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92-573: Filadelfia was founded in 1930 by Russian Mennonites who fled from the Soviet Union. Filadelfia lay near the front of the Chaco War , but was little affected. It became divided in the Second World War, with some of the original German colonists supporting Germany and later being expelled. Filadelfia has developed into an important cattle herding settlement. Today the town is home to a museum ,

184-722: A Low Countries derby ( Derby der Lage Landen ), is a sports event between Belgium and the Netherlands. Belgium separated in 1830 from the (northern) Netherlands. The new country took its name from Belgica , the Latinised name for the Low Countries, as it was known during the Eighty Years' War (1568–1648). The Low Countries were in that war divided in two parts. On one hand, the northern Federated Netherlands or Belgica Foederata rebelled against King Philip II of Spain ; on

276-585: A Constitutional Democratic party member from Crimea, was a member of the fourth Duma. At a time when compulsory education was unknown in Europe, the Mennonite colonies formed an elementary school in each village. Students learned practical skills such as reading and writing German and arithmetic. Religion was included as was singing in many schools. The teacher was typically a craftsperson or herder, untrained in teaching, who fit class time around his occupation. In 1820

368-472: A library , a radio station and a hospital. The museum displays objects from the town's Mennonite past, like Russian overcoats, and the local wildlife, such as stuffed armadillos, anteaters, and toads. The colony's villages lie around Filadelfia, as do several native reserves, home to much of the area's native population, from the Chulupí , Lengua , Toba-Pilaga , Ayoreo and Sanapaná groups. A modern supermarket

460-490: A Mennonite congregation was required to enjoy the special benefits the Russian government provided to colonists, excommunication had broader implications. This was softened by the various internal factions, which allowed a person banned from one congregation to join another. As nationalism grew in central Europe, the Russian government could no longer justify the special status of its German-speaking colonists. In 1870 they announced

552-519: A Russification plan that would end all special privileges by 1880. Mennonites were particularly alarmed at the possibility of losing their exemption from military service and their right for schools to use the German language, which they believed was necessary to maintain their cultural and religious life. Delegates were sent to Petersburg in 1871 to meet with the czar and appeal for relief on religious grounds. They met with high officials, but failed to present

644-418: A book while seated at a table. Frisian pastors stood while delivering the sermon. Pastors were untrained and chosen from within the congregation. Unpaid pastors were selected from among the wealthier members—large landowners, sometimes teachers—allowing them to make a living while serving the congregation. The combined effect of respect for their position and material wealth gave them substantial influence over

736-612: A commission to North America in the summer of 1920 to alert American Mennonites of the dire conditions of war-torn Ukraine. Their plight succeeded in uniting various branches of Mennonites to form the Mennonite Central Committee in an effort to coordinate aid. The new organization planned to provide aid to Ukraine via existing Mennonite relief work in Istanbul . The Istanbul group, mainly Goshen College graduates, produced three volunteers, who at great risk entered Ukraine during

828-451: A conquest of the Low Countries with the shortest possible notice, to forestall the French, and prevent Allied air power from threatening the strategic Ruhr Area of Germany. It would also provide the basis for a long-term air and sea campaign against Britain. As much as possible of the border areas in northern France should be occupied. Germany's Blitzkrieg tactics rapidly overpowered

920-684: A delegation of twelve explored North America, seeking large tracts of fertile farmland. This group consisted of Leonhard Sudermann and Jacob Buller of the Alexanderwohl congregation representing the Molotschna settlement; Tobias Unruh from Volhynia settlements; Andreas Schrag of the Swiss Volhynia congregations; Heinrich Wiebe, Jacob Peters and Cornelius Buhr from the Bergthal Colony ; William Ewert from West Prussia; Cornelius Toews and David Klassen of

1012-403: A democratic state, enjoying freedoms beyond those of ordinary Russian peasants. In addition to village schools, the Mennonite colonies established their own hospitals, a mental hospital and a school for the deaf. They cared for orphans and elderly and provided an insurance program. By being largely self-sufficient in these local matters, they were able to minimize their burden on and contact with

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1104-428: A family. The confiscated land was given to peasants from outside the Mennonite communities, often communist party members. These new villagers soon controlled the local government, further confiscating land and rights from the Mennonite majority by labeling landowners and leaders kulaks and sending them into exile. The government taxed the remaining landowners so heavily that they could not possibly produce enough to meet

