Editing Ghent (section)

==History==
{{For timeline}}
{{More citations needed section|date=May 2013}}

Archaeological evidence shows human presence around the confluence of the Scheldt and the Leie going back as far as the [[Stone Age]] and the [[Iron Age]].<ref name="gent.be-history">{{cite web
|title=History of Gent
|url=http://www.gent.be/gent/english/history/gesch01.htm
|access-date=5 May 2006
|publisher=gent.be
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050818043547/http://www.gent.be/gent/english/history/gesch01.htm
|archive-date=18 August 2005 }}</ref>

Most historians believe that the older name for Ghent, 'Ganda', is derived from the [[Celts|Celtic]] word ''ganda'', which means '[[confluence]]',<ref name="gent.be-history"/> or 'river mouth', referring to the [[Lys (river)|Leie]] river debouching into the [[Scheldt]]. Other sources connect its name with an obscure deity named [[Gontia (deity)|Gontia]].<ref>Adrian Room, [https://books.google.com/books?id=EdmNngEACAAJ ''Placenames of the World: Origins and Meanings of the Names for 6,600 Countries, Cities, Territories, Natural Features, and Historic Sites''], McFarland, 2006, p. 144.</ref>

There are no written records of the [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] period, but archaeological research confirms that the Ghent area continued to be inhabited.

When the [[Franks]] invaded the Roman territories from the end of the 4th century and well into the 5th century, they brought their language with them, and Celtic and Latin were replaced by [[Old Dutch]].

===Middle Ages===
[[File:Ghent hist centrum 2.jpg|left|thumb|Buildings along the river [[Leie]] in Ghent]]

Around 650, [[Saint Amand]] founded two [[abbey]]s in Ghent: [[St. Peter's Abbey, Ghent|St. Peter's]] ([[Blandijnberg|Blandinium]]) and [[Saint Bavo's Abbey|St. Bavo's Abbey]]. Around 800, [[Louis the Pious]], son of [[Charlemagne]], appointed [[Einhard]], the biographer of Charlemagne, abbot of both abbeys. The city grew from several nuclei, the abbeys, and a commercial centre. However, in 851 and 879 the city was plundered by [[Viking]]s. 
 
Under the protection of the [[County of Flanders]] the city recovered and flourished from the 11th century, growing to become a small [[city-state]]. By the 13th century, Ghent was the biggest city in Europe north of the Alps after [[Paris]]; it was bigger than [[Cologne]] or [[Moscow]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Nicholas|first=David|title=The Domestic Life of a Medieval City: Women, Children and the Family in Fourteenth Century Ghent|pages=1}}</ref> Up to 65,000 people lived within the city walls. The [[Belfry of Ghent|belfry]] and the towers of the [[St Bavo's Cathedral, Ghent|St. Bavo's Cathedral]] and [[Saint Nicholas Church, Ghent|St. Nicholas' Church]] are just a few examples of the skyline of the period.

The rivers flowed in an area where much land was periodically flooded. These rich grass 'meersen' ("[[water-meadows]]": a word related to the English '[[marsh]]') were ideally suited for herding sheep, the wool of which was used to make cloth. Ghent was the leading city for [[cloth]] during the Middle Ages.

The [[Wool#History|wool industry]], originally established at [[Bruges]], created the first European industrialized zone in Ghent in the [[High Middle Ages]]. The mercantile zone was so highly developed that wool had to be imported from Scotland and England, which led to Flanders' good relationship with them. However, during the [[Hundred Years' War]], trade with England suffered significantly. Ghent was the birthplace of [[John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster|John of Gaunt]], Duke of [[Duchy of Lancaster|Lancaster]].

