Kingdom of Belgium Koninkrijk België Royaume de Belgique Königreich Belgien | |
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Flag of Belgium
Coat of arms of Belgium
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Motto: Dutch: Eendracht maakt macht; French: L'union fait la force; German: Einigkeit macht stark (English: Strength lies in unity) | |
Anthem: The Brabançonne | |
Capital and largest city | Brussels |
Official languages | Dutch, French, German |
Government | Constitutional Monarchy |
Independence | |
• Water (%) | 6.4 |
Population | |
• 2005 estimate | 10,445,852 (79th) |
• 2005 census | 10,445,852 |
GDP (PPP) | 2004 estimate |
• Total | $316.2 billion (30th) |
• Per capita | $29,707 (14th) |
Currency | Euro (EUR) |
Time zone | UTC+1 (CET) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC+2 (CEST) |
Calling code | 32 |
ISO 3166 code | BE |
Internet TLD | .be |
The Kingdom of Belgium (Dutch: Koninkrijk België, French: Royaume de Belgique, German: Königreich Belgien) is a federal state which for the last thirty years has been in a continuous process of devolution. It is a developed country in North-Western Europe bordered by the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, France, and the North Sea. Belgium has a population of over ten million people in only thirty thousand square kilometres, making it the 17th most densely populated country in the world. It ranked ninth on the 2005 United Nations Human Development Index.
Belgium straddles the cultural boundary between Germanic and Romance Europe. As a result, the country is, to a certain extent, linguistically and culturally divided. It has two main languages: Dutch, often unofficially called Flemish, which is spoken in Flanders to the north; and French, which is spoken in Wallonia to the south. In the eastern part of the countrty is an officially recognised minority of German speakers; the capital of Belgium, the Brussels-Capital Region, is legally French-Dutch bilingual. This linguistic diversity, which often leads to political conflict, is reflected in Belgium's complex institutions and political history. Belgium is host to many prominent international organisations, among which are NATO and the European Union.
Belgium takes its name from the first named inhabitants of the Low Countries, the Belgae, a group of mostly Celtic tribes, and from the Roman province in northern Gaul, known as Gallia Belgica. Since the division of the Burgundian dominion into the different branches of the Habsburgs who inherited sovereignty over the region, and till independence in 1830, Belgium has been the scene of many battles between the Powers of Europe and was even dubbed Cockpit of Europe.[1]
History
For 2,000 years Belgium has been a pathway for the vast cultural shifts that have moved across the European continent. The first well-documented population move is the conquest of the region by the Romans in the 1st century BCE, followed in the 5th century by a Germanic people, the Franks. The Franks established the Merovingian kingdom, which became the Carolingian Empire in the 8th century. During the Middle Ages, the Low Countries were split into many small feudal states. Most of them were united by the house of Burgundy as the Burgundian Netherlands. They gained some autonomy in the 15th century and were thereafter named the Seventeen Provinces.
The history of Belgium began to be distinct from the history of the Low Countries during the 16th century. A civil war, called the Eighty Years' War (1568–1648) divided the Seventeen Provinces into the United Provinces in the north and the Southern Netherlands in the south. The southern provinces were ruled successively by the Spanish and the Austrian Habsburgs. Until independence, the Southern Netherlands were the aim of numerous French conquerors and were 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, as well as territories that were never under Habsburg rule, like the Bishopric of Liège, were overrun by France, ending the existence of this territory as the Spanish/Austrian Netherlands. The reunification of the Low Countries as the United Kingdom of the Netherlands was decided at the end of the French Empire in 1815.
The 1830 Belgian Revolution led to the establishment of an independent, Catholic and neutral Belgium under a provisional government. Since 1831, when Leopold I was installed as king, Belgium has been a constitutional monarchy. Between independence and World War II, the democratic system evolved from an oligarchy characterised by two main parties, the Catholics and the Liberals, to a universal parliamentary democracy that has included a further party, the Belgian Labour Party, and a strong role for the trade unions. Originally, Belgium had only one official language, French, which was the adopted language of the nobility and the bourgeoisie. The country has since evolved into a bilingual Dutch-French system.
