title: Drakengard (video game)

text: In aerial combat missions, players control Caim's dragon partner Angelus. During these moments, players are directed against multiple aerial targets that must be destroyed in order to win. As Angelus gains experience points through combat, she levels up and is able to do more damage – similar to the weapons used in ground-based combat. Boss battles are all located in these aerial stages. Angelus has access to two types of standard fire attacks: a free-aim blast that causes high damage, and homing bolts that can hit multiple targets but do less damage. Homing shots can be dodged or countered by some enemy types later in the game. Angelus can also perform a special area-affecting magical attack that damages or kills multiple enemy units. She can be used to quickly traverse battle areas during primarily ground-based missions. Players can summon Angelus during certain ground-based missions and play her in Strafe Mode. Controls are identical to ground-based combat. Pressing the select button causes Caim to dismount Angelus. Caim and Angelus level up during combat in different ways: as Caim levels up, their shared health meter grows, while Angelus' leveling increases the damage her attacks do to enemy units.


title: Drakengard (video game)

text: Players can navigate the game world and select missions via a world map accessed between levels. While playing, a mini-map allows the player to see enemy locations, and a full-screen map can be switched to that covers the entire area and shows mission objectives. "Drakengard"s levels are called verses, and the verses are grouped across thirteen chapters. Each level has a time limit of one hour for players to complete them. Normal levels are numbered, while additional levels are marked by Roman numerals. The game features five endings: the normal ending and four additional endings which are unlocked when certain conditions are met, such as completing optional chapters or obtaining powerful weapons.


title: Drakengard (video game)

text: "Drakengard" takes place in a medieval dark fantasy world called Midgard. The world is protected from falling into chaos by the Seals, objects magically linked to a woman chosen as the Goddess of the Seal. If the seals and the Goddess were destroyed, malevolent beings known as the Watchers would enter the world to destroy humanity. A key element of the world is the ability for a human and a beast to form a pact, a ritual that ties their souls together and grants great power. Their lives become bound by the pact, and the human pays a price for it in the form of some attribute (e.g. their voice, their eyesight or their ability to age). During the events of "Drakengard", the Union, which protects the Seals, is in the midst of a religious war with the Empire, a power led by a cult who believe that destroying the seals will bring them good fortune.


title: Drakengard (video game)

text: The main characters are , a deposed prince of the Union, and , a red dragon. Joining Caim and Angelus in optional sections of the story are , a hermit who loses his brothers in an attack by the Empire; , an elf woman driven mad by the murder of her family; and , a young boy from the Empire whose village was destroyed by the cult's devotees. Other prominent characters are , Caim's sister and the current Goddess of the Seal; , Furiae's former fiancé; , a priest in charge of protecting the Goddess Seal; and , Seere's sister, leader of the enemy cult and the game's main antagonist.


title: Drakengard (video game)

text: "Drakengard" opens with Caim in the midst of a battle to protect his sister from the Empire. During the battle, Caim is mortally injured, but continues to fight his way into Furiae's castle, where he finds Angelus severely wounded from torture. Despite their mutual mistrust, Caim and Angelus agree to make a pact and save each other. With the attack repelled, Caim is joined by Furiae and Inuart to find safety, encountering Verdelet on their travels. Inuart is captured, tortured and brainwashed by Manah, eventually kidnapping Furiae in the belief that he can save her from her fate as the Goddess and earn her love. Verdelet and Caim travel to each of the three Seals, but each time arrive too late to stop them being destroyed. Eventually, the Union and the Empire engage in battle, and the Union emerge victorious. After the battle, however, the Union's surviving troops are decimated by an unknown force from above, and the Empire's troops return to life. Caim and Angelus travel to an Imperial fortress that has appeared in the sky, where they find that Furiae has killed herself, breaking the final seal. Inuart, seeing her body, is released from his brainwashing and takes her away.


title: Drakengard (video game)

text: Optional missions allow Caim to find and recruit Leonard and Seere, and take along Arioch to protect others from her madness. Subsequent playthroughs and extra chapters reveal further details about the characters. Leonard's self-imposed seclusion is because he was trying to suppress his pedophilia, and the guilt at his brothers' deaths stems from the fact that he gave in to his cravings and left them unprotected. Arioch's madness takes the form of cannibalism of children, in the belief that they would be safe from harm within her. Furiae is revealed to love Caim romantically, which led to Inuart becoming jealous and vulnerable to Manah's influence. During the events leading to the third ending, Manah reveals Furiae's feelings for Caim, who shows revulsion at the revelation: due to this and the Watchers' influence, Furiae stabs herself. Manah was abused by her and Seere's mother, but Seere was never subjected to the abuse, leading him to feel guilty. The abuse Manah received and her longing for love eventually drove her insane, and she was chosen to become the Watchers' agent.


title: Drakengard (video game)

text: There are five possible endings, four of which are unlocked after fulfilling certain conditions. In the first ending, Caim and Angelus confront Manah and defeat her. Manah asks them to kill her, but Angelus declares that she must live with her crimes. Angelus then offers herself as the new Goddess of the Seal for Caim's sake. As Verdelet performs the ritual, Angelus tells Caim her name before fading away. In the second ending Inuart uses a magical object called a "Seed of Resurrection" to resurrect Furiae: while successful, the Seed turns her into a monster, and she kills Inuart. Caim is forced to kill her, but not before clones of her are produced from other Seeds to destroy humanity. In the third ending, after Furiae's suicide, Caim and Angelus stop Inuart's attempt to resurrect her and confront Manah, who is killed by another dragon. With the dragons now being driven to destroy mankind, Angelus breaks her pact with Caim and fights him to the death. Caim then prepares to die fighting the other dragons. In the fourth ending, Seere has his Golem pact partner kill the deranged Manah, causing the fortress to collapse. Caim, Seere, Leonard and Arioch escape, while Inuart and Furiae are killed inside. With Manah dead, the Watchers descend on the Imperial capital, with Leonard and Arioch dying at their hands. Caim and Angelus then sacrifice themselves to allow Seere to use his powers to seal the city and the Watchers in a timeless zone, nullifying their threat. In the fifth ending, instead of using Seere's power, Caim and Angelus instead attack the queen and the three disappear through a portal. After engaging the queen monster in a rhythm game in modern-day Tokyo, the two destroy it, and are then shot down by a fighter jet.


title: Drakengard (video game)

text: The original idea for "Drakengard" originated between Takamasa Shiba and Takuya Iwasaki when they were working at Cavia. It was conceived as an aerial battle game similar to "Ace Combat". The four-year development was Shiba's first project as a producer. The team developing the game went under the moniker of "Project Dragonsphere". As development progressed, ground-based battles were also incorporated after the success in Japan of "Dynasty Warriors 2". Creating the change from ground to aerial gameplay was exceptionally difficult for the team as they encountered problems with the PlayStation 2 hardware. Speaking in 2013, Shiba commented that Cavia had been inexperienced in creating action games, and as such it was not up to the standards of its contemporaries. The game's battle scenes were inspired by films such as the 1999 version of "The Mummy" and its spin-off "The Scorpion King", as well as films like "Dragonheart" and epic films from Asia. Iwasaki was unable to take up the position of director because of other projects he was involved with: the position instead went to Yoko Taro, who was primarily responsible for the game's tone. The lead programmers were Toshiyuki Koike and Takeshi Katayama. The CGI cutscenes were created by Studio Anima. During production, the team were asked to make multiple adjustments and changes to its content by "Drakengard"s advisory board. It was annoying enough for Yoko that he decided at the time not to make another "Drakengard". Yoko was worried that the dark tone would cause the game to go unreleased, so one of the game's external producers Yosuke Saito went to Sony with a pitch; Sony were so tired of reviewing pitches at the time that they approved the project without looking at it.


title: Drakengard (video game)

text: The game was originally announced in December 2002, then set to be published by Enix. Its date was announced the following year by Square Enix. It released in Japan on September 11, 2003. "Drakengard" was first shown off to the western public at E3 2003. Its title was changed for the Western release. The original "Drag-On Dragoon" title was chosen for its sound, but was not considered right for the western market. Because of this, it was changed to "Drakengard". In addition, some of the more mature themes, such as references to incest and sexual taboos, were censored in the western localization. In North America, the game released on March 2, 2004. While Square Enix published the title in Japan and North America, Take-Two Interactive was chosen to publish it in European territories, releasing it on May 21. For this version, the game underwent major debugging and an alteration in the angle of the in-game camera. The mobile port was part of Square Enix's plans to branch out into the European mobile game market. It was co-developed with London-based mobile developer Macrospace as part of a collaboration between Square Enix and Vodafone, designed to function on the Vodafone live! service. It was first released in Germany, then made available in the United Kingdom, Spain and Italy.


title: Drakengard (video game)

text: The setting, mythos and landscape were primarily inspired by the folklore of Northern Europe, while other elements drew from Japanese-style revisionism. According to Shiba, multiple elements of the story and world were created to be dark, sad and serious in tone, in contrast to the likes of "Dragon Quest" and "Final Fantasy". One of the core narrative threads, involving romantic feelings between siblings, was inspired in Yoko's mind by the anime series "Sister Princess". Another series that inspired the team was "Neon Genesis Evangelion", with a comparison being drawn between them due to a shared trait: while having standard premises, darker narrative elements were hidden in its content. The central narrative theme was "Immorality", which was mostly demonstrated by writer Sawako Natori through the characters. Multiple endings were made because Yoko was told that the game would not have a sequel. The characters' stories were created by Yoko and Iwasaki, who independently created the character backgrounds: Yoko took charge of Seere, Leonard and Arioch, while Iwasaki was involved in developing Verdelet, Inuart and Caim. In an interview concerning her role in the game, Natori admitted to feeling embarrassed by her writing when hearing Sota Murakami and Natsuki Yamashita, who voiced Seere and Manah, speak their lines.


title: Drakengard (video game)

text: Caim, the main protagonist, was meant to be an examination of the typical action game hero, which Yoko felt should not have a happy ending in a story focused on violence. The nature of Caim and Angelus' relationship underwent changes during development: Yoko had conceived their relationship as a parasitic one, but Iwasaki wanted to create a different type of romance, and so wrote the love story for the two of them. The actor who portrayed the two was Shinnosuke Ikehata: though originally cast for the role of Caim, his versatility also got him the role of Angelus. Furiae was designed by Yoko as both an explanation for Caim and Inuart's rivalry, and as a representation of his distaste for the kind of forgettable character she represented. The relationship between Caim and Furiae, as well as their ultimate fates, was Yoko's response to the standard happy ending found in most role-playing games at the time, which he felt did not fit in with a protagonist who had killed hundreds during their quest. The second ending was principally inspired by this and his dislike for "Sister Princess". Caim and Furiae were respectively based around Guts from "Berserk" and Rei Ayanami from "Neon Genesis Evangelion", with Caim being codenamed "Guts" during development.


title: Drakengard (video game)

text: Inuart was originally designed as the main protagonist of "Drakengard", with him being a "useless hero". A pivotal scene in the game, where he first clashes with Caim, became one of the ways Yoko was able to properly project his vision of the game's world. Verdelet was portrayed as the "despicable elder", who cared for no-one except himself: his personality was intended to be both ineffectual and bossy, even in the face of catastrophe. Manah's role in "Drakengard" was designed to represent unloved children. The fifth ending, a boss battle in modern-day Tokyo, was created as a joke ending in the same vein as the "Silent Hill" series and an unexpected twist for players who were expecting an upbeat tone after the previous endings. Titled "the End of dragon sphere", this ending served as a tribute to "The End of Evangelion".


title: Drakengard (video game)

text: Character designs were done by Kimihiko Fujisaka. "Drakengard" was his first job as a character designer: his designs were firmly seated within the Medieval European aesthetic. To achieve this, he imagined that he had been sent back to that historical period. His designs were inspired by the character designs of "Final Fantasy" and "Dragon Quest". Caim was one of the earliest characters created for "Drakengard". In Inuart's design, Fujisaka incorporated heavy armor into his design to give a more forceful impression for players. His ultimate role and final design were based around the idea of him being Caim's rival. The design of the black dragon, which acted as Inuart's pact beast, did not impress Shiba, who considered cutting it from the final product. Manah's red clothing was designed to evoke both its status as the game's key color, and her status as the leader of the Cult of the Watchers. Shiba approved of the design, feeling that it contrasted nicely with Furiae's predominantly white design. Fujisaka also helped design Furiae's monster form for the game's second ending. In hindsight, Fujisaka was dissatisfied with his work on "Drakengard", particularly his work on Caim. The game's monsters were designed by Taro Hasegawa.


title: Drakengard (video game)

text: The music was composed by Nobuyoshi Sano and Takayuki Aihara: the two used excerpts from pieces of classical music (selected by Aihara), then rearranged, remixed and layered them. Their main objective was to create music that emulated the gameplay, as well as the story and general narrative theme of "madness". The music was intended to be "experimental" and "expressionistic" rather than "commercial". The theme song, , was composed by Sano, written by Natori and sung by Eriko Hatsune. The soundtrack was originally released in two volumes under the names "Drag-On Dragoon Original Soundtrack Vol.1" and "Drag-On Dragoon Original Soundtrack Vol.2", released on October 22 and November 21, 2003, respectively. The soundtrack was re-released on April 20, 2011, as a two-disc set under the title "Drag-On Dragoon Original Soundtrack".


title: Drakengard (video game)

text: "Drakengard" sold more than 122,000 units in its first week of release in Japan, taking ""s place at the top of the sales charts. By the end of 2003, it had sold 241,014 copies. Gaming magazine "Famitsu" ranked it as the 50th best-selling title of 2003, and sold well enough that it was made part of Square Enix's Ultimate Hits series, re-releases of popular titles. Its strong sales were attributed by the team to its cinematic story and similarity to the popular "Dynasty Warriors" series. In Europe, the game sold 110,000 units by September 2004.


title: Drakengard (video game)

text: According to GameSpot, "Drakengard" received favorable reviews in Japan. "Famitsu" gave it an overall score of 29/40. After the game's reveal at E3, multiple video game publications, including "", IGN and "Game Informer", praised its promising story and mixture of gameplay genres. The game received "average" reviews, according to video game review aggregator Metacritic.


title: Drakengard (video game)

text: The story received the highest amount of praise. IGN's Jeremy Dunham called it the game's "biggest strength", praising the edgy themes explored and the balance between fantasy and realism. He also praised the multiple parallels with "Neon Genesis Evangelion". The reviewer for Computer and Video Games (CVG) praised "the maturity and wit of the dialogue and unfolding plot", noting that they stood alongside other Square Enix RPGs of the time. VideoGamer.com's Adam Jarvis praised the game's storytelling style, saying that while it became "a little bogged down at various points, it is deep enough to keep your interest throughout the game." GameSpot's Greg Kasavin said that "though the story itself is awkwardly paced and is sometimes difficult to keep up with, it becomes one of the main motivating factors for wanting to get all the way through to the end of the game."


title: Drakengard (video game)

text: The graphics received mixed responses. Kasavin said the game "looks decent but, ultimately, not all that good". He criticized the bland environments and awkward movements for enemy units and the playable character, but praised the design of the dragon. "Game Informer" was more positive, praising the graphical detail and cutscenes and the look of enemy units, despite finding pop-up issues and framerate dips. Jarvis praised the design of the main cast, but cited the repetitive enemy design and dark environments as detracting elements. Dunham praised the character and monster designs as well as the full-motion cutscenes, but was less impressed by the repetitive human enemy designs, bland environments and low draw distance. The full-motion videos were also praised by the CVG reviewer.


title: Drakengard (video game)

text: Reaction to the sound design was mixed to positive. Dunham praised the majority of the British-style voice acting, but called the music "disappointing". "Game Informer" cited the low number of background tracks and voice acting "straight out of a renaissance festival" as poorer parts of the game. Kasavin praised the voice acting and called the music "the most nerve-racking and most intense aspect of the game." Jarvis was also positive, praising the sound design for battles, most of the voice acting and the music, which "[helped] create a suitably dark atmosphere."


title: Drakengard (video game)

text: Reception of the gameplay was mixed to negative, with Dunham saying it suffered the same problems as its derivative games despite its easy entertainment value, while Jarvis called the options in gameplay "fairly limited". The CVG reviewer praised the aerial segments of gameplay, calling them the most entertaining, and found that the standard combat served to embellish the protagonist's "kick-ass persona, making him more than just another anonymous dragon rider". The main criticism was repetition in the gameplay. Kasavin was exceptionally critical, saying that the gameplay both made the process of playing laborious and detracted from the main story. "Game Informer" called the gameplay "fun, but [lacking] any semblance of depth."


title: Drakengard (video game)

text: "Drakengard" received two novelizations by Emi Nagashima (writing as Jun Eishima) and Takashi Aizawa. The game's events were retold again in a special story titled "Drakengard 1.3", which followed on from the spin-off manga "Drag-On Dragoon: Shi ni Itaru Aka". In March 2014, Hardcore Gamer's Jahanzeb Khan favorably referred to the game as a precursor to the TV adaptation of the book series "A Song of Ice and Fire" in its handling of taboo themes and violence. The game was considered successful enough in Japan by Square Enix that a sequel was commissioned. "Drakengard 2" was again produced by Shiba, but Yoko was replaced as director by Akira Yasui, resulting in numerous thematic changes. Originally set following the first ending of "Drakengard", it was later retconned into an isolated timeline. A prequel, "Drakengard 3", was released in 2013, with multiple staff members returning to their original roles.


title: Drakengard (video game)

text: An attempt to create another title in the series resulted in the spin-off "Nier", which retains links and themes from the main series. "Nier" takes place over a thousand years after the events of "Drakengard"s fifth ending. When Cavia was absorbed by AQ Interactive after "Nier"s release, a future attempt by Shiba to continue the series was unsuccessful. A sequel, "", was developed by PlatinumGames in collaboration with previous "Nier" staff and released in 2017, taking place after "Nier"'s fifth ending.


title: Macro (computer science)

text: In computer programming, a macro (short for "macro instruction"; ) is a rule or pattern that specifies how a certain input should be mapped to a replacement output. Applying a macro to an input is known as macro expansion. The input and output may be a sequence of lexical tokens or characters, or a syntax tree. Character macros are supported in software applications to make it easy to invoke common command sequences. Token and tree macros are supported in some programming languages to enable code reuse or to extend the language, sometimes for domain-specific languages.


title: Macro (computer science)

text: Macros are used to make a sequence of computing instructions available to the programmer as a single program statement, making the programming task less tedious and less error-prone. (Thus, they are called "macros" because a "big" block of code can be expanded from a "small" sequence of characters.) Macros often allow positional or keyword parameters that dictate what the conditional assembler program generates and have been used to create entire programs or program suites according to such variables as operating system, platform or other factors. The term derives from "macro instruction", and such expansions were originally used in generating assembly language code.


title: Macro (computer science)

text: Keyboard macros and mouse macros allow short sequences of keystrokes and mouse actions to transform into other, usually more time-consuming, sequences of keystrokes and mouse actions. In this way, frequently used or repetitive sequences of keystrokes and mouse movements can be automated. Separate programs for creating these macros are called macro recorders.


title: Macro (computer science)

text: During the 1980s, macro programs – originally SmartKey, then SuperKey, KeyWorks, Prokey – were very popular, first as a means to automatically format screenplays, then for a variety of user input tasks. These programs were based on the TSR (terminate and stay resident) mode of operation and applied to all keyboard input, no matter in which context it occurred. They have to some extent fallen into obsolescence following the advent of mouse-driven user interfaces and the availability of keyboard and mouse macros in applications such as word processors and spreadsheets, making it possible to create application-sensitive keyboard macros.


title: Macro (computer science)

text: Keyboard macros can be used in massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) to perform repetitive, but lucrative tasks, thus accumulating resources. As this is done without human effort, it can skew the economy of the game. For this reason, use of macros is a violation of the TOS or EULA of most MMORPGs, and their administrators spend considerable effort to suppress them.


title: Macro (computer science)

text: Keyboard and mouse macros that are created using an application's built-in macro features are sometimes called application macros. They are created by carrying out the sequence once and letting the application record the actions. An underlying macro programming language, most commonly a scripting language, with direct access to the features of the application may also exist.


title: Macro (computer science)

text: The programmers' text editor, Emacs, (short for "editing macros") follows this idea to a conclusion. In effect, most of the editor is made of macros. Emacs was originally devised as a set of macros in the editing language TECO; it was later ported to dialects of Lisp.


title: Macro (computer science)

text: Another programmers' text editor, Vim (a descendant of vi), also has an implementation of keyboard macros. It can record into a register (macro) what a person types on the keyboard and it can be replayed or edited just like VBA macros for Microsoft Office. Vim also has a scripting language called Vimscript to create macros.


title: Macro (computer science)

text: Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) is a programming language included in Microsoft Office from Office 97 through Office 2019 (although it was available in some components of Office prior to Office 97). However, its function has evolved from and replaced the macro languages that were originally included in some of these applications.


title: Macro (computer science)

text: XEDIT, running on the Conversational Monitor System (CMS) component of VM, supports macros written in EXEC, EXEC2 and REXX, and some CMS commands were actually wrappers around XEDIT macros. The Hessling Editor (THE), a partial clone of XEDIT, supports Rexx macros using Regina and Open Object REXX (oorexx). Many common applications, and some on PCs, use Rexx as a scripting language.


title: Macro (computer science)

text: VBA has access to most Microsoft Windows system calls and executes when documents are opened. This makes it relatively easy to write computer viruses in VBA, commonly known as macro viruses. In the mid-to-late 1990s, this became one of the most common types of computer virus. However, during the late 1990s and to date, Microsoft has been patching and updating its programs. In addition, current anti-virus programs immediately counteract such attacks.


title: Macro (computer science)

text: A parameterized macro is a macro that is able to insert given objects into its expansion. This gives the macro some of the power of a function.


title: Macro (computer science)

text: As a simple example, in the C programming language, this is a typical macro that is "not" a parameterized macro:


title: Macro (computer science)

text: This causes codice_1 to always be replaced with codice_2 wherever it occurs. An example of a parameterized macro, on the other hand, is this:


title: Macro (computer science)

text: What this macro expands to depends on what argument "x" is passed to it. Here are some possible expansions:


title: Macro (computer science)

text: Parameterized macros are a useful source-level mechanism for performing in-line expansion, but in languages such as C where they use simple textual substitution, they have a number of severe disadvantages over other mechanisms for performing in-line expansion, such as inline functions.


title: Macro (computer science)

text: The parameterized macros used in languages such as Lisp, PL/I and Scheme, on the other hand, are much more powerful, able to make decisions about what code to produce based on their arguments; thus, they can effectively be used to perform run-time code generation.


title: Macro (computer science)

text: Languages such as C and some assembly languages have rudimentary macro systems, implemented as preprocessors to the compiler or assembler. C preprocessor macros work by simple textual substitution at the token, rather than the character level. However, the macro facilities of more sophisticated assemblers, e.g., IBM High Level Assembler (HLASM) can't be implemented with a preprocessor; the code for assembling instructions and data is interspersed with the code for assembling macro invocations.


title: Macro (computer science)

text: A classic use of macros is in the computer typesetting system TeX and its derivatives, where most of the functionality is based on macros.


title: Macro (computer science)

text: MacroML is an experimental system that seeks to reconcile static typing and macro systems. Nemerle has typed syntax macros, and one productive way to think of these syntax macros is as a multi-stage computation.


title: Macro (computer science)

text: Some major applications have been written as text macro invoked by other applications, e.g., by XEDIT in CMS.


title: Macro (computer science)

text: Some languages, such as PHP, can be embedded in free-format text, or the source code of other languages. The mechanism by which the code fragments are recognised (for instance, being bracketed by codice_3 and codice_4) is similar to a textual macro language, but they are much more powerful, fully featured languages.


title: Macro (computer science)

text: Macros in the PL/I language are written in a subset of PL/I itself: the compiler executes "preprocessor statements" at compilation time, and the output of this execution forms part of the code that is compiled. The ability to use a familiar procedural language as the macro language gives power much greater than that of text substitution macros, at the expense of a larger and slower compiler.


title: Macro (computer science)

text: Frame technology's frame macros have their own command syntax but can also contain text in any language. Each frame is both a generic component in a hierarchy of nested subassemblies, and a procedure for integrating itself with its subassembly frames (a recursive process that resolves integration conflicts in favor of higher level subassemblies). The outputs are custom documents, typically compilable source modules. Frame technology can avoid the proliferation of similar but subtly different components, an issue that has plagued software development since the invention of macros and subroutines.


title: Macro (computer science)

text: Most assembly languages have less powerful procedural macro facilities, for example allowing a block of code to be repeated N times for loop unrolling; but these have a completely different syntax from the actual assembly language.


title: Macro (computer science)

text: Macro systems—such as the C preprocessor described earlier—that work at the level of lexical tokens cannot preserve the lexical structure reliably.


title: Macro (computer science)

text: Syntactic macro systems work instead at the level of abstract syntax trees, and preserve the lexical structure of the original program. The most widely used implementations of syntactic macro systems are found in Lisp-like languages. These languages are especially suited for this style of macro due to their uniform, parenthesized syntax (known as S-expressions). In particular, uniform syntax makes it easier to determine the invocations of macros. Lisp macros transform the program structure itself, with the full language available to express such transformations. While syntactic macros are often found in Lisp-like languages, they are also available in other languages such as Prolog, Erlang, Dylan, Scala, Nemerle, Rust, Elixir, Nim, Haxe, and Julia. They are also available as third-party extensions to JavaScript, C# and Python.


title: Macro (computer science)

text: Before Lisp had macros, it had so-called FEXPRs, function-like operators whose inputs were not the values computed by the arguments but rather the syntactic forms of the arguments, and whose output were values to be used in the computation. In other words, FEXPRs were implemented at the same level as EVAL, and provided a window into the meta-evaluation layer. This was generally found to be a difficult model to reason about effectively.


title: Macro (computer science)

text: An anaphoric macro is a type of programming macro that deliberately captures some form supplied to the macro which may be referred to by an anaphor (an expression referring to another). Anaphoric macros first appeared in Paul Graham's On Lisp and their name is a reference to linguistic anaphora—the use of words as a substitute for preceding words.


title: Macro (computer science)

text: In the mid-eighties, a number of papers introduced the notion of hygienic macro expansion (codice_5), a pattern-based system where the syntactic environments of the macro definition and the macro use are distinct, allowing macro definers and users not to worry about inadvertent variable capture (cf. referential transparency). Hygienic macros have been standardized for Scheme in the R5RS, R6RS, and R7RS standards. A number of competing implementations of hygienic macros exist such as codice_6, codice_7, explicit renaming, and syntactic closures. Both codice_6 and codice_7 have been standardized in the Scheme standards.


title: Macro (computer science)

text: Recently, Racket has combined the notions of hygienic macros with a "tower of evaluators", so that the syntactic expansion time of one macro system is the ordinary runtime of another block of code, and showed how to apply interleaved expansion and parsing in a non-parenthesized language.


title: Macro (computer science)

text: A number of languages other than Scheme either implement hygienic macros or implement partially hygienic systems. Examples include Scala, Rust, Elixir, Julia, Dylan, Nim, and Nemerle.


title: Macro (computer science)

text: Felleisen conjectures that these three categories make up the primary legitimate uses of macros in such a system. Others have proposed alternative uses of macros, such as anaphoric macros in macro systems that are unhygienic or allow selective unhygienic transformation.


title: Macro (computer science)

text: The interaction of macros and other language features has been a productive area of research. For example, components and modules are useful for large-scale programming, but the interaction of macros and these other constructs must be defined for their use together. Module and component-systems that can interact with macros have been proposed for Scheme and other languages with macros. For example, the Racket language extends the notion of a macro system to a syntactic tower, where macros can be written in languages including macros, using hygiene to ensure that syntactic layers are distinct and allowing modules to export macros to other modules.


title: Macro (computer science)

text: Macros are normally used to map a short string (macro invocation) to a longer sequence of instructions. Another, less common, use of macros is to do the reverse: to map a sequence of instructions to a macro string. This was the approach taken by the STAGE2 Mobile Programming System, which used a rudimentary macro compiler (called SIMCMP) to map the specific instruction set of a given computer into "machine-independent" macros. Applications (notably compilers) written in these machine-independent macros can then be run without change on any computer equipped with the rudimentary macro compiler. The first application run in such a context is a more sophisticated and powerful macro compiler, written in the machine-independent macro language. This macro compiler is applied to itself, in a bootstrap fashion, to produce a compiled and much more efficient version of itself. The advantage of this approach is that complex applications can be ported from one computer to a very different computer with very little effort (for each target machine architecture, just the writing of the rudimentary macro compiler). The advent of modern programming languages, notably C, for which compilers are available on virtually all computers, has rendered such an approach superfluous. This was, however, one of the first instances (if not the first) of compiler bootstrapping.


title: Macro (computer science)

text: While "macro instructions" can be defined by a programmer for any set of native assembler program instructions, typically macros are associated with macro libraries delivered with the operating system allowing access to operating system functions such as


title: Macro (computer science)

text: In older operating systems such as those used on IBM mainframes, full operating system functionality was only available to assembler language programs, not to high level language programs (unless assembly language subroutines were used, of course), as the standard macro instructions did not always have counterparts in routines available to high-level languages.


