Belgium

A state invented in 1830 to solve a European problem, containing two peoples who have been separating administratively ever since. The territory was the Spanish and then Austrian Netherlands, prosperous, Catholic, and fought over so often it was called the cockpit of Europe. The 1830 revolution against Dutch rule produced a kingdom the great powers guaranteed as permanently neutral, which is precisely why Germany's invasion in 1914 brought Britain into the war. French-speaking Wallonia industrialised first and dominated politics and the language of the state; Dutch-speaking Flanders, more populous, later became the wealthier half, and the reversal drove a federalisation that has since split the country into regions and communities with separate parliaments and almost no national parties. Belgium went 541 days without a government in 2010 and 2011, then a world record. Leopold II held the Congo Free State as personal property and ran an extraction regime that killed millions before the Belgian state took it from him in 1908. Brussels hosts the European Commission and NATO. Ghent, Bruges and Antwerp were among medieval Europe's richest cities. The country has about 11.8 million people. Dutch, French and German are all official. It has one of the densest rail networks in the world. Belgian comics, from Tintin to the Smurfs, are a major cultural export. The country produces a distinctive range of beers, several brewed by Trappist monasteries. Waterloo is a short distance south of Brussels. The country is among the most densely populated in Europe and has no significant natural resources.

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