French was originally the single official language adopted by the nobility and the bourgeoisie. It progressively lost its overall importance as Dutch became recognized as well. This recognition became official in , and in , the parliament accepted a Dutch version of the Constitution. The opening months of the war were known as the Rape of Belgium due to German excesses. Belgium assumed control of the German colonies of Ruanda-Urundi modern-day Rwanda and Burundi during the war, and in the League of Nations mandated them to Belgium.
In the aftermath of the First World War, Belgium annexed the Prussian districts of Eupen and Malmedy in , thereby causing the presence of a German-speaking minority. German forces again invaded the country in May , and 40, Belgians, over half of them Jews, were killed during the subsequent occupation and The Holocaust.
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From September to February the Allies liberated Belgium. The latter has now become the European Union, for which Belgium hosts major administrations and institutions, including the European Commission , the Council of the European Union and the extraordinary and committee sessions of the European Parliament. However, when the country's statistics were measured in , a new calculation method was used. Belgium has three main geographical regions; the coastal plain in the northwest and the central plateau both belong to the Anglo-Belgian Basin, and the Ardennes uplands in the southeast to the Hercynian orogenic belt.
The coastal plain consists mainly of sand dunes and polders. Further inland lies a smooth, slowly rising landscape irrigated by numerous waterways, with fertile valleys and the northeastern sandy plain of the Campine Kempen. The thickly forested hills and plateaus of the Ardennes are more rugged and rocky with caves and small gorges. The territory of Belgium is divided into three Regions, two of which, the Flemish Region and Walloon Region , are in turn subdivided into provinces ; the third Region, the Brussels Capital Region , is neither a province nor a part of a province.
Belgium is a constitutional , popular monarchy and a federal parliamentary democracy.
The bicameral federal parliament is composed of a Senate and a Chamber of Representatives. The former is made up of 50 senators appointed by the parliaments of the communities and regions and 10 co-opted senators. Prior to , most of the Senate's members were directly elected. The Chamber 's representatives are elected under a proportional voting system from 11 electoral districts.
Belgium has compulsory voting and thus maintains one of the highest rates of voter turnout in the world. The King currently Philippe is the head of state , though with limited prerogatives. He appoints ministers, including a Prime Minister, that have the confidence of the Chamber of Representatives to form the federal government. The Council of Ministers is composed of no more than fifteen members. With the possible exception of the Prime Minister, the Council of Ministers is composed of an equal number of Dutch-speaking members and French-speaking members.
The Court of Cassation is the court of last resort, with the courts of appeal one level below. Belgium's political institutions are complex; most political power is organized around the need to represent the main cultural communities. A string of Christian Democrat coalition governments from was broken in after the first dioxin crisis , a major food contamination scandal. The government led by Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt from to achieved a balanced budget, some tax reforms , a labor-market reform, scheduled nuclear phase-out and instigated legislation allowing more stringent war crime and more lenient soft drug usage prosecution.
Restrictions on withholding euthanasia were reduced and same-sex marriage legalized. The government promoted active diplomacy in Africa [62] and opposed the invasion of Iraq. Verhofstadt's coalition fared badly in the June elections. For more than a year, the country experienced a political crisis. On that day a new government , led by Flemish Christian Democrat Yves Leterme , the actual winner of the federal elections of June , was sworn in by the king.
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On 15 July Leterme announced the resignation of the cabinet to the king, as no progress in constitutional reforms had been made. A few hours later, the new government under Prime Minister Yves Leterme was sworn in. On 22 April , Leterme again offered the resignation of his cabinet to the king [72] after one of the coalition partners, the OpenVLD , withdrew from the government, and on 26 April King Albert officially accepted the resignation.
By 30 March this set a new world record for the elapsed time without an official government, previously held by war-torn Iraq. The federal election coinciding with the regional elections resulted in a further electoral gain for the Flemish nationalist N-VA, although the incumbent coalition composed of Flemish and French-speaking Social Democrats, Liberals, and Christian Democrats maintains a solid majority in Parliament and in all electoral constituencies.
It is the first time N-VA is part of the federal cabinet, while the French-speaking side is represented only by the MR, which achieved a minority of the public votes in Wallonia. Following a usage which can be traced back to the Burgundian and Habsburg courts, [76] in the 19th century it was necessary to speak French to belong to the governing upper class, and those who could only speak Dutch were effectively second-class citizens. While the people in Southern Belgium spoke French or dialects of French, and most Brusselers adopted French as their first language, the Flemings refused to do so and succeeded progressively in making Dutch an equal language in the education system.
Based on the four language areas defined in —63 the Dutch, bilingual, French and German language areas , consecutive revisions of the country's constitution in , , and established a unique form of a federal state with segregated political power into three levels: [80] [81]. The constitutional language areas determine the official languages in their municipalities, as well as the geographical limits of the empowered institutions for specific matters.
The overlapping boundaries of the Regions and Communities have created two notable peculiarities: the territory of the Brussels-Capital Region which came into existence nearly a decade after the other regions is included in both the Flemish and French Communities, and the territory of the German-speaking Community lies wholly within the Walloon Region.
