Belgium: Difference between revisions

For other uses, see Belgium (disambiguation).

Kingdom of Belgium Koninkrijk België Royaume de Belgique Königreich Belgien
Flag Coat of arms of Belgium Coat of arms
Motto: Dutch: Eendracht maakt macht; French: L'union fait la force; German: Einigkeit macht stark (English: "Strength lies in unity")
Anthem: "La Brabançonne" (The Song of Brabant)
Capital	City of Brussels
Largest city	Brussels, Antwerp, Gent (1)
Official languages	Dutch (sometimes designated as Flemish), French, German
Government	Constitutional monarchy
• King	Albert II
• Prime Minister	Guy Verhofstadt
Independence
• Belgian Revolution	1830
• Water (%)	6.4
Population
• 2005 estimate	10,419,000 (77th)
• 2001 census	10,296,350
GDP (PPP)	2004 estimate
• Total	$316.2 billion (30th)
• Per capita	$29,707 (14th)
HDI (2003)	0.945 very high (9th)
Currency	Euro (EUR)
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)
Calling code	32
ISO 3166 code	BE
Internet TLD	.be
(1) Brussels is the largest urban area, Antwerp is the largest municipality

The Kingdom of Belgium (Flemish: Koninkrijk België; French: Royaume de Belgique; German: Königreich Belgien) is a country in northwest Europe bordered by the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg and France and is one of the founding and core members of the European Union. Belgium has a population of over ten million people, in an area of around 30,000 square kilometres (11,700 square miles), mostly Fleming (over 6 million), a large minority of French-speakers (4 million, 3/4 of them Walloon) and a tiny German-speaking group. Straddling the cultural boundary between Germanic and Romance Europe, it is linguistically divided. Two major languages are spoken in Belgium: Dutch (or rather its Flemish variant) is mainly spoken in Flanders to the north, while French in Wallonia in the south. The capital, Brussels, is officially bilingual, while the majority of its residents speak French and an officially-recognized German-speaking minority is present, in the east of the country. This linguistic diversity often leads to political and cultural conflict and is reflected in Belgium's complex system of government and political history.

Belgium derives its name from the Belgae, a group of mostly Celtic tribes, and from the Roman province in northern Gaul, known as Gallia Belgica. Historically, Belgium has been a part of the Low Countries, which also include the Netherlands and Luxembourg and were covering a somewhat larger region than the current Benelux group of states. From the end of the Middle Ages until the seventeenth century, it was a prosperous centre of commerce and culture. From the sixteenth century until independence in 1830, Belgium, called at that time the Southern Netherlands, was the site of many battles between the European powers, and has been dubbed "the cockpit of Europe." More recently, Belgium was a founding member of the European Union, hosting its headquarters, as well as those of other major international organizations, such as NATO.

History

Main article: History of Belgium

Over the past two millennia, the area that is now known as Belgium has seen significant demographic, political and cultural upheavals. The first well-documented population move was the conquest of the region by the Roman Republic in the 1st century BC, followed in the 5th century by the Germanic 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 in the course of the 14th and 15th centuries by the house of Burgundy as the Burgundian Netherlands. These states gained a degree of autonomy in the 15th century and were thereafter named the Seventeen Provinces.

The Seventeen Provinces (orange, brown and yellow areas) and the Bishopric of Liège (green area). For a detailed description, see Seventeen Provinces.

Episode of the Belgian Revolution of 1830, Egide Charles Gustave Wappers (1834), in the Ancient Art Museum, Brussels

The history of Belgium can be distinguished from that of the Low Countries from the 16th century. A civil war, 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 sought after by 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—including territories that were never under Habsburg rule, such the Bishopric of Liège—were overrun by France, ending Spanish-Austrian rule in the region. The reunification of the Low Countries as the United Kingdom of the Netherlands occurred 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 the installation of Leopold I as king in 1831, Belgium has been a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy. Between independence and World War II, the democratic system evolved from an oligarchy characterized by two main parties, the Catholics and the Liberals, to a universal suffrage system that has included a third party, the Belgian Labor Party, and a strong role for the trade unions. Originally, French, which was the adopted language of the nobility and the bourgeoisie, was the official language. The country has since developed a bilingual Dutch-French system.

European exploration and administration of the Congo took place from the 1870s until the 1920s. First by Stanley who undertook his explorations mainly under the sponsorship of King Leopold II of Belgium, who desired what was to become the Congo as a colony. In a succession of negotiations Leopold, professing humanitarian objectives in his capacity as chairman of the Association Internationale Africaine, played one European rival against the other. The Congo territory was acquired formally by Leopold at the Conference of Berlin in 1885. He made the land his private, personal property and named it the Congo Free State. Leopold's regime began undertaking various development projects, such as the railway that ran from the coast to Leopoldville (now Kinshasa) which took years to complete. Nearly all of these projects were aimed at increasing the capital Leopold and his cohorts could extract from the colony, leading to atrocious exploitation of Africans. In the Free State, the local population was brutalized in exchange for rubber, a growing market with the development of rubber tires. The selling of the rubber made a fortune for Leopold, who built several buildings in Brussels and Ostend to honor himself and his country. During the period between 1885 and 1908, between five and fifteen (the commonly accepted figure is about ten) million Congolese died as a consequence of exploitation and diseases. To enforce the rubber quotas, the Force Publique (FP) was called in. The FP was an army, but its aim was not to defend the country, but to terrorize the local population The Force Publique made the practice of cutting off the limbs of the natives as a means of enforcing rubber quotas a matter of policy; this practice was disturbingly widespread. However, there were international protests spearheaded mainly by Edmund Dene Morel and British diplomat/Irish patriot Roger Casement, whose 1904 report on the Congo condemned the practice, as well as famous writers such as Mark Twain (who wrote King Leopold's Soliloquy) and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Joseph Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness also takes place in Congo Free State. In 1908, the Belgian parliament bowed to international pressure in order to save their last bit of prestige in Europe, forcibly adopting the Free State as a Belgian colony from the king. From then on, it became the Belgian Congo.

During World War I Belgium's neutrality was violated in 1914, when Germany invaded Belgium as part of the Schlieffen Plan. For much of World War I, the west end of "The Western Front" trench warfare stalemate was roughly the border of Belgium and France at the North Sea. 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, and Ruanda-Urundi became independent in 1962.

After World War II, Belgium joined NATO and, together with the Netherlands and Luxembourg, formed the Benelux group of nations. Belgium is also one of the six founding members of the 1951 established European Coal and Steel Community, and the 1957 established European Economic Community and European Atomic Energy 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 the extraordinary and committee sessions of the European Parliament, as well as parts of its administration. During the 20th century, and in particular since World War II, the history of Belgium has been increasingly dominated by the autonomy of its two main language communities. This period saw a rise in intercommunal tensions, and the unity of the Belgian state has come under scrutiny. Through constitutional reforms in the 1970s and 1980s, regionalisation of the unitary state had led to the establishment of a three-tiered system of federalism, linguistic-community and regional governments, a compromise designed to minimise linguistic tensions. Nowadays, these federal entities uphold more legislative power than the national bicameral parliament.

Government and politics

File:Gverof.jpg

Guy Verhofstadt, Prime Minister since July 1999

Belgium is a constitutional popular monarchy and parliamentary democracy that evolved after World War II from a unitary state to a federation. The bicameral parliament is composed of a Senate and a Chamber of Representatives. The former is a mix of directly elected senior politicians and representatives of the communities and regions; while the latter represents all Belgians over the age of eighteen in a proportional voting system. Belgium is one of the few countries that has compulsory voting, thus having one of the highest rates of voter turnout in the world.

The federal government, formally nominated by the king, must have the confidence of the Chamber of Representatives. It is led by the Prime Minister. The numbers of Dutch- and French-speaking ministers are equal as prescribed by the Constitution. The King or Queen is the head of state, though he has limited prerogatives. Actual power is vested in the Prime Minister and the different governments, who govern the country. The judicial system is based on civil law and originates from the Napoleonic code. The Court of Appeals is one level below the Court of Cassation, an institution based on the French Court of Cassation.

Belgium's political institutions are complex; most political power is organised around the need to represent the main language communities. Since around 1970, the significant national Belgian political parties has split into distinct components that mainly represent the interests of these communities. The major parties in each community belong to three main 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 influenced by lobby groups, such as trade unions and business interests in the form of the Federation of Enterprises in Belgium.

File:King Albert II of Belgium 2.jpg

Albert II, King of the Belgians

The current king, Albert II, succeeded King Baudouin in 1993. Since 1999, Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt from the VLD has led a six-party Liberal-Social Democrat-Greens coalition, often referred to as 'the rainbow government'. This was the first government without the Christian Democrats since 1958. In the 2003 elections, Verhofstadt won a second term in office and has led a Liberal-Social Democrat coalition of four parties. In recent years, there has also been a steady rise of the Flemish far right nationalist separatist party Vlaams Blok, meanwhile superseded by Vlaams Belang amidst allegations of racism promoted by the party.

A significant achievement of the two successive Verhofstadt governments has been the achievement of a balanced budget; Belgium is one of the few member-states of the EU to have done so. This policy was applied by the successive governments during the 1990s under pressure from the European Council. The fall of the previous government was mainly due to the dioxin crisis, a major food intoxication scandal in 1999 that led to the establishment of the Belgian Food Agency. This event resulted in an atypically large representation by the Greens in parliament, and a greater emphasis on environmental politics during the first Verhofstadt government. One Green policy, for example, resulted in nuclear phase-out legislation, which has been modified by the current government. The absence of Christian Democrats from the ranks of the government has enabled Verhofstadt to tackle social issues from a more liberal point of view and to develop new legislation on the use of soft drugs, same-sex marriage and euthanasia. During the two most recent parliaments, the government has promoted active diplomacy in Africa, opposed a military intervention during the Iraq disarmament crisis, and has passed legislation concerning war crimes. Both of Verhofstadt's terms have been marked by disputes between the Belgian communities. The major points of contention are the nocturnal air traffic routes at Brussels Airport and the status of the electoral district of Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde.

See also: list of Belgian monarchs, Belgian federal parliament, Belgian federal government, list of Belgian Prime Ministers, and Political parties in Belgium

Communities and regions

Main article: Communities, regions and provinces of Belgium

Belgium is divided into three communities and into three regions.

Flemish Community (Dutch speaking)	French Community	German-speaking Community
Flemish region	Walloon region	Brussels-Capital region

The country's constitution was revised on 14 July 1993 to create a unique federal state, based on three levels:

1. The federal government, based in Brussels.
2. The three language communities:
   • the Flemish (i.e., Dutch-speaking) Community;
   • the French (i.e., French-speaking) Community;
   • the German-speaking Community.
3. The three regions (which differ from the language communities with respect to the German-speaking community and the Brussels region):
   • the Flemish region;
   • the Walloon Region; and
   • the Brussels-Capital Region.

Conflicts between the bodies are resolved by the Court of Arbitration. The setup allows a compromise so distinctly different cultures can live together peacefully.

The Flemish Community absorbed the Flemish Region in 1980 to form the government of Flanders. 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 lies wholly within the Walloon Region. Flemish and Walloon regions are furthermore subdivided in administrative entities, the provinces.

