History of Belgium: Encyclopedia II - History of Belgium - Before independence

History of Belgium - Before independence

History of Belgium - Prehistory

Around 400,000 BC Neandertals lived on the edge of the Meuse river, near the village of Spy. From 30,000 BC on the inhabitants were Homo sapiens. Neolithic vestiges exist at Spiennes where there was a silex mine.

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The first signs of the Bronze age date 1750 BC. From 500 BC Celtic tribes settled and traded with the Mediterranean world. From 150 BC the first coins were in use.

The earliest named inhabitants of Belgium were the Belgae (after whom the modern Belgium is named). They were (mostly) Celtic tribes, living in northern Gaul.

History of Belgium - Antiquity

In 54 BC, the Belgae were overcome by Julius Caesar, as described in his chronicle De Bello Gallico.

In this same work Julius Caesar referred to the Belgae as "the bravest of all Gauls" ("horum omnium fortissimi sunt belgae").

What is now Belgium flourished as a province of Rome. This province was much larger than the modern Belgium. Five cities: Nemetacum (Arras), Divodurum (Metz), Bagacum (Bavay), Aduatuca (Tongeren), Durocorturum (Reims).

At the north-east was the neighbour province Germania Inferior. Its cities were : Traiectum ad Mosam (Maastricht), Ulpia Noviomagus (Nijmegen), Colonia Ulpia Trajana (Xanten) and Colonia Agrippina (Cologne). Both provinces include the Low Countries [1].

History of Belgium - Pre-romanesque period

After the Roman Empire collapsed (5th century), Germanic tribes invaded the Roman province of "Gallia". One of these peoples, the Franks, finally installed a new kingdom under the rulers of the Merovingian Dynasty. Clovis I was the most famous of these kings. He converted to Christianity and ruled from northern France, but his empire included today's Belgium. Christian scholars, mostly Irish monks, preached Christianity and started conversion work under the pagan invaders (Saint Servatius, Saint Remacle, Saint Hadelin).

The Merovingians were rather short-lived, as the Carolingian Dynasty soon took over. After Charles Martel countered the Moorish invasion from Spain (732 - Poitiers), the famous king Charlemagne (born close to Liège in Herstal or Jupille) brought a huge part of Europe under his rule and was crowned as the "Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire" by the pope (800) in Aachen.

The Vikings were defeated in 891 by Arnulf of Carinthia near Leuven. The Frankish lands were divided and reunified several times under the Merovingian and Carolingian dynasties, but eventually were firmly divided into France and the Holy Roman Empire. 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. Through the early Middle Ages, the northern part of present-day Belgium (now commonly referred to as Flanders) had become an overwhelmingly Germanized and Germanic language-speaking area, whereas in the southern part people had continued to be Roman and spoke derivatives of Vulgar Latin.

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History of Belgium - Romanesque period

As the Holy Roman Emperors lost effective control of their domains in the 11th and 12th centuries, the territory more or less corresponding to the present Belgium was divided into mostly independent feudal states:

• county of Flanders
• Marquis of Namur
• Duchy of Brabant (see also Duke of Brabant)
• County of Hainaut
• Duchy of Limburg
• Luxemburg
• Bishopric of Liège.

During the 11th and 12th centuries, the Rheno-Mosan or Mosan art florished in the region going from Cologne and Trier to Liège, Maastricht and Aachen. Some masterpieces of this romanesque art are the shrine of the Three Kings at Cologne Cathedral, the baptistry of Renier de Huy in Liège, the shrine of Saint Remacle in Stavelot, the shrine of Saint Servatius in Maastricht or, Notger's gospel in Liège.

History of Belgium - Gothic period

13th and 14th centuries

• Many cities gained their independence from their heirs.
• Huge trade within the Hanseatic Leage.
• Building of huge gothic cathedrals and city halls.

• Battle of the Golden Spurs
• Bruges
• Antwerp
• Hanseatic League

History of Belgium - Burgundian Netherlands

By 1433 most of the Belgian and Luxembourgian territory along with much of the rest of the Low Countries became part of Burgundy under Philip the Good. When Mary of Burgundy, grand-daughter of Philip the Good married Maximilian I, the Low Countries became Habsburg territory. Their son, Philip I of Castile (Philip the Handsome) was the father of the later Charles V. The Holy Roman Empire was unified with Spain under the Habsburg Dynasty after Charles V inherited several domains.

