Belgium

Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a state in Western Europe. Situated on the cultural border between Germanic Europe and Latin Europe, Belgium is home to two main cultural groups: the Flemish in Flanders to the north, and the French-speaking Walloons in Wallonia to the south. The Brussels-Capital region, although officially bilingual, is a predominantly French-speaking enclave within Flanders, and it comprises 10% of the population. There is a small German-speaking community in eastern Wallonia.

Since the end of the Middle Ages in the 17th century, the territory of present-day Belgium was a prosperous cultural and commercial center, grouped into the Seventeen Provinces by the Dukes of Burgundy in the 15th century, before passing into the hands of various European powers — Spain, Austria, France, and the Netherlands — and later gaining its independence in 1830. Belgium's recent history has been marked by rapid industrialization, the colonization of Congo, the two world wars, and the emergence of political conflicts between the two main linguistic communities.

Wikipedia