Editing Ronse (section)

=== After the French Revolution ===

The [[Battle of Fleurus (1794)|Fleurus Victory]], on June 26, 1794, allowed France to occupy and annex the country.  Ronse faced important [[Confiscation|expropriations]] and the city soon found itself in financial difficulty.  In 1796, the old city administration was disbanded and a municipality was created.  French legislation was applied from this point on, until Belgium merged with the [[Netherlands]] in 1815.  In 1798, the so-called "farmers' war", a reaction to the military [[conscription]] imposed by France, cost many lives.  In 1799, Ronse counted about 10,000 inhabitants but a third of the population lived in poverty.  In 1840, within the newly created Kingdom of Belgium, more than 55% of the city's inhabitants derived a living from the textile industry.  A few years later, however, increased [[mechanisation]] gave rise to a deep [[Crisis (economic)|economic crisis]].  Many left Ronse to join the textile plants in Northern France ([[Lille]]-[[Roubaix]]-[[Tourcoing]]) or to take on agricultural work in the [[Somme (department)|Somme]] or the [[Oise]].  From the 1870s, Ronse's textile industry prospered despite a temporary slow down during [[World War I]].  The decline of this industry started after [[World War II]] but was especially acute during the 1960s.  Today, Ronse is mainly a commercial center and a [[tourism|touristic]] destination.
[[File:Ronse-Renaix.jpg|thumb|right|Ronse: Stationstraat]]
[[File:Ronse Belgium.jpg|thumb|right|Ronse: museum and church of Saint Hermes in the background]]

[[File:Ronse station (3441776801).jpg|thumb|right|Ronse railway station]]