Definitions
Care should be taken with the use of the term Flanders: different people often mean different things when they use
it.
In English-speaking or a French-speaking contexts, the term Flanders (French: Flandre or Flandres) is normally taken to refer to a geographical area; the precise
geographical area denominated by this word has changed a great deal over the centuries.
In a Dutch-speaking context, the term Flanders (Dutch:
Vlaanderen) may also refer to a political, administrative or organisational entity, or to a community of people with
aspirations to nationhood.
The following text deals with all of these aspects, which sometimes merge and overlap.
Geographical Flanders
Historic Flanders
In the past, the term Flanders was applied to an area in western-Europe,
spread over:
- a part what is now the département du Nord, in north eastern France (now called French-Flanders or
"Frans-Vlaanderen" in Dutch), plus
- an area covered by roughly the northern half of the current state of Belgium,
plus
- a small area in south-west Netherlands now called "Zeeland Flanders"
(Dutch: "Zeeuws-Vlaanderen").
Its main cities include Lille (Rijsel/ Lille) (now in France), Ypres (Ieper/ Ypres'), Antwerp (Antwerpen / Anvers), Ghent
(Gent / Gant) and Bruges (Brugge / Bruges) (now in Belgium).
Thus defined, Flanders covers a total area of 12,500 km² with 5.2 million inhabitants since 2004.
Contemporary Flanders
Today, Flanders can be seen in a geographic sense, the current Flemish
region, or in the social, cultural and political sense, being Flanders as the country of Flemings. In this sense, Brussels is an enclave of Flanders, a
city and a region where Flemings and French-speakers (actual majority) live together, and where both communities have official
institutions.
Flanders, West; Flanders, East
See Main articles: West Flanders and East Flanders.
West Flanders is one of the five provinces of Flanders and one of the ten provinces of Belgium. East Flanders is another one
of the five provinces of Flanders and another one of the ten provinces of Belgium. Together, these two provinces are sometimes
called "the Flanders" (meant as a plural), being the two Flemish provinces with "Flanders" in their name, and which formed the
core of the historic county (whereas the other Flemish provinces belonged to the duchy of Brabant, or to the Liège area governed by a prince-bishop). Their
combined area is 6149 km² and population 2.5 million.
Flanders, County of
The County of Flanders is an historical region. See also County of Flanders.
Political Flanders
Flanders is one of the federal units of the Kingdom of Belgium. Its area is defined on the map opposite. It houses over six
million people. Its official language and principal language spoken is Dutch. Minorities speak French, Yiddish, Italian, Polish, Turkish, Berber, Arabic and other languages.
Nowadays, it has achieved a certain degree of autonomy. Under the Belgian Constitution, the responsibility for managing some
services (regional economy, planning, housing, transportation etc.) is determined according to where they are (Regional
responsibility), and others (education, culture etc.) are dealt with according to the majority language of the Community in which
they are delivered (Community responsibility).
The Flemish Regional authorities and the Flemish-language Community authorities have merged into one single administration.
This is why it is possible to speak of a (Flemish Parliament
("Vlaams parlement") and a Flemish governement ("Vlaamse
Regering").
[1] (http://www.flanders.be/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=MVG_FL/Template/MVG_FL_Html_Detail&cid=1061902912794&p=1053963211306).
These institutions are based in Brussels, which is also home to Belgium’s
many remaining federal services, and to the Belgian national Parliament, etc.
Thus, in its regional competencies, the Flemish Region sits
alongside the Walloon Region and the Brussels-Capital Region and has its own government,
parliament and institutions.
For the so-called community competencies, the Flemish
Community sits alongside the French and German communities.
The Flemish Region covers 13,522 km² and contains over 300 municipalities). It is divided into 5 provinces:
- Antwerp (Dutch: Antwerpen)
- Limburg (Limburg)
- East Flanders (Oost-Vlaanderen)
- Flemish Brabant (Vlaams-Brabant)
- West Flanders (West-Vlaanderen)
Independently from the provinces, Flanders also has its own local institutions in the Brussels region, being the 'Vlaamse
GemeenschapsCommissie' (VGC), and its municipal antennae ('gemeenschapscentra', community centers for the Flemish community in
Brussels).
In Flanders, some political movements strive for greater autonomy for Flanders; they can be broadly referred to as the
Flemish movement. Within this movement, one can distinguish those
who just want to improve current institutions (more federalism), those preferring a looser union with sovereign powers for
Flanders (confederalism) and those favouring Flemish independence, thus complete sovereignty for Flanders. The latter are
often called the separatist movement.
Flanders: History
Middle Ages
During the later Middle Ages Flanders’ trading towns (notably
Ghent (Gent), Bruges (Brugge)
made it one of the most urbanised parts of Europe, weaving the wool of neighbouring lands
into cloth for home consumption and export.