1196-637: A large tract of land divided into two "Reserves". The Mennonites settled mostly in Manitoba in areas east and west of the Red River , called East Reserve and West Reserve . Low Countries The Low Countries ( Dutch : de Lage Landen ; French : les Pays-Bas ), historically also known as the Netherlands (Dutch: de Nederlanden ), is a coastal lowland region in Northwestern Europe forming

1288-504: A march toward structural discord. The chaos that followed the collapse of the Russian Provisional Government was devastating to much of Ukraine, including the Mennonite colonies. The Red and White armies moved through the region, confiscating food and livestock. Nestor Makhno 's anarchist army generally targeted Mennonites because they were thought of as " Kulaks " and an entity generally more advanced and wealthy than

1380-866: A new agreement with them. The Mennonite migration to Russia from the Prussian-annexed Vistula delta was led by Jacob Hoeppner and Johann Bartsch. Their settlement territory was northwest of the Sea of Azov , and had just been acquired from the Ottoman Empire in the Russo-Turkish War, 1768–1774 . Many of the Mennonites in Prussia accepted this invitation, establishing Chortitza on the Dnieper River as their first colony in 1789. A second larger colony, Molotschna ,

1472-690: A period of 300 years in the Vistula delta region and south Russia. The Mennonites of Dutch origin were joined by Mennonites from other parts of Europe, including the German-speaking parts of the Swiss Confederacy . In 1772, most of the Vistula delta was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia in the First Partition of Poland . Frederick William II of Prussia ascended the throne in 1786 and imposed heavy fees on

1564-580: A place for visitors to camp for the night. The newly asphalted highway, PY09 , from Asunción continues past Filadelfia for another 70 km (40 mi) and runs out at the military checkpoint Mariscal Estigarribia . From this point onwards, the road to the border town fort General Eugenio A. Garay with Bolivia is almost impassable. This Paraguay location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Russian Mennonite The Russian Mennonites ( German : Russlandmennoniten [lit. "Russia Mennonites", i.e., Mennonites of or from

1656-432: A reputation for outstanding efficiency and quality and were noted across Russia for their agricultural and organizational abilities. The precedent of non-resistant national service had been established years before and the Mennonites therefore had a system to handle military service requests at the outbreak of war. During World War I , 5000 Mennonite men served in both forestry and hospital units and transported wounded from

1748-552: Is anecdotal and based on family memoirs and letters from the Gulags. Peter Letkemann of University of Winnipeg characterizes the casualties and abuses of this period as "victims of terror and repression in the Soviet Union during the 40-year period from 1917–1956." This would overlap somewhat with the "Siberian Germans" deported to that region who have lost touch entirely with the Mennonite mainstream worldwide. Between 1987 and 1993 about 100,000 persons of Mennonite origin emigrated from

1840-456: Is located in the centre of the town, which is the last place to get groceries before heading further out into the Chaco . Most of the town's potable water supply is drawn from underground cisterns, being replenished by intermittent rainfall; the underground water is too salty to drink. A small commemorative park known as Parque Trebol lies about 5 km (3 mi) to the east of town. It now serves as

1932-520: Is the blind poet Bernlef , from c.  800 , who sang both Christian psalms and pagan verses. Bernlef is representative of the coexistence of Christianity and Germanic polytheism in this time period. The earliest examples of written literature include the Wachtendonck Psalms , a collection of twenty five psalms that originated in the Moselle-Frankish region around the middle of

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2024-598: The Austrian Netherlands . The United Kingdom of the Netherlands (1815–1830) temporarily united the Low Countries again before it split into the three modern countries of the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. During the early months of World War I (around 1914), the Central Powers invaded the Low Countries of Luxembourg and Belgium in what has been come to be known as the German invasion of Belgium . It led to

2116-490: The Dutch Revolt . Each of the provinces had its own laws, customs and political practices. The new policy, imposed from the outside, angered many inhabitants, who viewed their provinces as distinct entities. It and other monarchical acts, such as the creation of bishoprics and promulgation of laws against heresy , stoked resentments, which fired the eruption of the Dutch Revolt . After the northern Seven United Provinces of

