Belgians in Michigan

A Short History of Belgium

5 AShortHistoryofBelgium B elgium is located in Western Europe. It is surrounded by the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, France, and the North Sea. Its population is divided into three official national groups, six million Flemish, four million French-speaking Walloons, and seventy thousand Germans. Belgium is an ancient land, but the independent state of Belgium is a rather recent creation. The Belgians were mentioned by Julius Caesar in his Gallic Wars. Those Belgians were a fierce Celtic people. Much of present-day Belgium was overrun and colonized by the Romans. However, in the third century Germanic Franks and other German tribes increasingly pushed into the area. Roman power receded and the whole area came under Frankish rule by the fifth century. Despite their political and military dominance, Frankish settlement produced a Frankish majority only in the northern and western parts of present-day Belgium. That is the section of Belgium where the Flemish people predominate. They speak Flemish, a Germanic language, the written form of which is today the same as modern Dutch. In areas of Belgium where Gallo-Romans remained the majority, the Franks were assimilated and the language of the people evolved into a form of French. The Low Lands, today ’s Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg (Benelux), were the sites of many dynastic and political struggles. Flanders was an early European area of urban development, commerce, and manufacturing. There was 6 B ernard A. Cook great local pride and urban patriotism in towns like Brugge (Bruges) and Ghent. Workers of both cities struggled in the fourteenth century to prevent the French kingdom from dominating their towns. Under the Burgundians the area seemed on the path to nationhood, but untimely deaths and political marriages led to the area falling under the control of the Hapsburgs. When Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain, divided his realm in 1556, he handed the Low Lands over to his son Philip II. Philip’s championing of the Catholic Counter-Reformation against his Protestant Belgian National Anthem The Belgian national anthem, the Brabançonne, was originally written by Jenneval (Hippolyte Louis-Alexandre Dechet), who died fighting the Dutch for Belgian independence at Lier on October 18, 1830. In 1860 the Belgian Prime Minister, Charles Rogier, revised Jenneval’s text, and the fourth verse of his new version is used now as the official Belgian national anthem. It has both French and Dutch versions. French O Belgique, ô mère chérie, A toi nos coeurs, à toi nos bras, A toi notre sang, ô Patrie! Nous le jurons tous, tu vivras! Tu vivras toujours grande et belle Et ton invincible unité Aura pour devise immortelle: Le Roi, la Loi, la Liberté! Aura pour devise immortelle: Le Roi, la Loi, la Liberté! Le Roi, la Loi, la Liberté! Le Roi, la Loi, la Liberté! Dutch O dierbaar België O heilig land der vaad’ren BELGIANS IN MICHIGAN 7 subjects led to war and the eventual establishment of a separate Netherlands , which was dominated politically by Protestants. Protestants became a discriminated-against minority in the south and a number of Walloon and Flemish Protestants sought refuge in the Netherlands or, more properly, the United Provinces. What is today Belgium became a cockpit in the struggle between France and Spain, and eventually, after the War of Spanish Succession (1701–14), passed to the Austrian Hapsburgs. The eighteenth century was a time of Onze ziel en ons hart zijn u gewijd. Aanvaard ons hart en het bloed van onze adren, Wees ons doel in arbeid en in strijd. Bloei, o land, in eendracht niet te breken; Wees immer u zelf en ongeknecht, Het woord getrouw, dat ge onbevreesd moogt spreken: Voor Vorst, voor Vrijheid en voor Recht. Het woord getrouw, dat ge onbevreesd moogt spreken: Voor Vorst, voor Vrijheid en voor Recht. Voor Vorst, voor Vrijheid en voor Recht. Voor Vorst, voor Vrijheid en voor Recht. English Translation of the French Oh Belgium, our dear mother, To you our hearts, to you our arms, To you our blood, oh fatherland. We all swear that you will live. You will always live, great and beautiful. And your invincible unity Will have as its immortal guarantee: For King, Justice, and Liberty! Will have as its immortal guarantee: For King, Justice, and Liberty! For King, Justice, and Liberty! For King, Justice, and Liberty! 8 B ernard A. Cook material progress in the Austrian Netherlands, but it also...