Why does Belgium exist?

Belgium is a non-country

Belgium is a non-country.

Because two shitty half underwater kingdoms unified to become one shitty half underwater kingdom.

its not really a legitimate country and should be annexed to France, Germany, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands respectively

You are wrong.

Belgium was not independent until 1831.

Historically, Belgium and what is now the Netherlands were united. This region was inherited by the Hapsburgs in 1477, and by the time of Charles V, fell under the Spanish branch.

Spanish centralization led to opposition from its historically autonomous citizens. The Reformation created a split between the Protestant North and the Catholic South.

Spain used religion to keep the South loyal, as in the Union of Arras, while the North formed the new Dutch Republic. The South would remain Catholic and under foreign control for another 200+ years.

A Belgian republic formed during the French Revolution, but it was annexed by France. In 1815, after France was defeated, the Congress of Vienna gave Belgium to the new Kingdom of the Netherlands to create a strong, France-resistant state.

It had nothing to do with a "separation zone" between Prussia and France, because they shared a border anyway.

faculty.unlv.edu/pwerth/Map-Euro-1815-2.jpg

The real reason why Belgium got independence was because it did not get along very well with the Netherlands. Among the divisions were identity, representation, religion, economics, and language.

Due to hundreds of years of separation, people identified differently. The existence of a Belgian republic in 1795 suggests that people identified separately from the Dutch.

At the time, the South had more people, but less representation in government, especially considering the King was Northern and had strong political power.

Catholic Belgians resented domination by the Protestant North and its Protestant king.

Belgium was the second country to industrialize after Britain, while the North remained mercantile along the coast and agricultural inland.

At the time, French was the language of the elites in Belgium, even the Flemish region. Northern attempts to legally establish Dutch led to widespread resistance.

These differences led to the 1830-1 secession.

Because Belgians are cute

>respectively
respective to what? Why add this word that adds nothing? Do you even think about what you type?

Cuties don't cut people's hands off, user.

>he doesn't want a qt gf that cuts niggers hands off, acquires large amounts of rubber, and is loyal only to him
pleb

french?

>He doesn't want a QT gf that cuts people to death with a machete, acquires large amount of /pol/ butthurt, and takes oaths of loyalty involving banana leaves and sacrificing a goat.
Acquire better taste.

Because Britain was afraid of France.

When France conquered Belgium in 1792, Britain considered that it had become too powerful, which is why they continued to form coalitions and wage war after war until France eventually lost it again. When Belgium became independent in 1830, the Belgians wanted to become part of France, but Britain prevented it under threat of another war, and instead "guaranteed Belgium's neutrality", giving themselves a cassus belli if France were ever to try to expand East again.

Little did they know that it wouldn't be France forcing Britain into another war by conquering Belgium, but Germany.

To prevent frogs from pulling "Muh natural borders" autism by inventing a fake country that could be neutral so as to justify international intervention if anyone tried to take it.

user no need to post this we all know the truth.

List of countries that aren't really countries:

>Belgium
>Ukraine
>Turkey

Any more to add to the list?

The only real non-non-countries I can think of are France and maybe (maybe) China.

Everyone else is a non-country for various reasons.

t. Pierre Wong

So Germans would violate it's neutrality. Literally no other reason. Eternal Anglo, master of making plans that reach 100 years ahead.

The USA.

Canada. We only don't annex them because we need a plausible nationality to pose as abroad.

It's easy.

Countries that don't have nukes with global delivery capacity are already not really independent since they're at the mercy of foreign powers, and thus non-countries by definition. That leaves the USA, Russia, France, UK, and China.

The USA, Russia, and UK are multicultural federal entities made of several countries, and thus also non-countries (and additionally the UK is not really independent either since its nuclear capabilities depend from the US).

That only leaves France and China.

Belgium is a non-country

t. Pierre Wong

Why would we annex a country in North America? It would probably piss off the USA for a start.

Not him, but perhaps user was referring to which country has the stronger claim? and I'd disagree with him. The Netherlands has the strongest claim.

The south of the current Netherlands is still predominantly Catholic. Why didn't they go?

user is probably American, user.

My bad, I assumed he was Korean.

Here's the answer.

Blame Burgundy for first stealing all the rightful HRE clay, then vanishing themself and letting it fall to the Habsburg.
Its the root of the belgian evil

because europe needed a place to piss off the french because we have a better kitchen, the dutch because we won't drown when the sea level rises and the germans because we have better beer

1830, our king started ruling in 1831...

Meme that went too far

That doesn't sound very QT at all I'm afraid.

Also belgium shouldn't exist. It should be broken up and given to the french, the dutch and the germans.

Fuck belgium.

well fuck you too son... we give walloonia to france and give us french flanders plz

Indeed fuck Belgium! Flemish independence! Or at least flanders with Netherlands, as long as we're not with those lazy Walloons its OK for me. The only reason Belgium will exist a bit longer is because of those fucking terrorist attacks and because we have a decent football team now.

Great post, man

Does it matter? The great EU will turn Belgium into a province anyway.

actually the divisions go back quite a while longer, especially for the county of flanders which, historically, was a part of the kingdom of france while the other duchies were a part of the holy roman empire
then course there were several fairly important clerical domains and later the county of flanders started gobbling up some land from the duchy of brabant before they formed a union with the duchy of burgundy who'd later through various means would come to control most of the low countries uniting them for the first time since charlemagne, after that there was a significant period of unification under first burgundy then the habsburgs and the rest of your post follows

blame william of orange's obsession with that shithole.

once he convinced the brits it mattered, they kept waging wars for it.

take your dissertation abstracts (and the shitload of factual errors) away from Veeky Forums

Why isn't Flanders a country?

Rich Roman Catholic culture

And if you add "british trying to fuck with other countries" its 8/10

Successful rebellion.

>Luxembourg being a more legitimate country than Belgium
>Luxembourg annexing anything

good waffles

Not him, but what factual errors are there?

Belgium is a third rate power these days, all they do now is leech of Great Britain for dem shekels and ruin Europe for everyone else.

Give us some time

He is an American, please be gentle on him.

Not him either, but the only error I found (though I really just have a general knowledge of the topic) is that the first belgian republic was not annexed by France but crashed by their austrian overlords, who in turn were later chased out by the french, then got it back and lost it yet again when the whole French Revolutionary War went south.

>annexed to Luxemburg
holy fuck man did you go to school in a fucking stable, was your mother a fucking dog, have you ever eaten something besides fucking mud. This might aswel be the most fucking stupidest post I have ever fucking read on this siten you mong! I advise you to fucking end yourself right now

thanks for posting this user

Why is it always him? How can he get away with that?

> leech of Great Britain
this is quite the tinfoil

Belgium is a non-country.

The eternal Walloon.