Artesian Wells, so called from the French province of Artois, where they appear to have been first used on an extensive scale, are perpendicular borings into the ground through which water rises to the surface of the soil, producing a constant flow or stream, the ultimate sources of supply being higher than the mouth of the boring, and the water thus rising by the well-known law. They are generally sunk in valley plains and districts where the lower pervious strata are bent into basin-shaped curves.
The rain falling on the outcrops of these saturates the whole porous bed, so that when the bore reaches it the water by hydraulic pressure rushes up towards the level of the highest portion of the strata. The supply is sometimes so abundant as to be used extensively as a moving power, and in arid regions for fertilizing the ground, to which purpose artesian springs have been applied from a very remote period. Thus many artesian wells have been sunk in the Algerian Sahara which have proved an immense boon to the district.
The water of most of these is potable, but a few are a little saline, though not to such an extent as to influence vegetation. The hollows in which London and Paris lie are both perforated in many places by borings of this nature. At London they were first sunk only to the sand B B, but latterly into the chalk c o. One of the most celebrated artesian wells is that of Crenelle near Paris, 1798 feet deep, completed in 1841, after eight years' work. Artesian wells are now common in many countries, and have been sunk to the depth of a mile or more. As the temperature of water from great depths is invariably higher than that at the surface, artesian wells have been made to supply warm water for heating manufactories, greenhouses, hospitals, fish-ponds, etc. Petroleumwells are generally of the same technical description. Artesian wells were later made with larger diameters than formerly, and altogether their construction was rendered much more easy after the industrial revolution. Research Artesian Wells
The emigres were monarchist fugitives from France who fled at the time of the Revolution in 1798, settling in Switzerland, Belgium, Holland, Germany and the USA. At the head of these emigrants stood the royal princes of Conde, Provence, and Artois, the first of whom collected a part of the fugitives to co-operate with the allied armies in Germany for the restoration of the monarchy. At Coblentz a particular court of justice was established to settle causes relating to the French emigres. The corps of Conde was finally taken into the Russian service, and was disbanded in the Russian-Austrian campaign of 1799.
When Napoleon became emperor he granted permission to all but a few of the emigrants to return to their country; but many declined to return until after his downfall. By the charter of 1814 they were shut out from the recovery of their estates and privileges; and though, by a law of April, 1825, some compensation was decreed to them, the grant was withdrawn again after the July revolution. Research Emigres
Francis I was King of France. He was born in 1494 and died in 1547. His father was Charles of Orleans, count of Angouleme, and his mother Louise of Savoy, grand-daughter of Valentine, duke of Milan. He ascended the throne in 1515, having succeeded his uncle, Louis XII. In prosecution of his claim to Milan he defeated the Swiss in the plains of Marignano and forced the reigning dukeMaximilian Sforza to relinquish the sovereignty. On the death of Maximilian in 1519 Francis was one of the competitors for the empire; but the choice fell on Charles of Austria, the grandson of Maximilian, henceforth known as the Emperor Charles V. From this period Francis and Charles were rivals, and were almost continually at war with one another. Both attempted to gain the alliance of England.
With this view Francis invited Henry VIII of England to an interview, which took place near Calais, between Guines and Ardres, in June, 1520. The magnificence of the two monarchs and their suites on this occasion has given to the meeting the name of the Field of the Cloth of Gold. In 1521 war broke out between the rivals, and in 1525 Francis was defeated and taken prisoner at Pavia. He could recover his liberty only by renouncing his claims to Naples, Milan, Genoa, and Asti, the suzerainty of Flanders and Artois, and promising to cede the Duchy of Burgundy and some other French fiefs. War was soon after renewed, an alliance, called the Holy League, having been formed between the Pope Clement VII, the King of France, the King of England, the Republic of Venice, the Duke of Milan, and other Italian powers, with the object of checking the advances of the emperor. In this war Rome was taken and sacked by the Constable of Bourbon in 1527, and Italy was devastated, but Francis gained little either of fame or material advantage. Peace was concluded in 1529, but hostilities again broke out in 1535, when Francis possessed himself of Savoy. A hastily made-up peace was soon broken, and Francis again found himself at war with the Emperor and the King of England.
Fortunately for France the union of the Protestant princes of Germany against the emperor prevented him from following up his success, and inclined him to a peace, which was concluded at Crespy in 1544. Charles resigned all his claims on Burgundy, and allowed Francis to retain Savoy. Two years after peace was made with England. Francis I possessed a chivalric and enterprising spirit, and was a patron of learning. Research Francis I
The Battle of Artois was a French offensive north of Arras between May and July 1915 during the Great War. It was intended to hold German forces in France and prevent their movement to the Eastern Front. Although the French advance captured two major German positions and gave them a line from which Vimy Ridge could subsequently be attacked, the German line held and the battle died away into sporadic trench fighting. Research Battle of Artois
The Battle of Aubers Ridge was an abortive British attack on German lines in May 1915 during the Great War in support of, and diversionary to, the French attack on Lens in the Battle of Artois. No gains were made and both sides sustained heavy casualties - the Allies lost over 6,000 killed and wounded, while German casualties were just over half that number. Research Battle of Aubers Ridge
The Battle of Festubert occurred during the Great War between British and German forces in northern France in May 1915. The British launched a series of attacks on the Aubers Ridge to assist the French, who were attacking in Artois and Arras. The assaults met with little success until the 15th of May when they broke through the German lines in two places, linked the two breaches and gained about half a mile before the battle died out and fresh trench lines were dug. Total British losses in the operation amounted to 3, 620 dead, 17,484 wounded, and 4,321 missing. Research Battle of Festubert
The Kingdom of Belgium is a kingdom in west Europe.
