Bolwerk van de oude adel? Een kwantitatieve benadering van de adellijke vertegenwoordiging in het Belgische diplomatieke korps (1840-1940)

European diplomatic services in the nineteenth-century have often been characterised as strongholds of the old nobility. This article challenges this hypothesis by proposing a quantitative approach to the representation of the noble class in the Belgian diplomatic corps between 1840 and 1940. It is argued that, in comparison to the situation in the major European countries at that time, the Belgian nobility did not constitute a dominant factor in the diplomatic service, although it was better represented in the higher echelons. Throughout the nineteenth century, the number of aristocrats in th... Mehr ...