Chapter 01 - The Two Races of Belgium

CHAPTER I

THE TWO RACES OF BELGIUM

THE most striking fact in the national life of modern Belgium is that two distinct races, in blood and in language, form there a single community and even a united people. In Austria-Hungary, there are many races and many tongues, but in Belgium there are only two, and as they almost balance each other in strength and influence, the harmony that exists between them is more remarkable. These two races are the Walloons and the Flemings. The connecting bond between them is, no doubt, the close political association that has kept the Walloons and Flemings under the same administration, since the first union of the State in the fifteenth century by Philip the Good, of the House of Burgundy. The fact that the two races have shared a common political destiny under foreign and native rulers during more than four hundred fifty years has removed many natural causes of friction between them, and has created some definite belief in their joint and identical interest. It is a fact which cannot be explained away, that Fleming's and Walloons have never in the long course of their combined history, which commenced with the close of feudalism, engaged in a racial war, and this absence of strife has left an abiding impression on their relations. The strongest link, however, in the chain that connects the two peoples of the South Netherlands is provided by identity of religion; so that the most fruitful cause of all human differences and quarrels has never arisen to create a feud between Walloons and Flemings. There is consequently every reason to conclude that the two races, which in the past never came into hostile collision, are now well content to perform their duties together, and to be known as Belgians.

When the people talk of the Belgians as a modern people, with a history of only seventy-four years, they should not forget that the Flemings have scarcely changed in character, and not at all in their tongue, since the days of the Plantagenets; and that the Walloons, of Liege at least, are very much what they were in the time of the Prince-Bishops. Under these circumstances, it would have been natural to expect that one language would have prevailed over the other, or, at least, spread, while the other contracted. Such has not been the case. The Flemings still speak Flemish, the great majority of the Walloons French, while the Walloons of the Ardennes and parts of the province of Liege retain, for ordinary use, their old "Romance" tongue, W r alloon. There has been no marked change in the proportions which the three languages bear to each other, except that all the Walloons now speak French. A small section in the Liege province, on the Prussian frontier, have, however, adopted German instead, but numerically they are insignificant.

There has never been any combined or common movement, as might have been expected during the long process of forming a new nation, towards the adoption of a single language in either French or Flemish, and this fact is very remarkable in the case of French, which had chances of spreading, through its hold on society and literature, that to onlookers would have seemed almost irresistible. The powers of resistance possessed by the Flemish race have been well displayed in the preservation of their language, and this triumph is rendered more remarkable by the fact that the Flemings, despite their language being of German origin, have never had any German sympathies, and have never received any outside assistance whatever in the successful maintenance of the right to preserve their own speech. As Flemish national energy is just as intense today as it was in the time of the Arteveldes, any project for the suppression of the Flemish language by French must now be pronounced chimerical. The French propaganda had every chance in its favor, and a fair field between 1831 and 1885, and it signally failed to gain the mastery. The conditions are never likely to be again so favorable for it, and in the meantime a decisive Flemish triumph has been achieved. The only practical solution of the difficulty is that all Belgians should be bilinguists. At present this accomplishment is possessed by little more than ten per cent of the population, and the. bulk of these persons reside in Brussels and the province of Brabant, which is intermediate between Flanders and the Walloon countries.

The difference in the language of the two races inhabiting what is now Belgium first attracted attention in the divisions of territory that took place soon after the death of Charlemagne, more than a thousand years ago. The Fact of the Flemings speaking a German or Tudesque language seems to show clearly enough that they are descendants of the German colonists established on Belgian soil by several Roman Emperors. Clovis also introduced German settlers in the Meuse Valley, and finally Charlemagne removed a large number of Saxon families from their homes in Germany to the plains of Flanders. The western districts of Belgium were those in which these immigrants, voluntarily or forced, congregated. Flemish influence never reached the right bank of the Meuse, and a solid wedge of Walloon territory separated the Flemings from the Germans. When the Germans became interested in the Netherlands, at the end of the fifteenth century, through the marriage of the Archduke Maximilian with the heiress of Burgundy, the Flemings had lost all sympathy with their kinsmen in blood, and so it has remained ever since.

