Belgium

E

Health and Welfare

Health and hospital services are the responsibility of public assistance commissions located in each town. The commissions pay for relief patients in private hospitals, administer public hospitals, and organize nursing services and clinics.

Social security, based on a law passed in 1944, applies to all workers subject to employment contracts. The Central National Office of Social Security collects from employers and employees all contributions for family allowances, health insurance, old-age insurance, holidays, and unemployment insurance and distributes the funds to the respective administrative divisions. This comprehensive welfare system has resulted in great improvements in public health and brought economic stability to the populace, but has also exacerbated Belgium’s budget deficit. In May 2002 Belgium became the second country (after the Netherlands) to pass legislation to legalize euthanasia under certain strict conditions.

F

Defence

Belgium is a founding member of the NATO, which has its headquarters in Brussels. Recruitment to Belgium’s armed forces is made by voluntary enlistment. Military training and equipment are coordinated with those of the Netherlands under a 1948 agreement. In 1994, in order to reduce government spending, the numbers of personnel were drastically cut from over 80,000 to around 40,000. In 2004 the armed forces totalled 36,900 personnel comprising: army, 24,800; navy, 2,450; air force, 6,350; and medical, 1,250.

G

International Organizations

Belgium is a member of the following organizations: the United Nations (UN), the Benelux Economic Union, the Council of Europe (CE), the EU, NATO, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD); the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE); and the Western European Union (WEU).

VI

History

Belgium derives its name from the Belgae, an ancient Celtic tribe. The Roman region of Gallia Belgica (Belgian Gaul) included modern Belgium, northern France, the Netherlands, and part of Switzerland. Rome’s successor in western Europe was the kingdom of the Franks, which originated in Belgian Gaul and expanded into Germany, eventually extending from the Pyrenees Mountains eastward across the Alps and southward as far as Rome itself. The Franks were led by Charlemagne, who united all of western Europe through conquest during his reign from 768 to 814. When the Frankish realm was partitioned in 843, Belgium was incorporated in the duchy of Lorraine, which was part of Francia Orientalis (the East Frankish Kingdom, or Germany). In the extreme west of this realm arose the county of Flanders, which was a fief of the kings of France. In 1384 Flanders was united with Burgundy, and by the mid-15th century the dukes of Burgundy ruled the greater part of the Belgian and Dutch Netherlands. While owing allegiance to the French Crown, Burgundy’s aim was to found a powerful state between France and Germany. This effort was disrupted by the death in 1477 of the last Burgundian ruler, Charles the Bold.

A

Habsburg Rule

By the marriage in 1477 of Mary of Burgundy, daughter of Charles the Bold, to the German prince Maximilian (later Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I), all of the rich Burgundian realm except the duchy itself passed to the control of the Habsburg family. Maximilian’s grandson, Charles, inherited the Netherlands (which included present-day Belgium) in 1506. Charles ascended the throne of Spain in 1516 and later became Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. In 1549 he decreed that the Netherlands be formally joined to the possessions of Spain.

When Philip II of Spain, Charles’s successor, tried to suppress Protestantism and forbade all trade between his subjects and the outside world, he provoked a rebellion in the Netherlands that began in 1566. This upheaval was partly a religious and economic struggle and partly an attempt to preserve local traditions of self-government. Spanish armies were defeated, but the strife between the predominantly Catholic south and the Protestant north continued. In 1581 seven northern provinces (Gelderland, Friesland, Holland, Groningen, Overijssel, Utrecht, and Zeeland) declared their independence as the United Provinces of the Netherlands, while the southern provinces (Belgium) remained loyal to Spain.

Philip II continued to pursue reconquest of the north without success. In 1609, with neither side capable of a decisive victory, Philip III of Spain signed a 12-year truce with the rebels. By the time this accord expired, the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648) was raging, and the Spanish Netherlands was once again a battleground. In 1635 the Dutch and French joined forces to divide the Spanish Netherlands, but could still not dislodge the Spaniards. A succession of Franco-Dutch victories finally forced the Spanish king, Philip IV, to accept a separate peace with the Dutch in 1648. The south, present-day Belgium and Luxembourg, remained a Spanish domain. By the Treaty of Münster, the Dutch gained some territory on their southern border, notably Maastricht, and Spain agreed to close off shipping from the River Schelde, which flowed through Dutch territory but which was Antwerp’s sole outlet to the sea. The great port city, a centre of commerce, thus entered a period of decline.

France, with a growing coalition of European powers, continued the war with Spain. Throughout his long reign the French king Louis XIV refused to abandon his quest for the Spanish Netherlands. By the Peace of the Pyrenees in 1659, France gained several frontier areas, and through subsequent conquests won possession of additional towns. The Spanish Netherlands became an important pawn in the next major European conflict, the War of the Spanish Succession. A settlement, known as the Peace of Utrecht (1713-1715), gave France part of Flanders, including Dunkerque and Lille. The bulk of the territory, however, became the Austrian Netherlands, with a stipulation that its fortresses on the French border be garrisoned by the Dutch.

During the War of the Austrian Succession in 1744, the country was occupied by the French, but it was restored to Austria by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748. Except for this invasion, Belgium’s Austrian era was initially peaceful. The tranquillity was disrupted in 1781 when the Austrian emperor, Joseph II, decided to raze the border fortresses and reopen the Schelde estuary. The Dutch mounted an effective blockade and again closed the river to trade. Then, in 1787, as part of his effort to centralize the administration of the far-flung Habsburg domains, Joseph abolished provincial autonomy in the Austrian Netherlands. The loss of local control led to a general uprising that coincided with the outbreak of the French Revolution. Most of the Austrian garrisons were forced to capitulate, and on January 11, 1790, a Belgian republic was proclaimed. Quarrels between social and religious factions shook the new state from the outset. Within a year of Joseph’s death in 1790, his successor, Leopold II, re-established control. A conciliatory and enlightened ruler, he revoked his predecessor’s decrees, but the new regime won little popular support. After Leopold was succeeded by Francis II in 1792, Austria became embroiled in war with the revolutionary government of France. Belgium was twice occupied by the French army, and the country was formally ceded to France by the Treaty of Campo Formio in 1797.