Antwerp

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 24 July 1857


First published in The New American Cyclopaedia, Vol. I, 1858
Reproduced from The New American Cyclopaedia
Source : Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 18
Collection(s): New American Cyclopaedia

Antwerp, a maritime city of Belgium, the capital of a province bearing the same name. It is situated on the N. bank of the Scheldt, 26 miles N. of Brussels, and 32 miles E. N. E. from Ghent. Population (1855), 79,000. The city has the shape of a bow, the walls forming the semicircle, and the river the cord. The fortifications, which are very complete, have a length, including the citadel, of about 23/4 miles. The strong pentagonal citadel was built by the duke of Alva, in 1567. Antwerp is a very ancient city. It was at the height of its prosperity in the 15th and 16th centuries, at which time it was the commercial centre of Europe, had a widely extended foreign commerce, was frequented by ships of all nations (as many as 2,500 vessels lying in port at one time), and is said to have had a population of 200,000. In 1576 it was sacked and burned by the Spaniards. In 1585 it was taken, after a protracted siege,[1] by Alexander, prince of Parma.[2] Thereafter its trade was removed to Amsterdam, and other towns of the United Provinces. In 1794 it fell into the hands of the French. In 1832, after the revolt of the Belgian provinces, it was retaken, after a memorable siege, by the French Marshal Gérard.[3] Although not so important a city now as in the middle ages, the commerce and manufactures of Antwerp, at the present day, are far from inconsiderable. The river admits vessels of the largest size. The basins erected by Napoleon, and which have been turned into spacious commercial docks, are capable of containing 1,000 vessels. Extensive communication by canal gives to Antwerp an extended inland commerce; 1,970 vessels, of a tonnage of 286,474 tons, arrived here in 1846. It is the point of a regular and much frequented steam communication with England, and has lately become a point of departure for numerous emigrants to the United States. It is one of the most important hide markets in Europe. Its chief manufactures are black silks and velvets. It has also manufactories of cotton, Jinen, laces, carpets, hats, and cutlery, as well as sugar refineries, and ship-yards. The city retains to the present day much of its ancient splendor. Most of the houses are ancient, and solidly built. It has many fine public buildings, the chief of which is its cathedral, a superb Gothic structure, begun early in the 15th century, and completed in not less than 84 years. There are 3 other churches of note, the exchange, built 1583, the hotel de ville, a palace for the king when he chooses to reside in Antwerp, and the hall of the Hanse towns. It has, beside, an academy of painting, sculpture, and the sciences, a public library containing 15,000 volumes, a picture gallery with 200 very valuable pictures, many of them masterpieces of the old Flemish masters, a botanical garden, and diverse schools, hospitals, and asylums.

  1. ↑ The events mentioned in the text belong to the period of the bourgeois revolution in the Netherlands (1566-1609), in which the struggle of the bourgeoisie and the masses against the feudal system was linked with the war of national liberation against absolutist Spain which had subjugated the Netherlands (now Belgium and Holland) in the sixteenth century. In the course of the war with Spain, the Northern Provinces formed the Dutch Republic (the United Provinces of the Netherlands) and won independence, while the Southern Netherlands remained under the Spaniards. In 1576 Antwerp was burned down by the Spaniards, the following year it was recaptured by the insurgents, and in 1579 it joined the anti-Spanish United Northern Provinces. However, in 1585 it was retaken by the Spaniards.
  2. ↑ Alexander Farnese.— Ed
  3. ↑ In the autumn of 1832 the Anglo-French fleet blockaded the Dutch ports, and the French army laid siege to the fortress of Antwerp to force Holland to fulfil the terms of the London Treaty of 1831. The treaty provided for recognition of the independence of Belgium which had separated from the Kingdom of the Netherlands as a result of the bourgeois revolution of 1830, and for the transfer of Antwerp to the Belgians. The fortress capitulated in late December 1832.