History, Wonder Tales, Fairy Tales, Myths and Legends The Flemish | Page 22
Constitution and declared the new state a Constitutional Monarchy, under the House
of Saxe-Coburg. Flanders now became part of the Kingdom of Belgium, which was
recognized by the major European Powers on January 20, 1831. The de facto
dissidence was only finally recognized by the United Kingdom of the Netherlands on
April 19, 1839.
Antwerp, statue of “Lange Wapper”
KINGDOM OF BELGIUM
In 1830, the Belgian Revolution led to the splitting up of the two countries. Belgium
was confirmed as an independent state by the Treaty of London of 1839, but deprived
of the eastern half of Limburg (now Dutch Limburg), and the Eastern half of
Luxembourg (now the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg) . Sovereignty over Zeeuws
Vlaanderen, south of the Westerscheldt river delta, was left with the Kingdom of the
Netherlands, who was allowed to levy a toll on all traffic to the Antwerp harbour until
1863.
RISE OF THE FLEMISH MOVEMENT
Main article: Flemish movement
WORLD WAR I AND ITS CONSEQUENCES
Flanders (and Belgium as a whole) saw some of the greatest loss of life on the
Western Front of the First World War, in particular from the three battles of Ypres. Due
to the hundreds of thousands of casualties at Ypres, the poppies that sprang up from
the battlefield afterwards, later immortalised in the Canadian poem "In Flanders
Fields", written by John McCrae, have become a symbol for lives lost in war.
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