I appreciate the effort ans research you've done to create a comprehensive post. But I must comment on how much information overload this read has been. This post just proves there's so much rich history sitting everywhere and with an in depth research about the past will we find something new from the old.
I think the post needs more discussion on economic side of things. Those go well hand in hand with the political background and some stats as a cherry on top. You already did well here and congratulations on the curie!
Sorry for the information overload 😇
But you know once I started writing, creating images, hear others for their stories, reading book I kept writing and writing and writing. Can you imagine I already shortened the post by half I think.... I just wanted to show some love to the area I'm living ☺️
I didn't do exact reasearch on the economics but you got a point there for sure. Lot of things did change, people lost their jobs and needed to apply for something else, or go back to school. All those things have an effect on the economical side of this, but also the costs of keeping this canal and the Scheldt suitable for ships going to the harbor in Belgium because of an agreement a long time ago are something you can have a great discussion about.