Feminism

Campaign for women's suffrage in Belgium, 1908.
Source: Getty Images

Feminism (n.):
Belief in or advocacy of women's social, political, and economic rights, especially with regard to the equality of the sexes.
(source)

Ah, what a dangerous word to (rightly or wrongly) bandy about these days. Or has it always been so?

In any case, the role of women in Belgian society, and particularly their rights and how hard they had to fight to get them, is the subject of this post.

Before Belgium's independence, when its states were under the control of Napoleon I, women weren't considered for much else except for reproduction purposes (or for men's pleasure, depending on which strata of the society you happened to belong to). For though he was behind great changes for his country and revamped the French legislature, among other things, Napoleon didn't believe those rights were meant for the "inferior sex."

The Boundary Between Flanders And Wallonia

Belgium split in two (or three, depending on who and where you are)

Who's heard of Belgium is also aware of the the sometimes, and unfortunately, great differences between its two main regions (Brussels notwithstanding): Flanders (the Flemish-speaking, Northern side) and Wallonia (the French-speaking, Southern portion).

What is really interesting, however, is that though this separation hasn't always existed (indeed, Belgium used to be a Celtic country before the "Germans" and Romans invaded them), this boundary between the two regions is perhaps much older than one might think, and takes us all the way back to...

358 C.E.

A Century Of Freedom...And Political Changes

Albert Devèze

"A [political] party does not have a reason for being unless it possesses its own ideal which it pursues with  the conscious and tenacious effort to progressively achieve it, an ideal which is susceptible to arouse within its adherents enthusiastic impulses and fervors of faith.
Does that mean the party must adhere to an immutable dogmatism, whose rigid rule will be the norm of its activity? Definitely not. It must, on the contrary, understand that when it comes to translating its idealism into positive laws, that these can only be the legislative raiment adapted to the measure of the social being who wears it; that this collective being, through internal and external transformations, suffers all the phenomena of growth and development, health and sickness, and that yesterday's impossibilities must consequently become today's possibilities and tomorrow's inevitable. If such is not that party's concept of politics, it would soon become a power of blind conservatism first, of reaction next. From then on, its decline would sanction its divorce from the people's material and moral necessities whose destinies it would have the pretension to hamper."

~Albert Devèze, Un siècle de libéralisme

(transl. by A. Ellefson)

After the Catholic Party, it is the Liberal Party that is the oldest political party in Belgium, having been officially formed in 1846, followed by the third of the three major parties, the Socialist Party, which was founded in 1857 (although, with time, these have split and reformed into many other parties).

Anecdotal Story From The 1830 Revolution

Belgian revolutionaries from Liege, 1830

I’m still reading out of the 1830-1930 La Patrie Belge book of the Editions illustrées du “SOIR” Bruxelles, and just fell on a text by H. Liebrecht talking about the 1830 Revolution, out of which I’m going to translate a number of passages for you, for I find them to be quite interesting, even if I have already spoken about the events before.

The Allied Forces’ decision to place Belgium under the United Kingdom of the Netherlands’s

Louis De Potter in his cell at the Prison des Petits-Carmes
(Dec. 2, 1829)

dominion in 1815 did not please the Belgians of the time. And right they were to feel that way for they suffered religious intolerance, extra financial charges and taxes, and administrative partiality until poverty reigned throughout Belgium’s provinces. In the meantime, the country found its freedom of press continuously encroached upon, especially with regards to those journalists who dared to speak up against the Dutch yoke. Thus, from 1816 to 1828, 23 newspapers and more than 80 journalists were taken to court.

But it’s not until the July 1830 revolution in Paris, where the French people managed to force their then King Charles X and the Duc D’Angoulème to abdicate, that the Belgians finally realized they could defeat their own government as well.

Thus, when King William I had a huge celebration planned for his birthday, and that despite the fact that the Belgian People were being overtaxed (particularly by the impôts de la mouture, a tax placed upon the grains that must be paid before they can be ground into flour for bread-making), a number of revolutionaries stuck red posters up at street corners that read: “Monday, fireworks; Tuesday, illuminations; Wednesday, revolution.”

1887: King Leopold II Worries About The Future Of Belgium And Europe

The World's Sovereigns 1889 (photomontage)
The one in the center is Kaiser Wilhelm I of Germany, seated to his left on a chair is Queen Victoria.
King Leopold II of Belgium is the second man on his right (long dark beard), while the two men standing right next to him are; Left: Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria; Right: Tsar Aleksandr III

While in London in 1887 to attend the celebrations for his cousin Queen Victoria’s 50 years of reign, Belgium’s second King, Leopold II (who later became infamous for his role in the Congo massacre), wrote the following to his chief of state:

King Leopold II

Europe’s political future remains rather uncertain […]. If we wish to remain independent, we need to strengthen ourselves and prove ourselves worthy of our independence.

As you can tell, he was already quite worried about what was fomenting behind the curtains within Europe’s highest political spheres.

Upon his return, King Leopold II desired to have a true Belgian army raised instead of their current conscription system which mainly allowed richer folks to pay poorer ones to take their spot in this army. Unfortunately, these changes were voted down by the Chamber of Ministers in July.

So the King decides to play a little game: pretend that he doesn’t want to uphold his obligations (such as attending an important party in Bruges in August) to show his displeasure with his government, then finally accede to their entreaties upon the condition that they let him hold a speech (WARNING: it is quite a long read). The maneuver works, and on August 15, 1887, King Leopold II says the following to a large crowd:

Happy Birthday Belgium!

Tomorrow, July 21, will be the celebration of Belgium's first step towards independence, aka the beginning of its revolution (which started with a Broadway-like play, if you will).

185 years of independence (discounting the years of occupation, of course). It's rather young for an "Old World" country, but that's one of the things that makes Belgium so interesting, isn't it?

In any case, I'm reading this great book that was published in 1930 by the Editions illustrées du "SOIR" Bruxelles published in celebration of Belgium's 100 year anniversary (ah, how I love history!). And in its first pages, I found this great genealogical tree of the Royal Family which I thought I'd share with you here (notice how beautiful Princess Astrid was, so beautiful and such a tragic fate after the publication of this book).

PS: Apologies for the crookedness of the picture...

Three Fun Facts About The Battle Of Waterloo

The Battle of Waterloo

Two hundred years ago, this day, the Emperor Napoleon suffered a devastating loss against the Anglo-Prussio-Dutch-Hanoverian-Nassau-Brunswick armies (quite a mouthful, eh? But Napoleon wasn't a favorite among  non-French people...not that he was always a favorite amongst the French themselves either). The battle took place in Waterloo, a town just south of Brussels, in the then United Kingdom of the Netherlands.

In any case, I have a friend who's worked for a number of years at the Wellington Museum in Waterloo who knows quite a few interesting tidbits about the battle itself, and related facts. So, without further ado, here they are: