Academic literature on the topic 'Coal trade – Belgium'

The European Union (EU) currently comprised of 28 countries is heralded as the single most ambitious voluntary supra-national economic, trade and monetary arrangement in recent modern history. The initial impetus of this arrangement began in 1951 with The Coal and Steel Union amongst Germany, France, Belgium, Luxemburg, Netherlands, and Italy and it continues to evolve today. The most ambitious part of this arrangement is the economic and monetary union (EMU) of 19 EU members countries called the Eurozone. This grand experiment has recently faced its biggest stress test with a double dip recession – the 2008 global financial crisis and the 2010+ European sovereign debt crisis. While many experts focused on the lack of fiscal union to resolve the Eurozone’s current problems, the issues are more complex. Systemic risk in Eurozone originates in part from three principal areas: political issues, lack of a fiscal discipline enforcement mechanism, and market failure.

The geological sciences at the University of Liège: two centuries of evolution.Part 1: from the foundation to the First World War. By the time the University of Liège was founded in 1817, geology was a young science and the geological composition of the country was being unveiled. The works of precursors such as Robert de Limbourg were about to inspire the first generation of Belgian geologists, among which Jean-Baptiste Julien d’Omalius d’Halloy is the most renowned. Geology was not taught at the University of Liège before 1818, when Henri-Maurice Gaëde was appointed. He taught geology, mineralogy and crystallography as well as anatomy and botany. He was followed by Armand Lévy in 1828, then again by Gaëde in 1830, Philippe-Adolphe Lesoinne in 1831, Charles-Philippe Davreux 1834 and Michel Gloesener in 1834. Except the mineralogist Lévy, none of them conducted any geology-based research. Nevertheless, geological knowledge, especially palaeontology, progressed due to the work of scientists such as Philippe-Charles Schmerling who described the first fossil human in 1830. Geology became a true research area at the university with the arrival of André Dumont in 1835. Before his appointment as professor, Dumont had already proved his mastery of geology by publishing his Description géologique de la province de Liége which earned him the golden medal of the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Brussels and a great reputation. He was the first to demonstrate the stratigraphic succession of the strata (geognosy) and to trace those strata on a map to show how they correlate. A great field geologist, Dumont was appointed by the Belgian Government to map the geology of the country, providing the first geological map of Belgium and neighbouring areas as a whole in 1849. At the same period (1846), Laurent-Guillaume de Koninck was appointed to teach palaeontology. His expertise on all groups of fossil animals drove him to produce an impressive number of monographic publications, on Belgian material but also on collections sent to him from all over the world. His Faune du Calcaire carbonifère de la Belgique – of which only the six first volumes were published before his death – is by itself the most exhaustive study of Carboniferous invertebrates ever published. De Koninck was in conflict with Dumont about the utility of fossils in geology, the latter being persuaded that they were too variable to have any significance. However, de Koninck’s palaeontological methods were indeed necessary and led to the development of biostratigraphy. Both Dumont and de Koninck received the Wollaston medal from the Geological Society of London for their work. Their successor Gustave Dewalque became – in 1857 – professor of geology and palaeontology and combined the scientific views of both his predecessors to produce very detailed and holistic research. His palaeontological work on the Jurassic fossils of S Belgium is most remarkable but his main achievement was his geological map of Belgium and surrounding areas, replacing Dumont’s with a much higher level of details. To make the reading of the map easier, Dewalque wrote his masterful Prodrome d’une description géologique de la Belgique (1868), which is no less than an encyclopaedia on geology of Belgium. His name is also inseparable from two major achievements in Belgium. Firstly the production of a detailed geological map at the 1/40,000 scale for which he achieved scientific posterity. Secondly he was the founding character of the Société géologique de Belgiquein 1874 and was also Secretary General of the society for 25 years. For his tremendous works, Dewalque received the prestigious Hayden medal from the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia in 1899. During his academic life, Dewalque progressively delegated his teaching to his young collaborators who eventually replaced him: Alfred Gilkinet for Palaeobotany, Julien Fraipont for Palaeontology, Adolphe Firket for Physical Geography, Guiseppe Cesàro for Mineralogy, and Max Lohest for General and Applied Geology. Alfred Gilkinet was one of the first palaeobotanists to embrace the theory of evolution and to recognise it among his fossils. He had a particular interest on Devonian fossil plants but also described material from the Paleogene. He was moreover a pharmacist and the institute of Pharmacy of the University bears his name. Julien Fraipont first entered the university at the laboratory of biology led by Edouard Van Beneden and published several papers on marine organisms for him. His work on Devonian crinoids was rewarded by the Société géologique de Belgiqueaward and de Koninck chose him to collaborate to his monography on Carboniferous bivalves. Fraipont published several papers on Palaeozoic fossils, the most remarkable being his work on the exquisitely-preserved echinoderms from the Marbre Noir de Denée. Furthermore, Fraipont was, with his colleague Lohest, a palaeoanthropologist and archaeologist and both were responsible for many discoveries in Quaternary cave deposits, including in Spy. Lohest was first a palaeontologist and published several contributions to the Palaeozoic fishes from Belgium, including a mandible identified by him as being from a fish but now interpreted as a rare Ichthyostega-like tetrapod. He then focused only on geology and applied geology after his major discoveries; such as the phosphate deposits in Hesbaye area, his prevision of the existence of coal measure in a deep basin in N Belgium, his interpretation of the metamorphism in Ardenne and description of the boudinage phenomenon. With Julien Fraipont and Marcel de Puydt, he discovered and described the human remains from the Spy cave – remains they interpreted as belonging to a species distinct from ours and that they attributed to the Neanderthal ‘race’. They demonstrated, for the first time in history, the co-occurrence of a fossil human species, Mousterian lithic industries and Pleistocene megafauna. Adolphe Firket mainly taught Physical Geography but was involved in the geological study of the Belgian coal measures and various mineral deposits. Guiseppe Cesàro was the true founder of mineralogy and crystallography in Belgium. His works on calcites and phosphates were very advanced despite that he was a self-taught man. They are still used as references today as are his works on crystallography. All those great names were part of the University and Belgian geology history, as men, scientists and professors. They left us a considerable heritage that needs to be rediscovered.

