History UsefulNotes / Belgium

Modern Belgium ('''Dutch:''' ''België'', '''French:''' ''Belgique'', '''German:''' ''Belgien''), officially known as the Kingdom of Belgium ('''Dutch:''' ''Koninkrijk België'', '''French:''' ''Royaume de Belgique'', '''German:''' ''Königreich Belgien''), is a Western European country and something of a historical anomaly. Throughout the Middle Ages, the wool trade in Flanders made towns like Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp among the most prosperous in the world. It's worth noting that in 1302 the French lost the '[[CurbStompBattle Battle of the Golden Spurs]]'. It's one of first times in the middle ages where heavy cavalry was [[AntiCavalry annihilated by infantry]], coming a few years after the battle of Stirling. It was especially painful for the French because the Flemish soldiers were mostly non-noble (or, as in the parlance of the time, lowborn) and not that interested in taking prisoners for ransom, which resulted in a very large number of [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized French nobles dying in battle, rather than being captured and paroled, the usual treatment for defeated noblemen]]. Hence the name, the golden spurs were worn by rich nobility and it is said that after the battle over 500 of them were taken from the battlefield. Among the dead were the French commander and the chief advisor to the king of France. The date of the battle is the [[YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters national holiday of Flanders]], the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium.

* In ''Manga/AxisPowersHetalia'' Belgium is a CoolBigSis with a CatSmile and has two siblings, Netherlands and Luxembourg.

[[caption-width-right:328:The battlefield of Europe]]

The famous and long-running comic book ''Franchise/{{Tintin}}'' comes from Belgium, as do several other BelgianComics (in the 1990s it was said that only three things hold Belgium together - the royal family, the Red Devils (the national football/soccer team), and comics!). In the English-speaking world the best-known Belgian comics characters apart from Franchise/{{Tintin}} and co. are probably ComicBook/LuckyLuke, ''Franchise/TheSmurfs'' and ''Franchise/{{Marsupilami}}''. In the world of music, Belgium is probably best known for 20th-century songwriter Music/JacquesBrel, and its techno music, particularly on Maurice Engelen aka Praga Khan, and his most famous project, porno-house group Music/LordsOfAcid. Other well known Belgian bands and musicians are Music/Front242, Music/{{Hooverphonic}}, Technotronic, Soulwax, K's Choice, Music/{{Stromae}}, and Music/{{dEUS}}. Even the infamous advert ''Advertising/{{Stresssmannetje}}'' ("Hier Nen Euro") is Belgian.

The famous and long-running comic book ''Franchise/{{Tintin}}'' comes from Belgium, as do several other BelgianComics (in the 1990s it was said that only three things hold Belgium together - the royal family, the Red Devils (the national football/soccer team), and comics!). In the English-speaking world the best-known Belgian comics characters apart from Franchise/{{Tintin}} and co. are probably ComicBook/LuckyLuke, ''Franchise/TheSmurfs'' and ''Franchise/{{Marsupilami}}''. In the world of music, Belgium is probably best known for 20th-century songwriter Music/JacquesBrel, and its techno music, particularly on Maurice Engelen aka Praga Khan, and his most famous project, porno-house group Music/LordsOfAcid. Other well known Belgian bands and musicians are Music/Front242, Music/{{Hooverphonic}}, Technotronic, Soulwax, K's Choice, Music/{{Stromae}}, and Music/{{dEUS}}. Even the infamous advert [[WebVideo/HierNienEuro]] is Belgian.