title: Macro (computer science)

text: In the mid-1950s, when assembly language programming was commonly used to write programs for digital computers, the use of macro instructions was initiated for two main purposes: to reduce the amount of program coding that had to be written by generating several assembly language statements from one macro instruction and to enforce program writing standards, e.g. specifying input/output commands in standard ways. Macro instructions were effectively a middle step between assembly language programming and the high-level programming languages that followed, such as FORTRAN and COBOL. Two of the earliest programming installations to develop "macro languages" for the IBM 705 computer were at Dow Chemical Corp. in Delaware and the Air Material Command, Ballistics Missile Logistics Office in California. A macro instruction written in the format of the target assembly language would be processed by a macro compiler, which was a pre-processor to the assembler, to generate one or more assembly language instructions to be processed next by the assembler program that would translate the assembly language instructions into machine language instructions.


title: Macro (computer science)

text: By the late 1950s the macro language was followed by the Macro Assemblers. This was a combination of both where one program served both functions, that of a macro pre-processor and an assembler in the same package.


title: Macro (computer science)

text: In 1959, Douglas E. Eastwood and Douglas McIlroy of Bell Labs introduced conditional and recursive macros into the popular SAP assembler, creating what is known as Macro SAP. McIlroy's 1960 paper was seminal in the area of extending any (including high-level) programming languages through macro processors.


title: Macro (computer science)

text: Macro Assemblers allowed assembly language programmers to implement their own macro-language and allowed limited portability of code between two machines running the same CPU but different operating systems, for example, early versions of MSDOS and CPM-86. The macro library would need to be written for each target machine but not the overall assembly language program. Note that more powerful macro assemblers allowed use of conditional assembly constructs in macro instructions that could generate different code on different machines or different operating systems, reducing the need for multiple libraries.


title: Macro (computer science)

text: In the 1980s and early 1990s, desktop PCs were only running at a few MHz and assembly language routines were commonly used to speed up programs written in C, Fortran, Pascal and others. These languages, at the time, used different calling conventions. Macros could be used to interface routines written in assembly language to the front end of applications written in almost any language. Again, the basic assembly language code remained the same, only the macro libraries needed to be written for each target language.


title: Macro (computer science)

text: In modern operating systems such as Unix and its derivatives, operating system access is provided through subroutines, usually provided by dynamic libraries. High-level languages such as C offer comprehensive access to operating system functions, obviating the need for assembler language programs for such functionality.


title: History of Belgium

text: The history of Belgium extends before the founding of the modern state of that name in 1830, and is intertwined with those of its neighbors: the Netherlands, Germany, France and Luxembourg. For most of its history, what is now Belgium was either a part of a larger territory, such as the Carolingian Empire, or divided into a number of smaller states, prominent among them being the Duchy of Brabant, the County of Flanders, the Prince-Bishopric of Liège, the County of Namur, the County of Hainaut and the County of Luxembourg. Due to its strategic location as a country of contact between different cultures, Belgium has been called the "crossroads of Europe"; for the many armies fighting on its soil, it has also been called the "battlefield of Europe" or the "cockpit of Europe". It is also remarkable as a European nation which contains, and is divided by, a language boundary between Latin-derived French and Germanic Dutch.


title: History of Belgium

text: Belgium's modern shape can be traced back at least as far as the southern core of the medieval Burgundian Netherlands. These lands straddled the ancient boundary of the Scheldt that had divided medieval France and Germany, but they were brought together under the House of Valois-Burgundy, and unified into one autonomous territory by their heir Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, in his Pragmatic Sanction of 1549. The Eighty Years' War (1568–1648) later led to the split between a northern Dutch Republic and the Southern Netherlands from which Belgium and Luxembourg developed. This southern territory continued to be ruled by the Habsburg descendants of the Burgundian house, at first as the Spanish Netherlands. Invasions from France under Louis XIV led to the loss of what is now Nord-Pas-de-Calais to France.


title: History of Belgium

text: The area, long a Habsburg stronghold, briefly came under Bourbon control during the War of the Spanish Succession. The resulting Peace of Utrecht transferred the area back to Habsburg control, creating what is now known as the Austrian Netherlands. The French Revolutionary wars led to Belgium becoming part of France in 1795, bringing the end of the semi-independence of areas which had belonged to the Catholic church. After the defeat of the French in 1814, the Congress of Vienna created two new states, the United Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, both of which were placed in dynastic union under the House of Orange-Nassau.


title: History of Belgium

text: The Southern Netherlands rebelled during the 1830 Belgian Revolution, establishing the modern Belgian state, official recognized at the London Conference of 1830. The first King of Belgium, Leopold I, assumed the throne in 1831. Leopold became known domestically for bringing a swift end to the Belgian theater in the Revolutions of 1848, and internationally as pacifying force in European politics, mediating disputes between great powers and maintaining Belgian neutrality.


title: History of Belgium

text: Belgium's second king, Leopold II, became a controversial figure when he established a colony in south-central Africa, the Congo Free State, as his own personal fief. When the atrocities of his rule became public, he was stripped of control of the colony by the Belgian government, establishing the Belgian Congo. Domestically, Leopold presided over a state known for growing liberal sentiments, with the growth of the labour movement and the establishment of universal male suffrage.


title: History of Belgium

text: The first half of the twentieth century was much more tumultuous for Belgium. Its historic neutrality was violated twice in each of the World Wars, as Germany used the relatively open terrain of Belgium to bypass French defenses. Belgian resistance to the German invaders resulted in the Rape of Belgium during World War I. The surrender by Leopold III of Belgium to German forces shortly after the 1940 invasion of the country served to drive a wedge between the King and his people, and would forever damage his legacy. After the war he remained in exile while a regent, Prince Charles, Count of Flanders, ruled in his stead. His attempt to return to the country and re-exert personal control of the country led to a constitutional crisis in 1950, which led to his abdication in favor of his son Baudouin.


title: History of Belgium

text: Baudouin took a less active role in politics than his predecessors, and Belgium entered the second half of the twentieth century showing an unprecedented era of economic growth, as Belgium took an active role in the formation of the Benelux customs union with its neighbors, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. The union allowed the states to resist American political and economic influence during the period of the Marshall Plan, and allowed the region to plot its own economic path. Ultimately, the Benelux union would serve as a model for the European Economic Community, a precursor to the European Union; to this day Brussels serves as the seat of many of the European Union institutions. Other major events during Baudouins reign included the independence of the Belgian Congo leading to the Congo Crisis, the conflicts between the Christian Social Party and its more left-leaning opponents over school funding, and the growth of the Flemish Movement.


title: History of Belgium

text: Domestically, the country has faced divisions over differences of language and unequal economic development. This ongoing antagonism has caused far-reaching reforms since the 1970s, changing the formerly unitary Belgian state into a federal state, and repeated governmental crises. It is now divided into three regions: Flanders (Dutch-speaking) in the north, Wallonia (French-speaking) in the south, and bilingual Brussels in the middle.


title: History of Belgium

text: Since the 1990s, Belgium has become involved in several international conflicts, under the aegis of various United Nations peacekeeping forces, including the Rwandan Civil War, the ongoing civil wars in Somalia, the Kosovo War, and several others. Environmental concerns came to a head in the Dioxin affair, bringing down the Belgian government of Jean-Luc Dehaene's premiership. Since then, the Belgian political landscape has become increasingly politically fragmented; the notorious 2010 Belgian federal election, it took nearly a year to form a government, in more recent elections a growing right-wing Flemish nationalist movement has had a strong influence over domestic politics.


title: History of Belgium

text: Belgium is an old name which had various meaning, but a key turning point when it was used specifically to refer to the southern part of the Netherlands was during the so-called "Brabant revolution" or "First Belgian Revolution" in 1790, during a short period of independence from Austrian rule, only a few years before the invasion of France. This terminology was revived after the better known revolution of 1830, when modern Belgium broke out of the post-Waterloo kingdom of the Netherlands.


title: History of Belgium

text: Belgium and Flanders were the first two common names used for the Burgundian Netherlands which was the predecessor of the Austrian Netherlands, the predecessor of Belgium. It is originally a Latin term used by Julius Caesar. The term continued to be used occasionally in different ways until the creation of the modern country. While Caesar described the Belgian part of Gaul as a larger area, much bigger than modern Belgium, including large parts of modern France, Germany and the Netherlands, he only used the term "Belgium" once, referring to a smaller area now mostly in Northern France, where the tribes ruling the Belgian military alliance lived. Under Roman rule this region was the equivalent of the province of "Belgica Secunda", which stretched into the coastal Flemish part of modern Belgium.


title: History of Belgium

text: In late Roman and medieval times the term Belgium tended to be used to refer to Roman "Belgica Prima", and its successor Upper Lotharingia, in the Moselle region of Germany, Luxembourg and France. Only slowly in modern times did the old term start to be used for the area to the north of the two Roman "Belgica" provinces, now the Netherlands and Belgium. For example, it was sometimes used as a classical name for the northern "United Provinces", roughly the predecessor of the modern Netherlands, after they separated from the Spanish-ruled south, roughly the predecessor of modern Belgium, in the early modern era.


title: History of Belgium

text: On Belgian territory Neanderthal fossils were discovered at Engis in 1829–30 and elsewhere, some dating back to at least 100,000 BC.


title: History of Belgium

text: The earliest Neolithic farming technology of northern Europe, the so-called LBK culture, reached the east of Belgium at its furthest northwesterly stretch from its origins in southeast Europe. Its expansion stopped in the Hesbaye region of eastern Belgium around 5000 BC. The Belgian LBK is notable for its use of defensive walls around villages, something which may or may not have been necessary because of the proximity of hunter gatherers.


title: History of Belgium

text: So-called "Limburg pottery" and "La Hoguette pottery" are styles which stretch into northwestern France and the Netherlands, but it has sometimes been argued that these technologies are the result of pottery technology spreading beyond the original LBK farming population of eastern Belgium and northeastern France, and being made by hunter gatherers. A slightly later-starting Neolithic culture found in central Wallonia is the so-called "Groupe de Blicquy", which may represent an offshoot of the LBK settlers. One notable archaeological site in this region is the Neolithic flint mines of Spiennes.


