page_title: Antwerp Province
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Antwerp Province / History
caption_attribution_description: Dutch: Plundering van een dorp, mogelijk Wommelgem in 1589 (ca. 1615-1620)
context_page_description: Antwerp Province is the northernmost province both of the Flemish Region, also called Flanders, and of Belgium. It borders on North Brabant province of the Netherlands to the north and the Belgian provinces of Limburg, Flemish Brabant and East Flanders. Its capital is Antwerp which comprises the Port of Antwerp, which is the second largest seaport in Europe. It has an area of 2,876 km² and with over 1.85 million inhabitants as of January 2019, it is the country's most populous province. The province consists of 3 arrondissements: Antwerp, Mechelen and Turnhout. The eastern part of the province comprises the main part of the Campine region.
context_section_description: During the early Middle Ages the region was part of the Frankish Empire, which was divided into several pagi. The territory of the present day province belonged to several pagi of which the region around what would become the city of Antwerp belonged to the Pagus Renesium. The Pagus Toxandria stretched from North Brabant into the Campine region. To the south there was the Pagus Bracbatinse and the Pagus Hasbaniensis. In 843 the Carolingian Empire of Charlemagne was divided among his sons and the river Scheldt became the border between West Francia and East Francia. In 974 Otto II established the Margraviate of Antwerp as a defence against the County of Flanders.
  In 1106, Henry V granted the Margraviate to Godfrey I of Leuven. His descendants would from 1235 onwards become the Dukes of Brabant and the region itself was the northern part of the Duchy of Brabant. In 1430 the Duchy became part of the Duchy of Burgundy until 1477 when it fell to the House of Habsburg. In 1713, at the end of the Spanish Succession War the region became part of the Austrian Netherlands until 1794, with in 1790 the short lived United States of Belgium. On 1 October 1795 the former Austrian Netherlands were annexed by France under the French Directory.
  The modern province was created as the Department of the two Netes during the First French Empire (when the Southern Netherlands were part of France). After the defeat of Napoleon, the territory became part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands as the province of Central Brabant, distinguishing it from North Brabant and South Brabant. In 1830, after Belgium's independence the province was renamed Antwerp (after its major city and capital).
caption: The aftermath of the plundering of the village of Wommelgem in 1589. Eighty Years' War, painting by Sebastiaen Vrancx.
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