2208-851: The Fernheim and Friesland Colonies. A group of Mennonites from western Siberia who subsequently settled along the Amur in unrealized hopes of better living conditions, escaped over the frozen river to Harbin , China. A few hundred were allowed entry into California and Washington. The majority remained as refugees until the Nansen International Office for Refugees of the League of Nations intervened and arranged resettlement in Paraguay and Brazil in 1932. Those that remained in their home villages were subject to exile to Siberia and other remote regions east of

2300-625: The Franco-Flemish School were highly sought by the leading classes of all Europe. In 1477 the Burgundian holdings in the area passed through an heiress— Mary of Burgundy —to the Habsburgs . Charles V, who inherited the territory in 1506, was named ruler by the States General and styled himself as Heer der Nederlanden ( lit.   ' Lord of the Netherlands ' ). He continued to rule

2392-483: The Free County of Burgundy , which were part of their realm but geographically disconnected from the Low Countries. Governor Mary of Hungary used both the expressions les pays de par deça and Pays d'Embas ("lands down here"), which evolved to Pays-Bas or Low Countries . Today the term is typically fitted to modern political boundaries and used in the same way as the term Benelux . The name of

2484-754: The Holodomor in Ukraine, there was active persecution of German-speaking people as a potential threat to the state, and a ban on organized religion. The hostilities of World War I had increased tensions with ethnic Ukrainians, and Mennonites with family members living abroad were targeted during the Great Purge . The Mennonites suffered persecution by the Stalinist regime, which advocated state atheism . As pacifists within an increasingly military regime under Stalin and then (after invasion of Ukraine and parts of Russia by Hitler )

2576-462: The Kingdom of France or the Holy Roman Empire . While the further history the Low Countries can be seen as the object of a continual struggle between these two powers, the title of Duke of Lothier was coveted in the low countries for centuries. In the 14th and 15th century, separate fiefs came gradually to be ruled by a single family through royal intermarriage . This process culminated in

2668-740: The Kleine Gemeinde and Paul and Lorenz Tschetter representing the Hutterites . This group returned with positive reports of good land available in Manitoba , Minnesota , South Dakota , Nebraska and Kansas . The more conservative groups—those from Kleine Gemeinde , Bergthal and Chortitza—chose Canada, which promised privileges equal to those previously held in Russia and a large tract of land to reestablish colonies in Manitoba ( East Reserve and West Reserve ). The more liberal groups—those from Molotschna—and

2760-520: The Low Countries —especially Friesland and Flanders —seeking religious freedom and exemption from military service . They gradually replaced their Dutch and Frisian languages with the Low German language spoken in the area, blending into it elements of their native tongues to create a distinct dialect known as Plautdietsch . Today Plautdietsch is the distinct Mennonite language that developed over

2852-558: The Roman provinces of Gallia Belgica and Germania Inferior . They were inhabited by Belgic and Germanic tribes . In the 4th and 5th century, Frankish tribes had entered this Roman region and came to run it increasingly independently. They came to be ruled by the Merovingian dynasty , under which dynasty the southern part (below the Rhine ) was re- Christianised . By the end of the 8th century,

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2944-479: The Urals . From 1929 to 1940, one in eight men were removed, usually under the pretext of political accusations, to labor camps from which few ever returned or were heard from again. With the onset of economic and agricultural reforms, large estates and the communal land of the Mennonite colonies were confiscated. The next step was to reduce the model farms by 60% and then another 50% percent—an insufficient size to support

3036-626: The Vistula near Warsaw , Kazuń Nowy and Nowe Wymyśle , came under Russian control after Mazovia was annexed by Russia at the Congress of Vienna (1815). Some of these families emigrated to the Molotschna settlement after it was established. Deutsch-Michalin near Machnovka was founded in 1787. Many families from this settlement moved to nearby Volhynia in 1802. Swiss Mennonites of Amish descent from Galicia settled near Dubno , Volhynia province in 1815. Other Galician Mennonites lived near Lviv . When

3128-860: The Western Hemisphere . The rest of them were forcibly relocated, so very few of their descendants currently live in the locations of the original colonies. Russian Mennonites are traditionally multilingual but Plautdietsch (Mennonite Low German) is their first language as well as their lingua franca . In 2014, there were several hundred thousand Russian Mennonites: about 200,000 live in Germany, 74,122 live in Mexico , 150,000 in Bolivia , 40,000 live in Paraguay , 10,000 live in Belize , tens of thousands of them live in Canada and

