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Wallonia
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Wallonia ( , ) is the French-speaking southern part of Belgium. This region makes up about 31% of the Belgian population.
Since 1970, Wallonia has approximately coincided with the territory of the Walloon Region, which is a federated component of the Belgian state and provides a government and a parliament to both Wallonia and the smaller German-speaking Community of Belgium (73,000 inhabitants). Wallonia is therefore also the name colloquially given to the Walloon Region .
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Encyclopedia
Wallonia ( , ) is the French-speaking southern part of Belgium. This region makes up about 31% of the Belgian population.
Since 1970, Wallonia has approximately coincided with the territory of the Walloon Region, which is a federated component of the Belgian state and provides a government and a parliament to both Wallonia and the smaller German-speaking Community of Belgium (73,000 inhabitants). Wallonia is therefore also the name colloquially given to the Walloon Region . The inhabitants of Wallonia belong to the French Community of Belgium also referred to as Wallonia-Brussels Community which includes both Wallonia and the French-speaking inhabitants of the Brussels-Capital Region (a little less than one million inhabitants).
Wallonia takes its name from the Walloons (from the Germanic word Walha, the strangers), the population of the Burgundian Netherlands speaking Romance languages. In Middle Dutch (and French), the term Walloons also included the French-speaking population of the Prince-Bishopric of Liège and hence the whole population of the Romanic sprachraum within the medieval Low Countries.
History
Julius Caesar conquered Gaul in 57 BC. The ancestors of the Walloons became Gallo-Romans and were called the "Walha" by their Germanic neighbours. The "Walha" abandoned their Celtic dialects and started to speak Vulgar Latin. The Merovingians gained gradually control of the region during the 5th century. Deprived of its central power base, Vulgar Latin developed along different lines and developped into several 'langue d'oïl' dialects (Picard, Walloon and Lorrain). The Carolingian dynasty dethroned the Merovingians within the 8th century. In 843, the Treaty of Verdun split Wallonia into the Western and Middle Francia. Literary Latin, which was taught in schools, lost its hegemony during the 13th century and was replaced by Francien, the forerunner of modern French. The process of fragmentation continued unabated, and the "land of the Walloons" gradually broke up into rival principalities. In the 15th century, the Dukes of Burgundy took over the Low Countries. The death of Charles the Bold (1477) raised the issue of succession. The Liégeois took advantage of this to regain some of their autonomy. From the 16th to the 18th century, the Low Countries were governed successively by the Habsburg dynasty of Spain (from the early 16th century until 1713-14) and by Austria (until 1794). This territory was enlarged in 1521-22 when Charles the Fifth wrested the Tournai region from France. The present-day Wallonia was united in 1795 with the French Republic, then the Napoleonic Empire. After the Battle of Waterloo, Wallonia became part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands under King William of Orange. The "Walloons" played an active part in the revolution which led to the formation of a provisional government. This government proclaimed Belgium's independence and held elections for the National Congress.
