Belgium History

The area now known as Belgium has witnessed a great deal of political, economic and cultural change in its history going right back to the first century BC when it was under Roman rule.

In more recent history, Belgium was until its independence in 1830, a prized area amongst many French conquerors in particular and witnessed much conflict during the Franco-Spanish and Franco-Austrian wars of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The 1794 French Revolutionary Wars led to the Low Countries being annexed by the French First Republic, ending the previous Spanish-Austrian rule in the area. The reunification of the Low Countries as the United Kingdom of the Netherlands then only followed after the fall of the First French Empire in 1815.

Independence of Belgium under a provisional government and national congress was established in 1830 as part of the Revolution which took place. The crowning of King Leopold I in 1831, resulted in Belgium becoming a constitutional monarchy and also parliamentary democracy from then on.

A shadow in Belgium's history was created in when in in 1908 the Congo Free State was given to Belgium as a colony (thereafter known as the Belgian Congo). Following this colonisation and whilst Leopold II's remained Head of State to whom the territory had been gifted, he was said to have been responsible for numerous acts including the proporgation of slavery, use of torture, and the murder of millions of Congans with the aim of seizing local raw materials and resources such as ivory, previous stones and rubber.

After Germany invaded Belgium in 1914 during the first world war, much of the subsequent WW1 fighting which took place was on the Western Front which was in Belgium. Belgium was invaded once again during the early part of the second world war by the advancing German troops as part of the blitzkrieg, and remained occupied territory until liberation by Allied troops at the end of the war.

After 1945 Belgium became a part of the many international initatives to strengthen relations and alliances between countries. It joined the NATO organisation which then also had its HQ in Brussels, and it was also at the forefront of the formation of the Benelux group of nations (included Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg). This trend of building international alliances and coalitions continued when in 1951 Belgium was to become a founding member of the European Coal and Steel Community, and in 1957 when it joined the European Atomic Energy Community and European Economic Community (now the EU).

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