Conflicts about jurisdiction between the bodies are resolved by the Constitutional Court of Belgium. The structure is intended as a compromise to allow different cultures to live together peacefully. The Federal State's authority includes justice, defense, federal police, social security, nuclear energy, monetary policy and public debt, and other aspects of public finances.
It controls substantial parts of public health, home affairs and foreign affairs. Communities exercise their authority only within linguistically determined geographical boundaries, originally oriented towards the individuals of a Community's language: culture including audiovisual media , education and the use of the relevant language. Extensions to personal matters less directly connected with language comprise health policy curative and preventive medicine and assistance to individuals protection of youth, social welfare, aid to families, immigrant assistance services, and so on. Regions have authority in fields that can be broadly associated with their territory.
These include economy, employment, agriculture, water policy, housing, public works, energy, transport, the environment, town and country planning, nature conservation, credit and foreign trade. They supervise the provinces, municipalities and intercommunal utility companies. In several fields, the different levels each have their own say on specifics.
With education, for instance, the autonomy of the Communities neither includes decisions about the compulsory aspect nor allows for setting minimum requirements for awarding qualifications, which remain federal matters. The treaty-making power of the Regions' and Communities' Governments is the broadest of all the Federating units of all the Federations all over the world. Because of its location at the crossroads of Western Europe , Belgium has historically been the route of invading armies from its larger neighbors. With virtually defenseless borders, Belgium has traditionally sought to avoid domination by the more powerful nations which surround it through a policy of mediation.
The Belgians have been strong advocates of European integration. The Belgian Armed Forces have about 47, active troops.
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The operational commands of the four components are subordinate to the Staff Department for Operations and Training of the Ministry of Defense , which is headed by the Assistant Chief of Staff Operations and Training , and to the Chief of Defense. The effects of the Second World War made collective security a priority for Belgian foreign policy.
This mission was the first in a long line of UN missions which the Belgians supported. Belgium's strongly globalized economy [94] and its transport infrastructure are integrated with the rest of Europe.
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Its location at the heart of a highly industrialized region helped make it the world's 15th largest trading nation in Its main exports are machinery and equipment, chemicals, finished diamonds, metals and metal products, and foodstuffs. The Belgian economy is heavily service-oriented and shows a dual nature: a dynamic Flemish economy and a Walloon economy that lags behind. Since , through the Belgium-Luxembourg Economic Union , Belgium and Luxembourg have been a single trade market with customs and currency union.
Belgium was the first continental European country to undergo the Industrial Revolution , in the early 19th century.
The and oil crises sent the economy into a recession; it was particularly prolonged in Wallonia, where the steel industry had become less competitive and experienced a serious decline. As of [update] , the budget was balanced and public debt was equal to Unemployment rates of 8. By October , this had grown to 8.
Belgium switched to the euro in , with the first sets of euro coins being minted in From a biological resource perspective, Belgium has a low endowment: Belgium's biocapacity adds up to only 0. This means they required about eight times as much biocapacity as Belgium contains. As a result, Belgium was running a biocapacity deficit of 5.
Belgium experiences some of the most congested traffic in Europe. In , commuters to the cities of Brussels and Antwerp spent respectively 65 and 64 hours a year in traffic jams. There is a large economic gap between Flanders and Wallonia. Wallonia was historically wealthy compared to Flanders, mostly due to its heavy industries , but the decline of the steel industry post-World War II led to the region's rapid decline, whereas Flanders rose swiftly.
Since then, Flanders has been prosperous, among the wealthiest regions in Europe, whereas Wallonia has been languishing. As of , the unemployment rate of Wallonia is over double that of Flanders. The divide has played a key part in the tensions between the Flemish and Walloons in addition to the already-existing language divide.
Pro-independence movements have gained high popularity in Flanders as a consequence.
Contributions to the development of science and technology have appeared throughout the country's history. The 16th century Early Modern flourishing of Western Europe included cartographer Gerardus Mercator , anatomist Andreas Vesalius , herbalist Rembert Dodoens [] [] [] [] and mathematician Simon Stevin among the most influential scientists. Bakelite was developed in — by Leo Baekeland. In , he started a series of conferences, the Solvay Conferences on Physics and Chemistry, which have had a deep impact on the evolution of quantum physics and chemistry.
As of 1 January , the total population of Belgium according to its population register was 11,, The most densely populated province is Antwerp , the least densely populated province is Luxembourg. As of January , the Flemish Region had a population of 6,, Wallonia had a population of 3,, The Brussels Capital Region has 1,, inhabitants In the average total fertility rate TFR across Belgium was 1.
The prevalent foreign nationals were Italian , , French , , Dutch , , Moroccan 80, , Portuguese 43, , Spanish 42, , Turkish 39, and German 37, Of these, , 6. Since the modification of the Belgian nationality law in more than 1. The largest group of immigrants and their descendants in Belgium are Moroccans.