Hazebrouck

Hazebrouck (French pronunciation:; Dutch: Hazebroek, pronounced; West Flemish: Oazebroeke) is a commune in the Norddepartment, Hauts-de-France. It was a small market town in Flanders until it became an important railway junction in the 1860s. West Flemish was the usual language until 1880, when French was taught at school by mandate of the French government in an effort to "Frenchify" the people of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais and to extinguish their Flemish roots.