title: History of Belgium

text: Farming in Belgium however failed to take permanent hold at first. The LBK and Blicquy cultures disappeared and there is a long gap before a new farming culture, the Michelsberg culture, appeared and became widespread. Hunter gatherers of the Swifterbant culture apparently remained in the sandy north of Belgium, but apparently became more and more influenced by farming and pottery technology.


title: History of Belgium

text: In the third and late fourth millennia BC, the whole of Flanders shows relatively little evidence of human habitation. Although it is felt that there was a continuing human presence, the types of evidence available make judgement about the details very difficult. The Seine-Oise-Marne culture spread into the Ardennes, and is associated with megalithic sites there (for example Wéris), but did not disperse over all of Belgium. To the north and east, in the Netherlands, a semi-sedentary culture group has been proposed to have existed, the so-called Vlaardingen-Wartburg-Stein complex, which possibly developed from the above-mentioned Swifterbant and Michelsburg cultures. The same pattern continues into the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age. In the last part of the Neolithic, evidence is found for the Corded Ware and Bell Beaker cultures in the south of the Netherlands, but these cultures also do not seem to have had a big impact in all of Belgium.


title: History of Belgium

text: The population of Belgium started to increase permanently with the late Bronze Age from around 1750 BC. Three possibly related European cultures arrived in sequence. First the Urnfield culture arrived (for example, tumuli are found at Ravels and Hamont-Achel in the Campine). Then, coming into the Iron Age, the Hallstatt culture, and the La Tène culture. All three of these are associated with Indo-European languages, with specifically Celtic languages being especially associated with La Tène material culture, and possibly Halstatt. This is because historical Greek and Roman records from areas where this culture settled show Celtic placenames and personal names.


title: History of Belgium

text: However it is possible in Belgium that especially in the northern areas the Hallstatt and La Tène cultures were brought by new elites, and that the main language of the population was not Celtic. From 500 BC Celtic tribes settled in the region and traded with the Mediterranean world. From c. 150 BC, the first coins came into use, under the influence of trade with the Mediterranean.


title: History of Belgium

text: When Julius Caesar arrived in the region, as recorded in his "De Bello Gallico", the inhabitants of Belgium, northwestern France, and the German Rhineland were known as the Belgae (after whom modern Belgium is named), and they were considered to be the northern part of Gaul. The region of Luxembourg, including the part of the Belgian province of Luxembourg around Arlon, was inhabited by the Treveri, who were not listed by Caesar as Belgae, although the Romans later placed them in the province of the Belgae.


title: History of Belgium

text: The exact nature of the distinction between the Belgae to the North and the Celts to the south, and the Germani across the Rhine, is disputed. Caesar said that the Belgae were separated from the rest of Gaul by language, law and custom, and he also says they had Germanic ancestry, but he does not go into detail. It seems clear that Celtic culture and language were very influential upon the Belgae, especially those in modern France. On the other hand, linguists have proposed that there is evidence that the northern part of the Belgic population had previously spoken an Indo European language related to, but distinct from, Celtic and Germanic, and among the northern Belgae, Celtic may never have been the language of the majority. (See Belgian language and Nordwestblock.)


title: History of Belgium

text: The leaders of the Belgic alliance which Caesar confronted were in modern France, the Suessiones, Viromandui and Ambiani and perhaps some of their neighbours, in an area that he appears to distinguish as the true "Belgium" of classical times. Concerning the territory of modern Belgium, he reported that the more northerly allies of the Belgae, from west to east the Menapii, Nervii, and "Germani cisrhenani", were less economically developed and more warlike, similar to the "Germani" east of the Rhine river. The Menapii and northern Germani lived among low thorny forests, islands and swamps, and the central Belgian Nervii lands were deliberately planted with thick hedges, in order to be impenetrable to cavalry. There is also less archaeological evidence of large settlements and trade in the area. According to Tacitus, writing a generation later, the "Germani cisrhenani" (who included the Eburones) were in fact the original tribe to be called "Germani", and all other uses of the term extended from them, though in his time the same people were now called the Tungri. Tacitus also reported that both the Treveri and Nervii claimed Germanic and Belgic kinship.


title: History of Belgium

text: Modern linguists use the word "germanic" to refer to languages but it is not known for sure whether even the Belgian "Germani" spoke a Germanic language, and their tribal and personal names are clearly Celtic. This is in fact also true of the possibly related tribes across the Rhine from them at this time. Archaeologists have also had difficulty finding evidence of the exact migrations from east of the Rhine which Caesar reports and more generally there has been skepticism about using him in this way due to the political motives of his commentaries. But the archaeological record gives the impression that the classical Belgian "Germani" were a relatively stable population going back to Urnfield times, with a more recently immigrated elite class who would have been of more interest to Caesar.


title: History of Belgium

text: The Menapii and Nervii flourished within the Roman province of Gallia Belgica, along with the southern Belgae and the Treveri. These Roman provinces were broken into "civitates", each with a capital city, and each representing one of the major tribal groups named by Caesar. At first, only one, Tongeren capital of the Tungri, was in modern Belgium. Later, the capital of the Menapii was moved from Cassel in modern France to Tournai in Belgium. The Nervian capital was in the south of the territory in modern France, at Bavay, and later moved to Cambrai. Trier, the capital of the Treveri, is today in Germany, near Luxembourg.


title: History of Belgium

text: The northeastern corner of this province, including Tongeren and the area of the earlier "Germani", was united with the militarized Rhine border to form a newer province known as Germania Inferior. Its cities included Ulpia Noviomagus (Nijmegen in the modern Netherlands), Colonia Ulpia Trajana (Xanten in modern Germany) and the capital Colonia Agrippina (Cologne in Germany). Later, Emperor Diocletian restructured the provinces around 300, and split the remaining Belgica into two provinces: "Belgica Prima" and "Belgica Secunda". Belgica Prima was the eastern part and had Trier as its main city, and included part of the Belgian province of Luxembourg. It became one of the most important Roman cities in Western Europe in the 3rd century.


title: History of Belgium

text: Christianity was also first introduced to Belgium during the late-Roman period, and the first known bishop in the region Servatius taught in the middle of the Fourth century in Tongeren.


title: History of Belgium

text: In the Middle Ages, the old Roman "civitates" became the basis of Christian dioceses, and the row of dioceses which form the core of modern Belgium (Tournai, Cambrai, and Liège) were the most northerly continental areas to retain a Romanized culture. The modern Belgian language boundary derives from this period, as the area was a contact point of Frankish and Romanized populations.


title: History of Belgium

text: As the Western Roman Empire lost power, Germanic tribes came to dominate the military, and then form kingdoms. Coastal Flanders, the old territory of the Menapii, became part of the "Saxon Shore". In inland northern Belgium, Franks from the Roman frontier in the Rhine delta were allowed to re-settle in Toxandria in the 4th century. Wallonia, which has several regions of arable land such as the Hesbaye and Condroz, remained more heavily Romanized, although it eventually became subject to Franks in the 5th century. Franks remained important in the Roman military, and the Romanized Frankish Merovingian Dynasty eventually took over northern France. Clovis I, the best-known king of this dynasty, first conquered Romanized northern France, later called Neustria, then turned north to the Frankish lands later referred to as Austrasia, which included all or most of Belgium. He converted to Catholicism, followed by many followers. Christian missionaries preached to the populace and started a wave of conversion (Saint Servatius, Saint Remacle, Saint Hadelin).


title: History of Belgium

text: The Merovingian dynasty was succeeded by the Carolingian dynasty, whose family power base was in and around the eastern part of modern Belgium. After Charles Martel countered the Moorish invasion from Spain (732 — Poitiers), King Charlemagne (born close to Liège in Herstal or Jupille) brought a huge part of Europe under his rule and was crowned the "Emperor of the new Holy Roman Empire" by the Pope Leo III (800 in Aachen).


title: History of Belgium

text: The Vikings raided widely throughout this period, but a major settlement that had caused problems in the area of Belgium was defeated in 891 by Arnulf of Carinthia in the battle of Leuven.


title: History of Belgium

text: The Frankish lands were divided and reunified several times under the Merovingian and Carolingian dynasties, but eventually were firmly divided into France and the Holy Roman Empire. The parts of the County of Flanders stretching out west of the river Scheldt (Schelde in Dutch, Escaut in French) became part of France during the Middle Ages, but the remainders of the County of Flanders and the Low Countries were part of the Holy Roman Empire, specifically they were in the stem duchy of Lower Lotharingia, which had a period as an independent kingdom.


title: History of Belgium

text: Through the early Middle Ages, the northern part of present-day Belgium (now commonly referred to as Flanders) was a Germanic language-speaking area, whereas in the southern part people had continued to be Romanized and spoke derivatives of Vulgar Latin.


title: History of Belgium

text: As the Holy Roman Emperors and French Kings lost effective control of their domains in the 11th and 12th centuries, the territory more or less corresponding to the present Belgium was divided into relatively independent feudal states, including:


title: History of Belgium

text: The coastal county of Flanders was one of the wealthiest parts of Europe in the late Middle Ages, from trading with England, France and Germany, and it became culturally important. During the 11th and 12th centuries, the Rheno-Mosan or Mosan art movement flourished in the region moving its centre from Cologne and Trier to Liège, Maastricht and Aachen. Some masterpieces of this Romanesque art are the shrine of the Three Kings at Cologne Cathedral; the baptismal font at St Bartholomew's Church, Liège by Renier de Huy; the Stavelot Triptych; the shrine of Saint Remacle in Stavelot; the shrine of Saint Servatius in Maastricht; and Notger's gospel in Liège.