The famous and long-running comic book ''Franchise/{{Tintin}}'' comes from Belgium, as do several other BelgianComics (in the 1990s it was said that only three things hold Belgium together - the royal family, the Red Devils (the national football/soccer team), and comics!). In the English-speaking world the best-known Belgian comics characters apart from Franchise/{{Tintin}} and co. are probably ComicBook/LuckyLuke, ''Franchise/TheSmurfs'' and ''Franchise/{{Marsupilami}}''. In the world of music, Belgium is probably best known for 20th-century songwriter Music/JacquesBrel, and its techno music, particularly on Maurice Engelen aka Praga Khan, and his most famous project, porno-house group Music/LordsOfAcid. Other well known Belgian bands and musicians are Music/Front242, Music/{{Hooverphonic}}, Technotronic, Soulwax, Music/{{Stromae}}, and Music/{{dEUS}}. Even the infamous advert [[WebVideo/HierNienEuro]] is Belgian.

The famous and long-running comic book ''Franchise/{{Tintin}}'' comes from Belgium, as do several other BelgianComics (in the 1990s it was said that only three things hold Belgium together - the royal family, the Red Devils (the national football/soccer team), and comics!). In the English-speaking world the best-known Belgian comics characters apart from Franchise/{{Tintin}} and co. are probably ComicBook/LuckyLuke, ''Franchise/TheSmurfs'' and ''Franchise/{{Marsupilami}}''. In the world of music, Belgium is probably best known for 20th-century songwriter Music/JacquesBrel, and its techno music, particularly on Maurice Engelen aka Praga Khan, and his most famous project, porno-house group Music/LordsOfAcid. Other well known Belgian bands and musicians are Music/Front242, Music/{{Hooverphonic}}, Technotronic, Soulwax, Music/{{Stromae}}, and Music/{{dEUS}}. Even the infamous advert [[WebVideo/HierNenEuro]] is Belgian.

The famous and long-running comic book ''Franchise/{{Tintin}}'' comes from Belgium, as do several other BelgianComics (in the 1990s it was said that only three things hold Belgium together - the royal family, the Red Devils (the national football/soccer team), and comics!). In the English-speaking world the best-known Belgian comics characters apart from Franchise/{{Tintin}} and co. are probably ComicBook/LuckyLuke, ''Franchise/TheSmurfs'' and ''Franchise/{{Marsupilami}}''. In the world of music, Belgium is probably best known for 20th-century songwriter Music/JacquesBrel, and its techno music, particularly on Maurice Engelen aka Praga Khan, and his most famous project, porno-house group Music/LordsOfAcid. Other well known Belgian bands and musicians are Music/Front242, Music/{{Hooverphonic}}, Technotronic, Soulwax, Music/{{Stromae}}, and Music/{{dEUS}}.

Thanks to a few Belgian entrepreneurs that made plans to steal machines from British industries, Belgium underwent a major industrial revolution (the whole place was bursting with coal, iron, and sulphur), after which Belgium become one of the most industrialized states in Europe. Further down the line, the Belgians acquired colonies during the Scramble for Africa in what is today the Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi. The Belgian Congo, or the Congo Free State, became infamous for its horrific treatment of the native Africans (''Heart of Darkness'' is set there). And by horrible, we mean that in Belgian Congo a single bullet was literally worth more than the life of a native man (soldiers stationed in Congo had to produce the severed right hand of a native to justify every fired bullet, which meant that soldiers had to go out and slaughter a few natives every once in a while to explain missed shots). Torture of native workers, destruction of other villages and rape were common, and the natives were so dehumanized by both Stanley's private army, the Force Publique, and the Congo administration that one official used severed human heads as a makeshift fence for his garden. Originally the Congo was owned by King Leopold personally, but after exposure by Christian missionaries and a growing international outcry, the Belgian government took over to stop the atrocities. Which should tell you how bad the situation was when even the other colonial powers think you're going too far.

