The headwaters of the Scheldt are inGouy, in theAisne department of northern France. It flows north throughCambrai andValenciennes, and enters Belgium nearTournai.Ghent developed at the confluence of theLys, one of its main tributaries, and the Scheldt, which then turns east. NearAntwerp, the largest city on its banks, the Scheldt flows west into the Netherlands toward theNorth Sea.[citation needed]
The Scheldt at Antwerp, photochrom, ca. 1890-1900"View of Antwerp with the frozen Scheldt" (1590) byLucas van ValckenborchU.S. PresidentHarry S. Truman and Secretary of StateJames F. Byrnes wave atHMSHambledon while on board theUSSAugusta on the river Scheldt as they head to thePotsdam Conference on 15 July 1945Aerial view of the Scheldt estuary, looking toward Antwerp from the northwest
The Scheldt estuary has always had considerable commercial and strategic importance. CalledScaldis inRoman times, it was important for the shipping lanes toRoman Britain.Nehalennia was venerated at its mouth. TheFranks took control over the region about the year 260 and at first interfered with the Roman supply routes as pirates. Later they became allies of the Romans. With the various divisions of theFrankish Empire in the 9th century, the Scheldt eventually became the border between the Western and Eastern parts of the Empire, which later became France and theHoly Roman Empire.[citation needed]
This status quo remained intact, at least on paper, until 1528, but by then, both theCounty of Flanders on the western bank and Zeeland and theDuchy of Brabant on the east were part of theHabsburg possessions of theSeventeen Provinces. Antwerp was the most prominent harbour in Western Europe. After this cityfell back under Spanish control in 1585, theDutch Republic took control ofZeelandic Flanders, a strip of land on the left bank, and closed the Scheldt for shipping. That shifted the trade to the ports ofAmsterdam andMiddelburg and seriously crippled Antwerp, an important and traumatic element in the history of relations between the Netherlands and what was to become Belgium.[citation needed]
Access to the river was the subject of the briefKettle War of 1784, and during theFrench Revolution shortly afterwards, the river was reopened in 1792. Once Belgium had claimed itsindependence from the Netherlands in 1830, the treaty of the Scheldt determined that the river should remain accessible to ships heading for Belgianports. Nevertheless, the Dutch government would demand atoll from passing vessels until 16 July 1863.[5]
The Question of the Scheldt, a study providing "a history of the international legal arrangements governing the Western Scheldt", was prepared for the use of British negotiators at theTreaty of Versailles in 1919.[6]
In theSecond World War, the Scheldt estuary once again became a contested area. Despite Allied control ofAntwerp, German forces still occupied fortified positions in September 1944 throughout the Scheldt estuary west and north, preventing any Allied shipping from reaching the port. In theBattle of the Scheldt, theCanadian First Army successfully cleared the area, allowing supply convoys direct access to the port of Antwerp by November 1944.[7]
The navigable river Escaut/Scheldt from Cambrai to the North Sea (from European Waterways Map and Directory, 5th edition)
Canalisation from Cambrai down to Valenciennes was completed in 1788.Napoleon saw the benefits of linking Paris to Belgium and accelerated completion of theCanal de Saint-Quentin to the south. The locks were deepened and doubled, as coal became the essential commodity of the industrial revolution. Upgrading downstream from Bouchain was started in the 1960s in both France and Flanders, but the waterway is still not fully compliant with European standards. All the locks on the high-capacity section are being doubled by European Class Vb size locks, 185 by 12 m (607 by 39 ft), as part of the overall European Seine-Scheldt waterway project.[9] The Pont des Trous, a listed fortified bridge in Tournai that has already been substantially modified, will again be raised to provide the necessary dimensions, including an air draught of 7.10 m (23 ft 4 in).[citation needed]
The 13 km section between Cambrai (connection with Canal de Saint-Quentin) andHordain (connection withCanal de la Sensée) is only navigable for small ships (péniche) and has 5 locks.[10]
^Prothero, G W (1920).Question of the Scheldt. Peace handbooks. London: H.M. Stationery Office. Retrieved2014-06-03.
^Zuehlke, Mark (2009).Terrible Victory: First Canadian Army and the Scheldt Estuary Campaign: September 13 - November 6, 1944. Douglas & McIntyre. p. 460.ISBN978-1771620307.
