Belgium (pronounced /ˈbɛldʒəm/ ( listen), BEL-jəm), officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a state A sovereign state is a political association with effective internal and external sovereignty over a geographic area and population which is not dependent on, or subject to any other power or state. While in abstract terms a sovereign state can exist without being recognised by other sovereign states, unrecognised states will often find it hard to in northwest Europe Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the westernmost region of Europe, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity — the region lying in the Western part of Europe. Another definition was created during the. It is a founding member of the European Union The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 member states which are located primarily in Europe. Committed to regional integration, the EU was established by the Treaty of Maastricht in 1993 upon the foundations of the European Communities. With over 500 million citizens, the EU combined generated an estimated 28% share (US$ 16.5 and hosts the EU's headquarters, as well as those of several other major international organizations such as NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization or NATO (pronounced /ˈneɪtoʊ/ NAY-toe; French: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique Nord ), also called the "(North) Atlantic Alliance", is an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty which was signed on 4 April 1949. The NATO headquarters are in Brussels, Belgium,.^[5] Belgium covers an area of 30,528 square kilometres (11,787 sq mi), and it has a population of about 10.8 million people. Straddling the cultural boundary between Germanic Germanic Europe is the part of northern Europe which came under the sphere of influence of Germanic culture. This in turn has given rise to the linguistic predominancy of the Germanic languages in this part of Europe. Since the Protestant Reformation, the majority of the people of these regions have followed or declared to follow Protestantism, and Latin Europe Latin Europe is a loose term for the region of Europe with an especially strong Roman cultural heritage. The term has been used by some authors like Rogelio Pérez-Perdomo and Lawrence Friedman. Geographically anchored in Southern Europe, the countries using a Romance language , that are also predominantly Roman Catholic, are considered culturally, Belgium is home to two main linguistic groups, the Dutch-speakers Dutch ( Nederlands ) is a West Germanic language spoken by over 22 million people as a native language and over 5 million people as a second language. Most native speakers live in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, with smaller groups of speakers in parts of France, Germany and several former Dutch colonies. It is closely related to other, mostly Flemish The Flemish people , the Flemings or the Flemish (de Vlamingen) are the over six million people of Flanders, the northern region of the country Belgium — and the majority of all Belgians, and the French-speakers The adjective francophone means French-speaking, typically as primary language, whether referring to individuals, groups, or places. Often, the word is used as a noun to describe a natively French-speaking person, mostly Walloons Walloons are a French -speaking people, of partly Germanic and Celtic origin who live in Belgium, principally in Wallonia. More generally, the term refers to the inhabitants of Wallonia. They also speak regional languages such as Walloon or Picard, plus a small group of German-speakers The German-speaking Community of Belgium is one of the three federal communities in Belgium. It is the main part of the so-called East Cantons (German: Ost-Kantone) of Belgium. It has an area of 854 km², and a population of over 73,000, of which almost 100% are German speaking (traditionally Ripuarian-speaking). This is about 0.73% of Belgium's. Belgium's two largest regions are the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders The Flemish Region (Dutch: Vlaams Gewest ) is one of the three official regions of the Kingdom of Belgium—alongside the Walloon Region and the Brussels-Capital Region. It occupies the northern part of Belgium and has a surface area of 13,522 km² (44.29% of Belgium) in the north and the French-speaking southern region of Wallonia Wallonia (French: Wallonie, German: Wallonie, Dutch: Wallonië (help·info), Walloon: Waloneye) is the predominantly French-speaking southern region of Belgium. It makes up 55% of the territory of Belgium and includes about 33% of its population. Walloon Region is the name given to the regional government of Wallonia. Most of Wallonia, along with. The Brussels-Capital Region Brussels (French: Bruxelles, pronounced [bʁysɛl] ; Dutch: Brussel, pronounced [ˈbrʏsəl] (help·info)), officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region (French: Région de Bruxelles-Capitale, Dutch: Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest (help·info)), is the de facto capital city of the European Union (EU) and the largest urban area in, officially bilingual, is a mostly French-speaking enclave In political geography, an enclave is a piece of land which is totally surrounded by a foreign territory, and an exclave is one which is politically attached to a larger piece but not actually contiguous with it. Many entities are both enclaves and exclaves, but there are examples of areas being one but not the other within the Flemish Region.^[6] A small German-speaking Community The German-speaking Community of Belgium is one of the three federal communities in Belgium. It is the main part of the so-called East Cantons (German: Ost-Kantone) of Belgium. It has an area of 854 km², and a population of over 73,000, of which almost 100% are German speaking (traditionally Ripuarian-speaking). This is about 0.73% of Belgium's exists in eastern Wallonia.^[7] Belgium's linguistic diversity and related political and cultural conflicts are reflected in the political history The history of Belgium, from pre-history to the present day, is intertwined with the histories of its European neighbours, in particular those of the Netherlands and Luxembourg and a complex system of government Belgium is a federal state comprising three communities, three regions, and four language areas. For each of these subdivision types, the sum of their circumscribed surfaces composes the entire country; in other words, the types overlap.^[8][9]