title: History of Belgium

text: In this period, many cities, including Ypres, Bruges and Ghent, obtained their city charter. The Hanseatic League stimulated trade in the region, and the period saw the erection of many Gothic cathedrals and city halls. With the decline of the Holy Roman emperors' power starting in the 13th century, the Low Countries were largely left to their own devices. The lack of imperial protection also meant that the French and English began vying for influence in the region.


title: History of Belgium

text: In 1214, King Philip II of France defeated the Count of Flanders in the Battle of Bouvines and forced his submission to the French crown. Through the remainder of the 13th century, French control over Flanders steadily increased until 1302 when an attempt at total annexation by Philip IV met a stunning defeat when Count Guy (who had the support of the guilds and craftsmen) rallied the townspeople and humiliated the French knights at the Battle of the Golden Spurs. Undaunted, Philip launched a new campaign that ended with the inconclusive Battle of Mons-en-Pévèle in 1304. The king imposed harsh peace terms on Flanders, which included ceding the important textile-making centers of Lille and Douai.


title: History of Belgium

text: Thereafter, Flanders remained a French tributary until the start of the Hundred Years' War in 1337. In Brabant, skillful work by the duke of that territory and the Count of Hainaut-Holland foiled various French manipulations. Paris's influence in the Low Countries was counterbalanced by England, which maintained important ties to the coastal ports.


title: History of Belgium

text: Flanders faced the difficult situation of being politically subservient to France, but also reliant on trade with England. Many craftsmen emigrated to England, which also came to dominate the wool-shipping business. Flemish cloth nonetheless remained a highly valued product, and it was highly dependent on English wool. Any interruption in the supply of that invariably resulted in riots and violence from the weavers' guilds. On the whole though, Flemish trade became a passive one. Flanders received imports from other areas of Europe, but itself purchased little abroad except wine from Spain and France. Bruges became a great commercial center after the Hanseatic League set up business there and the Italian banking houses followed suit.


title: History of Belgium

text: A few towns in the Low Countries dated back to Roman times, but most had been founded from the 9th century onward. The oldest were in the Scheldt and Meuse areas, with many towns in what's now the Netherlands being much younger and only dating from the 13th century. From early on, the Low Countries began to develop as a commercial and manufacturing center. Merchants became the dominant class in the towns, with the nobility largely limited to countryside estates.


title: History of Belgium

text: By 1433 most of the Belgian and Luxembourgish territory along with much of the rest of the Low Countries became part of Burgundy under Philip the Good. When Mary of Burgundy, granddaughter of Philip the Good married Maximilian I, the Low Countries became Habsburg territory. Their son, Philip I of Castile (Philip the Handsome) was the father of Charles V. The Holy Roman Empire was unified with Spain under the Habsburg Dynasty after Charles V inherited several domains.


title: History of Belgium

text: Especially during the Burgundy period (the 15th and 16th centuries), Tournai, Bruges, Ypres, Ghent, Brussels, and Antwerp took turns at being major European centers for commerce, industry (especially textiles) and art. Bruges was the pioneer. It had a strategic location at the crossroads of the northern Hanseatic League trade and the southern trade routes. Bruges was already included in the circuit of the Flemish and French cloth fairs at the beginning of the 13th century, but when the old system of fairs broke down the entrepreneurs of Bruges innovated. They developed, or borrowed from Italy, new forms of merchant capitalism, whereby several merchants would share the risks and profits and pool their knowledge of markets. They employed new forms of economic exchange, including bills of exchange (i.e. promissory notes) and letters of credit. Antwerp eagerly welcomed foreign traders, most notably the Portuguese pepper and spice traders.


title: History of Belgium

text: In art the Renaissance was represented by the Flemish Primitives, a group of painters active primarily in the Southern Netherlands in the 15th and early 16th centuries (for example, Johannes Van Eyck and Rogier Van der Weyden), and the Franco-Flemish composers (e.g. Guillaume Dufay). Flemish tapestries and, in the 16th and 17th centuries, Brussels tapestry hung on the walls of castles throughout Europe.


title: History of Belgium

text: The Pragmatic Sanction of 1549, issued by Roman Emperor Charles V, established the so-called Seventeen Provinces, or Belgica Regia in its official Latin term, as an entity on its own, apart from the Empire and from France. This comprised all of Belgium, present-day north-western France, present-day Luxembourg, and present-day Netherlands, except for the lands of the Prince-Bishop of Liège.


title: History of Belgium

text: The Burgundian princes from Philip II (the Bold) to Charles the Bold enhanced their political prestige with economic growth and artistic splendour. These "Great Dukes of the West" were effectively sovereigns, with domains extending from the Zuiderzee to the Somme. The urban and other textile industries, which had developed in the Belgian territories since the 12th century, became the economic center of northwestern Europe.


title: History of Belgium

text: The death of Charles the Bold (1477) and the marriage of his daughter Mary to the archduke Maximilian of Austria ended the independence of the Low Countries by bringing them increasingly under the sway of the Habsburg dynasty. Mary and Maximilian's grandson Charles became king of Spain as Charles I in 1516 and Holy Roman emperor as Charles V in 1519.


title: History of Belgium

text: In Brussels on 25 October 1555, Charles V abdicated Belgica Regia to his son, who in January 1556 assumed the throne of Spain as Philip II.


title: History of Belgium

text: The northern part of Belgica Regia, comprising seven provinces and eventually forming the Dutch Republic, became increasingly Protestant (specifically, Calvinist), while the larger part, called 't Hof van Brabant and comprising the ten southern provinces, remained primarily Catholic. This schism, and other cultural differences which had been present since ancient times, launched the Union of Atrecht in the Belgian regions, later followed by the Union of Utrecht in the northern regions. When Philip II, son of Charles V, ascended the Spanish throne he tried to abolish all Protestantism. Portions of Belgica Regia revolted, eventually resulting in the Eighty Years' War (1568–1648) between Spain and the Dutch Republic. The horrors of this war—massacres, religious violence, mutinies—were precursors to the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) with which it would merge.


title: History of Belgium

text: After the Iconoclastic Fury of 1566, Spanish authorities were able to largely gain control of the Low Countries. The most notable event of this period was the Battle of Oosterweel, in which Spanish forces destroyed an army of Dutch Calvinists. King Philip II sent in Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, 3rd Duke of Alba, as Governor-General of the Spanish Netherlands from 1567 to 1573. Alba established a special court called the Council of Troubles (nicknamed the "Council of Blood"). The Blood Council's reign of terror saw it condemn thousands of people to death without due process and drive the nobles into exile while seizing their property. Alba boasted that he had burned or executed 18,600 persons in the Netherlands, in addition to the far greater number he massacred during the war, many of them women and children; 8,000 persons were burned or hanged in one year, and the total number of Alba's Flemish victims can not have fallen short of 50,000.


title: History of Belgium

text: The Dutch Revolt spread to the south in the mid-1570s after the Army of Flanders mutinied for lack of pay and went on the rampage in several cities. At the Battle of Gembloux, on January 31, 1578, the Dutch, who were retiring from Namur, were followed by Don Juan of Austria, who sent forward a picked force of 1,600 men, under Gonzaga and Mondragón in pursuit; they attacked the rearguard, under Philip Egmont, and dispersed it, and then, falling suddenly upon the main body, utterly routed it, killing at least 10,000 rebels. The Spaniards lost 10 or 11 at most. Don Juan of Austria died on October 1, 1578, and was succeeded by Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma.


title: History of Belgium

text: With the arrival of large numbers of troops from Spain, Farnese began a campaign of reconquest in the south. He took advantage of the divisions in the ranks of his opponents between the Dutch-speaking Flemish and the Walloon-speaking south to foment growing discord. By doing so he was able to bring back the Walloon provinces to an allegiance to the king. By the treaty of Arras in 1579, he secured the support of the "Malcontents", as the Catholic nobles of the south were styled. The seven northern provinces, controlled by Calvinists, responded with the Union of Utrecht, where they resolved to stick together to fight Spain. Farnese secured his base in Hainaut and Artois, then moved against Brabant and Flanders. He captured many rebel towns in the south: Maastricht (1579), Tournai (1581), Oudenaarde (1582), Dunkirk (1583), Bruges (1584), and Ghent (1584). On August 17, 1585, Farnese laid siege to the great seaport of Antwerp.


title: History of Belgium

text: Antwerp was one of the richest cities in northern Europe and a rebel stronghold ever since Spanish and Walloon troops sacked it in 1576. The city was open to the sea, strongly fortified, and well defended under the leadership of Marnix van St. Aldegonde. Engineer Sebastian Baroccio cut off all access to the sea by constructing a bridge of boats across the Scheldt. The Dutch sailed fireships, called Hellburners, against the bridge and one of the exploding infernal machines blew up a 200-foot-long span and killed 800 Spaniards. The besiegers repaired the damage, however, and pressed the investment. The city surrendered in 1585 as 60,000 Antwerp citizens (60% of the pre-siege population) fled north. Brussels, Mechelen and Geertruidenberg fell the same year.


title: History of Belgium

text: In a war composed mostly of sieges rather than battles, Farnese proved his mettle. His strategy was to offer generous terms for surrender: there would be no massacres or looting; historic urban privileges were retained; there was a full pardon and amnesty; return to the Catholic Church would be gradual. Meanwhile, Catholic refugees from the North regrouped in Cologne and Douai and developed a more militant, tridentine identity. They became the mobilising forces of a popular Counter-Reformation in the South, thereby facilitating the eventual emergence of the state of Belgium.


title: History of Belgium

text: In 1601, the Spanish besieged Ostend. The three-year-long siege produced more than 100,000 casualties before Ostend finally fell to the Spanish in 1604. While the former northern part of Belgica Regia, the Seven United Provinces, gained independence, Southern Belgica Regia remained under the rule of Spain (1556–1713). The southern part spoke various romance languages and the northern part used Dutch, yet court accounts were kept in Spanish.


title: History of Belgium

text: During the 17th century, Antwerp continued to be blockaded by the Dutch but became a major European center for industry and art. The Brueghels, Peter Paul Rubens and Van Dyck's baroque paintings were created during this period.


