ECONOMIC RENAISSANCE
One month after the first outbreak of the Belgian Revolution, elections
were already taking place. An almost equal number of Liberals (the
successors of the Vonckists) and of Catholics (Statists) were returned
to the Congress whose duty was to frame the new Constitution. It is
typical of the spirit of patriotic union between both parties and of
the adaptability of the Belgians to their new independent life that
these deputies, most of whom had no experience of political life,
succeeded, within two months, in drafting a Constitution which has
since served as a model for several European nations. It was the result
of various influences: the groundwork--based on individual liberty,
equality before the law, freedom of the press, of worship, of public
meeting, of association and of teaching--was no doubt inspired by the
French. On the other hand, the preponderance of legislative power,
represented by the Chamber and the Senate, over the executive, the
principle of ministerial responsibility, placing the king outside and
above parties, was the result of English influence: but perhaps the
most interesting characteristic of the new Constitution was the way in
which provincial and communal rights were safeguarded, the communes, in
particular, preserving practical autonomy for local affairs, with the
only restriction that the burgomaster was to be nominated by the king.
The Belgian Constitution struck the balance between centralization,
inherited from the period of French rule, and particularism, which had,
from the Burgundian period, been the most striking feature in Belgian
politics. If we associate, in our minds, particularism with the
traditional conservatism of the Catholic peasantry and centralization
with modern industrial developments and the intellectual culture of the
large towns, we shall obtain a fairly good idea of the two general
tendencies which divided public opinion in Belgium during the
nineteenth century and whose main features may be recognized not only
in politics, but also in the economic, intellectual and artistic
development of the country.
[_LIBERALS AND CATHOLICS_]
The status of neutrality not only affected foreign politics, it reacted
very strongly on Belgium's internal life. If it crippled her activity
with regard to home defence, it developed to an abnormal degree party
warfare. It shut the door on international problems and all questions
which may be considered as national issues and before which party
strife ought to cease in consideration for the common weal. Social,
philosophic or religious differences were not balanced, in modern
Belgium, as in other countries, by international consciousness. In the
close atmosphere of the tutelage of the Powers, party politics absorbed
the whole public life of the nation and external problems were
practically ignored. It thus happened that the people who stood in the
forefront of Europe, and who were more directly interested than any
other in the fluctuations of European politics, were about the worst
informed on foreign affairs.
From 1839 to 1885, the electorate being limited by a property
qualification (only 35,000 electors out of 4,000,000 inhabitants taking
part in the first election), the struggle was confined to the two
middle-class parties, Catholics and Liberals. Roughly speaking, the
Catholics stood for the defence of religious interests, more especially
in the domain of education and relief, the Liberals for the supremacy
of a nominally neutral State in all public matters. It is easy to
realize how this purely political quarrel could degenerate into a
conflict of ideals, some ultramontanes distrusting the motives of
"atheists" and ignoring the public spirit of men who did not share
their creed, while some agnostics, steeped in the narrow doctrines of
Voltaire and Diderot, made the Church the scapegoat of all social evils
and even denied the wholesome influence of religion on social
education.
During the first part of the century the conflict was not so acute,
both parties possessing their moderate and extremist leaders and the
so-called "Liberal Catholics" acting as a link between the two
factions. From 1847 to 1870 the Liberals, representing the bourgeoisie
of the large towns, were most of the time in power, while from 1870 to
1878 the Catholics, upheld by the farmers and the middle classes of the
small towns, took the direction of affairs. The property qualification
was progressively reduced, first for the parliamentary, later for the
provincial and communal elections, and a larger share was given to the
lower middle classes in the administration of the country. Meanwhile,
party differences had developed through the gradual disappearance of
the moderating elements on both sides, and the vexed question of
education was coming to the fore. The 1830 Constitution was not very
explicit concerning this matter, and both parties interpreted it
according to their own interests. Many communes having neglected to
keep up the official schools, religious orders had taken a more and
more important part in primary education. When the Liberals came into
power, in 1878, they passed a law compelling every commune to maintain
its own schools, where religious instruction should only be given out
of school hours. They also founded a great many secondary schools and
training colleges, with the object of transferring education from
religious to secular teachers. These sweeping reforms entailed heavy
expenditure and unpopular taxation, and finally brought about the
downfall of the Liberal regime in 1884. The Catholics proceeded to
abrogate the 1879 law on primary education by giving State grants to
the free Catholic schools, and suppressed a number of the secondary
schools and training colleges established by the previous regime.
Feeling ran so high that King Leopold, who realized the harm which this
"school war" was doing to the national spirit, warned Monsieur Malou
(the Catholic premier) against the attitude he had adopted, as he had
previously warned the Liberal premier, Frere-Orban: "The Liberals have
acted as if there were no longer any Catholics in Belgium. Are you
going also to act as if there were no Liberals left in the country,
without any consideration for the disastrous consequences of such an
attitude for the nation and for yourself?"
From 1885 to 1913 educational matters, though by no means forgotten,
were entirely overshadowed by social problems and by the efforts made
by the Opposition to obtain the revision of the Constitution and the
adoption of universal suffrage. This change was brought about by the
foundation, in 1885, by the Flemish printer, Cesar de Paepe, of the
Belgian Labour Party. Its action was from the first political as well
as economic. While consumers' co-operatives, such as the "Vooruit" of
Ghent, were founded in several large towns, Socialist clubs entertained
a continuous agitation for electoral franchise, their aim being to use
Parliament to obtain the sweeping social reforms inscribed on their
programme. Here, again, we find French insistence on politics checked
by the old spirit of association which had been so prominent in the
Netherlands during the Middle Ages.
[_LABOUR PARTY_]
After the miners' strike of 1886, both Catholics and Liberals revised
their programmes and paid more attention to social reforms. But the
workmen, who were now powerfully organized, especially in the
industrial centres of the South, wanted to take a direct share in
political life. Under pressure of public opinion, the demand for a
revision of the Constitution was at last taken into consideration in
1891, and in 1893 a new law granted universal suffrage tempered by
plural voting. In 1902 a new campaign was launched by the allied
Liberal-Socialist opposition in favour of universal suffrage pure and
simple, without obtaining any result, but when, in 1913, a general
strike supported the demand, the Catholic Government promised that the
question should be examined by a parliamentary commission.
* * * * *
Before the war, Belgium was the most productive agricultural district
of Europe. The secret of her prosperity is generally attributed to the
small number of large estates and to the great area cultivated by small
owners, 48 per cent. of the cultivated area being covered by farms of
21/2 to 71/2 acres. It must be added that, during the last twenty
years, powerful producers' co-operatives, or "Boerenbonden," have
grouped agriculturists and given them important advantages with regard
to credit and insurance. The inbred qualities which have rendered this
development possible are, however, to be found in the race itself.
Again and again, in the course of centuries, the Belgian peasant has
come to the fore under every political regime and every system of
landholding. He has had to conquer the country from the sea, protect it
against its incursions and to repair periodically the havoc caused by
war. The memory of physical and social calamities has been handed down
the ages, and the present system of small-ownership and co-operative
societies is only the result of centuries of incessant toil.
The conservative spirit of the peasants and farmers is illustrated by
the opposition made to the project of the Liberal Minister Rogier, in
1833, to build the first railway in Belgium. It was argued that this
would be a considerable waste of fertile soil and would frighten the
cattle. The first railway line, between Brussels and Malines, was
nevertheless inaugurated on May 5, 1835, and since then, such enormous
progress has been realized that, before the war, Belgium occupied the
first place in Europe with regard to the development of its railway
lines. All other means of communication have been similarly developed.
In 1913 the country possessed 40,000 kilometres of roads, 4,656
kilometres of railway line, 2,250 kilometres of light railways, and
2,000 kilometres of inland waterways.
* * * * *
[_THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION_]
The first consequence of the Revolution was to disorganize Belgian
industry, which had lost the Dutch market, the powerful works of
Cockerill, at Seraing, being among the few which did not suffer from
the change. The introduction of machinery in a country so rich in
coal-fields not only restored the situation but enormously increased
industrial production in the Southern districts. In 1830 only 400
machines were used, with a total of 12,000 horse-power; in 1902 these
figures had risen to 19,000 machines with 720,000 horse-power, without
taking into account railway engines (718,000 horse-power).
The distribution of the various industries in the different parts of
the country did not vary very much from that existing under previous
regimes. Broadly speaking, no new development took place, every centre
remaining in the situation determined by coal or the presence of raw
material. The principal centre of the textile industry remained at
Ghent, near the hemp-fields of the Lys; metal-works, glass-works, etc.,
were still grouped close to the four main coal-fields in the region of
Mons, La Louviere (Centre), Charleroi and Liege; the number of men
engaged on industrial production before the war had reached 1,500,000,
among whom were 153,000 miners, over 149,000 metal workers, and over
129,000 textile workers.
But it is not so much to the number as to the quality of her workmen
that Belgium owes her great industrial prosperity. This may be
accounted for by the fact that a great number of industrial workers
never lost touch with the land. Belonging, most of them, to
agricultural districts, they do not settle permanently around their
factories, and between the country and the great centres there is a
continuous exchange of population. The hard-working qualities of
mechanics and artisans are inherited from the peasants, and there is a
considerable reluctance, on their part, to crowd into big cities, cheap
railway fares allowing them to live around the towns where they work
during the day.
[_TRADE OF ANTWERP_]
The condition of this wonderful economic development was the opening of
the Scheldt. For nearly two centuries and a half the country had been
cut off from the outside world and obliged to live on her own
resources. We have seen how, during the fifteen years of union with
Holland, the trade of Antwerp had made considerable progress, and how,
in spite of Dutch resistance, the freedom of international rivers
proclaimed by the Vienna Congress was applied to the Lower Scheldt. The
1839 settlement placed the river, below Antwerp, under the joint
control of a Belgo-Dutch commission. The only obstacle still in the way
was a toll of one florin and a half which King William had persisted in
levying on all ships going and coming from the port. In 1863, after
laborious negotiations undertaken by Baron Lambermont, Belgium was able
to buy off these tolls from Holland for the sum of 36,000,000 francs.
The stream was at last definitely free, at least in time of peace.
Placed under normal conditions, with the help of numerous waterways
spreading over the interior of an exceptionally rich country, Antwerp
was bound to reconquer rapidly the situation it had occupied under
Charles V. In 1840 about 1,500 ships, with a tonnage of 24,000, entered
the port. In 1898 the annual tonnage had reached 6,500,000, and in 1913
over 25,000,000. Though such figures were undreamt of in the sixteenth
century, the nature of the Antwerp trade remained very similar. The
Antwerp merchants were really brokers or warehousers, and most of the
merchandise brought to the port from all parts of the world was
re-exported to other countries. So that in trade, as in industry and
agriculture, the permanence of certain characteristics, determined by
the land and the race, are preserved to this day. The absence of a
national merchant fleet, which was equally apparent in the sixteenth
century, did not affect imports and exports, which increased
respectively from 98,000,000 francs and 104,500,000 francs in 1831 to
6,550,000,000 francs and 5,695,000,000 francs in 1910. The Government
undertook various great public works in order to allow the country to
benefit fully from this extraordinary activity. In 1906 a law was
passed voting large credits for the extension of Antwerp's maritime
installations. When these works are completed they will give to the
port 60 kilometres of quays instead of 21. In 1881 the enlargement of
the Terneuzen canal permitted large ships to reach Ghent; the new port
of Bruges and the Zeebrugge canal were inaugurated in 1907, and an
important scheme, whose result will be to connect Brussels with the
sea, begun in 1900, is still in progress.
Economic renaissance was accompanied by a corresponding increase in the
population. From 4,000,000 in 1831 it rose to 5,000,000 in 1870, and to
7,500,000 in 1911. With a density of 652 persons per square mile,
Belgium became the most thickly populated country in the world and only
consumed a fourteenth part of her industrial production. The necessity
of finding new markets abroad and of discovering some substitute for
the loss of the Dutch colonies, which had proved so helpful during the
period of union with Holland, might have been felt by any far-sighted
statesman. Leopold I had already devoted some attention to the problem.
He encouraged several Belgian settlements in Rio Nunez, where a regular
protectorate was established for a short time, in Guatemala and in
various parts of Brazil. None of these enterprises, however, bore
fruit, and the problem was still unsolved when Leopold II ascended the
throne in 1865.
[_FOREIGN ENTERPRISES_]
The search for a colonial outlet for the activity of the nation
dominated the reign of the new king and absorbed all the energy he was
able to spare from military problems. As Duke of Brabant, Leopold II
had already drawn the attention of the country to the future
development of China. He had formed several projects with regard to the
establishment of a Belgian settlement at the mouth of the Yangtse-Kiang
and on the island of Formosa. Their failure did not prevent him from
taking, later on, an active part in Chinese affairs. The Imperial
Government did not entertain towards Belgium the same distrust as it
did towards the European Great Powers, and King Leopold several times
had the opportunity of acting as intermediary between these Powers and
the Chinese Government, in order to obtain concessions. He became thus,
in later years, the initiator of the Peking-Hankow railway. The
difficulty of finding a field of economic activity in foreign countries
became, nevertheless, more and more apparent, and, without giving up
his Chinese policy, the Belgian king endeavoured to ensure to his
country some part of the vacant territories which had not yet been
seized by other European nations. When his Congo enterprise was in full
swing, he proposed to buy the Canary Islands from Spain (1898), and,
after the Spanish-American War, opened negotiations with America with
regard to the future development of the newly acquired Philippines. He
was also concerned, for a time, with Korean, Manchurian and Mongolian
enterprises, and nothing but the progress of the Congo scheme put a
stop to his incessant search for new opportunities.
In 1876, when the Congo basin was still practically _terra incognita_,
Stanley having just left Europe in order to determine the course of the
stream, Leopold II founded the "Association Internationale Africaine."
It was a purely private association, composed of geographers and
travellers, its aim being to suppress the slave trade in Central Africa
and to open this part of the continent to modern civilization. Two
years later, on Stanley's return, the "Comite d'Etudes du Haut Congo"
secured his services in order to undertake, with the help of a little
band of Belgian explorers, a complete survey of the Congo basin and to
conclude treaties with the native chiefs. Within five years a region as
large as a fifth of Europe, and eighty times larger than Belgium, had
been brought under the influence of the Committee, and in 1883 the king
founded the "Association Internationale du Congo."
If, instead of ruling over a small neutral State, Leopold II had ruled
over one of the large nations of Europe, he would have reaped forthwith
the fruit of his labour and the gratitude of his people. The Congo
would have become a State colony, been subsidized by State funds, and
the sovereign would have incurred no further responsibilities in the
matter. But Belgium was not a Great Power like Germany, which acquired
its African colonies at the same time, in a similar manner. Neither
could she rest her colonial claims on historical grounds, like Holland
or Portugal. She was not even fully independent, as far as foreign
policy was concerned, and her right to break fresh ground might have
been questioned at the time. Besides, popular opinion in Belgium,
dominated by the fear of international complications, was not prepared
to claim this right, even the capitalists considering the king's
projects far too hazardous to give him the necessary support. Leopold
II was, therefore, left to his own resources to accomplish an almost
superhuman task: to obtain the necessary recognition from the Powers,
and to sufficiently develop the resources of the Congo to persuade the
Belgian people to accept his gift.
It was, therefore, not as a king, but as a private individual, that the
president of the "Association Internationale du Congo" was obliged
first to remove the obstacles created by French and Portuguese
opposition, and, later, to persuade the other Powers to entrust him
with the administration of the new territory. This first success must
not be attributed to his diplomatic skill alone, but also to the
enormous expenses implied by the bold enterprise, to the reluctance of
the rich colonial Powers to incur further liabilities and to their
anxiety to avoid international difficulties. Germany's attitude, in
view of further events, may be described as expectant. Bismarck had
only just been converted to colonial expansion, and found, no doubt,
what he must have considered as the "interregnum" of King Leopold an
excellent solution of his difficulties.
[_CONGO FREE STATE_]
In 1885 the work of the "Association" was recognized by the Congress of
Berlin, the sovereign of Belgium becoming the sovereign of the Congo
Free State. The treaty of Berlin stipulated that trade should remain
free in the new State, that the natives should be protected and that
slavery should be suppressed. Four years later, the king, in his will,
left the Congo to Belgium, "desiring to ensure to his beloved country
the fruit of a work pursued during long years with the generous and
devoted collaboration of many Belgians, and confident of thus securing
for Belgium, if she was willing to use it, an indispensable outlet for
her trade and industry and a new field for her children's activity."
