h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Belgium was the reason Britain got involved in WW1, the treaty Britain had promised aid if Belgium was attacked, in that case by Germany. War was declared on Germany only when they invaded the country.

Parts of Belgium got hammered in WW1 in particular. Ypres was the main casualty being one of the Allies' strongholds.

There were five(I think? though it may only have been four) battles of Ypres during the war and the bombardment left the town almost entirely flattened. Restoration work has left the town n a similar state as before the war and many of the building fascias are Listed as a result.

The town also contains the Menin Gate where there are lists of all the missing soldiers from the battles. The last post is played there every evening to honour the dead.

In WW2 Belgium was overrun in a matter of weeks and used by the Germans as a way of bypassing France's fortified towns in the Maginot Line

Since the war Brussels has become the central EEC/EC/EU headquarters of the European Commission (executive body) and the European Parliament. As a result the city has become very rich both culturally and in money terms.

Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's Consort was the Nephew of King Leopold, the founder of the current Belgian Royal Dynasty. More info on thsi to follow.

Oh No he wasn't. Victoria's mother was the brother of Leopold I of Belgium.

I was looking through forums on other countries and DD just reminded me of something. Waterloo, the final battle in the Napoleonic wars is in Belgium and quite close to Brussels. It is worth a visit if you are in the area. If you follow the ringroad motorway around towards south east (I think, it's been a few years since I went) there are plenty of signs around pointing you in the direction of the battlefield. There is a good visitors' centre and museum there providing detail on the battle and a monument on a small but steep hill that provides great views of the surrounding countryside. There is also a model panorama of the battle as it may have looked at the time.

Talking of motorways (or Autoroutes) most of those in the west of the country at least are very long and flat and straight. Unlike their British or Irish counterparts, they are set at a level a few metres above the surrounding countryside providing views for miles around. The view though isn't usually appealing, consisting of flat, fairly featureless fields with a lot of drainage ditches. Most seem to be used as grazing land and the ditches double as fences to prevent livestock roaming. You do get a good view of the intermittent farmhouses though.

If the motorways are unappealing as an aesthetic point of view, you can be consoled by the fact that it is easy to make good time travelling until you get to the slightly more interesting scenery surrounding the major population centres where the perrenial roadworks and traffic jams sprout to life.

Isn't it amazing how Belgium and Sweden are linked.

That was the way they managed to get as many votes. They were sweedish so obviously had ther votes of the scandinavian countries so to win they got Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, and the netherlands on their side by mentioning a battle they were all involved in

1) To be honest... I don't think Brussels is very rich.... (Economically speaking). But it's really worth visiting it
2) Did you know that the 'Lion de Waterloo' is located in Braine-l'Alleud, not in Waterloo? If you want to get there by train, step out in Braine-l'Alleud... It's a 2 km-walk from there...

You may be interested in the origin of the language-problems... If you are, I'll try to explain what I have been taught (My history teacher was flemish, don't forget that).

