Flemings

Flemings (Dutch: Vlamingen, French: Flamands), Dutch-speaking people numbering nearly 6 million, living in central and northern Belgium, in the provinces of West Flanders and East Flanders, Brabant, Antwerp, and Limburg. Taken together these provinces form the autonomous region of Flanders, which has its own parliament and government, both based in the capital city of Brussels. The Flemings speak the Flemish language.

Within the Belgian state, the Flemings have long felt marginalized, especially in the 19th and early 20th centuries, when the French-speaking Walloons, the other major ethnic-linguistic group in Belgium, were dominant. In the latter part of the 20th century, however, the long-standing campaign of the Flemish movement for language rights and cultural autonomy achieved one of its central aims with the democratic devolution of the Belgian state into a more federal structure, where matters of finance, economics, education, health care, culture, and language are now the responsibility of the Flemish region’s political institutions rather than the Belgian national government. The trend towards further devolution of the Belgian state is likely to continue.

The Flemish region is home to famous towns such as Bruges, Antwerp, Ghent, Louvain, and Mechelen, which, from the Middle Ages onwards, had a highly developed, Catholic culture, influencing Flemish painters such as Jan van Eyck, Peter Paul Rubens, and Anthony van Dyck. In Louvain, Flanders has one of the oldest universities of Europe (see Louvain, Catholic University of), Antwerp is one of the most important ports in Europe, and Flemish commerce and industry are thriving. Contemporary Flemish culture is flourishing in art, theatre, literature, fashion, design, ballet, and music.