Though the new-born country had unifying elements, such as the Catholic religion, a French-speaking bourgeoisie and common economic interests opposed to the Dutch economic ones, the building of a unitary Belgian state posed some serious problems. The language question emerged 1840. Despite the fact that the free use of languages was enshrined in the Constitution, only French was used in the administration, education and justice systems. The Flemish movement raised to counter this situation and succeeded 1898 to obtain an official language status for the Dutch language. In the late 19th century, Belgium was divided into two utterly opposed communities. On the one hand, the very catholic Flemish society was characterized by an economy centered on agriculture, and, on the other hand, Wallonia was the center of the continental European industrial revolution where liberal and socialist movements were rapidly emerging. As a result, Belgium inevitably became the theatre of tensions between these two communities. In the face of an increasingly self-confident Flanders, the distinct regional identity of the Walloons appeared gradually. The poet Albert Mockel launched 1886 the review "La Wallonie" and popularized the name, coined in 1844 by Charles-Joseph Grandgagnage. In 1912, the Walloon movement formed the Walloon Assembly, which was based on one representative per 40,000 inhabitants. Jules Destrée wrote an open letter to the king in which he declared "there are no Belgians" but Flemings and Walloons. In the period between the two world wars, movements like the Concentration wallonne, the Ligue d'action wallonne and the Front démocratique wallon continued to require a federalization of the country. The law of 28 June 1932 established the principle of monolingualism in the languages areas (and bilingualism in Brussels). When the Second World War broke out, many resistance movements appeared in Wallonia. Although all these movements were united in the face of the common enemy, the Nazi occupying force, disagreements surfaced when it came to deciding on the politics of post-war Wallonia. In October 1945, the National Walloon Congress obtained the support of many active forces of Wallonia to vote in favour of a federalist proposal. In the wake of the strikes of 1960, the State reform process got under way. This reform started with the linguistic laws of 1962-63, which defined the four language areas within the constitution. In 1968, the conflict between the communities bursted out. The Walloons were driven out of the university of Leuven amid shouts of "Walen buiten!" ("Walloons out!"). The political divergences caused by this unrest brought about the fall of the Belgian government. The State reform, which led to the creation of three communities and three regions, started in 1970.
The Language Border
Following Fernand Braudel the most important event of the Walloon history (and of the Belgian history), the so-called Barbarian invasions, is one interesting example of the longue durée event. He wrote that the result of the germanic invasions - the language border in Belgium - is a contemporary and living trait (see, for instance, Belgium divided into two parts along a language border . This border, separating the Germanic and Roman sprachraums, moved over the centuries which preceded the establishment of the Walloon region over an area between the Ardennes and the more or less straight line going from Aachen to Calais on the one hand and the much less populated frontier from Aachen to Arlon via Malmedy.
Félix Rousseau drawn a map of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Liège which was underlining the Roman sprachraum of its territory from about 400 to 1559 (see this map ). Fort the Walloon historian, the living and most important part of the diocese was Hesbaye, Condroz, Entre-Sambre-et-Meuse and Ardenne, the two-third of the to-day territory of Wallonia (and also the area of the Walloon language even if the Walloon language is not the etymology of Wallonia) The Flemish part of it was only a dependency following Rousseau .
Despite of this cultural unity based on the old Roman Catholic Diocese of Liège (pointed out by Felix Rousseau), a cultural unity linked to the Mosan art too (again following Rousseau), the old Wallonia was fragmented into many feudal principalities (County of Hainaut, the southern part of the Duchy of Brabant, the Walloon part of Bishopric of Liège, the County of Namur and the Walloon part of the Duchy of Luxembourg). Some parts of these principalities didn't belong to the old Diocese of Liège (mainly Mons, Wallonie picarde, Gaume, Arlon...).
Industry
The industrial revolution took place in the Sillon industriel just after the equivalent revolution in Great-Britain. During ancient times, the fourth basin of the Sillon (Entre-Sambre-et-Meuse was an important industrial area of the Roman Empire. After, iron was more or less displaced by brass or bronze. The local centers of medieval metalworking was in Huy, Dinant, Chimay. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the iron masters of Liège evolved a method of refining iron ore by the use of a blast furnace, called the Walloon Method, There were also a few coalmines around Charleroi, and the Borinage during this era but their production was small, and principally consumed as a fuel by various industries such as the important glassmaking industry that sprang up in the Charleroi basin during the fourteenth century. .
During the Middle-Age, the Walloon method , consisted of making pig iron in a blast furnace, followed by refining it in a finery forge. The process was devised in the Liège region spread into France and thence from the Pays de Bray to England before the end of the 15th century. Louis de Geer took it to Roslagen in Sweden in the early 17th century, where he employed Walloon ironmakers. Iron made there by this method was known in England as oregrounds iron.
