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For most of its history, what is now Belgium was either a part of a larger territory, such as the Carolingian Empire, or divided into a number of smaller states, prominent among them being the Duchy of Lower Lorraine, the Duchy of Brabant, the County of Flanders, the Prince-Bishopric of Liège, the County of Namur, the County of Hainaut and the County of Luxembourg.
Congo Free State, a former name: As above, a translation of the French État indépendant du Congo ("Free State of the Congo"), formed by Leopold II of Belgium in 1885 to administer the holdings of the International Congo Society acknowledged as separate from the country of Belgium at the 1884 Berlin Conference.
Belgium is part of an area known as the Low Countries, historically a somewhat larger region than the Benelux group of states, as it also included parts of northern France. The capital and largest metropolitan region is Brussels ; [ c ] other major cities are Antwerp , Ghent , Charleroi , Liège , Bruges , Namur , and Leuven .
Belgium – sovereign country located in northwest Europe. [1] It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts its headquarters, as well as those of other major international organizations , including NATO , of which it is also a founding member.
Belgians (Dutch: Belgen [ˈbɛlɣə(n)] ⓘ; French: Belges ⓘ; German: Belgier [ˈbɛlɡi̯ɐ] ⓘ) are people identified with the Kingdom of Belgium, a federal state in Western Europe. As Belgium is a multinational state , this connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural rather than ethnic.
The name is a portmanteau formed from joining the first few letters of each country's name and was first used to name the customs agreement that initiated the union (signed in 1944). [12] It is now used more generally to refer to the geographic, economic, and cultural grouping of the three countries.
Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to the south, and the North Sea to the west. It covers an area of 30,689 km 2 (11,849 sq mi) and has a population of more than 11.7 million.
Belgium assumes sovereignty of the Congo under the Colonial Charter on the Belgian annexation of the Congo Free State: 1909: 17 December: Death of Leopold II, King of the Belgians 23 December: Accession of Albert I as King of the Belgians 1910: 23 April to 1 November: Exposition Universelle et Internationale (world's fair) held in Brussels. 22 May