Following the Berlin Conference in 1885, King Leopold II obtained sovereignty over Belgium's primary foreign colony, the Congo Free State, later called the Belgian Congo. Belgium's neutrality was violated in 1914, when Germany invaded Belgium as part of the Schlieffen Plan. The former German colonies, Ruanda-Urundi, now called Rwanda and Burundi), were occupied by the Belgian Congo in 1916. They were mandated in 1924 to Belgium by the League of Nations. Belgium was again invaded by Germany in 1940 during the blitzkrieg offensive. The Belgian Congo gained its independence on 30 July 1960 during the Congo Crisis, while Ruanda-Urundi became independent in 1962.
After World War II, Belgium joined NATO and, together with the Netherlands and Luxembourg, formed Benelux. Belgium was also one of the founding members of the European Economic Community. Belgium hosts the headquarters of NATO and a major part of the European Union's institutions and administrations, including the European Commission, the Council of the European Union and most of the sessions of the European Parliament. During the 20th century, and in particular since World War II, the history of Belgium became more and more dominated by the increasing autonomy of its two main communities. This period has also seen a rise in intercommunal tensions, and the continual unity of the Belgian state has come under scrutiny as a result. This had led, through constitutional revisions of the 1970s and 1980s, to the formation of different local governments, the Communities and Regions. [2]
Politics
Belgium is a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy that evolved after World War II from a unitary state to a federal state. The bicameral Parliament is composed of the Senate and the Chamber of Representatives. The former corresponds to a mix of directly-elected senior politicians and representatives of the communities and regions, while the latter proportionally represents all Belgians older than 18. Belgium is one of the few countries where voting is compulsory; it has one of the highest voter turnout rates in the world.[3]
The federal government, formally nominated by the king, must have the confidence of the Chamber of Representatives. It is chaired by the Prime Minister. The numbers of Dutch- and French-speaking ministers are equal. The judicial system is a civil law system, originally based on the Napoleonic Code. The Court of Appeals is one level under the Court of Cassation, an institution based on the model of the French Court of Cassation.
Belgium's political institutions are complex, but the majority of political power is organised with the two main communities. Since around 1970, there are no longer significant national Belgian political parties, but only Dutch- or French-speaking parties as well as one German-speaking party. The political landscape within each community is basically shared among three political families: the right wing Liberals, the centrist Christian Democrats, and the left wing Social Democrats. Other important younger parties are the Green parties and, especially in Flanders, the nationalist and far right parties. Politics is strongly influenced by many powerful lobbies, such as trade unions, the Federation of Enterprises in Belgium, and numerous other associations.
The current king, Albert II, succeeded King Baudouin in 1993. Guy Verhofstadt (VLD) has been Prime Minister since 1999. From the 1999 election to the 2003 election, Verhofstadt chaired a six-party Liberal-Social Democrat-Greens coalition called the rainbow government. This was the first government without the Christian Democrats since 1958.[4] Since 2003, Verhofstadt has lead a Liberal-Social Democrat coalition of four parties.[5] In the last years, concern has been raised by the rise of the Flemish far right nationalist separatist party Vlaams Belang, heir of the Vlaams Blok. Though in the opposition, the Vlaams Belang has a strong influence on the Belgian politics. Subsidiary branches of the Vlaams Blok were qualified as racists in 2004 by the Ghent court of appeal,[6][7] which was partly uphold by the Court of Cassation, though some saw the trial as a politically inspired.
Perhaps the most representative achievement of the two successive Verhofstadt governments is that Belgium has maintained a balanced budget, one of the few members of the European Union to do so. This policy was enabled by the successive goverments during the 1990s under the pressure of the European Council. The fall of the preceding government was mainly due to the dioxin crisis,[8] a major food intoxication scandal in 1999 that lead to the establishment of the Belgian Food Agency.[9] This event led to an unusually high representation of the Greens in the parliament and to a particular emphasis on environmental politics during the first Verhofstadt legislature. One Green policy, for example, led to the nuclear phase-out legislation. This has been revised by the current government. The absence of Christian Democrats within the goverment enabled Verhofstadt to tackle ethical problems from a more liberal point of view and to develop new legislation on the use of soft drugs, same-sex marriages and euthanasia. During the two most recent legislatures, the government has promoted active diplomacy in Africa[10], and also supported the use of diplomatic pressure during the Iraq disarmament crisis, as well as new legislation concerning war crimes. In addition, both legislatures have been marked by disputes between both Belgian communities. The major points of contention are the disagreements concerning nocturnal air traffic routes at Brussels Airport and the status of the contentious electoral district of Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde. Template:See also5
Communities and Regions
The country's constitution was revised on 14 July 1993 to create a federal state, creating several governmental entities. This unique, very specific system is a constitutive element of the Belgian federal state. There are subdivisions into Communities according to language:
- the Flemish Community of Belgium (Dutch);
- the French Community of Belgium (French); and
- the German-speaking Community of Belgium (German).
