Geographically and culturally, Belgium is at the crossroads of Europe, and during the past 2,000 years has witnessed a constant ebb and flow of different races and cultures. Consequently, Belgium is one of Europe's true melting pots with Celtic, Roman, Germanic cultures having made an imprint, and later on in history, French, Dutch, Spanish, and Austrian influences.
The earliest named inhabitants of Belgium were the Belgae. They were (mostly) Celtic tribes, living in northern Gaul and overcome by Julius Caesar in 54 BC, as described in his chronicle De Bello Gallico. After the Roman Empire collapsed (5th century), Germanic tribes invaded the Roman province of "Gallia". One of these people, the Franks, finally installed a new kingdom under the rulers of the Merovingian Dynasty. Clovis was the most famous of these kings: he converted to Christianity and ruled from northern France, but his empire included today's Belgium. Christian scholars, mostly Irishmonks, preached Christianity and started conversion work under the pagan invaders. The Merovingians were rather short-lived, as the Carolingian Dynasty took over: after Charles Martel countered the Moorish invasion from Spain (721 - Poitiers), their famous king Charlemagne brought a huge part of Europe under his rulership and was crowned as the "Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire" by the pope himself (800).
European Feudalism became the base for military, political and economical stability. Christianity flourished under the protection of these rulers and by the founding of religious communities and monasteries, churches and pilgrimages.
The region was later associated with the Netherlands, under Burgundian then Spanish rule, until the Protestant provinces took their independence (see Netherlands). Then followed Austrian rule, and a few years of French rule under Napoleon. After Napoleon's demise, in 1815, Belgium was reunited with the northern provinces in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands until the Belgian Revolution in 1830, which established an independent Belgian state. The Belgian revolution was initiated by the French-speaking minority who controlled the factories and other economical resources and who didn't want to live under a Dutch-speaking administration. The fact that Belgium was mostly catholic and Netherlands predominantly protestant also played a role.
The Belgian King, Leopold I, was chosen with the assistance of the British. The country's neutrality was guaranteed against future foreign military aggression. This neutrality was violated in 1914 when Germany invaded Belgium as part of the Schlieffen Plan. The British decision to honour their treaty obligations, as much as the entente cordiale with France, forced them into the First World War. After a period of alliance with France after the First World War, Belgium tried to return to neutrality in the 1930s, but was once again invaded by Germany in 1940. After World War II, the policy of neutrality was abandoned, and Belgium joined NATO and the European Economic Community.
Belgium possessed one primary foreign colony during its history: the Congo, which was given to King Leopold II in the Conference of Berlin in 1885. He made the land his private property and called it the 'Congo Free State'. In this Free State, the local population was brutalised in exchange for rubber, a growing market with the developement of rubber tyres. In 1908, the international pressure against the cruelties of King Leopold became so great that Leopold II was forced to give his property to the Belgian state as a colony. From then on, it became Belgian Congo, before gaining independence from Belgium in 1960.
Belgium's foreign involvement increased after the First World War when two former German colonies, Rwanda and Burundi were mandated to Belgium by the League of Nations. Belgian policy in the administration and socio-cultural development of these countries has been heavily criticised, many seeing Belgian decisions as contributing significantly to the troubles in Rwanda in the 1990s.
Since the 20th century, the history of Belgium became more and more dominated by the increasing autonomy of its two main communities, the Dutch- and the French-speakers. As an indication of this, since around 1970, there are no significant national Belgian political parties anymore, but only Flemish or French-speaking parties. The regular attempts to establish national, Belgian parties end up below 1% of the electorate; the Brussels parties either never got started (as with the 'Blauwe Leeuwen' and 'Rode Leeuwen' for the Flemings in Brussels), or got merged into one of the French-speaking liberal parties (such as the French-speaking FDF, which however has had a significant influence for years, and still keeps some independence). As such, the political landscape shows a near-perfect dual political system, reflecting the two underlying dominant communities.
Behind these complex institutions, one notes the two dominant components of the Belgian state: the Flemings and their political institutions under the Flemish government; and the French-speakers, grouped under the French(-speaking) Community and its more fragmented institutions. All political parties in Belgium belong to one of these two communities, except for a German-speaking party and some marginal parties in Brussels. However, these only attract votes from one of the two communities in Brussels. Thus, there are no national parties active over all the Belgian territory. In short, the Belgian political landscape carefully mirrors the dual nature of Belgian society.
Community governments: Language, culture and education. (e.g. Schools, Libraries, Theatre, etc.)
Regional governments: Land and property based issues within their area (regional economy, zoning, housing, transportation, etc.)
For example, a school building in Brussels belonging to the public school system would be regulated by the regional government of Brussels. The school as an institution however would fall under the regulations of either the Flemish government, if the primary language of teaching is Dutch, or the French Community government, if the primary language is French. It is a complex, somewhat unstable and expensive, but peaceful compromise that allows distinctly different cultures to live together.
Belgium is divided into three communities, the Flemish community, the French-speaking community and the German-speaking community, and in three regions: Brussels (mainly Dutch- and French-speaking, with a population of 960,000), Flanders (mainly Dutch-speaking, with a population of 6,000,000), and Wallonia (mainly French-speaking, with a population of 3,300,000). The later two regions are each divided into 5 provinces.
Between brackets is the local name of each province, in either French or Dutch:
Flanders (Dutch speaking; Vlaanderen in Dutch, Flandre or Flandres in French):
The Brussels-Capital Region (Région de Bruxelles-Capitale in French, Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest in Dutch, Die Region Brüssel-Hauptstadt in German).
Belgium has an area of 30,510 km². Belgium has three main physical regions: the coastalplain (located in the northwest), the central plateau, and the Ardennes uplands (located in the southeast).
The coastal plain consists mainly of sand dunes and polders. Polders are areas of land, close to or below sea level, that have been reclaimed from the sea from which they are protected by dikess, or, further inland, fields that have been drained by canals.
The second physical region, the central plateau, lies further inland. This is a smooth, slowly rising area which has many fertile valleys and is irrigated by many waterways. Here one can also find rougher land, including caves and small gorges.
The third physical region (called the Ardennes) is somewhat more rugged than the first two. It is a thickly forested plateau, very rocky and not very good for farming, which extends into northern France. This is where much of Belgium's wildlife can be found.
