Aug 29
175 year Belgium, the history…
2005 at 12.36 am posted by Veerle Pieters
In case you are not interested in the history just watch the two movies below, but you should read it to brush up your history, I did ;-) Not many Belgians or others for that matter will remember that only a few days ago we remembered the start of the Belgian revolution. So our country is celebrating it’s 175th birthday.
Maybe a little trip down memory lane is nice since Belgian history seems to be an open house for all others ;-) Our country’s history is entwined into that of other European countries, two countries played a bigger role then others, namely The Netherlands and Luxembourg.
Neanderthals were the first that occupy the region around 400,000 BC. First named inhabitants of Belgium were the Belgae. In 54 BC the Belgae were defeated by Julius Caesar. Julius Ceasar referred to the Belgea as “the bravest of all Gauls”. Something you can also read in the comic books of Asterix and Obelix, there is even a movie about that with G�rard Depardieu playing Ob�lix and Christian Clavier as Ast�rix ;-)
For some 300 years thereafter, what is now Belgium flourished as a province of Rome. There is a lot more but that would take us to far away ;-) Some other interesting facts are that The County of Flanders became part of France during the Middle Ages, but the remainder of the Low Countries were part of the Holy Roman Empire. By 1433 most of the Belgian and Luxembourgian territory along with much of the rest of the Low Countries became part of the Burgundian Empire under Philip the Good.
Especially during the Burgund period (the 15th and 16th centuries), Ypres, Ghent, Bruges, Brussels, and Antwerp took turns as being major European centers for commerce, industry (especially textiles) and art.
That’s also the period of the Flemish Primitives a group of painters (Jan van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden, Hugo van der Goes, Hans Memling, Petrus Christus, Robert Campin, Dirk Bouts, Gerard David).
Another thing that we are famous for are the Flemish tapestries, many of them hung on the walls of castles throughout Europe and there still one (from Oudenaarde I think) in the United Nations building in New York. Until 1581 we share the same history with the Netherlands and Luxembourg, the region was called the Low Countries.
Antwerp was still a major player in Europe in 17th century. You probably have heard of the Brueghels, Antoon Van Dyck and Peter Paul Rubens they all did Baroque paintings. A style that was started around 1600 in Rome.
Somewhere in 1700 our territory was transferred to Austria. This was followed by the French in 1795. That’s when Napoleon entered the scene but his ass was kicked in the Battle of Waterloo on June 18, 1815. The majors powers then agreed on reuniting the southern Netherlands with the northern, creating the United Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Finally we got enough of that invasion stuff after watching La Muette de Portici at the Brussels opera house La Monnaie (De Munt). What followed was the Belgian Revolution that eventually led to an independent, Catholic and neutral Belgium.
Of course this is only a short version of all the events but one thing is still clear today and that is that we still remain in the background in comparison with the Netherlands. Maybe that’s not a bad thing that we are not that loud in the world but a little more patriotism couldn’t hurt!
Maybe something like this movie as an example?
So all my foreign friends if you want to get to know my beautiful little country I recommend watching this movie. Weather sucks sometimes but I still wouldn’t trade it for anything else. God bless Belgium :-p
Some of the nice Belgian tunes used are Ultrasonic - Lips they move, Buscemi - Seaside and Arsenal - Mr. Doorman. This article wouldn’t have been possible without superb Wikipedia, so if you want all the facts go to The history of Belgium.
22served
1
nice little read, to learn about the history of my country on a monday morning
thanks!
2
Nice summary - but, why did you neither mention french fries, nor that Brussels is NATO headquarters as well as one seat of the European parliament (besides Strasbourg and Luxembourg), nor all the nice Belgian techno (Fuse Club does a lot for it)...
Viva Belgium, viva Europe! :)
3
I know it’s remotely related to the post, but people interested in rock music should give a try to these excellent belgian bands: Hollywood Porn Stars, Millionaire and especially Ghinzu. Belgian rock has been in pretty good shape these last years, at least from where I stand. I wish I could live over there… ;-)
Happy birthday Belgium !
4
Hey Veerle,
Very nice narrative, I like reading that. And a very nice blog overall, keep up the good work.
Also, if its not intruding may I ask what software are you using for this blog? Its really nice, nice design, very clean and slick.
5
@Jens: I didn’t mention those things because some are mentioned in the movie. Besides mentioning every piece would make a to large post ;-)
@Amirsan: Thanks. This blog is using pMachine Pro.