The territory now known as Belgium originally formed only a section of that known to Caesar as the territory of the Belgae, extending from the right bank of the Seine to the left bank of the Rhine, and to the ocean. This district continued under Roman sway until the decline of the empire; subsequently formed part of the kingdom of Clevis; and then of that of Charlemagne, whose ancestors belonged to Landen and Herstal on the confines of the Ardennes. After the breaking up of the empire of Charlemagne Belgium formed part of the kingdom of Lotharingia under Charlemagne's grandson, Lothaire; Artois and Flanders, however, belonging to France by the treaty of Verdun.
For more than a century this kingdom was contended for by the kings of France and the emperors of Germany. In 953 it was conferred by the Emperor Otto upon Bruno, archbishop of Cologne, who assumed the title of archduke, and divided it into two duchies: Upper and Lower Lorraine. In the frequent struggles which took place during the eleventh century Luxemburg, Namur, Hainaut, and Liege usually sided with France, while Brabant, Holland, and Flanders commonly took the side of Germany. The contest between the civic and industrial organizations and feudalism, which went on through the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and in which Flanders bore a leading part, was temporarily closed by the defeat of the Ghentese under Van Artevelde in 1382. In 1384 Flanders and Artois fell to the house of Burgundy, which in less than a century acquired the whole of the Netherlands. The death of Charles the Bold at Nancy, in his attempt to raise the duchy into a kingdom in 1477, was followed by the succession and marriage of his daughter, Mary of Burgundy, by which the Netherlands became an Austrian possession. With the accession, however, of the Austrian house of Hapsburg to the Spanish throne, the Netherlands, after a brief period of prosperity attended by the spread of the reformed religion, became the scene of increasingly severe persecution under Charles V and Philip II of Spain. Driven to rebellion, the seven northern states under William of Orange, the Silent, succeeded in establishing their independence, but the southern portion, or Belgium, continued under the Spanish yoke.
From 1598 to 1621 the Spanish Netherlands were transferred as an independent kingdom to the Austrian branch of the family by the marriage of Isabella, daughter of Philip II, with the Archduke Albert of Austria. He died childless, however, and they reverted to Spain. After being twice conquered by Louis XIV, conquered again by Marlborough, coveted by all the powers, deprived of territory on the one side by Holland and on the other by France, the Southern Netherlands were at length in 1714, by the peace of Utrecht, again placed under the dominion of Austria, with the name of the Austrian Netherlands.
During the Austrian war of succession the French under Saxe conquered nearly the whole country, but restored it in 1748 by the peace of Aix-la-Ghapelle. The Seven Years' War of 1756 to 1763 did not affect Belgium, and in that period, and during the peace which followed, she regained much of her prosperity under Maria Theresa and Charles of Lorraine. On the succession of Joseph II, the 'philosophic emperor', a serious insurrection occurred, the Austrian army being defeated at Turnhout, and the provinces forming themselves into an independent state as united Belgium in 1790. They had scarcely been subdued again by Austria before they were conquered by the revolutionary armies of France, and the country divided into French departments, the Austrian rule being practically closed by the battle of Fleurus in 1794, and the French possession confirmed by the treaties of Campo Formio in 1797 and Luneville in 1801.
In 1815 Belgium was united by the Congress of Vienna to Holland, both countries together now forming one state, the Kingdom of the Netherlands. This union lasted until 1830, when a revolt broke out among the Belgians, and soon attained such dimensions that the Dutch troops were unable to repress it. A convention of the great powers assembled in London, favoured the separation of the two countries, and drew up a treaty to regulate it; the National Congress of Belgium offering the crown, on the recommendation of England, to Leopold, prince of Saxe-Coburg, who acceded to it under the title of Leopold I, on July the 21st, 1831. In November of the same year the five powers guaranteed the crown to him by the treaty of London, and the remaining difficulties with Holland were settled in 1839, when the Dutch claims to territory in Limburg and Luxemburg were withdrawn. The reign of Leopold I was for Belgium a prosperous period of thirty-four years. Leopold II succeeded his father in 1865.
Belgium It has a total area of 30,510 km2. The climate is temperate having mild winters and cool summers, rainy, humid, cloudy. The terrain may be regarded roughly as an inclined plain, falling away in height from the southern district of the Ardennes until in the north and west it becomes only a few feet above sea-level. The surface rocks in the south consist of slate, old red sandstone, and mountain limestone; towards the north-west a coal and iron field stretches across the provinces of Hainaut and Liege, skirting those of Namur and Luxemburg. North and west of this coalfield a more recentformation is found, covered inland by deep beds of clay and on the coast by sand-dunes.
The chief rivers are the Scheldt or Schelde and Meuse or Maas, which cross the country in a northeasterly direction; other navigable streams are the Dender, Dyle, Lys, Ourthe, Rupel, and Sambre. There are also a number of canals. Natural resources are coal and natural gas. The religion is 75% Roman Catholic; the remainder mainly Protestant and other religions. There are three official languages spoken in belgium: Flemish or Dutch, French, and German. The language divisions follow cultural divisions, and in the capital, Brussels which resides in the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium, everyone is expected to be bilingual in Dutch and French. German is spoken in a small part of Belgium adjoining the bnorder with Germany. Throughout Belgium it is essential to be bilingual in French and Dutch, and this has caused much difficulties for the population and political turmoil.
Abbreviations
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