When arriving at the end of the first stage of the industrial revolution, Walloon captains of industry took huge risks because of the large increase of the production. The result was that the High Bank in Brussels took very important financial participation in the Walloon companies. In 1847, it is done. Brussels became the dominating structure of the Belgian space
The language of Belgium's elites, Government, Monarchy, Bourgeoisie was French in 1830. The French choice of the elites in 1830 was not a Walloon choice, in favor of this southern part of Belgium. French speaking elites at the head of the companies, the industry, the politics were all coming from both Flanders and Wallonia. It was a social choice. Quickly, Wallonia found it to its cost
The Sillon industriel became an industrial power, second in the world during the 19th century, and the breeding grounds of the European socialist movement. Major and general strikes took place along this sillon in 1885, 1893 (for universal suffrage), 1902, 1913, 1932, 1936, 1950 (against King Leopold III because of his relationship with the Germans during the World War II). Wallonia was never dominating Belgium. The historian Philippe Destatte wrote: It is true that the Walloon movement, which has never stopped affirming that Wallonia is part of the French cultural area, has never made this cultural struggle a priority, being more concerned to struggle against its status as a political minority and the economic decline which was only a corollary to it. Jules Destrée fought against this situation : the Walloon people were always a minority in Belgium, firstly dominated by the Frenchspeaking elite and afterward by the Dutchspeaking elite. André Renard fought against this economic decline when he became the leader of the strike of 1960-1961, a struggle for a self-governing Wallonia, a renardist strike.
Geography
Wallonia is a landlocked area along the Meuse river. The Meuse valley from Liège (70 m) to Namur prolonged by the Sambre valley to Charleroi (120 m) is entrenched within a fault line which separates Middle (elevation 100-200 m) and High Belgium (200-700 m). This fault line corresponds to a part of the southern coast of the late London-Brabant Massif. The valley, along with its prolongation along the Haine river to the west and along the Vesdre river to the east, is the historical centre of the Belgian coalmining and steelmaking industry. It is therefore also called sillon industriel in French, the industrial furrow. Due to their long industrial historic record, several segments of the valley have received specific names: Borinage, around Mons, Le Centre, around La Louvière, the Pays noir, around Charleroi and Basse-Sambre, near to Namur.
In the north of the industrial sillon lies the Middle Belgian plateau, which is characterized by intensive agriculture. The Walloon part of this plateau is traditionally divided into several regions: Walloon Brabant around Nivelles, Western Hainaut (Wallonie picarde, around Tournai), and the Hesbaye around Waremme. The south of the sillon is more rugged and is characterized by more extensive farming. It is traditionally divided into several regions: Entre-Sambre-et-Meuse, Condroz, Famenne, Ardennes and Land of Herve, as well as the Gaume around Arlon. The larger region, the Ardennes, is a thickly forested plateau with caves and small gorges. It offers much of Belgium's wildlife but little agricultural capability. Extending westward into France, this area is eastwardly connected to the Eifel in Germany by the High Fens plateau, on which the Signal de Botrange forms Belgian highest point at 694 metres (2,277 ft).
Economy
Jean-Pierre Rioux quoted a table in his book La révolution industrielle (Industrial revolution) showing Wallonia was a table not based on absolute figures). This table was firstly drawn by Paul Bairoch, a table not based on absolute figures]] According to many authors, the word Belgium may be exchanged for Wallonia as for instance Herbert Lüthy Philippe Destatte wrote that Wallonia was the second industrial power of the world, in proportion to its population and its territory . Hervé Hasquin, Philippe Raxhon. The Walloon iron and steel industry came to be regarded as an example of the radical evolution of industrial expansion. Thanks to coal (the French word “houille” was coined in Wallonia), the region geared up to become the second industrial power in the world after England. In fact, despite the protectionism of neighbouring states, in 1833 Belgian industry boasted 5 times more steam machines per inhabitant than a country such as France. It also exported them to over 25 countries. The sole industrial centre outside the collieries and blast furnaces of Walloon was the old cloth making town of Ghent.