Increasingly powerful from the 12th century, the territory's autonomous
urban communes were instrumental in defeating a French attempt at
annexation (1300-1302), finally defeating the French
in the Battle of the Golden Spurs (July 11, 1302), near Kortrijk. Flemish prosperity waned in the following century, however, owing to widespread European population
decline following the Black Death of 1348, the disruption of trade during the Anglo-French Hundred Years' War (1338-1453), and increased English cloth production. Flemish weavers had gone
over to Worstead and North
Walsham in Norfolk in the 12th century and established the
woollen industry.
Created in the year 862, the county of Flanders was divided when its western districts
fell under French rule in the late 12th century. The remaining parts of Flanders came under the rule of the counts of
neighbouring Hainaut in 1191. The entire area
passed in 1384 to the dukes of Burgundy, in
1477 to the Habsburg dynasty, and in 1556 to the kings of Spain. The western districts of
Flanders came finally under French rule under successive treaties of 1659 (Artois),
1668, and 1678.
Spanish, Austrian and French Occupation
The period of Spanish rule was marked by the division of the Low
Countries between the northern United Provinces and the
southern Netherlands, approximating to today's Belgium and including most of Flanders. The southern Spanish half passed to the
Austrian Habsburgs in 1714 as a reward for
their acceptance of a Bourbon succession to the Spanish throne following
the extinction of the Spanish Habsburg line.
Although arts remained at an impressive level for another century with Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640, returned to Antwerp at age 6), Flanders experienced a loss of its former
economic and intellectual power under Spanish, Austrian, and French rule, with heavy taxation and rigid imperial political
control compounding the effects of industrial stagnation and Spanish-Dutch and Franco-Austrian conflict.
Conquered by revolutionary France in 1794 and annexed the following year as the départements of Lys and
Scheldt, Flanders was attached to the United Kingdom of the Netherlands in
1815 but became a part of the kingdom of Belgium in 1831 following the revolution of the previous
year.
Dutch Period
After the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1814 (confirmed the following year at the Battle of Waterloo near Brussels), sovereignty over the Southern Netherlands -- Belgium -- was given by
the Congress of Vienna (1815) to the rulers of the Northern provinces of the "Low
Countries". The Protestant King of the Netherlands, William I succeeded in rapidly starting the
industrialisation of the Southern Netherlands, but failed to maintain good
relations with the larger and rebellious Catholic provinces. The Belgian bourgeoisie was not only Catholic, as opposed to the Protestant north, but they also
spoke French, instead of Dutch. Resentment grew both among Catholics and among the powerful liberal bourgeoisie.
In 1830, a street revolution in Brussels led to the splitting up of the two countries.
Belgium was confirmed as an independent state by the London Conference of 1831, but deprived of
the military strongholds of Maastricht and Givet (explaining those surprising indentations in the Belgian border) Sovereignty over Zeeuws Vlaanderen, south of
the Scheldt river delta, was left with the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which closed
this river for any sea traffic to and from Antwerp harbour until 1863.
Belgian Period
Although the majority of the population of the newly formed Kingdom of Belgium was and is Dutch-speaking, French was imposed
as the unique official language by its upper-class on administration, business, cultural and religious affairs. The
Francofication of public life, started during the French occupation, was intensified in the early Belgian period. Ruled by a
French-speaking minority (of just 30,000 census-voters for around 3 million Belgians in 1830, all 30,000 being French-speakers),
all schools and universities in Flanders had to switch to French, leading to paradoxes as Dutch-speaking teachers speaking French
to Dutch-speaking pupils, or Dutch-speaking teachers around Brussels being replaced on short notice with French-speaking teachers
who then were unable to communicate with their Dutch-speaking pupils. Moreover, pupils were punished when they spoke their native
language. The population of Brussels, a Flemish city by origin and the capital of Belgium, saw an increase in its French-speaking
populace. During the 20th century, French became the language spoken by the majority of the inhabitants of Brussels.
However, a cultural and political movement claiming of a "revival of Flemish culture and identity" emerged during the 19th and
20th centuries (see also Flemish emancipation
movement). This lead first to the option (and soon obligation) of using Dutch in public life in Flanders starting at the end
of the 19th century; the reintroduction of Dutch in schools and universities in the 1930s; the University of Ghent adopted Dutch
as language of instruction in 1930; the relocation of the biggest French-speaking university (the French-speaking part of
University of Louvain) from Flanders into Wallonia in
1968; and the installation of a federal state structure with a Flemish government during the last quarter of the 20th
century.
