About the Congo stuff, when they were occupied, they were originally the king's possession, so he could do whatever he wanted with it. He did indeed enslave a lot of people, to work in mines or build railways. When one of them behaved badly, they lost one of their hands. So, yeah there is reason for not so happy nostalgic feelings
Congo was the personal posession of King leopold 2 (1835-1909). He was a monster to the people of Congo and to his own family He gave Congo to Belgium in 1908. Congo became independent in 1960.
@@molbol2956 historians know than the hand cutting was not a punition, but they did that on dead body for check if the ammunition used by colonials soldiers were well use. And this was also a practice already did by tribs during war like trophy. But England use that like propaganda and know its becase a famous fake history knowledge. But it doesnt mean than belgians were cool, people had to work or they family where taken on hostages, or were punch. And we also have to dont forget than there was the Leopold II period, and belgians period, both different same if it was colony with the typical racism of this period
Some corrections from a Belgian: - Belgium isn’t any more of an artificial country than the other European nations. But because some think that language defines whether or not a country is “artificial”, they hink that. But what is now Belgium has had quite a long shared history: in the Roman times it was a Roman province and the name for the Gallo-Germanic tribes living there was Belgae (hence the name Belgium), the Frankish Empire started in what is now Belgium and would quickly take over most of Western Europe, the Burgundian dukes united most of what is now Belgium under their rule and even tried to introduce a centralised government and monetary system, for less than a year you had United States of Belgium (a confederarcy) and finally you had the Belgian Revolution in 1830 which gave birth to Belgium. - The linguistic communities where actually first and the regions were introduced latter. We Belgians are known to build add-ons to our houses and we did the same with our government. - Belgian cuisine is actually one of the things that all Belgians have in common: you can find a fries stand in even the smallest of towns.
@@pietervancoppenolle4749, I don’t know if you studied the history of the splitting-up of the Belgian political parties, because when you study this you’ll notice that it was more about ego’s than about cultural differences. The divide between North and South is also good for most polticians because it creates tensions which they can use to get re-elected and the numerous institutional layers create several political posts for them. If Belgium would simplify it’s federal structure by getting rid of for example the regions then a lot of politicians would lose their position of power. So it’s more complex than some politicians want us to believe.
We in Belgium have a big sence of humor because the politicians are one big joke. Mayonaise is good with almost every dish XD Some stuff is confusing but we are used to it.
Yes, fries were indeed invented in Belgium. There's confusion about this because during the war Americans got to know the dish here (in the French speaking part of our country) and because the people over there spoke French, the Americans thought it was France. Buttttttt in recent times, the 'French' fries actually refers to the way they are cut. The fries you get at like McDonalds or something are 'French fries', while 'Belgian fries' are cut way thicker. You can Google the fries and the story as well :)
Fun fact : the fries that are made for mcdonalds, domino’s, and kfc across the world are made in Belgium by a Belgian company called farmfrites, my mother works there
* without a full federal government. As you saw in he video local governments have a lot of power. Plus when people say "no government" the old government is still in charge ntill the new one is formed. Their power is just limited it's a "care takers government". That means the are stll able to do the typical government stuff, except, they aren't allowed to changed things up, I guess.
as a belgian, I am making mussles and french fries with mayo tonight, but I will add some mussle sauce. one thing to add to the video: belgian beers, we have thousands of beers all of them with a specific glass. We are very proud about our beers, if you haven't tried them, do so, but please use the appropriate glass it adds to the taste.
Not much mention of Belgian beer which is really good. As a visitor non of the political stuff is very visible. It’s a beautiful country with some very pretty towns and cities and the people always seem pretty chilled and open particularly compared to the French.
beer 100% agreed, BUT since the belgian company AB-inBev is the biggest beer company in the world (also owns things like the american Budweiser and the mexican Corona beer) its so difficult to get to drink any non-belgian beer.
Waffles aren’t even that big of a deal to us belgians. I mean we make good ones but they’re mostly a tourist thing. Also, even most French people will agree that fries are from Belgium. They are very much part of our cultural identity, along with beer :p you can find what we call a ‘frituur’ on almost every corner, where they only make fries and fried snacks. Mayonnaise on fries is super normal and delicious. As for the government, we all do think it’s insane and complicated…
for belgian people it's normal !!! But think about this: we are with 11M people, and we have 9 different governments!!! And YES, fries come from Belgium, they were discovered by American soldiers during WW1 in the Walloon part of Belgium These soldiers brought them to the US and since they believed that french speakers are from France, they called it french fries, but it's actually Belgian fries. We even have an original recipe that's very old (and it was carbon-date checked) which describes cooking fries in tailfat from oxes. It's actually how we still cook fries here in belgium, first fry them at 140°C till the fries start to chirp, then let the fries "sweat" out for 45 min, then fry them a second time, now at 180°C and when they start chirping again the fries are ready! (the chirping of fries is a distinct sound, if you listen closely you'll learn it very fast and never forget it) That's belgian fries for u sir!
Yes and when they have a beautiful golden color then they are perfect & crispy on the outside & soft on the inside Mmm frit met stoofvleessaus & zoete mayonnaise 🤤
12:30 yes we did invet fries but since all the rich people at that time in Belgium spoke French Americans thought it was from France. Also Belgian style waffles isn’t a thing you have 2 types in Belgium: Luikse wafel/gaufre de Liège and Brusselse wafel/ gaufre de Bruxelles u can look it up both are popular but I think “Belgian style” is the one from Luik/Liège😅
Almost everyone in Europe can speak at least two languages (the first foreign language would be English in most of the countries) and many are able to have a simple conversation in up to three to five languages :)
3 роки тому+8
i still dont know why the avarage language speak in America is 0.8
Well the Belgian king owned the congo personally instead of it being owned by the country of belgium for quite some time. This caused a rather extreme approach to managing the local economy which can be summed up as this: If you don't farm enough of the materials and goods we want you to gather a portion of your town's population gets their hands chopped off.
The chopped off hands came from the militia that had to shoot every bullet on target with as proof the hand of the person, but because they didn't alwayt hit the target they had to get a hand form someone else.
It was called the Rubber Terror (more like a genocide, actually). I'm not so sure the Congolese resent Belgium all that much, for most it's water under the bridge. Also, the country became kind of a hellhole once the Belgians left, with civil wars and other problems.
@UCoAketYorSEbfB3e6lEPhjA we???? My grandparents always worked hard for what they had. The King did those horrible things in Congo. Go somewhere else with your missplaced sense of guilt.
The craziest part is the language. We learn a generalized language for each region in school, but it's mostly used in letters and in the media. you can go to the neighbouring town and will not understand anything they're saying, even if it's just 5km apart
the sauce with the mussles isnt actually mayonnaise although we love our mayo with fries. It's called "muscle sauce", a combination of mayo with mustard and some mussel broth. Btw, I think we are champion in having a multitude of sauces that we eat with our fries, we are proud of our "fries shops" (only sells fries and snacks) and you can choose between 15-2 different sauces. Also we have like 7 governments but only 6 are active (don't ask) and we are also 1 of the best countries in the world if you like paying taxes.
@@robertwilloughby8050yes, voting is compulsory here. You can be fined if you don't vote. People who who still don't vote make up less then 20% of the voting pool, if I'm not mistaken. We have what is called the "white vote" for undecided people to be able to comply with the law and go vote even if they don't know for who.
As a Flemish Belgian, I 'll give it a try a explain a few things. First of al Belgium is a constitunial monarchy and that's the reason why the king has no crown. He is sworn in in the parlement and does a oath there when he becomes a king (like the president does when he becomes president). A King who's crowned gets is power from God or did so in the past, in the most cases, it's a tradition from early days, but Belgium is a relative young country, so that tradition didn't exist. In 1830 we had a very liberal constitution for that time period and the German prince that became our first king (Leopold I) wasn't to happy about that. On to the difficult political structure. The King is the head of state, leader of the army (officialy a four star general) and has some function when the federal goverment is formed. Belgium has on paper 7 parliaments but defacto 6: The federal parliament The Flemish parliament The Waloon parliament The Brussels capitol region parliament The French community parliament The German community parliament The Flemish community parliament Because there is no other community living in the Flemish region, the Flemish parliament and the Flemisj community parliament, became one parliament, the Flemish parliament. The federal parliament and goverment is responsible for: foreing affairs, economics, pensions, social securitiy and public health, finance and economics, justice and defence (more or less, it's a little bit more complex then that) The regions are responsible for non cultural things like: environment, traffic, work, ... . Things that are territorial. The communities are responsible for cultural things like: education, culture, sports, youth, ... . Things that are influenced by language. Sometimes there are discussion over witch goverment is responsible for what, like economics and work does have some resembling issues. So we have standard procedures, to solve conflicts about that. The world didn't understand how we kept functioning as a country without a federal goverment for 541 days, like you see, it was just one of our 6 goverments. Any more questions about Belgium, feel free to ask. Friendly greetings, Nick
Another thing about functionning without government. We had one. It just wasn't allowed to start new projects. They still opperate on urgent matters , mainly international matters. It's the legislative projects side that grinds to a halt.
@@irissupercoolsy no he said "de facto 6" meaning there are 7, but in practice there are 6. That's wrong because there are literally 6 governments, there isn't a 7th one
Our first king was a "german" prince (Saxen-Coburg) who was the widow of the princess of Wales and remarried the daughter of the French king, so perfect for our neigbours, except the Netherlands ! The only problem, he was not catholic but he learn to compromise.
Hello from Belgium. I identify myself as Belgian, not Flemish or Walloon. My father’s first language was French and my mother’s Flemish (Dutch). And I married a guy from Brussels 😁 I call this country Absurdistan, but the only thing that drives me really crazy are politicians. The most complex thing living here is the tax form. And by the way, here there is no such thing as Belgian waffles. We have Brussels waffles and Liège waffles.
Thank you! Same here, I'm Belgian, not Flemish! It can get complicated, but you're just so used to it, it doesn't even register half of the time. I hope we stay together and don't let the nationalist win the splitting up of our beautiful little country!
I spent a year in southern Belgium. Pom Frittes (fries) are awesome. Mayo or sauce Andalouse on the fries. Best beer in the world. The people are super nice.
The Belgian flag originally had horizontal stripes with red at the top, yellow in the middle and black at the bottom. The banner of honor reads 1830 in the middle and was awarded to cities in limited editions. The most, 9 in total, were awarded in the province of Antwerp.
I live in Belgium, it's not an issue living here. I'm used to being in a complex country. I fluently speak Dutch, French, German and English ( all because of school, if you failed on your languages you couldn't graduate). If you ever were to visit Belgium, I'd gladly give you a tour and help with translating everything since there are roughly 100 dialects that are hard to understand to foreigners but easy to understand if you've been born here like me.
ik woon in vlaanderen en er zijn teveel franse mensen. Ben onlangs naar een ander stad verhuist maar er zijn nog steeds teveel franse mensen. Vlaanderen = nederlands en Walonie zou frans moeten zijn, dit snappen de mensen niet goed waardoor ik mij elke dag een toerist voel in mijn eigen dorp.
