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Full Description
The small and densely populated nation of Belgium has played an important role in the history of Europe and other continents, especially Africa. It was a pioneering force in industry, trade, and finance during the Middle Ages, through early modern times and into the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It introduced innovative political regimes and played a leading role in the creative arts. Yet this rich past is not widely known. This introductory history offers an accessible and rigorous overview of this small but important West-European country, synthesizing Belgium's main economic, social, political, and cultural developments from pre-Roman times until today. Today, this nation-state, born in 1830, is well-known for the rivalries between its two main language communities, and as a result is often considered a fragile or even an artificial political construct. This systematic chronological analysis of both present-day Belgium and the polities that preceded it throws fresh light on this controversial issue and demonstrates Belgium's enduring importance and influence.
Contents
1. Earliest times - From prehistory to the end of the Roman Period; 2. The era of the Frankish kingdoms (fifth-tenth century); 3. The origins of the medieval principalities (tenth-fourteenth century); 4. Unifying the Netherlands: The Burgundy - Habsburg period (1384-1555); 5. The Spanish Netherlands (1555-ca. 1700); 6. The Austrian Netherlands (ca. 1700-1780); 7. The formation of a new nation-state (1780s-1830); 8. The consolidation of a Bourgeois regime (1831-1880s); 9. The Belgian nation-state at its height (1880s-1945); 10. The metamorphoses of a nation-state (from 1945 to the present day); Index.