The two World wars curbed the continuous expansion that Wallonia had enjoyed up till that time. Then everything changed dramatically in 1958. The factories of Wallonia were by then antiquated, the coal was running out and the cost of extracting coal was constantly rising. It was the end of an era, and Wallonia had to redefine itself as a dynamic industrial heartland. The key to the region's future was state-of-the-art technology. In December 1960, a strike gripped the country, but it succeeded only in Wallonia. The movement became a renardist strike,a collective expression of the frustrations, anxieties, and grievances that Wallony was experiencing in response to its altered situation, and by the demands of the newly formed Mouvement populaire wallon for (...) regional autonomy for Wallony....
Now, Wallonia is managing interregional cooperation with its neighbours , centres of excellence and-state-of-the-art technologies and business parks . The Region is not yet at the level of Flanders and is suffering many difficulties.
Forty Walloon companies are number one in Wallonia and worldwide following the Union Wallonne des Entreprises , for instance: in glass production lime and limestone production Cyclotrons aviation industry etc.
Politics of Wallonia
Main article : Politics of Wallonia
The Walloon movement wanted since 1945 (even 1912), an autonomous Wallonia, firstly for political reasons (the Belgian political majority was catholic since 1884 to 1914), and secondly, after 1945 for economic reasons. Pieter Saey, Christian Kesteloot and Christian Vandermotten in summarizing this aim, wroteThe Flemings wanted political power to match their new economic power; the Walloons wanted political power to counter their economic decline. . Wallonia has its own powers and doesn't share them with the other Regions or Communities (except with the Community Wallonia-Brussels but not in the framework of the Belgian Constitution, only on the basis of agreements between the Walloon Region and this French Community). As the other Federating units of Belgium, it is entitled to pursue its own foreign policy including the signing of treaties. There is almost no possible veto of the Belgian State (except in very rare situations), and, even, Belgium, in many domains, is not able to sign an international treaty without the agreement of the Walloon Parliament. There is no legal hierarchy in the structure of the Belgian federal system, no hierarchy between federal and regional authorities. That is the reason why Belgium has many aspects of a Confederation
The directly-elected Walloon Parliament was created in June 1995, replacing the Conseil régional wallon (Regional Council of Wallonia). This first sat on 15 October, 1980 and was composed of members of the Belgian Chamber of People's Representatives and the Belgian Senate elected from Wallonia.
Etymology
The french word Wallonie comes from the term Wallon, itself coming from Walh. Walh is a very old germanic word used to refer to a speaker of Celtic or Latin.
The first apparition recognized of the French word Wallonie dates from 1842 in the Essai d'étymologie philosophique of the philologue and anthropologist Honoré Chavée who use it to refer to the romance word in opposition to Germany. Its «true» meaning, according to Albert Henry, happens two years later under the quill of François-Charles-Joseph Grandgagnage who by this name refers «this time, more and less neatly, the romance part of the young unitary State Belgium.» It is in 1886, with the writer and walloon militant Albert Mockel, that the word takes «its political meaning of cultural and regional affirmation», in opposition with the word Flanders used by the Flemish Movement.
The word Wallonia appeared in other languages previously. Firstly in German taking the form Wulland in the Hans Heyst'sbook (1571). In an English translation of this book Wulland became Wallonia . Also in Latin with he the Provincia Walloniae (Province of Wallonia - of this monastic order), of the Capucins in the beginning of the 17th century. Jean Germain doesn't know if the word existed in French (Wallonie). But the the Latin word was translated in German: in 1753 a Latin-German dictionnary defined Wallonia as the Wallonnenland (Country of the Walloons) and Wallones (Walloons) as Wallonen (in German), the word coming from the German word Wallonerland ( Walloons' Country)
Symbols
The emergence of a Walloon identity and a Walloon Movement organized has produced different symbols representing Wallonia and events celebrating it. The main symbol is the "bold rooster" , also named "Walloon rooster" (), which is widely used, particularly for flags. This emblem was chosen by the Walloon Assembly on 20 April 1913 which adopted Pierre Paulus design on 3 July 1913. A hymn, , composed in 1900, was also adopted. On September 21, 1913, the feast of Wallonia first took place in Verviers, the date is to commemorate the participation of Walloons during the Belgian revolution of 1830. There is also a motto of Wallonia, which is "Always Walloon" .
