Belgium
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Country in Western Europe, bounded to the north by the Netherlands, to the northwest by the North Sea, to the south and west by France, and to the east by Luxembourg and Germany.
Government
A parliamentary democracy under a constitutional monarch, Belgium has a constitution, revised in 1971 and 1993, that dates from 1831. The prime minister and cabinet are drawn from and answerable to the legislature, which exercises considerable control over the executive. The legislature consists of a chamber of representatives and a Senate with restricted powers. Under the constitutional reforms of the 1990s, the Senate has become a ‘chamber of reflection’ rather than a full legislative chamber. The chamber of representatives has 212 members elected by universal suffrage, through a system of proportional representation, for a four-year term. On the basis of parliamentary support, the monarch appoints the prime minister, who chooses the cabinet.History
The kingdom of Belgium was founded after the 1830 revolution, but the history of the area – the southern part of the Low Countries (also sometimes referred to in their entirety as the Netherlands) – dates back to pre-Roman times.The land that is now Belgium was inhabited in the Palaeolithic period (the Old Stone Age), but recorded history starts with the conquest by Julius Caesar. At the time of the Roman conquest the area was inhabited by the League of the Belgae, who were chiefly Celtic tribes, although there were many traces of tribes of Germanic origin. The Belgae fiercely resisted the Roman invasion, but were eventually forced to submit in 57 BC. Under the Romans the area formed part of Gaul, and from 15 BC was distinguished by the name of Gallia Belgica.
The Middle Ages
The Germanic component of the population was increased from around the 3rd century AD as the Salian Franks settled in the region between the lower River Rhine and the North Sea. At the end of the 5th century the Franks, under Clovis I, conquered the whole of Gaul (France). At the beginning of the 9th century, under Charlemagne, Belgium became the centre of the Carolingian dynasty, and the peace and order during this period fostered the growth of such towns as Ghent, Bruges, and Brussels. Following the division of Charlemagne's empire by the Treaty of Verdun in 843 the area became part of Lotharingia (ruled by Charlemagne's grandson Lothair I). A further division of the empire was made at the Partition of Meersen in 870, by which Flanders and the western provinces went to France, and the eastern provinces, including Brabant, went to Germany.By the 11th century seven feudal states had emerged: the counties of Flanders, Hainaut, and Namur, the duchies of Brabant, Limburg, and Luxembourg, and the bishopric of Liège, all nominally subject to the French kings or the German emperor, but in practice independent. From the 12th century the economy flourished: Bruges, Ghent, and Ypres became centres of the textile industry, while the artisans of Dinant and Liège exploited the copper and tin of the Meuse valley.
Flanders with its cities became one of the most important counties, and had to struggle constantly against France to maintain its independence. Indeed French interference in Flanders, because it threatened the English wool trade, was one of the reasons the English embarked on the Hundred Years' War. Towards the end of the 14th century the line of Flemish counts became extinct, and through the 15th century, through various marriages and by inheritance or purchase, all the provinces of the Low Countries (modern Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands) came into the hands of the dukes of Burgundy. The centre of Burgundian power shifted to the Low Countries, and industry and culture flourished (see Burgundy (ancient)).
Habsburg rule
In 1477 Mary, the daughter of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, married Maximilian, the archduke of Austria, who later became Holy Roman emperor as Maximilian I. In this way the Low Countries came into the possession of the Habsburgs. The Low Countries were passed on by Mary of Burgundy to her son, Philip, who married the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. Dying before his father, Philip left the Low Countries to his son, the future Emperor Charles V, who also became king of Spain, and so began the connection of the region (now referred to as the Spanish Netherlands) with Spain, that was to last until the signing of the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713.In the 16th century Protestantism took a hold in the Spanish Netherlands, and the religious and secular tyranny of the ardently Catholic Philip II of Spain led to a revolt, starting in 1568. For a time it seemed as though the whole country would gain independence, but the military and diplomatic successes of Alexander, Prince of Parma (the Spanish governor), exacerbated the religious differences of the rebels (many of whom remained Catholic). This enabled Parma to regain the southern provinces, and the capture of Antwerp in 1585 ensured that the southern provinces (modern-day Belgium and Luxembourg) remained under Spanish rule. The independence of the northern part of the Netherlands as the Dutch Republic was recognized by Spain in 1648.
