Flemish Region (Flanders) — Dutch-speaking northern region of Belgium

Languages

The official language in Flanders and the commonly used written language is Dutch Standard. As Belgian Dutch, it differs slightly from the language used in the Netherlands. The dialects spoken in Flanders can be divided into East Flemish, West Flemish, Brabantish and Limburgish.

In the Flemish municipalities around Brussels, but also elsewhere along the language border between Dutch-speaking Flanders and French-speaking Wallonia, many Belgians live with French as their mother tongue. In some of these municipalities, French speakers are legally entitled to use their language when dealing with the authorities or at school. (In some communes in Wallonia, this entitlement also exists for Dutch speakers). The facilities for speakers of other languages are called facilities and a corresponding municipality is called a facility municipality.

Cities

Important Flemish cities are Antwerp (525,935 inhabitants), Ghent (262,219), Bruges (118,325), Leuven (101,624), Mechelen (86,616), Aalst (86,445), Kortrijk (76,735), Hasselt (78,296) and Ostend (71,494).

Today's Belgian region of Flanders partly comprises the historical territories of the County of Flanders, the Duchy of Brabant and the Duchy of Limburg.

At the time of the Roman Empire, the region belonged to the province of Gallia Belgica and in late antiquity to Belgica secunda. From the end of the 4th century, the fortified towns and forts on the coast belonged to the limes of the so-called Saxon Coast, whose crews were under the command of a Dux Belgicae secundae. In the Middle Ages, the county of Flanders extended far into present-day France (Dunkirk, Lille). The region around Dunkirk belongs to the traditional Dutch language area, but since the French Revolution French was imposed as the only official and school language for the inhabitants, so that the Dutch mother tongue was increasingly displaced in an ongoing language process. Other areas of what is now French Flanders, on the other hand, have long been inhabited by a French-speaking population (Waals-Vlaanderen).

Flanders came to West Francia in 843 by the Treaty of Verdun. Balduin I. († 879), son-in-law of Charles the Bald, founded the Flanders dynasty of counts, which conquered Artois by 932 and, under Balduin V (1035-67), forced the enfeoffment of Imperial Flanders ("land of the four ambassadors", Zeeland islands, county of Aalst) from the emperor in 1056. Balduin VI (1067-70) temporarily united Hainaut, Robert I (1071-93) Holland with Flanders, whose political and economic centre of gravity henceforth lay in the north. Hainault was reunited with Flanders in 1191 under Balduin VIII, whose French brother-in-law, Philip II. August, regained Artois and, after the Battle of Bouvines (1214), restored French suzerainty. Inheritance and throne disputes (since 1241) detached Hainaut from Flanders again and forced the new dynasty of counts Dampierre, which had succeeded the old one in the male line by marriage, to join France and to make concessions to the Flanders cities of Bruges, Ghent and Ypres. By their victory in the Battle of Spurs at Kortrijk (1302) and later renunciation (1320) of Walloon Flanders (Lille, Douai, Béthune), Flanders became linguistically purely Flemish. Their attitude caused a social uprising in Maritime Flanders in 1323-28, their jealousies thwarted the Artevelde enterprise against Counts Louis I and Louis II in the 14th century, and facilitated the union of Flanders with Burgundy in 1385.

After the death of the last Burgundian ruler Charles the Bold at the Battle of Nancy in 1477, his possessions were divided between the Habsburg Archduke Maximilian of Austria, later Emperor Maximilian I, and King Louis XI of France. Flanders thereby came under Habsburg rule and was part of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. After the death of Charles V, the entire former Burgundian possessions, including Flanders, were awarded to the Spanish Habsburgs. These tried by force to suppress the spreading Protestantism. Because of this, and also because of the restriction of the old liberties, the Dutch provinces revolted against Spain. The provinces of the Union of Utrecht broke away from Spain in 1579 and were able to fight for their independence in the so-called Eighty Years' War. In the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, the independence of the (northern) Netherlands was internationally confirmed, while Flanders with the southern provinces remained under Spanish rule. In the wars with Louis XIV of France, Spain had to cede southern parts of its possessions to France (including Artois) and the present border between Belgium and France was formed. After the extinction of the Spanish Habsburgs and the War of the Spanish Succession, Flanders came under Austro-Habsburg rule with the other former Spanish provinces at the Peace of Utrecht in 1713 and remained there until it was conquered by France during the French Revolutionary Wars in 1794. At the Congress of Vienna in 1815, the United Kingdom of the Netherlands was created, comprising what is now Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. However, in the Belgian Revolution of 1830, the southern part split off and the Kingdom of Belgium was created. Since then, Flanders has shared the history of Belgium.

After Germany's invasion of neutral Belgium in the First World War, the Franco-German/British front ran across Flanders for four years. It was the scene of fierce battles (First, Second and Third Battle of Flanders). The positional warfare of the armies in Belgium destroyed many villages and towns in this region. The names of some small Flanders towns still evoke memories of the great deaths: Ypres, Passendale, Langemark. In many places, monuments and military cemeteries recall the horrors.

Since the Second World War, Flanders has grown in economic strength and, in parallel, in self-confidence vis-à-vis the formerly dominant Walloon part of the country. In part, this is expressed in secessionist aspirations, which are articulated politically in the parties N-VA and Vlaams Belang.

The Tour of Flanders is the most popular one-day cycling race in Belgium.