BELGIUM 



BELGIUM 



cockpit of Europe," and history has shown that 

 any conflicts, in which the leadership of the 

 continent was sought, whether by Spain or 

 France, by the Hapsburgs or the Hohenzollerns, 

 were fought on its territory. Among the great 

 contests fought on its soil prior to the twen- 

 tieth century may be mentioned the famous 

 and decisive battles of Neerwinden (1693), 

 Fleurus (1690), Ramillies (1706), Oudenarde 

 (1708), Fontenoy (1745), Jemappes (1792), 

 Waterloo (1815). For recent battles see WAR 

 OF THE NATIONS. 



Area and Population. Belgium, with an area 

 of 11,373 square miles and a population of 

 7,423,784 inhabitants in 1910, is the most 



COMPARATIVE AREAS 

 Belgium compared with Maryland and Delaware. 



densely-populated country in Europe. It had 

 in the year named about the same population 

 as Pennsylvania, which, however, has an area 

 nearly four times as large. Belgium contained, 

 before the War of the Nations, 653 persons 

 to the square mile, and is therefore credited 

 with an average density of population twenty- 

 one times larger than that of the United States, 

 where the average density is 30.9 persons to 

 the square mile. The most densely-peopled 

 provinces are Brabant and East Flanders, 

 where the average density is 1,158 and 957 per- 

 sons to the square mile, respectively. The 

 neighboring state of Holland has an area eleven 

 per cent larger and a population twenty-one 

 per cent smaller. The treaty which closed the 

 War of the Nations gave to Belgium 382 square 

 miles more territory, in two small districts be- 

 tween Holland and Luxembourg. Its area is 

 now 11,755 square miles. 



Inhabitants and Languages. The inhabitants 

 of Belgium belong to two different races, known 

 as Flemings and Walloons, and they speak two 

 different languages. The Flemings, occupying 

 the northern part, are of Teutonic origin and 

 speak Flemish, which is a Dutch dialect. The 

 Walloons occupy the southern part and speak 



French, or rather Walloon, a dialect of French. 

 According to the language spoken, the popula- 

 tion in 1910 was divided as follows: Flemish, 

 3,220,662; French, 2,833,324; French and Flem- 

 ish, 871,299; French and German, 74,993; Ger- 

 man only, 31,435; those who speak all the three 

 languages, 52,547. The fact that the people 

 are of two different ethnical stocks and speak 

 two different languages has had an important 

 bearing upon the political problems that have 

 agitated Belgium since 1831, and Germany, 

 after its occupancy of the country in 1914, took 

 all possible political advantage of this condi- 

 tion. French was the official language until 

 1870, when Flemish, as the result of a vigorous 

 agitation on the part of the Flemings, was put 

 on a footing of equality with French. Belgium 

 is now a bi-lingual (two-language) country, and 

 nearly all the cities and provinces have two 

 names, one Flemish and the other French. 



Religion. The constitution of Belgium 

 guarantees full religious freedom. With the 

 exception of about 30,000 Protestants, mostly 

 foreigners, and about 15,000 Jews, the people 

 are Roman Catholics. There is no state 

 Church, but the state grants a small contribu- 

 tion towards the pay of the clergy of all de- 

 nominations. Belgium is divided into six dio- 

 ceses, presided over by the archbishop of 

 Malines, who is the primate of Belgium, and 

 the bishops of Liege, Namur, Tournai, Bruges 

 and Ghent. The archbishop of Malines, the old 

 and venerable Cardinal Mercier, pluckily de- 

 fended the rights of his flock following the 

 dark days of the German invasion in 1914. 



Physical Features. The surface of the 

 country resembles an inclined plane, and the 

 land rises by a succession of stages from the 

 sea coast to the low mountains of the Ar- 

 dennes on the southeast. Looking inwards 

 from the sea across Belgium, there is seen a 

 narrow belt of dunes on the coast, then a strip 

 of reclaimed territory, almost level with the 

 sea and protected by dykes, known as polders. 

 Following this comes a broad central region, 

 composed of sandy soil and extending from 

 west to east almost across Belgium. The east- 

 ern portion, including parts of the provinces 

 of Antwerp and Limburg, consists of sterile 

 heaths and arid wastes, and is known as the 

 Campine. The western portion is the cele- 

 brated Flemish plain, which is described below. 

 The surface then rises gradually until the val- 

 leys of the Meuse and Sambre are reached. 

 This region contains one of the best military 

 routes leading from Holland and Germany into 