The famous and long-running comic book ''Franchise/{{Tintin}}'' comes from Belgium, as do several other BelgianComics (in the 1990s it was said that only three things hold Belgium together - the royal family, the Red Devils (the national football/soccer team), and comics!). In the English-speaking world the best-known Belgian comics characters apart from Franchise/{{Tintin}} and co. are probably ComicBook/LuckyLuke, ''Franchise/TheSmurfs'' and ''Franchise/{{Marsupilami}}''. In the world of music, Belgium is probably best known for 20th-century songwriter Music/JacquesBrel, and its techno music, particularly on Maurice Engelen aka Praga Khan, and his most famous project, porno-house group Music/LordsOfAcid. Other well known Belgian bands and musicians are Music/Front242, Hooverphonic, Technotronic, Soulwax, Stromae, and Music/{{dEUS}}.

* ''Series/{{Cordon}}'' (2014) in which the country is ravaged by a viral plague. As with ''Series/{{Salamander}}'', fears about the fragility of Belgium and how easily it could break up along ethnic and language lines are dramatized, this time through the metaphor of a killer plague.

* ''Series/{{Cordon}}'', which involves part of central Antwerp being sealed off after a virus outbreak and makes ''Series/UnderTheDome'' look nice in comparison.

* Parts of ''Film/TheMonumentsMen'' happen in Belgium. The film focus on the cases of two artworks stolen by the Nazis in Belgium: Michelangelo's ''Madonna of Bruges'' and Van Eyck's ''Ghent Altarpiece''.

Thanks to a few Belgian entrepreneurs that made plans to steal machines from British industries, Belgium underwent a major industrial revolution (the whole place was bursting with coal, iron, and sulphur), after which Belgium become one of the most industrialized states in Europe. Further down the line, the Belgians acquired colonies during the Scramble for Africa in what is today the Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi. The Belgian Congo, or the Congo Free State, became infamous for its horrific treatment of the native Africans (''Heart of Darkness'' is set there). And by horrible, we mean that in Belgian Congo a single bullet was literally worth more than the life of a native man (soldiers stationed in Congo had to produce the severed right hand of a native to justify every fired bullet, which meant that soldiers had to go out and slaughter a few natives every once in a while to explain missed shots). Torture of native workers, destruction of other villages and rape were common, and the natives were so dehumanized by both Stanley's private army, the Force Publique, and the Congo administration that one official used severed human heads as a makeshift fence for his garden. Originally the Congo was owned by King Leopold personally, but after exposure by Christian missionaries and a growing international outcry, the Belgian government took over to stop the atrocities. Which should tell you how bad the situation was when [[EvenEvilHasStandards even the other colonial powers think you're going too far]].

* Belgium, or a ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' take thereof, is even beginning to appear in fanfic. Creator/AAPessimal reasoned that the Sto Plains states reflect the three Benelux countries of Europe. Any nation with "brussels sprouts" as its principal cash crop ''must'' by inference be an UpToEleven Belgium. if Sto Helit is a Grand Duchy (UsefulNotes/{{Luxembourg}}) and Sto Kerrig is an UpToEleven [[UsefulNotes/TheNetherlands Holland]], that only leaves neighbouring Sto Lat. In '''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6697660/36/The-Discworld-Tarot The King of Swords]]''', the illogic of the stories dictates that an "Afrikaaner" working in Ankh-Morpork must take on a nanny for her newborn daughter who speaks a recognisable language, so the child has a fighting chance of growing up speaking something other than "Morporkian" (English). She gets Annaliese from the border region between two of the Stos, who speaks, er, "Phlegmish" and knows all about Brussels Sprouts. Ongoing fun is had with how native speakers of "Vondalaans", "Kerrigian" and "Phlegmish"[[note]] Afrikaans, Dutch and Flemish[[/note]] preceive each other's languages.

* PatrioticFervor: Played for laughs. It frequently happens in French media that they portray Belgians as xenophobes that hate French for seemingly no other reason than this.

* IrrationalHatred: PlayedForLaughs in British media, where hating Belgium for no apparent reason has become something of a RunningGag since the phrase "Miserable Fat Belgian Bastards" was uttered.

* ''Franchise/TheSmurfs'' were created by the Belgian Pierre Culliford, a.k.a. Creator/{{Peyo}}, and became a world hit thanks to the mostly faithful Hanna-Barbera cartoon in the 80's.