The name 'Belgium' is derived from Gallia Belgica Gallia Belgica was a Roman province located in what is now the southern part of the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, northeastern France, and western Germany. The indigenous population of southern Gallia Belgica consisted of a mixture of Celtic and Germanic tribes, often described as the Belgae as well. According to Julius Caesar, the border, a Roman province In Ancient Rome, a province was the basic, and until the Tetrarchy (circa 296), largest territorial and administrative unit of the empire's territorial possessions outside of Italy. The word province in modern English has its origins in the term used by the Romans in the northernmost part of Gaul Gaul is a historical name used in the context of Ancient Rome in references to the region of Western Europe approximating present day France, Luxembourg and Belgium, most of Switzerland, the western part of Northern Italy, as well as the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the left bank of the Rhine that was inhabited by the Belgae The Belgae were a group of tribes living in northern Gaul, on the west bank of the Rhine, in the 3rd century BC, and later also in Britain. They gave their name to the Roman province of Gallia Belgica, and later, to the modern country of Belgium, a mix of Celtic The Celts were a diverse group of tribal societies in Iron Age and Roman-era Europe who spoke Celtic languages and Germanic peoples The Germanic peoples are a historical ethno-linguistic group, originating in Northern Europe and identified by their use of the Indo-European Germanic languages, which diversified out of Common Germanic in the course of the Pre-Roman Iron Age. The descendants of these peoples became, and in many areas contributed to, the ethnic groups of North.^[10][11] Historically, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg Luxembourg (pronounced /ˈlʌksəmbɜrɡ/ LUKS-əm-berg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (Luxembourgish: Groussherzogtum Lëtzebuerg, French: Grand-Duché de Luxembourg, German: Großherzogtum Luxemburg), is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. Luxembourg has a population of over half a were known as the Low Countries Historically the region has its origins in Middle Francia, more precisely its northern part which became the Duchy of Lower Lotharingia. After the disintegration of Lower Lotharingia the Low Countries were brought under the rule of various stronger neighbours. Their possessions can be renamed into the Burgundian Netherlands and their succeeding, which used to cover a somewhat larger area than the current Benelux The Benelux is an economic union in Western Europe that comprises three neighbouring countries, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. These countries are located in northwestern Europe between France and Germany. The Union's name is formed from the beginning of each country's name; it was possibly created for the Benelux Customs Union, group of states. From the end of the Middle Ages The Middle Ages is a period of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The period followed the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476, and preceded the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period in a three-period division of history: Classical, Medieval, and Modern. The term "Middle Ages" (medium aevum) was coined in 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 The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transport and technology had a profound effect on the socioeconomic and cultural conditions starting in the United Kingdom, then subsequently spreading throughout Europe, North America, and eventually the world. The^[13][14] and, during the course of the twentieth century, possessed a number of colonies in Africa The Belgian colonial empire consisted of three colonies possessed by Belgium between 1901 and 1962: Zaire , Rwanda and Burundi. The empire was unlike those of the major European imperial powers in that roughly 98% of it was just one colony (about 76 times larger than Belgium)—the Belgian Congo—which had originated as the private property of.^[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 A discussion of Belgian culture requires discussing both those aspects of cultural life shared by 'all' or most of the Belgians, regardless of what language they speak, and also, the differences between the main cultural communities, the Flemish people from Flanders and Brussels and the French-speakers from Brussels and Wallonia on the one hand and an asymmetrical economic evolution The modern, private enterprise economy of Belgium has capitalized on its central geographic location, highly developed transport network, and diversified industrial and commercial base. The first country to undergo an industrial revolution on the continent of Europe in the early 1800s, Belgium developed an excellent transportation infrastructure 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 The term State reform in the Belgian context indicates a process towards finding constitutional and legal solutions for the problems and tensions between the different segments of the Belgian population.

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