3220-619: The 1880s, where they expected Christ's imminent return. They settled in the Talas Valley of Turkestan and in the Khanate of Khiva . For those who remained in Russia, the military service question was resolved by 1880 with a substitute four-year forestry service program for men of military age. During the period of the 'Great War', the Mennonites in Russia were well advanced socially and economically. Many large agricultural estates and business entities were controlled by Mennonite interests. They had

3312-478: The Chortitza and Molotschna settlements which, with population increase, numbered about 45,000. Forty daughter colonies were established by 1914, occupying nearly 12,000 square kilometres (4,600 sq mi), with a total population of 100,000. The colonists formed villages of fifteen to thirty families, each with 70 ha (175 acres) of land. The settlements retained some communal land and a common granary for use by

3404-430: The Chortitza villages formed one district; Molotschna was divided into two districts: Halbstadt and Gnadenfeld. A district superintendent headed a regional bureau that could administer corporal punishment and handle other matters affecting the villages in common. Insurance and fire protection were handled at the regional level, as well as dealing with delinquents and other social problems. The Mennonite colonies functioned as

3496-419: The German occupation of the two countries. However, the German advance into France was quickly halted, causing a military stalemate for most of the war. In the end, a total of approximately 56,000 people were killed in the invasion. During World War II , when Adolf Hitler 's gaze turned his strategy west toward France, the Low Countries were an easy route around the imposing French Maginot Line . He ordered

3588-529: The Hutterites chose the United States. Entire communities such as Alexanderwohl and Bergtal prepared to move as a unit as well as many individual families from among the other Mennonite villages. They sold their property, often at reduced prices and worked through the red tape and high fees of procuring passports. Realizing that 40,000 of Russia's most industrious farmers were preparing to leave for North America,

3680-631: The Low Countries formed a core part of a much expanded Francia and the Merovingians were replaced by the Carolingian dynasty . In 800, the Pope crowned and appointed Charlemagne Emperor of the re-established Roman Empire . After the death of Charlemagne , Francia was divided in three parts among his three grandsons. The middle slice, Middle Francia , was ruled by Lothair I , and thereby also came to be referred to as "Lotharingia" or "Lorraine". Apart from

3772-503: The Low Countries were divided into numerous semi-independent principalities . Historically, the regions without access to the sea linked themselves politically and economically to those with access to form various unions of ports and hinterland , stretching inland as far as parts of the German Rhineland . Because of this, nowadays not only physically low-altitude areas, but also some hilly or elevated regions are considered part of

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3864-583: The Low Countries, including Luxembourg and the south of Belgium. Within the European Union , the region's political grouping is still referred to as the Benelux (short for Belgium-Netherlands-Luxembourg). During the Roman Empire , the region contained a militarised frontier and contact point between Rome and Germanic tribes . The Low Countries were the scene of the early independent trading centres that marked

3956-424: The Mennonite people and their institutions. Property and possessions began to be confiscated for the war effort and certain industrial complexes turned to military production (some voluntarily). Much of the Mennonite hope at that time was based on the preservation of the existing Russian Provisional Government . However, as the war progressed, the social tide turned against the existing power structure and Russia began

4048-720: The Mennonites in exchange for continued military exemption. The remainder of the Vistula delta was annexed by Prussia in the Second Partition of Poland in 1793. Catherine the Great of Russia issued a manifesto in 1763 inviting all Europeans to come and settle various pieces of land within New Russia (today Southern Ukraine ) and especially in the Volga region . Mennonites from the Vistula delta region sent delegates to negotiate an extension of this manifesto and, in 1789, Crown Prince Paul signed

4140-1033: The Molotschna colony started a secondary school at Ohrloff, bringing a trained teacher from Prussia. The Central School was started in Chortitza in 1842. Over three thousand pupils attended the Central School with up to 8% of the colonists receiving a secondary education. A school of commerce was started in Halbstadt employing a faculty with full graduate education. Those who wanted to pursue post-secondary education attended universities in Switzerland, Germany as well as Russia. Typically each village or group of villages organized an independent congregation . Cultural and traditional differences between Frisian and Flemish Mennonites were also reflected in those of their churches. They all agreed on fundamental Mennonite beliefs such as believer's baptism , nonresistance and avoidance of oaths . Pastors of Flemish congregations read sermons from