===Early modern period===
The city recovered in the 15th century when Flanders was united with neighbouring provinces under the [[Duchy of Burgundy|Dukes of Burgundy]]. High taxes [[Revolt of Ghent (1449–1453)|led to a rebellion]] and eventually to the [[Battle of Gavere]] in 1453, in which Ghent suffered a terrible defeat at the hands of [[Philip the Good]]. Around this time the centre of political and social importance in the [[Low Countries]] started to shift from Flanders (Bruges–Ghent) to [[Duchy of Brabant|Brabant]] ([[Antwerp]]–[[Brussels]]), although Ghent continued to play an important role. With Bruges, the city led two [[Flemish revolts against Maximilian of Austria|revolts against Maximilian of Austria]], the first monarch of the [[House of Habsburg]] to rule Flanders.
[[File:Lucas de Heere - View of the city of Ghent.jpg|thumb|left|250px|''View on the city of Ghent in 1540'' by [[Lucas de Heere]]]]
[[File:Joseph_working_02.gif|thumb|15th-century Ghent miniature of the Biblical [[Joseph]], showing daily life there]]
In 1500, [[Juana of Castile]] gave birth to [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles V]], who became [[Holy Roman Emperor]] and King of [[Kingdom of Spain|Spain]]. Although native to Ghent, he punished the city after the 1539 [[Revolt of Ghent (1539)|Revolt of Ghent]] and obliged the city's nobles to walk in front of the Emperor barefoot with a noose (Dutch: ''"strop"'') around the neck; since this incident, the people of Ghent have been called "''Stroppendragers''" (noose bearers). St. Bavo's Abbey (not to be confused with the nearby St. Bavo's Cathedral) was abolished, torn down, and replaced with a fortress for [[Kingdom of Spain|Royal Spanish]] troops. Only a small portion of the abbey was spared demolition.

[[File:Engelbert Van Siclers - De Kouter in Ghent in 1763.jpg|250px|thumb|''De Kouter in Ghent in 1763'' by [[Engelbert van Siclers]]]]
[[File:Ghent, Ferraris Map, 1775.jpg|thumbnail|250px|right|Ghent in 1775 on the [[Ferraris map]]]]

The late 16th and 17th centuries brought devastation because of the [[Eighty Years' War]]. The war ended the role of Ghent as a centre of international importance. In 1745, the city [[Fall of Ghent|was captured]] by French forces during the [[War of the Austrian Succession]] before being returned to the [[Austria|Empire of Austria]] under the [[Habsburgs|House of Habsburg]] following the [[Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748)|Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle]] in 1748. This part of [[Flanders]] became known as the [[Austrian Netherlands]] until the exile of the French Emperor [[Napoleon Bonaparte|Napoleon I]], the end of the French Revolutionary and later [[Napoleonic Wars]], and the peace treaties arrived at by the [[Congress of Vienna]] in 1815.

===19th century===
[[File:Flickr - …trialsanderrors - Justitiepaleis, Ghent, Belgium, ca. 1895.jpg|left|thumb|The Palace of Justice in Ghent, {{circa|1895}}]]

In the 18th and 19th centuries, Ghent's textile industry flourished again. [[Lieven Bauwens]], having smuggled the [[Industrial Revolution|industrial]] and factory machine plans out of England, introduced the first mechanical [[Weaving machines|weaving machine]] on the [[European continent]] in 1800.

The [[Treaty of Ghent]], negotiated here and adopted on Christmas Eve 1814, formally ended the [[War of 1812]] between Great Britain and the United States (the North American phase of the Napoleonic Wars). After the [[Battle of Waterloo]], Ghent and [[Flanders]], previously ruled from the House of Habsburg in [[Vienna]] as the Austrian Netherlands, became a part of the [[United Kingdom of the Netherlands]] with the northern Dutch for 15 years. In this period, Ghent established its own [[Ghent University|university]] (1816)<ref name="visit.gent.be">[https://visit.gent.be/en/good-know/practical-information/why-ghent/ghent-over-centuries Ghent over the centuries: Concise history of a stubborn city]</ref> and a [[Ghent–Terneuzen Canal|new connection to the sea]] (1824–27).

After the [[Belgian Revolution]], with the loss of port access to the sea for more than a decade, the local economy collapsed, and the first Belgian trade union originated in Ghent. In 1913 there was a [[Exposition universelle et internationale (1913)|world exhibition in Ghent]].<ref name="visit.gent.be"/> As a preparation for these festivities, the [[Sint-Pieters railway station]] was completed in 1912.

===20th century===
Ghent was occupied by the Germans in both world wars but escaped severe destruction. The life of the people and the German invaders in Ghent during [[World War I]] is described by H. Wandt in "etappenleven te Gent".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Wandt |first=Heinrich |date=1921 |title=Etappenleven te Gent : kantteekeningen bij de Duitsche ineenstorting / |url=https://lib.ugent.be/catalog/rug01:000978952 |access-date=12 July 2022 |website=lib.ugent.be}}</ref> In [[World War II]] the city was liberated by the British [[7th Armoured Division (United Kingdom)|7th "Desert Rats" Armoured Division]] and local Belgian fighters on 6 September 1944, with the northern suburbs and the industrial area cleared over the following days by the [[15th (Scottish) Infantry Division]].