“poor Flanders”:
Flanders, for centuries a prosperous region, lapsed into povery in this period. The transition in Flanders from an agrarian to an industrialized society went hand in hand with impoverishment, unemployment, declining literacy rates, famine, disease and emigration. The 1840s saw the collapse of the traditional artisanal home industry – a branch of industry which had been crucial to the livelihoods of the Flemish rural population, which made up three-quarters of the total Flemish population, but had become outdated. The new centres of economic growth were located in industrializing Wallonia (and in northern France).

close window