A short history of Belgium

by Léon van der Essen

The real unity of the history of Belgium in ante-modern times has been brought into notice by one of Belgium’s leading historians, Henri Pirenne, professor in the University of Ghent, in his admirable work, Histoire de Belgique. Before the publication of this work, few scholars understood how to treat the history of Belgium during the Middle Ages. Having in mind only the political aspect of that history, they were lost in the particular history of the various duchies and counties; they saw scarcely any link between the facts of these different historical sections, and they forgot entirely to take account of the unifying factor—the common culture and civilization.

Since historians have had their attention called to that unifying factor, the history of Belgium has been looked upon in a different manner. It is in the light of that method that I shall try to explain the course of the historical development of the country.

The national culture of Belgium is a synthesis, if I may so call it, where one finds the genius of two races—the Romance and the Germanic—mingled, yet modified by the imprint of the distinctively Belgian. It is in that very receptivity—the fact that it has absorbed and unified the best elements of Latin and Teutonic civilization—that the originality of the Belgian national culture resides.

These distinctive marks of national culture, denoting the unity of a people, and serving, both in the Middle Ages and today, to distinguish the Belgian nation from the other nations of Europe, may be described as a common desire for independence and freedom, a jealous regard for those popular rights which serve as a guaranty of the continuance of independence and freedom, and a deeply religious spirit. In the course of their history the Belgians have always cast off the yoke of those princes who, like Philip II, Joseph II, and William I of Holland, attacked their liberties and privileges, or who, like Joseph II and William I of Holland, tried to impose their own religious beliefs on them.

Those characteristics of the Belgian nation, as well as its common civilization, were born during the Middle Ages. For that reason I shall deal in a special manner with the different aspects of religious, artistic, literary, and economic life during that period. After the treatment of the political unity of the Belgian provinces achieved in the fifteenth century, more attention will be given to the political aspect of events, without, however, entirely neglecting the different forms of popular life and social activity.

The history of Belgium may be divided into the following periods: (1) the formative period, including the time of the Roman occupation, the invasion of the Franks, and the reign of Charles the Great and his immediate heirs (57 B.C. to 843 A.D.); (2) the period of feudalism; (3) the rise of the communes (eleventh to fourteenth century); (4) the political centralization of the dukes of Burgundy (fifteenth century); (5) the Spanish rule (sixteenth to seventeenth century); (6) the Austrian rule (eighteenth century); (7) the French régime (1792-1815); (8) the Dutch rule and the revolution of 1830; (9) the period of national independence.

During all these periods of history the names “Belgium” and “Belgians” have not been uniformly those by which the country and its people have been designated. The name “Belgae,” of Celtic origin, was given in Caesar’s time to the confederation of Celtic tribes which occupied the territory of Belgium, when for the first time the Roman legions came in contact with them. The name Belgium, “Belgica,” disappeared with the Roman occupation and does not reappear until the sixteenth century. During the sixteenth century, and especially at the beginning of the seventeenth, the name “Belgium” is to be found in books, but seems not to have been used as a common designation. As a distinctive name for a race or people, the term “Belges” became generally used at the end of the eighteenth century, its adjectival form being then “belgique” (les provinces belgiques, “the Belgian provinces”). Between the end of the Roman occupation and the end of the eighteenth century the Belgians were successively known as “Franks,” “Lotharingi,” and “Flemings.” Since the thirteenth century, the country itself has been called “Netherlands” (partes advallenses), when the name Lotharingia disappeared as a political term. The term “Burgundian provinces” was sometimes used in the fifteenth century, while the name “Flanders,” “Fiandra,” “Flandes,” was mainly applied during the Spanish rule. During the Austrian rule the name “Austrian Netherlands” was the prevailing designation.[1] The term “Netherlands” was applied, not only to the actual territory of Belgium, but to the countries which today correspond to the territories included in the kingdoms of Belgium and Holland. From the time of the Roman occupation until 1588 Belgium and Holland have, indeed, a somewhat common history. Since 1588, when the provinces of the north separated from the south as the United Provinces of the Netherlands, Belgium and Holland have existed as separate states, and have no longer a common history.

We shall not attempt to deal here with the history of the northern provinces from the early Middle Ages down to 1588, for that is the task of the historian of Holland, and although, politically speaking, the provinces of Belgium and Holland both shared the same vicissitudes until 1588, yet, as has been pointed out by Professor Colenbrander,[2] from the point of view of artistic, literary, and economic life the national culture of the two was quite distinct.

On the other hand, included in this history is that of the principality of Liège. Liège was never a part of the Netherlands; until 1795 it was an ecclesiastical state with a separate entity, ruled by bishops, princes of the Holy Roman Empire. But Liège had a civilization, and especially institutions, common to those of the other Belgian provinces, and, geographically and historically speaking, it was really a part of Belgium.

Having thus indicated what is to be dealt with in this Short History of Belgium, it remains only to mention the bibliographical list appended at the close of the work, which includes the most important books on general Belgian history. A reference to these will facilitate a deeper study of the subject and will enable the student to enter more in detail into the history of the country.[3]