This activity started weeks before the meeting, when the Belgian school chose 7 turning points in the history of their country. During the meeting students created short videos about those moments using toys to this goal by means of stop-motion technique.
Before the meeting, in Etwinning, Belgian and visitor students could talk so they had a better understand why these moments are important in the Belgian history. These are the seven videos we obtained as result of this activity:
AMBIORIX 54 BC
Ambiorix was the leader of the Eburones , a tribe in the north-east of Gaul. That region was called Gallia Belgica, where nowadays modern Belgium is located. Ambiorix is very famous in Belgium because of his resistance against Julius Caesar in 57 BC. Ambiorix deceived the Romans and the Roman troops were ambushed by the Eburones and massacred. Caesar wrote about Ambiorix in his commentary about his battles against the Gauls, De Bello Gallico: «Of these [three regions], the Belgae are the bravest.» («… Horum omnium fortissimi sunt Belgae …»).
BALDWIN I, the first Count of Flanders, 862 AD (Boudewijn I, graaf van Vlaanderen)
Baldwin was married with Judith of West Francia, the daughter of the Frankish king Charles the Bald. Baldwin received the title of first Count of Flanders, a region in West Francia, also called ‘pagus Flandrensis’. During the rule of Balwin the region of Flanders became a wealthy and economically prosperous region.
THE BURGUNDIANS
Margret III, the countess of Flanders marries in 1369 with Philip II the bold. He was the duke of Burgundy. Because of this marriage, the county of Flanders became part of the Burgundian Netherlands. It is regarded as one of the major powers in Europe of the 15th century and the early 16th century. The Dukes of Burgundy were among the wealthiest and the most powerful princes in Europe and were sometimes called «Grand Dukes of the West». Including the thriving regions of Flanders and Brabant, the Burgundian State was a major centre of trade and commerce.
CHARLES V
The death of Charles the Bold (1477) and the marriage of his daughter Mary to the archduke Maximilian of Austria ended the independence of the Low Countries by bringing them increasingly under the sway of the Habsburg dynasty. Mary and Maximilian’s grandson Charles became king of Spain as Charles I in 1516 and Holy Roman emperor as Charles V in 1519. In Brussels on 25 October 1555, Charles V abdicated Belgica Regia to his son, who in January 1556 assumed the throne of Spain as Philip II.po
WATERLOO 1815
The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815, near Waterloo (in Belgium). A French army under the command of Napoleon was defeated by an army led by the duke of Wellington.
INDEPENDENCE 1830
The Belgian Revolution was the armed rebellion against Willem I, which led to the secession of the southern provinces from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands and the establishment of an independent Kingdom of Belgium.
Election of Herman Van Rompuy as the first president of the European Council (2009)
Herman Van Rompuy is a Belgian politician, who served as the prime minister of Belgium from 2008 to 2009. On 19 November 2009 Van Rompuy was selected by the members of the European Council, which is the institution of the European Union comprising the heads of state or government of the EU member states, as the first full-time President of that Council under the Treaty of Lisbon. On 1 March 2012 he was re-elected for a second (and last) term, to last from 1 June 2012 until 30 November 2014.
Playing Europe 