Other subdivisions, based on regions, are:
- the Flemish Region;
- the Walloon Region; and
- the Brussels-Capital Region.
The Flemish Community absorbed the Flemish Region in 1980 to form the government of Flanders[11]. The overlapping boundaries of the Regions and Communities have created two notable peculiarities: the territory of the Brussels-Capital Region is included in both Flemish and French Communities, and the territory of the German-speaking Community is utterly included in the Walloon Region.
The different governments share their competences according to the following scheme (conflicts between the different bodies are solved by the Court of Arbitration):
- Federal government: Jurisdiction over foreign affairs, development aid, defence/military, police, economy, social welfare, social security (including pensions, health care, social aid and employment controls), transport (including railways and air transport), energy, telecommunications, scientific research (partially), limited competencies in education and culture, as well as strict control over taxation by regional authorities; the federal government controls more than 90 per cent of all taxation.
- Community governments: Language, culture and education. (e.g. schools, libraries, theatres, etc.)
- Regional governments: Land- and property-based issues within their area (regional economy, zoning, housing, transportation, etc.) and international trade.
A school building in Brussels belonging to the public school system, for example, would be regulated by the regional government of Brussels. However, the school as an institution would fall under the regulations of the Flemish government if the primary language of teaching is Dutch, but under 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.
Geography
Belgium, with an area of 30,528 km², has three main physical regions: the coastal plain in the north-west, the central plateau, and the Ardennes uplands in the south-east.
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 dikes or, further inland, by fields that have been drained with canals.
The second physical region, the central plateau, lies further inland. This is a smooth, slowly rising area that 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. Belgium's highest point, the Signal de Botrange is located in this region at only 694 metres.
The climate is maritime temperate, with significant precipitation in all seasons (Köppen climate classification: Cfb; average temperature in January: 3 °C, in July: 18 °C; average; precipitations in January: 65 mm, in July: 78 mm.[12])
Economy
Densely populated, Belgium is located at the heart of one of the world's most highly industrialised regions.
Belgium was the first continental European country to undergo an industrial revolution in the early 1800s. Liège and Charleroi developed a rapidly growing mining and steel-making industry which flourished till the mid-20th century. By the 1840s, however, the textile industry of Flanders was in severe crisis and there was famine in Flanders (1846-1850). After WW II, Ghent and Antwerp experienced a fast expansion of the chemical and petroleum industry. The 1973 and 1979 oil crises sent the economy into a period of prolonged recession. The Belgian steel industry has since undergone a prolonged and serious crisis. This has been responsible for limiting the economic development of Wallonia.[13] In the 1980s and 1990s, the economic centre of the country continued to shift northwards to Flanders. Now industry is concentrated mainly in the populous Flemish area in the north.
In the 1980s, the macroeconomic policies of the successive governments resulted in a cumulative government debt of about 120% of GDP by the end of the 1980s. Now public debt is nearly 100% of GDP.[14] However, the government has succeeded in balancing its budget. In 2004 the GDP-real growth rate was estimated at 2.7% [15] but is expected to fall to 1.3% in 2005.[16]
Belgium is a particularly open economy. It has developed an excellent transportation infrastructure of ports, canals, railways, and highways to integrate its industry with that of its neighbours. Antwerp is the second largest European port. One of the founding members of the European Union, Belgium strongly supports deepening the powers of the EU to integrate European economies. Belgium adopted the euro, the single European currency, in January 1999; the Belgian franc was replaced by the euro in 2002. The economy in Belgium greatly depends on its imports and exports. Its main imports are food products, machinery, rough diamonds, petroleum and petroleum products, chemicals, clothing and accessories, and textiles. Its main exports are automobiles, food and food products, iron and steel, diamonds, textiles, plastics, petroleum products, and nonferrous metals. Since 1922, Belgium and Luxembourg have been a single trade market within a customs and currency union, the Belgian-Luxembourgian Economic Union. Its main trading partners are Germany, The Netherlands, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, the United States and Spain.
