Discovering Europe
The chemistry at work in Brussels
Brussels could easily be a characterless city of glass severed by highways, as one would imagine of a capital boasting major international institutions like the EU and NATO, over 1,000 offices of international agencies and 2,000 international companies. This often-unacknowledged city has, however, retained its unique identity; a blend of exuberance and opportunism, streets and buildings undergoing never-ending demolition and construction. The chemistry at work comes partly down to history.
The first people to live in Brussels settled on the St. Géry islet in the 11th Century. This strategic spot meant inhabitants traded with the major European cities via the Senne River and its tributaries. During this period, the ‘Rosella’ or ‘settlement in the swamps’, became a hub of trade and ideas in Europe, arousing the interest of Europe’s ‘heavyweights’ of the time. Brussels has successively become the capital of the Burgundian Netherlands, and Austria's Hapsburg Dynasty, which, upon inheritance of the throne of Spain, made Brussels the headquarters of the States-General of the Netherlands, headed by Charles V.
This was the end of a period characterised by a comparatively peaceful relationship between the Brussels middle classes and the imposed monarchy. Dark years followed when the Duke of Alba spread terror to suppress the attempts by town councillors to achieve independence. One hundred years later, Louis XIV bombarded the city centre. The reins of power then alternated between the French and the Austrians up until 1815, subsequent to Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo, when Brussels came under the leadership of William I of Orange, Prince of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. This was the last straw. The middle classes in the city rebelled and proclaimed the independence of Brussels, then of Belgium. The year was 1830.
Even then, the population of Brussels came from all walks of life and backgrounds: not only Flemish people, with their Germanic culture, French in the case of the middles classes (Napoleon had left his mark), Walloons and their Latin culture, but also people of Jewish and Spanish origin. They united under a foreign king, a Hapsburg, Leopold I. History seemed to be repeating itself, but the people of Brussels had now learned how to ‘get by’. To ‘clean up’ the blighted areas bordering the river Senne, where the poor lived, the town councillors decided in 1870 to cover it over, signalling a radical change in the city centre’s shape and identity.
Upheaval is something people have learned to live with, and has been subject to almost non-stop changes made to the city ever since. Leopold II wanted to turn Brussels into a capital like Paris. All that remains are a few roads and monuments. The wheeler-dealers and property tycoons were the ones who set about altering, and even disfiguring, certain central districts. Major institutions have arisen against this backdrop.
In 1958, Brussels became the headquarters of the European Community. In 1967, land on the outskirts of the city was offered for the headquarters of NATO, hounded out of Paris by General de Gaulle. The city is the third leading international conference venue. Thirty per cent of people living in Brussels are non-nationals. Brussels’ natives are quite matter-of-fact, but these fairly good-natured souls can be suspicious at times. The people of Brussels and their lack of chauvinism have allowed these newcomers to settle down happily, provided they do not ‘colonise’ their hosts.