title: History of Belgium

text: After the Franco-Spanish War (1635–1659), Spain shifted most of its troops out of Belgium to Iberia, where they engaged a failed effort to reconquer Portugal. From 1659, Madrid increasingly relied on the aid of allied armies to restrain French ambitions to annex the Spanish Netherlands, in which Spain showed declining interest after more than a century of war.


title: History of Belgium

text: Under Louis XIV (1643–1715), France pursued an expansionist policy, particularly affecting Belgium. France frequently held control of territories in the Southern Netherlands, confronted by various opponents including the Netherlands and Austria. There was the War of Devolution (1667–1668), the Franco-Dutch War (1672–1678), the War of the Reunions (1683–1684), and the Nine Years' War (1688–1697). These were then followed by the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714).


title: History of Belgium

text: When Charles II of Spain died in 1700, two dynasties of foreign relatives contested for the throne, the House of Bourbon, who ruled France, and the Habsburgs, who were emperors of the Holy Roman Empire as well as holding various territories in central Europe. The Austrian Habsburgs were supported by an alliance led by Britain, the Dutch Republic, and several other northern European Protestant states, and the French were supported by Bavaria. Much of the war occurred on Belgian soil, with the allies there being led upon the field by John Churchill, the Duke of Marlborough.


title: History of Belgium

text: After the victory of Austria and its allies, under the 1714 Treaty of Rastatt, the Belgian and present-day Luxembourg territories (except the lands under the lordship of the Prince-Bishop of Liège) were transferred to the Austrian Habsburgs, thus forming the Austrian Netherlands (1714–1797), while the Bourbon Dynasty succeeded in inheriting Spain itself.


title: History of Belgium

text: The First Belgian Revolution of 1789–90 (also known as the Brabant revolution) overlapped with the French Revolution, which began in 1789. The movement called for independence from Austrian rule. Brabant rebels, under the command of Jean-André van der Mersch, defeated the Austrians at the Battle of Turnhout and launched the United States of Belgium together with the Prince Bishopric of Liège. The new state was beset by factionalism between the radical "Vonckists", led by Jan Frans Vonck and the more conservative "Statists" of the Henri Van der Noot. Businessmen with widescale operations generally supported the Statists, while the Vonckists attracted small business and members of the trade guilds. They called for independence from Austria but were conservative in social and religious questions. By November 1790, the revolt had been crushed and the Habsburg monarchy had returned to power.


title: History of Belgium

text: Following the of the French Revolutionary Wars, Belgium Austriacum was invaded and annexed by France in 1795, ending Habsburg rule.


title: History of Belgium

text: Southern Netherlands and the territory of Liège was divided into nine united "départements" and became an integral part of France. The Prince-Bishopric of Liège was dissolved. Its territory was divided over the "départements" Meuse-Inférieure and Ourte. The Holy Roman Emperor confirmed the loss of Southern Netherlands, by the Treaty of Campo Formio, in 1797.


title: History of Belgium

text: The French invaded and controlled Belgium, 1794–1814, imposing all their new reforms and incorporating what had been the "Austrian Netherlands" and the Prince-Bishopric of Liege into France. New rulers were sent in by Paris. Belgian men were drafted into the French wars and heavily taxed. Nearly everyone was Catholic, but the Church was repressed. Resistance was strong in every sector, as Belgian nationalism emerged to oppose French rule. The French legal system, however, was adopted, with its equal legal rights, and abolition of class distinctions. Belgium now had a government bureaucracy selected by merit, but it was not at all popular.


title: History of Belgium

text: Until the establishment of the Consulate in 1799, Catholics were heavily repressed by the French. The first University of Leuven was closed in 1797 and churches were plundered. During this early period of the French rule, the Belgian economy was completely paralyzed as taxes had to be paid in gold and silver coin while goods bought by the French were paid for with worthless assignats. During this period of systematic exploitation, about 800,000 Belgians fled the Southern Netherlands. The French occupation in Belgium led to further suppression of the Dutch language across the country, including its abolition as an administrative language. With the motto "one nation, one language", French became the only accepted language in public life as well as in economic, political, and social affairs.


title: History of Belgium

text: The measures of the successive French governments and in particular the 1798 massive conscription into the French army were unpopular everywhere, especially in Flemish regions, where it sparked the Peasants' War. The brutal suppression of the Peasants' War marks the starting point of the modern Flemish movement.


title: History of Belgium

text: In 1814, the Allies drove out Napoleon and ended French rule. The plan was to join Belgium and the Netherlands, under Dutch control. However Napoleon returned to power briefly during the Hundred Days in 1815, but on his way to recapturing Brussels as his intended power base from which to recapture France, was finally defeated at the Battle of Waterloo, 12 miles (19 km) south of that city.


title: History of Belgium

text: France promoted commerce and capitalism, paving the way for the ascent of the bourgeoisie and the rapid growth of manufacturing and mining. In economics, therefore, the nobility declined while the middle class Belgian entrepreneurs flourished because of their inclusion in a large market, paving the way for Belgium's leadership role after 1815 in the Industrial Revolution on the Continent.


title: History of Belgium

text: Godechot finds that after the annexation, Belgium's business community supported the new regime, unlike the peasants, who remained hostile. Annexation opened new markets in France for wool and other goods from Belgium. Bankers and merchants helped finance and supply the French army. France ended the prohibition against seaborne trade on the Scheldt that had been enforced by the Netherlands. Antwerp quickly became a major French port with a world trade, and Brussels grew as well.


title: History of Belgium

text: After Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo in 1815, the major victorious powers (Britain, Austria, Prussia, and Russia) agreed at the Congress of Vienna on uniting the former Austrian Netherlands ("Belgium Austriacum") and the former Seven United Provinces, creating the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, which was to serve as a buffer state against any future French invasions. This was under the rule of a Protestant king, William I. Most of the small and ecclesiastical states in the Holy Roman Empire were given to larger states at this time, and this included the Prince-Bishopric of Liège which now became formally part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands.


title: History of Belgium

text: The enlightened despot William I, who reigned from 1815 to 1840, had almost unlimited constitutional power, the constitution having been written by a number of notable people chosen by him. As despot, he had no difficulty in accepting some of the changes resulting from the social transformation of the previous 25 years, including equality of all before the law. However, he resurrected the estates as a political class and elevated a large number of people to the nobility. Voting rights were still limited, and only the nobility were eligible for seats in the upper house.


title: History of Belgium

text: William I was a Calvinist and intolerant of the Roman Catholic majority in the southern parts of his newly created kingdom. He promulgated the "Fundamental Law of Holland", with some modifications. This entirely overthrew the old order of things in the southern Netherlands, suppressed the clergy as an order, abolished the privileges of the Roman Catholic Church, and guaranteed equal protection to every religious creed and the enjoyment of the same civil and political rights to every subject of the king. It reflected the spirit of the French Revolution and in so doing did not please the bishops in the south, who had detested the Revolution.


title: History of Belgium

text: William I actively promoted economic modernization. His position as monarch was ambivalent, however; his sovereignty was real, but his authority was shared with a legislature partly chosen by himself and partly elected by the more prosperous citizens, under the constitution granted by the king. Government was in the hands of national ministries of state, and the old provinces were reestablished in name only. The government was now fundamentally unitary, and all authority flowed from the center. The first fifteen years of the Kingdom showed progress and prosperity, as industrialization proceeded rapidly in the south, where the Industrial Revolution allowed entrepreneurs and labor to combine in a new textile industry, powered by local coal mines. There was little industry in the northern provinces, but most of the former Dutch overseas colonies were restored, and highly profitable trade resumed after a 25-year hiatus. Economic liberalism combined with moderate monarchical authoritarianism to accelerate the adaptation of the Netherlands to the new conditions of the 19th century. The country prospered, until a crisis arose in its relations with the southern provinces.


title: History of Belgium

text: Protestants controlled the new country, although they formed only a quarter of the population. In theory, Roman Catholics had full legal equality; in practice their voice was not heard. Few held high state or military offices. The king insisted that schools in the South end their traditional teaching of Roman Catholic doctrine, even though almost everyone there was of that faith. Socially, the French-speaking Walloons strongly resented the king's policy to make Dutch the language of government. There was also growing outrage at the king's insensitivity to social differences. According to Schama, there was growing hostility to the Dutch government, whose "initiatives were met at first with curiosity, then with apprehension and finally with fierce and unyielding hostility".


title: History of Belgium

text: Political liberals in the south had their own grievances, especially regarding the king's authoritarian style; he seemed uncaring about the issue of regionalism, flatly vetoing a proposal for a French-language teacher-training college in francophone Liège. Finally, all factions in the South complained of unfair representation in the national legislature. The south was industrializing faster and was more prosperous than the north, leading to resentment of northern arrogance and political domination.


title: History of Belgium

text: The outbreak of revolution in France in 1830 was used as a signal for revolt. The demand at first was Home Rule for "Belgium", as the southern provinces were now being called, rather than separation. Eventually, revolutionaries began demanding total independence.


title: History of Belgium

text: The Belgian Revolution broke out in August 1830 when crowds, stirred by a performance of Auber's "La Muette de Portici" at the Brussels opera house of "La Monnaie", spilled out onto the streets singing patriotic songs. Violent street fighting soon broke out, and anarchy reigned in Brussels. The liberal bourgeoisie, who had initially been at the forefront of the burgeoning revolution, were appalled by the violence and became willing to accept a compromise with the Dutch.


title: History of Belgium

text: The revolution broke out for numerous reasons. On a political level, the Belgians felt significantly under-represented in the Netherlands' elected Lower Assembly and disliked the unpopular Prince of Orange, the future William II who was the representative of King William I in Brussels. Partisans watched with excitement the unfolding of the July Revolution in France, details of which were swiftly reported in the newspapers. The French-speaking Walloons also felt ostracised in a majority Dutch speaking country. There were also significant religious grievances felt by the majority Catholic Belgians in a nation controlled by the Dutch Protestants.