Except the motto, those symbols chosen by the Walloon Movement were set by the Walloon Parliament as official emblems and events of the Walloon Region in 1998. The French Community of Belgium chose the coq hardi for its flag in 1991.
Language
Romance People or Land
The historians committed to the Belgian unity cause stressed the duality of Belgium. Léon Vanderkindere was speaking about the striking difference of the two parts of the Belgian population . Henri Pirenne, recognized the same duality in his books and also in several lectures as, for instance, at the Walloon Congress of 1905: The two people, the Walloon people and the Flemish people, who are in Belgium [...] made great things in different domains and different actions, with various capacities [...] Each of these people may have for the other the greatest admiration... . He speaks also of two national feelings There is undoubtless at home two other feelings, perfectly perceptible: the Flemish national feeling and the Walloon national feeling
The point of view of the official website of the Walloon Region is the following: Julius Caesar conquered Gaul. Our ancestors became the Gallo-Romans and were called the "Walha" by their Germanic neighbours. Hence the name Wallonia. The "Walha" abandoned their Celtic dialects and started to speak Vulgar Latin. Already at that time, Wallonia was on the border between the Germanic world and the Latin world. The historians committed to the Walloon cause are emphasizing the land of the Walloon people: Léopold Genicot, Francis Dumont etc.. For Félix Rousseau, Wallonia has always been a romance land since Gallic Wars and constitutes a Latin avant-garde in the Germanic Europe. Félix Rousseau's book La Wallonie, Terre Romane [The Wallonia, Romance Land] begins like :
For centuries, the land of the Walloons has been and has never stopped to be a romance land. That's the capital fact of the history of the Walloons that explains their way to think, to feel, to believe.
Moreover, in the whole romance world, the land of Walloons, stuk between germanic territories, occupies a special position, a position of avant-garde. Indeed, the 300km long border separate those extremi Latini of the Flemish at the North, of the Germans at the East..
The maps of the regional languages in France and Wallonia and in the regions of the neigbbouring countries illustrates these facts as same as the map of the regional languages in Wallonia itself:
The official language of Wallonia is French, the Belgian French variety which differs from the standard French of France to various degrees depending on the speaker. That was the decision of the National Congress elected in November 1830 (some weeks after the democratic revolution against The Netherlands who pulled Belgium from this country), but Wallonia was the only region of Belgium which remained loyal to this decision even if both in Wallonia and Flanders the languages spoken by the upper classes was only French. This language was not the language of the low classes in Wallonia but rather the dialects, Walloon, Picard and Lorrain were spoken, as you can see it on the following maps. In Flanders, this decision of the upper classes only represented in the National Congress was the origin of a Flemish movement. There was not such a political movement in Wallonia. In this part of Belgium, the interests of the low classes will be defended by the trade unions and the socialist movement (and some parts of the Liberals and the catholic party). When the Flemish movement became successful at the end of the nineteenth century, the socialist party (for instance Paul Pastur Jules Destrée and some other leftist movements, as the communists, the christian-democrats, the liberals...), began to defend Wallonia in itself, not only their leftist programms. During the sixties that will be also the case of the Walloon Trade Unions with André Renard. The most important justification of the Walloon movement is the fact that the Walloon population is a minority in Belgium (since 1830), even if the French-speaking upper classes dominated the Belgian state in the beginning.
