The Antwerp Diamond Heritage

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History Timeline

14th Century

• 1314

  Bruges welcomed into its port the first trading ships from Venice.

• 1324

  Death of Marco Polo, the Venetian explorer who opened the trading routes from Europe to China and the East.

15th Century

• 1447

  First documented record of a diamond trade in Antwerp.

• 1476

  Lodewijk van Bercken is said to have method of cutting a diamond with a diamond.

• 1477

  Archduke Maximilian of Austria gives a diamond ring to Mary of Burgundy, establishing the tradition of diamond engagement rings.

• 1483

  Wauter Pauwels is listed as diamond cutter in Antwerp.

• 1497

  Vasco da Gama opens Portuguese trading route to India. On route he discovers Cape of Good Hope.

16th Century

• 1572

  The Eighty Years' War breaks out.

• 1582

  First diamond polishers guild established in Antwerp.

• 1585

  Antwerp captured by Alessandro Farnese, Duke of Parma and Piacenza. Many Protestant diamond cutters were sent into exile.

17th Century

• 1648

  Peace of Munster ends the Eighty Years War and signals the start of dominance by Amsterdam.

• 1668

  Jean-Baptiste Tavernier sells Indian diamonds to King Louis XIV of France.

18th Century

• 1729

  The Danish East India Company was chartered to carry on trade in the East Indies.

• 1730

  Discovery of diamonds in Brazil.

• 1769

  Patenting of the spinning machine in England, signalling the start of the Industrial revolution.

19th Century

• 1866

  Diamond fever erupts in South Africa after the Eureka find.

• 1870

  Opening of the Kimberly mine (Big Hole).

• 1886

  Cafe Flora was created in Antwerp as an informal diamond club.

• 1888

  Establishment of De Beers Consolidated Mines.

• 1893

  Establishment of Diamantclub van Antwerpen, Belgium's first diamond bourse.

20th Century H1

• 1904

  Establishment of Beurs voor Diamanthandel in Antwerp.

• 1910

  Establishment of Fortunia Society, which was later disbanded.

• 1911

  Establishment of Vrije Diamanthandel.

• 1928

  Establishment of Antwerpse Diamantkring.

• 1940

  Antwerp occupied by German forces.

• 1944

  Antwerp liberated by Allied forces.

• 1945

  Belgian government creates Diamond Office.

• 1947

  Establishment of World Federation of Diamond Bourses.

20th Century H2

• 1955

  Commercial quantities of diamonds discovered in Soviet Russia.

• 1973

  Hoge Raad voor Diamant (HRD) established as umbrella organisation and official representative of Belgium's diamond industry.

• 1991

  First economic diamond deposit discovered in Canada's Northwest Territories.

21st Century H1

• 2003

  Kimberley Process Certification System launched.

• 2007

  HRD reconstituted as the Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC).

WAR AND REBIRTH

20th Century H1

In 1904, a group of Antwerp brokers and smaller traders who could not meet the Diamantclub’s strict admission requirements incorporated to create the city’s second diamond exchange, the Beurs voor Diamanthandel.

It would be joined by the Vrije Diamanthandel in 1911, which included among its members diamond manufacturers from the nearby Kempen region, and the Antwerpsche Diamantkring, which was established in 1929 and would become the world’s only rough diamond exchange. A fifth bourse, called the Fortunia Society, was formed in 1910 but it was later disbanded.

World War II, for four years of which Antwerp was occupied by German forces, had a devastating effect on the diamond industry and trade. Diamond manufacturing ground to a halt as the supply of rough goods dried up. Many of the city’s Jewish diamond traders perished at the hands of the Nazis.

More than 500 Belgian diamantaires managed to escape the occupation and set up businesses in England. They succeeded in bringing with them large quantities of diamonds, and with the cooperation of the British government, the stones were registered and safeguarded. At the end of the war the diamonds were returned to Antwerp and the industry started the rebuilding process. Of the 27,000 workers who had once constituted the industry, only 3,500 remained. But recovery was quick, and, by the end of 1945, some 11,000 people were back at work.

The diamond business at the end of World War II was a changed one, and increasingly global. With Antwerp now the dominant European centre, the powerful U.S. diamond market had come into its own, and new diamond manufacturing and trading centres were being established in the Middle East and Asia. To accommodate these changes, the diamond community took steps to protect the interests of international trade. The World Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFDB) was established in 1947. It was headquartered in Antwerp, where it remains until today, serving as the governing body of the 28 bourses worldwide.

To help regulate the flow of diamonds in and out of Antwerp, the Belgian government set up the Diamond Office in the city’s diamond district in 1945. Its goal was to facilitate the trade in diamonds with a minimum of intervention and red tape.

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