Nord-Pas-de-Calais

Nord-Pas-de-Calais combines the names of the constituent departments of Nord (literally 'North', the northernmost department of France) and Pas-de-Calais ('Strait of Calais', the French name of the Strait of Dover). The regional council, however, spells the name Nord-Pas de Calais.[3]

The northern part of the region was historically a part of the County of Flanders, with Douai as its capital. Those[4] who wish to evidence the historical links the region has with Belgium and the Netherlands prefer to call this region the French Low Countries, which also means French Netherlands in French (French: Pays-Bas français; Dutch: Franse Nederlanden or Franse Lage Landen). Other alternative names are Région Flandre(s)-Artois, Hauts-de-France, ('Upper France') and Picardie-du-Nord ('Northern Picardy').

Liane in Pas-de-Calais

Inhabited since prehistoric times, the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region has always been a strategic (and hence one of the most fought-over) region in Europe. French President Charles de Gaulle, who was born in Lille, called the region a "fatal avenue" through which invading armies repeatedly passed. Over the centuries, it was conquered in turn by the Celtic Belgae, the Romans, the Germanic Franks, England, the Spanish and Austrian Netherlands, and the Dutch Republic. After the final French annexation in the early 18th century, much of the region was again occupied by Germany during the First and Second World Wars.

During the 4th and 5th centuries, the Roman practice of co-opting Germanic tribes to provide military and defense services along the route from Boulogne to Cologne created a Germanic–Romance linguistic border in the region that persisted until the 8th century. By the 9th century, most inhabitants north of Lille spoke a dialect of Middle Dutch, while the inhabitants to the south spoke a variety of Romance dialects. This linguistic border is still evident today in the place names of the region. Beginning in the 9th century, the linguistic border began a steady move to north and the east. By the end of the 13th century, the linguistic border had shifted to the river Lys in the south and Cap-Griz-Nez in the west.[5]

Winter at Cap Blanc Nez

During the Middle Ages, the Pas-de-Calais department comprised County of Boulogne and the County of Artois, while the Nord department was mostly made up of the southern portions of the County of Flanders and the County of Hainaut. Boulogne, Artois, and Flanders were fiefs of the French crown, while Hainaut and after 1493 Flanders were within the Holy Roman Empire. Calais was an English possession from 1347 to 1558, when it was recovered by the French throne. In the 15th century, all of the territories, except Calais, were united under the rule of the Dukes of Burgundy, along with other territories in northern France and areas in what is now Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. With the death of the Burgundian duke Charles the Bold in 1477, the Boulonnais and Artois were seized by the French crown, while Flanders and Hainaut were inherited by Charles's daughter Marie. Shortly thereafter, in 1492, Artois was ceded back to Marie's son Philip the Handsome, as part of an attempt to keep Philip's father, Emperor Maximilian I, neutral in French King Charles VIII's prospective invasion of Italy.

Douai

Thus, most of the territories of what is now Nord-Pas-de-Calais were reunited to the Burgundian inheritance, which had passed through Marie's marriage to the House of Habsburg. These territories formed an integral part of the Seventeen Provinces of the Netherlands as they were defined during the reign of Philip's son, Emperor Charles V, and passed to Charles's son, Philip II of Spain. During the Italian Wars much of the conflict between France and Spain occurred in the region. When the Netherlands revolted against Spanish rule, beginning in 1566, the territories in what is now Nord-Pas-de-Calais were those most loyal to the throne, and proved the base from which the Duke of Parma was able to bring the whole southern part of the Netherlands back under Spanish control. It was also a base for Spanish support of French Catholics in the French Wars of Religion.

Bog of Vred, natural reserve

During the wars between France and Spain in the 17th century (1635 –1659, 1667–68, 1672–78, 1688–97), these territories became the principal seat of conflict between the two states and French control over the area was gradually established. Beginning with the annexation of Artois in 1659, most of the current Nord department territory had been acquired by the time of the Treaty of Nijmegen in 1678. The current borders were mostly established by the time of the Treaty of Ryswick in 1697.

The area, previously divided among the French provinces of Flanders, Artois, and Picardy, was divided into its two present departments following the French Revolution of 1789. Under Napoleon, the French boundary was extended to include all of Flanders and present-day Belgium until the Congress of Vienna in 1815 restored the original French boundary.

During the 19th century, the region underwent major industrialisation and became one of the leading industrial regions of France, second only to Alsace-Lorraine. Nord-Pas-de-Calais was barely touched by the Franco-Prussian War of 1870; the war actually helped it to cement its leading role in French industry due to the loss of Alsace-Lorraine to Germany. However, it suffered catastrophic damage in the two World Wars of the 20th century.