The work was pushed with indomitable energy. In 1894 a vigorous
campaign against the Arab slave-traders was brought to a successful
conclusion. In 1898 the first railway connecting Matadi, on the Lower
Congo, with Leopoldville, on the Stanley Pool, opened the great
waterway as far as the Stanley Falls. A flotilla was launched on the
upper stream and its main affluents, while roads and telegraph lines
spread all over the country.
The financial situation, however, remained critical. The enterprise had
absorbed the greater part of the king's personal fortune. The credits
voted by the Belgian Chambers were inadequate, and, though a few
financiers began by now to realize the enormous value of the
enterprise, their number was not sufficient to ensure the immediate
future. Faced with considerable difficulties, which compelled him to
severely curtail his personal expenses, Leopold II had formally offered
the colony to the country in 1895. This offer had been rejected. Under
the stress of circumstances, the sovereign of the Congo Free State
decided to exploit directly the natural resources of the land, mainly
rubber and ivory. The natives were compelled to pay a tax in kind and
vast concessions were granted to commercial companies whose actions
could not be properly controlled. This semi-commercial, semi-political
system was bound to lead to abuses, even a few State agents betraying
the confidence which their chief had placed in them and oppressing the
natives in order to exact a heavier tax.
When the first protests were heard in this country, King Leopold
committed the grave mistake of not starting an immediate inquiry and
punishing the culprits. Distrusting the motives of the leaders of the
campaign, and stiffened in his resistance by the tone they chose to
adopt towards him, he allowed the opposition to grow to such
proportions that the general public, whose indignation was skilfully
nurtured by the most exaggerated reports, lost all sense of proportion.
They ignored the fact that the king had given sufficient proof of
disinterestedness and of devotion to his country not to deserve the
abominable accusations launched against him. They forgot the invaluable
work accomplished, under the most difficult circumstances, during
twenty years of ceaseless labour, the suppression of slavery, of
cannibalism, human sacrifices and tribal wars, and remembered only the
gross indictments of Mr. Morel and the biased reports of Mr. Roger
Casement (1913).
[_THE BELGIAN CONGO_]
When, the next year, three impartial magistrates sent to the Congo by
King Leopold reported that the excesses had been repressed and advised
a complete reform of the administration, their testimony was
disregarded. When concessions were abolished and drastic measures taken
against the criminal agents, the fact remained unnoticed. Even after
the Congo had become a Belgian Colony (1908), under the control of the
Belgian Parliament, when every scrap of authority had been taken away
from the old king with the "Domaine de la Couronne" (whose revenue was
to be devoted by its founder to public works in Belgium), when the
colony had been entirely reorganized, the campaign of the Congo Reform
Association went on relentlessly. Far from silencing his accusers, the
king's death, a year later, was made the occasion of a fresh outburst
of abuse.
The good faith of the public throughout the Congo campaign is
unquestionable. That of its main engineers is at least open to doubt.
They organized their efforts at the time when the greatest difficulties
of colonization had been overcome. They pursued them after all cause
for abuse had been removed. In one of his first books, _British Case in
French Congo_, Mr. Morel suggests the partition of the Free State
between this country and Germany. In his last books, written during the
war, he warmly champions the internationalization of Central Africa in
order to save the German Colonies. Neither can it be urged that those
two men who roused the conscience of this country against the Congo
atrocities were deeply shocked by more recent and far better
authenticated atrocities committed in Belgium. If they were, the only
remark an impartial observer might venture to make is that their
actions, during the war, scarcely reflected such righteous indignation.
It may be too hasty to conclude from this, and from the close
association of Erzberger, Morel and Casement in the Congo campaign,
that this campaign was engineered by Germany. We do not yet possess all
the documents necessary to establish this fact. We know enough,
however, to deplore that a movement which might have been so beneficial
to all concerned was allowed to fall into the hands of unscrupulous
agitators, who succeeded in estranging for a time Belgium from Great
Britain, and incidentally in marring the last years of the life of one
of the greatest Belgian patriots.