@@infinityredDot Hmm, de taalvaardigheid en spelling van het Nederlands is toch nog niet helemaal je dat zo blijkt. Hoofdletters, spellings- en dt-fouten, er is nog werk aan.
@@patrickverhaeghe Dan heb je mensen die naar taalfouten kijken. Je zou beter om je heen kijken als je op straat loopt en kijken waar het geld van je belastingen naartoe gaat :)
Jean-Claude Van Damme originally came from my hometown Knokke. I now live in Blankenberge. For work-related purposes I once met his parents and they are extremely kind and humble people.
Lots of us Flemish civilians speak 4 languages; dutch (mother language Flanders) , French, German, and English. WE are the creators of frites! We had a king that looted Congo and became a top5 mass-killer. All of the gouvernements drain our national treasure. Greets from Belgium.
the first "french fries" was in 1680 where the locals were particularly fond of fried fish when the river froze over a cold winter people osensibly fried potatoes instead of small fish in the shape of a fish and the first fry was born then it became an adiction and BOOM
And the previous country that had the world record of not having a government was ... Belgium. We made it a bit harder in case someone realy must have that title ... (no worries at the same time the 5 other governments were in seat)
As said before by Frahamen: * without a full federal government. As you saw in he video local governments have a lot of power. Plus when people say "no government" the old government is still in charge ntill the new one is formed. Their power is just limited it's a "care takers government". That means the are stll able to do the typical government stuff, except, they aren't allowed to changed things up,
I'm Belgian, and our country doesn't make sense in a lot of ways. Maybe that's why Belgium is considered by many to be the cradle of the surrealist art stream. But we make it work. While the rest of Europe falls apart through world wars and international treaties, somehow we stick together, even with political forces inside our country trying to push us apart. I think the best explanation is that Belgium is too complicated to split. Like a puzzle too complicated to unravel, so we might as well keep it together and try to perfect the picture, even though perfection is impossible with all the cracks between the pieces... Where would we go anyway, without Belgium? Join France, Germany, the Netherlands or the UK? Nah, we'll be fine on our complicated own. Teaching the world a lesson in diplomacy.
About the fries: there is also the story that the potatoes are cut in little stripes, or fringed. Which could have been misunderstood by the Americans while liberating the south of Belgium. About the mayo: Mayonnaise is supposed to taste a little tart. The acidity fits the fries. Do not choose the Dutch one (From the Netherlands) which sugar has been added on. The side sauce we serve with mussels is not 100% mayonnaise, Add some extra mustard to the mayo to dip the mussels.
I had a comparitive constitutional law course in college and we spend half on it on Belgium. According to my teacher every other country would be easy once we understood this one 😅
The sauce with the mussels is not just mayonnaise, it is usually a combination with mustard. In Roman times, the country of the "Belgae" was much larger than today. Let's not forget that Belgium is called the battlefield of Europe because of WW I and WWII.
In Belgium, we have a proverb which says: if someone explains to you how Belgium works, and you tell them that you understood, it is certainly because they explained it to you badly.
I live in Belgium and a guilty pleasure of mine is to go to places where there are a lot of tourists and I love to see them struggle to get all of that
Currently Belgium holds the record for country longest run withouth goverment. The only thing I can say, Belgium was run better when there was no goverment, cause the goverment just does not make sense. Most of the time the leading party does not get enough vote, then the other parties gang up (however they all have different values) to win a place in the goverment. Our goverment doesnt only consist of 7 different goverments, it also has multiple parties running in the same goverment-branch. Also we have different parties for the french speaking and the dutch speaking, which need to communicate with eachother for the federal goverment. Belgians really just do whatever and it seems to work 🤣 Greetings from Belgium
Just as an FYI: Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde doesn't exist anymore as it was deemed unconstitutional (long story but it had to do with voting lists). The Eupen-Sankt-Vith province still doesn't exist (and it's unlikely it will in the near future). And the mussels are fantastic!!!
Fries were created in Belgium but in the French speaking part so you guys called it French fries. XD Also the tap water is perfectly clean and drinkable. Maybe it's about the rivers and lakes IDK.
The guy that showed American troops how to make fries (first cook them in oil until soft at a low temp, cool down, then crisp up in a higher temp oil) spoke French, but was from Belgium. Actually, there are no Belgian waffles, we have Waffles from Liege and Waffles from Brussels, very different. The "mayo" with the mussels is most often mixed with some mustard and called "mossel saus" :)
The sauce in the picture of the mussels and fries is actually "mosselsaus" or mussels sauce, its a very specific thign that you jsut dip the mussels in
@jimgames: the best musselsauce is from "De Kroon" ❤ If you wanna come to Belgium we will throw you a Belgium in 4 hours party 😂 with the best beers with mussels and fries!!! You will never wanna get back again!!!
The fries are baked in refined beef fat thats what gives it that crispy and less greasy taste and Congo is one of those unspoken bad things we did to the congolese people. as far asz the regions and languages we do learn dutch and french at school so its not really a thing here when we go from flanders to wallonia.
the story of the french fries goes like this. in the First World War, the English and the Americans were introduced to French fries by French-speaking Belgians. for example, the English and the Americans thought that the fries come from France, but NO, that's how they come from Belgium.
still an Anglo-Saxon urban legend, the truth is that the fries appeared in the north of France and the south of Belgium, given the cultural and linguistic proximity of these two regions, in the same moments without the we know with certainty who was the first creator
Yeah that's not what happened at all. Since consumption of the potato was popularized in france around the time of the revolution, it's likely that the French were also the first to fry it, although the exact origins are unclear.
I am from Belgium 🇧🇪 and this is my reaction Yes our political stuff is weird and confusing but we’re kindly used to it Yes we have some amazing Belgian writers from cartoons but also just novels Mussels and fries our the BEST combination and some people eat mussel sauce by it And YES fries ARE from Belgium and some weirdo called them french but that is OUR food! And I personally HATE what Belgium 🇧🇪 did to Congo. It is the worst and you don’t even wanna know. But there are a lot of docomantaires about it Fries and Mayo are here THE combo! So that’s quite it😊
I am Belgian and you nailed it quite well. During the covid pandemic, was really great, since Belgium and The Netherlands had different policies. This meant some shops on the border were open, but customers were not allowed in certain parts and/or sections of the store. I am Flemish, but my father was Walloon and his mother, so my paternal grandmother was German. Sums it a bit up.
-We have our fair share of political issues and bureaucratic nonsense. But most of the time it doesn't matter and it's actually nice that things are broken up into more local governance. -We don't eat mussels with mayo. It's a sauce made with mustard, a bit of the cooking liquid, mayo to soften the taste and perhaps some white vinegar depending on the recipe. -The Franco-Belgian comic tradition is huge and worth looking into. Some well-known ones are TinTin, Smurfs, Lucky Luke. Asterix is also a well-known one from the same tradition, but that one's French. -Fries origin is disputed. But regardless of the origin of fries, I do believe the name "French fries" does not refer to the origin but to the cut style. "To french" means to cut vegetables in thin slices, aka julienning. This thin style of fries did originate in France and is also the most popular in the US, and when they're thick you call them "steak fries". The UK consequently does not use the term "french fries", because they don't traditionally eat french-cut fries, they eat thick fries which they call "chips". -One of our kings, Leopold 2, wanted to join the other European countries in the race to colonize Africa of the 19th century, but the Belgian government didn't want to. So he went behind the government's back and turned the region into his own private property called "Congo Free State", he treated its population as his labor force to coerce as he saw fit. The region was massively exploited for its resources (eg. rubber plantations) and labor. Many Congolese people died (estimated between 1 and 15 million deaths) and suffered. eg. There were quotas set, and if the Congolese workers didn't meet the quotas then Leopold II's private army would chop off their hands. Then later the Belgian government called an end to it and expropriated Congo from Leopold 2, which then became Belgian Congo. Around this time the gold, copper and diamond mines got set up, of which the wealth obviously did not go to the Congolese people. And although the atrocities weren't as bad as they were under Leopold 2, they were still pretty bad as companies still had a lot of freedom in how they could treat their workers.
Okay, genuine question from a Belgian here. You were surprised to see fries with mussels. If you guys don't eat fries at the side, what do you eat instead? Or do you just eat the mussels on its own? Never thought the combination wasn't the usual thing people do so I'm interested at how you guys eat it haha
Allo from a coastal Florida town in the US. Mussels we eat here with pasta and lemon and white wine butter sauce. And garlic bread. But that’s probably just local… I just started dating a Belgian guy, didn’t know about the mayonnaise thing until he told me how much he loves cauliflower with Mayo😂 wonderful country wonderful people and great food. Much love for Belgium!
@@sarahwitherell2000 If you are still dating the Belgian guy, cauliflower with mayo isn't considered totally normal in Belgium either. It would rather be acceptable with cold served cauliflower, otherwise a white cream or cheese sauce would be preferred. With grated cheese as a topping and you can also put all that in the oven for a nice cheesy crust.
Beside our fries and chocolate, we have the best beer in the world! I could recomend Duvel, Leffe, Grimbergen, Tripel Kermeliet, La Chouffe Blonde D'ardenne, ...
in Belgium if you live in the dutch part, you will at least be able to speak dutch, French, English and a bit of German. Schools lay heavy focus on language here
that is also common in the Netherlands although French and German are depending on the level of education but French has a minimum of 2 years and if you do a higher education you have already had 1 year of german and can choose between french and german.
@Flopjul. It's very different in the Netherlands. You don't know what truly being bilingual means, neither do you have any genuine kingship with Romanesque culture (all of Belgium), French language, or France. Yes you're pretending, I know, I live in the Netherlands and notice you are kinda trying to be Belgium by appropriating its language, culture even to the point of cultural identity. I know you are unaware of it because it is done in complete silence. Meanwhile degrading Belgium out loud on a regular basis.
45% of Belgians take mayo with their fries while only 12% takes ketchup. 22% takes tartar sauce (derived from mayo), 18% takes Flemish stew sauce, and the rest takes another sauce.
