What about Belgium ?

[Dandelion]

For a 'boring' country Belgium does have one of the most entertaining Encyclopedia Dramatica articles.

https://encyclopediadramatica.se/Belgium

[Profileid]

For a 'boring' country Belgium does have one of the most entertaining Encyclopedia Dramatica articles.

https://encyclopediadramatica.se/Belgium

!!!!
All the good articles on that place are pre 2011. The country ones are great though.
"Feminazi fagette and Walloon minister of equality Milquet will require all camwhores to be strictly fugly in the near future"
hahaha.

[The Blade]

He is one of the first people I associate when I hear "Belgium" (I'm sure everyone knows him):

[Renaissance]

There is almost non belgian-american culture. That's weird. I guess Belgium never was poor, thats why they never migrated, i read many times about irish, italians, swedish, dutch, germans and polish settlers in US, Australia, Canada, LatinAmerica or even Africa (like the boers in South Africa) but never about belgians.

US is like the stereotypes-maker (good or bad) of the world, but there is nothing about belgians.
I think Belgium should be more influential. Even being small.


Oh yes, i just remember the awful belgian congo
Ok, that was bad, but still.

[Dandelion]

He is one of the first people I associate when I hear "Belgium" (I'm sure everyone knows him):

The muscles from Brussels.

[B01AB20]

French-speaking Belgians yes. But not necessarily Walloons.

so... it's not real the equivalence French-speaking Belgians = Walloons and Dutch-speakers = Flemish?

Flemish painters were both Dutch- as French-speaking. Flemish is pars-pro-toto because the Duchy of Flanders was the most influential region during the Burgundian era and that name stuck for later eras. It's a synonym for Southern Netherlands or Belgium so you well.

I see you are ridiculing my mentioning 'Southern Dutch' even if I state it to be a dated term but historically very important to understand our land.

This is Southern Dutch culture historically.



Flemish in the current sense is a simplification from the 19th century, but an invention from that late in history nonetheless as does exist in many parts of Europe when administrative regions were made.

People would give you a strange look if you called us Dutch today, but actually claiming we are is not that untrue. It's just not a contemporary term.

OK OK, I surrender!!!

You see?, it seems you have some nationalism and pride for your country in the end, and something interesting to tell about it.

And out of curiosity, is there some civic/political movement in favour of the union of Flanders and the Netherlands nowadays?

[Renaissance]

The spanish crown could send belgian settlers to Latin America, after all, they were under spanish control, and they where catholics.
Just like the british crown send protestants european of many origins to their colonies.

Without mass murdering the natives, obviously.

[Dandelion]

so... it's not real the equivalence French-speaking Belgians = Walloons and Dutch-speakers = Flemish?

Well, Walloon is someone from Wallonia. French having been a prestige language in the past and Belgium having been a founded by a French-speaking bourgeoisie, made many Dutch-speakers followed a Francophone education. The Frenchification was a success in Brussels and many French-speakers there (like Jean-Claude Van Damme) have a Flemish name, even if they don't have any family from Wallonia whatsoever.

This is why the Brussels French accent has Brabantian influences. Brabantian being a dialect of Dutch. Not my favourite dialect, I think it sounds very harsh and ugly (not saying this out of spite). Belgian French in general is harsher sounding than French from France, but also slower and easier to understand.

OK OK, I surrender!!!

You see?, it seems you have some nationalism and pride for your country in the end, and something interesting to tell about it.

And out of curiosity, is there some civic/political movement in favour of the union of Flanders and the Netherlands nowadays?

You got that right. I'm certainly no self-hater without any cultural awareness.

About a union between Flanders and the Netherlands. I don't see it happening anytime soon if ever. It had to have happened in the late 16th century. Your country stands a bit at the root of our division as did the Protestant schism in Christianity and Counter-Reformation.
However, we live in the present and are cool with Spaniards. We're still Catholic after all. Some of my ethnicity even helped expand the Spanish Empire in colonising the world back then, like the (other) Van Damme family in Gran Canaria (Bandama) . The United Kingdom of the Netherlands of 1815-'30 was another real chance we had but proved a failure of the highest degree.
To go for this nowadays would be too much of trouble. There just doesn't exist any necessity for it. Our state cultures differ and there are too many growing pains accompanied with it. Plain nationalism is not a good motivator.

[Dandelion]

To be honest. I wish Lawalye and Tchek still posted here. They can give you Walloon input.

[B01AB20]

The death of all legitimate heirs of Catholic Kings to the throne of Spain was a major disgrace for our country, and for others too it seems.

Finallly only left Felipe I (with a shitload of other european titles too), a foreigner married with the only daughter alive of Catholic Kings. He reigned little time in Spain because he was assassinated, but his son, Carlos, was another foreigner with more areas of interest in Europe than in Spain. And this guy dragged Spain to religion wars and for the domination in zones of Europe that were very alien to Spain's interests, like Flanders and others.

So if Juan or Isabel, the others sons of Catholic Kings married to portuguese, had survived, the history of Spain and Flanders would have been very different, and in the case of Spain surely much better.