Why Belgium Is So Divided: The Dutch And French Culture Split

Belgium is a unique country in Europe. While most countries speak their own language, Belgium is actually divided mostly by Dutch and French (with a smidge of German thrown in for good measure). But while some other European countries share a language divide, only Belgium seems to have a continuing issues around it. Here's why Belgium is so divided and how it got that way in the first place.

[buurmeisje]

To say Flemish isn't quite Dutch is pretty misleading, it's like saying Americans don't quite speak English. Both Dutch from the Netherlands and from Belgium are completely mutually intelligible, it's just a difference in accent and some different words while spoken, just like British English and American English, and no difference at all in the written language.

[robbe]

I am a full Belgian, living and raised in Flanders. The problem I experienced is that most Flemish people learn French in school but Wallonians don't speak Dutch. This frustrates many Flemish people, because we always feel like French is the superior language although Flanders is richer and 60% of Belgians speak Dutch.

[Deelom]

Only one small mistake, during the reign of Willem the first Belgium didn’t had the german speaking parts. It was given to Belgium after WW1

[ronaldderooij]

I think you missed the Dutch language Union treaty. In it are Belgium, the Netherlands and Surinam. They evaluate the Dutch language every ten years and make changes to it. It is highly regulated to make sure that Dutch in Flanders, the Netherlands and Surinam is exactly the same in grammar and writing. These are one language. They only sound slightly different, sometimes wildly different. But in writing, there is one language.

[rosemulet]

I have a professor who’s from Belgium and explained this to our class, and I thought this was really cool to learn about!

[zacnewzealand]

Switzerland is also divided into three linguistically areas. We have the French speaking Swiss, German speaking Swiss and the Italian speaking Swiss folks :)

[Ryan_Tiziano]

I am Dutch and I wouldn’t say Flemish is a dialect of Dutch. That makes it sound like it’s like Afrikaans. It’s just mainstream Dutch with an accent. It’s 100% mutually intelligible

[countdown]

Some mistakes:

2:12 the Reform church was and is not widespread in the southern provinces of Brabant and Limburg

2:12 the eastern German speaking municipalities were annexed after WWI

2:12 Luxemburg used to have more territory now in Belgium

2:29 that's not the national assembly. That's a hotel in Scheveningen

3:08 Zeeuws-Vlaanderen is light blue for some reason

3:08 Luxemburg is not completely German speaking. Parts of it are more dominated by French

[cmyk]

When I met someone from Belgium, I asked “Oh, the Dutch half or the French half?”. He was impressed that I knew about the divide.

[jamesr]

My first trip to Belgium, was in Ghent. I arrived very late at night, so I checked into my hotel. It was delightful to wake up and go for a stroll. Such a fascinating city.

[DonGivani]

You forgot to mention that two regions in South Netherlands, Noord Brabant and Limburg are also mainly Catholic

And Flemish (Dutch) is also spoken by old people in France, in the far North ( Lille, Dunkerque)

[Retroscoop]

1) During the Roman period, a long road connecting the German town Cologne (Köln) with the French Boulogne was build by the Romans for trade and militairy purposes. For one reason or anothter, the Gaul tribes living south of that road became more influenced by the Romans (Gallo-Romans) than those in the North, which were "German" tribes. That road used to run more or less where the current linguistic dividing line runs

2) If you wonder why a part of Belgium speaks German: those were territories added to Belgium after WW 1, because Belgium resistes so bravely against the German occupiers. Belgium almost completely got occupied, but there still was an occupied part in the West of Belgium that never got occupied. The Germans stole plenty of things from the occupied parts, including a large number of churchbells. Lots of people were executed, many lost their homes, businesses etc. After the war, Belgium was hoping to be rewarded for its resistance, and the wildest proposals were made to that effect by Belgian politicians. In the end, the Kingdom only received small parts of Germany. Just like the inhabitants of Gibraltar want to remain with GB, the German parts of Belgium apparantly prefer to remain with Belgium than to be added to Germany again. And Germany doesn't seem interested to get these lost parts back.

3) I'm a perfect example of the complexity of Belgium: my mom was a Walloon - hence my French first name - while my dad is Flemish - hence my Flemish family name. Almost no Flemish people want to be (re)united with the Netherlands: no longer for religious reasons, but it is a very different mentality. Not better or worse, just different.

[JPJ]

As described by Napoleon “Antwerp is a pistol pointed at the heart of England” makes sense then as to why London created the country after his defeat.

By creating Belgium London single-handedly took power away from France and The Netherlands their 2 closest neighbors and rivals, Removed a large flaw in there defense-Antwerp, and created a friendly nation towards them which allows them a foothold on the European continent. Truly a brilliant tactical move on the part of London.

[gerhard]

Nice video. As a Dutch, i live in the German speaking part of Belgium. My German is very good but my French is not. I was snd am following French courses now. The houses, gardens and roads look much better in this region then in the Francophone region. This, i think, because of their German mentality. I asked some people, but none of them want to a part of Germany again. When the supermarket lady talks French to me, here in Ostbelgien, i talk German back to her. I have not noticed any bad thinking/ talking about the other parts of Belgium. I work with a guy from Antwerp but he lives in this area now and we speak Dutch to each other. He Flemish and i ABN from the Kennemerland region. Regards from Ostbelgien.

[nilipertamaprakoso]

I come from India, a land far away from Belgium and Europe alike. However, when it comes to linguistic diversity we are basically Belgium but much larger and having much greater linguistic divisions. Based on some comments, people say that there is an inequality in Belgium that the Flemish learn French but the French don't reciprocate. A somewhat similar situation is in India, where majority of Southern Indians speak Hindi (a language not native to them) while Northern Indians (to whom Hindi is native) don't speak any South Indian language like Tamil or Kannada.
In such a case, a third language is perhaps the easiest way out, as it doesn't hurt anyone's egoes and solves the purpose of communication. English is anyways popular across Europe today, so I think Belgium can think about making English its lingua franca for cross-region communication. It could further help Belgians communicate with each other, and also help Belgium develop great relations with the Anglosphere (US, UK, Canada, Australia etc) and even secure jobs there in future in case you wish to move from Belgium.

[davidadams]

We spent a week traveling in Belgium last year. We were very surprised by the animosity and disdain people from the two principal regions expressed towards the others in our conversations with them. In general, people were courteous to us (foreigners) and the cities and countryside were peaceful. We had a good time and would go back. But that animosity aspect was a surprise.

[Axelsmol]

I was born in Belgium and moved to The Netherlands at 4-5 years old. More than 20 years later, people from either country still quickly notice that I come from [the other country], even though it's just a 25-30 minute drive and the same language.

[gwine]

I spent 3 weeks, in Belgium, a few years back. It was interesting. One thing that confused me, at first, is I was following road signs to somewhere (can't remember) and, suddenly, they disappeared. Then I realised that the name of the town changed because I was in Flanders. I, also, made the mistake of speaking French to a sales clerk, in Bruge. She just scowled at me until I switched to English.

[masdenka]

There is a lot of confusion between French-speaking and Wallonia,
Wallonia was the economic engine but never politically dominated the country, the French-speaking elite was also Flemish for a large part at the time and most of the ministers etc during the industrial area were either Flemish or from Brussels.

[TravelFilming]

Grew up in Maastricht the Netherlands and my grandmother who was from the French speaking part of Belgium (living in Maastricht) spoke French a lot with her children even though she was fluent in Dutch. Reason for this was that French was considered an intellectual language and most Dutch did not speak it.