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{{Useful Notes}}
{{quote|What's Belgium famous for? Chocolates and child abuse, and they only invented the chocolates to get to the kids.|'''Ray, ''[[In Bruges]]'''''}}
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In 1914, that neutrality clause was violated by Germany, as they were using it as a back-door to France. When the Belgians refused to co-operate, Germany invaded, and although the stories have been wildly exaggerated since, certainly didn't conduct themselves enormously well: it has been dubbed "The Rape of Belgium", which at the time was a much less emotive term and meant "sacking and plundering". This invasion caused Britain's entry into the war. Technically, Belgium was not fully conquered. World war I slowed down into long, slow trench warfare. A small part of Belgian soil remained unconquered. Belgium as a nation was completely crushed by the German warmachine. Ypres and Passchendale are in Belgium. The poem 'In Flanders fields' is one of the best-known World War I poems and the Poppy, which normally doesn't grow in numbers in Flanders, became a symbol.
In 1940, Germany invaded again, and was even less civil than the first time. Belgium was overrun very quickly - as with France, its leaders had prepared for a retread of [[World War
Belgium had a weird influence on both World Wars. A Belgian weapon (manufactured by FN) was used by Gavrilo Princip to kill Franz Ferdinand, thus starting World War I. World War II was ended by the bomb on Hiroshima, which used uranium mined in Congo, at that time a Belgian colony.
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Belgium was a founder member of [[NATO]] and the [[European Union]], and home to many of the institutions of both organisations. It has adopted the Euro, replacing the former [[Funny Money]] that was the Belgian franc.
"Brussels" is often used as British journalistic shorthand for the EU, especially where stories involve faceless bureaucrats and/or apparently bizarre decisions taken by same. For [[
The current king is Albert II, whose official title is "King of the Belgians" rather than "King of Belgium", to distinguish him as a monarch who rules by popular will, rather than by legal or divine right.
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Also noteworthy: Belgium has three official languages, namely Dutch (in the smaller, but more populous, north), French (in the larger, but less populated south) and German (a tiny area in the east). English is also the lingua franca in many European institutions in Brussels. The Belgian dialects of Dutch are known as Flemish. Some places in the southern part of the country, Wallonia, also have Walloon, a set of threatened Romance languages closely related to but distinct from French.<ref>It has approximately the same relation to standard French as does the Norman "French" traditionally spoken in [[Four Little Tax Havens|the Channel Islands]].</ref> Actual German is only spoken in two cities, Eupen and Malmedy, which were transferred from Germany to Belgium after [[WW 1]] in a referendum which required voters to give their name and address to the occupying armies, prompting Germans to be a bit careful about who they voted for. Yes, Belgians are used to linguistic confusion, it's a fact of life!
Not just confusion even - entire ''governments'' have been brought down over linguistic arguments that might seem incredibly petty to outsiders, such as the debate over the [[wikipedia:Voeren|Voeren/Fourons]]. And every organization (like political parties, unions and so on) effectively exists twice: Once in the French part, once in the Flemish part.
An outsider watching a Belgian political debate may be surprised by the garishly coloured clothes worn by the politicians. This is because each major party is strongly attached to a colour (Red for the socialists, blue for the liberals, orange for the (ex-) Christian-democrats and green for the ecologists) and it has become an habit for the politicians to mark their allegiance by an article of clothing (most commonly a shirt, necktie or bow tie, but also eyeglasses frames or even a dress suit). The Belgian politician fears no ridicule (or are just that good in modern marketing).
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'''Fiction set in Belgium and/or featuring Belgians'''
* ''[[Tintin]]'' was created by the Belgian Hergé, and most of the main characters are Belgian, though you'd never suspect it because of the translations' tendency to change just about every name.
* ''[[Smurfs]]'' were created by the Belgian Pierre Culliford a.k.a. Peyo and became a world hit thanks to the mostly faithful Hanna-Barbera cartoon in the 80's.
* Other Belgian comic strips set in this country: ''[[Suske en Wiske]]'', ''[[Jommeke]]'', ''[[Nero]]'', ''[[Urbanus]]'', ''[[Piet Pienter en Bert Bibber]]'', ''[[Spirou]]'', ''[[Gaston Lagaffe]]''...
* The 24th ''[[Asterix]]'' album, ''Asterix in Belgium'', which foreshadows the Flemish-Walloon divide in the antipathies between the different Belgian tribes of Julius Caesar's day. The tenth, ''Asterix the Legionary'', features a Belgian legionary whose hairstyle resembles Tintin's and whose name ''Septantesix'' (which means "seventy-six") plays on the best-known area of vocabulary difference between Walloon French and the French spoken in France, the words for the numbers between 70 and 99.
* [[Jacques Brel]]'s songs frequently reference Belgium.
* The cult classic ''[[Man Bites Dog]]'' is set in Belgium.
* As is ''[[Vase
* ''[[Secret Army]]''
* The paintings of [[Pieter Bruegel the Elder]], [[Peter Paul Rubens]] and [[René Magritte]].
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* ''[[Wing Commander (video game)|Wing Commander]]'' features Jeannette Devereaux, aka "Angel", who was born in Belgium.
* ''[[Austin Powers]]'' uses Belgians as [[Acceptable Targets]], making them, among other things, the ones who raised Dr. Evil to be so... evil.
* In ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]'' Belgium is a [[Cool Big Sis]] with a [[Cat Smile]] and has two siblings, Netherlands and Luxembourg.
* Belgium is depicted in ''[[Scandinavia and The World]]'' as a comics nerd with a sweet tooth.
* In ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam Wing Endless Waltz]]'' it's revealed that the capital of the [[One World Order|Earth Sphere Unified Nation]] is in Brussels.
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