Lens

World War I

When the First World War started, the region became a strategic target for the Allies and the Central Powers, mostly because of the coal and mining resources. When the German troops launched their attack from Belgium, the region was one of the first to fall under German occupation. Nevertheless, when the Allies stopped Germany at the Battle of Marne, the front moved back to the area and stabilized near Arras. During the next four years, the region was split in two: the German holding the French Flanders and Cambrai area, the Allied controlling Arras and the Area of Lens. Nevertheless, the combat did not stop, each side wanting the total control of the area.

Canadian National Vimy Memorial near Arras

The Nord pas de Calais was one of the main theaters of the conflict, with many battles occurring between 1914 and 1918, including the Battle of Vimy Ridge assault during the Battle of Arras (1917), the Battle of Artois, Battle of Loos and the Battle of Cambrai. By the time the region was finally liberated by the Canadian Expeditionary Forces, the entire country was devastated and Arras had been 90% destroyed. Currently, there are 650 military cemeteries throughout the Nord-Pas-de Calais, mostly British and Canadian, as well as large memorials such as the Canadian National Vimy Memorial and Notre Dame de Lorette, the world's largest French military cemetery.[6]

While the region is predominantly French-speaking, it also has two significant minority language communities: the western Flemings, whose presence is evident in the many Dutch place names in the area and who speak West Flemish, a dialect of Dutch (perhaps 20,000 inhabitants of Nord-Pas-de-Calais use Flemish daily and an estimated 40,000 use it occasionally, both primarily in and around the arrondissement of Dunkirk[7]); and the Picards, who speak the Picard language, or Ch'ti (speakers, "chitimi", have been working to revive the nearly-extinct regional speech since the 1980s). Although neighbouring Belgium currently recognizes and fosters both Picard and Dutch, and a few city-level governments within Nord-Pas-de-Calais have introduced initiatives to encourage both languages, the national French government maintains a policy of linguistic unity and generally ignores both languages,[8] as it does with other regional languages in France.

The region's ethnic diversity has been affected by repeated waves of immigrant workers from abroad: Belgians and Welsh before 1910; Poles and Italians in the 1920s and 1930s; Eastern European groups and Germans since 1945; and North Africans and Portuguese since 1960;[9] and large cities like Lille, Calais, and Boulogne-sur-Mer are home to sizable communities of British, Dutch, Scandinavian, Greek and Balkans, Sub-Saharan African, and Latin American immigrants and their descendants.

The French state has sought to boost the region's relatively neglected culture. In 2004, it was announced that a branch of the Louvre would be opened in the city of Lens. For decades, the Nord-Pas-de-Calais has been viewed as a conservative region when compared culturally to the rest of France, but recently the region has at times displayed left-wing tendencies. In the early 2000s, the leftist Green Party won the largest number of votes to nearly carry a majority in regional and local representation. The Greens managed to attract many conservative voters from small towns and farmers moved by the Greens' commitment to boosting agri-industry.

The region's religious profile is representative of France as a whole, with the majority being Roman Catholic. Other Christian groups are found in the region: Protestants have a few churches. North Africans have introduced Islam to the region, and small but growing communities of Buddhists have been established in recent years. In World War II, 18,000 of the region's French Jews were victims of the Nazi occupation, but a small Jewish community remains active as it has been for hundreds of years.

A map of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region from the early 1920s, showing the road and railway network of that time.

As most of its population is urbanized, the region has a dense and complex transport system of highways, railways, airport and seaports.

Lille, the largest city in Nord-Pas-de-Calais

Allotments in Tourcoing (Nord), France. In the background, the church Notre-Dame de la Marlière

• Lille and surrounding area is home to over 1.5 million inhabitants.
• Arras
• Boulogne
• Calais
• Cambrai
• Douai
• Dunkirk
• Lens
• Liévin
• Marcq-en-Barœul
• Maubeuge
• Roubaix
• Saint-Omer
• Tourcoing
• Valenciennes
• Villeneuve d'Ascq
• Wattrelos

The regional education system of the Académie de Lille includes one million pupils and students. Higher education and research are supported within the Community of Universities and Institutions (COMUE) Lille Nord de France - (University of Lille).

• List of châteaux in Nord-Pas-de-Calais

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Nord-Pas-de-Calais.

• Nord-Pas-de-Calais : between yesterday's resistance and today's hospitality- Official French website (in English)
• Regional Council of Nord-Pas-de-Calais (in French)
• Official website: Tourism in Nord-Pas-deCalais