Unity makes strength
Encyclopedia
"Unity makes strength" is the national motto of Belgium
, later also taken on by Bulgaria
and Haiti
.
and under the rule of Charles V
. It is derived from the Latin phrase "concordia res parvae crescunt" (concord makes small things flourish) in chapter 10 of the Bellum Iugurthinum by the Roman Republican writer Sallust
. The new Dutch Republic
took over the phrase as its motto and it appeared on several of its coins and coats of arms, usually in the original Latin form, referring to the new state's initially small territorial size. From the late 16th century onwards the start of the motto was frequently used on Dutch coinage, such as the Leicester
-rijksdaalder in 1586.
The French occupied the Netherlands from 1795 to 1813, first as the Batavian Republic
then the Kingdom of Holland
then as an annexed part of France itself. Early in the occupation the national motto was changed to "Gelykheid, Vryheid, Broederschap" (Equality, Liberty, Fraternity), but from 1802 to 1810 'Unity makes strength' was re-introduced. It remained in use until the institution of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands
when, in 1816, it switched to the House of Orange motto 'Je maintiendrai'.
, initially only in its French form "L'union fait la force". Only when the Dutch was equated with the French did the Belgian state take "Eendracht maakt macht" as its motto instead, sometimes with the variant "Eenheid baart macht". In 1830 this unity was identified with the unification of Belgium's nine provinces, whose nine provincial coats of arms are represented on the national arms, and the new country's unification of its liberal progressives and Catholic conservatives. Indeed, it was launched in 1827-1828 by newspapers published in Liege
which allied liberals and Catholics in the unionism which brought about the Revolution and which then dominated Belgian politics until the founding of the Liberal Party
in 1846. Although the motto is often used in Belgicist
or unitarist circles (as a call to Fleming
s and Walloons
, natives of Brussels and German speakers, all to maintain Belgium's unity), this is a historical misinterpretation - the motto is a unionist not a unitarist slogan. Its German version is "Einigkeit macht stark". Flemings sometimes parody the motto by chanting it as "L'union fait la farce" ("Union makes a farce") or "L'oignon fait la farce" ("The onion makes the filling"), trivialising it as a cooking recipe.
, a borough
of New York City
founded by Dutch settlers, is still "Eendraght maeckt maght". The motto Eendragt maakt magt also appears on the badge of the police force of Holland, Michigan
, combined with God zij met ons
.
became an autonomous princedom in 1887 with a member of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
on its throne, it borrowed Belgium's motto of L'union fait la force (in Bulgarian
: Съединението прави силата). After the king was deposed, it was the country's motto until 1948. After the fall of the People's Republic of Bulgaria and the end of Communist rule in the 1990s, the parties debated what should be the country's new coat of arms, deciding on a modified version of its former royal coat of arms. However, the Bulgarian motto also represents the last words of khan Kubrat
, the founder of Old Great Bulgaria
in 632 AD, and is likely rooted much earlier in Bulgarian symbolics than in other European states.
, ruler of the Cape Colony
, approved the independence of the South African Republic
in the Sand River Convention
. "Eendragt maakt magt" was the motto on the new state's shield and in 1888 it decided it should only use Dutch as its official language.
in 1830, originally based in the Kralingse Plaslaan. It originally held weekly meetings in the Den Otter coffee house on the corner of the Hoflaan and the Honingerdijk. On 1 May 1865 the Association of Shareholders began fundraising for a private building for the society. This coincided with the fiftieth anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo
, which was one reason the society took the motto of king William II of the Netherlands
. The architect Jan Verheul
designed the new building and it opened in 1903 on the corner of the Oudedijk and Waterloostraat. In 1980 the building was demolished to make way for the Caland Line metro route, after saving a section of its ornate art nouveau
facade (giving the club's name between glazed tiles and leaf patterns) was built into the nearby Voorschoterlaan
station.
