More on History of Luxembourg

More on History of Luxembourg

Until 1598, the history of the grand duchy of Luxembourg, Belgium (except the Bishopric of Liège), and the Netherlands is identical to the history of the Low Countries. Human remains that date from about 5140 B.C.E. were found in present-day Luxembourg. Belgic tribes, the Treveri and Mediomatrici, lived in the region from about 450 B.C.E. until the Roman conquest of 53 B.C.E. The first known reference to the territory in modern Luxembourg was by Julius Caesar in his Commentaries on the Gallic War.

The Franks occupied the country in the fifth century C.E. Northumbrian missionary St Willibrord (658-759) worked on behalf of Pepin, the Christian king of the Franks, in Christianizing the area. In 698 he established an abbey at a Roman villa of Echternach, in Luxemburg near Trier, which was presented to him by Irmina, daughter of Dagobert II, king of the Franks.

The area was part of the Frankish kingdom of Austrasia, of the Holy Roman Empire under Charlemagne (742/747–814) and Louis I (the Pious) (778–840), and then of the kingdom of Lotharingia.

• Medieval Luxembourg

Luxembourg became an independent entity in 963, when Siegfried I, Count of Ardennes traded some of his ancestral lands with the monks of the Abbey of Saint Maximin in Trier for an ancient, supposedly Roman, fort by the name of Lucilinburhuc. Modern historians explain the etymology of the word with Letze, meaning fortification which might have referred to either the remains of a Roman watchtower or to a primitive refuge of the early Middle Ages.

Around this fort a town gradually developed, which became the center of a small but important state of great strategic value to France, Germany and the Netherlands. Luxembourg's fortress, located on a rocky outcrop known as the Bock, was steadily enlarged and strengthened over the years by successive owners, among others the Bourbons, Habsburgs and Hohenzollerns, which made it one of the strongest fortresses on the European continent. Its formidable defenses and strategic location caused it to become known as the "Gibraltar of the North."

About 1060, Conrad, one of Siegfried's descendants, took the title of count of Luxembourg. Holy Roman emperor Henry VII (c. 1275–1313) was from the House of Luxembourg dynasty, as was Charles IV (1316–1378), and Sigismund (1368–1437). Luxembourg remained an independent fief of the Holy Roman Empire until 1354, when the emperor Charles IV elevated it to the status of a duchy. At that time the Luxembourg family held the Crown of Bohemia. In 1437, the House of Luxembourg suffered a succession crisis, precipitated by the lack of a male heir to assume the throne. In 1443 Elizabeth of Görlitz, duchess of Luxembourg and niece of the Holy Roman emperor Sigismund, was forced to cede the duchy to Philip III (the Good) (1419–1467), duke of Burgundy.

The heirs of the main Luxembourg dynasty were not happy with Burgundian control, and managed at times to wrest the possession from Burgundy: the Habsburg prince Ladislas the Posthumous, king of Bohemia and Hungary (d. 1457) held the title Duke of Luxembourg in the 1450s, and after his death, his brother-in-law William of Thuringia (1425-1482) claimed it from 1457 to 1469. In 1467, Elisabeth, Queen of Poland, the last surviving sister of Ladislas, renounced her right in favor of Burgundy, since the possession was difficult to hold against Burgundy.

• Habsburg rule

With the marriage of Mary of Burgundy to Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I (1459–1519) in 1477, the duchy of Luxembourg passed to the Habsburgs, along with the rest of the Burgundian inheritance, as one of the Seventeen Provinces of the Netherlands. After Emperor Charles V (1500-1558) abdicated in 1556, the division of the Habsburg territories put the duchy in the possession of the Spanish Habsburgs. Luxembourg took no part in the revolt of the Low Countries against Philip II of Spain, and remained with what became Belgium as part of the Spanish Netherlands.

The duchy was able, for a while, to stay out of the Thirty Years' War, fought between 1618 and 1648 principally on the territory of today's Germany. This was ostensibly a religious conflict between Protestants and Catholics, although the rivalry between the Habsburg dynasty and other powers was a more central motive. But when France became involved in the war in 1635, Luxembourg sustained war, famine, and epidemics. The war did not end for Luxembourg until the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659.

