559 ASIN B00085PM0A [Also editions [1913], London, OCLC 29072911; (1921) D. Unwin and Co., New York OCLC 9625246; also published (1921) as Belgium from the Roman invasion to the present day, The Story of the nations, 67, T. Fisher Unwin, London, OCLC 2986704 ASIN B00086AX3A]. 
  • Cook, Bernard A., Professor of History at Loyola University New Orleans, LA, USA (c2002 or May 2004). Belgium: A History, Paperback 205pp, Studies in Modern European History, Vol. 50, Peter Lang Pub, New York. ISBN 0-8204-5824-4 Ib. e-book (2004) NetLibrary, Boulder, CO, USA, ISBN 0-8204-7283-2 [Also print edition (2004-06-30 or 2005), ISBN 0-8204-7647-1]. 
  • de Kavanagh Boulger, Demetrius C. [1902] (2001-06-28 or 2006-03-30). The History of Belgium: Part 1. Cæsar to Waterloo, Paperback 493pp, Elibron Classics, Adamant Media (Delaware corporation), Boston, MA, USA.. ISBN 1-4021-6714-8 [Facsimile reprint of a 1902 edition by the author, London]. Ib. [1909] (2001-06-28 or 2006-03-30). Ib. Part 2. 1815-1865. Waterloo to the Death of Leopold I, Paperback 462pp, Ib., Ib. ISBN 1-4021-6713-X [Facsimile reprint of a 1909 edition by the author, London]. 
  • Fitzmaurice, John (March 1996). The Politics of Belgium: A Unique Federalism, Paperback 284pp, Nations of the modern world, Westview Press, Boulder, CO, USA. OCLC 30112536. ISBN 0-8133-2386-X. 
  • Kossmann-Putto, Johanna A.; Kossmann Ernst H.; Deleu Jozef H. M., ed.; Fenoulhet Jane, translator [of: (1987). De Lage Landen : geschiedenis van de Noordelijke en Zuidelijke Nederlanden. Vlaams-Nederlandse Stichting Ons Erfdeel, Rekkem] [1987] (January 1993). The Low Countries: History of the Northern and Southern Netherlands, 3rd Rev. edition Paperback 64pp, Flemish-Netherlands Foundation "Stichting Ons Erfdeel", Rekkem, Belgium. ISBN 9-0708-3120-1 [several editions in English, incl. (1997) 7th ed.]. 


External links

  • Belgium World Fact Book 2007, accessed November 25, 2007.
  • Culture of Belgium Countries and Their Cultures, accessed November 25, 2007.
  • Belgium Encyclopaedia Britannica Online, accessed December 10, 2007.



Credits

New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:

The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:

Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.

  1. Structuur van de bevolking — België / Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest / Vlaams Gewest / Waals Gewest / De 25 bevolkingsrijkste gemeenten (2000–2006) (in Dutch) (asp). Belgian Federal Government Service (ministry) of Economy — Directorate-general Statistics Belgium (© 1998/2007). Retrieved 2007-05-23.
  2. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named fedgov1
  3. Notable Belgian films based on works by Flemish authors include: De Witte (author Ernest Claes) movie by Jan Vanderheyden & Edith Kiel in 1934, remake as De Witte van Sichem directed by Robbe De Hert in 1980; De man die zijn haar kort liet knippen (Johan Daisne) André Delvaux 1965; Mira ('De teleurgang van de Waterhoek' by Stijn Streuvels) Fons Rademakers 1971; Malpertuis (aka The Legend of Doom House) (Jean Ray [pen name of Flemish author who mainly wrote in French, or as John Flanders in Dutch]) Harry Kümel 1971 De loteling (Hendrik Conscience) Roland Verhavert 1974; Dood van een non (Maria Rosseels) Paul Collet & Pierre Drouot 1975; Pallieter (Felix Timmermans) Roland Verhavert 1976; De komst van Joachim Stiller (Hubert Lampo) Harry Kümel 1976; De Leeuw van Vlaanderen (Hendrik Conscience) Hugo Claus (a famous author himself) 1985; Daens ('Pieter Daens' by Louis Paul Boon) Stijn Coninx 1992; see also Filmarchief les DVD!s de la cinémathèque (in Dutch). Retrieved on 2007-06-07.
  4. Footnote: The Dutch word 'ommegang' is here used in the sense of an entirely or mainly non-religious procession, or the non-religious part thereof – see also its article on the Dutch-language Wikipedia; the Processional Giants of Brussels, Dendermonde and Mechelen mentioned in this paragraph are part of each city's 'ommegang'. The French word 'ducasse' refers also to a procession – see also its article on the French-language Wikipedia; the mentioned Processional Giants of Ath and Mons are part of each city's 'ducasse'.