In the later 17th century, during the wars of Louis XIV with Spain, district after district was ceded to France. But the great gains made by France in the Peace of Nijmegen in 1678 were largely restored by the Treaty of Ryswick in 1697 (for more details of this period, see France: history 1515–1815). By the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, which concluded the War of the Spanish Succession, the Spanish Netherlands were ceded to Austria, where the Habsburgs continued to rule.
During the century that followed, the fortunes of the Austrian Netherlands underwent many vicissitudes. In the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–48) they were overrun by France, but were restored to Austria by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748. The Seven Years' War (1756–63) left them unmolested, and under Maria Theresa they prospered. But when her son, Joseph II, the ‘enlightened despot’, began to rule alone after her death in 1780, he roused anger by his reforms, which threatened the church and traditional local privileges. In 1789 a middle-class-led revolt broke out in the Austrian Netherlands that had to be subdued by an Austrian army.
The Revolutionary and Napoleonic period
The revolt coincided with the outbreak of the French Revolution. The young Austrian emperor, Francis II, declared war on France in 1792, hoping to reinstate the monarchy, but his armies were defeated at Jemappes and Fleurus. France annexed the Austrian Netherlands, and throughout the rest of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic period they were an integral part of France, governed by the Code Napoléon. Austria formally ceded the territories to France by the Treaty of Campo-Formio (1797), dictated by Napoleon.After Napoleon's abdication in 1814, the provinces again passed to Austria, and were administered by an Austrian governor general. But in 1815 at the Congress of Vienna they were united with Holland, and William Frederick of Orange-Nassau (see Orange, House of) became king of the Netherlands (that is, the modern Netherlands and the modern Belgium) as William I in September 1815.
The creation of Belgium
The two communities had been separated for nearly two hundred years. Religious differences had developed during the Eighty Years' War (the wars of independence against the Spanish, 1568–1648), and there were also linguistic differences between the Dutch and Flemish, and the southern, French-speaking Walloons. Though the Belgians prospered, discontent increased, engendered by suspicion that the interests of the northern Protestant Dutch were being advanced. This was particularly resented by the wealthy and powerful French-speakers in the south.When the revolution of 1830 was successful in Paris, there was an uprising in the French-speaking south, focused especially on Brussels and Liège, and continuing disturbances and demands for independence. At a congress of the five great powers held in London it was agreed that the country of Belgium should be independent, that it should be a constitutional monarchy, not a republic, and that the Orange-Nassau family should be permanently excluded. The election of Leopold of Saxe-Coburg (widower of Charlotte, daughter of George IV of England) as King Leopold I was the signal for a fresh Dutch invasion. The crisis was terminated in 1839 by the action of the great powers, who forced a settlement that was in effect the Treaty of Twenty-four Articles, drawn up eight years before. By its terms the neutrality of Belgium was guaranteed. It was this treaty that became known as ‘the scrap of paper’ in 1914.
Belgium in the later 19th century
From 1839 to 1914 Belgium maintained its independent neutrality. From about 1850 the Liberal Party began a series of reforms to reduce the social power of the church, reforms that met with considerable Catholic opposition. In 1878 the election of an anticlerical Liberal government provoked a Catholic mobilization which culminated in a decisive Catholic electoral victory in 1884. From then until World War I Catholic governments ruled Belgium despite Liberal and subsequently socialist opposition.In the later 19th century the Belgian king Leopold II acquired the Congo Free State (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo; formerly known as Zaire) as his personal fiefdom, and this was recognized by the other European powers in 1885. Following an international outcry over the appalling treatment of native labour, it came under the administration of the Belgian government in 1908. Leopold II died in 1909, and was succeeded by his nephew, Albert I.
Belgium in World War I
Although the majority of the Belgians relied on the 1839 treaty guaranteeing Belgian neutrality, especially as it had been respected during the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, it had been the policy of Leopold II to make Belgium secure from invasion, and this policy was also adopted by Albert. Their foresight proved justified when Belgium was invaded by Germany on 3 August 1914, a violation of Belgian neutrality that brought Britain into the war. The strategic aim of the Germans was to outflank the main French defences in the east by attacking France from the north. (For further details of the causes of the war, and the course of events on the Western Front, see World War I).Liège was taken by the Germans after a 12-day siege, and the Belgian army was driven back to Louvain, and then further back to Antwerp. Louvain was looted. In August a German army under Gen Alexander von Kluck entered Brussels, while another army under Gen Karl von Bülow subdued the fortress of Namur. The way to France lay open, but the German army was harassed by the Belgians, who were entrenched at Malines and Antwerp. In October Antwerp surrendered after a successful withdrawal of the army to the west, and the whole of Belgium was occupied by the Germans save for the small southwestern corner from Nieuport to Ypres. Gen Maurice von Bissing was made governor.