Especially during the Burgund period (the 15th and 16th centuries), Ypres, Ghent, Bruges, Brussels, and Antwerp took turns at being major European centers for commerce, industry (especially textiles) and art. The Flemish Primitives were a group of painters active primarily in the Southern Netherlands in the 15th and early 16th centuries (for example, Van Eyck and van der Weyden). Flemish tapestries hung on the walls of castles throughout Europe.

• Early Renaissance painting
• Charles the Good
• Charles the Bold

History of Belgium - The Spanish Netherlands

The Pragmatic Sanction of 1549, issued by Charles V, established the Seventeen Provinces (or Spanish Netherlands in its broad sense) as an entity separate from the Empire and from France. This comprised all of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg except for the lands of the Bishopric of Liège.

However, the northern region now known as the Netherlands became increasingly Protestant (i.c. Calvinistic), while the south remained primarily Catholic. The schism resulted in the Union of Atrecht and the Union of Utrecht. When Philip II, son of Charles ascended the Spanish throne, he tried to abolish all Protestantism. Portions of the Netherlands revolted, beginning the Eighty Years' War between the Netherlands and Spain. For the conquered Southern Netherlands the war ended in 1581 with the Fall of Antwerp. This can be seen as the start of Belgium as one region. That same year, the northern Low Countries (i.e. the Netherlands proper) seized independence in the Oath of Abjuration (Plakkaat van Verlatinghe) and started the United Provinces and the Dutch Golden Age. For them, the war lasted until 1648 (the Peace of Westphalia), when Spain recognized the independence of the Netherlands, but held onto the loyal and Catholic region of modern-day Belgium which was all that remained of the Spanish Netherlands.

• Battle of Turnhout (1597)
• Battle of Nieuwpoort
• Battle of Gibraltar
• Battle of the Downs
• Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia of Spain

While the United Provinces gained independence, the Southern Netherlands remained under the rule of the Spanish Habsburgs (1519-1713).

Until 1581 the history of Belgium (except the Bishopric of Liège), the grand-duchy of Luxembourg and the country the Netherlands is the same: they formed the country/region of the Netherlands or the Low Countries. In Dutch, a distinction still exists between on the one hand 'de Nederlanden' (plural, the Low Countries) and 'Nederland' (singular, the present-day state of the Netherlands) that is a consequence of this separation in the 17th century. Before 1581, the Netherlands refers to the Lowlands (De Nederlanden).

During the 17th century Antwerp was still a major European center for commerce, industry and art. The Brueghels, Peter Paul Rubens and Van Dyck's baroque paintings were performed during this period.

• Gerardus Mercator
• Jodocus Hondius
• War of Devolution, Franco-Dutch War, War of the Reunions, Nine Years War, War of the Spanish Succession

History of Belgium - Austrian Netherlands

The Belgian and Luxemburgian territories except the Bishopric of Liège were transferred to the Austrian Habsburgs (1713-1794) after the War of the Spanish Succession when the French Bourbon Dynasty inherited Spain at the price of abandoning many Spanish possessions.

• War of the Austrian Succession
• Barrier Treaty which excluded the Flemings to use the Scheldt
• Ostend Company
• Battle of Turnhout (1789)
• Brabant revolution and Revolution Liègeoise of 1789
• United States of Belgium of 1790

History of Belgium - French period

Following the Campaigns of 1794 of the French Revolutionary Wars the Southern Netherlands were invaded and annexed by the First French Republic in 1795. The bishopric of Liège was dissolved. Its territory was divided over the départements Meuse-Inférieure and Ourte.

History of Belgium - United Kingdom of the Netherlands

After Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo in 1815, the major victorious powers (England, Austria, Prussia, Russia) agreed at Congress of Vienna on reuniting the southern Netherlands with the northern, creating the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, which was to serve as a bufferstate against any future French invasions. This was under the rule of a protestant king, namely William I of Orange. Most of the small and ecclesiastical states in the Holy Roman Empire were given to larger states at this time, and this included the Bishopric of Liège which became now formally part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands.

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