I´m Belgian from the 1 %Part german speaking, and i love my Country so much. i love the wallons, and the flemish peoples. And our Football, the fries the humour and belgian lifestyle. we have invented the french fries, not the french ;) Thanks for your sympatic video
I am from the german speaking part of Belgium and I love my country Belgium 🇧🇪 . Don't worry if you do not understand much about belgian politics, even we don't understand it, I think noone does =)
@@Afura33 fr but aye, 80k is still a lot of people if you think about it, by the way, how's the german community's opinion on Germany? personally im from flanders and im interested cuz well we got the whole german speaking region after WW1 so
@@Thanadeez We do have the same bad opinion about the germans as the flemings have about the dutch and the walloons about the french, so a not so good opinion lol. If you ask me this mostly stems from ww2 when the germans invaded the country, annexed the germanspeaking part and destroyed the whole city St.Vith. I remember my grand parents telling me when the germans came, they forced everyone to collaborate with them or they took you as prisoner, shot you or killed your family. But yea this is the past now :) but the opinion about the germans hasn't change so much. However while traveling a lot I realized that in a lot of countries people don't have a very good opinion about their direct neighboors in general lol, seems to be a worldwide phenomenon. Like a lot of others here I am personally not attracted to germany at all, the only thing I share is the language and that's it, but I do also speak french from school maybe that makes a bit of a difference I don't know. We also do not identify as germanspeaking like the flemings or walloons does when someone ask my where they are from. I see them very often saying first I am fleming or walloon and then they say I am Belgian, we here always go straight to the point we are Belgian :)
@@Afura33 yeah it's pretty noticable that most countries don't really like their neighbours, Personally i'd call myself a Belgian way before i call myself a Fleming, i don't really like having different governments and what not, so that's something i really like about the gsc
So fries really come from Belgium and I'm Flemish and we laugh at the Walloons that they don't work and so on. We have something called "frietuur"translated : fries hour. there you only get fries with a small piece of meat and ketchup or mayonnaise. In Flanders we are also obliged to learn French in school, but the Walloons are not obliged to learn Dutch. We also have to learn German and English in school and then you can choose whether you learn Latin and in some schools you can also learn Greek
i got to say , the king should have got the military grades by official law before becoming a king ,this is also a reason why his brother did not become the king after king Albert II just a fact. he still is the head of the military...
4:06 Switzerland is a pretty good example of what you just said.. There is a French speaking region, a German speaking region, an Italian speaking region and a Romansh speaking region… In Europe, it’s absolutely normal to speak more than 1 language…It’s not weird at all 4:57 That’s the Schengen Area for ya :)) There are no borders between most European Union countries so that’s fun..it almost feels like a big “country” full of “smaller countries” lmao
French fries actually come from Belgium. American soldiers came through Belgium during the world wars, and were offered fries. But the Belgians which shared the fries spoke French. So they were actually Walloons. Some of the worst crimes committed during the colonial era, were committed in the Congo. It wasn’t actually ruled by the government of Belgium, but by king Leopold II of Belgium. Things like amputation as punishment were one of the most notable atrocities committed during that era.
I am Belgiam for sure, I was born in Belgian Congo in Léopold Villes (Kinshasa) I lived in brussels for 30 years, I moved to flanders for 10 years and I live now in Wallonia at 6 km from Luxemburg, 15km from Germany and 10km from France, is it belgian enought for you?😅 And of course, I speak flamish , french and english just in case lol. The funny thing is that my kids are born in Brussels from a french speaking father (me) and a flamish speaking mother (my ex) as they've been rased in flander they are flamish while I'm french, due to there flamish scolarity and flamich social environnement, they have a complet different mentality than mine pfiou... they now adultes and when we are together, we dont even know what langage to use, so we inconsciently use the 3 langages in the same time, that's what define Belgium actualy. Congo was in a first time the prived propiete of Leopold 2, not Belgium, he give it to us juste because all those exactions he let made and soon as the new king (Baudouin) was on the trone at the age of 18, came the independance revolution and congo became Zaire and now, god know why they rechange the name for Congo again...
Being a Belgium is actually not confusing bc we learn 2 languages in school and just like the other things from the country idk how im not confused but its just normal if ur a Belgian :)
I think the explantion of how Belgium became a country was kinda strange. It let you believe the Flemish broke away from the Netherlands and that the Walloons broke away from France. Both of them and Luxembourg were part of the Netherlands and then they splitted of.
@@galaxia4709 Yes, absolutely yes. However, what is often forgotten is that be were not a part of the netherlands for long. Only from 1815 to 1830. Before that what became belgium was briefly under french control, and before that we were the austrian netherlands, and before that the spanish netherlands. So really the area now belgium had been politically seperate from the netherlands from somewhere around 1580.
@@slome815 1815-1830 is insignificant. It's misleading, even misinformation to say Belgium was part of the Netherlands in general in history especially since people have wrong preconceived notions about BE already (1-0 for separatism/flamingantism), which you shouldn't feed imo. 1815-1830 has no true meaning in the 2000+ years of history of Belgium since its inception in the Roman Empire. During the Austrian time Belgium was called Belgium Austriacum btw, enjoying the maximum autonomy within the Austrian Empire. So, long before 1580 like you are saying. The Netherlands/Holland didn't even exist during the Roman Empire until long after in 1581 when they became the 7 United Provinces in an effort to try and unite. Saying BE was part of the Netherlands also has many other wrong implications which people will start subconsciously believing and use as ad-hoc arguments, like you see happening in this extremely biased video, the worst I have ever seen honestly.
I live in Belgium, as far as the different languages in our country go, it's pretty normal. You also learn the other language in school(altho definitely not everyone is perfectly bilingual). The politics tho confuse me too and some people have no idea what's going on i feel like hahah. I love it tho, confusing but I like it hahah
Belgian reacts: The intro's the biggest bs. It's not a part of the Netherlands and France joined together. It's a lot more complicated than that. The only part of Belgium that was French (apart from when it was occupied by the French under Napoleon) was the county of Flanders (not to be confused with present day Flanders). In fact, it is the Netherlands and France who actually hold land that should technically belong to Belgium. Writes out the Dutch (Brussel, Halle, Vilvoorde, Voeren) and German (Eupen, Sankt Vith) names and pronounces them with a bad French accent... :') That province didn't and won't happen. The German parts happened because of World War I, and historically belonged to the counties and duchies that make up Belgium, in the Dutch/Belgian enclaves they speak the same language. His little history lesson says how they were portioned long before there was a Belgium or Netherlands, but doesn't explain why they're still a thing. Also, it only matters on an administrative level, since borders are pretty much irrelevant in the EU. Why would it be confusing? :') Flemish = Dutch, Walloon = French (and the Germans were forced in with them). The communities are based on the official languages, German is an official language, Arabic isn't. Wallonia has the Walloon region government and the French and German community governments, Flanders merged the region and community governments into one, and then there's the Brussels region government. So 3 governments for 3 regions, and 2 governments for communities. And on top of that a federal government. They may be equally important in their decision making, but they don't have the same powers. Like education is done by the communities, and something like defense or justice is done by the federal government. Exceptions, where both the federal and regional governments have power, are things like finances/economy. Switzerland has 26 governments, in the USA every state has its own government with its own constitution... How is it insane to cater to people's specific needs, rather than a one size fits all? It's not like you actually notice you're being dependent on one government or the other. Because the king is a regular guy (apart from holding said office and having palaces at his disposal and stuff). Apart from appointing people to form governments, it's a ceremonial/diplomatic role. The national dish is not mussels with french fries. There is not one national dish, there are many. It's not mustard, it's a mustardy mayo (even though a good mayo will contain mustard as is, this one will have more mustard). In Belgium fries do go with everything lol (well except for foreign food). And yes fries and mayo. And we have a million other sauces than just mayo and ketchup as well. My American ex was quite partial to Andalouse and Samurai. They're french fries because they're frenched, not French fries because they're French. And no matter who created them first, we def have the biggest fries culture and make them better. Yeah, waffles in America are disgusting (kind of like every other foreign food, like Olive Garden lol). His nickname is "The muscles from Brussels", so yeah... :p Belgium didn't do anything to Congo, Congo was the private possession of the king. And it was blood rubber. There were quota of rubber that had to be reached, if they weren't reached they had to pay in hands (literally). Eventually the locals figured out it was easier to just raid other villages and chop off hands than to reach the quota. The king didn't condone this, and didn't like it, but didn't care enough to stop it because it was earning him a lot of money. So eventually the international community stepped in and told Belgium to take over. Again, no part of Belgium should belong to France, maybe Belgium and the Netherlands could be reunited to form the Seventeen provinces once more (although then parts of it would still be in France and you'd have to annex Luxemburg as well). But the last time Belgium and the Netherlands were united it took 15 years to spark a revolution and Belgium's independence. There never really was anything to unite any of it all in the first place. Any unification was because of Philip the good of Burgundy and Charles V (and his son Philip II of Spain is the reason the Netherlands exist), but too long to explain. Environmental issues like the water quality is about the rivers (and even though they're working on it it's not exactly something to worry about as a regular person), like recently there have been 2 separate scandals concerning 3M, one where they polluted the environment with PFOS, and one where they had been dumping FBSA illegally for years in the river Scheldt (like their plant in Decatur did in the Tennessee river). Same shit as in the movie Dark Waters with Mark Ruffalo. Happens everywhere, certainly when there's American companies involved, just so happens that Belgium's small and therefore what would be a problem in e.g. Maine is a problem in Belgium, or north west Texas. You have to put things in perspective. Floods, like only just recently, are a problem because idiots like to build in flood sensitive areas (not too dissimilar to people's houses getting wrecked each hurricane season in the USA).
@@imwinningthisone7613 Lol yeah. I wouldn't mind a re-unification of the Seventeen Provinces, but that would be too hard. Too much water under the bridge. Belgium and the Netherlands have two different ways of life, because Belgium retained the catholic and Burgundian lifestyle whereas the Netherlands adopted the protestant way of life. We still have many things in common, but at our core we are different. A while back there was even an article about how it's not easy for Belgians and Dutch to do business together, because the Belgians want to wine and dine (the Burgundian heritage) without even talking about business yet, whereas the Dutch just want to get straight to the point (let alone waste money on all that lavish bs). It is kind of sad though that it got split up (and stuff got lost to France, and Luxemburg's independence), cause if it had stayed a whole it would've been an economic powerhouse.
Re-reading this it made me think of how this region has always fought of foreign oppression. The county of Flanders fought against the French (sorry Flemish nationalists, it wasn't about Flemish culture, it was about money and power), there were revolts against the Burgundians, against Charles V, against Phil II it resulted in a full blown war, then there was a brief moment of independence under Austrian rule (which gave birth to the United States of Belgium, the name should already give a clue about how they didn't exactly view themselves as one entity, but as separate states joined together), and then the real independence from the Netherlands (which again, I'm sorry Flemish nationalists, wasn't because of the Walloons, even the Dutch parliamentarians spoke French to accommodate, it was because of protestantism vs catholicism and because William I was a despot, so again, same as with the Austrians (although here it was because Joseph II was an enlightened despot, which didn't rub well with the catholics either) and French before).
