Belgium Has The Oddest, Most Recently Changed Borders In The World 

Yes I’d like 3 Luxemburgers, 2 French Fries, a Belgian Waffle, all with a side of drugs.

If you illegally park in both countries at the same time, you could get 2 tickets

Do an "all the borders of Australia" video. Lots of oddities to be discussed

A bit of a correction, North Brabant and Limburg in the Netherlands are majority catholic. Its mostly when you get north of the major rivers (Meuse and Rhine) that you see majority protestant. The two aforementioned provinces stayed in the Netherlands because they were under control by the Dutch government during the secession.

"Oh I'm in Belgium, oh I'm in the Netherlands" 😂😂😂

Yay! Belgium! I’ve been to Brussels, Bruges, Waterloo, and Zeeland (NL.) I agree that Brussels isn’t the best part of Belgium, however it’s definitely worth a visit just to see the Grand Place! However, Bruges is one of my favourite cities in the world. It’s so beautiful, especially at night. (Also, you pronounced it wrong in the video.) Another great video, Toycat! P.S: Second Channel, DO CARE?! Hurray!

Brilliant vid! Love the long videos

When mentioning the Belgian colonial empire, don't forget about the Belgian Concession of Tianjin in China (where belgium in fact did great things like building Trams and running water infrastructure), and the governing of the leprans colony in Molokai, Hawaii (controlled by Monk Damian's mission).

I live in Germany, working in Aachen and I have many collegues from Belgium, who are speaking German. It is easy to go from Aachen to the Netherlands or Belgium. They got so many beautiful cities! *_*

Man I really enjoy this channel. I would watch a 2 hour video from you 👍

Really love these border videos!

30:20 Belgian colonialism is one of the first things people talk about when talking about colonialism

Fun fact, the border around the city of Maastricht on the left bank of the river Meuse is drawn a canonshot (at that time) away from the Maastricht citywalls.

The following week you uploaded this video (I'm watching it for the first time right now) I travelled to Germany and stayed in a hotel very close to the Belgium border. I went to Aachen and to Liège in two different days, I had to cross the thin border six times, I think, on each journey by the 258 road and it was so funny watching it on Google Maps as there is no way to know where the borders were without the phone (at least from inside the car). I'm glad to know the reasons of that weird borders.

The reason they didn't speak French in Lille is that it is actually in French Flanders, the Dutch speaking part of France. You must have noticed bilingual signs Lille / Rijsel, the latter being the Flemish name. I'm actually surprised they didn't speak French since France is neglecting their Dutch connection and doing away with language education, but I guess actual people are more stubborn than their government ;) It would be interesting to know the history on France having a Dutch speaking community, I only know they have but not why. Maybe you can do an item on it or something.

Spa is extremely famous for having a spa you silly noodle! In fact *the term spa is derrived from Spa.* The more you know I guess xD

If you pause at 23:22, you can see an odd bug in Germany, east of Münster

Fun fact about Flanders Antwerpen, Belgium is the biggest fully dutch speaking city outside of the Netherlands

This was a really interesting and entertaining video!

Just imagine: Elections, and people are like "so who you gonna vote for" "i'm not, i live in the belgian part of town, we have the next election next year" Also: such a small country, but a really long video. Could've travelle with that beach tram from end to end in that time. xD

the Belgium/Netherlands border isn´t really based on religious differences, the southern dutch provinces of Limbourg and North Brabant are catholic, just like Belgium. the divide happens on the river Rhine. In general, people north of the Rhine are Protestant (reformed) while people south of the Rhine are Catholic.

22:00 yes they do get on very well because the king of Belgium and the duke of Luxembourg are cousins

I am Belgian and Belgium could not be more nationalistic at the moment. Belgian flags everywhere, everyone celebrating our third place finish at the world cup.

"As you can see, perfectly straight. Look how straight and curvy and smooth that border is." ....right

