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Wallonia
Flag of Wallonia 
Location of Wallonia in Europe 
This official signpost is at all the boundaries of the Walloon Region Wallonia, or Wallonie, (, , , ) is the meridional part of Belgium belonging to the Romance linguistic field (about 3,4 millions inhabitants), in opposition to the Germanic linguistic field in the north. Wallonia was concretized politically by the creation of the French-speaking language area and the Walloon region in 1970, which by metonymy is also named by the term ?Wallonia?.
GeographyArdenneThe most touristic region of Wallonia is the Ardenne and it is also known all over the world because of the Battle of the Bulge in 1944 which is named in French La bataille des Ardennes. 
Rock Bayard of Dinant, on the right back of the Meuse: the magic horse was jumping from the top of this rock to the left back of the river, with the Quatre Fils Aymon fleeing Charlemagne 
Official U.S. Army illustration: The German offensive progressed creating the nose-like bulge shape (salient) between the 16th and 26th of December 1944. The salient was mainly in the Ardennes. Its nose (in the Condroz next to the Ardennes) was not far from Dinant and the Meuse at this town. In The Song of Roland, Charlemagne had a nightmare the night before the Battle of Roncevaux Pass and this nightmare took place in the Ardennes' forest where he had his most important battles. Wallonia has plenty of rivers, villages, named places linked to an other song about Charlemagne: Old French twelfth century chanson de geste Quatre Fils Aymon. Among them, in Dinant, the Rock named Bayard (the magic bay horse which, according to the legend did a huge jump from the top of the rock as far as the other back of the Meuse). The most advanced position of the German army during the Battle of the Bulge was not far from this little Walloonian town along the river Meuse that the German army could not go across in 1944 as this army did it, just at the same place, a little at the south of Dinant in Houx (Wallonia) and in the neighbourhood of Dinant named Leffe (as the Abbey beer linked to this abbey in this neighbourhood) in May 1940 (as well as in Sedan). It is even told in Dinant that a German vehicle exploded just before the rock Bayard on an mine laid there by American soldiers... Ardenne (Wallonian spelling), is an old mountain formed during the Hercynian orogeny as for instance in France the Armorican Massif, the Massif Central, the Vosges. At the bottom of these old mountains you have often (as in Wallonia,) coal, iron, zinc, and other kind of metals in the sub-soil. This geologic fact explains the greatest part of the geography of Wallonia and its history. In the North and West of the Ardennes lies the valleys of the Sambre and Meuse rivers, forming an arc Sillon industriel going across the most industrial provinces of Wallonia, for example Hainaut, along the river Haine (the etymology of Hainaut) : the Borinage, the Centre and Charleroi along the river Sambre, Liège along the river Meuse. 
Provinces of Wallonia or of the Walloon Region 
Ardenne in Wallonia in the South of Belgium The Ardenne includes the greatest part of the Luxembourg (number 4), the south of the Namur (number 5) and Liège (number 3), in a very little part of the Hainaut (number 2). There were the first furnaces in the four walloon provinces, using, before the 18th century, the charcoal which was made in the Ardenne's forest. This industry is also in the extreme South of the Luxembourg, the region called Gaume. After this century, the most important part of the Walloon steel industry, using then coal, was built around the coal-mines, principally in the region around the cities of Liège, Charleroi, La Louvière, the Borinage, and further in the Walloon Brabant (in Tubize). Wallonia became the second industrial power of the world in proportion to its territory and to its population. The second industrial Power of the WorldJean-Pierre Rioux drew the following table in his book la révolution industrielle. The table is based on several levels of development (i.e. consumption of cotton in the rough state, of cast-iron, cast-steel, coal, the development of the railway network[1]). Thus, this table is not based on absolute figures (or is not pointing out the absolute ranks), but the hierarchy of the industrial powers only on the base of their levels of development.