* The 24th ''ComicBook/{{Asterix}}'' album, ''Recap/AsterixInBelgium'', which foreshadows the Flemish-Walloon divide in the antipathies between the different Belgian tribes of Julius Caesar's day. The tenth, ''Recap/AsterixTheLegionary'', features a Belgian legionary whose hairstyle resembles Tintin's and whose name ''Septantesix'' (which means "seventy-six") plays on the best-known area of vocabulary difference between Walloon French and the French spoken in France, the words for the numbers between 70 and 99 (the franco-french term is "sixty-and-sixteen").

The famous and long-running comic book ''Franchise/{{Tintin}}'' comes from Belgium, as do several other BelgianComics (in the 1990s it was said that only three things hold Belgium together - the royal family, the Red Devils (the national football/soccer team), and comics!). In the English-speaking world the best-known Belgian comics characters apart from Franchise/{{Tintin}} and co. are probably ComicBook/LuckyLuke, ''Franchise/TheSmurfs'' and ''Franchise/{{Marsupilami}}''. In the world of music, Belgium is probably best known for 20th-century songwriter Music/JacquesBrel, and its techno music, particularly on Maurice Engelen aka Praga Khan, and his most famous project, porno-house group Music/LordsOfAcid. Other well known Belgian bands and artists are Music/Front242, Hooverphonic, Technotronic, Soulwax, Stromae, and Music/{{dEUS}}.

The famous and long-running comic book ''Franchise/{{Tintin}}'' comes from Belgium, as do several other BelgianComics (in the 1990s it was said that only three things hold Belgium together - the royal family, the Red Devils (the national football/soccer team), and comics!). In the English-speaking world the best-known Belgian comics characters apart from Franchise/{{Tintin}} and co. are probably ComicBook/LuckyLuke, ''Franchise/TheSmurfs'' and ''Franchise/{{Marsupilami}}''. In the world of music, Belgium is probably best known for 20th-century songwriter Music/JacquesBrel, and its techno music, particularly on Maurice Engelen aka Praga Khan, and his most famous project, porno-house group Music/LordsOfAcid. Other well known Belgian bands are Music/Front242, Hooverphonic, and Music/{{dEUS}}.

Thanks to a few Belgian entrepreneurs that made plans to steal machines from British industries, Belgium underwent a major industrial revolution (the whole place was bursting with coal, iron, and sulphur), after which Belgium become one of the most industrialized states in Europe. Further down the line, the Belgians acquired colonies during the Scramble for Africa in what is today the Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi. The Belgian Congo, or the Congo Free State, became infamous for its horrific treatment of the native Africans (''Heart of Darkness'' is set there). And by horrible, we mean that in Belgian Congo a single bullet was literally worth more than the life of a native man (soldiers stationed in Congo had to produce the severed right hand of a native to justify every fired bullet, which meant that soldiers had to go out and slaughter a few natives every once in a while to explain missed shots). Torture of native workers, destruction of other villages and rape were common, and the natives were so dehumanized by both Stanley's private army, the Force Publique, and the Congo administration that one official used severed human heads as a makeshift fence for his garden. Originally the Congo was owned by King Leopold personally, but after exposure by Christian missionaries and a growing international outcry, the Belgian government took over to stop the atrocities.

** David Suchet, the bilingual actor who is possibly ''the'' Hercule Poirot on TV, once demonstrated the difference between the way a French person would speak French and the way a Belgian person would speak French - and how it would color their spoken English - in such a clear way that it made the point obvious to even monoglot Brits.

"Brussels" is often used as a journalistic metonym for the EU, especially where stories involve faceless bureaucrats and/or apparently bizarre decisions taken by same. For AddedAlliterativeAppeal, they are often "Barmy Brussels Bureaucrats", or sometimes just "Eurocrats". The EU's main bodies are divided between Brussels, UsefulNotes/{{Luxembourg}} and Strasbourg, with the EU Parliament actually located both in Brussels and in the French city.