Demographics
The population density (342 per km²) is one of the highest in Europe, after the Netherlands and some smaller countries such as Monaco. The areas with the highest population density are around the Brussels-Antwerp-Ghent-Leuven agglomerations, as well as other important urban centres as Liège, Charleroi, Kortrijk, Bruges, Hasselt and Namur. The Ardennes have the lowest density. In 2005, the Flemish Region has a population of about 6,043,161, Wallonia 3,395,942 and Brussels 1,006,749.[17] Almost all the population is considered urban (97.3% in 1999[18]). The main cities and their populations are Brussels (1,006,749), Antwerp (457,749), Ghent (230,951), Charleroi (201,373), and Liège (185,574).[19]
Belgium has three official languages, one for each community: Dutch, French and German. About 60% of the country is Dutch-speaking. French is the second most spoken language with about 40%, and German is spoken by less than 1% of the population. But these figures must be taken with care because the most recent linguistic census was before 1960, and the mother tongue is not always the same as the language used in public or in official life. Brussels, the capital, is officially French-Dutch bilingual, but mostly French speaking. It evolved from a Dutch-speaking place to its current dominantly French character when the Belgian state became independent in 1830.
Both the Dutch spoken in Belgium and the Belgian French have small vocabulary and semantic nuances from the varieties spoken in France and the Netherlands. Many can still speak Flemish or Walloon dialects, which are often difficult to understand for people from other areas. These regional languages and dialects, along with some other ones,[20] are not used in public life.
98 per cent of the adult population is literate.[21] Education is compulsory from the age of 6 until the age of 18, but many keep on studying until the age of about 23. Among the OECD countries, Belgium, in 1999, had the third highest proportion of 18- to 21-year-olds enrolled in postsecondary education at 42 percent.[22] Nevertheless, in recent years, concern is rising over certain forms of illiteracy, such as functional illiteracy. In the 1994-1998 years, 18.4% of the pouplation were lacking functional literacy skills.[23]
The Constitution provides for freedom of religion, and the Government generally respects this right in practice. The population is predominantly Roman Catholic. According to the 2001 Survey and Study of Religion,[24] approximately 47 percent of the population identify themselves as belonging to the Catholic Church. According to these figures, the Muslim population is the second largest religious community and numbers approximately 3.5%. Since independence, Catholicism has had also an important role in Belgium's politics, in particular via the Christian trade union (CSC/ACV) and the Christian Democrat parties (CD&V, CDH). (See also: Religion of Belgium)
Culture
A discussion of Belgian culture may lead to a discussion of both those aspects of cultural life shared by 'all' or most Belgians, regardless of their language, and also the differences between the cultural communities. Since the beginning of the 20th century, cultural life has tended to concentrate within each community. The shared element is clearly much less important as there are no universities that are both Dutch and French speaking (except the royal military academy), no common media, and no single, common large cultural or scientific organisation where both main communities are represented.
As for cultural generalities shared by all Belgians, the country is well-known for its fine art, its comics, its architecture, its beer, its food, and its chocolate. Did you know?
The region corresponding to today's Belgium has seen the flourishing of major artistic movements which have had tremendous influence over the European history of art. The Mosan art, the Early Netherlandish, the Flemish Renaissance and Baroque paintings as well as major Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque architectures, and the Renaissance vocal music of the Dutch School developed in the southern part of the Low Countries are milestones in the history of art.
This very rich artistic production, often categorized as a whole as Flemish art, slowly decayed in the second part of the 17th century. However, in the 19th and 20th centuries, many original artists appeared. In music, Adolphe Sax is famous for inventing the saxophone in 1846. Eugène Ysaÿe is a major 19th and 20th century Belgian violonist (See also: music of Belgium). In architecture, Victor Horta was one initiator of the Art Nouveau style. Belgium has moreover had a variety of famous romantic, expressionist and surrealist painters. These include Egide Wappers, James Ensor, Constant Permeke, and René Magritte. In literature, Belgium has produced several well-known authors such as poets: Emile Verhaeren, Jacques Brel and writers: Hendrik Conscience, Georges Simenon. The poet and playwright Maurice Maeterlinck won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1911. The best known Franco-Belgian comics are The Adventures of Tintin by Hergé but many other major authors are Belgian, e.g. Edgar P. Jacobs and André Franquin.
