- 15 hours ago
Great Continental Railway Journeys Season 9 Episode 9
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00:01I'm embarking on a new series of railway journeys,
00:06exploring Europe's most beautiful and historic regions.
00:10Ooh, we're about to set off.
00:14From Belgium...
00:16Oh, I'm loving this.
00:20...to Hungary...
00:23This is amazing.
00:25...and the islands of Sardinia...
00:30Fantastic.
00:31...and Corsica.
00:33Ha-ha!
00:34I'll enjoy nature, history, culture and fun
00:38in some of Europe's most enchanting places.
00:44I am looking forward to a tremendous railway adventure.
01:18My railway journey in Belgium continues as I bend back towards Brussels, the capital.
01:23I'll discover how Napoleon Bonaparte, an invader in Belgium, eventually met his Waterloo.
01:30And talking of foreign occupation, I'll investigate the brutal colonisation by Belgium of Congo
01:38and the legacies that hang over till today.
01:41I'll view late 19th century Belgian civil engineering.
01:45How do you raise a barge from one canal to another that's higher?
01:50The key is not to use locks.
01:57Starting in Brussels, I travelled across Plateau and Plain in the Flanders region to the coast.
02:04Now I'll continue south into Wallonia with its rolling hills and vast forests.
02:09Using the impressive rail network, I'll explore celebrated cities and landmarks
02:15to discover how history has shaped this country and its peoples.
02:26This morning, I've returned to Brussels to reopen a dark chapter of Belgium's past.
02:42On the eastern edge of the city is the small suburban town of Tervouren.
02:48Its elaborately landscaped park, stretching over 500 acres,
02:52was once the setting for a celebration of the Belgian Empire.
02:58In modern times, the atrocities associated with imperialism have been thoroughly exposed,
03:04and colonialism has been criticised.
03:08I've come to a place where, at the end of the 19th century,
03:12King Leopold II was proud of what his country,
03:16and in particular what he himself, was doing in the Congo.
03:22My guide to this historic imperial site is curator and anthropologist Dr Bambi Koopans.
03:31Bambi, we're about ten miles outside the centre of Brussels.
03:35Tell me about the origin of this tremendous palace.
03:37The original name was the Palace of the Colonies,
03:40and it was constructed by Leopold II in 1897.
03:44There was a world exhibition taking place in Brussels at the time,
03:47and he saw that as a good opportunity to organise a colonial exhibition here,
03:53which was basically a tool for colonial propaganda.
03:58King Leopold II seized the Congo as his personal possession in 1885,
04:04and imperial rule became infamous for its brutality.
04:08In 1908, he was forced to hand it over to the state of Belgium.
04:13More than 50 years later, the Democratic Republic of Congo
04:17finally declared independence in 1960.
04:21What was it that people could come here to see?
04:24There was an economy gallery where people could see coffee, cotton, tropical woods and ivory.
04:32There were also a great many objects from Congo.
04:36The major attraction were Congolese villages which were reconstructed in the park,
04:40and 267 Congolese men, women and children were literally put on display.
04:47They were not used to the climate, and seven of them died.
04:51They were treated very poorly by the visitors.
04:54This was a human show?
04:55This was a human show where they had to enact scenes of everyday life.
05:00It seems that at the end of the 19th century there were few ethical qualms amongst the public.
05:05Yes, people not only found it quite normal, but found it very interesting as well.
05:11There were between one and two million visitors.
05:16Delighted by its popularity, Leopold II transformed his temporary exhibition into a huge permanent collection.
05:24In 1910, it was displayed for the first time in this grand new building, the Museum of the Belgian Congo.
05:33My goodness, Bambi, an enormous domed palace.
05:38Well, at the time, they really had the ambition to reconstruct Congo,
05:43which is roughly 80 times as big as Belgium, under a single rooftop.
05:48The collections are really huge.
05:51Attitudes have changed a lot in the last hundred years.
05:54So the objects that were collected with colonial attitudes, have those been swept away?
05:59No.
06:01Most of the objects are still in the museum's collections.
06:04A small number that was restituted during the 1970s,
06:08that was an explicit amount of the then president of Congo.
06:12But in recent years, we've started exhibiting them in a different way,
06:17by no longer hiding the ways and the context in which they were collected.
06:26Following a five-year review of its collections and a renovation including a newly built entrance,
06:33the renamed Museum of Africa opened its doors again in 2018,
06:37with a mission to explain Belgium's colonial past.
06:43Tell me about the conduct of the Belgians in Congo.
06:47The violence was excessive even by the standards of the time.
06:52There was wild rubber in Congo.
06:54Rubber exploitation was accompanied by massive human rights abuses.
06:59Villages were burnt down.
07:01It is now estimated that perhaps five million Congolese lost their lives.
07:07A lot died from starvation, from sickness.
07:11An increasing number of people thought that this was really too much.
07:16And so there was international protest, but national protest as well.
07:22When do you think Belgium came to terms with its colonial past?
07:27Or has it yet come to terms?
07:29I think most Belgians are now aware of the fact that unspeakable atrocities were committed under Leopold II's reign.
07:39But a lot remained convinced that things were much better under Belgian colonial rule.
07:45And it's true that there weren't the same level of atrocities, but there was still forced labour.
07:50People could still be whipped.
07:52A Congolese perspective on that period is much more negative than a Belgian perspective.
08:00As well as reassessing its original artefacts, the museum has commissioned new exhibits.
08:06Where a statue of Leopold II once stood are two new sculptures by Congolese artist Aimé Mpane.
08:14Hello Aimé.
08:16Hello.
08:17Enchanté.
08:18Enchanté, bienvenue.
08:20And this is your piece of art?
08:23Oui, oui.
08:23Expliquez-moi un peu.
08:42Et celui-ci?
08:44Le crâne de Luzinga qui a une histoire très, très triste dans ses rapports à l'époque coloniale.
08:52Contre-moi l'histoire, s'il vous plaît.
08:54Luzinga était un chef à l'est du Congo qui gérait son petit village.
08:59Qui s'était lancé un défi avec un général Storm, c'est un général beige à l'époque coloniale.
09:06Et il voulait protéger son peuple et on l'a coupé la tête.
09:10Général Storm a amené la tête, les crânes.
09:13Ces crânes actuellement se trouvent au Musée des Sciences Naturelles.
09:17Pour moi c'est un truc très emblétique.
09:19C'est Luzinga.
09:20Et donc, quelle est la relation entre le crâne et cette tête ici?
09:25Le visiteur qui rentre et se retrouve ici sera toujours confronté entre l'histoire très triste et l'avenir.
09:34Aime, les works de l'art sont extraordinaires.
09:37Merci beaucoup.
09:46Belgiens' imperial past is reflected today just east of the city centre,
09:51in the neighbourhood of Motongue.
09:53Named after a district of the Congolese capital, Kinshasa,
09:57it's a meeting place for African communities.
10:01Many families here trace their origins to the Democratic Republic of Congo
10:06and the other former Belgian colonies of Rwanda and Burundi.
10:11Aline Nirahomere runs a nearby Flemish-African cultural centre.
10:16Hi, Michael.
10:17Hello, Aline. Great to see you.
10:19Great to see you too.
10:21Aline, tell me a little bit about the area.
10:23So, Motongue is our neighbourhood where the first Congolese students
10:27arrived in the 1960s after the independence of Congo
10:33and would enjoy the education.
10:37How's it developed since then? What's Motongue become now?
10:39So, it's not anymore just for the Congolese but also for the other African people
10:44where we come together, where we do our shopping, we do our hair
10:47and we enjoy each other's company.
10:49Were you born in Belgium?
10:50No, I was not born in Belgium. I was born in Rwanda.
10:54And, well, because of the civil war in Rwanda between the Hutus and the Tutsis,
10:59my parents had to flee, so I arrived in Belgium when I was 10 years old.
11:03It was a cultural shock, for sure, but at least we had a safe place to stay,
11:08so it was nice to be here.
11:10And you were attracted into Motongue?
11:12Motongue was the place where I came for my hairdo,
11:15where I came to find a little bit of the product for my own home country.
11:20Colonialism is much discussed today.
11:22Yes. How's that debate going in Belgium?
11:25Well, the debate is going behind closed doors in Belgium.