After an initial reign of terror aimed at reducing the local population into submission, the Germans attempted to restart industrial production. Men who would not work for the benefit of the enemy were deported, and from 1916 to 1917 nearly 150,000 men were sent to work in Germany. When it was found in 1917 that the passive resistance of the workers could not be broken, much of Belgian industry was dismantled and many of the machines were transported to Germany. One aim of von Bissing's policy was to divide Belgium against itself by supporting the Flemish movement and to corrupt the loyalty of the Dutch-speaking Flemings by setting them against the dominant middle-class francophone Walloons. The German assumption was that Belgium was an artificially created state without any real national unity.
Meanwhile the remains of the Belgian army were stationed on the extreme left of the Allied front, having withstood severe fighting at the Battle of the Yser. They continued to fight independently of France and Britain for the remainder of the war under the military command of King Albert. A coalition government in exile operated from the French port of Le Havre. After the fall of Antwerp the coast towns of Zeebrugge and Ostend had fallen into German hands, but in 1917 they were rendered ineffective as submarine bases by some ships being sunk by a British squadron at the entrance of the harbours, thus partially closing them.
Some of the bitterest fighting of World War I took place on Belgian soil, particularly in the three battles of Ypres (1914, 1915, and 1917; see Ypres, Battles of). In the series of engagements known as the Battle of Flanders (see Flanders, Battle of), fought in September–November 1918, British, French and Belgian armies under King Albert drove the Germans out of Belgian territory and back into Germany.
The interwar period
The Treaty of Versailles after World War I gave Belgium the status of a sovereign state, free to make what alliances it wished, and the 1839 treaty guaranteeing Belgian neutrality was set aside. The outcome of this was that Belgium contracted a defensive alliance with France and Britain. Belgium also gained the district of Eupen-and-Malmédy and the commune of Moresnet from Germany, thus adding 984 sq km/380 sq mi of territory, which in 1925 were made part of the province of Liège. Belgium was also awarded League of Nations mandates to govern the former German colonies of Rwanda and Burundi.At the end of the German occupation Belgium was faced with an enormous task of reconstruction. Parts of the country had been badly damaged in the fighting, and much of Belgian industry had been dismantled by the Germans. Inflation was a serious problem, and there was a severe financial crisis in 1925–26, which the country nevertheless weathered.
A conspicuous feature of Belgian politics after World War I was the emerging power of the Socialist Party, which soon won a large proportion of the working-class vote. This established a tripartite system (Catholic, Socialist, and Liberal) which remained the dominant characteristic of Belgian politics for much of the 20th century. Universal manhood suffrage had been introduced in 1921 (although women did not get the vote until 1948). In 1925 the Socialists forced a general election, and gained such success that in July 1925 a Socialist–Catholic coalition government was formed. However, it was not until May 1938 that Paul-Henri Spaak became Belgium's first Socialist premier.
In 1929 there was a crisis over the language problem – differences between the Flemish-speaking and French-speaking populations rapidly became a major cause of tension within Belgium. In 1930 the University of Ghent was made Flemish, and provision was made for teaching in schools to be given in the language prevalent in the district concerned.
In February 1934 King Albert was killed while rock-climbing in the Ardennes and was succeeded by his son, Leopold III. The latter's first wife, Queen Astrid, was killed in a motor accident at Lake Lucerne in August 1935.
The road to war
Since 1925 Belgium had placed its faith in the Locarno treaty (see Locarno, Pact of) guaranteeing Germany's existing frontiers with France and Belgium, and supported the policy of collective security. In 1936, however, Germany's repudiation of the Locarno treaty increased Belgian fears of another European war, fears increased by the failure of the League of Nations to impose effective sanctions against Italy after its invasion of Ethiopia.As a consequence Belgium moved away from a faith in collective security and towards a policy of isolationism, self-dependence, and rigid neutrality. At the end of 1936, with the agreement of Great Britain and France, Belgium was released from its Locarno obligations, and at the same time received from the two powers a unilateral promise of support in the event of aggression.