The name was also used as the business name of the tailors "Eendracht maakt macht", who in 1910 decided to rent a building on Oranjeboomstraat in Rotterdam, as a joint workshop-office to move their office out of their home. The fine dust from the finished goods caused many to suffer from emphysema
and a larger workplace named "Eendracht maakt macht" was built.
The motto was also used by Helena Blavatsky in her editorials, in response to the internal feuding which often affected the Theosophical Society
.
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, later also taken on by Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
and Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
.
Netherlands
The motto is first recorded as the motto for the area that would become Dutch Republic in the Gemeene Duytsche Spreekwoorden in 1550, whilst the area was still within the Spanish EmpireSpanish Empire
The Spanish Empire comprised territories and colonies administered directly by Spain in Europe, in America, Africa, Asia and Oceania. It originated during the Age of Exploration and was therefore one of the first global empires. At the time of Habsburgs, Spain reached the peak of its world power....
and under the rule of Charles V
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
Charles V was ruler of the Holy Roman Empire from 1519 and, as Charles I, of the Spanish Empire from 1516 until his voluntary retirement and abdication in favor of his younger brother Ferdinand I and his son Philip II in 1556.As...
. It is derived from the Latin phrase "concordia res parvae crescunt" (concord makes small things flourish) in chapter 10 of the Bellum Iugurthinum by the Roman Republican writer Sallust
Sallust
Gaius Sallustius Crispus, generally known simply as Sallust , a Roman historian, belonged to a well-known plebeian family, and was born at Amiternum in the country of the Sabines...
. The new Dutch Republic
Dutch Republic
The Dutch Republic — officially known as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands , the Republic of the United Netherlands, or the Republic of the Seven United Provinces — was a republic in Europe existing from 1581 to 1795, preceding the Batavian Republic and ultimately...
took over the phrase as its motto and it appeared on several of its coins and coats of arms, usually in the original Latin form, referring to the new state's initially small territorial size. From the late 16th century onwards the start of the motto was frequently used on Dutch coinage, such as the Leicester
Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester
Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, KG was an English nobleman and the favourite and close friend of Elizabeth I from her first year on the throne until his death...
-rijksdaalder in 1586.
The French occupied the Netherlands from 1795 to 1813, first as the Batavian Republic
Batavian Republic
The Batavian Republic was the successor of the Republic of the United Netherlands. It was proclaimed on January 19, 1795, and ended on June 5, 1806, with the accession of Louis Bonaparte to the throne of the Kingdom of Holland....
then the Kingdom of Holland
Kingdom of Holland
The Kingdom of Holland 1806–1810 was set up by Napoleon Bonaparte as a puppet kingdom for his third brother, Louis Bonaparte, in order to better control the Netherlands. The name of the leading province, Holland, was now taken for the whole country...
then as an annexed part of France itself. Early in the occupation the national motto was changed to "Gelykheid, Vryheid, Broederschap" (Equality, Liberty, Fraternity), but from 1802 to 1810 'Unity makes strength' was re-introduced. It remained in use until the institution of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands
United Kingdom of the Netherlands
United Kingdom of the Netherlands is the unofficial name used to refer to Kingdom of the Netherlands during the period after it was first created from part of the First French Empire and before the new kingdom of Belgium split out in 1830...
when, in 1816, it switched to the House of Orange motto 'Je maintiendrai'.
Belgium
The motto was used by Belgium after its Revolution of 1830Belgian Revolution
The Belgian Revolution was the conflict which led to the secession of the Southern provinces from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands and established an independent Kingdom of Belgium....