Following many authors, the word Belgium may be changed by Wallonia as for instance de:Herbert Luthy, quoted by Maurice Besnard: Belgium and its walloon part was the first coutry becoming an industrial country after England. Herbert Lüthy did not agree with the theory of Max Weber on the link between capitalism and protestantism and, on the contrary, underlined the fact that Wallonia was a catholic country[3] Philippe Destatte wrote that Wallonia was the second industrial power of the world, in proportion to its population and its territory [4]. Hervé Hasquin is thinking that the development of the Wallloon industrial regions contributed to make of Belgium one of the main industrial powers in Europa, if not in the world... [5] Philippe Raxhon wrote about the period after 1830,: It was not propaganda but a reality the Walloon regions were becoming the second industrial power all over the world after England [6] Marc Reynebau said the same thing [7] Michel De Coster, Professor at the University of Liège wrote also:The historians ant the economists say that Belgium was the the second industrial power of the world, in proportion to its population and its territory (...) But this place is the one of Wallonia where were concentrated the coal-mines, the blast furnaces, the iron and zinc factories, the wool industry, the glass industry, the weapons industry... [8]. The Professor is pointing out this possible confusion (Belgium/Wallonia), as a good example of the difficulties ot the Walloon identity. There are many other references about that: The sole industrial centre outside the collieries and blast furnaces of Walloon was the old cloth making town of Ghent. [9] <gallery> Image:Renier de Huy MCL03.jpg|Font of Renier de Huy (Mosan art): The baptism of the catechumens. A kind of an old Walloon know-how in making the brass i (12th century). Image:Musée Curtius.jpg| The rich house of Curtius in Liège, one of the first capitalist (Weapons industry:17th century). Image:Louis de Geers staty i Norrköping.jpg|Statue of the Walloon Louis de Geer (1587-1652) in Norrköping Sweden (1945 : the sentence at the bottom of the statue speaks of him as the father of the industry in Sweden Image:Hornu JPG002.jpg| View of the oval courtyyard and the statue of H. de Gorge who built this industrial mining complex of Grand Hornu in the Walloon municipality of Boussu (in the beginning of the 19th century). A unique example of functional town-planning. Walloon Major Heritage Image:Strépy-Bracquegnies JPG001.jpg|Lift no. 3 among a series of four hydraulic boat lifts of Lifts on the old Canal du Centre near the town of La Louvière in the Walloon province of Hainaut a Walloon Major Heritage and a World Heritage Site (end of the 19th century). Image:Ronquières JPG01.jpg|Ronquières inclined plane in the second half of the 20th Century Image:Strépy-Bracquegnies JPG02.jpg| Strépy-Thieu boat lift The modern boat lift, built in the beginning of the 21th century Image:Guillemins-27-mai-2007.jpg|The new station of Liège-Guillemins </gallery> EtymologyThe french word Wallonie comes from the term Wallon, itself coming from Walh. Walh is a very old germanic word used to refer to a speaker of Celtic or Latin.[10] The first apparition recognized of the French word Wallonie dates from 1842[11] in the Essai d'étymologie philosophique of the philologue and anthropologist Honoré Chavée who use it to refer to the romance word in opposition to Germany. Its «true» meaning, according to Albert Henry[12], happens two years later under the quill of François-Charles-Joseph Grandgagnage who by this name refers «this time, more and less neatly, the romance part of the young unitary State Belgium.»[13] It is in 1886, with the writer and walloon militant Albert Mockel, that the word takes «its political meaning of cultural and regional affirmation»[14], in opposition with the word Flanders used by the Flemish Movement. Symbols
Fosses-la-Ville, niche with the Walloon rooster. The emergence of an idea Walloon identity and a Walloon Movement organized has produced different symbols representing Wallonia and events celebrating it. The main symbol is the coq hardi (bold rooster, also named coq wallon) which is widely used, particularly for flags. He was chosen by the Walloon Assembly on April 20, 1913 and formalized the same year by the painter Pierre Paulus. A hymn, Le Chant des Wallons [The Song of the Walloons], composed in 1900, was also adopted. On September 21, 1913 first took place in Verviers the feast of Wallonia, the date is to commemorate the participation of Walloons during the Belgian revolution of 1830. There is also a motto of Wallonia, which is "Always Walloon ("Walon todi" in Walloon). Except the motto, those symbols chosen by the Walloon Movement were set by the Walloon Parliament as official emblems and events of the Walloon Region in 1998. The French Community of Belgium chose the coq hardi for its flag in 1991. GeographyRomance People or LandThe historians committed to the Belgian unity cause stressed the duality of Belgium. Léon Vanderkindere was speaking about the striking difference of the two parts of the Belgian population [15]. Henri Pirenne, recognized the same duality in his books and also in several lectures as, for instance, at the Walloon Congress of 1905: The two people, the Walloon people and the Flemish people, who are in Belgium [...] made great things in different domains and different actions, with various capacities [...] Each of these people may have for the other the greatest admiration... [16]. He speaks also of two national feelings There is undoubtless at home two other feelings, perfectly perceptible: the Flemish national feeling and the Walloon national feeling [17] The point of view of the Official website of the Walloon Region is the following: Julius Caesar conquered Gaul. Our ancestors became the Gallo-Romans and were called the "Walha" by their Germanic neighbours. Hence the name Wallonia. The "Walha" abandoned their Celtic dialects and started to speak Vulgar Latin. Already at that time, Wallonia was on the border between the Germanic world and the Latin world. [18]The historians committed to the Walloon cause are emphasizing the land of the Walloon people: Léopold Genicot[19], Francis Dumont etc.