History of Belgium

The history of Belgium encompasses developments in the territory of the Kingdom of Belgium from prehistory to the present. The modern Belgian state split off from the Kingdom of the United Netherlands in 1830 after the Belgian Revolution . Before that, the area as a whole or in part belonged to various European empires and often had “Netherlands” as part of its name.

History of the Benelux countries
Franconian Empire ≈500–843
Middle Kingdom (Lotharii Regnum) 843–855
Lotharingia 855-977
various noble possessions 977–1384		Hochstift Liège 985–1795
Burgundian Netherlands (House of Burgundy) 1384–1477
Burgundian Netherlands (House of Habsburg) 1477–1556
Spanish Netherlands 1556–1581
Republic of the Seven United Provinces 1579 / 1581–1795	Spanish Netherlands 1581–1713
	Austrian Netherlands 1713–1795
Batavian Republic 1795–1806	France ( First Republic ) 1795–1805
Kingdom of Holland 1806–1810
French Empire (First Empire) 1805–1815
United Kingdom of the Netherlands (House of Orange-Nassau) 1815–1830		Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (House of Orange-Nassau) 1815–1890
Kingdom of the Netherlands (House of Orange-Nassau) from 1830	Kingdom of Belgium (House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha) from 1830
		Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (House Nassau-Weilburg) from 1890

Territorial development

The area of ​​what is now Belgium became part of the Roman Empire in the first century BC , and later the Roman provinces of Belgica, Belgica II and Germania Inferior . The Celtic groups that settled there were Romanized over time .

In the 5th century AD, Roman rule fell apart. Today's Belgium and neighboring regions became the starting point and heartland of a new empire that would have a lasting impact on European and global history - the Franconian Empire . The Romansh-Germanic language border emerging between the English Channel and the Alps developed rather independently of state and administrative borders and ran across the empire (Belgium, Lorraine , Vosges , Switzerland ), roughly corresponding to the current course of the language borders.

After the Frankish division of the empire in the 9th century, most of the county of Flanders - and with it western Belgium - belonged to the west of France , which became the kingdom of France . This county of Flanders had a different shape than today's Flanders and also included the Artois in the south . Central and eastern Belgium came as part of Lower Lorraine to the East Franconian Empire , from which the Holy Roman Empire (HRR) emerged in the 10th century .

Due to the weakening central authority in the HRR, regional territories were becoming stronger. In the area of ​​present-day Belgium these were z. B. the duchies of Brabant and Luxembourg , the counties of Hainaut and Namur , the diocese of Liège and the diocese of Cambrai . From 1384 and in the 15th century, many of these lordships came to the rapidly emerging state of the House of Burgundy , which spread not only in the HRR but also in the Kingdom of France. He united French Flanders with the territories of the Holy Roman Empire under one rule. The resulting rulership complex of the Burgundian Netherlands roughly comprised today's Benelux , but not the bishopric of Liège in eastern Belgium. The County of Artois was established in the south of the County of Flanders .

After the end of Burgundy in 1477, the Burgundian Netherlands came to the House of Habsburg . This marked the beginning of a more than 300-year Habsburg era for the later Belgian territories. When the HRR was divided into imperial circles at the end of the 15th century, the areas were organized in the Burgundian imperial circle .

In 1556, in the middle of the Reformation , the Habsburg family divided into an Austrian and a Spanish line. The Burgundian Netherlands fell to the Spanish line, which is why one speaks from now on of the Spanish Netherlands . Its northern, non-Catholic provinces (e.g. Holland , Zeeland , Utrecht , Gelderland , Friesland ) split off from 1559 and finally achieved independence in 1648 - Republic of the Seven United Provinces , the origin of today's Netherlands. Between 1659 and 1679 various areas of the remaining Spanish Netherlands in the south fell to France, especially the Artois and southern Flanders with Dunkirk , Lille , Cambrai and Thionville (Diedenhofen) . During this time, the borders of what is now Belgium were essentially shaped, because the state borders that arose during the independence of the northern Netherlands and during the French conquests largely corresponded to the course of today's Belgian state borders in the north and south.

