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industrialised the sillon industriel and in particular the pays noir around charleroi were the centre of the steel industry until the second world war railways edit the first belgian produced steam locomotive the belgian le belge built in 1835 main article history of rail transport in belgium 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 57 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 58 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 58 one belgian entrepreneur édouard empain known as the tramway king built many public transport systems across the world including the paris métro 59 other important businesses included cockerill sambre steel the chemical factories of ernest solvay and the firearms maker fabrique nationale de herstal liberalism and catholicism edit see also liberalism in belgium and first school war before the arrival of the socialists in the 1890s the nation was 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 60 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 linguistic conflict edit 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 61 62 reinforced by economic domination of the industrial south flemish was reduced to the tongue of a second class culture 63 parts of the flemish population reacted against this this was partly due to a sense of growing flemish identity 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 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 64 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 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 65 foreign relations and military policy edit see also belgium and the franco prussian war in the mid 1860s during the mexican adventure around 1 500 belgian soldiers joined the belgian expeditionary corps better known as the belgian legion to fight for emperor maximilian i whose wife charlotte was the daughter of leopold i of belgium 66 belgium was not a belligerent in the franco prussian war 1870 71 but the proximity of the war led to the mobilisation of the army 67 after the conflict there was talk of modernising the military the system of remplacement whereby wealthy belgians conscripted into the military could pay for a replacement was abolished and an improved system of conscription implemented these reforms led by d anethan under pressure from leopold ii divided belgian politics the catholics united with the liberals under frère orban to oppose them and the reforms were finally defeated when d anethan s government fell during an unrelated scandal 68 eventually the military was reformed the 1909 system instituted compulsory military service of eight years on active duty and five years in the reserves this swelled the size of the belgian army to over 100 000 well trained men 50 construction of a chain of forts along the border was intensified and let to a series of very modern fortifications including the so called national redoubt at antwerp at the fortified positions of liège and namur many of them designed by the belgian fortress architect henri alexis brialmont rise of the socialist party and the trade unions edit see also belgian labour party and belgian general strikes the economy was stagnant during the long depression of 1873 1895 as prices and wages fell and labour unrest grew 69 the belgian workers party was founded in 1885 in brussels it issued the charter of quaregnon in 1894 calling for an end to capitalism and a thorough reorganization of society during the late 19th century general strikes became an established aspect of the political process between 1892 and 1961 there were 20 major strikes including 7 general strikes many of these had overtly political motives like the 1893 general strike that helped achieve universal male suffrage on several occasions belgian general strikes escalated into violence in 1893 soldiers fired on the striking crowd killing several karl marx wrote there exists but one country in the civilised world where every strike is eagerly and joyously turned into a pretext for the official massacre of the working class that country of single blessedness is belgium 70 nevertheless belgium created a welfare net particularly early thanks in part to the trade unions sickness compensation was established in 1894 voluntary old age insurance in 1900 and unemployment insurance in 1907 achieving good coverage nationwide much more quickly than its neighbours 71 belgium also witnessed a rise in the number of co operatives with 1200 in existence by 1910 with nearly 200 000 members 72 catholic governments and social policy edit various reforms were introduced under the catholic governments that led belgium from the late nineteenth century onwards in 1887 the system of paying workers in kind and in pubs was outlawed and joint industrial and labour councils were established in 1889 labour law councils were reformed with employers facing increasing working class representation that same year legislation on social housing and women s and child labour was reformed in 1900 the first law on old age pensions was approved while a 1903 law on industrial accidents stipulated it was no longer up to the worker to prove his innocence from 1900 onwards catholic governments began subsidising unemployment funds health services and savings banks mandatory sunday rest was approved in 1905 while other reforms were carried out such as reduced working hours for miners the outlawing of night work for women and pensions for the military and civil service 73 under a law that came into effect in 1892 the employment of women and children under the age of 21 was prohibited 74 in 1890 a fund of providence and relief for victims of industrial accidents was introduced by law 75 in 1894 state subsidies were established for sickness funds 76 following the elections of 1894 and 1896 according to one study the catholics continued steadily carrying out their programme of social reforms and various acts were passed for the welfare of the working classes old age pensions workmen s dwellings employers liability subsidies to savings banks and mutual societies for the encouragement of thrift 77 an 1896 law made workshop