@@DVineMe yeah and in the end Belgium really got the short end of the stick here, atheism rates are going up in both countries (meaning that the reason for the revolution is now invalid) and Belgium is in the Netherlands' shadow, falling further and further behind.
@@imwinningthisone7613 Oh yeah, but it wasn't just about religion either, without the liberals who opposed William's despotism (which of course is irrelevant today as well) the catholics wouldn't have gotten anywhere. Still the difference in religion did shape the culture. What comes to mind right now is Rembrandt's painting of those doctors, all in their black (protestant) clothes. Catholisism fought protestantism by being flamboyant as well (Baroque anyone?) lol. (and sadly enough also by things they would've have done before) Not so sure about the latter part though, honestly I think both countries are falling behind. The Netherlands still has its name and therefore tourism and business, although Belgium has quite a few things to show tourists as well (if only Belgians were as good a salesperson). The port of Antwerp is still one of the biggest in Europe (it was the biggest one during the re-unification, maybe that's what those Flemish nationalists are after), there are Belgians working on Dubai, and so on... So on the business side it's not that bad. Belgium is still creating and influencing, just as the Netherlands, but with less of a name. Still when talking about who has anything to say in the world? Neither one. Whereas in this day and age the whole of Europe would've listened to a powerhouse such as the Seventeen Provinces.
yes as a belgian i can confirm a lot of things but they mist one thing west vlaams (it's a accent in the west of flanders) just type hoogel onto google and you will get a website making a joke about it like even for a dutch speaking person it's somtimes very hard to understand people speaking west vlaams
Typing stuff as I watch: Belgium is very complicated. When we tried to change the sound norms for airplanes in the capital (the hour at which planes could start taking off in Brussels etc.), we ended up failing because we didn't know which government was responsable and they couldn't agree about what should be done. About fries: the way I heard it, fries were invented by a Belgian living in France. And do Americans really not eat mayonnaise with them? I eat mayo with everything! (well, actually veganaise, because I'm vegan, but that's besides the point...). Coming to your guesses about Belgian colonialism: slavery, racism and patriarchy, taking everything valuable... especially chopping off hands has become a prominent symbol for the colonial regime in Belgian culture. We're not proud of it (at least most of us aren't). On a different note: keeping it together is easy if nobody understands how it works. Everybody stops everybody from touching anything, so change is slow. Nonetheless, do visit Belgium sometime. We're a fun little (but beautiful) country. :)
Thanks for this reaction 😊👍 Now, I think the logical sequel should be France. If you do it, please don't forget the French flag video. Have a good day 🙂
from a Dutch perspective: Somehow the Femisch fail to learn French (or at least they make it look like it) and the Walloon people most definitely don't speak a single word of Dutch. I guess that is why they fail to argue and stay one country. Also things get so complicated that is hard to form a government ....It can take years to get a majority-agreement in Belgium )multi party-system) (Although in recent elections we mess up quite bad in the Netherlands as well) Fries and ketchup? You're missing out! Technically at the time Fries were invented, the territory was Dutch, so technically they are Dutch Fries ;-) About colonial past of European countries: Ever figured out what the British people did to the native Americans? You still celebrate thanksgiving for those colonial things (Pequot Massacre). It was just common practice to rule the colonies with an iron fist. We sent our convicted murderers and rapists to those countries and called them soldiers. You can imagine why we're not that popular in our previous colonies. One thing that got (too) little attention : when European countries fought wars they did it in Belgium. Waterloo, almost the entire WW1, large battles in WW2....
Not quiet true: In Flanders everybody had to learn French at school. Since about 20 years that is not the case anymore for a part of the secundary schools. But yes, in Wallonia Dutch was never obligated. They are thinking about it, though.
You should try Belgian's beers... The best in the world !! There are a lot ! We got a special sense of humor too... One of the most famous movie is called "Dikkenek". You probably have seen "In Bruges" which is a movie in this wonderful town with Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson and Ralph Fiennes.. Gent is also a wonderful town which looks like Bruges because of its historical heritage (Middle Ages period) If you wanna celebrate, come in Liège inside the neighborhood called "Le carré" (The square), best place for it ! If you're in love with nature and trekking : let's see Ninglinspo, La Hoëgne, "La balade des échelles" in Rochehaut, Nisramont, etc. Let's see Durbuy, also called the smallest town in the world ! So beautiful ! Well, I can speak a lot about my country but I have to stop now 😁 let's discover yourself ! If you come in Belgium and say you're from another country, be sure you'll be receive as a king or a queen 👑 (sorry if my English is not so good)
As an 11 year old belgian girl here are some things Ive experienced. 1. We learn french beginning in 5th grade 2. We learn english in middle school (Grade 7 atlough I could speak fluently at 4) 3. U will find a frituur or a kebab place around every corner some even being next to each other. 4. It's not fries with mayo it's Mayo with fries 5. Children are worshipped here (by means there are playgrounds around every corner and having our own clubhouse KidsCafe where we get free food and drinks and get to hang out there from 14:00 to 17:00 play games outside and outside having 3 PlayStation 4's to play on inside with lots of fun events every Wednesday including bath bomb making and slime making. 6. We children never bike alone always together parting ways to where our houses are 7. Bullying? Never heard of it 8. Fights? Def heard of it.
Please don't say "strange". It isn't strange. It is just not American. Otherwise it seems like you are saying everything American is "normal" and others do "strange" things.
and just to be clear, Congo was a private colony of a former king (leopold) and he was a tyrant there, had may people killed, and hands cut off and so on.
As a belgian i dont even get the goverment only antwerp is the most important thing for me like they say in antwerp Antwerpe stad en de rest is parking
as someone who has lived all my life in belgium it makes sense to me tbh. dutch speaker = flemish, french speaker = waloon, (ignore the german speakers i never met one, probably just an urban legend honestly) north speaks dutch, soth speaks french and brussels is almost entirely french speaking. all thsoe border shenanigans don't affect us at all except for the few people who live there. maybe a few hundred/ thousand people actualy need to worry about enclaves and such. French fries are actualy belgian the french part of the name actualy refers to the way you cook them and not where the idea came from. In terms of the diamonds enslavement is a minor way of talking about it, king leopold 2 of belgium treated the congo as if it were his private plaything pretty much and he was so unimaginably brutal there that almost every colonial power told his to stop and the belgian parliament stepped in and took control from him because he was so brutal. I'm pretty sure just talking about what happened in a YT comment would violate youtube TOS but let's just say that its safe to say that congo was probably the worst treated colony at the time by a pretty big margin, in about 20 years of rule he killed 10 million people to give you an idea. Also belgium beat the record for the country with teh longest streak without a government which is like 560 days during covid which was previously already theirs because every party in belgium has both a french and dutch speaking version which means that a belgian government needs to be a coalition of at least 3 or 4 parties, up to 6 i think.
During the Corona pandemic, there was a time where there were different rules in Belgium and the Netherlands for stores. I remember seeing on tv that there was a store that was in both countries, but could only open in 1. The part in the other country was closed off.
The people from Congo where forced to work in the mines and if they don't work good enough, they cut a arm or hand of😢 so there are still people with 1 arm cuz Belgium cut them of😐 Sorry for that😔
The part about Maroccans and Congolese people is 100% right, as a fullblooded Flemming I can say even I am confused about all of the different cultures here
I’m Belgian and uhh nothing is confusing like I mean, everyone understands the way it works. It may seem hard to understand and work with but actually it’s pretty easy ngl.
well as a Belgain, the video from geography now explains everything very more complicated than it is. And yes we speak a bit of all other languages, apart of our mother language. And on the french fries, they are called french fries because in the WW2 americans came to wallonia and saw people eating fries, because they speak french there, the americans named it french fries.
I am Belgian and it is fun to see people trying to keep up with us. for us its just a simple way of living.(btw French fries were supposed to be named fun fries)
14:22 - I heard a story on a local podcast from a Belgian journalist (Luc Alloo) was filming some documentary in Africa and when he mentioned where he was from, he basically had to make a run for it, because some African people were still not over the whole Congo affair. So, yeah, not everyone has forgotten it. I believe there was some slavery here, but it was years ago, with King Leopold II, so I don't know all the details.
I am belgian and it is fun to see everybody strugling to keep up with our politics and provinces
As a Belgian, I gave up on the politics lmao
You much drama and I don't really follow the news
hey wil je met me praaten
@@evelienkrasniqi3824 ja
Which part are you all from?
@@hanakokamado6479 the first one is probably frenchspeaking belgian and the second and third ones are probably flemish
* Alien spaceship lands in Belgium *
Aliens: 'Take us to your leader!'
Belgians: '...uh...'
Non, on a le roi pour ce cas.
Fluppe
Uhm... Which one? I mean, on which level?
me ''my guy are you in for a treat''
Just take the alien to the eu I think it’s the smartest choice
We (belgians) WILL start a war about "french" fries
fr
True
Just say when
Ja man
BELGIAN FRIES
About the Congo stuff, when they were occupied, they were originally the king's possession, so he could do whatever he wanted with it. He did indeed enslave a lot of people, to work in mines or build railways. When one of them behaved badly, they lost one of their hands. So, yeah there is reason for not so happy nostalgic feelings
Congo was the personal posession of King leopold 2 (1835-1909). He was a monster to the people of Congo and to his own family He gave Congo to Belgium in 1908. Congo became independent in 1960.
The second king was famous for cutting of slaves hands so yeah....
Don't forget about the genocide.
yeah... we are not proud on that part of our history/politics
@@molbol2956 historians know than the hand cutting was not a punition, but they did that on dead body for check if the ammunition used by colonials soldiers were well use. And this was also a practice already did by tribs during war like trophy. But England use that like propaganda and know its becase a famous fake history knowledge. But it doesnt mean than belgians were cool, people had to work or they family where taken on hostages, or were punch. And we also have to dont forget than there was the Leopold II period, and belgians period, both different same if it was colony with the typical racism of this period
Some corrections from a Belgian:
- Belgium isn’t any more of an artificial country than the other European nations. But because some think that language defines whether or not a country is “artificial”, they hink that. But what is now Belgium has had quite a long shared history: in the Roman times it was a Roman province and the name for the Gallo-Germanic tribes living there was Belgae (hence the name Belgium), the Frankish Empire started in what is now Belgium and would quickly take over most of Western Europe, the Burgundian dukes united most of what is now Belgium under their rule and even tried to introduce a centralised government and monetary system, for less than a year you had United States of Belgium (a confederarcy) and finally you had the Belgian Revolution in 1830 which gave birth to Belgium.
- The linguistic communities where actually first and the regions were introduced latter. We Belgians are known to build add-ons to our houses and we did the same with our government.
