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This chapter starts with a sketch of the sociopolitical context within which sociology developed in Belgium. Afterwards three core aspects of the history of sociology are discussed: the rise of social science and the social statistics of Adolphe Quetelet in the mid-nineteenth century, the different ideological settings or pillars within which the first sociological institutes emerged in the period around 1900, and the expansion of the Dutch- and French-speaking scientific communities in the period after the Second World War. The final section presents a short discussion of the merits and the characteristics of a reflective sociological approach, of a sociological history of sociology.