Belgium

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Kingdom of Belgium

Flag Coat of arms
Motto:  Eendracht maakt macht (help·info)  (Dutch)
L'union fait la force  (French)
Einigkeit macht stark  (German)
"Strength through Unity" (lit. "Unity makes Strength")
Anthem: The "Brabançonne"


Capital Brussels
4°21′E / 50.85°N 4.35°E / 50.85; 4.35
Largest metropolitan area Brussels Capital Region
Official languages Dutch, French, German
Demonym Belgian
Government Federal parliamentary democracy and Constitutional monarchy[1]
 -  King Albert II
 -  Prime Minister Yves Leterme
Independence
 -  Declared from the Netherlands 4 October 1830 
 -  Recognized 19 April 1839 
EU accession 25 March 1957
Area
 -  Total 30,528 km² (139th)
11,787 sq mi 
 -  Water (%) 6.4
Population
 -  1.1.2010 estimate 10,827,519[2] (76th)
 -  2001 census 10,296,350 
 -  Density 354.7/km² (33rd)
918.6/sq mi
GDP (PPP) 2008 estimate
 -  Total $389.793 billion[3] (29th)
 -  Per capita $36,415[3] (18th)
GDP (nominal) 2008 estimate
 -  Total $506.183 billion[3] (20th)
 -  Per capita $47,289[3] (14th)
Gini (2000) 33 (medium) (33rd)
HDI (2007) ▲ 0.953[4] (very high) (17th)
Currency Euro (€)¹ (EU)
Time zone CET (UTC+1)
 -  Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2)
Internet TLD .be
Calling code 32
¹ Before 1999: Belgian franc.
² The .eu domain is also used, as it is shared with other European Union member states.

The Kingdom of Belgium (pronounced /ˈbɛldʒəm/ ( listen), BEL-jəm) is a country in northwest Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts its headquarters, as well as those of other major international organizations, including NATO.[5] Belgium covers an area of 30,528 square kilometres (11,787 sq mi) and has a population of about 10.7 million.

Straddling the cultural boundary between Germanic and Latin Europe, Belgium is home to two main linguistic groups, the Flemish and the French-speakers, mostly Walloons, plus a small group of German-speakers. Belgium's two largest regions are the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders in the north and the French-speaking southern region of Wallonia. The Brussels-Capital Region, officially bilingual, is a mostly French-speaking enclave within the Flemish Region.[6] A small German-speaking Community exists in eastern Wallonia.[7] Belgium's linguistic diversity and related political and cultural conflicts are reflected in the political history and a complex system of government.[8][9]

The name 'Belgium' is derived from Gallia Belgica, a Roman province in the northernmost part of Gaul that was inhabited by the Belgae, a mix of Celtic and Germanic peoples.[10][11] Historically, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg were known as the Low Countries, which used to cover a somewhat larger area than the current Benelux group of states. From the end of the Middle Ages until the 17th century, it was a prosperous centre of commerce and culture. From the 16th century until the Belgian revolution in 1830, many battles between European powers were fought in the area of Belgium, causing it to be dubbed the battleground of Europe[12]—a reputation strengthened by both World Wars. Upon its independence, Belgium eagerly participated in the Industrial Revolution[13][14] and, during the course of the twentieth century, possessed several colonies in Africa.[15] The second half of the 20th century was marked by the rise of communal conflicts between the Flemings and the Francophones fuelled by cultural differences on the one hand and an asymmetrical economic evolution of Flanders and Wallonia on the other hand. These still-active conflicts have caused far-reaching reforms of the formerly unitary Belgian state into a federal state.

History

In the 1st century BC, the Romans defeated the local tribes and created the province of Gallia Belgica. A gradual immigration by Germanic Frankish tribes during the 5th century brought the area under the rule of the Merovingian kings. A gradual shift of power during the 8th century led the kingdom of the Franks to evolve into the Carolingian Empire. The Treaty of Verdun in 843 divided the region into Middle and Western Francia and therefore into a set of more or less independent fiefdoms which, during the Middle Ages, were vassals either of the King of France or of the Holy Roman Emperor. Many of these fiefdoms were united in the Burgundian Netherlands of the 14th and 15th centuries. Emperor Charles V extended the personal union of the Seventeen Provinces in the 1540s, making it far more than a personal union by the Pragmatic Sanction of 1549 and increased his influence over the Prince-Bishopric of Liège.[16]

The Eighty Years' War (1568–1648) divided the Low Countries into the northern United Provinces (Belgica Foederata in Latin, the "Federated Netherlands") and the Southern Netherlands (Belgica Regia, the "Royal Netherlands"). The latter were ruled successively by the Spanish and the Austrian Habsburgs and comprised most of modern Belgium. This was the theatre of most Franco-Spanish and Franco-Austrian wars during the 17th and 18th centuries. Following the campaigns of 1794 in the French Revolutionary Wars, the Low Countries—including territories that were never nominally under Habsburg rule, such as the Prince-Bishopric of Liège—were annexed by the French First Republic, ending Austrian rule in the region. The reunification of the Low Countries as the United Kingdom of the Netherlands occurred at the dissolution of the First French Empire in 1815.