The remaining Spanish Netherlands - roughly Belgium and Luxembourg - now formed a western branch of the Holy Roman Empire. After more than 150 years of Spanish government, the area came from the Spanish line of the Habsburgs to the Austrian line in 1713. The area now known as the Austrian Netherlands formed a largely independently administered state, which was linked in personal union with the other Austro-Habsburg countries. In addition to England , today's Belgium became the heartland of the Industrial Revolution .

Due to the effects of the French Revolution , membership of Austria ended after 82 years in 1795, and the area became part of France for 20 years (" French period "). In 1806 the only formally existing HRR was dissolved by Emperor Franz II . The other areas of the HRR in what is now Belgium, especially the Liège Monastery , had already become part of France. After the fall of the Napoleonic Empire, almost all of today's Benelux region was united to form the new Netherlands at the Congress of Vienna in 1815 . The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg was established in the south-east of the Netherlands , more than twice the size of today's Luxembourg, but smaller than the medieval and early modern duchy. It not only became part of the Netherlands, but also a member of the German Confederation . The sovereign of Luxembourg was the Dutch king in his capacity as grand duke.

As early as 1830, large parts of the south of the Netherlands split off and created the current state of Belgium. Luxembourg, on the other hand, remained linked to the Netherlands in personal union. In 1839 larger areas of Luxembourg and Limburg came to Belgium. The rest of Luxembourg (the eastern part) remained in the German Confederation until 1867. As a result of the First World War , smaller areas of Prussia around Eupen and Malmedy came to Belgium in 1920 ; since then the national borders of Belgium have not changed any more.

After the Second World War , Belgium again became the heartland of a historical process , namely the development of the European Union (EU) . The Benelux network was created in 1944/1960. The capital of Belgium, Brussels , became the seat of the EU's executive branch , making it one of the EU's capitals, along with Luxembourg (judiciary) and Strasbourg (legislative)

History of Belgium until the end of the Middle Ages

Prehistory and early history

Flint blades found in Belgium

Early tools used by hunters and fishermen of Homo heidelbergensis / Homo erectus are dated to 500,000 BC. Dated. Many archaeological finds on the Meuse testify to the settlement by its descendants, the Neanderthals . Due to these 50,000 year old finds at La Neulette, Spy and Engis (called Engis 2 ), Belgium is considered to be one of the main localities of the classical Neanderthal man. In the Neolithic Age around 4000 BC. First permanent settlements and the megalithic systems at Wéris . During the Iron Age , the Hallstatt culture (800–500 BC) and the Celtic La Tène culture were the most important cultures in the country.

Roman Empire

The areas of present-day Belgium were from 57 to 51 BC. Conquered by Julius Caesar . The name Belgium goes back to him who gave all Celtic tribes north of the Sequana ( Seine ) and Matrona ( Marne ) rivers the name Belgae ( Galliorum omnium fortissimi sunt Belgae , De Bello Gallico, liber primus).

Under Emperor Augustus , the province of Gallia Belgica with the capital Durocortorum ( Reims ) was founded in the core area of ​​the Belgian tribes . The province was only romanised under Emperor Claudius.

Frankish Empire

After the fall of the Roman Empire, the area was a heartland of the Empire of the Franks. After its division, the county of Flanders (west of the Scheldt ) came to the West Franconian (later the French) kingdom, the rest to the East Franconian Empire (later the Holy Roman Empire ).

High and late Middle Ages

Later the House of Burgundy ruled both sides of the old frontier. The forerunners of today's provinces (e.g. West Flanders , East Flanders , Antwerp ) were formed under the Burgundian dukes . Philip the Bold (1342–1404) took over the government of the County of Flanders . In particular, his grandson Philip the Good united other areas of what is now Belgium ( Burgundian Netherlands ) through inheritance or purchase. Under Charles the Bold (Charles le Téméraire), the Duchy of Burgundy reached the zenith of its power.

The cities of Flanders, especially Bruges , Ghent and Antwerp , were among the largest and most prosperous in Europe in the High and Late Middle Ages. They lived from the processing of English wool into cloths of special quality, which were sold throughout Western Europe through the Hanseatic League and international trade fairs (especially in Champagne). Flanders' strong economic interests in England kept the region in opposition to its rival France. The international network and the wealth of Flanders were the basis for the rise of Burgundy, which increasingly established itself as a cultural center with its own political self-image.

