Concordia res parvae crecunt

During a walk in Hulst, Zeelandic Flanders in The Netherlands, I saw the phrase
"Concordia res parvae crecunt". Immediately I tried to translate these Latin words in
Dutch (which is my mother tongue). So I translated it into "Eendracht maakt macht".
In English the phrase is "Unity makes strength".

First of all, I asked myself the question: When was Zeelandic Flanders a part
of Belgium? Because the Belgian motto is "Unity makes strength".
Curious as I was, I made a bit of a research and then I learned a very interesting
history and knowledge. 

"Unity makes strength" originally was used by the Dutch Republic (1581-1795)
and during most of the Napoleonic time in The Netherlands (1802-1810).
After the Dutch gained independence of the Spanish Habsburgs,
the phrase became more and more familiar.

In 1816, when the United Kingdom of the Netherlands was founded,
the phrase "Je maintiendrai" was used (the motto of the Royal House of Orange).

When I discovered that there were more countries using the phrase
"Unity makes strength", it surprised me a lot. 

The motto was used in Bulgaria during the rule of members of the
House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.It stayed the country's motto until 1948.

In Canada the motto was used in the Acadian convention in 1884.
It even was used in Haïti too. And it even appears on the flag of Brooklyn,
a borough in New York (United States).

From 1910 till 1961, South-Africa used the motto "Out of Unity, Strength". 
Nowadays the phrase in South-Africa is "Unity in Diversity". 

Nowadays "Unity makes strenght" still is the official motto of Georgia
"Strength in its Unity" and in Belgium
"L'union fait la force - Eendracht maakt macht".

It is funny how an ordinary walk, can lead to a blogpost as this :-)  

Own pictures taken in Hulst, The Netherlands in the summer of 2017.