4232-581: The Nazis, and as "Volga Germans" whose abuse Hitler had used as a pretext to invade, Mennonites were subject to special pressure to join military units. Mennonites played a central role in managing the labor force at Stutthof concentration camp , and some, recruited into SS units, served as guards at concentration camps or carried out shootings of prisoners. Other Mennonites were conscripted by force into German units as support and shock troops and some participated in anti-partisan operations. Most history of this period

4324-622: The Netherlands. However, in official use, the name of the Dutch kingdom is still Kingdom of the Netherlands , Koninkrijk der Nederlanden (plural). This name derives from the 19th-century origins of the kingdom which originally included present-day Belgium. In Dutch, and to a lesser extent in English, the Low Countries colloquially means the Netherlands and Belgium, sometimes the Netherlands and Flanders —the Dutch-speaking north of Belgium. For example,

4416-530: The Prussian government eliminated exemption from military service on religious grounds, most of the remaining Mennonites were eager to emigrate to Russia. They were offered land along the Volga River in Samara Governorate and exemption from military service for twenty years, after which they could pay a special exemption tax. Two settlements, Trakt and Alt-Samara (to distinguish it from Neu Samara Colony ), were founded in 1853 and 1861 respectively. By 1870 about 9000 individuals had immigrated to Russia, mostly to

4508-451: The Russian Empire]) are a group of Mennonites who are the descendants of Dutch and North German Anabaptists who settled in the Vistula delta in West Prussia for about 250 years and established colonies in the Russian Empire (present-day Ukraine and Russia's Volga region , Orenburg Governorate , and Western Siberia ) beginning in 1789. Since the late 19th century, many of them have emigrated to countries which are located throughout

4600-449: The Russian government sent Eduard Totleben to the colonies in May 1874. Meeting with community leaders, he exaggerated the difficulties that would be encountered in North America and offered an alternative national service that would not be connected in any way to the military. His intervention convinced the more liberal Mennonites to stay. Between 1874 and 1880, of the approximately 45,000 Mennonites in South Russia, 10,000 departed for

4692-446: The Russian government. Mennonites stayed out of Russian politics and social movements that preceded the Russian revolution. After the Russian Revolution of 1905 they did exercise their right to vote. Most aligned themselves with the Octobrist Party because of its guarantee of religious freedoms and freedom of the press for minority groups. Hermann Bergmann was an Octobrist member of the Third and Fourth State Dumas ; Peter Schröder,

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4784-418: The Soviet authorities and issued new standards and expectations. Education was to be controlled according to these new directives by the State, and families were eventually to be separated, with children sent to various live-in schools, while parents were to be assigned according to State needs. These directives were described by a Volga German teacher, Henry Wieler, who attended these State meetings and related

4876-607: The Soviet authorities. The impacts of the trauma experienced during World War I and the Russian Revolution had lasting impacts on Russian Mennonites. Even though Mennonites who emigrated to North America experienced drastically less violence and the privilege of land ownership, many still showed very high levels of psychological distress. First through third generation Mennonites in North America were found to have high levels of depression, hysteria, psychasthenia, post traumatic stress disorder, ego strength, anxiety, repression, and over-controlled hostility. Mennonites of Molotschna sent

4968-399: The Soviet government to do relief work among the villages of Ukraine (see Russian famine of 1921 ). Kitchens provided 25,000 people a day with rations over a period of three years beginning in 1922, with a peak of 40,000 servings during August of that year. Fifty Fordson tractor and plow combinations were sent to Mennonite villages to replace horses that had been stolen and confiscated during

5060-439: The Soviet government, Moscow would not deal with them directly. Emigrants bound for Canada were processed through Riga . Those who could not pass the medical exam—usually because of trachoma —were allowed to stay in Germany and Southampton in England until they were healthy. By 1930, 21,000 Mennonites had arrived in Canada, most on credit provided by the Canadian Pacific Railway . Another group went to Paraguay where they founded

5152-489: The US where the majority over a period of several decades assimilated more or less into the mainstream society. Russian Mennonites settled much of South Central Kansas , which owes its reputation as a wheat-producing state in large measure to its early Mennonite settlers. Winter wheat was introduced to Kansas in 1873. The following year the Mennonites, who had experience with dry land farming in Russia, quickly took advantage of its characteristics, resulting in rapid expansion of