Spanish and Austrian time

After the marriage of Mary of Burgundy to Archduke Maximilian , Brabant , Flanders and the other Dutch provinces came to the House of Habsburg with the death of Charles the Bold in the Battle of Nancy in 1477 . With the division of the Holy Roman Empire into a circle , it became the Burgundian Empire . By succession, today's Belgium came under the rule of Charles V (1500–1558), a grandson of Maximilian I of Austria. After his abdication in 1556, the Dutch provinces fell to the Spanish line after the division of the Habsburg possessions. In 1568 the Eighty Years War broke out, which divided the 17 provinces into two camps. In 1581 the north, the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands (roughly today's Kingdom of the Netherlands ), declared itself independent. In the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 that independence was confirmed. The south continued to belong to the Spanish branch of the Habsburgs ( Spanish Netherlands ). But these had to be in the Pyrenees Peace (1659), the Peace of Aachen at the end of the War of Devolution (1668) and the Peace of Nijmegen (1678) and others. Cede Cambrai, Lille, Arras and Dunkirk in the west and south-west of the Spanish Netherlands to France . From 1706 to 1714 large parts of the country were occupied by the British and the United Netherlands in the War of the Spanish Succession . With the peace treaties of Utrecht and Rastatt (1713 and 1714), the southern Netherlands fell to Austria and was henceforth known as the Austrian Netherlands . These were an almost independent state that was only linked to the Austrian states through a personal union. In reaction to the reform policy of Emperor Joseph II after 1780, which restricted the country's autonomy , the independence of the "United Belgian States" was proclaimed in 1790 during the Brabant Revolution . Although the Austrians were able to restore their rule in the same year, the country was occupied by France in 1794 and formally ceded by Austria to France in the Peace of Campo Formio in 1797. It was not until 1814 that the country was occupied by troops of the anti-Napoleonic coalition. In 1815 Napoleon started the summer campaign and the country was the scene of the decisive battle against Napoléon, the Battle of Waterloo .

See also: Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands

The Kingdom of the United Netherlands

Wilhelm I in March 1815 as King of the Belgians and Grand Duke of Luxembourg on a bronze medal from Michaut , obverse.

On the reverse of Michaut's medal for the unification of the Netherlands, Belgium and Holland shake hands.

After the Congress of Vienna (1815), the Habsburg Netherlands were merged with the (northern) Netherlands. The motive behind it was the formation of a new European middle power that could not be overrun by France at the first opportunity. Whereas in the past, both Dutch and Belgian historiography emphasized that this experiment was doomed to failure due to the differences between the two parts of the country, more recently historians have emphasized that the policy of the Dutch King Wilhelm I offered very promising approaches. So the so-called merchant king was tirelessly busy promoting the economy, whereby the early industrialized south of the country, later Belgium, and the old trading power of the Netherlands with its colony Dutch East Indies should complement each other. In the religious field, the king did not prefer Protestantism, but he strived for a close connection between both denominations and the state. Starting in 1825, candidates for the priesthood also had to undergo state training. This measure was bitterly opposed by the Catholic Church. In addition, Wilhelm tried to establish the Dutch language as a link between the two parts of the country. He therefore had a one-sided preference for Dutch in Flanders, but not in Wallonia, where practically no Dutch was spoken. However, none of these steps can explain the outbreak of the Belgian Revolution in 1830, as the king reversed them in the face of massive criticism at the beginning of this year. "The decisive factor was rather the demand for political participation." (Christoph Driessen) The rising middle class in cities like Brussels and Liège insisted on participation in power.