Linguistic characteristics of Wallonia
The French language used in the administration and in the media is very similar in Belgium and in France. One notable difference is the use of the words septante (70) and nonante (90) in Belgium, as opposed to soixante-dix and quatre-vingt-dix in France. The other romance languages used are langue d'oïl regional languages : Walloon, Picard, Champenois, and Gaumais (a variety of Lorrain language).
The official language in Wallonia remained French. Nevertheless, the regional languages of Romance Belgium are more important than in France. The concepts of francité ou romanité are widespread in the Walloon Movement today. They aime a romance linguistic community to which Walloon have always belong, that is to say since the Gallo-Roman period. It is in this context that the Wallingants have never fought for the recognition of the Walloon language as a standard language. Indeed, certainly since the 19th century the nations should have at their disposal their own territory but also a language unified and prestigious. A dialect labelled as a linguistic variant is not enough. The prestige of French language presented a certain advantage in the fight against the Flemish Movement.
Champenois, Gaumais, Picard and Walloon (and also the germanic dialects present in Brussel and the French linguistic area) have only been officially recognized as regional languages since 24 December 1990 by a decree of the French Community of Belgium.
Walloon and Picard dialects were the predominant languages of the Walloon people until the beginning of the 20th century; French was the language of the upper class. With the development of education in French, these dialects have been in continual decline. There is currently an effort to revive Walloon dialects: some schools offer language courses in Walloon, which is also spoken in some radio programmes, but this effort remains very limited.
Francophone unity, respect for diversity
Some Wallingants consider Wallonia as linguistically united and want to keep that linguistic unity. For example, the liberal and wallingant François Bovesse in 1929 said in one of his speeches :
Walloons, we should pay attention to that aspect of the problem. The prolific Flanders is invading us slowly; if those who come to us and that we welcome fraternally isolate themselves in flemish linguistic groups, if some fanatisms help them to not being absorbed, if an administrative legislation unclear about languages favors this non-absorption, Walloons, beware, in fifty years your land will not be yours anymore.
It is hard, it is bitter to "drop" the Frenchmen (sic) of Flanders. It would be much harder and more dangerous to sacrifice our linguistic unity.C'est dur, c'est amer de "lâcher" les français de Flandre, ce serait bien plus dur et plus dangereux de sacrifier notre unité linguistique.» La Province de Namur Journal, 5-6 october 1929, p. 1 cited in Pour la défense intégrale de la Wallonie - François Bovesse, Institut Jules Destrée, Collection Écrits politiques wallons, Mont-sur-Marchienne, vol. 4, p. 165.
Some other Wallingants, as for instance seven representatives of the Walloon Parliament in may 2006 made a proposal of a Walloon Constitution , speaking of the inhabitants of the German-speaking municipalities (70.000 inhabitants at the East of the Province of Liège in Wallonia), as a very important link for Wallonia with the germanic countries of Europa
Voeren
Some wallingants, as the Chairmain of the Walloon Parliament José Happart, claim that the municipality of Voeren should belong both to Wallonia and Flanders
Culture
The Manifesto for Walloon culture was published in Liège on 15th september 1983.
An Paenhuysen wrote about a Walloon Surrealism
Cinema
Walloon films are often characterized by social realism, like those of the Dardenne brothers or Benoît Mariage, and the social documentaries of Patric Jean. On the other hand, films such as Thierry Zéno's "Vase de noces" (1974), "Mireille in the life of the others" by Jean-Marie Buchet (1979), "C'est arrivé près de chez vous" (English title: Man bites dog) by Rémy Belvaux and André Bonzel (1992) and the works of Noël Godin and Jean-Jacques Rousseau are influenced by surrealism, absurdism and black comedy. Wallonia does not have an Anthology Film Archive Museum. No theater projects pointed cinema (experimental cinema, underground, or simply different, unusual test in the content or the form.) There is however the network of the theater known as "Art and essai" but, in practice, they diffuse only cinema subsidized "general public".
See also
External links
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