Belgium

Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, lies in the coastal Low Countries between the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, France and the North Sea, thirty thousand square kilometres crowded with almost twelve million people, the densest-but-sixth of Europe, round the capital Brussels with Antwerp, Ghent, Liège and Bruges. The southern Netherlands rose in 1830 against Dutch King William, chose Leopold of Saxe-Coburg as Leopold I in 1831, and won recognition as a perpetually neutral kingdom by the Treaty of London in 1839. Language made the state: sixty percent Flemish Dutch-speakers in Flanders, forty percent French-speakers in Wallonia, a German sliver in the east, three regions and six governments in permanent negotiation. Coal, steel, glass and diamonds paid for trams, boulevards and a Congo empire under Leopold II. Neutrality failed twice: German armies marched through in 1914 and 1940, and Albert I's stand on the Yser and Leopold III's surrender framed two occupations. Liberated in 1944, Belgium became a founder of the European Union.