regulations compulsory for all companies employing at least 10 workers which changed to 5 workers in 1900 78 while other social policy measures included employers industrial accident funds in 1903 and small state subsidies to voluntary unemployment funds in 1907 79 in 1914 compulsory education was introduced for children between 6 and 14 80 a national crisis fund as set up at the end of 1920 which according to one study marked an important step towards general compensation for involuntary unemployment 81 healthcare subsidising by the national government was expanded as characterised by disability funds in 1912 general medical care expenses for general practitioner and pharmacist in 1920 an anti tuberculosis fund in 1921 basic treatment in 1927 expansion from general to particular medical care surgery hospitalisation preventive medicine cancer in 1931 and insurance for women and families marriage premium and premium for death of spouse death benefits in 1936 82 in 1919 a scheme for the war injured was introduced and for the victims of occupational diseases in 1927 from 1928 onwards means tested allowances were provided to physically disabled persons 83 in august 1930 a law was passed making family allowances compulsory in private industry 84 in 1921 an act was passed providing for an 8 hour day and 48 hour working week and in 1936 annual paid holidays were introduced in most industries 85 voting rights edit the fusilade of mons during the 1893 strike as the borains are fired on by the garde civique during the protests for universal suffrage see also belgian general strike of 1893 in 1893 the government rejected a proposal for universal male suffrage outraged the belgian labour party called a general strike by april 17 there were more than 50 000 strikers violent confrontations broke out with the garde civique the civil guard or militia around the country the government soon backed down and passed male universal suffrage but reduced its impact by creating plural votes based on wealth education and age the catholic conservatives with 68 of the seats remained in power 86 again in 1902 and 1913 there were general strikes aimed at forcing electoral reform and ending the system of plural voting after the 1913 strike a commission was created and was expected to remove plural voting but implementation was delayed by the 1914 german invasion in 1918 king albert forged a post war government of national union and brought about one man one vote universal male suffrage the last restrictions on women s voting were lifted in 1948 87 culture edit artistic and literary culture in belgium began a revival towards the late 19th century a core element of belgian nationalism was the scientific study of its national history the movement was led by godefroid kurth a student of the german historian ranke kurth taught modern historical methods to his students at the university of liège the most prominent belgian historian was henri pirenne who was influenced by this method during his period as a student of kurth 88 architecture and art nouveau edit the cinquantenaire jubelpark memorial arcade built in 1905 see also art nouveau at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century monumental historicism and neoclassicism dominated the urban belgian landscape particularly in government buildings championed in part by king leopold ii the style can be seen in the palais de justice designed by joseph poelaert and the cinquantenaire nevertheless brussels became one of the major european cities for the development of the art nouveau style in the late 1890s the architects victor horta paul hankar and henry van de velde became particularly famous for their designs many of which survive today in brussels four buildings designed by horta are listed by unesco world heritage sites horta s largest work the maison du peuple was demolished in 1960 empire edit see also belgian colonial empire stanard rejects the widely held notion that belgians were reluctant imperialists he argues that ordinary people came to understand and support the colony belgians not only sustained the empire in significant ways but many became convinced imperialists evidenced by the widespread enduring and eagerly embraced propaganda in favor of the congo 89 congo free state and belgian congo edit a 1906 british punch cartoon depicting leopold ii as a rubber vine entangling a congolese man main articles congo free state and belgian congo king leopold ii of belgium had been the principal shareholder in the belgian trading company which established trading stations on the lower congo between 1879 and 1884 90 at the berlin conference of 1884 1885 the future congo was personally assigned to leopold who named the territory the congo free state it was originally intended to be an international free trade zone open to all european traders 91 the area included in this territory was just under 1 million square miles 2 590 000 square kilometers 92 almost 80 times the size of belgium 93 94 95 the first infrastructure projects took place during the free state period such as a railway that ran from the léopoldville to the coast which took several years to complete the era of the congo free state is most infamous for the large number of atrocities committed under it since it was in effect a business venture run by a private company headed by leopold himself it aimed to gain as much money as possible from primary exports leopold s personal fortune was greatly increased through the proceeds of selling congolese rubber which had never previously been mass produced in such quantities to the growing market for tyres between 1885 and 1908 as many as eight million congolese died of exploitation and disease while the birth rate dropped 96 these are only rough estimates as no figures are available for the period 97 to enforce the rubber quotas the force publique fp was created while the force publique was nominally a military force it would later fight during both the first and second world wars during the congo free state period its primary duties involved enforcing rubber quotas via imprisonment rape abduction forced 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