More recently, some representative cinema directors have emerged. Most of them are strongly influenced by French cinema. The absence of a major Belgian cinema company has forced them to emigrate to or participate in low-budget productions. Some representative directors: Stijn Coninx, Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne; actors: Jan Decleir, Marie Gillain; and films: Man bites dog, The Alzheimer Affair. In the 1980s, Antwerp's Royal Academy of Fine Arts has produced important fashion trendsetters, the Antwerp Six.
One could not understand Belgian cultural life without the folk festivals. They play a major role in Belgium's cultural life. Examples are the Carnival of Binche, the Ducasse of Ath, the procession of the Holy Blood in Bruges, the 15th-of-August festival in Liège, and the Walloon festival in Namur. A major non-official holiday is the Saint Nicholas Day which is the festival of the children (Saint Nicholas is the ancestor of Santa Claus) and, in Liège, of the students.
Belgium is well-represented in the world of sport, football (soccer) and cycling being very popular. The national football team is the Red Devils, and it is ranked 45th by FIFA. One of the greatest cyclists ever, Eddy Merckx, who won five Tours de France, was a Belgian. Belgium also has two female tennis champions, Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin-Hardenne.
Many "gourmets" claim that Belgium has the best food in Europe. Many highly ranked restaurants can be found within famous gastronomic guides (e.g. the Michelin Guide). Brands of Belgian chocolate, like Neuhaus, are world renowned and widely distributed ; even the cheapest and most popular brand, Leonidas, has earned renown for its quality. In Belgium there are over 500 different kinds of beer (ales, pils) (see: Belgian beer). Belgians have a reputation for loving waffles and French fries originally from Belgium, and their national food is mussels with French fries.
Related topics
- Education in Belgium
- Communications in Belgium
- Transportation in Belgium
- Tourism in Belgium
- Public holidays in Belgium
- Foreign relations of Belgium
- Military of Belgium
- List of Belgian municipalities by population
- List of Belgians
- List of Belgium-related topics
External links
- Official site of the Belgian federal government
- Official site of Belgian tourist office in the Americas
- Telephone directory online
- Belgian Newspapers
- Wikitravel guide
- Belgium is celebrating the 175th anniversary of its independence and the 25th anniversary of the federal state
- bruessel-gui.de - Images: Brussels & Belgium
References
- World history at KLMA
- L'aménagement linguistique dans le monde in French by Jacques Leclerc, Universty of Laval, Canada
- Portal of the INS to statisical publications about Belgium
- CIA World Fact Book
Notes
1.^ Nuttall encyclopedia
2.^ Language dispute divides Belgium, BBC News, 13 May, 2005
3.^ Election turnout in national lower house elections from 1960 to 1995, numbers from Mark N. Franklin's "Electoral Participation."
4.^ Belgium's "rainbow" coalition sworn in, BBC News, 12 July, 1999
5.^ Composition of the Chamber of Representatives, on the official homepage of the Chamber, in French
6.^ Court says Vlaams Blok conviction is sound, Expatriate Online, 10 November, 2004
7.^ Court rules Vlaams Blok is racist, BBC News, 9 November, 2004
8.^ Dioxin contamination scandal hits Belgium: Effects spread through European Union and beyond, World Socialist Web Site, 8 June, 1999
9.^ History of the Federal Food Agency, at its official homepage
10.^ The Rwanda article at Tiscali.References shows an example of Belgium's recent African policies.
11.^ The official homepage of Flanders (Community and Region)
12.^ Eurometeo: The meteo at Brussels
13-14.^ US Department of State's report
15.^ National Bank of Belgium
16.^ Economic forecast of the Economist, 30 September, 2005
17,19.^ Official statistics of Belgium
18,23.^ United Nation Development Programme
20-21.^ Ethnologue.com published by SIL International
22.^ Digest of Education Satistics 2003, US National Education Statistics
24.^ International Religious Freedom Report 2004 at the US Department os State