While the Flemish people form the German element in the Belgian nation, ethnologically considered, the Walloons represent the Celtic. They have probably a superior claim over that of the Flemings to be regarded as the descendants of the Belgic tribes of the country, or such of them as survived the sweeping measures of Caesar, and they are closely akin to the people of ancient Gaul and modern France. They were probably leavened also by marriage between their women and the members of the Roman garrison, established for several centuries on their soil, just as they were in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries by association with the Spaniards. The Roman and Spanish types are frequently met with in the provinces of Namur, Luxemburg, and Liege; and many Roman names, such as Gambrinus, Fabronius, Mamius and Marius are to be found today among Walloon surnames.

The Walloons have the more right then, to pose as the original inhabitants of the country, and their language may be regarded as the "Romance" tongue which marked the transition between Latin and French. As Walloon is a living language today, the vehicle for the thoughts of the people in large districts, such as Liege and the Ardennes, this race has shown scarcely less tenacity in preserving the idiom of a thousand years ago than the Flemings. But there is one marked difference between them. There is scarcely a Walloon who does not now speak French, whereas the vast majority of the Flemings are only acquainted with their own tongue, and find themselves in a foreign State when they visit the French-speaking parts of the common country.

As the two races had preserved their own separate languages during the long centuries that the country was subject to a foreign Power - Germany, Spain, Austria, France, or Holland - it was not surprising to find that the achievement of independence in 1830 was followed, at a brief interval, by the appearance of a language difficulty in modern Belgium. The Belgian rising against the Dutch in that year was primarily a Walloon movement. The Flemings, whose community of language with the Dutch provided them with a certain fellow-feeling, and at least prevented their resenting the proclamation of Dutch as the official national language of the Netherlands, were more disposed than the Walloons to accept the Orange dynasty. They might have dissociated themselves from the insurrectionary movement altogether but for the Dutch measures against the Roman Catholic Church which roused their religious fervor, and even as it was, they left the direction of the movement in the hands of the Walloons of Brussels and Liege. On the success of the movement for national liberation, it was only natural, then, that the Walloons should proclaim French as the official language of the country. At that moment, quite half the population did not understand a word of it; but seeing that the fatal act of the Dutch, which entailed their expulsion, had been the proclamation of their language as the national tongue to be employed in the Courts, the triumph of French became a necessary part of the national triumph, and any agitation at such a moment on behalf of the Flemish language would have seemed unpatriotic and sympathetic to the Dutch. None the less, a thoughtful man knowing the situation would have declared that such a state of things could not endure permanently. A solution would have of a necessity to be found, or the State would split into two fragments at the first crisis or appearance of danger. The only possible solutions were three in number, viz.: that the Walloons should give up French and adopt Flemish, which was so inconceivable as to be palpably absurd; or that the Flemings should drop their language and learn French, which if not so fantastic, was still highly improbable; or that both races should master the two languages and become bilinguals. For this last solution, the most equal and the most flattering arrangements to both races, time and the spread of education were essential elements of success.

The establishment of the modern kingdom of Belgium in 1831 was followed then by that of French in the Chambers, the Courts of Law, and the Colleges as the national language of the new State. It had been employed by society more or less generally since the Crusades. Not a word was raised for or by the Flemings, the vast majority of whom, as has been said, could not at that moment speak a word of French. But before the young kingdom had reached its twentieth year several things had become clearer, and one of these was that the Flemings were quite resolved not to give up their language. The necessary corollary of this tenacity was that they should claim and agitate for the admission of their language to an equal place with French in the country, of which they formed not the lesser part. A French observer, writing in 1855 from Brussels, declared, 'The Fleming is slow, but he moves, and when once he makes up his mind to travel he goes far without stopping." The observation was called forth by the appointment of a commission to inquire into the complaints of the Flemish population set forth in numberless petitions. The report of this commission was strongly in favor of Flemish pretensions. It recommended that Flemish should be placed on an equality with French, and that all examinations and pleadings in the Courts should be held or expressed in either language or in both. The Government was so surprised at the sweeping character of these proposals that it suppressed the report, and kept it secret. Its purport only leaked out gradually with the lapse of years.

