Flemings are a group of people who live in northern Belgium. The region they inhabit is called Flanders. It consists of the provinces of Antwerp, East Flanders, West Flanders, Limburg, and the northern half of Brabant. Historically, Flanders had different boundaries and included parts of France and the Netherlands. The Flemings make up about 55 percent of the Belgian population.
The Flemish language and culture developed after the Franks, a Germanic tribe, settled in what is now Flanders in the A.D. 200’s to 400’s. In southern Belgium, now called Wallonia, the local Celtic population was denser and the Roman influence stronger. Frankish invaders there were largely absorbed by the local culture.
During the Middle Ages, from about A.D. 400 through the 1400’s, the Flemings dominated European trade. Agriculture, fishing, and textiles also became thriving industries in Flanders. Between the 1400’s and 1600’s, the region produced some of the world’s greatest painters, including Jan van Eyck, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, and Peter Paul Rubens.
Language differences have long been a source of conflict between the Flemings and the Walloons. The Flemings speak Dutch, and the Walloons speak French. When Belgium gained independence in 1830, French became its only official language. Flemings protested and demanded the right to be educated and govern in Dutch, rather than French. Dutch finally gained official recognition in the late 1800’s. The Belgian government and most businesses now use both languages. Flemings have also won the right to schools and universities that teach in Dutch. But the conflicts between the Flemings and Walloons continued. Constitutional changes made from 1970 to 2001 granted extensive self-rule to Flanders and Wallonia.