, initially only in its French form "L'union fait la force". Only when the Dutch was equated with the French did the Belgian state take "Eendracht maakt macht" as its motto instead, sometimes with the variant "Eenheid baart macht". In 1830 this unity was identified with the unification of Belgium's nine provinces, whose nine provincial coats of arms are represented on the national arms, and the new country's unification of its liberal progressives and Catholic conservatives. Indeed, it was launched in 1827-1828 by newspapers published in Liege
Liege
Liège is a municipality and a city of Belgium. The term Liège or Liege may also refer to:* Liege, a party to the oath of allegiance in feudalism .* Liège Island, in the Antarctic...
which allied liberals and Catholics in the unionism which brought about the Revolution and which then dominated Belgian politics until the founding of the Liberal Party
Liberal Party (Belgium)
The Liberal Party was a Belgian political party that existed from 1846 until 1961, when it became the Party for Freedom and Progress, Partij voor Vrijheid en Vooruitgang/Parti de la Liberté et du Progrès or PVV-PLP, under the leadership of Omer Vanaudenhove.-History:The Liberal Party was founded...
in 1846. Although the motto is often used in Belgicist
Belgian nationalism
Belgian nationalism defines an ideology that favours a strong centralised government, with less or no autonomy for the Flemish Community who constitute Flanders, the French Community of Belgium and the German-speaking Community of Belgium who constitute Wallonia and the Brussels-Capital Region...
or unitarist circles (as a call to Fleming
Flemish people
The Flemings or Flemish are the Dutch-speaking inhabitants of Belgium, where they are mostly found in the northern region of Flanders. They are one of two principal cultural-linguistic groups in Belgium, the other being the French-speaking Walloons...
s and Walloons
Walloons
Walloons are a French-speaking people who live in Belgium, principally in Wallonia. Walloons are a distinctive community within Belgium, important historical and anthropological criteria bind Walloons to the French people. More generally, the term also refers to the inhabitants of the Walloon...
, natives of Brussels and German speakers, all to maintain Belgium's unity), this is a historical misinterpretation - the motto is a unionist not a unitarist slogan. Its German version is "Einigkeit macht stark". Flemings sometimes parody the motto by chanting it as "L'union fait la farce" ("Union makes a farce") or "L'oignon fait la farce" ("The onion makes the filling"), trivialising it as a cooking recipe.
USA
The motto of BrooklynBrooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, a borough
Borough (New York City)
New York City, one of the largest cities in the world, is composed of five boroughs. Each borough now has the same boundaries as the county it is in. County governments were dissolved when the city consolidated in 1898, along with all city, town, and village governments within each county...
of New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
founded by Dutch settlers, is still "Eendraght maeckt maght". The motto Eendragt maakt magt also appears on the badge of the police force of Holland, Michigan
Holland, Michigan
Holland is a city in the western region of the Lower Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated near the eastern shore of Lake Michigan on Lake Macatawa, which is fed by the Macatawa River ....
, combined with God zij met ons
Gott Mit Uns
Gott mit uns is a phrase commonly associated with the German military from the German Empire to the end of the Third Reich, although its historical origins are far older, ultimately tracing back to the Hebrew term Immanuel from the Bible...
.
Bulgaria
When BulgariaBulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
became an autonomous princedom in 1887 with a member of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
The House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha is a German dynasty, the senior line of the Saxon House of Wettin that ruled the Ernestine duchies, including the duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha....
on its throne, it borrowed Belgium's motto of L'union fait la force (in Bulgarian
Bulgarian language
Bulgarian is an Indo-European language, a member of the Slavic linguistic group.Bulgarian, along with the closely related Macedonian language, demonstrates several linguistic characteristics that set it apart from all other Slavic languages such as the elimination of case declension, the...
: Съединението прави силата). After the king was deposed, it was the country's motto until 1948. After the fall of the People's Republic of Bulgaria and the end of Communist rule in the 1990s, the parties debated what should be the country's new coat of arms, deciding on a modified version of its former royal coat of arms. However, the Bulgarian motto also represents the last words of khan Kubrat
Kubrat
Kubrat or Kurt was a Bulgar ruler credited with establishing the confederation of Old Great Bulgaria in 632. He is said to have achieved this by conquering the Avars and uniting all the Bulgar tribes under one rule....