Belgium since independence

Belgian revolution

→ Main article: Belgian Revolution

Belgium 1844

The Belgian Revolution led to independence from the Netherlands in 1830 . The French July Revolution triggered the first unrest when the bourgeoisie came to power. The open uprising began in Brussels at the end of August . In the opera, now called La Monnaie / De Munt , the opera La muette de Portici ( The Mute of Portici ) by Daniel-François-Esprit Auber , which had already caused a stir in Paris, was performed. After the performance was over, the audience pulled out of the theater and set fire to the house of the controversial Dutch minister, Cornelis Felix van Maanen , who was not at home. Workers suffering from rising bread prices and increasing unemployment caused by the mechanization of entire industries joined the uprising. Since the Brussels police could not control the unrest, some politically liberal journalists and lawyers of the city government offered to set up a vigilante group. They received permission for this and were actually able to restore order with this vigilante group. The decisive step towards the revolution was that they did not disband the vigilante group afterwards and thus kept power in Brussels in their hands. It now turned out that the small group of journalists and lawyers were seeking far-reaching reforms, if not a break away from the Netherlands. It was during these days that the Belgian national flag was created, compiled by a journalist from the colors of the Brabant coat of arms (the resemblance to the German flag is only coincidental).

Wilhelm I lacked a convincing crisis strategy. First he negotiated, then he sent his younger son Friedrich to Brussels with 10,000 soldiers. While the leading revolutionaries fled to Paris, thousands of ordinary citizens began guerrilla warfare against the Dutch soldiers. After a few days, Prince Friedrich realized that he could only recapture the city with a bombardment. But he was not ready for such a bloodbath, as this would have destroyed any hope of an agreement with the south. That's why the Dutch left. The revolutionaries then returned to Brussels, formed a provisional government and proclaimed Belgium's independence on October 4, 1830. In other Belgian cities , too, revolutionary governments took power over the next few weeks. The revolutionaries borrowed the name Belgium from Julius Caesar , who in De Bello Gallico had called the Belgians the bravest tribe of all Gauls .

On November 3rd the election of a constituent assembly ( Belgian National Congress ) took place. This was constituted on November 10, 1830.
King Wilhelm assumed that the great powers would crush the Belgian Revolution, because it was they who had founded the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. But in late 1830 / early 1831, each government had a different compelling reason for not intervening . Thus the Russian Tsar Nicholas I dug already troops, but then against the November Uprising are used in Poland had to, and in London was the government of the Duke of Wellington , who had himself raised the United Kingdom from the baptism, on the 22nd November 1830. That is why the great powers recognized Belgium at the London conference and guaranteed its neutrality. In the meantime, the Belgian National Congress, consisting of 200 members, has been meeting since November 10, 1830. On February 7, 1831, this parliament passed the Belgian Basic Law , at that time the most liberal constitution in Europe. As King of the Belgians - not Belgium - the parliament appointed the German Prince Leopold von Sachsen-Coburg-Saalfeld because he had lived in England for a long time and was therefore familiar with parliamentary customs.

The Netherlands responded to the coronation a week later with a brief military offensive. But when France threatened military intervention, the Dutch withdrew immediately. On April 19, 1839, after months of negotiations, the peace treaty was signed in London . Belgium renounced Maastricht . The greater part of Luxembourg fell to Belgium and forms the province of Luxembourg there , the east initially remained under the Dutch crown as the Grand Duchy .

Language dispute

When the Belgian state was founded, French became the sole language of administration and instruction, although a slim majority of Belgians already spoke Dutch at that time. However, this Dutch was not viewed by the central government in Brussels as an independent cultural language, but as a collection of dialects. In fact, due to this large number of dialects, the Flemings could hardly understand each other at the time. Against the absolute predominance of French, a counter-movement of Dutch speakers, who had grown up in the United Kingdom under William I, developed, initially only tentatively. The demands of these flamingants were very modest at the beginning, they aimed for the admission of Dutch in administration, in courts and in schools. However, their demands were rejected by the Brussels government. In order to raise the reputation of Dutch, the Flamingants tried to push back the Flemish dialects in favor of Dutch, as it was spoken in the Netherlands. "If this had not happened, the Dutch and Flemings would probably not be able to come to an understanding today." (Ch. Driessen) But only when the electoral law was gradually expanded in the second half of the 19th century and the Flemings were thus more strongly represented in parliament, found their demands are gradually being heard. Some of the milestones were: 1873: Dutch was approved as the court language. 1878: Admission as an administrative language. 1883: Admission to some subjects. 1898: Adoption of the Equality Act, which allowed Dutch as an official language with equal rights.