5244-455: The US, and a few thousand live in Argentina , Uruguay , and Brazil. The term "Russian Mennonite" refers to the country which they resided in before their immigration to the Americas rather than their ethnic heritage. The term "Low-German Mennonites" is also used in order to avoid this conflation. In the early-to-mid 16th century, Mennonites began to flee to the Vistula Delta region in the Kingdom of Poland in order to avoid persecution in

5336-428: The USSR to Germany. Today in Ukraine there are three Mennonite communities in Zaporizhzhia Oblast and Kherson Oblast and a Mennonite community in Ternopil Oblast . After 1870 about 18,000 Russian Mennonites, fearing conscription into military service and state influence on their education systems, emigrated to the Plains States of the US and the Western Provinces of Canada. The more liberal went in general to

5428-436: The United States and 8,000 for Manitoba. The settlement of Mennonites, primarily in the central United States, where available cropland had similarity to that in the Crimean Peninsula, coincided with the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad in 1869. Others looked east, and in one of the strangest chapters of Mennonite history, Claas Epp, Jr. , Abraham Peters and other leaders led hundreds of Mennonites to Central Asia in

5520-488: The anarchist army warring throughout the colonies. Based on the tragedy unfolding around them, some of the avowed pacifist Mennonites turned to self-defense and established militia units ( Selbstschutz ) to ward off raiding forces with the help of the German Army. This was regarded as a failure of spiritual commitment by many within the community (currently and at the time). The forces initially achieved some military success in defending Mennonite colonies and families while

5612-418: The battlefield to Moscow and Ekaterinoslav hospitals. The Mennonite congregations were responsible for funding these forms of alternative service, as well as supporting the men's families during their absence, a burden of 3.5 million rubles annually. During this time there was a progressive breakdown in the autonomy of the Mennonite colonies and social and financial pressure began to take their effect on

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5704-495: The communities tried to escape and/or relocate. Ultimately the self-defence militia was overwhelmed once Makhno's anarchists aligned themselves with the Red Army early in 1919. While the resistance certainly helped defend Mennonite communities against initial attacks, it may also have served to inflame some of the atrocities that followed. After this period, many Mennonites were dispossessed and ultimately their remaining properties and possessions were nationalized ( collectivization ) by

5796-423: The community. Church discipline was exercised in the form of excommunication against those who had committed sins and refused to repent and ask for forgiveness. The most conservative congregations practiced " avoidance ", which entailed cutting all business and most social ties with an unrepentant member, but members still had the obligation to help the shunned person if he was in grave need. Because being part of

5888-413: The country of the Netherlands has the same etymology and origin as the name for the region Low Countries, due to "nether" meaning "low". In the Dutch language itself De Lage Landen is the modern term for Low Countries, and De Nederlanden (plural) is in use for the 16th century domains of Charles V , the historic Low Countries, while Nederland (singular) is the normal Dutch name for the country of

5980-444: The czar with their petition. A similar attempt the next year was also unsuccessful, but were assured by the Tsar's brother Grand Duke Konstantin that the new law would provide a way to address the concerns of the Mennonites in the form of noncombatant military service. The most conscientious Mennonites could not accept any form of service that supported making war, prompting their community leaders to seek immigration options. In 1873

6072-430: The defences of Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. All three countries were occupied from May 1940 until early 1945. During the occupation, their governments were forced into exile in Britain. In 1944, they signed the London Customs Convention , laying the foundation for the eventual Benelux Economic Union , an important forerunner of the EEC (later the EU ). One of the Low Countries' earliest literary figures

6164-549: The eight largest Mennonite-owned factories produced 6% of the total Russian output (over 3 million rubles), shipped machinery to all parts of the empire and employed 1744 workers. The annual output of Lepp and Wallman of Schönwiese was 50,000 mowers, 3000 threshing machines , thousands of gangplows in addition to other farm equipment. Flour and feed mills were originally wind-powered, a skill transplanted from Prussia. These were eventually replaced with motor- and steam-driven mills. Milling and its supporting industries grew to dominate

6256-421: The encouragement of the free flow of goods and craftsmen. Dutch and French dialects were the main languages used in secular city life. Historically, the term Low Countries arose at the Court of the Dukes of Burgundy , who used the term les pays de par deçà ("the lands over here") for the Low Countries as opposed to les pays de par delà ("the lands over there") for the Duchy of Burgundy and

