The history of Belgium predates the establishment of the modern state of that name in AD 1830 and the country is intertwined with neighboring countries. such as the Netherlands, Germany, France and Luxembourg.
For most of its history, what is now Belgium was either part of a larger territory, such as the Carolingian Empire, or divided into several smaller kingdoms, chief among them the Dru of Brabant, the County of Flanders, the Prince of Lige and the Bishop of Luxembourg. Bishopric.
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Due to its strategic position and the many armies fighting on its soil, Belgium is often referred to as the “Battlefield of Europe” or “Europe’s cockpit”. It is also notable as a European nation, with a language border between Latin-derived French and Germanic Dutch.
The modern size of Belgium can be traced at least in part to the fact that there are “seventeen provinces” within the Burgundian Netherlands. These lands spanned the ancient frontier of the Scult, which divided medieval France and Germany, but they were brought together in the House of Valois-Burgundy and in an autonomous region by his successor Charles V, Holy Emperor, in a sanctum sanctorum. been integrated.
1549. The Eighty Years’ War (1568–1648) was followed by a split between the Northern Dutch Republic and the Southern Netherlands, which led to the development of Belgium and Luxembourg. This southern region continued to be ruled at first as the “Spanish Netherlands” by the Habsburg descendants of the Burgundian house.
Invasions from France under Louis resulted in the loss of Nord-Pas-de-Calais to France, while the remainder eventually became the “Austrian Netherlands”. The French Revolutionary Wars led to Belgium becoming part of France in 1795, marking the end of the quasi-independence of the territories belonging to the Catholic Church.
Following the defeat of the French in 1814, the new United Kingdom of the Netherlands was created, which eventually underwent a further division during the Belgian Revolution of 1830–1839, creating three modern nations, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg.
Belgium’s port and textile industries were important in the Middle Ages and modern Belgium was one of the first countries to experience the Industrial Revolution, which brought prosperity in the 19th century but also opened a political dichotomy between liberal merchants and socialist workers.
The king established his personal colonial empire in the Belgian Congo, which the government took over after a major scandal in 1908. Belgium was neutral but its strategic location as a route to France made it an invasion target for Germany in 1914 and 1940.
The conditions under the occupation were dire. In the post-war period, Belgium was a leader in European integration, which has become the European Union. Brussels now hosts the headquarters of NATO and is the de facto capital of the European Union. The colonies became independent in the early 1960s.
Politically the country was once polarized on matters of religion and in recent decades, has faced new divisions over differences of language and uneven economic development. This ongoing hostility has led to far-reaching reforms since the 1970s, the transformation of the formerly unitary Belgian state into a federal state, and repeated government crises.
It is now divided into three regions: Flanders (Dutch-speaking) in the north, Wallonia (French-speaking) in the south, and bilingual Brussels in the middle. There is also a German-speaking population along the border with Germany which was granted to Prussia at the Congress of Vienna in 1815 but added to Belgium after the 1919 Treaty of Versailles. German is the third official language of Belgium after World War I.
Some interesting things about Belgium
Cable TV is used in this country the most in the whole world.
Television was introduced in this country in 1953 on two such channels Dutch and French.
Voting is compulsory for everyone in this country.
The country became the first country in the world to introduce electric ID cards in March 2003.
The area of this country is about 11787 square kilometers.
The world’s first casino was opened in this country in the year 1763.
The capital of this country is Brussels. Which is the capital of the whole of the European Union, which is also called the headquarters of NATO.
About 220,000 tonnes of chocolate are produced in Belgium every year.
The popular sport of this country is football.
The Red Devils, the football team of this country, is at number one in the whole world in the FIFA rankings.
In this country, it is compulsory to study till the age of 18.
This country is the second largest diamond center in the world. From where diamonds are exported to other countries.
