Crossword clues for belgium
belgium
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
c.1600, "Low Germany and the Netherlands," from the Latin name of the territory near here occupied by the Belgæ, a Celtic tribe. Adopted 1830 as the name of a new nation formed from the southern part of the former United Kingdom of the Netherlands.
WordNet
Gazetteer
Housing Units (2000): 202
Land area (2000): 0.423193 sq. miles (1.096066 sq. km)
Water area (2000): 0.000000 sq. miles (0.000000 sq. km)
Total area (2000): 0.423193 sq. miles (1.096066 sq. km)
FIPS code: 04689
Located within: Illinois (IL), FIPS 17
Location: 40.062286 N, 87.638895 W
ZIP Codes (1990):
Note: some ZIP codes may be omitted esp. for suburbs.
Headwords:
Belgium
Housing Units (2000): 592
Land area (2000): 1.442838 sq. miles (3.736934 sq. km)
Water area (2000): 0.000000 sq. miles (0.000000 sq. km)
Total area (2000): 1.442838 sq. miles (3.736934 sq. km)
FIPS code: 06150
Located within: Wisconsin (WI), FIPS 55
Location: 43.500735 N, 87.846897 W
ZIP Codes (1990): 53004
Note: some ZIP codes may be omitted esp. for suburbs.
Headwords:
Belgium
Wikipedia
Belgium (; ; ; ), officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a sovereign state in Western Europe. It is a small, densely populated country which covers an area of and has a population of about 11 million people. Straddling the cultural boundary between Germanic and Latin Europe, Belgium is home to two main linguistic groups: the Dutch-speaking, mostly Flemish community, which constitutes about 59% of the population, and the French-speaking, mostly Walloon population, which comprises 41% of all Belgians. Additionally, there is a small group of German-speakers who live in the East Cantons located around the High Fens area, and bordering Germany.
Historically, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg (along with parts of Northern France and Western Germany) were known as the Low Countries; it once covered a somewhat larger area than the current Benelux group of states. The region was called Belgica in Latin, after the Roman province of Gallia Belgica. From the end of the Middle Ages until the 17th century, the area of Belgium was a prosperous and cosmopolitan centre of commerce and culture. From the 16th century until the Belgian Revolution in 1830, when Belgium seceded from the Netherlands, the area of Belgium served as the battleground between many European powers, causing it to be dubbed the "Battlefield of Europe,"—The book reviewer, Haß, attributes the expression in English to James Howell in 1640. Howell's original phrase "the cockpit of Christendom" became modified afterwards, as shown by:
*—and as such coined for Belgium:
*
(See also The Nuttall Encyclopaedia) a reputation strengthened by both world wars.
Today, Belgium is a federal constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. It is divided into three regions and three communities, that exist next to each other. Its two largest regions are the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders in the north and the French-speaking southern region of Wallonia. The Brussels-Capital Region, officially bilingual, is a mostly French-speaking enclave within the Flemish Region. A German-speaking Community exists in eastern Wallonia. Belgium's linguistic diversity and related political conflicts are reflected in its political history and complex system of governance, made up of six different governments.
Upon its independence, Belgium participated in the Industrial Revolution and, during the course of the 20th century, possessed a number of colonies in Africa. The second half of the 20th century was marked by rising tensions between the Dutch-speaking and the French-speaking citizens fueled by differences in language and culture and the unequal economic development of Flanders and Wallonia. This continuing antagonism has led to several far-reaching reforms, resulting in a transition from a unitary to a federal arrangement during the period from 1970 to 1993. Despite the reforms, tensions between the groups remain, if not increased; there is significant separatism particularly among the Flemish; controversial language laws exist such as the municipalities with language facilities; and the formation of a coalition government took 18 months following the June 2010 federal election, a world record. Belgium is a founding member of the European Union, Eurozone, NATO, OECD and WTO, and a part of the trilateral Benelux Union. Its capital, Brussels, hosts several of the EU's official seats as well as the headquarters of many major international organizations such as NATO. Belgium is also a part of the Schengen Area. Belgium is a developed country, with an advanced high-income economy and is categorized as "very high" in the Human Development Index.
Belgium is a country in Europe.
Belgium may also refer to:
History:
- United States of Belgium, an antecedent to modern Belgium
Places:
- Belgium, Illinois, United States
- Belgium, West Virginia, United States
- Belgium, Wisconsin, United States
- Belgium (town), Wisconsin, United States
- Belgium Township, Polk County, Minnesota, United States
Other:
- "Belgium", a song by Bowling for Soup
- A fictional curse word in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
- SS Belgique, one of the names of the ship SS Hoxie
Belgium during the interwar period refers to the period between the end of World War I in 1918 and the invasion and occupation of Belgium by Nazi Germany in World War II in 1940. Belgium was occupied by the Germans, except for a small area behind the Yser river, here king Albert I stayed at La Panne. Belgium regained its lost territories with the Armistice of 1918 and the withdrawal of German forces under Governor-general Ludwig Freiherr von Falkenhausen. Belgium received the territory of Eupen-Malmedy from Germany in the Treaty of Versailles and also received the colony of Ruanda-Urundi from the former German colonial empire.
Usage examples of "belgium".
The Ardennes covers part of Luxembourg and most of the lower corner of Belgium that separates Germany from France.
Bosquet, sent me a drawing of a perfect specimen of an unmistakeable sessile cirripede, which he had himself extracted from the chalk of Belgium.
One of our friends who has just come back from the coast reports that there were a lot of French troops marching through Belgium on their way from Dunkerque to Lille--evidently an attempt to turn the German right wing.
Board of Trade, in its reports on agencies and methods of dealing with unemployed in foreign countries, drew attention to the very considerable extension of Labour Exchanges in the last three years in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, and Belgium.
Now the British Expeditionary Army numbered but three or four hundred thousand men, spread from the bases at Havre and along the coast forward to the line, compared with nearly a hundred French divisions, or over two million Frenchmen, actually holding the long front from Belgium to Switzerland.
Thus a German attempt to sweep through Belgium - and perhaps Holland - to flank the Maginot Line would be met very early in the game by the entire B.
The result of this fascinating cultural mix is that Belgium has a number of official languages, including French, Dutch, German, Italian, Spanish, Greek, Latin, Cajun, Moldavian, and Frantic Arm Gestures.
Stern, the daughter of a pastor at Mulhouse, spoke against the violation of Belgium.
Nevertheless these changes were brought about only very gradually, and in the 17th century, when Rembrandt lived and painted this picture, a great stir was made by the new ideas of astronomy taught by Galileo in Italy, and the new discoveries in chemistry made by Van Helmont in Belgium.
Belgium, over into France to Roubaix and Tourcoing, but be the local language German-French-or-Polish we all understand it.
Belgium, frustrated by a reluctant sannyasin, she asked him how much money he had.
Flanders is not like Wallon Belgium, which always looks as though left over from the last century.
This man was in Brussels, forty miles north of where the Emperor invaded Belgium.
It was plain to every milkmaid and street sweeper in the rue Royale that this British officer was glad to be alive, delighted to be in Belgium, and that he expected every one in Brussels to share his evident enjoyment of life, health and happiness.
He described the wide boulevards in Belgium lined with trees, the Champs Elysses in Paris, the great coffeehouses in Vienna with their wonderful pastries and the nightlife of Berlin.