title: History of Belgium

text: The king assumed the protest would blow over. He waited for a surrender, announcing an amnesty for all revolutionaries, except foreigners and the leaders. When this did not succeed he sent in the army. Dutch forces were able to penetrate the Schaerbeek Gate into Brussels, but the advance was stalled in the Parc de Bruxelles under a hail of sniper fire. Royal troops elsewhere met determined resistance from revolutionaries at makeshift barricades. It is estimated that there were no more than 1,700 revolutionaries (described by the French Ambassador as an "undisciplined rabble") in Brussels at the time, faced with over 6,000 Dutch troops. However, faced with strong opposition, Dutch troops were ordered out of the capital on the night of 26 September after three days of street fighting. There were also battles around the country as revolutionaries clashed with Dutch forces. In Antwerp, eight Dutch warships bombarded the city following its capture by revolutionary forces.


title: History of Belgium

text: Belgian independence was not allowed by the 1815 Congress of Vienna; nevertheless the revolutionaries were regarded sympathetically by the major powers of Europe, especially the British and France. In November 1830, the London Conference of 1830 or "Belgian Congress" (comprising delegates from Great Britain, France, Russia, Prussia and Austria) ordered an armistice on November 4. At the end of November Britain and France came up with a proposal — no military intervention and the establishment of an independent kingdom of Belgium — which was accepted by the other three more conservative participants, who had favored a military intervention to restore the absolutist regime of William I. A protocol signed on 20 January 1831 stated that Belgium would be formed of the regions that did not belong to the North in 1790. The new kingdom would be obliged to remain neutral in foreign affairs. The British foreign secretary Lord Palmerston strongly backed the Prince of Orange as the new king, a choice which would have maintained a dynastic link between the Netherlands and the new kingdom. The Prince proved to be unacceptable to William I, his father, as well as to the French, who wanted a clear break with the Netherlands. Finally, Palmerston came up with his second choice, Leopold I of Saxe-Coburg — Princess Charlotte of Wales' widower, and an admirer of the British constitutional model — who was accepted by all. On July 21, 1831, the first "King of the Belgians" was inaugurated. The date of his acceptance of the constitution – 21 July 1831 – is marked a national holiday.


title: History of Belgium

text: The liberal bourgeoisie, who had been thrown off balance by the early stages of the revolution, hastily formed a provisional government under Charles Rogier to negotiate with the Dutch, officially declaring Belgian independence on 4 October 1830. The Belgian National Congress was formed to draw up a constitution. Under the new constitution, Belgium became a sovereign, independent state with a constitutional monarchy. However, the constitution did severely limit voting rights to the French-speaking haute-bourgeoisie and the clergy, in a country where French was not the majority language. The Catholic church was afforded a good deal of freedom from state intervention.


title: History of Belgium

text: The state of conflict (but not open warfare) with the Netherlands lasted another eight years, but in 1839, the Treaty of London was signed between the two countries and the five great powers of Europe (Austria, France, Prussia, Russia, and the United Kingdom). By the treaty of 1839, the eastern part of Luxembourg did not join Belgium, but remained a possession of the Netherlands until different inheritance laws caused it to separate as an independent Grand Duchy (the western, French-speaking part of Luxembourg became the Belgian province of that name). Belgium lost Eastern Limburg, Zeelandic Flanders, French Flanders and Eupen: four territories which it had claimed on historical grounds. The Netherlands retained the former two while French Flanders, which had been annexed at the time of Louis XIV, remained in French possession. Eupen remained within the German Confederation. The five great powers pledged to protect Belgium's neutrality in the future. In 1914, the violation of Belgium's neutrality would be the stated "Casus belli" of Britain's entry into World War I.


title: History of Belgium

text: Most of society was highly traditional, especially in the small villages and rural areas and the quality of education was low. Few people expected that Belgium – seemingly a "sluggish" and "culturally dormant" bastion of traditionalism – would leap to the forefront of the industrial revolution on the Continent. Nevertheless, Belgium was the second country, after Britain, in which the industrial revolution took place. It developed into an open economy focused on industrial exports with strong ties between the banking sector and the basic industry.


title: History of Belgium

text: Industrialization took place in Wallonia (French-speaking southern Belgium), starting in the middle of the 1820s, and especially after 1830. The availability of cheap coal was a main factor that attracted entrepreneurs. Numerous works comprising coke blast furnaces as well as puddling and rolling mills were built in the coal mining areas around Liège and Charleroi. The leader was a transplanted Englishman John Cockerill. His factories at Seraing integrated all stages of production, from engineering to the supply of raw materials, as early as 1825.


title: History of Belgium

text: Industry spread through the Sillon industriel ("industrial district"), Haine, Sambre and Meuse valleys. By 1830 when iron became important the Belgian coal industry had been long-established, and used steam engines for pumping. Coal was sold to local mills and railways as well as to France and Prussia.


title: History of Belgium

text: The textile industry, based on cotton and flax, employed about half of the industrial workforce for much of the industrial period. Ghent was the premier industrial city in Belgium until the 1880s, when the center of growth moved to Liège, with its steel industry.


title: History of Belgium

text: Wallonia had rich coalfields over much of its area, and the highly folded nature of coal seams meant that it could be found at relatively shallow depths. Deep mines were not required at first so there were a large number of small operations. There was a complex legal system for concessions, often multiple layers had different owners. Entrepreneurs started going deeper and deeper (thanks to the innovation of steam pumping). In 1790, the maximum depth of mines was 220 meters. By 1856, the average depth in the area west of Mons was 361, and in 1866, 437 meters and some pits had reached down 700 and 900 meters; one was 1,065 meters deep, probably the deepest coal mine in Europe at this time. Gas explosions were a serious problem, and Belgium had high fatality rates. By the late 19th century the seams were becoming exhausted and the steel industry was importing some coal from the Ruhr.


title: History of Belgium

text: Cheap and readily available coal attracted firms producing metals and glass, both of which required considerable amounts of coal, and so regions around coal fields became highly industrialised. The "Sillon industriel" ("Industrial Valley"), and in particular the "Pays Noir" around Charleroi, were the centre of the steel industry until the Second World War.


title: History of Belgium

text: The nation provided an ideal model for showing the value of the railways for speeding the Industrial Revolution. After 1830, the new nation decided to stimulate industry. It funded a simple cross-shaped system that connected the major cities, ports and mining areas, and linked to neighboring countries. Belgium thus became the railway center of the region. The system was very soundly built along British lines, so that profits and wages were low but the infrastructure necessary for rapid industrial growth was put in place. Léopold I went on to build the first railway in continental Europe in 1835, between Brussels and Mechelen. The first trains were drawn by Stephenson engines imported from Great Britain. The development of smaller railways in Belgium, notably the Liège–Jemappes line, was launched by tendering contracts to private companies which "became the model for the extension of small local railways all over the low countries."


title: History of Belgium

text: By the 1900s, Belgium was a major exporter of trams and other rail components, exporting vast quantities of railway materials. In South America, 3,800 kilometers of track were owned by Belgian firms, with a further 1,500 kilometers in China. One Belgian entrepreneur, Édouard Empain, known as the "Tramway King," built many public transport systems across the world, including the Paris Métro, as well as the tram systems in Cairo, Boulogne and Astrakhan. Empain's firm also built the new Cairo suburb of Heliopolis.


title: History of Belgium

text: Other important businesses included Cockerill-Sambre (steel), the chemical factories of Ernest Solvay, and the firearms maker Fabrique Nationale de Herstal.


title: History of Belgium

text: Politics, says Clark, "was dominated by a struggle between two political groups, known as the Catholics and the Liberals. In general terms, the Catholics represented the relatively religious, conservative and rural elements in the society, while the Liberals represented the more secular, more progressive and more urban middle-class elements." Before the arrival of the socialists in the 1890s, the nation was therefore polarised between the conservative Catholic Party and the secular Liberal Party. The Liberals were anticlerical and wanted to reduce the power of the Church. The conflict came to a head during the "First School War" of 1879–1884 as Liberal attempts to introduce a greater level of secularism in primary education were beaten back by outraged Catholics. The School War ushered in a period of Catholic Party dominance in Belgian politics that lasted (almost unbroken) until 1917.


title: History of Belgium

text: Religious conflict also extended to university education, where secular universities like the Free University of Brussels competed with Catholic universities like the Catholic University of Leuven.


title: History of Belgium

text: The majority of those in the north of the country spoke Dutch and other Low Franconian languages while those in the south spoke Langues d'oïl such as French, Walloon and Picard. French became the official language of government after the separation from the Netherlands in 1830 and Belgian cultural life was especially dominated by the French influence, reinforced by economic domination of the industrial south. Flemish was "reduced to the tongue of a second-class culture." Parts of the Flemish population reacted against this, agitating for the equality of their language with French. This was partly due to a sense of growing Flemish identity, made possible through greater awareness of Flemish culture and history from the 1840s. Flemish victories, like the Battle of the Golden Spurs in 1302 were celebrated and a Flemish cultural movement, led by figures like Hendrik Conscience was born. About the same time a Walloon Movement emerged, led by Jules Destrée (1863–1936) and based on loyalty to the French language. Universal suffrage meant the Francophones were a political minority, so the Walloon Movement concentrated on protecting French where it had a majority, and did not contest the expanded use of Dutch in Flemish areas.


title: History of Belgium

text: The Flemish goal of linguistic equality (especially in schools and courts) was finally achieved by a series of laws in the 1920s and 1930s. Dutch became the language of government, education, and the courts in the northern provinces of East Flanders and West Flanders, Antwerp, Limburg, and eastern Brabant. French remained the official language in Wallonia; Brussels, which had seen a major language shift to French, became an officially bilingual region. Meanwhile, a small separatist Flemish movement had emerged; the Germans had supported it during the war, and in the 1930s it turned fascist. In the Second World War it collaborated with the Nazis.