Some months later, in October 1937, Germany also confirmed the inviolability of Belgium, and undertook to respect Belgian territory except in the event of Belgian participation in military action directed against Germany. On 26 August 1939, five days before the German invasion of Poland, the German ambassador to Belgium repeated his country's assurances of respect for the integrity of Belgium, and on the outbreak of war on 3 September Belgium reaffirmed its strict neutrality.
Belgium in World War II
In May 1940, before dawn, the German air force launched an attack on selected airfields and centres of communication in Belgium. Strategically, as in World War I, the German aim in invading Belgium was to attack France from the north, where its defences were weaker – particularly since the building of the Maginot Line.King Leopold took over command of the army, and the Belgian government ordered general mobilization and declared martial law. Later in May the Belgian army capitulated on King Leopold's orders, but the Belgian premier, Hubert Pierlot, who had moved to France, declared that Leopold's capitulation had no legal validity, and that Belgium would continue the struggle on the side of the Allies. This choice was ratified by an improvised meeting of the Belgian parliament at the French town of Limoges at the end of May. The Belgian government decided after the defeat of France in June to return to Belgium but was prevented from doing so by the King and the Germans. After some months of indecision Pierlot and two senior ministers moved to London where they established the government in exile in December 1940. It was regarded as the legal government of Belgium, not only by all the Allies, but also by neutral states. Meanwhile the Germans confined King Leopold in Laeken Palace.
Some Belgians managed to escape to Britain to serve in the forces there, or to find civilian employment, and throughout the war there were a number of resistance movements within Belgium. Conversely Flemish nationalists and some Fascist groups (notably the Rexists led by Léon Degrelle) supported the Germans and formed collaborationist military units. For more details on the fighting in Belgium during the war, see World War II.
In September 1944, following the Allied landings in Normandy in June, British armoured units reached Tournai, the first Belgian town to be liberated, and Brussels was quickly freed. Belgian forces cooperated with the British and US armies, and by early November the whole of Belgium was liberated, following the end of the final German resistance at Zeebrugge and south of the River Scheldt. In April 1949 some minor frontier modifications in Belgium's favour were made on the Belgian–German frontier.
The King Leopold affair
After the end of the war in May 1945, the issue of the return of King Leopold III soon threatened to divide the country. In the final stages of the war the Germans had removed the king and his family to Germany, but once freed by the Allies he wished to resume his functions. The resistance movement, which naturally was a strong influence in the country, had become predominantly associated with the left, and was opposed to the return of the king, who, in the opinion of many, was associated with seeking an understanding with the Germans. His second marriage in 1941 was also highly unpopular.In view of this hostility, therefore, the Belgian government, led by the Flemish socialist Achid Van Acker, refused to take responsibility for the return of the king. The country thus remained under the regency of Prince Charles, the king's brother, who had been appointed regent after the liberation of Belgium, when Leopold was still in Germany.
In 1949 the Socialists lost control of the government, and in 1950 the Catholic-dominated Christian Social Party, committed to support the king's return, held a referendum on the subject, which produced a majority in favour of Leopold's restoration. It was not a large majority, and in the Walloon districts more votes were cast against the return than for it, but the regency was ended, and Leopold returned to Belgium. Rioting and strikes broke out and civil war and a possible division of the country seemed imminent. In August 1950 Leopold finally and very reluctantly agreed to delegate his powers to his eldest son, Baudouin. He abdicated in July 1951, and Baudouin became king.
International affairs
Since 1945 Belgium has been a major force for international cooperation in Europe, being a founding member of the Benelux Economic Union in 1948, the Council of Europe, and the European Economic Community (now the European Union), whose administrative headquarters are in Brussels.Belgium is also a member of NATO, whose international secretariat and military headquarters (SHAEF) are based in the country. NATO membership has sometimes brought about problems; between 1983 and 1985, for example, there was much debate about the siting of US cruise missiles in Belgium before a majority vote in parliament allowed their installation.
Belgium's handling of the independence process in its African colonies in the early 1960s was poorly thought out. The Belgians had resisted decolonization through the 1950s, but as nationalism swept the continent they made hurried arrangements for granting independence. The colonial administrations had done little to prepare the Africans for self-government, had suppressed political activity, and had made few efforts to resolve the differences between varied ethnic groupings. The result in the Congo was a bloody civil war following independence, while the continuing conflict between the Hutu and Tutsi peoples of Rwanda and Burundi has led to many large-scale massacres.