6348-451: The events in his detailed Journal, Tagabook, which today is partially translated but available in the published book, The Quiet in the Land, by Henry Wieler. In 1937 and 1938 the NKVD carried out ethnically motivated purges of German descendants and German language speakers, including Mennonites. As Stalin fomented cooperation with the Russian Orthodox Church in World War II, Mennonites and Protestants were seen as more dangerous. During

6440-410: The heirs. By streamlining the succession law in all Seventeen Provinces and declaring that all of them would be inherited by one heir, Charles effectively united the Netherlands as one entity. After Charles' abdication in 1555, the Seventeen Provinces passed to his son, Philip II of Spain . The Pragmatic Sanction is said to be one example of the Habsburg contest with particularism that contributed to

6532-448: The industrial economy of the colonies and nearby communities. Mennonite colonies were self-governing with little intervention from the Russian authorities. The village, the basic unit of government, was headed by an elected magistrate who oversaw village affairs. Each village controlled its own school and roads, and cared for the poor. Male landowners decided local matters at village assemblies. Villages were grouped into districts. All of

6624-528: The lower basin of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta and consisting today of the three modern " Benelux " countries: Belgium , Luxembourg , and the Netherlands (Dutch: Nederland , which is singular). Geographically and historically, the area can also include parts of France (such as Nord and Pas-de-Calais ) and the German regions of East Frisia , Guelders and Cleves . During the Middle Ages ,

6716-603: The milling industry in the state. It is planted in the fall and harvested in June and July of the following summer, and is therefore ideally suited to cold winters and the hot, dry Kansas summers. Kansas remains a top producer of wheat in America to this day. The more conservative Old Colony , Bergthal Mennonites and Kleine Gemeinde went to Canada which promised privileges equal to those previously held in Russia (no conscription into military service and German language private schools) and

6808-493: The next. Since agriculture was the main economic activity, an expanding class of discontented, landless poor arose. Their problems tended to be ignored by the village assembly, which consisted of voting landowners. By the early 1860s the problem became so acute that the landless organized a party that petitioned the Russian government for relief. A combination of factors relieved their plight. The Russian government permitted farms to be divided in half or quarters and ordered release of

6900-511: The obligation and their land was confiscated as payment. As collectivization proceeded, there was some hope that Mennonites could run their own collective farms , but with the introduction of Stalin's first five-year plan there was no hope that such a scheme would be allowed. Starting in 1918 religious freedoms were restricted. Churches and congregations had to be registered with the government. Ministers were disenfranchised and lost their rights as citizens. Ministers could not be teachers, which

6992-607: The ongoing Russian Civil War . They arrived in the Mennonite village of Halbstadt in the Molotschna settlement just as General Wrangel of the White Army was retreating. Two of the volunteers withdrew with the Wrangel army, while Clayton Kratz , who remained in Halbstadt as it was overrun by the Red Army, was never heard from again. A year passed before official permission was received from

7084-500: The original coastal County of Flanders , which was within West Francia , the rest of the Low Countries were within the lowland part of this, " Lower Lorraine ". After the death of Lothair, the Low Countries were coveted by the rulers of both West Francia and East Francia . Each tried to swallow the region and to merge it with their spheres of influence. Thus, the Low Countries consisted of fiefs whose sovereignty resided with either

7176-532: The other, the southern Royal Netherlands or Belgica Regia remained loyal to the Spanish king. This divide laid the early foundation for the later modern states of Belgium and the Netherlands. The region politically had its origins in the Carolingian empire ; more precisely, most of the people were within the Duchy of Lower Lotharingia . After the disintegration of Lower Lotharingia, the Low Countries were brought under

7268-477: The political secession of the autonomous Dutch Republic (or "United Provinces") in the north, the term "Low Countries" continued to be used to refer collectively to the region. The region was temporarily united politically between 1815 and 1839, as the United Kingdom of the Netherlands , before this split into the three modern countries of the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. The Low Countries were part of

7360-442: The poor in lean years. Income from communal property provided funding for large projects, such as forming daughter colonies for the growing population. Insurance was also organized separately and outside of the control of the Russian government. Initially the settlers raised cattle, sheep and general crops to provide for their household. The barren steppes were much drier than their Vistula delta homeland and it took years to work out

7452-445: The proper dry-land farming practices. They grew mulberries for the silk industry, produced honey, flax and tobacco , and marketed fruits and vegetables for city markets. By the 1830s wheat became the dominant crop. Expanding population and the associated pressure for more farmland became a problem by 1860. The terms of the settlement agreement prevented farms from being divided; they were required to pass intact from one generation to