Cette recherche a pour ambition de contribuer aux études sur l’histoire sociale de la construction européenne. En prenant pour point d’appui le cas de l’industrie charbonnière, il a été possible de mettre en évidence une tentative de préservation et de prolongement des politiques sociales d’après-guerre à l’intérieur de la Communauté. Les débats sur le logement ouvrier, les discussions paritaires et la tentative d’instauration d’un statut européen du mineur reflètent cette continuité entre les niveaux nationaux et européens. L’échec de politiques sociales d’envergure sonnait le glas d’un élan initié par quelques syndicalistes et militants européens pour un approfondissement de l’Europe sociale dont l’expression commençait à prendre consistance. La crise charbonnière de 1958 allait transformer les politiques de la Haute Autorité où la réponse aux crises régionales prenait une place majeure. En ce sens, la reconversion du Borinage était le premier test social d’envergure pour le maintien du consensus politique d’après-guerre. Malgré les mesures nationales et européennes pour la relance économique du bassin borain, aucune industrie n’est parvenue à remplacer les fosses tant du point de vue économique qu’identitaire. Les conflits sociaux apparus dans les années 1970 ont alors mis en lumière les transformations sociales et culturelles du Borinage en reconversion.
Doctorat en Histoire, art et archéologie
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L’objet principal de cette thèse porte sur l’immigration turque dans l’industrie charbonnière belge dans une séquence historique qui débute en 1956, année de la catastrophe du Bois-du-Cazier à Marcinelle (262 morts), de l’arrêt définitif de tout recrutement au départ de l’Italie pour ce secteur d’activité réputé pour sa dangerosité, de l’extension des bassins de prospection de l’industrie minière et de ses premières tentatives de recrutement en Turquie, et s’achève en 1980, année du rétablissement par les Etats membres du Benelux de l’obligation du visa d’entrée touristique pour les ressortissants turcs au lendemain de l’avènement d’un nouveau régime militaire en Turquie, annonciateur d’un nouvel afflux migratoire conséquent.