At the highest level of this three-tiered setup is the federal government which manages foreign affairs, development aid, defence, military, police, economic management, social welfare, social security transport, energy, telecommunications, and scientific research, limited competencies in education and culture, and the supervision of taxation by regional authorities. The federal government controls more than 90 per cent of all taxation. The community governments are responsible for the promotion of language, culture and education in mostly schools, libraries and theatres. The third tier is the Regional governments, who manage mostly land and property based issues such as housing, transportation etc. For example, the building permit for a school building in Brussels belonging to the public school system 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.

Geography and climate

Main article: Geography of Belgium

Brussels, Antwerp (Antwerpen), Ghent (Gent), Charleroi, Liège, Bruges (Brugge) and Namur are the seven largest cities of Belgium, with populations above 100,000

Belgium, with an area of 30 528 square kilometres (11,787 sq. mi), has three main geographical 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 geographical 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.

Landscape in the Hautes Fagnes, in the Ardennes

The third geographical region, called the Ardennes, is 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 (2,277 ft).

The climate is maritime temperate, with significant precipitation in all seasons (Köppen climate classification: Cfb; the average temperature is 3 °C (37°F) in January, and 18° C (64 °F) in July; the average precipitation is 65 millimetres (2.6 in) in January, and 78 millimetres (3.1 in) in July).

Environment

Main article: Environment of Belgium

According to various scientific sources, certain environmental issues in Belgium are among the worst in the world. The reasons for this are:

• Belgium is a major transit country within the European Union (EU)
• Belgium's heavy industry is a major source of income, centred around chemicals and metal
• Belgium is located between countries that do a lot of polluting themselves (Germany's Ruhr area, France and the Netherlands)
• Belgium's government lacks decisive environmental policies
• A 2003 report suggested that the water in Belgium's rivers was of the lowest quality in Europe, and bottom of the 122 countries studied.

Economy

Main article: Economy of Belgium

Densely populated, Belgium is located at the heart of one of the world's most highly industrialised regions.

Steelmaking along the Meuse or Maas at Ougrée, near Liège.

Belgium was the first continental European country to undergo the Industrial Revolution, in the early 1800s. Liège and Charleroi rapidly developed mining and steelmaking, which flourished until the mid-20th century. However, by the 1840s the textile industry of Flanders was in severe crisis and there was famine in Flanders (1846–50). After World War II, Ghent and Antwerp experienced a fast expansion of the chemical and petroleum industries. The 1973 and 1979 oil crises sent the economy into a prolonged recession. The Belgian steel industry has since experienced serious decline. This has been responsible for inhibiting the economic development of Wallonia. In the 1980s and 90s, the economic centre of the country continued to shift northwards to Flanders. Nowadays, industry is concentrated in the populous Flemish area in the north.

By the end of the 1980s, Belgian macroeconomic policies had resulted in a cumulative government debt of about 120% of GDP. Currently, although the government has recently succeeded in balancing its budget, public debt being equal to 94% of GDP (end 2005). In 2004, the real growth rate of GDP was estimated at 2.7% but is expected to fall to 1.3% in 2005.

Belgium has 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 the extension of the powers of EU institutions to integrate the member economies. In 1999, Belgium adopted the euro, the single European currency, which replaced the Belgian franc in 2002. The Belgian economy is strongly oriented towards foreign trade, in particular of high value-added goods. The main imports are food products, machinery, rough diamonds, petroleum and petroleum products, chemicals, clothing and accessories, and textiles. The main exports are automobiles, food and food products, iron and steel, finished 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 Belgium-Luxembourg Economic Union. Its main trading partners are Germany, the Netherlands, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, the United States and Spain. Belgium ranks ninth on the 2005 United Nations Human Development Index.

Demographics

File:Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Belgium.jpg

Basilica of the Sacred Heart, Brussels. The basilica is the National Basilica of Belgium. It stands as a symbol of the historical link between the Belgian monarchy and the Catholic Church.

