Belgian Army History, Part 1 

And then for the next century (and a half) the Dutch speaking part of the Belgian population (the Flemish) were dominated by the French speaking part (the Wallonians).

@@Emdee5632 false :)

@@Emdee5632 yeah but no its was more about the rich speaking french in wallonia a lot of people were not speaking french but walloon or other patois

@@mr_boo. How so? it was well after ww2 before Dutch got any sort of legal status in Belgium. How is that not dominating?

@@kurtkesters6043 because the elite spoke french both in wallonia and in flanders, but the walloons weren't any more powerful or dominating than the flemish. it's not a region problem, it's social class. french was simply the language of the upper class.

Do you happen to speak West-Flemish or Flemish in general? Please don't say you only know French, you'll break my heart. P.S. I'm a local from the area near Bruges.

the Britsch the U S the Canadian the brave Kiwi s the lovely Aussis and the Belgain army frinds in arms in the first and the second W War

It was called gallia belgica on roman maps, on early medieval maps, rennaisance maps and napoleonic maps. Belgium has always been known as belgium, the austrians called us belgians during the 1700's. It's mainly ignorant religious conservatives, who divide between flanders and walloon

Wuk zegde gij nu? Maybe the Austrians already called us Belgians, but the people back then considered themselves largely just with their historical region/county/duchy or even city. Flanders, Luxemburg, Brabant, Namur, Liege etc. were largely what people associated with themselves and in Walloonia still do next to their national identity of Belgian. Flemish identity is largely created to distinguish them from the filthy protestant Dutch and later due to domination and superiority-complexes of the French speaking elites against French-speakers and (is some cases) the Belgium state because it has always been and intended to be a French-speaking state. Founding fathers like Charles Rogier and Alexandre Gendebien wanted to get rid of this "Germanic element". Gendebien even stated that the Flemish were one of the inferior races of the world. I suggest reading the English wiki page on the Flemish movement, it contains more information. The Walloon identity only came into existence as a reaction against the Flemish movement, see wikipedia but if not read 'the story of Walloonia' by Alain Gerlache, it's probably only in Dutch but the author is a Walloon journalist for rtbf.

It's down to the economics. We'll see after a couple of months

Haha shortcut to Frace is a good one! Cheers from a Belgian historian ;)

A wave of bullshit, worthy of the Orange Anus, is what it is!

That was Leopold II's excuse for conquering and colonizing central Africa (Congo, Rwanda, Burundi). Ironic in a very sad way

Bah ! As fellow europeans, I think we should just give'em a hand.

For those not clued in, the above comment is a reference to the hands cut off from Congolese when they were punished for not bringing in enough rubber for the colony masters. Real fun joke edgelord

@@Casmaniac Thank you ! And my apologies. I'm trying to cope for being part of such a wonderful mammal species.

That upgraded up-armored Leo 1 is such a beautiful (dare I say sexy?) tank! Omg, it still looks pretty legit for such an old vehicle. 😍

alot of those got sent to Ukraine where they will be used as mobile gun systems so we might get to see them at work in real life soon. @@pex_the_unalivedrunk6785

Will he have enough time to drink all the Belgian beers?

@@craigevans6156 Well, that's an easy one: NO! 😁 But then, you don't have to drink them all to get a good impression, I don't know any Belgian who has drank them all, we just have our favourites...

@@ignacevandaele 😂😂🍻🍻

Me too...that up-armored Leo 1 is sexy af! 😍 Over 50 years old, and still looks dangerous.

dont forget the P 90 the S C A R

Or Forgotten Weapons.

It's called Luik. Just as Bastogne is called Bastenaken.

​@@jwentingThe best way to upset no one with Belgian place names is to use all the Dutch, French and German names😅

Belgium is rife with fortresses. You can find fortresses of different generations. I think we suffered from the handicap of a head start and a lot of the fortresses were obsolete before we ever got involved in a war. First the brick ones, replaced by the ones in (unreinforced) concrete in different belts. Still, in 1914 the fortresses in Liège kept fighting against the odds. It took the Germans 10 days to subdue them, while they had counted on 3 days. As mentioned in the video, a Belgian cavalry unit stopped the German cavalry in Halen by dismounting and fighting as light infantry. The unexpected resistance of the Belgian army infuriated the Germans, who took out their anger on the civilian population.

hello Maastricht ?????

@@robertneven7563Nee, Tilburg.

Hello, in the 1 W W ar the dutch let the german army past to going In to Belguim the dutch di nt to a fuck In the firts W War

Yeah but the majority is just local history and not Belgian history, since Belgium only exists since 1830.

Belgium has always been a prosperous country with a weak state. On the one hand, it's the catholic heritage of dealing silently with issues without the "ignorant subjects" being implicated, on the other hand it's the history of being governed by foreign powers, making the "state" a foreign object to be mistrusted, relying on family and (local or political) clan instead for getting things "arranged" ('on va arranger ça') and funneling public means to private spheres. Belgians do not like interference in their private affairs. While we are very good at being creative with little means (that's the Belgian army for you), we're also very good at passive resistance, even to our own common interest.

@@annadalassena5460 those were the eburones under the command of ambiorix

@@annadalassena5460 Yes, well, the Roman response was quite "thorough" as you suggested. We would probably call it genocide nowadays. For that reason, I fear we can't really pride ourselves on the heritage of the Eburones and such, since they were mostly "wiped out" and Germanic tribes were allowed to settle in the lands. Most interestingly, the divide between Germanic and Roman(ic) heritage runs straight across our land dividing the north and the south, that's what we call the "language border" and which has been the basis for the federalisation of Belgium since the seventies.

Sort of around the Hampshire area where they were later taken over by the Jutes in post Roman times.

Quite a few Scottish clans also have Flemish (i.e. northern Belgian) roots. The Flemish also kickstarted the weaving industry in medieval England, several English and Scottish lords were Flemish, the Normans employed Flemish mercenaries when invading Britain, etc.

The Netherlands is partly catholic and partly protestant.