The Dutch-Belgian border isn't based on religion. The southern regions of the Netherlands are, just like Belgium, traditionally Catholic and have mainly become Catholic due to the Twelve Year's Truce (1609-1621) when most Protestants travelled northwards and both the Spaniards and the Dutch revolutionaries got a grip on the regions they possessed. The religious boundary is present along the Dutch river delta (Meuse and Rhine). Saying Belgium seceded from the Netherlands because of a difference in religion is far-fetched. Even after Belgium split from the Netherlands, the Netherlands still had a population that was around 40% Catholic. The Dutch king was Protestant and hadabsolute control, which he used to intermingle with Catholic church affairs in the south (trying to nationalize it), angering religious leaders. Belgian Catholics weren't happy about it, neither were they used to it (like Dutch Catholics). However, Catholic leaders weren't the only reason. The revolt was also caused due to the fact that the south contained a great number of liberals, most of whom opposed the absolute rule of a northern king and thought independence was the easiest way to create a state with their ideals. They allied with the Catholics, promising they would leave church affairs to the church. Aside of these liberals, the Belgian elites (from bourgeoisie to nobility) were also an important factor. They were mainly angry due to a growing dominance of the Dutch language (due to Dutchification reforms) and it solely becoming used in parliament, court and administration. French was the language of these elites due to its high historical status, whereas standard Dutch was uncommon, even in Flanders. The commoners of the current region of Flanders and Brussels spoke Dutch dialects, but they weren't the ones with power, influence and strong opinions about "the bigger picture". Most of these commoners didn't even master a form of standard Dutch. Another factor was France. Belgium was ceded to the Netherlands to create a strong buffer state and weaken France's dominant position in Western Europe. France sought to create division in the United Netherlands and used the (structural) differences between the north and the south to do so (they actually sent people to cause uproar). However, rather than creating an independent Belgium, they tried to use the division to weaken the Netherlands, strenghten their own position and gain more territory (as is visible in their Talleyrand Plan). During the Belgian Revolt, which was initially starting to fail, France eventually sent their own armies and forced the Dutch northwards.

I took a break from watching anime for this video, keep it up :)

Belgium and the Netherlands are basically brothers, They share everything.

Well, actually the city of Spa has a famous spa :) And is the origin for the word spa.

Really enjoy your second channel

19:40 The river on the right has a bend that looks like a unicorn.

Fun geography facts I never thought I’d -want- need to know.

Luxembourg is also a great city to visit as it sits on top of a mountain. If you have the chance to fly into the airport make sure you get a window seat as the views are fantastic. I did think it was weird that horse meat was readily available in a lot of the finer restaurants.

I'am from the netherlands, North brabant and i hope the east of belgium and the east of north brabant will be reunited and back to the Het hertogdom brabant.

I used to live in Belgium and this pretty much sums it up

Great informal vid

I came here from watching you rant about the fact that you hate gravel on the toycat channel. I love both videos and channels! :) (so far)

I love that you are so considered to you'r American viewers and tell them that there were 2 world wars ;-) By the way, it could be interesting listen to you talking about the diffrent maps, and where they don't agree. Obvilius sugestion would be the Urain/rusian island. But there must be a lot of diffrent places where maps don't agree, like the Danish/Canadian Island or other places. Thx for a great video

Can you do a video on countries that are not recognized by the UN or only partially. IE Kosovo, Transinistria etc and why they also form. It would be interesting imho

can you look in to the state borders of Australia, there are a few interesting ones that have weird backstories and the one territory that used to exist but the queen said no basically

In Belgium there are 3 official languages: the dutch spoke by the Flemish in Flanders, the french spoke by the Wallons in Wallonia and a german dialect spoke by some small german communities in the eastern part of the country! Malmedy: research it!

Jungholz in Austria must be something for you to have a look at. It is (almost) an exclave, connected to main Austria in one single point but only accessible from Germany.

3:45 They should do a Zeeland Lite and maybe a Cherry Zeeland

Actually the houses in Baarle with front doors in both countries have two adresses, one for each country

"Why would you chop a hand?"" -- have you heard of El Bronco? Great vid btw

I thought it might have done something stupid to mark their podium finish at the world cup

36:15 - Oh my goodness, this a huge moment in the history of mankind!

I just love maps, they can tell us so much about history. As can flags 😊

Need to correct you on the Luxembourgish-border issue, in the treaty of London 1838-39 Luxembourg had to give up lands to Germany, France and Belgium in order to gain independancy. (because of the belgian revolutionaries). Belgium got the bigger cut of the cake and Luxembourg stood unified with the Netherlands. (Cause Monarchy) During the french occupations the luxembourgish dialects in the belgian region went extinct. You can still find some people that live very close to the border speaking it. P.S. Do not call the beauty that is the luxembourgish language a german dialect, filthy anglo RTTT TZEEE But on an honest note, it's usually germans claiming it to be and not understanding how the entire language-dialect continuum seems to work. I am often confused as a dutchmen by germans, so if you're ever interested in the geo-political conflicts from a native here. Hmu

Thanks for the advice about Brugge. Any city where the main attraction is a statue of a baby pissing sounds like a bad place to visit.

I live in Belgium, and this video was proper made!

Commenting only to boost your engagement stats.

You didn't explain the main reason why Limburg was devided between Belgium and the Netherlands. In the peace treaty that confirmed Belgium's independence Belgium was awarded a part of Luxemburg but Luxemburg was a part of the German confederation and Prussia wanted compensation. So they decided to take a part of the province of Limburg (BTW the entire province was suposed to be part of belgium) and make it a grand duchy (or some sh*t like that) that would be in a personal union with the Netherlands and a part of the German confederation. Later when Peussia disolved the confederation Limburg was anexed by the Netherlands.

Some things I’d like to point out: -Limburg doesnt have an own dialect. In fact, every village has a different dialect. I personally speak the Maastricht dialect (Mestreechs), which is very different from any other Limburgian dialect. Most other villages have very similar dialects (most outsiders wouldn’t often notice any difference). But most villagers would be offended by someone simply saying they simply speak ‘Limburgian’, and people from Maastricht are usually very proud of their own city and dialect as well. -A lot of people are definitely patriotic in the area I grew up in, and even go as far as despising the Belgians, on one side of the border, and vice versa. In primary school, I actually got picked on by some kids, simply because I was Dutch. The feeling of ‘one big Benelux’ really doesn’t exist, and most people haven’t even let it cross their minds. Lastly, I would like to say I’m very impressed with your knowledge on this area, and growing up partly on one side of the border, and partly on the other, a lot of these things were new, even to me. I cross the different borders incredibly often, even by boat, and even to us it’s still something special. Great video! Greetings from Meerssen, to be precise! Edit: P.S. - I hate Brussels as well, and in Belgium, love Antwerp and Bruges. Liège is interesting, but is very poor in most parts, and often just an ugly city that looks like it’s stuck in 1901, right after the IR. Maastricht, (and I might be a bit biased) is beautiful, not too big, the people are friendly and the food, drinks and overall ‘vibe’ is very pleasant and relaxed. The eastern part of the ‘South-Limburg’ - (Parkstad) is appalling to me. Unkind and closed people, and mostly industrial and cold cities. The sightseeing near the hills can be good though ;).

Knokke Heist... Not "Nokke"... The 'K' is not silent 😂

Toycat I know this is second channel and don't care but we NEED a "the world and stuff" shirt

in oklahoma, you hear panhandle more than you should

U talked about Belgian Limburg and Dutch Limburg, but did you know about north Brabant, Flemish Brabant and Walloon Brabant, that together with the province of Antwerp used to be Brabant

They changed the map near maastricht because the river maas used to flow differently, just so you know :) I think it often happens that the flow of a river changes naturally or (as is often the case with the Dutch constant battle against flooding) the flow of the river is changed by humans. Often a river is used as a border so when the river changes, the border should as well :)

I live in Zeeland and i have been on the beachtram called kusttram.

Limbourg did not stay by the Nederlands. Maastricht stayed. But belgium had to give it away togheter with Luxembourg to ratified the treaty for independent. The strange border of maadtricht is not the city limit but was decided on how far their canons could shoot it that time.

if the line goes throught the front door, the house has two adresses.

Nice... :) I found out you already did it.

in the netherland you have also provinces that are catholic, 1.limburg 2.n-braband

Can you do a video about Bulgaria’s borders? Bulgaria is a fascinating country (not from there but i visited sofia for 2 days and it was the coolest fuckin place)

+ibx2cat, the first august the Franco-spanish's border will change again : Pheasant Island it's the next changement

Belgium is Serbia

The map with all these small bits actually is not as accurate because there are a lot more smaller bits, over a 100 i believe. It's nuts. Good thing we all use the Euro :P Even though there is a bit of Belgium in the Netherlands, you can still see how they build very differently, houses look different, streets look different, signs look different, different gas station brands, all of that. But you can just drive and do whatever there. It all indeed doesn't matter. it would be way too annoying to enforce anyway. It's a rather small village, lots of restaurants etc, and it's always busy there, indeed, way more tourism than you'd expect. Also a great beer bar that kind of looks like a boring wooden gate next to a home, but it runs really deep, several in and outdoor locations, great atmosphere, old commercial beer signs, lots of great beers etc.

Nice!

In Belgium, the largest Flemish party is usually the largest national party as well, since most, if not all parties are either French or Walloon. And the flemish population is a bit bigger than the Walloon, so only when Flanders is really divided and at the same time there is one party being very popular in Wallonia, the Walloon party can be the biggest of Belgium. This system is one of the reasons national governments are difficult to form, because they need the support of so many parties, basically 2 from every political ideology represented in the government; 2 liberal parties, 2 social democrat, 2 christian etc.

The reason why a lot of people want flanders to be a seperate country is the bscly the same reason why brexit got the majority at the referendum... misinformation, misinformation and misiformatio

ibx2cat: "Belgium Has The Oddest, Most Recently Changed Borders In The World" India/Bangladesh enclaves: "Are we a joke to you?"

In 16th century the Benelux was part of the Spanish crown. The region was mostly protestant and revolted when the Spanish started hunting them down, this revolution is known as the 80 years war. The Seperatists could only conquer what is today the Netherlands and Belgium was kept catholic by the Spanish Austrians and French until it came into the United Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1815.

Ah, you see? I knew you cared.

Ow sh*t waddup! My home country in the spotlight!

