Antwerp: Encyclopedia II - Antwerp - History

Antwerp - History

According to folklore, the city got its name from a legend involving a mythical giant called Antigoon that lived near the river Scheldt. This giant exacted a toll from passers-by who wished to navigate the river. On refusal, the giant often severed one of their hands and threw them into the Scheldt. Eventually, the giant was slain by a young hero named Brabo, who cut off the giant's hand and threw it into the river. Hence the name Antwerpen from Dutch Hand werpen (hand-throwing). There's a statue of Brabo and the slain Antigoon on the Grote Markt in front of the town hall as can be seen on the picture of the Antwerp Stadhuis above. In addition you are apt to come across sculptures of hands in various sizes and forms throughout the city, and hand-shaped cookies can be bought in any chocolate shop.

This suggested origin of the name Antwerp appeared to Motley rather farfetched, but it is less reasonable to trace it, as he inclines to do, from an t werf (on the wharf), seeing that the form Andhunerbo existed in the 6th century on the separation of Austrasia and Neustria. Moreover, hand-cutting was not an uncommon practice in Europe. It was perpetuated from a savage past in the custom of cutting off the right hand of a man who died without heir, and sending it as proof of main-morte to the feudal lord. Moreover, the two hands and a castle, which form the arms of Antwerp, will not be dismissed as providing no proof by any one acquainted with the scrupulous care that heralds displayed in the golden age of chivalry before assigning or recognizing the armorial bearings of any claimant.

In the 4th century Antwerp is mentioned as one of the places in the second Germany, and in the 11th century Godfrey of Bouillon was for some years best known as marquis of Antwerp. Antwerp was the headquarters of Edward III during his early negotiations with Jacob van Artevelde, and his son Lionel, earl of Cambridge, was born there in 1338.

It was not, however, till after the closing of the Zwyn and the decay of Bruges that the Brabantine city of Antwerp became of importance. At the end of the 15th century the foreign trading gilds or houses were transferred from Bruges to Antwerp, and the building assigned to the English nation is specifically mentioned in 1510.

Antwerp became, as Fernand Braudel pointed out "the center of the entire international economy—something Bruges had never been even at its height." (Braudel 1985 p. 143.) He dates the opening of the new order with the arrival of the first Portugese ship laden with pepper and cinnamon in 1501. Antwerp's "Golden Age" is tightly linked to the "Age of Exploration". Over the first half of the 16th century Antwerp grew to become the second largest European city north of the Alps by 1560.

In 1560, a year which marked the highest point of its prosperity, six nations, viz. the Spaniards, the Danes and the Hansa together, the Italians, the English, the Portuguese and the Germans, were named at Antwerp, and over 1000 foreign merchants were resident in the city. Guicciardini, the Venetian envoy, describes the activity of the port, into which 500 ships sometimes passed in a day, and as evidence of the extent of its land trade he mentioned that 2000 carts entered the city each week. Venice had fallen from its first place in European commerce, but still it was active and prosperous. Its envoy, in explaining the importance of Antwerp, states that there was as much business done there in a fortnight as in Venice throughout the year.

During this period Antwerp clung to some disadvantages. Without a long-distance merchant fleet, and governed by an oligarchy of banker-aristocrats forbidden to engage in trade, the economy of Antwerp was in the hands of the foreigners who made the city very international. Ships from Venice, Ragusa, Catalonia or Portugal met in the port where Portuguese pepper and silks met German silver. Antwerp wisely embraced a policy of toleration: even today Antwerp is nicknamed "The Jerusalem of the West" because of its large orthodox Jewish (hasidic) community. Antwerp in its greatness was not even a "free" city; it had been reabsorbed into the duchy of Brabant in 1406 and was controlled from Brussels.

Antwerp experienced three booms during its century, the first based on the pepper market, a second launched by American silver coming from Seville that came to an abrupt end with the bankruptcy of Spain in 1557. A third boom, after the stabilising Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis, in 1559, was based on industrial production of textiles.

The boom-and-bust cycles and inflationary cost-of-living put a squeeze on Antwerp's less-skilled workers, and the profound religious revolution of the Reformation erupted in violent iconoclastic riots in August 1566, here as in every other part of the Netherlands. The conciliating presence of the regent Margaret, duchess of Parma was swept aside when Philip II sent the Duke of Alva to restore peace and orthodoxy at the head of an army the following summer. The Eighty Years' War broke out in earnest in 1572, and commercial communication between Antwerp and the Spanish port of Bilbao was essentially terminated. On November 4, 1576, the Spanish soldiery plundered the town during what was called The Spanish Fury, and 6000 citizens were massacred. Eight hundred houses were burnt down, and over two millions sterling of damage was wrought in the town on that occasion. Antwerp became the capital of the Dutch revolt. In 1585 a severe blow was struck at the prosperity of the city when Alessandro Farnese, Duke of Parma and Piacenza captured it after a long siege and sent all its Protestant citizens into exile. Antwerp's banking was assumed for a generation by Genoa and its mercantile supremacy passed to Amsterdam. The recognition of the independence of the United Provinces by the treaty of Munster in 1648 carried with it the death-blow to Antwerp's prosperity as a place of trade, for one of its clauses stipulated that the Scheldt should be closed to navigation. This impediment remained in force until 1863, although the provisions were relaxed during French rule from 1795 to 1814, and also during the time Belgium formed part of the kingdom of the Netherlands (1815 to 1830). Antwerp had reached the lowest point of its fortunes in 1800, and its population had sunk under 40,000, when Napoleon, realizing its strategical importance, assigned two millions for the construction of two docks and a mole.

One other incident in the chequered history of Antwerp deserves mention. In 1830 the city was captured by the Belgian insurgents, but the citadel continued to be held by a Dutch garrison under General David Hendrik Chassé. For a time this officer subjected the town to a periodical bombardment which inflicted much damage, and at the end of 1832 the citadel itself was besieged by a French army. During this attack the town was further injured. In December 1832, after a gallant defence, Chassé made an honourable surrender.

During World War I, the city became the fallback point of the Belgian Army after the defeat at Liege. It was taken after heavy fighting by the German Army, and the Belgians were forced to retreat westward.

During World War II the city was occupied by Germany and was liberated on September 4, 1944 when the British 11th Armored Division entered the city. After this, the Germans attempted to destroy the Port of Antwerp, which was used by the Allies to bring new material ashore. The city was hit by more V-2 rockets than any other target during the entire war, but the attack did not succeed in destroying the port. However, the city itself was severely damaged.

Antwerp also hosted the 1920 Summer Olympics and was the first city to host the World Gymnastics Championships, in 1903.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "History", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki