The Story of Flanders
Season 1
In this documentary series, interspersed with historical reconstructions, Tom Waes investigates what has happened since the arrival of the first Homo sapiens, on the 14,000 square kilometers that we today call Flanders.
Where to Watch Season 1
10 Episodes
- The prehistory
E1The prehistoryPresenter Tom Waes presents the formula starring him as narrator and on historical sites or interviewing experts. Chapter One is on the Prehistory, which left least traces, no records. It started in the Ice Age, when the present North Sea was frozen and most of Europe, including Flanders, a windy plain with poor vegetation. The first Homo Sapiens to migrate in were hunter-gatherers, mainly in the woods. Spy is a main finding site of remains of the co-existing Neanderthal, who must have mingled as Flemish DNA is on average still 2,4% from them, the cause of their extinction despite stronger physique and comparable intelligence is unclear. The main ancestors immigrated from the Middle East later, importing seeds and techniques enabling the introduction on by then -temperatures normalizing- fertile land of agriculture, a very different (sedentary) way of life, forming proper settlements and developing social stratification and professional specialization. The metal age saw massive mining, trade, a warrior class, tribal units and primitive states. - 'Dark' Middle Ages
E3'Dark' Middle AgesAfter the fall of the (Western) Roman empire, most of its civilization and Christianity were almost wiped away by the Germanic invaders, Flanders has no cities left except the episcopal sees, almost reduced to small village farming and insecurity. The Frakish kings, who established a realm roughly covering Gaul, encouraged missionaries to substitute Catholicism for pagan practices, as St. Amandus managed brilliantly, as attested by his vita, the oldest book in Middle Dutch, never minds the impossible miracles. Princess Judith returned to the Frankish royal treasury castle after her father married her twice to a Wessex king, only to be widowed again. She fell in love with a rather obscure Flemish lower nobleman, agreeing to be 'abducted', the 'French' king grudgingly promoted her lover Baldwin, first count of Flanders (and some other lands). Their son has to succeed as a teenager, but even managed brilliantly to deal with the Viking raids by building palisade walls around various towns, the start of a modern principality administration and the start for Flanders to grow rich, and prestigious thanks to Judith's royal linage. - The industrial revolution
E8The industrial revolutionIn the reign of Leopold I, the young Belgium was leading the Industrial Revolution second only to Britain, with such novelties as the continent's first railroad, making it the world's fifth-wealthiest economy. Yet for the working class, life as factory laborer was even worse, especially into 'continental Manchester' Ghent, often packed into unsanitary pauper housing, cesspits for diseases. The rich 2% who paid enough taxes to qualify for the vote opposed social reform, until a as trike wave allowed the socialist movement winning its main demand: the general vote, albeit it multiple for the rich and excluding women. .The exploitation of the Congo as king Leopold II's private colony was particularly harsh, yet for long the ordinary Belgians barely knew about the excesses, flocking to stereotypical world exhibition 'nicker village' reconstructions known as 'people gardens'. - The Great War
E9The Great WarThe world had never witnessed a conflict like World War I. It was the most devastating war ever, causing death and destruction on a huge scale. In Belgium, this war was fought in the trenches behind the Yser. A wet and greyish place where the Belgians got stuck for four long years. It defined a generation and had a lot of consequences. World War I had an impact for years to follow, up until now.
