In the north of Kempenland near the Dutch border lies the little town of Turnhout, a center of the Belgian paper industry since the early 19th C. when the production of playing cards was begun; these are now exported all over the world. Meanwhile metal, chemical and electronics factories have been
established.
Turnhout, part of Brabant from the 12th to the 16th C was once popular with the Burgundian dukes, who found that hunting in the surrounding forest was very good, and they indulged principally in falconry. Charles V bequeathed the town to Maria of Hungary; after the Thirty Years War the princes of Orange-Nassau became the new overlords and they were followed in 1753 by the king of Prussia.
In 1789 history was made in Turnhout when the revolutionaries of Brabant defeated the Austrians and banished them at least until 1790.
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