11:28With our organisation, we want to bring together the Belgian communities
11:31and the diaspora so that they can understand it's the other side as well.
11:35You have an older generation who was more acceptable
11:38to how that Belgium represented their own history,
11:41where the youngsters have more and more strong feelings.
11:44These younger people with a Congolese background,
11:47the way that history is taught, they want to see that changing?
11:50They want to see that changing, for sure.
11:52They want that, actually, the Belgium community
11:55recognise the genocide that went on.
11:58Colonialism is a very difficult topic,
12:00but it's a topic that we want to see more and more discussed, for sure.
12:20From the capital, I'm travelling 12 miles south into French-speaking Wallonia,
12:26towards the site of one of Britain's most famous military victories.
12:34Napoleon Bonaparte brought war to much of Europe and beyond as he sought domination,
12:41battling the monarchs of the continent with revolutionary zeal.
12:45It appeared that he had been defeated in 1814,
12:48when he abdicated and went into exile on the Mediterranean island of Elba.
12:54But the following year, he was back and rallied a new army.
13:00Britain, Prussia and Russia hurried to join their forces together.
13:06Napoleon decided to try to beat each of his enemies in turn before they could unite.
13:12And crossing into present-day Belgium,
13:14he hurled himself at the Duke of Wellington's forces at Waterloo.
13:22On 18 June 1815, in this quiet rural spot, then part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands,
13:31Britain's legendary military commander faced France's most famous general and emperor.
13:37The decisive battle followed 23 years of warfare between France and its European rivals.
13:49Today, the battlefield's key sites are preserved as a museum, covering almost 50 acres.
13:56At Hougoumont Farm, just ahead of Wellington's front line,
14:00British and Allied forces came under fierce attack.
14:04Arnaud!
14:05Hello, Michael.
14:06Arnaud Sprangel is a museum guide and battle re-enactor.
14:10I can't tell you how excited I am to be here at the site of the Battle of Waterloo.
14:15As a child, I used to play with my brother.
14:18We had little model soldiers that looked just like you.
14:21You're the Imperial Guard, aren't you?
14:23Yeah, I am.
14:25How did the battle begin?
14:26The Battle of Waterloo begins at approximately 11.30, here at Hougoumont, a fortified farm.
14:34The French were attacking from the woods.
14:36Today, we can only see the last chestnut trees, but it was a massive wood.
14:42What was the tactical advantage to the British side that they had the farmhouse here?
14:48The farmhouse was like a fortified position to break all the assault waves from the French.
14:56Right.
14:56With elite soldiers inside.
14:58There were three fortified farms.
15:01The other two farms were taken by the French.
15:04Hougoumont hold all the day long.
15:07So that was a key position for Wellington.
15:12Protected by a high stone wall, his forces defended the farm estate against heavy bombardment.
15:19At one point, around 30 French soldiers broke through the north gate, only to be swiftly killed by Wellington's troops.
15:31Oh.
15:34It's actually very moving to enter the farm.
15:37This is really where you can feel the history of the Battle of Waterloo.
15:41Yes.
15:42The French shot against Hougoumont with canister and set fire to the buildings where there were inside a lot of
15:49wounded soldiers.
15:51The farm chateau and many outbuildings were consumed by flames.
15:56But its small stone chapel survived and has become a place of remembrance.
16:05It's almost certainly like being transported to Britain because we have all the poppies.
16:08It's our symbol of commemoration of people killed in wars.
16:13And it's marvellous, really, isn't it?
16:15I mean, even though this was more than 200 years ago,
16:18we still value those who showed so much bravery on one of the most heroic days in British military history.
16:27Yes.
16:31Less than a mile to the north-east is the site of the main battlefield.
16:37The museum offers visitors the chance to try out period weapons in military uniform.
16:43For one day only, I'm gunning for the French.
16:50Michael, let me introduce you, our artilleryman Pierre.
16:54Michael.
16:54Artilleryman, a great pleasure.
16:56What is this cannon?
16:57Well, may I present to you, Le Brutal.
17:00This is the smallest cannon used by the French artillery.
17:02Would you like to see it in action?
17:03I certainly would, since I'm dressed as a French soldier.
17:06Artiller, have a post!
17:07Exactly.