- Belgian cuisine is actually one of the things that all Belgians have in common: you can find a fries stand in even the smallest of towns.
once upon a time every country was an artificial Country made for... or by... :)
nie liege jong nie liege we zijn kei artificieel
Elle ma is artificieel😂 @@maxnst.4410
Without Brussels we would have divided a long time ago. Besides it is a slow divide. The political parties already split up. Artificial it is.
@@pietervancoppenolle4749, I don’t know if you studied the history of the splitting-up of the Belgian political parties, because when you study this you’ll notice that it was more about ego’s than about cultural differences. The divide between North and South is also good for most polticians because it creates tensions which they can use to get re-elected and the numerous institutional layers create several political posts for them. If Belgium would simplify it’s federal structure by getting rid of for example the regions then a lot of politicians would lose their position of power. So it’s more complex than some politicians want us to believe.
We in Belgium have a big sence of humor because the politicians are one big joke.
Mayonaise is good with almost every dish XD
Some stuff is confusing but we are used to it.
yeah the minister of health became just a meme last year when she said blijf in uw kot
@@personperson6750 That was actually just one of the five ministers of public health.
@@SBR077 that just makes it funnier to me
Ez game Gwn even drie talen kunnen we
I tried stirring mayo in my coffee... didn't end well... 😜
Yes, fries were indeed invented in Belgium. There's confusion about this because during the war Americans got to know the dish here (in the French speaking part of our country) and because the people over there spoke French, the Americans thought it was France. Buttttttt in recent times, the 'French' fries actually refers to the way they are cut. The fries you get at like McDonalds or something are 'French fries', while 'Belgian fries' are cut way thicker. You can Google the fries and the story as well :)
No it's not the way they where cut it does play apart but it's the oil we have and our potatoes.
Fun fact : the fries that are made for mcdonalds, domino’s, and kfc across the world are made in Belgium by a Belgian company called farmfrites, my mother works there
Oof just wrote almost the same thing you wrote
yeah the snackbar fries are Belgian fries and the deep-fry or fastfood fries are French fries
It’s a linguistic mistake.
frenched fried potatoes > frenched fries > french fries
Look up: Belgium without government for 644+ days !!
We are world champions in impossible constructions.
Hahahah so true😂
* without a full federal government. As you saw in he video local governments have a lot of power. Plus when people say "no government" the old government is still in charge ntill the new one is formed. Their power is just limited it's a "care takers government". That means the are stll able to do the typical government stuff, except, they aren't allowed to changed things up, I guess.
Btw we broke our own record
@@gdbluefirre6749 twice ...
Ik had tranen in mijn ogen van ontroering toen we dat record braken van Irak.
Don't forget the saxophone also was invented in Belgium
Aaah, one of my favorite Adolfs.
and bakeliet
as a belgian, I am making mussles and french fries with mayo tonight, but I will add some mussle sauce. one thing to add to the video: belgian beers, we have thousands of beers all of them with a specific glass. We are very proud about our beers, if you haven't tried them, do so, but please use the appropriate glass it adds to the taste.
Right, how could he forget the beers 😂
Saying french fries as a belgian is a war-crime 🤣
Not much mention of Belgian beer which is really good. As a visitor non of the political stuff is very visible. It’s a beautiful country with some very pretty towns and cities and the people always seem pretty chilled and open particularly compared to the French.
I absolutely adore lachouffe
beer 100% agreed, BUT since the belgian company AB-inBev is the biggest beer company in the world (also owns things like the american Budweiser and the mexican Corona beer) its so difficult to get to drink any non-belgian beer.
@@barlim406 don’t like it? capitalism makes it happen
@@barlim406 as a Belgian I didn't even know 💀
Waffles aren’t even that big of a deal to us belgians. I mean we make good ones but they’re mostly a tourist thing. Also, even most French people will agree that fries are from Belgium. They are very much part of our cultural identity, along with beer :p you can find what we call a ‘frituur’ on almost every corner, where they only make fries and fried snacks. Mayonnaise on fries is super normal and delicious. As for the government, we all do think it’s insane and complicated…
i always take curry
@@weko6273 its very nice
true i am belgian
No, fries come from France. Of course, it is now a Belgian specialty, but their origin is French.
@@weko6273 Yes they are
for belgian people it's normal !!!
But think about this: we are with 11M people, and we have 9 different governments!!!
And YES, fries come from Belgium, they were discovered by American soldiers during WW1 in the Walloon part of Belgium These soldiers brought them to the US and since they believed that french speakers are from France, they called it french fries, but it's actually Belgian fries. We even have an original recipe that's very old (and it was carbon-date checked) which describes cooking fries in tailfat from oxes. It's actually how we still cook fries here in belgium, first fry them at 140°C till the fries start to chirp, then let the fries "sweat" out for 45 min, then fry them a second time, now at 180°C and when they start chirping again the fries are ready! (the chirping of fries is a distinct sound, if you listen closely you'll learn it very fast and never forget it) That's belgian fries for u sir!
We have six goverments, but ok. You're close.
the WW1 story is also a myth. it comes from the term "frenched" which means to cut in long strips.
Also, I hate to learn French 😭😭😭
Yes and when they have a beautiful golden color then they are perfect & crispy on the outside & soft on the inside
Mmm frit met stoofvleessaus & zoete mayonnaise 🤤
9 governments?? isnt it 3..
12:30 yes we did invet fries but since all the rich people at that time in Belgium spoke French Americans thought it was from France. Also Belgian style waffles isn’t a thing you have 2 types in Belgium: Luikse wafel/gaufre de Liège and Brusselse wafel/ gaufre de Bruxelles u can look it up both are popular but I think “Belgian style” is the one from Luik/Liège😅
I'm a Flemish Belgian. The sauce that goes with mussels is a mixture of mayo with mustard
VROEGER WAS DE ECHTE MOSSELSOUS MOSTARDE EN AZIJN
Mayonnaise in US is not mayonnaise x)
Greetings from Brussels
En WA mosselsaus bij😊
Absoluty not. Mayonnaise is Moutarde with egg and oil
Exactly 💯👍
Almost everyone in Europe can speak at least two languages (the first foreign language would be English in most of the countries) and many are able to have a simple conversation in up to three to five languages :)
i still dont know why the avarage language speak in America is 0.8
Except from the poles haha
@ babies, who I heard should start speaking at age 4 in America, wtf I was speaking way earlier
Belgium beer helloo beer
@@officialzelensky children start speaking anywhere between 12 and 18 months usually...
I’m Belgian and I love to see this kind of videos it’s so funny to see you struggling with our politics and so on😂❤
@@Jill.Willems your right it's zo funny
As everyone struggles with it, even us Belgians 😉
... but we just don't care and laugh at it ... and pay for it 😉😂
Well the Belgian king owned the congo personally instead of it being owned by the country of belgium for quite some time. This caused a rather extreme approach to managing the local economy which can be summed up as this: If you don't farm enough of the materials and goods we want you to gather a portion of your town's population gets their hands chopped off.
The chopped off hands came from the militia that had to shoot every bullet on target with as proof the hand of the person, but because they didn't alwayt hit the target they had to get a hand form someone else.
It was called the Rubber Terror (more like a genocide, actually). I'm not so sure the Congolese resent Belgium all that much, for most it's water under the bridge. Also, the country became kind of a hellhole once the Belgians left, with civil wars and other problems.
Leopold II was a bad king
We kild 16 million Congolees peopel so yeah
@UCoAketYorSEbfB3e6lEPhjA we???? My grandparents always worked hard for what they had.
The King did those horrible things in Congo.
Go somewhere else with your missplaced sense of guilt.
The craziest part is the language. We learn a generalized language for each region in school, but it's mostly used in letters and in the media. you can go to the neighbouring town and will not understand anything they're saying, even if it's just 5km apart
You learn the language at school and speak dialect at home or with friends.
It's is like that everywhere ... Germany, Netherlands, UK, France, ... etc
the sauce with the mussles isnt actually mayonnaise although we love our mayo with fries. It's called "muscle sauce", a combination of mayo with mustard and some mussel broth.
Btw, I think we are champion in having a multitude of sauces that we eat with our fries, we are proud of our "fries shops" (only sells fries and snacks) and you can choose between 15-2 different sauces.
Also we have like 7 governments but only 6 are active (don't ask) and we are also 1 of the best countries in the world if you like paying taxes.
You also have compulsory voting, don't you? Although quite a lot of you try to get away with not voting, right?
@@robertwilloughby8050yes, voting is compulsory here. You can be fined if you don't vote. People who who still don't vote make up less then 20% of the voting pool, if I'm not mistaken. We have what is called the "white vote" for undecided people to be able to comply with the law and go vote even if they don't know for who.
As a Flemish Belgian, I 'll give it a try a explain a few things.
First of al Belgium is a constitunial monarchy and that's the reason why the king has no crown. He is sworn in in the parlement and does a oath there when he becomes a king (like the president does when he becomes president). A King who's crowned gets is power from God or did so in the past, in the most cases, it's a tradition from early days, but Belgium is a relative young country, so that tradition didn't exist. In 1830 we had a very liberal constitution for that time period and the German prince that became our first king (Leopold I) wasn't to happy about that.
On to the difficult political structure. The King is the head of state, leader of the army (officialy a four star general) and has some function when the federal goverment is formed.
Belgium has on paper 7 parliaments but defacto 6:
The federal parliament
The Flemish parliament
The Waloon parliament
The Brussels capitol region parliament
The French community parliament
The German community parliament
The Flemish community parliament
Because there is no other community living in the Flemish region, the Flemish parliament and the Flemisj community parliament, became one parliament, the Flemish parliament.
The federal parliament and goverment is responsible for: foreing affairs, economics, pensions, social securitiy and public health, finance and economics, justice and defence (more or less, it's a little bit more complex then that)
The regions are responsible for non cultural things like: environment, traffic, work, ... . Things that are territorial.
The communities are responsible for cultural things like: education, culture, sports, youth, ... . Things that are influenced by language.
Sometimes there are discussion over witch goverment is responsible for what, like economics and work does have some resembling issues. So we have standard procedures, to solve conflicts about that.
The world didn't understand how we kept functioning as a country without a federal goverment for 541 days, like you see, it was just one of our 6 goverments.
Any more questions about Belgium, feel free to ask.
Friendly greetings,
Nick
Another thing about functionning without government. We had one. It just wasn't allowed to start new projects. They still opperate on urgent matters , mainly international matters. It's the legislative projects side that grinds to a halt.
Small correction, there aren't 7 governments, but 6. The Flemish and Flemish community parliaments merged a while ago
@@TheTrueAltoClef that's what he said...
@@irissupercoolsy no he said "de facto 6" meaning there are 7, but in practice there are 6. That's wrong because there are literally 6 governments, there isn't a 7th one
Our first king was a "german" prince (Saxen-Coburg) who was the widow of the princess of Wales and remarried the daughter of the French king, so perfect for our neigbours, except the Netherlands ! The only problem, he was not catholic but he learn to compromise.
