Walloon Region (federal Region) - History

History

Belgium gained its independence from the Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1830. Though the new-born country had unifying elements, such as the Catholic religion, a French-speaking bourgeoisie and common economic interests opposed to the Dutch economic ones, the building of a unitary Belgian state posed some serious problems. The language question emerged in 1840. Despite the fact that the free use of languages was enshrined in the Constitution, only French was used in the administration, education and justice systems. The Flemish movement arose to counter this situation and in 1898 succeeded in obtaining official language status for the Dutch language. In the late 19th century, Belgium was divided into two utterly opposed communities. On one hand, the very Catholic Flemish society was characterized by an economy centered on agriculture; on the other hand, Wallonia was the center of the continental European industrial revolution where liberal and socialist movements were rapidly emerging. As a result, Belgium inevitably became the theatre of tensions between these two communities.

In the face of an increasingly self-confident Flanders, the distinct regional identity of the Walloons gradually began to appear. The poet Albert Mockel launched 1886 the review La Wallonie and popularized the name, coined in 1844 by Charles-Joseph Grandgagnage. In 1912, the Walloon movement formed the Walloon Assembly, which was based on one representative per 40,000 inhabitants. In the period between the two world wars, many Walloon groups demanded a federalization of the country, although such proposals were rejected. The law of 28 June 1932 established monolingualism in the languages areas of Belgium (and bilingualism in Brussels).

In the wake of the strikes of 1960, the State reform in Belgium process of state reform in Belgium got under way. This reform started with the linguistic laws of 1962-63, which defined the four language areas within the Constitution. In 1968, the conflict between the communities burst out. The Walloons were driven out of the university of Leuven amid shouts of "Walen buiten!" ("Walloons out!"). The political divergences caused by this unrest brought about the fall of the Belgian government. The State reform, which led to the creation of three communities and three regions, started in 1970. The goal of the Wallooon Movement was not the Communities but the three Regions. The Walloon Movement (after World War II) differs from the Flemish movement in that it is focused not on cultural and linguistic factors but rather on economic factors.