17:11So the first step, Michael, would be the cleaning procedure.
17:14So this instrument is known as a worm.
17:16It's to go inside the cannon to scrape out any debris.
17:19High storm, faster, Michael.
17:21Ah!
17:21Ah!
17:22Shots per minute.
17:24Okay, done.
17:25And the second step, with the ramming rod.
17:27So this piece of wood is used to press the charge all the way to the bottom of the cannon.
17:34Perfect, Michael.
17:37Yes, ready!
17:39Attention, fire!
17:40Turn!
17:45Fire!
17:47Fire!
17:48Fire!
17:50What were the odds between the two sides?
17:52Well, the odds were in favor of the French.
17:55The French army will arrive at Wausoleu with 246 cannons versus 150 coalition cannons.
18:02So was Wellington able to use tactics, the battlefield, in order to counter that disadvantage?
18:08Well, Wellington will use what is known as the counter-slope technique.
18:12So his artillery was positioned on a higher ground, his infantry protected by the terrain as well.
18:17French artillery was not able to blast its shots over this rope.
18:21They would fire straight shots.
18:23And the terrain as well was influenced by the weather.
18:26It is raining on the 17th June at night, so on the 18th it's completely soggy and cannons were dragged
18:31into the mud.
18:32The time lost in the morning will allow the Prussian army to gain several kilometers.
18:36And to be able to join the Battle of Waterloo Leeds.
18:41After nine hours of fighting, the might of Wellington's allied forces, strengthened by the arrival of the Prussian army,
18:48finally overwhelmed Napoleon's troops.
18:50And they were forced to retreat.
18:54This 40-metre-high memorial to the victory, the Lion's Mound, was opened in 1826 by King William I of
19:02the Netherlands,
19:03on the spot where his soldier son, the Prince of Orange, was injured.
19:08Overlooking the former battlefield, a lion symbolises the victory of the monarchies over the once mighty Emperor of France,
19:16which restored Europe's peace.
19:18It's estimated that 48,000 British, Allied, Prussian and French troops lost their lives or were injured here that day.
19:29Wellington, surveying the slaughter of soldiers, commented,
19:33nothing, except a battle lost, can be half so melancholy as a battle won.
19:40Neither he nor, of course, Napoleon would fight another campaign.
19:44Although Wellington did engage in political warfare, becoming Prime Minister in 1828.
19:56I'm continuing my journey to Tyre in Eino, the most western of Wallonia's five provinces.
20:03This region was the centre of the country's industrial revolution,
20:07and Wallonia's first railway, carrying passengers and goods towards Antwerp and the capital, opened here in 1841.
20:16As the economy grew, the area's waterways, connecting to those of neighbouring countries,
20:21also played an important role.
20:25Running through the village of Tyre, the Canal du Centre, built in the 1880s, provided a vital link.
20:35If you've ever been on a barging holiday, you know how time-consuming it is to pass through the locks
20:41that enable your boat to change level.
20:44When, in the 19th century, the opportunity arose to connect the two great rivers of Belgium, the Scheldt and the
20:51Meuse,
20:51with a height difference of 88 metres, a much more imaginative and indeed astonishing engineering solution was required,
21:02which is still admired to this day.
21:06This hydraulically powered boat lift is one of four ranged in sequence along the canal.
21:12They are part of Belgium's engineering heritage, the only working examples of their kind in the world today.
21:19Engineer and expert advisor to Wallonia's public services is Marc Michaud.
21:25Mark, I see before me this fantastic structure. What was the problem that had to be solved?
21:31What were the goods that needed to be transported from this region?
21:35It was very needed to have a canal between two main regions, industrial regions in Belgium.
21:43One which is called Borinage, near the town of Mons, and the region of Centre, around the town of Charleroi.
21:52Both of them produced coal and steel also.
21:58The issue that you had to deal with was the difference in levels between the waterways.
22:02Why did they not use locks?
22:05A lock consumes a lot of water. There was no enough water, there was no rivers to feed the canal.
22:10And there was also another problem. This region has a lot of coal mines.
22:15So, lots of working underground, and therefore a danger of subsidence.
22:21Yes, yes. It was well known at the time that you cannot have a possibility to build several locks.