Hello from Belgium. I identify myself as Belgian, not Flemish or Walloon. My father’s first language was French and my mother’s Flemish (Dutch). And I married a guy from Brussels 😁
I call this country Absurdistan, but the only thing that drives me really crazy are politicians.
The most complex thing living here is the tax form.
And by the way, here there is no such thing as Belgian waffles. We have Brussels waffles and Liège waffles.
Thank you! Same here, I'm Belgian, not Flemish! It can get complicated, but you're just so used to it, it doesn't even register half of the time. I hope we stay together and don't let the nationalist win the splitting up of our beautiful little country!
I spent a year in southern Belgium. Pom Frittes (fries) are awesome. Mayo or sauce Andalouse on the fries. Best beer in the world. The people are super nice.
You forgot about Belgian beer. The best beers in the world are brewed in hundreds of breweries.
actually a quick google search proves that germany has the best beer
HELP I DID NOT MEAN TO SOUND SO NERDY😭😭
@@GothicRoxy Yeah germany have good pils but in belgium we have the best strong beer
@@GothicRoxy Germany has the best beer if you're only allowed three ingredients.
Belgium beer has a lot more tastes and variety.
The Belgian flag originally had horizontal stripes with red at the top, yellow in the middle and black at the bottom.
The banner of honor reads 1830 in the middle and was awarded to cities in limited editions. The most, 9 in total, were awarded in the province of Antwerp.
I live in Belgium, it's not an issue living here. I'm used to being in a complex country. I fluently speak Dutch, French, German and English ( all because of school, if you failed on your languages you couldn't graduate).
If you ever were to visit Belgium, I'd gladly give you a tour and help with translating everything since there are roughly 100 dialects that are hard to understand to foreigners but easy to understand if you've been born here like me.
ik woon in vlaanderen en er zijn teveel franse mensen. Ben onlangs naar een ander stad verhuist maar er zijn nog steeds teveel franse mensen. Vlaanderen = nederlands en Walonie zou frans moeten zijn, dit snappen de mensen niet goed waardoor ik mij elke dag een toerist voel in mijn eigen dorp.
@@infinityredDot Hmm, de taalvaardigheid en spelling van het Nederlands is toch nog niet helemaal je dat zo blijkt. Hoofdletters, spellings- en dt-fouten, er is nog werk aan.
@@patrickverhaeghe Dan heb je mensen die naar taalfouten kijken. Je zou beter om je heen kijken als je op straat loopt en kijken waar het geld van je belastingen naartoe gaat :)
I am a Belgian to , but if you live here , it is not so complicated
@@infinityredDot Ga dan in Nederland wonen zb
Jean-Claude Van Damme originally came from my hometown Knokke. I now live in Blankenberge.
For work-related purposes I once met his parents and they are extremely kind and humble people.
We are pretty serious about our mayonnaise. Until recently, the essential ingredients and their dosage were written in the LAW!
Lots of us Flemish civilians speak 4 languages; dutch (mother language Flanders) , French, German, and English.
WE are the creators of frites!
We had a king that looted Congo and became a top5 mass-killer.
All of the gouvernements drain our national treasure.
Greets from Belgium.
the first "french fries" was in 1680 where the locals were particularly fond of fried fish when the river froze over a cold winter people osensibly fried potatoes instead of small fish in the shape of a fish and the first fry was born then it became an adiction and BOOM
and imho Belgian fries with Belgian Mayonaise is the best street food in the world.....
I never use mayonnaise in another country though. It's just not good.
@Ronny Seffinga: I’m from Holland and I totally agree!
@@johnmulder6362Many prefer 'Hollandse' mayonnaise though and joppisaus is one of the few things Dutch cuisine did well! 😋
Belgium has the world record for longest country without a governent
And the previous country that had the world record of not having a government was ... Belgium. We made it a bit harder in case someone realy must have that title ... (no worries at the same time the 5 other governments were in seat)
Belgian was being sold on Ebay because of it even ;-)
As said before by Frahamen: * without a full federal government. As you saw in he video local governments have a lot of power. Plus when people say "no government" the old government is still in charge ntill the new one is formed. Their power is just limited it's a "care takers government". That means the are stll able to do the typical government stuff, except, they aren't allowed to changed things up,
8 of June 2024 we had an election in Belgium again we are without a Government. That’s wen Belgium works best.
I'm Belgian, and our country doesn't make sense in a lot of ways. Maybe that's why Belgium is considered by many to be the cradle of the surrealist art stream. But we make it work. While the rest of Europe falls apart through world wars and international treaties, somehow we stick together, even with political forces inside our country trying to push us apart. I think the best explanation is that Belgium is too complicated to split. Like a puzzle too complicated to unravel, so we might as well keep it together and try to perfect the picture, even though perfection is impossible with all the cracks between the pieces... Where would we go anyway, without Belgium? Join France, Germany, the Netherlands or the UK? Nah, we'll be fine on our complicated own. Teaching the world a lesson in diplomacy.
Im from belgium! Its awesome to see you learn about my home place :D
About the fries: there is also the story that the potatoes are cut in little stripes, or fringed. Which could have been misunderstood by the Americans while liberating the south of Belgium.
About the mayo: Mayonnaise is supposed to taste a little tart. The acidity fits the fries. Do not choose the Dutch one (From the Netherlands) which sugar has been added on. The side sauce we serve with mussels is not 100% mayonnaise, Add some extra mustard to the mayo to dip the mussels.
I had a comparitive constitutional law course in college and we spend half on it on Belgium. According to my teacher every other country would be easy once we understood this one 😅
I don't know anything about governments in other countries. Is it so easy? I think this is okay
lol
I have lived here for 54 years and still do not have a clue😊
The sauce with the mussels is not just mayonnaise, it is usually a combination with mustard. In Roman times, the country of the "Belgae" was much larger than today. Let's not forget that Belgium is called the battlefield of Europe because of WW I and WWII.
In Belgium, we have a proverb which says: if someone explains to you how Belgium works, and you tell them that you understood, it is certainly because they explained it to you badly.
I live in Belgium and a guilty pleasure of mine is to go to places where there are a lot of tourists and I love to see them struggle to get all of that
Currently Belgium holds the record for country longest run withouth goverment.
The only thing I can say, Belgium was run better when there was no goverment, cause the goverment just does not make sense.
Most of the time the leading party does not get enough vote, then the other parties gang up (however they all have different values) to win a place in the goverment.
Our goverment doesnt only consist of 7 different goverments, it also has multiple parties running in the same goverment-branch.
Also we have different parties for the french speaking and the dutch speaking, which need to communicate with eachother for the federal goverment.
Belgians really just do whatever and it seems to work 🤣
Greetings from Belgium
Just as an FYI: Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde doesn't exist anymore as it was deemed unconstitutional (long story but it had to do with voting lists). The Eupen-Sankt-Vith province still doesn't exist (and it's unlikely it will in the near future).
And the mussels are fantastic!!!
Fries were created in Belgium but in the French speaking part so you guys called it French fries. XD
Also the tap water is perfectly clean and drinkable. Maybe it's about the rivers and lakes IDK.
yeah right the tap water thing i dont understand, i lived in berlin there was the water not good. but on my hometown on belgium very good
The guy that showed American troops how to make fries (first cook them in oil until soft at a low temp, cool down, then crisp up in a higher temp oil)
spoke French, but was from Belgium.
Actually, there are no Belgian waffles, we have Waffles from Liege and Waffles from Brussels, very different.
The "mayo" with the mussels is most often mixed with some mustard and called "mossel saus" :)
The sauce in the picture of the mussels and fries is actually "mosselsaus" or mussels sauce, its a very specific thign that you jsut dip the mussels in
@jimgames: the best musselsauce is from "De Kroon" ❤ If you wanna come to Belgium we will throw you a Belgium in 4 hours party 😂 with the best beers with mussels and fries!!! You will never wanna get back again!!!
The fries are baked in refined beef fat thats what gives it that crispy and less greasy taste and Congo is one of those unspoken bad things we did to the congolese people. as far asz the regions and languages we do learn dutch and french at school so its not really a thing here when we go from flanders to wallonia.
the story of the french fries goes like this. in the First World War, the English and the Americans were introduced to French fries by French-speaking Belgians. for example, the English and the Americans thought that the fries come from France, but NO, that's how they come from Belgium.
still an Anglo-Saxon urban legend, the truth is that the fries appeared in the north of France and the south of Belgium, given the cultural and linguistic proximity of these two regions, in the same moments without the we know with certainty who was the first creator
Yeah that's not what happened at all. Since consumption of the potato was popularized in france around the time of the revolution, it's likely that the French were also the first to fry it, although the exact origins are unclear.
Apart from the origin story: french fries comes from frenchED fries, since the potatoes are frenched and then fried.
Tweede wereld oorlog
Hey, I am from Belgium and it’s really not so confusing lol (I speak Dutch and I am from Flanders🇧🇪)
@ Wow zo grappig maar jammer genoeg niet nee
eigenlijk best wel, ik heb is onze politieke situatie proberen uitleggen aan een erasmus student. dan realiseert ge u pas hoe verwarrend het is
I am from Belgium 🇧🇪 and this is my reaction
Yes our political stuff is weird and confusing but we’re kindly used to it
Yes we have some amazing Belgian writers from cartoons but also just novels
Mussels and fries our the BEST combination and some people eat mussel sauce by it
And YES fries ARE from Belgium and some weirdo called them french but that is OUR food!
And I personally HATE what Belgium 🇧🇪 did to Congo. It is the worst and you don’t even wanna know. But there are a lot of docomantaires about it
Fries and Mayo are here THE combo!
So that’s quite it😊
I am Belgian and you nailed it quite well. During the covid pandemic, was really great, since Belgium and The Netherlands had different policies. This meant some shops on the border were open, but customers were not allowed in certain parts and/or sections of the store.
I am Flemish, but my father was Walloon and his mother, so my paternal grandmother was German. Sums it a bit up.
-We have our fair share of political issues and bureaucratic nonsense. But most of the time it doesn't matter and it's actually nice that things are broken up into more local governance.
-We don't eat mussels with mayo. It's a sauce made with mustard, a bit of the cooking liquid, mayo to soften the taste and perhaps some white vinegar depending on the recipe.
-The Franco-Belgian comic tradition is huge and worth looking into. Some well-known ones are TinTin, Smurfs, Lucky Luke. Asterix is also a well-known one from the same tradition, but that one's French.
-Fries origin is disputed. But regardless of the origin of fries, I do believe the name "French fries" does not refer to the origin but to the cut style. "To french" means to cut vegetables in thin slices, aka julienning. This thin style of fries did originate in France and is also the most popular in the US, and when they're thick you call them "steak fries". The UK consequently does not use the term "french fries", because they don't traditionally eat french-cut fries, they eat thick fries which they call "chips".