The Flemish movement began at Ghent in a modest way about the year 1836. Half a dozen literary and scientific men founded there a Flemish review called Belgisch Museum, and meeting with considerable success, they soon afterwards formed a club, taking as their motto, de taal is gansch het volk - ''the language is the whole people." In 1844, Jan Frans Willems, the leader of the movement, summoned a congress, not, it is true, for a political purpose, but merely to exhort the Government to preserve the literary treasures of Flanders by the publication of its ancient texts. Assent was given to this request, but the necessary funds were not voted for ten years, which proved that the Government regarded the Flemish movement with distrust and even dislike. Willems died soon after the first congress, but the congresses went on, and were sometimes held in Holland as well as in Belgium. The work of Willems was continued in a more efficacious manner by Henri Conscience, whose romances stimulated Flemish pride and aspirations, and recalled the great days of Flanders. His Leeuzv van Vlaanderen became not merely the most popular book of the day, but it idealized for all time the thoughts and longings of the Flemish race. It has, without much exaggeration, been called the Flemish Bible.

The efforts of Conscience were well seconded by those of the poet Ledeganck, whose ballads were sung or recited from one end of Flanders to the other. There were many other writers in the same field, and the Flemish agitation was illustrated by the one genuine literary movement that has occurred in modern Belgium. There were thus two marked and opposing tendencies in the country. The liberation of Belgium had been followed by the undoubted and obvious increase of French influence in official circles. All the sympathies of the Court and the Government were French, but there was no corresponding movement in the literature of the country. The Walloon intellect proved sterile. On the other hand was to be seen a remarkable ebullition, not merely of talent, but of original genius, in the Flemish race, which had so long remained torpid and silent. This literary activity furnished proof of the vitality of the race, and of the strength of its hopes, which precluded the possibility of contentment with a subordinate position. The Flemings were resolved not to be a party to their own effacement. It was not, however, until 1861 that the Flemish party succeeded in carrying in the Chamber an address to the King, expressing the hope that justice would be done to "the well-founded demands of the Flemings."

It was soon after this event that a favorable opportunity offered itself for a demonstration calculated to stimulate public opinion. A native of Flanders, brought before one of the courts at Brussels, refused to plead in French, and his attitude was supported and imitated by his counsel. In another case a Fleming accused of murder was tried and sentenced without his understanding a word of what passed in court. The most was made of these cases to strengthen the claims of the Netherlanders, as the Flemish party called themselves. There was an obvious need for reform, and the public realized that this concession of the Flemish demands could only be at the peril of disintegration. At last a first tangible success was obtained when a law was passed in 1873 to the effect that in criminal cases the court should employ the language of the accused person. After that the Flemish movement progressed rapidly. A Flemish Academy was founded by the State in 1866; Flemish theaters for the exclusive representation of Flemish plays, or, at least, translations, were set up at the cost of the nation in Brussels, Antwerp, and Ghent. Finally, the Flemish text of laws and regulations was declared to be equally valid with the French; the names of streets, and all public notices in them, were to be printed in two languages in the five provinces in which Flemish is spoken; and a fluent acquaintance with both languages has more recently been made an express condition of employment in Government service in the same provinces for minor posts, and generally those of a superior grade. With these successes the triumph of the Flemish cause may be said to have been made complete. Ostrasized after 1830, the Flemish language has gained in the last forty years a position of equality with French as the official language of Belgium.

The following statistics will be useful for purposes of reference in connection with the language question. By the census of 1890 the population of Belgium was 6,069,321. Of this number 2,744,271 spoke only Flemish, 700,997 spoke French and Flemish, 58,590 French and German, 7,028 Flemish and German, and 36,185 French, Flemish, and German. The census of 1900 (we have not yet access to the census of 1910) showed that the population had risen to 6,815,054. Of this total 3,145,000 spoke only Flemish, 2,830,000 only French, and 770,000 the two languages.