Economic boom and colonial policy

Belgium was the first industrialized country on the European continent and around 1900 the fifth largest economic power in the world after the USA, Germany, Great Britain and France. The reasons for this were the liberal economic policy of the Brussels government, the rich coal deposits in Wallonia and the particularly ruthless exploitation of the workers - also in a European comparison. In addition, Belgium established itself as a great colonial power. However, this was initially the sole work of King Leopold II , who wanted to appropriate his own budget through the exploitation of the Congo, which could not be controlled by parliament. The government was initially not involved in the colonization of the Congo, but only took over the colony in 1908, when it feared great damage to Belgium's reputation after international protests against the atrocities of the Congo . This dark chapter in Belgian history remained taboo for a long time and was glorified in the Royal Museum for Central Africa . Until 2013, this Africa Museum was considered “Europe's last colonial museum”, as the permanent exhibition from 1958 was still on display until then. A show with a modern concept was opened in December 2018. On the 60th anniversary of the independence of the Congo, King Philippe publicly regretted the terror regime of the Belgian monarch Leopold II for the first time.

See also: Flemish Movement

The First World War and the post-war period

On August 2, 1914, Germany issued an ultimatum demanding that Belgium free passage through the country. King Albert rejected the ultimatum on August 3rd. In the night of August 3rd to 4th, German troops moved in, breaking Belgium's internationally guaranteed neutrality since the 1830s . The Belgian army was only able to offer resistance for a short time: on August 7th Liège fell , on August 20th Brussels and Ghent were taken, on August 23rd Namur and Mons were overrun. Antwerp surrendered on October 9, the coastal cities of Zeebrugge and Ostend surrendered on October 15.

The route through Belgium was important for Germany because it allowed them to bypass the French fortress belt between Verdun and Belfort to the north and to attack France quickly from the northeast. The German advance came to a standstill on the Marne in September . The front largely froze until March 1918. The front in Belgium was about 60 km long. It began on the Franco-Belgian border northeast of Armentières . It stretched over the ridge of Messines and Wytschaete and ran over a flat range of hills in a semicircle east of Ypres . Names like Höhe 60 , Zillebeke, Zonnebeke, Passchendaele , Bikschoote, Langemark and Steenstraat became beacons of war. The front met the Yser , flowing north of Ypres to Nieuwpoort , past Diksmuide and at Nieuwpoort reached the North Sea and at the same time its northernmost point. The last section of the front before the Channel coast is also known as the Yser Front . It was held by the Belgian army until the end of the war and protected the only unoccupied part of the country. King Albert and the Belgian government in exile stayed in Sainte-Adresse near Le Havre in Normandy from October 1914 until the end of the war .

Many Belgian cities were destroyed during the years of positional warfare between the Allies and Germans. The country, which was largely occupied by the Germans, came under the administration of German governors-general (from 1914 until his death in April 1917, Colonel-General Moritz von Bissing and, for a few months, a predecessor and a successor ( Ludwig von Falkenhausen )) and was divided into administrative units according to the language boundaries . Theodor Lewald became the administrator of Flanders . The German troops reacted to alleged attacks by Belgian irregulars, the Francs-tireurs , with brutal violence against the civilian population. During the war there were several massacres of civilians in Belgian cities, the worst of which was in Dinant . Whether there was any major partisan activity in Belgium at all is controversial today among historians. The northern border between Belgium and the Netherlands was made almost completely impassable by the German occupation forces from 1915 onwards by a so-called high - voltage barrier . When the armaments industry became scarce after the arrival of the majority of the male population in Germany, the Reich government had around 40,000 Belgian civilians deported to Germany in freight trains for forced labor . Tens of thousands more were grouped into so-called “civil workers battalions” and forced to do relief work on the German western front . The occupiers consolidated their reputation as “barbarians” in August 1914 by burning down the university town of Leuven , which is rich in cultural treasures , and its famous library also went up in flames.

After the war, the mixed-language area around Eupen and Malmedy , today's Ostbelgien , became Belgian national territory in the Treaty of Versailles (1919) and a “referendum” . Albert I. concluded a military convention with France in 1919 and participated in the occupation of the Ruhr area from 1921 . In 1925, Belgium, France and Great Britain signed the Locarno Pact with the German Empire, which among other things guaranteed Belgium's eastern border. Albert's ruling successor, Leopold III, since 1934 . canceled the military convention with France in 1936 and declared Belgium neutral again.

