page_title: Dendermonde
section_title: 16th to 20th century
hierarchical_section_title: Dendermonde / History / 16th to 20th century
caption_attribution_description: English: Dendermonde,_Belgium_;_ detail from Ferraris_Map
context_page_description: Dendermonde is a city in the Flemish province of East Flanders in Belgium. The municipality comprises the city of Dendermonde and the towns of Appels, Baasrode, Grembergen, Mespelare, Oudegem, Schoonaarde, and Sint-Gillis-bij-Dendermonde. Dendermonde is at the mouth of the river Dender, where it flows into the Scheldt. The town has a long-standing folkloric feud with Aalst, south along the same river, which dates from the Middle Ages.
  The city is an administrative, commercial, educational, and medical centre for the surrounding region. The current Mayor of Dendermonde is Piet Buyse.
context_section_description: The 16th century saw a decline in Dendermonde’s fortunes.  In 1572 Dendermonde was conquered by William the Silent.
  The same year however Spanish troops under Duke Alexander Farnese of Parma, took over the city, looted and mostly destroyed it.  A decade later, the Spaniards built their own fortress between the Dender and the Scheldt. In 1667, it was France’s turn to advance on the city, but the allied troops of the Netherlands and England, under the Duke of Marlborough, caused the heaviest damage in 1706.  The city was then fortified by the Austrians against further French ambitions.  After a last siege by Louis XV, the city could finally breathe to the point that the fortifications were dismantled a few decades later.
  The second half of the 18th century was generally prosperous, with the advent of the Industrial Revolution and a local cotton industry.  After 1800, the port facilities were modernized and the first railways were laid down, allowing other industries (oil, shoe, leather…) to move in.
  The onset of World War I in September 1914 was disastrous for the city as more than half of its housing and the city archives were either bombed or burned down.
caption: Dendermonde on the Ferraris map (around 1775)
exif: {}