22:29Instead, the lifts, powered by water pressure, would raise and lower barges,
22:35which float in huge watertight containers, known as caissons, in just a few minutes.
22:44We have an enormous cradle at the top there, and another enormous cradle down at the bottom.
22:50And you put a boat in one of them, and the balance is achieved by the water.
22:55Indeed. It's a simple hydraulic balance. And if you have a boat going up, or a boat going down, it's
23:03the same.
23:03So, going back to school now, in my mind, this is Archimede's principle.
23:07That for an item to float, it will displace its own weight of water.
23:12Yeah.
23:13And therefore, a boat in water weighs the same as a body of water without a boat in it.
23:19They weigh the same.
23:21Had this been done anywhere else in the world before?
23:26Yeah. This technology comes from England.
23:29Really?
23:29Yeah. The designer of this high-technology hydraulic work is Edwin Clarke.
23:37Clarke had found fame in 1875 with his Anderton boat lift between the River Weaver and Cheshire's Trent and Mersey
23:45Canal.
23:46The first of his Belgian designs was unveiled by King Leopold II in 1888.
23:53I find it extraordinary that your four lifts, built at the end of the 19th century, are all working. How
24:01is this the case?
24:02Because they have been, well, maintained. In fact, in Belgium, in the Walloon region, it was the first monument which
24:08has been classified by UNESCO. The first one, before cathedral, before castle.
24:13So, this is the UNESCO monument.
24:18These days, the four lifts are still in operation, but are used only for pleasure craft, not freight.
24:27Ah, at last we reached the top. A fantastic view over your machinery room.
24:34Machinery room, yeah.
24:34This is number three, that's number two, and then there's another one beyond that.
24:38Yeah.
24:38And this is the room where it's all controlled from.
24:42Well, let's see.
24:47Michael.
24:49This looks like a ship from the 19th century, doesn't it?
24:52When he moves this volant, this wheel, he opens the central valve, which is 25 meters below, so that the
25:01balance can move.
25:03He's going to make maybe ten rotations. How many rotations, how many rotations have you made?
25:09I've never counted, but there are a lot.
25:10There are a lot.
25:11I've never counted how many, but it's a lot of rotations.
25:13A lot of them.
25:17This is a fantastic thing to see, to believe that today we can see muscle power operating this enormous machinery.
25:25And it's going quite fast.
25:26It's very quick.
25:27The caisson on my left here is sinking. Of course, the caisson on the right will be rising.
25:35Merci, Bach.
25:41Following the Second World War, Belgium invested heavily in its waterways to make them suitable for heavier barges.
25:47And its network remains important for transporting freight today.
25:51In 2002, this huge concrete structure, on a new canal running parallel to the original, allowed shipping to bypass the
26:01four 19th century lifts.
26:04I see the relationship between what you've just shown me and what I'm seeing now, a hundred years of progress.
26:11Absolutely astonishing.
26:13Standing at 335 feet high, the Strepitier funicular lift is the largest in Europe.
26:20Here we see the enormous concrete weights which counterbalance this basin.
26:28Full container weights approximately 8,000 tonnes.
26:32And we can elevate such big ships of 73 metres high.
26:38This is engineering on the grand scale. Does this make you very happy? Does this make your engineer's heart beat?
26:45Yeah, of course.
26:59In the 19th and 20th centuries, when the two shiplifts were built, imperialism was a dominant idea amongst Europeans.
27:09The emperor of the French, Napoleon Bonaparte, occupied Egypt and marched on Moscow until he was defeated at Waterloo.
27:19The king of the Belgians, motivated perhaps by a combination of idealism and greed, sponsored the colonisation of Congo.
27:28Now, there is broad agreement that whatever the history of imperialism, it is not for today.
27:36And yet, there's a war in Europe as Russia asserts its rights over Ukraine.
27:49Next time, this is one of the strangest spectacles I've ever seen.
27:55And I must say, one of the most exciting.
28:01It's like a book. So every layer is a chapter.
28:05You just have to know how to read it. That's the problem.
28:12Absolutely delicious. Only available on tap in this one place on the entire planet.
28:45You're not cuanto I've ever seen before.
28:48You need to know how to edit it.
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