-One of our kings, Leopold 2, wanted to join the other European countries in the race to colonize Africa of the 19th century, but the Belgian government didn't want to. So he went behind the government's back and turned the region into his own private property called "Congo Free State", he treated its population as his labor force to coerce as he saw fit. The region was massively exploited for its resources (eg. rubber plantations) and labor. Many Congolese people died (estimated between 1 and 15 million deaths) and suffered. eg. There were quotas set, and if the Congolese workers didn't meet the quotas then Leopold II's private army would chop off their hands.
Then later the Belgian government called an end to it and expropriated Congo from Leopold 2, which then became Belgian Congo. Around this time the gold, copper and diamond mines got set up, of which the wealth obviously did not go to the Congolese people. And although the atrocities weren't as bad as they were under Leopold 2, they were still pretty bad as companies still had a lot of freedom in how they could treat their workers.
Okay, genuine question from a Belgian here. You were surprised to see fries with mussels. If you guys don't eat fries at the side, what do you eat instead? Or do you just eat the mussels on its own? Never thought the combination wasn't the usual thing people do so I'm interested at how you guys eat it haha
Allo from a coastal Florida town in the US. Mussels we eat here with pasta and lemon and white wine butter sauce. And garlic bread. But that’s probably just local… I just started dating a Belgian guy, didn’t know about the mayonnaise thing until he told me how much he loves cauliflower with Mayo😂 wonderful country wonderful people and great food. Much love for Belgium!
@@sarahwitherell2000 If you are still dating the Belgian guy, cauliflower with mayo isn't considered totally normal in Belgium either. It would rather be acceptable with cold served cauliflower, otherwise a white cream or cheese sauce would be preferred. With grated cheese as a topping and you can also put all that in the oven for a nice cheesy crust.
Beside our fries and chocolate, we have the best beer in the world! I could recomend Duvel, Leffe, Grimbergen, Tripel Kermeliet, La Chouffe Blonde D'ardenne, ...
ah, eindelijk iets belangrijk!
Grimbergen!!! Mijn merk
Every town has it's own beer almost
Fries are french
Orval
in Belgium if you live in the dutch part, you will at least be able to speak dutch, French, English and a bit of German. Schools lay heavy focus on language here
that is also common in the Netherlands although French and German are depending on the level of education but French has a minimum of 2 years and if you do a higher education you have already had 1 year of german and can choose between french and german.
Belgium doesn't have a dutch part though
@Flopjul. It's very different in the Netherlands. You don't know what truly being bilingual means, neither do you have any genuine kingship with Romanesque culture (all of Belgium), French language, or France. Yes you're pretending, I know, I live in the Netherlands and notice you are kinda trying to be Belgium by appropriating its language, culture even to the point of cultural identity. I know you are unaware of it because it is done in complete silence. Meanwhile degrading Belgium out loud on a regular basis.
@@galaxia4709 How does Beligum not have a dutch speaking part??? Ever heard of Flanders?
@@maximee.583 You said Belgium would have a dutch part. A big no-no. Flemish speaking region is more than good enough
him: 'this is so confusing'
we belgians: 'What is confusing?'
45% of Belgians take mayo with their fries while only 12% takes ketchup. 22% takes tartar sauce (derived from mayo), 18% takes Flemish stew sauce, and the rest takes another sauce.
Our government doesn't even know what going on. But hey Belgium is a great county, we have a social system and shit :p.
I´m Belgian from the 1 %Part german speaking, and i love my Country so much. i love the wallons, and the flemish peoples. And our Football, the fries the humour and belgian lifestyle. we have invented the french fries, not the french ;) Thanks for your sympatic video
Im belgian from limburg. I love wallonia and especially the german side! I dont consider myself flemish, but Belgian. Respect!
@@wimjanssen7182 I don't consider myself neither, but Limburgish. XD
I am from the german speaking part of Belgium and I love my country Belgium 🇧🇪 . Don't worry if you do not understand much about belgian politics, even we don't understand it, I think noone does =)
first german belgian ive ever seen, thought you guys didn't exist
@@Thanadeez hehe yea 80 000 are not much 😃
@@Afura33 fr but aye, 80k is still a lot of people if you think about it, by the way, how's the german community's opinion on Germany? personally im from flanders and im interested cuz well we got the whole german speaking region after WW1 so
@@Thanadeez We do have the same bad opinion about the germans as the flemings have about the dutch and the walloons about the french, so a not so good opinion lol. If you ask me this mostly stems from ww2 when the germans invaded the country, annexed the germanspeaking part and destroyed the whole city St.Vith. I remember my grand parents telling me when the germans came, they forced everyone to collaborate with them or they took you as prisoner, shot you or killed your family. But yea this is the past now :) but the opinion about the germans hasn't change so much. However while traveling a lot I realized that in a lot of countries people don't have a very good opinion about their direct neighboors in general lol, seems to be a worldwide phenomenon. Like a lot of others here I am personally not attracted to germany at all, the only thing I share is the language and that's it, but I do also speak french from school maybe that makes a bit of a difference I don't know. We also do not identify as germanspeaking like the flemings or walloons does when someone ask my where they are from. I see them very often saying first I am fleming or walloon and then they say I am Belgian, we here always go straight to the point we are Belgian :)
@@Afura33 yeah it's pretty noticable that most countries don't really like their neighbours, Personally i'd call myself a Belgian way before i call myself a Fleming, i don't really like having different governments and what not, so that's something i really like about the gsc
So fries really come from Belgium and I'm Flemish and we laugh at the Walloons that they don't work and so on. We have something called "frietuur"translated : fries hour. there you only get fries with a small piece of meat and ketchup or mayonnaise. In Flanders we are also obliged to learn French in school, but the Walloons are not obliged to learn Dutch. We also have to learn German and English in school and then you can choose whether you learn Latin and in some schools you can also learn Greek
i got to say , the king should have got the military grades by official law before becoming a king ,this is also a reason why his brother did not become the king after king Albert II
just a fact. he still is the head of the military...
4:06 Switzerland is a pretty good example of what you just said.. There is a French speaking region, a German speaking region, an Italian speaking region and a Romansh speaking region…
In Europe, it’s absolutely normal to speak more than 1 language…It’s not weird at all
4:57 That’s the Schengen Area for ya :)) There are no borders between most European Union countries so that’s fun..it almost feels like a big “country” full of “smaller countries” lmao
yeah, a big portion of the world has countries with more than one official language... It's weird that he is surprised by that?
French fries actually come from Belgium. American soldiers came through Belgium during the world wars, and were offered fries. But the Belgians which shared the fries spoke French. So they were actually Walloons.
Some of the worst crimes committed during the colonial era, were committed in the Congo. It wasn’t actually ruled by the government of Belgium, but by king Leopold II of Belgium. Things like amputation as punishment were one of the most notable atrocities committed during that era.
I am Belgiam for sure, I was born in Belgian Congo in Léopold Villes (Kinshasa) I lived in brussels for 30 years, I moved to flanders for 10 years and I live now in Wallonia at 6 km from Luxemburg, 15km from Germany and 10km from France, is it belgian enought for you?😅 And of course, I speak flamish , french and english just in case lol. The funny thing is that my kids are born in Brussels from a french speaking father (me) and a flamish speaking mother (my ex) as they've been rased in flander they are flamish while I'm french, due to there flamish scolarity and flamich social environnement, they have a complet different mentality than mine pfiou... they now adultes and when we are together, we dont even know what langage to use, so we inconsciently use the 3 langages in the same time, that's what define Belgium actualy. Congo was in a first time the prived propiete of Leopold 2, not Belgium, he give it to us juste because all those exactions he let made and soon as the new king (Baudouin) was on the trone at the age of 18, came the independance revolution and congo became Zaire and now, god know why they rechange the name for Congo again...
Being a Belgium is actually not confusing bc we learn 2 languages in school and just like the other things from the country idk how im not confused but its just normal if ur a Belgian :)
I am also from Belgium and it is nice to see that someone is looking at Belgium cuz it is so small no one talks about it
I think the explantion of how Belgium became a country was kinda strange. It let you believe the Flemish broke away from the Netherlands and that the Walloons broke away from France. Both of them and Luxembourg were part of the Netherlands and then they splitted of.
Euh. No. Absolutely not.
@@galaxia4709 Look at a map from 1814-1830 or read up on the congress of Vienna.
@@galaxia4709 Yes, absolutely yes. However, what is often forgotten is that be were not a part of the netherlands for long. Only from 1815 to 1830. Before that what became belgium was briefly under french control, and before that we were the austrian netherlands, and before that the spanish netherlands. So really the area now belgium had been politically seperate from the netherlands from somewhere around 1580.
@@slome815 1815-1830 is insignificant. It's misleading, even misinformation to say Belgium was part of the Netherlands in general in history especially since people have wrong preconceived notions about BE already (1-0 for separatism/flamingantism), which you shouldn't feed imo. 1815-1830 has no true meaning in the 2000+ years of history of Belgium since its inception in the Roman Empire. During the Austrian time Belgium was called Belgium Austriacum btw, enjoying the maximum autonomy within the Austrian Empire.
So, long before 1580 like you are saying. The Netherlands/Holland didn't even exist during the Roman Empire until long after in 1581 when they became the 7 United Provinces in an effort to try and unite.
Saying BE was part of the Netherlands also has many other wrong implications which people will start subconsciously believing and use as ad-hoc arguments, like you see happening in this extremely biased video, the worst I have ever seen honestly.
I live in Belgium, as far as the different languages in our country go, it's pretty normal. You also learn the other language in school(altho definitely not everyone is perfectly bilingual). The politics tho confuse me too and some people have no idea what's going on i feel like hahah. I love it tho, confusing but I like it hahah
same!! And a big portion of the world has countries with more than one official language? Even Canada... So why does he find it so weird?
Belgian reacts: The intro's the biggest bs. It's not a part of the Netherlands and France joined together. It's a lot more complicated than that. The only part of Belgium that was French (apart from when it was occupied by the French under Napoleon) was the county of Flanders (not to be confused with present day Flanders). In fact, it is the Netherlands and France who actually hold land that should technically belong to Belgium.
Writes out the Dutch (Brussel, Halle, Vilvoorde, Voeren) and German (Eupen, Sankt Vith) names and pronounces them with a bad French accent... :')
That province didn't and won't happen.
The German parts happened because of World War I, and historically belonged to the counties and duchies that make up Belgium, in the Dutch/Belgian enclaves they speak the same language. His little history lesson says how they were portioned long before there was a Belgium or Netherlands, but doesn't explain why they're still a thing. Also, it only matters on an administrative level, since borders are pretty much irrelevant in the EU.
