Answer

According to 'cultural Flamingants', the first series of language laws were plainly insufficient; their ambition was to transform Flanders into an officially monolingual region where all educational institutions, all public authorities and all law courts would go about their business exclusively in Dutch. This can be seen as a radical protective reflex; the prestige of the French language compared with that of “Flemish” and the associated pressure on Flemish-speakers to adopt French were of such an order that only within the safe confines of a demarcated territory, it was argued, would it be possible to raise the status of the language of the Flemings and for the Flemish people to develop to their fullest potential. MacLeod emphasized the effect which total Dutchification would have on the quality and prestige of Flemish education and its scientific, artistic and literary life. De Raet, meanwhile, drew particular attention to the significance of Dutch-language higher and technical education in terms of creating for Flanders a stronger position of power, both economically and politically. Both MacLeod and de Raet reserved a leading role in this respect for a new Dutch-speaking entrepreneurial and professional class, which in time would replace the existing Frenchified upper stratum of Flemish society.

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