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Belgium - People

In Belgium there are Walloons and there are Flemings: there are no Belgians. Perhaps there is such a phenomenon as "Belgitude" or "Belgianness" to be found in the values shared by most Belgians. A cross-national survey of values conducted in 1981 found that Dutchspeaking and French-speaking Belgians were more similar to each other than to their counterparts in the Netherlands and France. The authors of the study pointed out some interesting contradictions. The Dutch speakers, for instance, attended Catholic mass more regularly than the French speakers yet seemed more tolerant of some social behavior condemned by the Roman Catholic Church. The study concluded that generational differences were more important than language differences in shaping social, political, and family values. The younger generation tended to be more permissive regarding sexual mores, more tolerant of social deviancy, less religious, and more apt to place themselves on the left of the political spectrum than the older generation.

The Belgian territory contained within itself one leading element of the dissensions which raged around it. The two great peoples of different origin and habits, the Celtic and Teutonic, or Latin and German-speaking peoples, whose different policies have divided Europe from the time of the Romans, were combined in its population; the Walloon provinces, Hainaut, Namur, Luxemburg, being nearly allied to the French, while Flanders, Brabant and Limburg approximated more in character and language to the Germans. Thus not only were the great rivalries of Europe represented here in miniature, but their compression within the narrow limits of what is now one of the smallest of European states has resulted in the formation of a distinct national character.

The language division occurred gradually after the Germanic Franks began to invade the territory in the fifth century AD, wresting it from the Romans. In the northern part of the territory, where the Germanic influence was strongest, early forms of Dutch developed. In the southern part, the continued Latin influence gave rise to early forms of French. During the next millennium, however, the divisiveness inherent in feudalism prevented the development of a single center of power and culture, leaving the various duchies and towns that sprang up in the territory to their own devices. In particular, the cities and towns of Flanders flourished during the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance; the architecture and painting of the Flemish masters were unsurpassed anywhere else in Europe.

The Dutch-speaking Belgians did not protest independence in 1830, but they gradually realized that history had relegated them to the status of second-class citizens in a country where they formed the majority. French had been the language of government and culture since the days of Spanish rule, and the constitution of 1831 did nothing to ensure equal. treatment for. the Dutch languages. Laws recognizing biligualism in Flanders (1873), making Dutch an official language (1898), and establishing separate Dutch and French administrations in Flanders and Wallonia (1932) were too long in the making. The political elite, even that of Flemish parentage, was French-speaking.