BELGIUM
HISTORY |
| |
| Geographically and culturally, Belgium is at the crossroads of Europe, and
during the past 2,000 years has witnessed a constant ebb and flow of
different races and cultures. Consequently, Belgium is one of Europe's true
melting pots with Celtic, Roman, Germanic cultures having made an imprint,
and later on in history, French, Dutch, Spanish, and Austrian influences. |
|
The earliest named inhabitants of Belgium were the Belgae. They were (mostly)
Celtic tribes, living in northern Gaul and overcome by Julius Caesar in 54
BC, as described in his chronicle De Bello Gallico. In this same work Julius
Caesar referred to the Belgae as ...the bravest of all Gauls. After the
Roman Empire collapsed (5th century), Germanic tribes invaded the Roman
province of "Gallia". One of these people, the Franks, finally installed a
new kingdom under the rulers of the Merovingian Dynasty. Clovis was the most
famous of these kings: he converted to Christianity and ruled from northern
France, but his empire included today's Belgium. Christian scholars, mostly
Irish monks, preached Christianity and started conversion work under the
pagan invaders. The Merovingians were rather short-lived, as the Carolingian
Dynasty took over: after Charles Martel countered the Moorish invasion from
Spain (732 - Poitiers), their famous king Charlemagne brought a huge part of
Europe under his rulership and was crowned as the "Emperor of the Holy Roman
Empire" by the pope himself (800).
European Feudalism became the base for military, political and economical
stability. Christianity flourished under the protection of these rulers and
by the founding of religious communities and monasteries, churches and
pilgrimages.
The region was later associated with the Netherlands, under Burgundian then
Spanish rule, until the Protestant provinces took their independence (see
Netherlands). Then followed Austrian rule, and a few years of French rule
under Napoleon. After Napoleon's demise, in 1815, Belgium was reunited with
the northern provinces in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands until the
Belgian Revolution in 1830, which established an independent Belgian state.
The Belgian revolution was initiated by the French-speaking minority who
controlled the factories and other economical resources and who didn't want
to live under a Dutch-speaking administration. The fact that Belgium was
mostly catholic and Netherlands predominantly protestant also played a role.
The Belgian King, Leopold I, was chosen with the assistance of the British.
The country's neutrality was guaranteed against future foreign military
aggression. This neutrality was violated in 1914 when Germany invaded
Belgium as part of the Schlieffen Plan. The British decision to honour their
treaty obligations, as much as the entente cordiale with France, forced them
into the First World War. After a period of alliance with France after the
First World War, Belgium tried to return to neutrality in the 1930s, but was
once again invaded by Germany in 1940. After World War II, the policy of
neutrality was abandoned, and Belgium joined NATO. It was also one of the
founding members of the European Economic Community.
Belgium possessed one primary foreign colony during its history: the Congo,
which was given to King Leopold II in the Conference of Berlin in 1885. He
made the land his private property and called it the 'Congo Free State'. In
this Free State, the local population was brutalised in exchange for rubber,
a growing market with the developement of rubber tyres. In 1908, the
international pressure against the cruelties of King Leopold became so great
that Leopold II was forced to give his property to the Belgian state as a
colony. From then on, it became Belgian Congo, before gaining independence
from Belgium in 1960.
Belgium's foreign involvement increased after the First World War when two
former German colonies, Rwanda and Burundi were mandated to Belgium by the
League of Nations. Belgian policy in the administration and socio-cultural
development of these countries has been heavily criticised, many seeing
Belgian decisions as contributing significantly to the troubles in Rwanda in
the 1990s when a genocide took place, with an estimated 1 million casualties.
Since the 20th century, the history of Belgium became more and more
dominated by the increasing autonomy of its two main communities, the Dutch-
and the French-speakers. As an indication of this, since around 1970, there
are no significant national Belgian political parties anymore, but only
Flemish or French-speaking parties. The regular attempts to establish
national, Belgian parties end up below 1% of the electorate; the Brussels
parties either never got started (as with the 'Blauwe Leeuwen' and 'Rode
Leeuwen' for the Flemings in Brussels), or got merged into one of the French-speaking
liberal parties (such as the French-speaking FDF, which however has had a
significant influence for years, and still keeps some independence). As such,
the political landscape shows a near-perfect dual political system,
reflecting the two underlying dominant communities. |
|
