I figure I might get some flak for saying that, but at the same time I am posting this on a blog called "The Map Nerd". You should have realised...
Belgium is a curious little wedge of a country, stuck between a rock and a low place, divided in the present day into three administrative regions (Flanders, Wallonia and the Brussels-Capital region), three linguistic communities (Flemish-speaking, French-speaking and German-speaking), and led by a king who is probably the European monarch who intervenes the most in politics since he has to nominate a new prime minister about every two weeks.
Belgium is a federal and multilingual country, where the three official languages are equally respected by the law. On the ground, the historical truth is that French was for a long time the language of the aristocracy and upper class, the prestige language, and Flemish was a dialect spoken in half the country. Until 1878 French was in fact the only official language of Belgium. In recent times however, French-speaking Wallonia has suffered economically and Flanders has prospered... leading to quite a bit of bitterness on both sides.
Starting in 1878, Belgium became an officially bilingual country. Either language could be used. By 1921 they realised it wasn't working, so a linguistic border was drawn across the country. In Flanders only Flemish was to be used in public administration, and likewise for French in Wallonia. Only communities near the border with a significant proportion of speakers of the "other" language are required to provide services to speakers of the minority language in their native tongue. Brussels and the surrouding province of Brabant remained officially bilingual.
Not content to create a complicated system and let it work itself out, the government also decided to plan ahead and make the bilingual zone near the border move based on the result of each decennial census. If a border town in Flanders gained a large proportion of francophones, it became bilingual with the result that all civil servants needed to speak both languages in order to serve the public in both.
The census of 1930 resulted in roughly the same number of French- and Flemish-only border towns becoming bilingual. The 1940 census didn't happen... and when it did happen in 1947 the results showed 14 Flemish-only towns would need to provide services in French, and only one single French-only town became bilingual.
After some hemming and hawing, it was decided that:
1) Some border towns that had changed substantially from Flemish to French or vice versa would be swapped between Flemish and French provinces (creating two strange exclaves in the modern-day map of Belgium's two principal regions).
2) The language border would be fixed once and for all.
3) The country would be split into three administrative regions with the power to manage things related to physical infrastructure, and three linguistic communities (Three? Oh, right. There were some Germans here at one point... Wie geht's, mon ami ? Goed? Great!) with the power to manage things related to people's lives... education and all that.
4) The singularly bilingual province of Brabant would be split into neat French and Flemish parcels, and a capital city region in the middle would remain the only truly bilingual part.
5) Linguistic questions would be banned by law from any future census.
It was the 60's and the 70's. Some people were experimenting with drugs, and others with society. Apparently the Belgian government was doing both...
Oh, you came here for maps! Sorry!
So, without further ado, here is the highly controversial, even contraband, animated map of the evolution of bilingualism in the provinces of Belgium between 1866 and 1947.
(Click to enlarge)
R.I.P. Belgian Linguistic Census
Data courtesy of Wikipedia.
Map courtesy of the CDC, modified to return provinces to pre-1962 town transfer borders.
It is often said that Belgium is not a real country. In many ways it might as well be half part of France and half part of the Netherlands (ignoring the German part). Still, I hope that European integrationalism supercedes the movement towards Belgian separatism... this is me talking as a Quebecer and a Canadian.
ReplyDeleteImagining the scenario where Belgium did split in half, what would become of Brussles? It's clearly more French than Dutch. But what would become the Flemish capital then? And would the Flemish accept that? To me these difficulties are reasons why Belgium will stay put.
Actually, Brussels is already the capital of Flanders... sort of.
ReplyDeleteWhen the three regions and three communities were set up, the first act of the government of the Flemish Region was to transfer all of its powers to the Flemish Community government. Both the Flemish Community and French Community had their headquarters in Brussels, so effectively the seat of power of all bodies representing the Flemish people (in any of the three regions) and the Flemish Region is in Brussels.
The Wallonia region's administrative capital is in... err... where? Oh, Namur. Beautiful Namur.
And yeah, the Germans. They're over there somewhere, in someplace. All 10 of them.
Belgium will stay put indeed. But I think it's mainly because not even a SWAT team of accountants and lawyers could "unwind" the tangled mess of an administration they have to the point that they could actually separate peacefully and lawfully into two legal entities. And the Belgians may like to make a fuss, but on neither side of the linguistic border are they the sort to revolt these days.