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Belgium: Southern Netherlands
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The area of present-day Belgium has seen significant demographic, political and cultural upheavals over the course of two millennia. In the first century, the Romans, after defeating the local tribes, 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 kingdom, which evolved into the Carolingian Empire in the 8th century. During the Middle Ages small feudal states emerged, many of which rejoined as the Burgundian Netherlands in the 14th and 15th centuries. Emperor Charles V completed the union of the Seventeen Provinces in the 1540s, and unofficially ... controlled the Prince-Bishopric of Liège.[14]
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Both the Dutch spoken in Belgium and the Belgian French have small vocabulary differences from the varieties spoken in the Netherlands and France, but are mutually intelligible with their respective neighbouring dialects. Many speak Flemish or Walloon dialects which are often difficult to understand for people from other areas. Other regional languages officially recognised (in Wallonia only) are Champenois, Gaumais, and Picard.
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The Kingdom of Belgium is acountryinnorthwest Europebordered bythe Netherlands,Germany,Luxembourg, andFrance, with a short coastline on theNorth Sea. It is one of the founding members of theEuropean Unionand hosts its headquarters, as well as those of other majorinternational organizations, includingNATO. Belgium covers an area of 30,528square kilometres(11,787 square miles) and has a population of about 10.5 million.
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Straddling the cultural boundary between Germanic and Latin Europe, Belgium's two largest regions are the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders in the north, with 58% of the population, and the French-speaking southern region of Wallonia, inhabited by 32%. The Brussels-Capital Region, although officially bilingual, is a mostly French-speaking enclave within the Flemish and near the Walloon Region, and has 10% of the population.[3] A small German-speaking Community exists in eastern Wallonia.[4] Belgium's linguistic diversity and related political and cultural conflicts are reflected in the political history and a complex system of government.[5][6]
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Belgium is situated in the west of Europe, bordered to the north by the Netherlands, to the east by Germany and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and to the south and the west by France. Although its surface area of 32,545 km2 makes it a small country, its location has made it the economic and urban nerve centre of Europe.
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Religion was one of the differences between the Roman Catholic south and the Protestant north of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, which eventually broke up in 1830 when the south seceded to form Belgium. This accounts for the preponderance of Catholics there nowadays.
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Southern Netherlands