Plus largement, la thèse interroge la pertinence du postulat qui veut que les politiques migratoires conçues et mises en oeuvre par les pouvoirs publics, au cours des Golden Sixties, aient considéré les travailleurs migrants comme une main-d’oeuvre d’appoint temporaire.

La première partie de la thèse, qui porte sur la genèse de la politique d’immigration belge entre 1830 et 1960, recadre l’histoire de l’immigration turque dans l’industrie houillère belge et des politiques mises en oeuvre à son intention dans le contexte du double processus d’étatisation et de nationalisation des politiques migratoires au cours des XIXe et XXe siècles.

La seconde partie retrace la configuration des chaînes d’interdépendances qui relient les trajectoires migratoires des travailleurs migrants turcs recrutés par l’industrie charbonnière belge dans les années 1960 et 1970 aux dispositifs générés, séparément ou conjointement, par l’Etat belge, l’Etat turc, l’industrie charbonnière, les organisations syndicales et les services, associations et autres collectifs d’accueil et d’aide aux migrants pour organiser, stabiliser et intégrer cette immigration turque dans les régions minières du pays.

La troisième partie interroge le devenir de cette immigration turque au moment où les fermetures de charbonnages se succèdent et que de nouveaux besoins en main-d’oeuvre se font sentir dans les dernières sociétés charbonnières encore en activité. Elle esquisse en parallèle le processus d’étatisation des politiques d’intégration jusque-là principalement prises en charge par les modes de gestion paternalistes de l’industrie charbonnière.

Cette thèse aborde également, mais dans une moindre mesure, l’immigration originaire de Turquie avant 1960 et l’immigration turque qui se développe au cours des années 1960 et 1970, en marge de celle organisée en faveur de l’industrie charbonnière, à destination d’autres régions et secteurs d’activité du pays (Bruxelles, Anvers, Gand, Ardennes, etc.).

Son angle d’approche dépasse par ailleurs la seule immigration turque en Belgique et la seule politique migratoire belge. Elle s’intéresse ainsi, à travers des analyses comparées, au cas de l’immigration marocaine, qui lui est contemporain, ou encore à la politique migratoire néerlandaise, à l’origine d’un phénomène de désertion massive de l’industrie houillère belge par les ouvriers mineurs turcs.
Doctorat en Histoire, art et archéologie
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Defence date: 10 June 2008
Examining board: Prof. Eric Bussière, université Paris-IV Sorbonne ; Prof. Michel Dumoulin, Université Catholique de Louvain ; Prof. Harold James, Institut Universitaire Européen (superviseur) ; Prof. Yves Mény , Institut Universitaire Européen
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digital archive of EUI PhD theses
La thèse que nous présentons ici s’inscrit dans le cadre de trois courants historiographiques différents : l’histoire industrielle de l’après-guerre en Belgique, l’adaptation d’intérêts professionnels nationaux aux débuts du processus de construction européenne et, enfin, l’évolution des tensions entre libéralisme économique et économie mixte. À l’interface de ces trois courants, notre objectif est de montrer que la faillite des charbonnages belges et l’échec de leur intégration au marché commun de la CECA dans les années 1950 trouvent une grande part de leur explication dans l’obsession avec laquelle les patrons charbonniers belges ont prétendu défendre, envers et contre tout, les principes de la libre entreprise privée et dans l’illusion longtemps nourrie que les pouvoirs d’intervention de la Haute Autorité pourraient les y aider.

How was the EU formed? The European Union (EU) started out as the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) with six member nations (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands). The underlying motive for forming the ESC and for subsequent economic integration was...