Second World War

Belgium was also attacked by German troops on May 10, 1940 , during World War II , again violating its neutrality. After 18 days of resistance ("campagne des 18 jours"), the Belgian army surrendered unconditionally on May 28, 1940 - the Netherlands had surrendered on May 15. Belgium remained occupied until September 1944 and lost its independence under German military administration . The military commander was General Alexander von Falkenhausen until July 15, 1944 , with headquarters in Brussels.

Inner courtyard of the Dossin barracks (SS assembly camp Mechelen), 1942

The Belgian government under Prime Minister Hubert Pierlot went into exile in London and wanted to continue the fight against Germany from there. The Belgian King Leopold III. however, found that he had to stay with his people in the country. But he put down his official business. The refugee government was entrusted with the formation of the government-in-exile in London at the last session of the refugee parliament in Limoges. In Belgium itself there was now an unresolved situation. The whole country was occupied by the Germans. The king stayed in his guarded residence in Laeken. The sovereignty was exercised by the military commander, the Belgian administration at its head, general secretaries, continued its work - under the control and according to the instructions of the German military administration.

But the Germans also had their own political goals. Immediately after the invasion, they passed numerous anti-Jewish laws and ordinances and began persecuting the Jews . There were around 60,000 people of Jewish descent in Belgium before World War II began. Only 7 percent of them were Belgian citizens, most of them came from Eastern Europe or had fled Germany and Austria before persecution by the National Socialists . The Jewish population was concentrated in the cities of Brussels, Antwerp, Liège and Charleroi and their assets were Aryanized . Then the people were deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp via the SS assembly camp in Mechelen . Around 30,000 Jews were deported from August 1942, of whom only around 1,500 survived. In January 1944, a group of 317 Sinti and Roma were deported - only a dozen of them survived. Between May and August 1944 alone, over 3,000 prisoners who had been declared “political” were deported from Antwerp to Buchenwald ; many of them were used as slave labor in Dora-Mittelbau and did not survive the stay in the camp or subsequent death marches .

Belgian officers in Ethiopia

In the Belgian Congo colony, too , after the surrender, the question of how to deal with the Allies and the Axis powers was raised. While parts of the Belgian population and industry there sympathized with the Nazi regime or wanted to join the king's stance and supplied Nazi Germany with war-essential goods via the Portuguese-Angola colony of neutral Portugal, the colonial government under Pierre Ryckmans decided to continue Fight allied sides. Until the liberation, this led to the strange situation that in Belgium the king was under house arrest, in London the government in exile was under Pierlot, while the colonial government in Léopoldville , supported by its own army, was largely autonomous and self-sufficient. On the side of the Allies, the colonial army, which comprised up to 40,000 soldiers during the Second World War, took part in the East Africa campaign. The most important contribution to the Allied cause was the delivery of uranium for the Manhattan Project .

After the Allies landed in Normandy on June 6, 1944 , the German Wehrmacht evacuated parts of Belgium in September 1944. The Belgian government in exile under Hubert Pierlot returned to Brussels and forced Leopold III to resign from office in favor of his brother Karl von Flanders . In December 1944 and January 1945 Ostbelgien was affected by the German Ardennes offensive .

See also : Military administration in Belgium and northern France

After the end of the war

Banner over Dr. André Wynen at a demonstration against the medical strike of 1964

It was not until 1948 that women were given the right to vote in Belgium. The process there was more from top to bottom without the influence of the women's movement. The example of the neighboring states and the achievements of women in the two world wars were decisive. However, Belgium was the first country in Europe to introduce statutory gender quotas in 1994 and is now one of the countries with the highest number of women in parliament.

After the return of Leopold III . On the Belgian royal throne in 1949 the ethnic groups in Belgium voted for him as king. He found approval with 72%, especially in Catholic Flanders with a strongly monarchist Christian Democratic party, while the majority of the socialist population of Wallonia voted 58% against the king. The country then threatened to plunge into civil war. 1951 therefore thanked Leopold III. in favor of his eldest son Baudouin .