6
I’ve always loved European history. It’s depth allows for a great deal more history than the United States. Not to say our nearly 230 year history (or 500+ years if you include out “discovery”) doesn’t contain enough material to spend lifetimes studying. It just doesn’t have a connection with a world that includes the Middle Ages, ancient Rome, and even neanderthals like most of Europe does
7
Veerle, not to mention all of our great beers, Belgian Chocolates, Belgian Fries, Mercator, Adolph Sax, ...
Indeed as always we are too modest. I think we Belgian are confusing bragging about something and being a litlle bit chauvinists. Let’s hope Kim does well at the US Open next weekend. Another one to add to our list…
8
Nice to read some readers’ digest-ish short history of Belgium’ here. But be carefull with that Caesar statement: the part you quote here is the one they tend to teach us in high-school indeed. But our history teachers rarely quote good old Julius completely, because that’s less flattering. He said: “Of all these people the Belgae are the most courageous, because they are farthest removed from the culture and the civilisation of the Province…“
Read as: we were the most primitive Barbarians Caesar had ever stumbled upon during his excursions. And the man had been around :)
9
You forgot the most important part of Belgium : the best beers and fries of the world
10
I went on a backpacking trip through western Europe a couple years ago after finishing my schooling as a designer. Belgium was by far my favorite. If I had the opportunity to get job in Brugge, I would take it in a heartbeat. To this day, I maintain that the local beer (Straffe Hendrik) and the frites I had in Brugge is one the most memorable experiences of my life. And while we are mentioning cuisine, lets not forget steamed mussels.
11
I was trying to comment on the post called “CSS: the white-space property“, but it just returned “Your comment could not be posted at this time”. Is there any explanation for it?
12
And let’s not forget Jacques Brel
13
Indeed we could be a bit more chauvinistic, but in that first movie the most important things weren’t mentioned good enough. Like beer, fries and off course Bicky Burgers.
Anyway, great post Veerle and thx for givin me a feeling of being Belgian again.
Schild en Vriend :-)
14
“Weather sucks sometimes”
I can second this. A friend of mine was once stuck in a snow storm on the motorway between Luxembourg and Brussels… in July. He had a plane to catch. He made it… just.
Long and cold winter evenings is probably what prompted the Belgians to perfect brewing to the point that Belgium has the best and most varied (and strongest) beers in the world. You haven’t really tasted beer until you’ve tasted Belgian beer. I’m glad we can now find some of them in London, it’s taken a while!
Nice short history of your beautiful country Veerle.
15
A small dose of Europian History! Interesting, got to learn some new facts!
16
I have nothing against Belgians, but you can’t really give a summary of Belgian history without mentioning Leopold II and his horrible atrocities in the Congo. He’s a reminder of how screwed up and evil some European monarchs were.
17
@Bruce: You have nothing against us but you proudly mentioned it anyway right? You talk only of monarchs but let me tell you every country (monarch or not) has something that they aren’t proud of and the main message is that we learn from it and we did. This is something that we aren’t forgotten let me assure you. Belgium pays a lot of money and offers help (in education for example) to Congo to make it a better place, and maybe this is our way of making things right. Anyway this is my place and I tend to keep it enjoyable.
18
I think you are right about Belgium being in the background compared to other countries. Here in the UK we just have a chain of Restaurants called ‘Belgo’ (is that an export ?) and watch your tennis players at Wimbledon. The restaurant has a great gag that offers you some free beer if you can recognize some famous Belgian faces on the back of the menu - of course no one can !
19
Asterix and Obelix! Fantastic! I think there are over 20 comic books from the series. They were very popular when I was growing up. They were educational but hilarious.
20
butbutbut, tunes? Where is the all famous dEUS? Next week you can expect another album, and what I already heard from that album, its gonna be great again!
21
Bruce: yes there were atrocities in the Congo, but can you name any first world countries that have not done similar? Part and parcel of imperialism unfortunately.
I visited Belgium in 2000, I had a great time. My favourite things about Belgium, in no particular order:
- Stella Artois
- Hoegaarden (which I was told is pronounced ‘Hoo-harden’, much to the confusion of everyone else at home who say ‘hoo-garden’
- Belgian chocolates
- Frites! Mmm, frites…
- Tintin, Smurfs, Asterix, etc.!
- Manneken Pis (and let’s not forget Janneken Pis)
- And Front 242, they make some damn fine music.
22
Oh man, I grew up on Asterix and Obelix comics