[20]. For Félix Rousseau, Wallonia has always been a romance land since Gallic Wars and constitutes a Latin avant-garde in the Germanic Europe. Félix Rousseau's book La Wallonie, Terre Romane [The Wallonia, Romance Land] begins like : For centuries, the land of the Walloons has been and has never stopped to be a romance land. That's the capital fact of the history of the Walloons that explains their way to think, to feel, to believe. The maps of the regional languages in France and Wallonia and in the regions of the neigbbouring countries illustrates these facts as same as the map of the regional languages in Wallonia itself: 
Regional languages of France and Wallonia : at the North of France, in green dark the area where walloon is spoken, in green light the two little areas (part of greater areas in France itself), where Picard (at the West) and Lorrain (at the South) are spoken. The avancée of latin Wallonia in the Europa of the dutch and german languages (in dark or green mauve The official language of Wallonia is French, the Belgian French variety which differs from the standard French of France to various degrees depending on the speaker. That was the decision of the National Congress elected in november 1830 (some weeks after the democratic revolution against The Netherlands who pulled Belgium from this country), but Wallonia was the only region of Belgium who has been loyal to this decision even if both in Wallonia and Flanders the languages spoken by the upper classes was only the French. This language was not the language of the low classes in Wallonia (but the dialects, Walloon, PIcard and Lorrain as you can see it on the following maps). In Flanders, this decision of the upper classes only represented in the National Congress was the origin of a Flemish movement. There was not such a political movement in Wallonia. In this part of Belgium, the interests of the low classes will be defended by the trade unions and the socialist movement (and some parts of the LIberals and the catholic party). When the Flemish movement became successfull (at the end of the nineteenth century), the socialist party (for instance Paul Pastur Jules Destrée and some other leftist movements, as the communists, the christian-democrats, the liberals...), began to defend Wallonia in itself, not only their leftist programms. And during the sixties that will be also the case of the Walloon Trade Unions with André Renard. The most important justification of the Walloon movement is the fact that the Walloon population is a minority in Belgium (since 1830), even if the French-spaking upper classes dominated the Belgian state in the beginning. In December 1960, a strike gripped the country, but it succeeded only in Wallonia. Renée C.Fox explained all the affair in a few words: At the beginning of the 1960s (...), a major reversal in the relationship between Flanders and Wallony was taking place. Flanders had entered a vigorous, post-World War II period of industialization, and a significant percentage of the foreign capital (particularly from the United States), coming into Belgium to support new industries was being invested in Flanders. In contrast, Wallony's coal mines and time-worn steel plants and factories were in crisis. The region had lost thousands of jobs and much investment capital. A new Flemish-speaking, upwardly mobile "populist bourgeoisie" was not only becoming visible and vocal in Flemish movements but also in both the local and national polity [The strike of December 1960 against the asuterity law of Gaston Eyskens ] was replaced by a collecvtive expression of the frustrations, anxieties, and grievances that Wallony was experiencing in response to its altered situation, and by the demands of the newly formed Mouvement populaire wallon for (...) regional autonomy for Wallony...[22]. Linguistic characteristics of WalloniaThe French language used in the administration and in the media is very similar in Belgium and in France. One notable difference is the use of the words septante (70) and nonante (90) in Belgium, as opposed to soixante-dix and quatre-vingt-dix in France. The other romance languages used are langue d'oïl regional languages : Walloon, Picard, Champenois, and Gaumais (a variety of Lorrain language). The official language in Wallonia remained the French. Nevertheless the dialects of Romance Belgium are more important than in France for instance. These regional languages were not be defended by the Walloon movement beacause of its important social dimension: The concepts of francité ou romanité are largely spread in the Walloon Movement today. They aime a romance linguistic community to which Walloon have always belong, that is to say since the Gallo-roman period. It strikes in this context that the wallingants have never fought for the recognition of the Walloon language as a standard language. Indeed, certainly since the 19th century the nations should have at it's disposal its own territory but also a language unified and prestigious. A dialect labelled as a linguistic variant is not enough. The prestige of French language presented a certain advantage in the fight against the Flemish Movement.[23] Champenois, Gaumais, Picard and Walloon (and also the germanic dialects present in Brussel and the French linguistic area) have only been officially recognized as regional languages since 24 December 1990 by a decree of the French Community of Belgium. 