On June 30, 1960, the Belgian Congo colony became independent, with Belgium being involved in the conflicts there in the turbulent phase after independence. With the independence of Burundi and Rwanda on July 1, 1962, Belgium's time as a colonial power ended .

In 1964, a medical strike was carried out to pressure the government not to establish a public health system ( Leburton Act). The strike lasted from April 1st to 18th, the leader was the doctor André Wynen . The protest had an international impact as several deaths occurred during the strike due to a lack of medical assistance.

Belgium as the center of Europe

After France left the military integration of NATO , Belgium housed the NATO headquarters and the European headquarters ( SHAPE ) from 1967 . With the expansion of the European Community , Brussels became the seat of European institutions alongside Luxembourg . The House of European History is in Brussels.

Until the 1950s, the French-speaking population in Wallonia had been the “leading” ethnic group in Belgium, which led to great political tensions with the Dutch-speaking Flemish population, who felt oppressed in many ways. Only with the economic decline of the Walloons - their main line of business had been mining - this situation changed in favor of an approximate equilibrium between the two large population groups.

In May 1977 the Egmont Pact proposed the introduction of three autonomous regions, Brussels , Wallonia and Flanders , which, however, was not enforceable due to further demands from the Walloons. By granting regional autonomy rights for Flemings and Walloons, but also for the German-speaking ethnic group in Ostbelgien , and the passing of the law, which converts Belgium into a federal state, in August 1980, political demands were met, the tensions and contradictions - now under an economic one reverse relationship - but are still available to this day and are among others externalized by the Flemish nationalist party Vlaams Belang (formerly Vlaams Blok ) and the Walloon nationalist party Front National .

Added to this are the national problems that arose between 1990 and 2000 - accusations that federal politics were becoming entangled and child abuse scandals ( Dutroux case ).

The royal house, which was headed by King Albert II as the successor to Baudouin I since 1993, has proven to be a unifying and stabilizing bond for the country .

However, it is completely open whether Belgium will continue to exist as a single state in the future. Although the Vlaams Blok was banned in November 2004, this ban could prove counterproductive given the broad support for the party in Flanders (the largest parliamentary group in the Flemish parliament). A successor organization called Vlaams Belang was immediately established. (see small states )

See also

• List of the kings of the Belgians
• List of Belgian Prime Ministers
• List of Belgian Defense Ministers
• German-Belgian conference
• Legal history of Belgium