Main article: Demographics of Belgium

The population density (342 per km² or 886 per sq. mi) of Belgium is one of the highest in Europe, after that of the Netherlands and some smaller countries such as Monaco. The areas with the highest population density are around the Brussels-Antwerp-Gent-Leuven agglomerations, also known as the Flemish Diamond, as well as other important urban centres as Liège, Charleroi, Kortrijk, Bruges, Hasselt and Namur. The Ardennes have the lowest density. As of 2005, the Flemish Region has a population of about 6,043,161, Wallonia 3,395,942 and Brussels 1,006,749. Almost all of the population is urban (97.3% in 1999). The main cities and their populations are Brussels (1,006,749), Antwerp (457,749), Ghent (230,951), Charleroi (201,373), and Liège (185,574).

About 60 percent of the country is Dutch-speaking, 32 percent French-speaking, and 1 percent German-speaking. Brussels, with 8% of the country's population, is officially bilingual (French-Dutch). Brussels evolved from a mainly Dutch-speaking city when the Belgian state became independent in 1830, with at that time only French as an official language. A large majority of its population (estimated at 85 to 94% is registered as Francophone; this includes a large amount of Brussels residents of foreign stock.

Both the Dutch spoken in Belgium and the Belgian French have minor differences in vocabulary and semantic nuances from the varieties spoken in France and the Netherlands. Many people can still speak dialects of Flemish but concerning the Walloon it is only understood and spoken occasionally, mostly by elderly people. These dialects, along with some other ones like Picard or Limburgish, are not used in public life.

The laicist constitution provides for freedom of religion, and the government generally respects this right in practice. According to the 2001 Survey and Study of Religion, about 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, at 3.5 percent (see Religion in Belgium). Since independence, Catholicism, counterbalanced by strong freethought and especially freemason movements, has had an important role in Belgium's politics, in particular via the Christian trade union (CSC/ACV) and the Christian Democrat parties (CD&V, CDH).

The vast majority of Belgians are Flemish and Walloon. Together, they constitute a little over 85 percent. Other ethnic groups from Europe, including Italian, French, and German people, number 11.1 percent. North African immigrants, mostly Arabs from Morocco, Algeria, and Turks, number over 3 percent of the total population.

An estimated 98 percent of the adult population is literate. Education is compulsory from the ages of six to 18, but many Belgians continue to study until the age of about 23. Among the OECD countries in 1999, Belgium had the third-highest proportion of 18–21-year-olds enrolled in postsecondary education, at 42 percent. Nevertheless, in recent years, concern is rising over functional illiteracy. In the period 1994–98, 18.4 percent of the population lacks functional literacy skills. Mirroring the historical political conflicts between the freethought and Catholic segments of the population, the Belgian educational system in each communities is split into a laïque branch controlled by the communities, the provinces, or the municipalities, and a subsidised religious—mostly Catholic—branch controlled by both the communities and the religious authorities—usually the dioceses. It should however be noted that—at least for the Catholic schools—the religious authorities have very limited power over these schools.

Culture

Main article: Culture of Belgium

Belgian cultural life has tended to concentrate within each community. The shared element is less important, because there are no bilingual universities, except the royal military academy, no common media, and no single, common large cultural or scientific organisation where both main communities are represented. Aside from these differences, Belgium is well-known for its fine art and architecture.

The region corresponding to today's Belgium has seen the flourishing of major artistic movements that have had tremendous influence over European art. The Mosan art, the Early Netherlandish, the Flemish Renaissance and Baroque painting, and major examples of Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque architecture, and the Renaissance vocal music of the Franco-Flemish School (which included Guillaume Dufay, Johannes Ockeghem, Josquin des Prez, Heinrich Isaac and Orlande de Lassus) developed in the southern part of the Low Countries, are milestones in the history of art.

