ABSTRACT
In this paper, we revisit the literature on the Industrial Revolution and the subsequent phases of (de)industrialization in the Netherlands and Belgium by constructing regional trends in industrial development during the 1820–2010 period, drawn from data of the Belgian and Dutch population and industry censuses. Whereas the contrasting experience of Belgium, which became the second country to experience an Industrial Revolution, and the retarded industrial development in the Netherlands has frequently been highlighted, we find that most of the initial Belgian lead can be attributed to the exponential rise of industrial activity alongside the Liège-Mons axis, far surpassing the other Belgian and Dutch regions. During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when industry clustered near centres of consumer markets and transport facilities, new industries emerged disproportionally around urbanized centres, implicating a relative standstill for the Dutch northern areas and the Belgian southern areas. When both countries entered the post-industrial phase during the second half of the twentieth century, the Dutch northern and eastern regions and the Belgian southern regions were less able to compensate for the disappearance of their industrial base, shaping to a large extent the current economic geography in both countries.