, the founder of Old Great Bulgaria
Old Great Bulgaria
Old Great Bulgaria or Great Bulgaria was а term used by Byzantine historians to refer to Onoguria during the reign of the Bulgar ruler Kubrat in the 7th century north of the Caucasus mountains in the steppe between the Dniester and Lower...
in 632 AD, and is likely rooted much earlier in Bulgarian symbolics than in other European states.
South African Republic
On 17 January 1852 the United KingdomUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, ruler of the Cape Colony
Cape Colony
The Cape Colony, part of modern South Africa, was established by the Dutch East India Company in 1652, with the founding of Cape Town. It was subsequently occupied by the British in 1795 when the Netherlands were occupied by revolutionary France, so that the French revolutionaries could not take...
, approved the independence of the South African Republic
South African Republic
The South African Republic , often informally known as the Transvaal Republic, was an independent Boer-ruled country in Southern Africa during the second half of the 19th century. Not to be confused with the present-day Republic of South Africa, it occupied the area later known as the South African...
in the Sand River Convention
Sand River Convention
The Sand River Convention was a convention whereby Great Britain formally recognised the independence of the Boers living beyond the Vaal River. In return, the Boers promised that slavery would be outlawed in the Transvaal and that they would not interfere in the Orange River Sovereignty's affairs...
. "Eendragt maakt magt" was the motto on the new state's shield and in 1888 it decided it should only use Dutch as its official language.
Other uses
Eendragt maakt Magt was a noble-society (Heeren-Sociëteit) founded in RotterdamRotterdam
Rotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and one of the largest ports in the world. Starting as a dam on the Rotte river, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre...
in 1830, originally based in the Kralingse Plaslaan. It originally held weekly meetings in the Den Otter coffee house on the corner of the Hoflaan and the Honingerdijk. On 1 May 1865 the Association of Shareholders began fundraising for a private building for the society. This coincided with the fiftieth anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo
Battle of Waterloo
The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815 near Waterloo in present-day Belgium, then part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands...
, which was one reason the society took the motto of king William II of the Netherlands
William II of the Netherlands
William II was King of the Netherlands, Grand Duke of Luxembourg, and Duke of Limburg from 7 October 1840 until his death in 1849.- Early life and education :...
. The architect Jan Verheul
Jan Verheul
Jan Verheul or J. Verheul Dzn. was a Dutch architect, watercolourist and designer....
designed the new building and it opened in 1903 on the corner of the Oudedijk and Waterloostraat. In 1980 the building was demolished to make way for the Caland Line metro route, after saving a section of its ornate art nouveau
Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau is an international philosophy and style of art, architecture and applied art—especially the decorative arts—that were most popular during 1890–1910. The name "Art Nouveau" is French for "new art"...
facade (giving the club's name between glazed tiles and leaf patterns) was built into the nearby Voorschoterlaan
Voorschoterlaan (Rotterdam Metro)
Voorschoterlaan is an underground subway station in the city of Rotterdam, located on the Rotterdam Metro lines A, B, and C. The station opened on May 10, 1982, on the same date that the East-West Line , of which it is a part, was opened.The station is located to the east of the city center, in the...
station.
The name was also used as the business name of the tailors "Eendracht maakt macht", who in 1910 decided to rent a building on Oranjeboomstraat in Rotterdam, as a joint workshop-office to move their office out of their home. The fine dust from the finished goods caused many to suffer from emphysema
Emphysema
Emphysema is a long-term, progressive disease of the lungs that primarily causes shortness of breath. In people with emphysema, the tissues necessary to support the physical shape and function of the lungs are destroyed. It is included in a group of diseases called chronic obstructive pulmonary...
and a larger workplace named "Eendracht maakt macht" was built.
The motto was also used by Helena Blavatsky in her editorials, in response to the internal feuding which often affected the Theosophical Society
Theosophical Society
The Theosophical Society is an organization formed in 1875 to advance the spiritual principles and search for Truth known as Theosophy. The original organization, after splits and realignments has several successors...
.