This rich artistic production, often referred to as a whole as Flemish art, gradually declined during the second half of the 17th century. However, in the 19th and 20th centuries, many original artists appeared. In music, Adolphe Sax invented the saxophone in 1846. Eugène Ysaÿe was a major 19th- and 20th-century Belgian violinist (See also Music of Belgium). Perhaps the most famous Belgian composer of this time was Cesar Frank. In architecture, Victor Horta was a major initiator of the Art Nouveau style. Belgium has produced 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 the poets Emile Verhaeren, Henri Michaux, Jacques Brel and novelists Hendrik Conscience and 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 of comics have been Belgian, including Edgar P. Jacobs and André Franquin.

More recently, notable cinema directors have emerged, most of them strongly influenced by French cinema. The absence of a major Belgian cinema company has forced them to emigrate or participate in low-budget productions. Belgian directors include Stijn Coninx, Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne; actors include Jan Decleir, Marie Gillain; and films include Man Bites Dog (film) and The Alzheimer Affair. In the 1980s, Antwerp's Royal Academy of Fine Arts has produced the important fashion trendsetters, the Antwerp Six.

Belgium has also contributed to the development of science and technology. The mathematician Simon Stevin, the anatomist Andreas Vesalius and the cartographer Gerardus Mercator are among the most influential scientists from the beginning of Early Modern in the Low Countries. More recently, at the end of the 19th century, in applied science, the chemist Ernest Solvay and the engineer Zenobe Gramme have given their names to the Solvay process and the Gramme dynamo. Georges Lemaître is a famous Belgian cosmologist credited with proposing the Big Bang theory of the origin of the universe in 1927. Three Nobel Prizes in Physiology or Medicine have been awarded to Belgians: Jules Bordet in 1919, Corneille Heymans in 1938, and Albert Claude and Christian De Duve in 1974. Ilya Prigogine was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1977.

On December 1, 2005, Father Damien was chosen as the Greatest Belgian of all time by the Flemish VRT, whereas the Walloons chose Jacques Brel.

One could not understand Belgian cultural life without considering the folk festivals, which play a major role in the country's cultural life. Examples are the Carnival of Binche and Aalst, 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 commemorates the festival of the children and, in Liège, of the students.

Belgium is well represented in the world of sport—football (soccer) and cycling are especially popular. The national football team is the Red Devils. Among the well known cyclists, Eddy Merckx, won five Tours de France and now on is Tom Boonen becoming a popular figure of the belgian cyclism. Belgium also has two current female tennis champions: Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin-Hardenne.

Many highly ranked restaurants can be found in the high-impact gastronomic guides, such as the Michelin Guide. Brands of Belgian chocolate, like Neuhaus and Côte d'Or, are world renowned and widely sold; even the cheapest and most popular brand, Leonidas, has earned a reputation for its quality. Belgium produces over 500 varieties of beer (ales, pils, Stella Artois, Jupiler) (see Belgian beer). Belgians have a reputation for loving waffles and French fries, actually both originally from Belgium; the national food is steak (or mussels) with French fries and lettuce.

See also

• Belgian constitution
• Communications in Belgium
• Education in Belgium
• Football in Belgium
• Foreign relations of Belgium
• Guidisme et Scoutisme en Belgique/Gidsen- en Scoutsbeweging in België
• List of Belgian municipalities by population
• List of Belgians
• List of Belgium-related topics
• Military of Belgium
• Political parties in Belgium
• Public holidays in Belgium
• Crime in Belgium
• Tourism in Belgium
• Transportation in Belgium

External links

• Official site of the Belgian federal government
• History of Belgium: Primary Documents
• Official site of Belgian tourist office
• Template:Wikitravel
• Picture gallery of Belgium Top Sites to See
• USC Center on Public Diplomacy Nation Profile
• Images from Belgium
• Virtual City tour of Bruges

References

• World history at KMLA
• L'aménagement linguistique dans le monde in French by Jacques Leclerc, University of Laval, Canada
• Portal of the INS to statistical publications about Belgium
• CIA World Fact Book
• Constitution of Belgium