The 19th Century In Belgium

"This volume offers a multifaceted selection of studies on 19th-century Belgian reformers and initiatives they instigated to solve the ‘social question’ by ‘civilising’ and moralising the lower classes. Around 1850 Belgium was continental Europe’s most heavily industrialised state. From the mid-century until the Belle Époque many international social reform associations were based in Belgium, as well as their main international actors. This book aims to place the history of social, moral and educational reform in Belgium during the long 19th century within a broader European perspective. This collection of contributions by both young and established scholars from various disciplinary backgrounds not only fills some gaps in Belgian historiography, but also offers a better understanding of broad epochal processes such as the bourgeois civilising offensive, the expansion of educational action and the historical growth of welfare states.

This is a book about shifting national identities in Belgium. It is an attempt to show how these identities emerged and evolved. It aims at explaining why the Belgian identity, which in 1830 was so strong that it could create a new nation-state, has become so weak that today it has to accept a mere overarching role above and in competition with the new national loyalties. More and more people wonder whether this country will survive.

The Roman orientation was the keystone of the religious revolution of the Catholic revival. New or renewed congregations, priests close to the people & militant laymen gave a decidedly social & activist turn to the faith. At this crossroad of religion & modernity, the papacy could all the more make its weight felt as the Belgian Constitution granted the clergy a unique liberty in relations with Rome. Over time, the Vatican would exert a powerful impact on the shape of modern politics in Belgium. The special relationship between Belgium & Rome was no one-way traffic. From a somewhat curious ecclesiastical court hopelessly entangled in the old spider web of the Papal States, the papacy became the institution we know today, the leader of a "modern" Catholic opinion. Belgium played a role of major importance in this transformation. The central theme of the book can therefore be defined as a process of mutual integration, if not acculturation, across the Alps.

Offers new insights into the political and modern uses of public monuments devoted to figures from the past and the role of historical culture in the creation of national identity.

This book explores the political ideas of the Belgian Revolution of 1830, which led to the break-up of the Restoration state of the ‘united’ Kingdom of the Netherlands. It uncovers the origins of liberalism and political Catholicism in the Southern Netherlands in the wake of the French Revolution, and traces the development of political language in the context of the tensions between the Northern and Southern part of the united Netherlands. It shows how differences in ‘Dutch’ and ‘Belgian’ political and intellectual history resulted in different understandings of essential political concepts such as ‘sovereignty’ and ‘balance of powers’, as well as of the nature of the constitutional order of 1815. Finally, it traces the emergence of Belgian nationalism within the discourse of opposition against the government. Stefaan Marteel therefore provides a fresh perspective on the intellectual background of the rise of the nation-state in the nineteenth century.

The 19th century laid the foundations of history, both professional and popular. The authors of this collection compare Britain, the Netherlands, and Belgium, unearthing the ways in which history was conceived and then utilized, usually for nationalistic purposes.