Language divisions
Belgium has prospered greatly since the end of World War II. Cities such as Antwerp and Ghent have been developed as industrial and commercial centres, but increasing industrialization in Flanders has led to population movements that have accentuated the latent friction between Flemings and Walloons, and this has flared up from time to time into intercommunal riots. The language division has been aggravated by the political polarization between the predominantly Catholic Flanders in the north and the mainly socialist French-speaking Wallonia in the south.About 55% of the population speak Flemish, 44% French, and a small proportion German. Since the 1960s significant new immigrant populations have also developed in the major cities. During 1971–73 attempts to close the linguistic and social divisions included the transfer of greater power to the regions and linguistic parity in the government. Separate regional councils and ministerial committees were established in 1974. Nevertheless complicated conflicts between Dutch and French speakers continued to dominate Belgian politics in the 1970s and 1980s and it was eventually agreed that Flanders and Wallonia should be administered by separate regional assemblies, with powers to spend up to 10% of the national budget on cultural facilities, health, roads, and urban projects. Brussels was to be governed by a three-member executive. Throughout much of the 1980s Belgian politics was dominated by the linguistic issue. The government was led 1979–92 by a Flemish Catholic, Wilfried Martens, who – working closely with King Baudouin – led a predominantly centre-right government with the Liberals. Martens resigned after the November 1991 elections, but was persuaded to carry on as caretaker prime minister until March 1992 when, on the request of the king, the deputy prime minister Jean-Luc Dehaene, also a Flemish Catholic, formed a new coalition in alliance with the Socialists.
A federal system
In September 1992, the government agreed, in principle, to introduce a federal system of government, based on Flemish-speaking Flanders, French-speaking Wallonia, and the national capital, Brussels. In February 1993 the constitution was amended to allow for the creation of a fully federal state. King Baudouin died suddenly in July 1993 and was succeeded by his brother, Prince Albert of Liège. Dehaene's centre-left coalition was reelected in 1995. In March 1998 a ‘grand coalition of the great and the good’ campaigned for the retention of a unified country.A series of scandals unsettled Belgian politics in the 1990s. The unexplained assassination of the prominent Socialist politician André Cools in Liège and the enforced resignation of Willy Claes, the Belgian secretary general of NATO, after allegations of corruption, rocked the credibility of Belgian politics. In 1996 the revelation of a paedophile scandal surrounding a criminal named Marc Dutroux led many Belgians to denounce what they perceived as the corruption and incompetence of politicians and the police. Nevertheless Dehaene's Catholic–Socialist coalition remained in office, concentrating its efforts on the issues of European integration and regional devolution.
The health and farm ministers resigned in June 1999 after high levels of dioxin were found in the country's eggs and chickens. It became clear that the ministers had known about the problem for a month without informing the public or even the prime minister. The scare quickly spread to pork and beef. The European Commission announced a ban on products traced to the contaminated farms. The affair – Europe's worst food contamination crisis since the BSE scandal – had almost wiped out the country's food industry. The controversy continued in the run-up to a general election. In general and European elections held in June, significant gains were made by Greens, liberals and far-right parties, forcing the departure of Europe's longest-serving prime minister, Jean-Luc Dehaene. Guy Verhofstadt, a Flemish liberal, formed a coalition government in July with socialists and – for the first time in Belgium – Greens.
In local elections in October 2000, the far-right Vlaams Blok party recorded its best results ever in the Flemish part of Belgium, including the city of Antwerp. The party, whose policies include ending immigration to Belgium and closing mosques, became the second largest far-right party in Europe, after the Austrian Freedom Party, which became involved in a government coalition in February 2000.
In June 2001, the Belgian parliament approved a bill allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry. In November, 40 years after the unsolved murder of the Congolese independence leader Patrice Lumumba, Belgium admitted to a role in the assassination. The findings of an official inquiry gave a damning account of Belgium's part in the murder of Lumumba, the first prime minister of the Republic of the Congo (now the Democratic Republic of Congo), in 1961. The report did not indict the government directly, but said that Belgian ministers then in office were morally responsible.
On 1 January 2002, euro notes and coins were introduced as the national currency.
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