Emancipation of Flemings in Brussels happened much later. Only in the 60’s, legislation was established on correct and
equal treatment of both Dutch-speakers and French-speakers in Brussels, but today, the implementation of these laws is still a
major problem. As an illustration, around 1990 the Brussels regional government had to officially acknowledge that until then,
social housing in the Brussels region was reserved exclusively for those submitting an application in French.
World War I
Flanders saw some of the greatest losses of life of the First World War
including the battles of Ypres and the Somme. Due to the hundreds of thousands of casualties and the poppies that sprang up on Flanders Fields, they
have both become an emblem of human life lost in war.
Flemish feeling of identity and consciousness grew through the events and experiences of war. The German occupying authorities
had taken several Flemish-friendly measures. More importantly the experiences of the Flemish speaking soldiers on the front lead
by French speaking officers catalysed Flemish emancipation. Their suffering is still remembered by Flemish organizations during
the yearlyYser pilgrimage and
Wake of the Yser in Diksmuide at the monument of The Yser tower.
European integration
In the last quarter of the 20th century, European
integration became gradually more and more important. In 2004, it is estimated that around 40% of national legislation is
implementation of European Union law.
The influence of European Union law on Flanders (as on every other part of the Union) is quite substantial, and politically
relevant. It can be felt, among others, through:
- European policy, made by the Council of Ministers, the
European Commission and, to a lesser extent, the European Parliament, especially in agriculture and research;
- the possibility of challenging national legislation by reference to basic rights guaranteed in the European Convention on
Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and EU agreements (enforced by the European Court of Justice, based in Luxembourg and the
European Court of Human Rights, Strasburg)
- Directly imposable legislation;
- De facto economic and cultural integration (social integration going at a much slower rate).
Among the results with a particular relevance for Flanders (or wider), it can be noted, without attempting any
exhaustiveness:
- Academic exchange programmes (such as the Socrates "Erasmus
programme" for students and teachers);
- Rapidly growing scientific cooperation between Flemish companies and universities with colleagues elsewhere in the European
Union and in associated countries;
- Explicit rulings from the European Court of Justice that Flanders has the right to subsidise Dutch-only education in all
unilingual Dutch areas in Belgium;
- Several rulings where individuals obtained final rulings in their favour in dispute with public authorities, after all
possibilities for legal redress before Belgian courts were exhausted (European courts acting as highest court of appeal).
Flanders: language
The standard language used in Flanders is the same as in the Netherlands,
i.e., Dutch. The Dutch dialects spoken in Belgium are often
referred together as Flemish (Vlaams in Dutch), Using
Flemish to refer to dialectic language may be confusing as there are many different Flemish dialects that are sometimes
mutually incomprehensible.
Flanders: culture
At first sight, Flemish culture is defined by its language. However, a
distinctive Flemish literature as such does not exist. Books written by
Flemings and by Dutchmen are read all over the Dutch-speaking areas, though most readers are able to distinguish the fine
differences in vocabulary.
For students, the intellectual standard in Flanders is learning two or even three foreign languages. This is a recent
phenomenon--half a century ago, Flanders was heavily dominated by French-language culture. Proficiency in English has greatly
improved during the period since then, where proficiency in French decreased somewhat (according to certain research, less than
the improvement in English). Proficiency in other languages increased and improved, although some employers complain about an seemingly eternal lack of sufficient proficiency in German.
Some observers have noted other typical cultural characteristics. They say that Flemings have a greater respect for hierarchy then most Dutch, English and "Nordic"
people. In this respect, Flemish culture is more of a Latin culture than an Anglo-Saxon/Germanic one. Related to this, political
culture is more opaque, dominated by the main political parties
and their wheeling, dealing and backroom agreements, and less transparent than
Anglo-Saxon political life. This certainly has contributed to the complex political institutions in Belgium. In terms of intellectual discourse, Flemings appear more
Anglo-Saxon, again preferring a down to earth, facts inspired style.
Many new political parties during the last half century were founded in Flanders and most often in Antwerp: "Daensisme," progressive Christian-Democrats; Frontpartij & Volksunie, moderate Flemish; Agalev,
alternative/Green; Vlaams-Belang: far-right; and ROSSEM, a short-lived anarchistic spark).
The somewhat more contesting nature of Flemish politics is probably related to the fact that initially, Flemings were
massively discriminated against by the official Belgian institutions which had chosen to use French exclusively in public life (mainly for the reason that there
was not one Flemish language, but several Flemish dialects). Dutch was dominant in the Belgian population but nearly absent from
the nobility and haute-bourgeoisie who dominated early political life (with its only 30,000 census-voters out of 3 million Belgians in
1830). Although the vast majority of discrimination has disappeared since then, the few remaining disparities (like the
discrimination against Flemings in medical urgency services in Brussels, recently
acknowledged for the first time by a prominent French minister,
Rudy Demotte) still have a clear influence on political life in Flanders.
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