Belgium

The name ‘Belgium’ comes from the Romans, who called their province in the north of Gaul Gallia Belgica, after its previous inhabitants the Celtic and German Belgae. The province eventually became the country.
In the centuries Belgium was ruled by Spain, Austria, France and the Netherlands, and many wars were fought out on Belgian territory. After a revolution, in 1830 it gained its independence and the country’s borders were definitively laid down. 

Today Belgium is a constitutional monarchy and a federal State comprising communities and regions. Belgium distinctive regions include Dutch-speaking Flanders to the north (60%), French-speaking Wallonia to the south (40%) and a very small German-speaking community in the eastern regions of the province of Liege (1%). 
Its capital city of Brussels is one of the world's great cosmopolitan cities, home to both the European Union and NATO, as well as a wealth of international trade and finance companies.

With Luxembourg, the Netherlands, France, Italy and West Germany, Belgium signed the Treaty of Paris in 1951, creating the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), and thus eventually, the European union of which Belgium is foundation member.