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Friedemann Schrenk: The Neanderthals. Verlag CH Beck, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-406-50873-1 , p. 179.
2. ↑ Christoph Driessen: History of Belgium. The divided nation. Regensburg 2018, p. 89
3. ↑ Christoph Driessen: History of Belgium. The divided nation. Regensburg 2018, p. 96
4. ↑ Christoph Driessen: History of Belgium. The divided nation. Regensburg 2018, p. 97
5. ↑ Christoph Driessen: History of Belgium. The divided nation. Regensburg 2018, pp. 97f.
6. ↑ Christoph Driessen: History of Belgium. The divided nation. Regensburg 2018, p. 100
7. ↑ Christoph Driessen: History of Belgium. The divided nation. Regensburg 2018, p. 93 ff.
8. ↑ Christoph Driessen: History of Belgium. The divided nation. Regensburg 2018, 102
9. ↑ Christoph Driessen: History of Belgium. The divided nation. Regensburg 2018, p. 103.
10. ↑ Christoph Driessen: History of Belgium. The divided nation. Regensburg 2018, p. 12
11. ↑ Christoph Driessen: History of Belgium. The divided nation. Regensburg 2018, p. 106
12. ↑ Christoph Driessen: History of Belgium. The divided nation. Regensburg 2018, 105.
13. ↑ ^{a b c} Christoph Driessen: History of Belgium. The divided nation. Regensburg 2018, p. 107.
14. ↑ Christoph Driessen: History of Belgium. The divided nation. Regensburg 2018, p. 116 ff.
15. ↑ Christoph Driessen: History of Belgium. The divided nation. Regensburg 2018, p. 117.
16. ↑ Christoph Driessen: History of Belgium. The divided nation. Regensburg 2018, p. 108 ff.
17. ↑ Christoph Driessen: History of Belgium. The divided nation. Regensburg 2018, p. 110f.
18. ↑ Christoph Driessen: History of Belgium. The divided nation. Regensburg 2018, p. 133
19. ↑ Dieter H. Kollmer: The Belgian colonial rule 1908 to 1960, in: Bernhard Chiari, Dieter H. Kollmer (ed.): Guide to the history of the Democratic Republic of the Congo , 2nd edition, Paderborn et al. 2006, p. 45.
20. ↑ Christoph Driessen: History of Belgium. The divided nation. Regensburg 2018, p. 145.
21. ↑ Africamuseum: Shedding light on Belgium's dark history orf.at, December 8, 2018, accessed December 9, 2018.
22. ↑ Belgium's king expresses regret for colonial crimes. Spiegel , accessed June 30, 2020 . 
23. ↑ For the thesis that the German troops, the "franctireur" due to negative stereotypes, exaggerated fears or by friendly fire would usually only imagined, see John Horne, Alan Kramer. German war atrocities 1914. The controversial truth. Hamburg 2004. Critical of this is the review by Peter Hoeres in sehepunkte .
24. ↑ Cf. Jens Thiel: "Menschenbassin Belgium". Recruitment, deportation and forced labor in the First World War. Food 2007.
25. ^ The occupation of Belgium and France (1940–1944) * and the archives of the German military administration | La France in the Deuxième Guerre mondiale. Retrieved March 6, 2021 . 
26. ↑ Bundesarchiv - Gedenkbuch : Chronology of the deportations from Belgium
27. ↑ Andreas Pflock: On Forgotten Traces - A guide to memorial sites in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. Ed .: Federal Agency for Civic Education, Bonn 2006, ISBN 3-89331-685-X .
28. ↑ Konvooi van 8 mei 1944. In: getuigen.be. Retrieved November 16, 2018 . 
29. ↑ Are doctors allowed to strike? | TIME ONLINE . April 10, 1964.
30. ↑ The strike of the white coats | TIME ONLINE . April 10, 1964.
31. ^ Belgium's Striking Doctors - The New York Times . April 7, 1964.
32. ^ Belgium / Doctors' strike: On the gallows. - Der Spiegel 16/1964, April 15, 1964.
33. ↑ "Trágicas consecuencias de la huelga de médicos en Bélgica. Han muerto siete enfermos por falta de asistencia ». La Vanguardia Española . 5 de april de 1964.
34. ↑ The Dutroux case

literature

• Christoph Brüll: Belgium in post-war Germany. Occupation, rapprochement, compensation 1945–1958 . Klartext , Essen 2009, ISBN 978-3-8375-0252-7 .
• Raoul C. van Caenegem, Sigfried J. De Laet:  Belgium. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 2, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1976, ISBN 3-11-006740-4 , pp. 213-232.
• Bernard A. Cook: Belgium. A history . 3rd ed. New York et al. 2004, ISBN 0-8204-5824-4 .
• Christoph Driessen : History of Belgium. The divided nation . Publisher Friedrich Pustet. Regensburg 2018. ISBN 978-3-7917-2975-6 .
• Michael Erbe: Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg. History of the Netherlands . Stuttgart, Berlin, Cologne 1993. ISBN 3-17-010976-6 .
• Johannes Koll: Historical overview , in: Ders. (Ed.): Belgium. History - Politics - Culture - Economy , Münster 2007, ISBN 978-3-402-00408-1 , pp. 5-44.
• Philipp Krämer: The internal conflict in Belgium: language and politics. Past and present of the multilingual society . Saarbrücken 2010, ISBN 978-3-639-28610-6 .
• Andreas Pflock: On forgotten tracks. A guide to memorials in the Netherlands , Belgium and Luxembourg . In: Topics and Materials . BpB , 2006, Info ISBN 3-89331-685-X [1] .

Web links

Commons : History of Belgium  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Indépendance de la Belgique
• Section Histoire sur le portail fédéral
• A nation-state is falling apart - The end of Belgium (With a look at the history of Belgium), FAZ , December 14, 2007, p. 33