- Government and society
- Cultural life
The revolt against Spain in 1567 and the military campaigns it provoked in the following years were detrimental to industrial activity in the southern provinces. Moreover, the Spanish reconquest of the territory caused a major emigration of merchants and skilled artisans. Amsterdam replaced Antwerp as the chief trading centre of Europe. Many towns facing industrial decline reacted by restructuring their economic bases. Antwerp fostered new enterprises in silk weaving, diamond processing, and the production of fine linen, furniture, and lace; in addition, it resuscitated many old export products, such as musical instruments, tapestries, embroidery, and brass. Although English competition had crippled the Flemish woolen industry, Ghent developed a specialization in luxury fabrics, and Brugge in cloth for everyday use.
From the end of the 16th century on, import and export duties provided a new source of revenue. Taxes on foreign trade originated from permits allowing commerce with the rebellious United Provinces of the north. By the middle of the 17th century, these taxes had become real customs tariffs. The financial problems of the government also made the sale of public offices a common practice.
The commercial revitalization of the southern Low Countries, particularly of Antwerp, was gradual, but it no doubt partly explains the flourishing artistic life during the period. This was chiefly evident in the works of the Flemish school of 17th-century painters—among them Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony Van Dyck, and Jacob Jordaens. The ongoing Counter-Reformation stimulated demand for art in the triumphant Baroque style. Rubens, court painter to Isabella and Archduke Albert, made Antwerp one of the cultural capitals of Europe. In the area of scholarship, the Bollandists, a group of Antwerp Jesuits, made valuable contributions to historical methodology.
The Peace of Westphalia (1648), which ended the Eighty Years’ War between Spain and the Dutch and the German phase of the Thirty Years’ War, stimulated economic competition between the countries of northern Europe. As a result, Flemish textile manufacture once again shifted from the towns to the countryside, where production costs were lower. In addition, the burgeoning bureaucracies and new mercantilist policies of rival capitals attracted many Flemish artisans. Emerging fashions abroad, particularly the Enlightenment Classicism and colonial exoticism of France and England, were soon to overtake the Baroque style of the Spanish Netherlands.
1Excludes children of the monarch serving ex officio from age 18.
|Official name||Koninkrijk België (Dutch); Royaume de Belgique (French); Königreich Belgien (German) (Kingdom of Belgium)|
|Form of government||federal constitutional monarchy with two legislative houses (Senate ; House of Representatives )|
|Head of state||Monarch: King Philippe|
|Head of government||Prime Minister: Charles Michel|
|Official languages||Dutch; French; German|
|Monetary unit||euro (€)|
|Population||(2013 est.) 11,237,000|
|Total area (sq mi)||11,787|
|Total area (sq km)||30,528|
|Urban-rural population||Urban: (2011) 97.5%|
Rural: (2011) 2.5%
|Life expectancy at birth||Male: (2010) 77.4 years|
Female: (2010) 82.7 years
|Literacy: percentage of population age 15 and over literate||Male: 100%|
|GNI per capita (U.S.$)||(2012) 44,990|