BELGIUM, HISTORY OF

history of the Belgian territories after 1579. For information concerning the period prior to that date, see Low Countries, history of . After the Burgundian regime in the Low Countries (1363-1477), the southern as well as the northern provinces had dynastic links with the Austrian Habsburgs, then with Spain and the Austrian Habsburgs together. Later, as a consequence of revolt in 1567, the southern provinces became subject to Spain (1579), then to the Austrian Habsburgs (1713), to France (1795), and finally in 1815 to the Kingdom of The Netherlands, Belgium's union with which ended with the 1830 revolution. Belgian nationality is generally considered to date from this event. Throughout the long period of foreign rule, the southern part of the Netherlands generally preserved its institutions and traditions, and only for a short interval, under the First French Republic and Napoleon, could integration with an alien system be enforced. The Burgundian period, from Philip II the Bold to Charles the Bold, was one of political prestige and economic and artistic splendour. The "Great Dukes of the West," as the Burgundian princes were called, were effectively considered as national sovereigns, their domains extending from the Zuiderzee to the Somme. The urban and other textile industries, which had developed in the Belgian territories since the 12th century, became under the Burgundians the economic mainstay of northwestern Europe. The death of Charles the Bold (1477) and the marriage of his daughter Mary to the archduke Maximilian of Austria proved fatal to the independence of the Low Countries by bringing them increasingly under the sway of the Habsburg dynasty. Mary and Maximilian's grandson Charles became king of Spain as Charles I in 1516 and Holy Roman emperor as Charles V in 1519. In Brussels on Oct. 25, 1555, Charles V abdicated the Netherlands to his son, who in January 1556 assumed the throne of Spain as Philip II. Additional reading Overviews of all aspects of the country are contained in Marina Boudart, Michel Boudart, and Ren Bryssinck (eds.), Modern Belgium (1990); Stephen B. Wickman (ed.), Belgium: A Country Study, 2nd ed. (1984); Vernon Mallinson, Belgium (1969), detailed and well documented; and Frank E. Huggett, Modern Belgium (1969), thorough and discerning. R.C. Riley (compiler), Belgium (1989), is a bibliography. Henri Pirenne, Histoire de Belgique, 7 vol. (1900-32), remains the standard scholarly history. More recent general scholarly publications include D.P. Blok et al. (eds.), Algemene Geschiedenis der Nederlanden, 15 vol. (1977-83), an extensive history of both the northern and southern Low Countries, with detailed bibliographies; Robert van Roosbroeck (ed.), Geschiedenis van Vlaanderen, 6 vol. (1936-49; vol. 1-3 reissued 1972-73); Robert van Roosbroeck et al., Twintig eeuwen Vlaanderen, 15 vol. (1972-79); Herv Hasquin et al. (eds.), La Wallonie: le pays et les hommes, 6 vol. (1975-81); and Jules Tarlier and Alphonse Wauters, La Belgique ancienne et moderne: gographie et histoire des communes belges, 4 vol. (1859-87, reissued 1963), on urban and rural history, organized by geographic region.The period of Burgundian Netherlands to 1795 is discussed in the context of political history by Henri Pirenne, Early Democracies in the Low Countries: Urban Society and Political Conflict in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance (1963, reissued 1971; originally published in French, 1910); and from a social and economic perspective by Herman van der Wee, The Growth of the Antwerp Market and the European Economy (Fourteenth-Sixteenth Centuries), 3 vol. (1963); Herman van der Wee (ed.), The Rise and Decline of Urban Industries in Italy and in the Low Countries: Late Middle Ages and Early Modern Times (1988); Herman van der Wee and Eddy van Cauwenberghe (eds.), Productivity of Land and Agricultural Innovation in the Low Countries, 1250-1800 (1978); and Pierre Lebrun, L'Industrie de la laine Verviers pendant le XVIIIe et le dbut du XIXe sicle: contribution l'tude des origines de la rvolution industrielle (1948).Belgian history from 1795 to the present is covered in E.H. Kossmann, The Low Countries, 1780-1940 (1978). Other general works on this period include mile Cammaerts, The Keystone of Europe: History of the Belgian Dynasty, 1830-1939 (1939), on the foundation and development of independent Belgium; and Frans van Kalken, Histoire de la Belgique et de son expansion coloniale (1954). Political history and the history of the political parties are detailed by Els Witte and Jan Craeybeckx, Politieke Geschiedenis van Belgi sinds 1830: Spanningen in een burgerlijke democratie (1981), also available in a revised and augmented translation, La Belgique politique de 1830 nos jours (1987); Adriaan Verhulst and Herv Hasquin (eds.), Le Libralisme en Belgique: deux cent ans d'histoire (1989); Alois Simon, Le Parti catholique belge, 1830-1945 (1958); and Claude Desama (ed.), 1885/1985: du parti ouvrier belge au parti socialiste: mlanges publis l'occasion du centenaire du P.O.B. (1985). Aspects of Belgian foreign policy and colonial policy are addressed by Jonathan E. Helmreich, Belgium and Europe: A Study in Small Power Diplomacy (1976); Daniel H. Thomas, The Guarantee of Belgian Independence and Neutrality in European Diplomacy, 1830's-1930's (1983); Frank Wende, Die belgische Frage in der deutschen Politik des Ersten Weltkrieges (1969); and Wilfried Wagner, Belgien in der deutschen Politik whrend des Zweiten Weltkrieges (1974). Modern social and economic history is discussed in Pierre Lebrun et al., Essai sur la rvolution industrielle en Belgique, 1770-1847, 2nd ed. (1981); Guido L. de Brabander, Regional Specialization, Employment, and Economic Growth in Belgium from 1846 to 1970 (1981); Robin L. Hogg, Structural Rigidities and Policy Inertia in Inter-war Belgium (1986); Jean Stengers, migration et immigration en Belgique au XIXe et au XXe sicles (1978); B.S. Chlepner, Cent ans d'histoire sociale en Belgique (1956, reissued 1983); Ron J. Lesthaeghe, The Decline of Belgian Fertility, 1800-1970 (1977); Herman van der Wee and K. Tavernier, La Banque Nationale de Belgique et l'histoire montaire entre les deux guerres mondiales (1975; originally published in Dutch, 1975); and Valry Janssens, Le Franc belge: un sicle et demi d'histoire montaire (1976), a monetary history of Belgium. Herman F.A. Van der Wee Emiel L. Lamberts Jan Maria Juul Matern Leen Van Molle