Canon of Flanders

The Canon of Flanders (Dutch : Canon van Vlaanderen) 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

References

1. Tom Christiaens, Finally, the “Flemish Canon” Has Been Launched, The Low Countries, 9 May 2023.
2. Colin Clapson, Flemish Canon of key people and events is launched, VRT News, 9 May 2023.
3. Helen Lyons, Flanders publishes official canon recognising its history and culture, The Bulletin , 12 May 2023.

External links

• https://www.canonvanvlaanderen.be