Earlier this year the Canon of Flanders was presented: 60 events, dates, people, traditions, books, objects and works of art that define today's Flanders. Today we look at the very beginnings of our region.
About 12,000 years ago, the last ice age ended. The ice caps melted and a green blanket of dense forests formed over north-western Europe. Vast deciduous forests determined the landscape, its culture and economy, including in the area we call Flanders today.
Both hunter-gatherers and farmers made full use of the forest. They found food, building materials and fuel. People gathered there to experience rituals. When in Roman times, at the beginning of our era, the population increased sharply and, consequently, the need for wood and agricultural land also increased, the forest shrank. Nevertheless, forests continued to dominate the region's appearance.
In the Middle Ages, the long period from 500 to 1500, the landscape underwent more definitive, drastic change. The rise of towns and the strong development of agriculture led to intensive logging. By the 13th century, forest resources had reached a first historic low.
A place in the world
A widespread network of rivers ran through the area bordering the North Sea. For transporting people and goods, for a long time these waterways were much more important than roads over land. Both economically and culturally rivers and the sea connected the region with other parts of Europe and the world.
Apart from the rivers, the soil and relief also determined people's opportunities. Soil diversity encouraged regional specialisations. Wheat thrived on rich loamy soils, pigs were fed in oak forests, sheep were herded on saline or sandy soils, and forestry and peat extraction were also of great importance. Although the many waterways facilitated cultural and economic exchange, many regions retained their individuality because the soil and the relief were so decisive.
From the Middle Ages onwards, humans increasingly put their stamp on the landscape. The interaction between humans and nature created cultural landscapes like the Kempen, the Hageland, the Maasland, Haspengouw and Coastal Polders. All these regions owe their individuality both to the landscape elements present and human activity including the construction of roads and buildings and the joint management of common land.
A region of cities
In Roman times, north-western Europe experienced its first population peak and cities such as Tongeren and Tournai sprang up. Yet most residential centres remained small and declined after the population peak.
Between 950 and 1300, Europe experienced another period of sustained population growth. The population tripled. In the Netherlands, it even quadrupled. Because of this increase, the countryside experienced a population surplus. Many children from rural areas were drawn to the burgeoning cities, where they could often work in the flourishing cloth industry. The rural exodus caused the cities to grow rapidly from the year 1000 onwards and their numbers also increased. This evolution took place throughout north-western Europe, but nowhere did the concentration of towns and city dwellers become as great as in the southern parts of the Low Countries.
Medieval urbanisation had a major impact on the landscape. Cities themselves became defining landscape elements. Moreover, they increasingly needed building materials, food, fuel and other raw materials. As a result, in the Middle Ages, forested Flanders changed into a highly urbanised region. The concentration of towns with a medieval ground plan is still largely visible in today's landscape, despite the radical changes of the last two centuries.
Working with water
While in the interior humans gained ground on the forest, coastal dwellers took full advantage of the opportunities offered by water and the sea. As early as Roman times, they experimented with dikes and dwellings on higher land. At the end of the Roman era, the influence of tidal power on the landscape increased. Sea water penetrated far inland at high tide. But in the early Middle Ages, natural deposits caused the tidal channels to silt up and the coastal strip became more interesting for humans. Initially, mainly shepherds used the area as did farmers who, lived on higher ground or in the dry areas at the edge of the coastal plain.
Around the year 1000 the Counts of Flanders also discovered the economic potential of the coast. Working with several abbeys, the counts had dikes built on a large scale. The former mud flats and salt marshes were turned into polders, an area with fertile fields, peat lands and pastures.
Reclaimed land was not necessarily acquired forever. Sometimes wars and storm surges caused severe damage to dikes, flooding reclaimed areas. Meanwhile, the inhabitants of the Low Countries in the close proximity of the sea had become good dike builders.