Linguistic map of the French linguistic area. Walloon and Picard dialects were the predominant languages of the Walloon people until the beginning of the 20th century; French was the language of the upper class. With the development of education in French, these dialects have been in continual decline. There is currently an effort to revive Walloon dialects: some schools offer language courses in Walloon, which is also spoken in some radio programmes, but this effort remains very limited. Francophone unity, respect for the diversitySome Wallingants consider Wallonia as linguistically united and want to keep that linguistic unity. For example, the liberal and wallingant François Bovesse in 1929 said in one of his speeches : Walloons, we should pay attention to that aspect of the problem. The prolific Flanders is invading us slowly; if those who come to us and that we welcome fraternally isolate themselves in flemish linguistic groups, if some fanatisms help them to not being absorbed, if an administrative legislation unclear about languages favors this non-absorption, Walloons, beware, in fifty years your land will not be yours anymore. Some other Wallingants, as for instance seven representatives of the Walloon Parliament in may 2006 made a proposal of a Walloon Constitution [25], speaking of the inhabitants of the German-speaking municipalities (70.000 inhabitants at the East of the Province of Liège in Wallonia), as a very important link for Wallonia with the germanic countries of Europa [26] VoerenSome wallingants, as the Chairmain of the Walloon Parliament José Happart, claim that the municipality of Voeren should belong both to Wallonia and Flanders [27] CultureMosan artCinemaWalloon films are often characterized by social realism, like those of the Dardenne brothers or Benoît Mariage, and the social documentaries of Patric Jean. On the other hand, films such as Thierry Zéno's "Vase de noces" (1974), "Mireille in the life of the others" by Jean-Marie Buchet (1979), "C'est arrivé près de chez vous" (English title: Man bites dog) by Rémy Belvaux and André Bonzel (1992) and the works of Noël Godin and Jean-Jacques Rousseau are influenced by surrealism, absurdism and black comedy. Wallonia does not have an Anthology Film Archive Museum. No theater projects pointed cinema (experimental cinema, underground, or simply different, unusual test in the content or the form.) There is however the network of the theater known as "Art and essai" but, in practice, they diffuse only cinema subsidized "general public". ReferencesSee alsoExternal linksaf:Wallonië ar:??????? bs:Valonija br:Wallonia bg:??????? ca:Valònia cs:Valonsko da:Vallonien de:Wallonien el:???????? es:Valonia eo:Valonio eu:Walonia fr:Wallonie ga:An Vallóin gl:Valonia ko:??? hr:Valonija id:Walonia it:Vallonia he:?????? ku:Wallonîstan la:Vallonia lb:Wallounien lt:Valonija li:Wallonië lmo:Valònia hu:Vallónia nl:Wallonië nds-nl:Waalnlaand ja:?????? no:Vallonien pap:Wallonie pl:Walonia pt:Valônia ksh:Valloni (Regijon) ro:Valonia ru:???????? simple:Wallonia sk:Valónsky región sr:???????? fi:Vallonia sv:Vallonien tr:Valonya uk:???????? wa:Walonreye zh:?? Source: Wikipedia | The above article is available under the GNU FDL. | Edit this article
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