• French invasion

Luxembourg was invaded by Louis XIV of France (husband of Maria Theresa, daughter of Philip IV) in 1679, and the conquest was completed in 1684 with the capture of Luxembourg city. The invasion caused alarm among France's neighbors and resulted in the formation of the League of Augsburg in 1686. In the ensuing war France was forced to give up the duchy, which was returned to the Spanish Habsburgs by the Treaty of Ryswick in 1697. During this period of French rule, the famous siege engineer Vauban strengthened the defenses of the fortress. At the end of the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714), according to the treaties of Utrecht and Rastatt (1713–1714), Luxembourg and Belgium passed from the Spanish to the Austrian Habsburgs. In 1795, six years after the beginning of the French Revolution, Revolutionary France conquered and annexed Luxembourg, making it part of the département of the Forêts in 1795. The annexation was formalized at Campo Formio in 1797. The constitution of revolutionary France was imposed, and a modern state bureaucracy introduced. Luxembourg peasants rejected the French government's anticlerical measures. The introduction of compulsory military service in France in 1798 provoked a rebellion (the Klëppelkrieg) in Luxembourg that was brutally suppressed.

• Congress of Vienna

French domination ended in 1814, with the fall of Napoleon. The Congress of Vienna in 1815, which was a conference between ambassadors, from the major powers in Europe, to settle issues and redraw the continent's political map after the defeat of Napoleonic France, raised Luxembourg to the status of a grand duchy and gave it to William I (1772–1843), the king of the Netherlands. Luxembourg had a complicated status—with the legal position of an independent state, that was united with The Netherlands as a personal possession of William I, but also included within the German Confederation, with a Prussian military garrison housed in the capital city.

• Belgian revolution

William treated Luxembourg as a conquered country and taxed it heavily. Much of the Luxembourgish population joined the Belgian revolution in 1830 against Dutch rule. Except for the fortress and its immediate vicinity, Belgium considered Luxembourg as a province of the new Belgian state from 1830 to 1839, while William still claimed the duchy as his own. In 1831, the Great Powers (France, Britain, Prussia, Russia, and Austria) stepped in and decided that Luxembourg belonged to William I and formed part of the German Confederation. The predominantly French speaking part of the duchy was ceded to Belgium as the province de Luxembourg, while William I was allowed to retain the Luxembourgian-speaking part.

Belgium accepted this arrangement, but William I rejected it, only to accept it when it was confirmed by the Treaty of London in 1839. From that year until 1867, the duchy was administered autonomously from The Netherlands.

The loss of Belgian markets also caused painful economic problems for the state. Recognizing this, the grand duke integrated it into the German Zollverein in 1842. Nevertheless, Luxembourg remained an underdeveloped agrarian country for most of the century. As a result of this about one in five of the inhabitants emigrated to the United States between 1841 and 1891.

• Towards independence

The Revolution of 1848 in Paris prompted William II (1792–1849) that year enacted a more liberal constitution, which replaced in 1856. In 1866 the German Confederation was dissolved, and Luxembourg became a sovereign nation, though the Prussian garrison remained. Napoleon III (1808-1873) of France offered to buy the grand duchy from William III for five million florins. William III backed out after civil unrest and because the Prussian chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, disapproved. The second Treaty of London in 1867 guaranteed the perpetual independence and neutrality of the state. The fortress walls were pulled down and the Prussian garrison was withdrawn. Luxembourg remained a possession of the kings of the Netherlands until the death of William III in 1890, when the grand duchy passed to the House of Nassau-Weilburg due to a Nassau inheritance pact of 1783.

• World War I

World War I was a global military conflict which took place primarily in Europe from 1914 to 1918. Over 40 million casualties resulted, including approximately 20 million military and civilian deaths. The Entente Powers, led by France, Russia, the British Empire, and later Italy (from 1915) and the United States (from 1917), defeated the Central Powers, led by the Austro-Hungarian, German, and Ottoman Empires.