7544-427: The reawakening of Europe in the 12th century. In that period, they rivalled northern Italy as one of the most densely populated regions of Western Europe. Guilds and councils governed most of the cities along with a figurehead ruler; interaction with their ruler was regulated by a strict set of rules describing what the latter could and could not expect. All of the regions mainly depended on trade, manufacturing and

7636-568: The rule of the House of Valois , who were the rulers of the Duchy of Burgundy . At the height of Burgundian influence, the Low Countries became the political, cultural, and economic centre of Northern Europe , noted for its crafts and luxury goods, notably early Netherlandish painting , which is the work of artists who were active in the flourishing cities of Bruges , Ghent , Mechelen , Leuven , Tournai and Brussels , all in present-day Belgium. Musicians of

7728-733: The rule of various lordships until they came to be in the hands of the Valois Dukes of Burgundy . Hence, a large part of the Low Countries came to be referred to as the Burgundian Netherlands . After the reign of the Valois Dukes ended, much of the Low Countries were controlled by the House of Habsburg . This area was referred to as the Habsburg Netherlands , which was also called the Seventeen Provinces up to 1581. Even after

7820-808: The seventeen declared their independence from Habsburg Spain in 1581, the ten provinces of the Southern Netherlands remained occupied by the Army of Flanders under Spanish service and are therefore sometimes called the Spanish Netherlands . In 1713, under the Treaty of Utrecht following the War of the Spanish Succession , what was left of the Spanish Netherlands was ceded to Austria and thus became known as

7912-599: The surrounding Ukrainian peasants. The Mennonites' Germanic background also served to inflame negative sentiment during the period of revolution. It is also rumored that Makhno himself had served on a Mennonite estate in childhood and harbored negative feelings based on treatment he received while employed there. Hundreds of Mennonites were murdered, robbed, imprisoned and raped during this period, and villages including (and around) Chortitza, Zagradovka and Nikolaipol were damaged and destroyed. Many more people died from typhus , cholera and sexually transmitted diseases , spread by

8004-480: The territories as a multitude of duchies and principalities until the Low Countries were eventually united into one indivisible territory, the Seventeen Provinces , covered by the Pragmatic Sanction of 1549 , while retaining existing customs, laws, and forms of government within the provinces. The Pragmatic Sanction transformed the agglomeration of lands into a unified entity, of which the Habsburgs would be

8096-485: The village's communal land. The colonies themselves purchased land and formed daughter colonies on the eastern frontier extending into Siberia and Turkestan . These new colonies included Bergtal , Neu Samara Colony and the Mennonite settlements of Altai . As wheat farming expanded, the demand for mills and farm equipment grew. The first large foundry was established in Chortitza in 1860 and other firms followed. By 1911

8188-535: The war. The cost of this relief effort was $ 1.2 million. As conditions improved, Mennonites turned their attention from survival to emigration. Though the New Economic Policy appeared to be less radical than previous Soviet reforms, thousands of Mennonites saw no future under the communists. After years of negotiation with foreign governments and Moscow, arrangements were made for emigration to Canada, Paraguay and Argentina. Because Canada had not recognized

8280-489: Was founded in 1804. Mennonites lived alongside Nogais —semi- nomadic pastoralists—in the Molotschna region of southern Ukraine starting from 1803, when Mennonites first arrived, until 1860, when the Nogai Tatars departed. Mennonites provided agricultural jobs to Nogais and rented pasture from them. Nogai raids on Mennonite herds were a constant problem in the first two decades of settlement. Two Mennonite settlements on

8372-588: Was prohibited. Sunday was abolished as a holiday. During World War I the Russians had permitted Mennonites to serve in non-combat capacities in the military. This practice was not continued. Following the Russian withdrawal from World War I, the Russian Civil War ensued, with an ultimate Red victory. The Russian Mennonites, many of whom were also known as being part of the one million or so Volga Germans living in their own established communities, were approached by

8464-443: Was the livelihood of many Mennonite pastors. They and their family members could not join cooperatives or craft guilds. Because of these restrictions, ministers had a strong incentive to emigrate, and few were willing to replace them. Congregations could no longer do charitable work of any kind, which destroyed the well developed social institutions with the Mennonite colonies. Villages lost control of their schools; all religious content

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