The problem is actually very old: think of Caesar's invasion: it's the war between the german and the latin way of living and thinking... (We had a good reputation at that time: 'Ex omnia Gallia partes tres, fortissimi sunt Belgae' - I'm not quite sure of the first part, but the second one is 100% true - de Bello Gallico, J. Caesar). Think of the French invasion and the 'Gulden sporenslag'... Wars where the latin and the germanic world were involved. If you want to see the difference between the so-called Latin and the so-called German, think of Leonardo da Vinci or Monet (Harmony...) for the Latin and think of Breughel ort Ruebens (The land-workers...) for the Germans...
But the real problem began with the defeat of Napoleon in 1815, in Waterloo: Belgium was given to the Netherlands, which wasn't 'verfranst', as they say in Dutch (Frenchisized) (as a result of the religion wars in the 17th century). Willem van Oranje, king of the Netherlands, was also very dutch-minded AND protestant while Belgium was almost entirely French AND catholic...
15 years later (1830) it all went wrong for him: the catholics weren't happy; the liberals weren't happy and the French (= high society) weren't happy... And SUDDENLY there's a revolution: at that time they played the 'muette de Portici' (opera or theatre??) in Brussels, and after the performance the people suddenly began to fight in the street wihout any plan or whatever: that's so strange about it: It was a fake-revolution, a random-thingy: If the king of the Netherlands had sent more soldiers Belgium wouldn't exist, but he didn't... He even didn't bother to try to do anything in one way or another; this was the Belgian contribution to the 'revolution-century'.
As a reaction to the former (clearly dutch) government, the new belgian government was a clearly French one: the official language had become French again, all the dutch schools (even the primary ones) were shut and speaking dutch wasn't very good for health.
That's when the modern flemish fight began: it lasted (+/-, I'm not quite sure of the dates) 10 years before the first primary dutch schools were created, another 10, I think, to have new secundary schools, after that, Dutch was accepted as second official language, and that's more or less as far as they got before the first world-war began (84 years later). Now, this was something that really concerned them: On one hand there were some people who preferred to collaborate, hoping that they could get more from the Germans than from the Belgians (i.e. a Dutch university: they got it in Ghent); on the other hand most of the flemish (workers-class) were sitting in 'Ieper', being killed: 80% of the belgian army was flemish (and spoke dutch); unfortunately, the 20% left were the generals (leaders) and speaking French and didn't care about flemish lives (Stanley Kubrick made a film about it): I don't know how many of the 80% survived, but I think it's a lot less than you'd expect and I don't know how many people of the 20% died, but I think it's a lot less than you'd expect... A little anecdote: when a flemish priest tried to create a flemish 'front-newspaper', it was prohibited because of the language (dutch).
11/11/1918: war's done, the first dutch university is closed again and the country even flatter than before. Socialism is coming up: in the walloon part, the Church reacts on a very negative way and remains the little club of intellectuals speaking latin and too busy to care for the 'simple' workers: This is the ideal ground for communism and socialism, which are growing like... (Sorry, I couldn't think of any flower growing rapidly). In the dutch part, the priests, which are worker's children themselves, understand this fight for equity between workers and empoyers (cf. the film 'Daens') AND for equity between Dutch and French...
That's why there's also a political and ideological difference between the South of Belgium and the North: the south is (was) mostly socialist, the north catholic.
Some years before WWII, the university of Ghent becomes flemish again.
During WWII the same happens as in WWI: some people collaborate (hoping... but without success) with and other choose to fight against the Germans, but it's less relevant.
After WWII the build-up begins again: The South with its Coal has still another 20 happy years to live, but in 1960, people begin to invest in the North, allowing Flanders to build new industries... Now, I've got a problem, because my (dutch) teacher taught me that when Belgium began to break in 2 parts, it's because the flemish wanted (understandably) the cultural autonomy and the walloons the economical autonomy... My (clearly walloon-minded friend) told me that the flemish asked for cultural AND economical autonomy... Which one's true? I don't know but I do know that since that day, it has only become worse; that's why Belgium is such a difficult country to understand and why Belgium is the country of the 'compromis': when the first part wants something, the second one wants the oppesite and after weeks of discussions, everyone has to give in for something (I give this if you give me that... I think you see what I mean).

For the real Freaks: here's what I still remember from Belgium's political strucure:
There are 3 'Communautes / Gemeenschappen': the French one, the Dutch one and the German one (Because of course it would be too easy if there were only 2 languages involves... But fortunately, the germans don't say much): They are responsible for education, sports and other tings like that
There are also 3 'Regions / Gewesten', but it's NOT simply the dutch, the french and the german, NO: they are:
The Flemish region, the walloon region and the region of Brussels... Of course, Brussels, the capital can't be the property of 1 region. They are responsible for the 'land': investment in industries, construction of roads... (Attention!! There's a difference between 'Dutch' and 'Flemish' and the saying 'Dutch region' would be WRONG)
Last but not least: the federal government: it hasn't much to say nowadays until April 2000 it was responsible for agriculture and international trade, but that's the past... It's still responsible for a part of the economics and other things (relation with foreign countries, partly for the legal affairs...). It consists of the parliament (votes the laws), of the chambre of senators (I think) and also of other things like commissions...
Oh, I had nearly forgotten to mention the king... Well, he's a kind of symbol of Belgium: he travels a lot and he's on a lot of photographs; he must sign the laws edited by the parliament (Remember the king 'Beaudhouin I' being forced to abdicate for one day because he didn't want to sign the law on abortion).

I'm not going to explain how it all works in the Region of Brussels because that's REALLY impossible... (It has got something to do with strange things called 'Cocof''s and 'Cocom''s, Commission Communautaire (francophone)).

Congratulations for those who have read (and understood) all this...