Other large cities:
Antwerp, 952,600 (metro area), 450,000 (city proper); Ghent, 226,900;
Charleroi, 201,200; Liège, 185,700; Bruges, 117,200
Monetary unit: Euro (formerly Belgian
franc)
Languages: Dutch (Flemish) 60%, French 40%, German less
than 1% (all official)
Ethnicity/race: Fleming 58%, Walloon 31%, mixed or other
11%
Religion: Roman Catholic 75%, Protestant or other
25%
National Holiday: Ascension to the Throne of King Leopold I, July
21
Literacy rate: 98% (2003
est.)
Economic summary: GDP/PPP
(2005 est.): $330.6 billion; per capita $31,900. Real growth rate:
1.5%. Inflation: 2.7%. Unemployment: 8.4%. Arable
land: 27.42%. Agriculture: sugar beets, fresh vegetables,
fruits, grain, tobacco; beef, veal, pork, milk. Labor force:
4.77 million; agriculture 1.3%, industry 24.5%, services 74.2% (2003
est.). Industries: engineering and metal products, motor
vehicle assembly, transportation equipment, scientific instruments,
processed food and beverages, chemicals, basic metals, textiles,
glass, petroleum. Natural resources: construction materials,
silica sand, carbonates. Exports: $269.6 billion f.o.b. (2005
est.): machinery and equipment, chemicals, diamonds, metals and metal
products, foodstuffs. Imports: $264.5 billion f.o.b. (2005
est.): machinery and equipment, chemicals, diamonds, pharmaceuticals,
foodstuffs, transportation equipment, oil products. Major trading
partners: Germany, France, Netherlands, UK, U.S., Italy, Ireland
(2004).
Communications: Telephones:
main lines in use: 4.801 million (2004); mobile cellular: 9,131,700
(2004). Radio broadcast stations: FM 79, AM 7, shortwave 1
(1998). Television broadcast stations: 25 (plus 10 repeaters)
(1997). Internet hosts: 2,238,900 (2005). Internet
users: 5.1 million (2005).
Transportation: Railways: total: 3,521 km
(2,927 km electrified) (2004). Highways: total: 149,757 km;
paved: 117,110 km (including 1,747 km of expressways); unpaved: 32,647
km (2003). Waterways: 2,043 km (1,528 km in regular commercial
use) (2003). Ports and harbors: Antwerp, Brussels, Gent, Liege,
Oostende, Zeebrugge. Airports: 43 (2005).
Located in western Europe, Belgium has about 40
mi of seacoast on the North Sea, at the Strait of Dover, and is
approximately the size of Maryland. The Meuse and the Schelde, Belgium's
principal rivers, are important commercial arteries.
Government
Parliamentary democracy under a constitutional
monarch. Under the 1994 constitution, autonomy was granted to the Walloon
region (Wallonia), the Flemish region (Flanders), and the bilingual
Brussels-Capital region; autonomy was also guaranteed for the Flemish-,
French-, and German-speaking “communities.” The central
government retains responsibility for foreign policy, defense, taxation,
and social security.
History
Belgium occupies part of the Roman province of
Belgica, named after the Belgae, a people of ancient Gaul. The area was
conquered by Julius Caesar in 57–50 B.C.,
then was overrun by the Franks in the 5th century A.D. It was part of Charlemagne's empire in the 8th
century, then in the next century was absorbed into Lotharingia and later
into the duchy of Lower Lorraine. In the 12th century it was partitioned
into the duchies of Brabant and Luxembourg, the bishopric of Liège,
and the domain of the count of Hainaut, which included Flanders. In the
15th century, most of the Low Countries (currently the Netherlands,
Belgium, and Luxembourg) passed to the duchy of Burgundy and were
subsequently inherited by Emperor Charles V. When the latter abdicated in
1555, they went to his son Philippe II, king of Spain. While the northern
part, now the Netherlands, gained its independence in the following
decades, the southern part remained under Spanish control until 1713, when
it was transferred to Austria. During the wars that followed the French
Revolution, Belgium was occupied and later annexed to France. But with the
downfall of Napoléon, the Congress of Vienna in 1815 reunited the
Low Countries under the rule of the king of Holland. In 1830, Belgium
rebelled against Dutch rule and declared independence, which was approved
by Europe at the London Conference of 1830–1831.
Germany's invasion of Belgium in 1914 set off
World War I. The Treaty of Versailles (1919) gave the areas of Eupen,
Malmédy, and Moresnet to Belgium. Leopold III succeeded Albert,
king during World War I, in 1934. In World War II, Belgium was overwhelmed
by Nazi Germany, and Leopold III was held prisoner. When he returned at
the government’s invitation in 1950 after a narrowly favorable
referendum, riots broke out in several cities. He abdicated on July 16,
1951, and his son, Baudouin, became king. Because of growing opposition to
Belgian rule in its African colonies, Belgium granted independence to the
Congo (now Democratic Republic of the Congo) in 1960 and to Ruanda-Urundi
(now the nations of Rwanda and Burundi) in 1962.
Since 1958, when the European Economic Community
was born, Brussels, the country’s capital, has gradually established
itself as the de facto capital of what has now become the European Union
(EU), a role that became official in Dec. 2000 when the European Council
of heads of government decided to hold all its regular meetings in
Brussels. As a result, the city has become home not only to nearly 20,000
European civil servants, but to an even more numerous community of
lobbyists, lawyers, and other professionals drawn to the EU’s main
decision center.
Growing divisions between Flemings and Walloons,
and devolution along linguistic lines, culminated in the revised
constitution of 1994, which turned Belgium into a federal state with
significant autonomy for its three regions and its three language
“communities.”
In the 1990s Belgium’s public life was
shaken by a number of serious scandals. In 1991, a former deputy prime
minister and socialist leader was murdered in a contract killing that took
several years to be elucidated. In 1998, along with two other major
Belgian politicians, former NATO secretary-general Willy Claes was
convicted of bribery. The Dutroux child-sex-and-murder affair in 1996 led
to national outrage, compounded by the realization that less official
negligence and inefficiency could have saved the lives of several
children. It fueled pressure for reform of the political, judicial, and
police systems. In 1999, a public health scandal involving dioxin, a
cancer-causing chemical, resulted in the unexpected electoral defeat of
Christian-Democratic prime minister Jean-Luc Dehaene.
In June 1999, the new prime minister, Guy
Verhofstadt of the Liberal Party, cobbled together a coalition of
liberals, socialists, and greens, which was continued, without the green
parties, after the May 2003 election. His government passed extremely
liberal social policies, including the legalization of gay marriage and
euthanasia and the partial decriminalization of marijuana. Against the
wishes of the prime minister’s party, a parliamentary majority also
extended voting rights at local elections to all foreign residents.
In Nov. 2004, a Belgian court ruled that the
far-right party Vlaams Blok, a nationalist and anti-immigration party that
accounts for over 20% of the vote in Flanders, was guilty of violating
antiracism laws, and thus ineligible for funding or television access. The
party has since changed its name to Vlaam Belang (“Flemish
interest”) and attempted to cleanse its party program.
Prime Minister Verhofstadt resigned in June
2007, after his coalition of liberals and socialists took a drubbing in a
general election. He remained in office as caretaker prime minister for
more than six months, however, as talks between Flemish-speaking and
French-speaking parties on forming a government reached a deadlock,
leaving the country in political crisis. At King Albert II's request,
Verhofstadt formed an interim coalition government in December 2007.
On March 20, 2008, Yves Leterme was sworn in as
prime minister, ending the political crisis that spanned nine months. A
new government was formed that includes both Flemish and French-speaking
democrats, liberals, and socialists.