It's been 2.5 years and Google Maps still hasn't updated the border

Can you make a video about luxembourg?

You drove along my friends house in this video.

2021: old border still there

Ever seen "Bye Bye Belgium"? That was a TV "happening" where Belgian TV - both the French and Dutch stations - unilateraly declared Belgium split in two. Belgian TV was in sooo much trouble for that - although the people themselves thought it was "Actually Pretty Funny"!

You forget about the important port of Antwerp that requires you to go through Zeeland (Netherlands) to reach. :P Also the United Kingdom of the Netherlands didn't really work because of the languages (amongst other reasons), so a united Benelux as one country is unlikely to happen. It's more likely for Walonia to hook up with Luxemburg (because they have a very close cooperation that even extends into Germany) and Flanders with the Netherlands. But because neither Walonia nor Flanders want to give up Brussels, they stick with each other. Only if Brussels is willing to be the independent capital of the EU, then Belgium can fix all the silly stuff going on.

You forgot to mention the Belgian concessions in Tianjin

6:46 OMG THATS MY FRIEND'S HOUSE!!!

I live about 20km from the belgium border, i live in the netherlands

Mate, did you endorse Charleroi as a nice place? Did you actually go there? :D They have tours to show how decayed the place is, look it up.

Nice video ! Actually the border between The Netherlands and what is now Belgium states from the end of the 16hundreds when the Netherlands was founded as the first republic in Europe. the southern netherlands (now Belgium) stayed with Spain. The border has been formed at the moment of the first peace-treaty . Hence the loopings made by the Spaniards as a military tactic to close in the parts that weren't concoured yet. B.t.w. even the dialects in Baarle-Nassau and Baarle-Hertog differs a bit , from one Dutch nabour to the next Belgian nabour. Has to do whith schooling and education which differs in law and mentality. Besides that , apart from being one (new) kingdom after Napoleon for only about 15 years, the rejoining didn't work so the old borders were taken up again as they always have been (mostly) from the beginning of the separation Into the Dutch republic and the southern provinces , staying with Spain. All of the historic Netherlands ,included French Flanders spoke Old-Dutch (very close to Old-English) in the early middle-ages. French came in later. Belgian Dutch (Flemmish) has a spanish and French (latin)accent to it. And that ofcourse because of the long separation....... Love your channel, seen them all.

32:38 I didn't know that there is a part of "Stalingrad" in Brussels

What’s also crazy is how many of the towns have different names in neighbouring European languages - Some of them are weirdly different. Such as:- Mons = Bergen Antwerpen = Anvers = Antwerp Tournai = Doornik Kortrijk = Courtrai Liège = Luik = Lüttich _(and just across the border in France)_ Lille = Rijsel p.s. I thought that your pronunciation of French names would be a bit . .better😭😭🤗

Not only LImburg, but also Brabant is mainly catholic. If I remembered my history lessons correctly the border is more based on the amount of time the Spaniards ruled the Netherlands. In the north they were kicked out in the 16th century. The northern republic of the 7 provinces, was independent until 1795 de facto and 1810 officially when the French occupied the Netherlands. In the same period the Spanish and later the Austrians still ruled current Belgium.

What passports to the people who live in those villages get? Is it dependent on the hospital you're born in? Where you live? Or can you just decide to be Belgian or Dutch?

That's always a fun conversation to start with your neighbor, "Look, about our border... We need to talk..." , but sometimes you gotta, like when a random chunk of farmer's field belongs to a different country. 😕 Europe is so weird...

a Flemish person here. the NVA doesn't actually want to leave Belgium.

Could you do a video on the mighty Liberlandian Empire, please?

Pretty sure the name of a panhandle comes from a pan's handle, not the whole pan.

Lol I can see the village where I live in with a population of only 900 at 0:29

WW1 and WW2: Germans crossed over Belgium real quick. After: Let's give them railway so we can keep the tradition alive

Great video. Good mentioning that Belgium had "the Congo freestate" and Ruanda-Urundi. But didn't Belgium has a consession in Tientsin/Tianjin as well? And what's up with that island in Italy they owned...?

Do one of Peru please!!!!

Yeah the big problem with our coalition forming is that only people in Flanders can vote for Flemmish parties for the fedederal government and same thing in Wallonia. Meaning a party can only can get votes from only 50% of the country what leads to 2 parties being big in their region but detesting each other. What lead to NVA and PS not getting a coaltion togheter when they were the 2 most voted parties.

I am from Belgium, and it is interesting how the country is divided and many (including me) want it to split. But when the world cup is happening, a large part of my fellow countrymen suddenly become patriotic

well, it wasn't really Germany's fault for doing those bad things in ww1 Serbia assassinated Austria's heir to the throne and Germany was allied to Austria. So it was kinda Serbia's fault for causing all of those bad things.