The famous and long-running comic book ''Franchise/{{Tintin}}'' comes from Belgium, as do several other BelgianComics (in the 1990s it was said that only three things hold Belgium together - the royal family, the Red Devils (the national football/soccer team), and comics!). In the English-speaking world the best-known Belgian comics characters apart from Franchise/{{Tintin}} and co. are probably ComicBook/LuckyLuke, ''Franchise/TheSmurfs'' and ''Franchise/{{Marsupilami}}''. In the world of music, Belgium is probably best known for 20th-century songwriter Music/JacquesBrel, and its techno music, particularly on Maurice Engelen aka Praga Khan, and his most famous project, porno-house group Music/LordsOfAcid. Other well known Belgian bands are Music/Front242 and Music/{{dEUS}}.

Modern Belgium ('''Dutch:''' ''België'', '''French:''' ''Belgique'', '''German:''' ''Belgien''), officially known as the Kingdom of Belgium ('''Dutch:''' ''Koninkrijk België'', '''French:''' ''Royaume de Belgique'', '''German:''' ''Königreich Belgien''), is a Western European country and something of a historical anomaly. Throughout the Middle Ages, the wool trade in Flanders made towns like Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp among the most prosperous in the world. It's worth noting that in 1302 [[CheeseEatingSurrenderMonkeys the French lost]] the '[[CurbStompBattle Battle of the Golden Spurs]]'. It's one of first times in the middle ages where heavy cavalry was [[AntiCavalry annihilated by infantry]], coming a few years after the battle of Stirling. It was especially painful for the French because the Flemish soldiers were mostly non-noble (or, as in the parlance of the time, lowborn) and not that interested in taking prisoners for ransom, which resulted in a very large number of [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized French nobles dying in battle, rather than being captured and paroled, the usual treatment for defeated noblemen]]. Hence the name, the golden spurs were worn by rich nobility and it is said that after the battle over 500 of them were taken from the battlefield. Among the dead were the French commander and the chief advisor to the king of France. The date of the battle is the [[YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters national holiday of Flanders]], the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium.

Through a very savvy marital politic, the various local principalities, one by one (except the Prince-Bishopric of Liège, which, being governed by Catholic bishops, could make no marital alliances, for obvious reasons), became the possession of the Dukes of Burgundy. The King of Spain then inherited these "Low Countries" and modern Belgium and the Netherlands became the Spanish Netherlands, while the principalty of Liège belonged to the German Confederation. Eventually, the mostly Calvinist Dutch attempted to break away, but succeeded only partially, with the northern Netherlands (mostly swampy and poor at the time) securing their independence from the Spanish (after an 80-year-long war). However, the Dutch proved incapable of defeating the Spanish on land, and so the southern Netherlands, today comprising all of Belgium, and some of France and Germany, remained under Spanish sovereignty, after which the remaining Flemish Calvinists (most had fled to the independent Dutch Republic, where they helped make the new state a world power) were ruthlessly recatholicized.

After recatholicization, Spanish rule continued until the UsefulNotes/WarOfTheSpanishSuccession, which came about because the Spanish Habsburg line had died out. When that war ended with the French Bourbons taking the throne of France, the other European powers decided it was too dangerous to allow the French dynasty to also take the Southern Netherlands on France's northern border as well as Spain to the south, and therefore insisted that the Southern Netherlands be handed over to the junior Habsburg branch in Austria. That being said, the Austrians really didn't care to rule the Southern Netherlands--which were discontinuous from the rest of their direct holdings in Austria, Italy, Hungary, Bohemia, and the Balkans--and so the Austrian Habsburgs spent most of the 18th century trying to pawn off their holdings in the Low Countries to other powers in exchange for something closer to home. They never got it.