French Flanders

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 It has been suggested that French Netherlands be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)
Map showing the location of French Flanders within Nord-Pas de Calais bisected by the Lys River. To the north of the river is the French Westhoek and to the south is Lille Flanders.
Map showing the location of French Flanders within Nord-Pas de Calais bisected by the Lys River. To the north of the river is the French Westhoek and to the south is Lille Flanders.
Territorial changes due to the Treaty of the Pyrenees, including French Flanders.
Territorial changes due to the Treaty of the Pyrenees, including French Flanders.
The Dutch-language Sprachraum, including northern French Flanders.
The Dutch-language Sprachraum, including northern French Flanders.

French Flanders (French: La Flandre française; Dutch: Frans-Vlaanderen) is a part of the historical, originally Dutch-speaking region Flanders in present-day France. The region today lies in the modern-day région of Nord-Pas de Calais, the Departement of Nord, and roughly corresponds to the arrondissements of Lille, Douai, and Dunkirk on the Belgian border.

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[edit] Geography

French Flanders is mostly flat marshlands in the coal-rich area just south of the North Sea. French Flanders consists of two regions:

  1. French Westhoek to the northwest, lying between the Lys River and the North Sea, roughly the same area as the Arrondissement of Dunkirk
  2. Lille Flanders (French: La Flandre Lilloise; Dutch: Rijsels-Vlaanderen), the French parts of Romance Flanders (historically also Walloon Flanders) to the southeast, south of the Lys and now the arrondissements of Lille and Douai

[edit] History

The region was originally part of the feudal County of Flanders, then part of the Spanish Netherlands, in present-day Belgium. It was separated from the county in 1659 due to the Peace of the Pyrenees, which ended the French-Spanish conflict in the Thirty Years War, and other parts of the region were added in successive treaties in 1668 and 1678. The region was ceded to the Kingdom of France, and became part of the province of Flanders and Hainaut. The bulk became part of French the modern administrative Department of Nord, although some western parts of the region which separated in 1237 and became County of Artois before the cession to the French are now part of Pas-de-Calais.

During World War II, French Flanders referred to all of Nord-Pas de Calais which was first attached to military administration of German-occupied Belgium, then part of Belgien-Nordfrankreich under a Reichskommissar, and, finally part of a theoretical Reichsgau of Flanders.

Rich in coal, and bordering the North Sea, French Flanders was fought over numerous times between the middle ages and WWII.

[edit] Language

The traditional language of northern French Flanders (Westhoek) is a dialect of the Dutch language known as West Flemish, specifically, a subdialect known as French Flemish, but there are few speakers today. The traditional language of southern French Flanders (Romance Flanders) is Picard (and its dialects such as Ch'ti or Rouchi) and it is likewise seldom spoken. Standard French has largely replaced these regional languages.

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