During the First World War, Luxembourg was occupied by Germany, but the government and Grandduchess Marie-Adélaïde were allowed to remain in office throughout the occupation (until 1918), bringing accusations of collaboration from France. It was liberated by U.S. and French troops. Two American divisions were based in the state in the years following the War. At Versailles the Belgian claim to Luxembourg was rejected and its independence reaffirmed.

• The interwar period

In the 1930s the internal situation deteriorated, as Luxembourgish politics were influenced by European left- and right-wing politics. The government tried to counter Communist-led unrest in the industrial areas and continued friendly policies towards Nazi Germany, which led to much criticism. The attempts to quell unrest peaked with the Maulkuerfgesetz, the "muzzle" Law, which was an attempt to outlaw the Communist Party of Luxembourg. The law was dropped after a 1937 referendum.

• World War II

World War II was a worldwide military conflict, which split the majority of the world's nations into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis Powers. Spanning much of the globe, World War II resulted in the death of over 70 million people, making it the deadliest conflict in human history.

During World War II, the Luxembourgish government and monarchy was swept away into exile by the German invasion of May 10, 1940. Throughout the war, Grand Duchess Charlotte broadcast via on BBC to Luxembourg to give hope to the people. The state was placed under military occupation until August 1942, when it was formally annexed by the Third Reich as part of the Gau Moselland. Luxembourgers were declared to be German citizens and 13,000 were called up for military service. A total 2848 Luxembourgers died fighting in the German army. Measures to quell Luxembourgish opposition to this annexation were met with passive resistance at first, such as the Spéngelskrich (lit. "War of the Pins"), and refusing to speak German. As French was forbidden, many Luxembourgers resorted to resuscitating old Luxembourgish words, which led to a renaissance of the language. Other measures included deportation, forced labor, forced conscription and, more drastically, internment, deportation to concentration camps and execution. The latter measure was applied after a general strike from September 1-3, 1942, which paralyzed the administration, agriculture, industry and education as response to the declaration of forced conscription by the German administration on August 30, 1942. It was violently suppressed: 21 strikers were executed and hundreds more deported to concentration camps. The then civilian administrator of Luxembourg, Gauleiter Gustav Simon had declared conscription necessary to support the German war effort.

U.S. forces again liberated most of the country in September 1944, although they were briefly forced to withdraw during the Battle of the Bulge, otherwise known as the Ardennes Offensive or the Rundstedt Offensive, which had German troops take back most of northern Luxembourg for a few weeks. The Germans were finally expelled in January 1945. Altogether, 5,259 of a pre-war population of 293,000 Luxembourgers lost their lives during the hostilities.

• Since 1945

After World War II Luxembourg abandoned its politics of neutrality, when it became a founding member of NATO (1949) and the United Nations. It is a signatory of the Treaty of Rome, and constituted a monetary union with Belgium (Benelux Customs Union in 1948), and an economic union with Belgium and The Netherlands, the so-called BeNeLux. Luxembourg has been one of the strongest advocates of the European Union. In 1957, Luxembourg became one of the six founding countries of the European Economic Community (later the European Union).

Grand Duke Jean succeeded his mother, Grand Duchess Charlotte, on November 12, 1964. In 1985, the country became the target of a mysterious bombing spree, which was targeted mostly at electrical masts and other installations. In 1995, Luxembourg provided the President of the European Commission, former Prime Minister Jacques Santer who later had to resign over corruption accusations against other commission members. In 1999, Luxembourg joined the euro currency area. Grand Duke Jean abdicated the throne on October 7, 2000, in favor of Prince Henri, who assumed the title and constitutional duties of Grand Duke. Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, on September 10, 2004, became the semi-permanent president of the group of finance ministers from the 12 countries that share the euro, a role dubbed "Mr Euro." On July 10, 2005, after threats of resignation by Prime Minister Juncker, the proposed European Constitution was approved by 56.52 percent of voters.