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- Title
UNSHAKEABLE FOUNDATIONS.
- Authors
Huygebaert, Stefan
- Abstract
"Nothing short of a miracle" is een apt paraphrasing of Georges-Henri Dumont's description of the 1848 survival of Belgium's constitutional system and its monarchy. The Belgian regime survived the 1848 pan- European revolutionary wave with limited political measures, thanks to its liberal Constitution. Contrarily, the Dutch got a new Constitution and the French king Louis-Philippe's regime, although its 1830 Charte had been an example for Belgium's Constitution, was overthrown and turned into a republic. However, Belgium's miraculous institutional survival did serve as a wake-up call, initiating a symbolic reaffirmation of the Constitution by the liberal Rogier government. This article sheds new light on what it calls a constitutional semi-religious cult by focusing on the post-1848 visual and popular political communication and legitimation of Belgium's constitutional system. The imagery resulting from these measures ranges from traditional nineteenth-century media such as monuments, sculptures, prints and medals to more specific material such as an illustrated Constitution and a ceremonial sugar cake. By means of qualitative iconological interpretation, it is possible to analyse this imagery within its political and legal context and as part of the country's constitutional culture or Verfassungskultur. Scrutinizing the specific iconography of the imagery representing the Constitution, its Articles and its monarchy demonstrates how the 1848 non-revolution did have consequences in Belgian political thought, how abstract concepts such as constitutional monarchy and freedom of the press were made visual for a broad audience, and how initial consensus between Catholics and liberals in their reaction to the French February revolution turned into criticism on various aspects of Rogier's constitutional cult and its most visible remains : the Congress Column in Brussels.
- Subjects
EUROPE; BELGIAN politics &; government, 1830-1914; CONSTITUTIONAL history; STATE, The -- History; PUBLIC institutions -- Social aspects; REVOLUTIONS of 1848, Europe; ROGIER, Charles; MONARCHY; LEOPOLD I, King of the Belgians, 1790-1865; NINETEENTH century
- Publication
Journal of Belgian History / Revue Belge d'Histoire Contemporaine, 2015, Vol 45, Issue 4, p8
- ISSN
0035-0869
- Publication type
Article