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Kait O’Connor
Dr. Cook
History of Belgium
7 September 2014
Word Count:
History of Belgium:
Its People, Culture, and Government
Belgium is a country that has been divided culturally and politically.
Since 150,000 BCE
Belgium has been inhabited; however, the country does not enter written history until Caesar
conquered Belgium with the Celts moving around West Flanders.
Belgium is not a nation.
It is a
country with a constitutional monarchy.
Belgium is not a unitary state and it has no single
national language.
Belgium consists of Dutch, French, and German speaking people.
The
population is 58% Flemish, 31% Walloon, and 11% other.
Early History of the Linguistic and Cultural Divide
In order to understand Belgium as a country, one must first understand the history of
division the people of Belgium faced.
Before the Middle Ages, Belgium was divided
geographically.
Flanders was a marshy area of water which ran through the Senne, Dijle, Leie,
and Scheldt rivers.
In the southeast was the forests of the Ardennes which was filled with
animals and bandits
1
.
Germans migrated into what is today Belgium and lived among the Celtic
tribes in Belgae in western Flanders.
Caesar conquered the Belgae and modern Belgium (the
basins of the Scheldt and Meuse rivers) between 57 and 50 BCE after seven campaigns.
However, in 270 CE, the Romans evacuated the low-lying coastal area of Flanders after a
1 Bernard A. Cook,
Belgium: a History
(New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2004), 1.
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horrible North Sea storm.
They returned to build defensive structures around what would later
become Brugge.
Again, the Romans evacuated Flanders and pulled back out of Gallia Belgica in
the fifth century
2
.
In the third century, German tribes migrated into Gallia Belgica.
The Franks established
themselves in Batavia (present day Netherlands) and Kempen (present day Belgium).
The
Romans accepted the Franks as mercenary allies.
Around 431 Tournai became the capital for the
Frankish kings.
Under Meroveus, a line of successors known as the Merovingians were
established.
In 496 Clovis, Merveus’ successor, became a Christian and received the Church’s
blessing to conquer most of Gaul.
