History of Belgium

Table of contents

1 Before the independence 1.1 Prehistory and Antiquity 1.2 Middle Age 2 The independence 3 The Congolese colony 4 20th century Belgium 5 The Marc Dutroux Scandal 6 Reference

Before the independence

Prehistory and Antiquity

The oldest trace of human presence was found at Hallembaye (Liege province), which date around 800,000 years. Then, around 400,000 neandertals were on the edge of the Meuse river. From 30,000 the inhabitants were the actual human specie. Neolitic vestiges exists at Spiennes where was a silex mine.

The first signs of the Bronze age date -1750. From -500 Celts tribes have settled that do commerce with the Mediterranean world. From -150 the first coins were in use. The various tribes were the Eburons, Aduatics, Nerviens, Ménapiens, Morins and Treveriens known as a whole as the Belgae. Under Julius Caesar in -57 the Roman empire took over after some fierce fights which made him call them the toughest of Gaul.

For some 300 years thereafter, what is now Belgium flourished as a province of Rome. But Rome's power gradually lessened. In about A.D. 300 the Germanic tribe of the Franks penetrated into northern Belgium. About 100 years later, they took possession of the rest of Belgium, started their conquest of Gaul and created the short-lived Merovingian Empire.

Middle Age

When the Merovingian Empire declined, around the year 511 AD, the Frankish lands broke up and did not get together again until the Holy Roman Empire conquered them again, this time under the rule of Charlemagne. In 1419 Philip the Good took over, and the Burgundian Empire began to flourish. But, when Philip II ascended the Spanish throne, he tried to abolish all Protestantism. So he sent troops to Holland and Belgium. Holland didn't like this, and continued to struggle until it gained independence in 1648. The Southern states, (modern-day Belgium) remained loyal to Spain.

Until this date the history of Belgium, the grand-duchy of Luxembourg and the country The Netherlands/Holland are the same: they formed the country/region of The Netherlands/The Low Countries/Les Pays-Bas (in french).
The northern part of present-day Belgium became an overwhelmingly Germanized and Germanic- (Frankish)-speaking area, whereas in the southern part people continued to be Roman and spoke derivatives of Latin.

While the Netherlands gained independence the nowadays Belgium came under the rule of the Spanish (1519-1713) and the Austrians (1713-1794).

Following the French Revolution, Belgium was invaded and annexed by Napoleonic France in 1795. After he fell, the major powers in Europe agreed that Belgium would become a part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands by the Congress of Vienna in 1815. This was under the rule of a protestant king, namely William of Orange.

Under these various rulers, and especially during the 500 years from the 12th to the 17th century, Ypres, Ghent, Bruges, Brussels, and Antwerp took turns at being major European centers for commerce, industry (especially textiles) and art. Flemish painting--from Van Eyck and Breughel to Rubens and Van Dyck--became the most prized in Europe. Flemish tapestries hung on the walls of castles throughout Europe.

The independence

After the Napoleon wars, the area that is now Belgium was in 1815 transferred from France to the Netherlands. The king of the Netherlands tried to convert not only the country, but also its people into becoming Dutch, which was not very popular.

In August 1830, stirred by a performance of Auber's La Muette de Portici at the Brussels opera house La Monnaie, the Belgian Revolution broke out, and the country wrested its independence from the Dutch, aided by French intellectuals and French armed forces. The real political forces behind this were the strong resistance from the Catholic clergy against the protestant Dutch king, joined by the equally strong resistance from the liberals, opposing the royal authoritarianism. First, their idea was to join France, but after international pressure, Belgium became an independent state. A constitutional monarchy was established in 1831, with a monarch invited in from the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in Germany by the British. The major powers in Europe agreed, and on July 21 1831, the first king of Belgium, Leopold of Saxe-Coburg. He built the first railway in continental Europe in 1835, between Brussels and Mechelen. The Netherlands still fought on for 8 years, but in 1839 a treaty was signed between the two countries. Belgium thus started life as an independent state, equipped with a very liberal constitution, but with suffrage restricted to the haute-bourgeoisie and the clergy, all together less than 1% of the adult population, and for 100% French-speaking in a country where French was only a minority language.

The Congolese colony

At the Berlin conference of 1885 Congo was attributed to Leopold II of Belgium, who named this land the Congo Free State. It was transferred to Belgium in 1908.

The integration of traditional economies in the Congo within the framework of the modern, capitalist economy was brilliant with for example several railroads built. Leopold's fortune was greatly added to through the proceeds of Congolese rubber, which had never been mass-produced in surplus quantities.

20th century Belgium

Belgium was invaded by German Empire in 1914 and again by Nazi Germany in 1940 (Belgium surrendered on May 28). This, plus disillusionment over postwar Soviet behavior, made Belgium one of the foremost advocates of collective security within the framework of European integration (EU) and the Atlantic partnership (NATO).

Since 1944, when Belgium was liberated by British, Canadian, and American armies, the nation has lived in security and at a level of increased well-being.

A parliamentary democracy, Belgium has been governed by successive coalitions of two or more political parties, with the centrist Flemish Christian Democratic Party providing the Prime Minister most of the time. Two major political controversies have marked the postwar years: a dispute over King Leopold III's conduct during World War II (which caused him to abdicate in 1951), and the insistence of the nation's majority linguistic community--the Flemish--upon a reorganization of the state into more autonomous regions. The two were combined together when a referendum was held about his return. In Flanders they voted in favor of his return, in Wallonia against (especially the provinces of Liège and Hainaut; Namur and Luxembourg being rather 50/50). In total the king won the referendum by a large margin, but the militant socialist movement in Liège, Hainaut and other urban centres fomented major troubles and, because of the probability of the escalation of the conflict, Leopold III resigned. Baudouin became king.

Less visible, the 20th century saw the rise of a huge political power of the main political parties (christian-democrats, socialists and liberals), each of them backed by associated trade unions, social organisations and so on. In the second half of the 20th century, this resulted in a massive power transfer to the chiefs of those parties. They consolidated their power via several 'political pacts' (in schooling, cultural life and others). By 1970, the three so-called 'political families' controlled 99% of all nominations in public services, including the journalists at the state radio and television.

The last 50 years also have been marked by a rapid economic development of Flanders, which had been largely agricultural and, since the Belgian uprising, had become the poorer half of Belgium. This Flemish resurgence has been accompanied by a corresponding shift of political power to the Flemish, who always constituted an absolute majority of the population (now at 60%).

The Marc Dutroux Scandal

In 1996, Belgium's political and criminal justice systems were shaken when Marc Dutroux was arrested and charged with four counts of murder and kidnapping. Many charged that local law enforcement had not acted competently enough to observe and eventually arrest Dutroux and his accomplices before they kidnapped and murdered at least four girls and most probably some gang members. Dutroux went on trial in March 2004.

Subsequent parlemantary inquiries indeed proved that the three main police forces were horribly incompetent, bureaucratic, and more fighting each other then the criminals. On top, the judicial system appeared to suffer from similar problems: bureaucracy, very poor communication with, and support for the victims, slow procedures and many loopholes for criminals.

As a consequence of this scandal, on October 26, 1996, about 300,000 Belgians marched in Brussels to protest at the presumed failures of the police force and judicial system in this affair. It was one of the largest demonstration in Belgium ever and was called the "White March" (French: "Marche Blanche", Dutch: "Witte Mars").

Reference

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