The struggle of the languages has, therefore, resulted in what may be called a drawn battle. Flemish has gained the position to which the antiquity and solidity of its pretensions entitle it, but French remains the language of society, of the administration, and of the bulk of the literature of the country, while the common language of the people in the eastern and southeastern divisions is Walloon. There still remains to be found a solution for the political difficulties that must arise in a community so constituted, and it seems as if it can only be found in the direction of bilingualism. This result must be promoted by the stipulation that proficiency in the two tongues is requisite for public employment; but there are still nearly six millions of people in Belgium who know only one language. The Flemings have preserved their language by a rigid exclusiveness, and they have always refused to learn any other. The encouragement of bilingualism by the authorities is now represented to be an insidious attempt to vulgarize French in Flanders. On the other hand, the Walloons are protesting against the waste of time and uselessness of learning a language which is never heard in Wallonia. Time may remove these suspicions and complaints, and force home the conviction to the mind of every Belgian that under the peculiar conditions in which his country is constituted, it is the duty of each citizen to master the language of the brother race, which shares the same national fortunes.

The great bond, however, between the two races is religious union. Bavaria, Ireland, and Belgium have been called the three most devoted children of the Church of Rome, and in Belgium today the Flemings are the staunchest of Roman Catholics, and the real supporters of the political influence of their church. Readers of Motley may remember his describing "the majority of the burghers" of Ghent as belonging to "the Reformed religion." It would be difficult to discover today not only in Ghent, but throughout the whole of Flanders, a single Flemish family which is not attached to the Roman Catholic faith. This religious unanimity makes for the stability of Belgium, because it effectually separates the Flemings from the Dutch, who are practically the same people in race and language. The Walloons never betrayed any sympathies with the Reformation, and their devotion to the Roman Catholic Church in the sixteenth century was the main cause of the preservation of Spanish rule in the Netherlands, and of the consequent split of the provinces into North and South. But at the present time the Flemings rather than the Walloons are the chief prop of Roman Catholic power in Belgium. The reason for this may be found by comparing the characters of the two races. The Fleming is simple in his habits, and somewhat restricted in his views, but with strong feelings, and a capacity for intense devotion to his convictions. He is averse to change of any kind, and having reconciled himself to the Church of Rome, after a brief lapse three and a half centuries ago, for which a severe penance was paid, he shows no tendency to embark on further theological adventures. The Walloon, on the other hand, is given by character to skepticism and free thought. He is far from being a docile servant of the Church, and politically he is quite beyond its control; not that he has any tendency towards any other creed. The Church of Rome has not to fear Protestantism in any form among the Walloons, who only include one church within their religious or politico-religious horizon. With them it is a question of the Roman Catholic Church or no church at all. The Walloons are the chief supporters and producers of the advanced Liberals and the Socialists. With the former the religious sentiment is far from being dead, but with the latter the deposition of the Church is an article of their program. The Liberals, however, have long been a decaying force. For fifty years they possessed political supremacy in Belgium, and the effort has apparently exhausted them. The old leaders are gone, and new ones have not yet been found. The capacity of reproduction seems to have disappeared. The Liberals of today have no inspiration and no program. On the other hand, the Socialists are an active and aggressive body with definite ends, and moving towards a clearly visible goal. In the Walloon provinces they are rapidly winning over, if they have not already won over, the whole of the proletariat. Fortunately for the stability of the country, the Flemish population is just as stolid in its support of the Roman Catholic party, which from the political point of view is the only barrier to the spread and triumph of Republicanism throughout the land. The last election, however, favors a belief that the formation of a new moderate central party is not outside the bounds of possibility, and several eloquent speakers have been discovered who, in the course of time, may become popular leaders.

There is another direction in which the Flemings have done good work. They may claim that much of the present prosperity of the country has been due in a special degree to their efforts. They are hard workers, and the development of the agricultural wealth of East and West Flanders since Belgium became a kingdom has been unexampled. Industrially they have revived the reputation of Ghent, and commercially they have made Antwerp the first or second port of the Continent. The extraordinary material progress of Belgium furnishes clear proof that the presence of distinct races side by side, and running together, as it were, in harness, is not incompatible with the attainment of a high degree of prosperity.

SOURCE:  Boulger, Demetrius C. Belgium. Detroit: Published for the Bay View Reading Club, 1913. Print.

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