History of Wallonia of 1830 to 1914
Belgian independence in 1830 closes by definition the Histoire of Wallonia before 1830. This one, very right before the creation of the Belgian State knew various modes: that of Austria (with the exception of the Principality of Liege) since the beginning of the XVIIIe century, then of republican France (1795), of imperial France (1804), of the Netherlands (1815), finally of current Belgium (1830).
The Industrial revolution (1774-1847)
The industrial revolution takes place mainly on what will be logically called the industrial Sillon, that is to say this strip of land going from Mons (Borinage) to Verviers while passing by Louvière, Charleroi, part of the area of Namur (the Low-Sambre ), then Liege and Verviers. It extends from 1770 to 1847 (the Flanders will remain a long time in safe withdrawal with Ghent then Antwerp with the development of the port, in particular because of Congo). She knew her decisive phase between 1798 and 1830, i.e., essentially, before the birth of the Belgian State This industrial revolution puts the production carried out on this space, however very restricted, with the head of those of the time and even in certain fields, that is exceeded only by England in absolute figures the fact that this industrial revolution occurred at this place is not a chance. Since the Early middle ages, as one saw, about everywhere in what will be called the Wallonia , iron is transformed according to techniques which will invent the local contractors, in particular the Walloon method which makes place with the hydraulic power (to actuate the bellows of the forging mills), evolution which will bring itself to the production of steel in blast furnaces and to the use of coke in those. See Histoire of the techniques in Wallonia from 900 to 1800 and Histoire of the production of steel. Moreover, the basement is rich and conceals the most various metals with the coal discovered already for a long time but which will be used with large scales only with the current of the XVIIIe century.
First use of the word Wallonia
The French neologism Wallonia is created by Charles-Joseph Grandgagnage in 1844 starting from Latin Wallonia going back to 1618. The political rise to power of the Flanders does not aim initially Wallonia. What the movement wants Flemish, which it will finally impose on all the Flemish but French-speaking middle-class, it is that in Flanders all is in Flemish (one will say later in Dutch). The French-speaking Flemish middle-class will adopt Dutch at least in the foreign trade with the private life.
Wallonia a directed industrial power of outside
The Industrial revolution in Wallonia, which extends from 1770 to 1847, knew its decisive phase between 1798 and 1830, i.e., essentially, before the birth of the Belgian State. Undoubtedly, this is there that all the richness of the country develops but one can speak about a dependant prosperity insofar as it is not Wallonia as such which directs to the more high level its development, but a French-speaking middle-class woman whose project and the national framework are Belgian: “is made the provincial ones being bruxellisant, of anoblissant themselves middle-class man, noble embourgeoisant itself; structure around three elements in close connection: the Palate, higher administration and the government, the high finance; there is really constitution of a new aristocracy (...) or rather of an bourgeoiso-aristocracy of Brussels. The capacity of this one rests at the same time on the great land and buildings and the high bank; it ensures a certain passage of the one the other (...) it occupies in any case, and Brussels with it, a dominant position on and in the country… ” and Michel Quévit will also unceasingly stress to him that.
Method of this dependant development
The Belgian French-speaking middle-class will become primarily a financial middle-class: a high bank and a high finance whose two heads are the General society (absorptive in 1988 by Suez (group)), and the Bank of Belgium, now disappeared. These two institutions adopt the policy of the industrial participations, of the Holdings (Holding companys before the letter. The financial middle-class goes if one wants to absorb the Walloon industrial middle-class woman and the industrial development of Wallonia is directed from Brussels, from the outside of the industrial Sillon Voyez also Histoire of Belgium of 1830 to 1914.
A quarrel of the languages relating to Wallonia at the beginning little
The inhabitants of the Flanders (who will become Dutch-speaking), use of dialects of Dutch and have elites which speak French. The inhabitants of the Wallonia (who will become French-speaking), use of the Wallon or the Picard and Lorrain, of dialects of German), and also have French-speaking elites. The Flemish movement does not fight at the beginning against Wallonia. Some Waalse flaminganten ( Wallons flaminguants category used by the Encyclopedie van of Vlaaamse Beweging ), whose Louis Jottrand proclaims it with the agreement of the Flemish movement. The Flemish movement thus fights for the adoption of Flemish in Flanders whereas the Belgian State imposes French on it.
Political Minorisation of Wallonia since 1884
The first votes in favor of Flemish in the middle of the XIXe century make naïtre an especially French-speaking reaction in Flanders and in Brussels, which is different from the Walloon Mouvement itself). But starting from the introduction of the vote for all (obtained however following a violent strike of the Walloon country, in 1893), the majority in Flanders is often entirely clerical. During time 1884-1914 the Belgian governments will be almost governments made up of elected officials of Flanders, ministers of Flanders and counting on a political majority for all the country sometimes already acquired on the only basis of the parliamentary representation in Flanders.
A liberal/socialist electoral trust in 1912 can nothing change there: it in the majority only in one numerically minority Wallonia. Jules Destrée then writes his famous Lettre with the King on the separation of Wallonia and the Flanders. The claim of the vote for all in Wallonia binds then to that of “administrative separation” (federalism). Vis-a-vis a Flanders which émancipe of French is fought Wallonia which, as from at least 1884 (if not earlier), always will have been always dominated by the Flanders .
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In industrial Wallonia, and its companies of point, it is the Walloon who dominates , because more suited than French to indicate the new techniques, so that of the operation to the director, in the mines in particular, the Wallon is the language of safety, that all are obliged to know.
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“Belgian” bilingualism excludes the Walloon. In this context, certain Flemish private bills on the bilingualism of the engineers (francçais/Flemish), or of the courts of work, have a not easily comprehensible aspect emancipator in the Walloon context; the Flemish workers in Wallonia are subjected initially to the obligation of the Walloon, not of French. However the linguistic censuses, like showed it Paul Levy in the Encyclopédie of the Walloon Movement do not take into account the Walloon. Any person expressing itself especially or only as a Walloon is comparable with a French-speaking person. It is that the Flemish movement refuses to see Flemish put on the same foot as the Walloon.
A liberal/socialist electoral trust in 1912 can nothing change there: it in the majority only in one numerically minority Wallonia. Jules Destrée then writes his famous Lettre with the King on the separation of Wallonia and the Flanders . The claim of the vote for all in Wallonia binds then to that of “administrative separation” (federalism).
Vis-a-vis a Flanders which émancipe of French is fought Wallonia which, as from at least 1884 (if not earlier), always will have been always dominated by the Flanders .
The dominant language in Wallonia was not French but the Walloon
In industrial Wallonia, the companies of point, it is the Walloon who dominates, because it is more suited than French to indicate the new techniques, so that of the operation to the director, in the mines in particular, the Wallon is the language of safety, that all are obliged to know, in the facts.
Strangeness of a “Belgian” bilingualism which excludes the Walloon
In this context, certain Flemish private bills on the bilingualism of the engineers (French/Flemish), or of the courts of work, have a not easily comprehensible aspect emancipator in the Walloon context; the Flemish workers in Wallonia are subjected initially to the obligation of the Walloon, not of French. However the linguistic censuses, like showed it Paul Levy in the Encyclopédie of the Walloon Movement do not take into account the Walloon. Any person expressing itself especially or only as a Walloon is comparable with a French-speaking person. It is that the Flemish movement refuses to see Flemish put on the same foot as the Walloon insofar as this one is perceived like a dialect, even a patois and that practically nobody at the time militates in favor of his recognition like official language.
One will read the continuation in the Histoire of Wallonia since 1914.