The Flemish Canon is a list of key developments in the history of the Flemish Region of Belgium, as exemplified by particularly striking people, places, events or artefacts, drawn up by a committee of nine experts appointed by the regional government of Flanders.[1] Although this was widely perceived to be a politically motivated attempt to boost a sense of distinctively 'Flemish' identity, the committee responsible for drawing up the 'canon' insisted that their work was free of political considerations.[2]
There have been suggestions that the Flemish canon, which follows similar initiatives such as the Danish Culture Canon and the Canon of the Netherlands, will be a useful guideline for teaching history in schools and preparing new immigrants for citizenship.[3]
Published on 9 May 2023, the 60 events considered essential to an understanding of Flemish history are:
The end of the Last Glacial Period
Neanderthal settlement in the Valley of the Meuse
Linear Pottery culture: the first agriculturalists in the region
Hallstatt culture as exemplified by archaeological finds at Kemmelberg
Incorporation into the Roman Empire, exemplified by the city of Tongeren
The Frankish Empire of Charlemagne
The oldest written traces of the Dutch language, exemplified by the verse Hebban olla vogala
Agricultural innovation in the High Middle Ages, exemplified by the windmill at Wormhout
Bruges as a medieval commercial metropolis
The depiction of the region on the maps of Muhammad al-Idrisi
Beguinages
Medieval vernacular literature, exemplified by the stories of Reynard the Fox
Social revolutions in the cities of Flanders and Brabant, exemplified by the Battle of the Golden Spurs (1302)
Medieval iconography, exemplified by the Ghent Altarpiece
The rise of the Burgundian State, exemplified in the Battle of Gavere (1453)
Processions and Ommegangen, exemplified by the Ros Beiaard Dendermonde
Polyphonic music, exemplified by the 16th-century Mechelen Choirbook
Renaissance humanism, exemplified by Erasmus
Europeans in the New World, exemplified by Pedro de Gante
Renaissance art, exemplified by Peter Bruegel the Elder's Dull Gret
The Iconoclastic Fury of 1566
Early-modern science, exemplified by Simon Stevin
The witch craze, exemplified by Cathelyne Van den Bulcke (executed 1590)
Baroque art, exemplified by Rubens's Adoration of the Magi (1624)
The 1695 Bombardment of Brussels
The European Enlightenment, exemplified by Empress Maria Theresa (1717–1780)
The industrial revolution
The Napoleonic Code of 1804
The Belgian Revolution of 1830
The first Belgian railways (1835)
The growth of a Flemish consciousness, exemplified by Hendrik Conscience's novel De Leeuw van Vlaenderen (1838)
The potato blight of 1845–1847
The opening of the Scheldt to navigation (1863), allowing the development of the Port of Antwerp
The 19th-century social question, exemplified by Emilie Claeys
Artistic innovation, exemplified by James Ensor's Christ's Entry into Brussels (1889)
The struggle for universal suffrage, exemplified by the deaths of six protesters in Leuven on 18 April 1902
Women's education, exemplified by Marie-Elisabeth Belpaire
The Flemish Movement
The Tour of Flanders
Colonization of the Congo Basin, exemplified by Paul Panda Farnana
World War I
The Limburg coal mines
The Young Christian Workers founded by Joseph Cardijn
20th-century cookbooks
The Yser Towers
World War II
The deportation of Jews from Belgium during the Holocaust, exemplified by the Dossin Barracks
The development of the Welfare State
Post-War town and country planning
Television as a mass medium
Artistic innovation, exemplified by the poetry of Hugo Claus
The sexual revolution
French-language culture in Flanders, exemplified by Jacques Brel
The drawing of a linguistic border within Belgium
Economic growth in the 1960s
Pop festivals
European integration
LGBT rights
The standardisation of Belgian Dutch
21st-century multiculturalism
^Tom Christiaens, Finally, the “Flemish Canon” Has Been Launched, The Low Countries, 9 May 2023.
^Colin Clapson, Flemish Canon of key people and events is launched, VRT News, 9 May 2023.
^Helen Lyons, Flanders publishes official canon recognising its history and culture, The Bulletin, 12 May 2023.
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