Why would it be confusing? :') Flemish = Dutch, Walloon = French (and the Germans were forced in with them).
The communities are based on the official languages, German is an official language, Arabic isn't. Wallonia has the Walloon region government and the French and German community governments, Flanders merged the region and community governments into one, and then there's the Brussels region government. So 3 governments for 3 regions, and 2 governments for communities. And on top of that a federal government.
They may be equally important in their decision making, but they don't have the same powers. Like education is done by the communities, and something like defense or justice is done by the federal government. Exceptions, where both the federal and regional governments have power, are things like finances/economy.
Switzerland has 26 governments, in the USA every state has its own government with its own constitution... How is it insane to cater to people's specific needs, rather than a one size fits all? It's not like you actually notice you're being dependent on one government or the other.
Because the king is a regular guy (apart from holding said office and having palaces at his disposal and stuff). Apart from appointing people to form governments, it's a ceremonial/diplomatic role.
The national dish is not mussels with french fries. There is not one national dish, there are many. It's not mustard, it's a mustardy mayo (even though a good mayo will contain mustard as is, this one will have more mustard).
In Belgium fries do go with everything lol (well except for foreign food). And yes fries and mayo. And we have a million other sauces than just mayo and ketchup as well. My American ex was quite partial to Andalouse and Samurai.
They're french fries because they're frenched, not French fries because they're French. And no matter who created them first, we def have the biggest fries culture and make them better.
Yeah, waffles in America are disgusting (kind of like every other foreign food, like Olive Garden lol).
His nickname is "The muscles from Brussels", so yeah... :p
Belgium didn't do anything to Congo, Congo was the private possession of the king. And it was blood rubber. There were quota of rubber that had to be reached, if they weren't reached they had to pay in hands (literally). Eventually the locals figured out it was easier to just raid other villages and chop off hands than to reach the quota. The king didn't condone this, and didn't like it, but didn't care enough to stop it because it was earning him a lot of money. So eventually the international community stepped in and told Belgium to take over.
Again, no part of Belgium should belong to France, maybe Belgium and the Netherlands could be reunited to form the Seventeen provinces once more (although then parts of it would still be in France and you'd have to annex Luxemburg as well). But the last time Belgium and the Netherlands were united it took 15 years to spark a revolution and Belgium's independence. There never really was anything to unite any of it all in the first place. Any unification was because of Philip the good of Burgundy and Charles V (and his son Philip II of Spain is the reason the Netherlands exist), but too long to explain.
Environmental issues like the water quality is about the rivers (and even though they're working on it it's not exactly something to worry about as a regular person), like recently there have been 2 separate scandals concerning 3M, one where they polluted the environment with PFOS, and one where they had been dumping FBSA illegally for years in the river Scheldt (like their plant in Decatur did in the Tennessee river). Same shit as in the movie Dark Waters with Mark Ruffalo. Happens everywhere, certainly when there's American companies involved, just so happens that Belgium's small and therefore what would be a problem in e.g. Maine is a problem in Belgium, or north west Texas. You have to put things in perspective.
Floods, like only just recently, are a problem because idiots like to build in flood sensitive areas (not too dissimilar to people's houses getting wrecked each hurricane season in the USA).
That whole "why dont they just rejoin France and Netherlands?" Question really pissed me off every time i hear it lmao
@@imwinningthisone7613 Lol yeah. I wouldn't mind a re-unification of the Seventeen Provinces, but that would be too hard. Too much water under the bridge. Belgium and the Netherlands have two different ways of life, because Belgium retained the catholic and Burgundian lifestyle whereas the Netherlands adopted the protestant way of life. We still have many things in common, but at our core we are different. A while back there was even an article about how it's not easy for Belgians and Dutch to do business together, because the Belgians want to wine and dine (the Burgundian heritage) without even talking about business yet, whereas the Dutch just want to get straight to the point (let alone waste money on all that lavish bs).
It is kind of sad though that it got split up (and stuff got lost to France, and Luxemburg's independence), cause if it had stayed a whole it would've been an economic powerhouse.
Re-reading this it made me think of how this region has always fought of foreign oppression. The county of Flanders fought against the French (sorry Flemish nationalists, it wasn't about Flemish culture, it was about money and power), there were revolts against the Burgundians, against Charles V, against Phil II it resulted in a full blown war, then there was a brief moment of independence under Austrian rule (which gave birth to the United States of Belgium, the name should already give a clue about how they didn't exactly view themselves as one entity, but as separate states joined together), and then the real independence from the Netherlands (which again, I'm sorry Flemish nationalists, wasn't because of the Walloons, even the Dutch parliamentarians spoke French to accommodate, it was because of protestantism vs catholicism and because William I was a despot, so again, same as with the Austrians (although here it was because Joseph II was an enlightened despot, which didn't rub well with the catholics either) and French before).
@@DVineMe yeah and in the end Belgium really got the short end of the stick here, atheism rates are going up in both countries (meaning that the reason for the revolution is now invalid) and Belgium is in the Netherlands' shadow, falling further and further behind.
@@imwinningthisone7613 Oh yeah, but it wasn't just about religion either, without the liberals who opposed William's despotism (which of course is irrelevant today as well) the catholics wouldn't have gotten anywhere. Still the difference in religion did shape the culture. What comes to mind right now is Rembrandt's painting of those doctors, all in their black (protestant) clothes. Catholisism fought protestantism by being flamboyant as well (Baroque anyone?) lol. (and sadly enough also by things they would've have done before)
Not so sure about the latter part though, honestly I think both countries are falling behind. The Netherlands still has its name and therefore tourism and business, although Belgium has quite a few things to show tourists as well (if only Belgians were as good a salesperson). The port of Antwerp is still one of the biggest in Europe (it was the biggest one during the re-unification, maybe that's what those Flemish nationalists are after), there are Belgians working on Dubai, and so on... So on the business side it's not that bad. Belgium is still creating and influencing, just as the Netherlands, but with less of a name. Still when talking about who has anything to say in the world? Neither one. Whereas in this day and age the whole of Europe would've listened to a powerhouse such as the Seventeen Provinces.
yes as a belgian i can confirm a lot of things but they mist one thing west vlaams (it's a accent in the west of flanders) just type hoogel onto google and you will get a website making a joke about it
like even for a dutch speaking person it's somtimes very hard to understand people speaking west vlaams
What they mean by french fries are french meaning thin striped potatos or that english soldiers tastes fries in french then caled it the french fries!
Typing stuff as I watch: Belgium is very complicated. When we tried to change the sound norms for airplanes in the capital (the hour at which planes could start taking off in Brussels etc.), we ended up failing because we didn't know which government was responsable and they couldn't agree about what should be done. About fries: the way I heard it, fries were invented by a Belgian living in France. And do Americans really not eat mayonnaise with them? I eat mayo with everything! (well, actually veganaise, because I'm vegan, but that's besides the point...). Coming to your guesses about Belgian colonialism: slavery, racism and patriarchy, taking everything valuable... especially chopping off hands has become a prominent symbol for the colonial regime in Belgian culture. We're not proud of it (at least most of us aren't). On a different note: keeping it together is easy if nobody understands how it works. Everybody stops everybody from touching anything, so change is slow. Nonetheless, do visit Belgium sometime. We're a fun little (but beautiful) country. :)
Thanks for this reaction 😊👍
Now, I think the logical sequel should be France. If you do it, please don't forget the French flag video.
Have a good day 🙂
4:12 we learn French Dutch English German
But not at the same time.
We dont learn german? And in wallonia it isnt necessary to learn dutch, yet
Did you know we Belgians made the French fries
We don't think we invented fries. We know. The Americans in WO2 just didn't know that Belgium had french speaking people
Ye no ones know that we made fries !!!FRIETEN!!!!
As a Belgian I LOVE THESE VIDEOS😂
Fun Fact about our previous king: In 1990 they had to depose him from the throne for 1 day because he did not want to sign off on the abortion law
from a Dutch perspective:
Somehow the Femisch fail to learn French (or at least they make it look like it) and the Walloon people most definitely don't speak a single word of Dutch.
I guess that is why they fail to argue and stay one country. Also things get so complicated that is hard to form a government ....It can take years to get a majority-agreement in Belgium )multi party-system) (Although in recent elections we mess up quite bad in the Netherlands as well)
Fries and ketchup? You're missing out! Technically at the time Fries were invented, the territory was Dutch, so technically they are Dutch Fries ;-)
About colonial past of European countries: Ever figured out what the British people did to the native Americans? You still celebrate thanksgiving for those colonial things (Pequot Massacre). It was just common practice to rule the colonies with an iron fist. We sent our convicted murderers and rapists to those countries and called them soldiers. You can imagine why we're not that popular in our previous colonies.
One thing that got (too) little attention : when European countries fought wars they did it in Belgium. Waterloo, almost the entire WW1, large battles in WW2....
Not quiet true: In Flanders everybody had to learn French at school. Since about 20 years that is not the case anymore for a part of the secundary schools. But yes, in Wallonia Dutch was never obligated. They are thinking about it, though.
You should try Belgian's beers... The best in the world !! There are a lot !
We got a special sense of humor too... One of the most famous movie is called "Dikkenek".
You probably have seen "In Bruges" which is a movie in this wonderful town with Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson and Ralph Fiennes.. Gent is also a wonderful town which looks like Bruges because of its historical heritage (Middle Ages period)
If you wanna celebrate, come in Liège inside the neighborhood called "Le carré" (The square), best place for it !
If you're in love with nature and trekking : let's see Ninglinspo, La Hoëgne, "La balade des échelles" in Rochehaut, Nisramont, etc.
Let's see Durbuy, also called the smallest town in the world ! So beautiful !
Well, I can speak a lot about my country but I have to stop now 😁 let's discover yourself !
If you come in Belgium and say you're from another country, be sure you'll be receive as a king or a queen 👑 (sorry if my English is not so good)
As an 11 year old belgian girl here are some things Ive experienced.
1. We learn french beginning in 5th grade
2. We learn english in middle school (Grade 7 atlough I could speak fluently at 4)
3. U will find a frituur or a kebab place around every corner some even being next to each other.
4. It's not fries with mayo it's Mayo with fries
5. Children are worshipped here (by means there are playgrounds around every corner and having our own clubhouse KidsCafe where we get free food and drinks and get to hang out there from 14:00 to 17:00 play games outside and outside having 3 PlayStation 4's to play on inside with lots of fun events every Wednesday including bath bomb making and slime making.
6. We children never bike alone always together parting ways to where our houses are
7. Bullying? Never heard of it
8. Fights? Def heard of it.
Please don't say "strange".
It isn't strange. It is just not American.
Otherwise it seems like you are saying everything American is "normal" and others do "strange" things.
That's just Americans for you.
I travel a lot. Many don't even use "strange" but just use the term "wrong".
Don't be a dick. If it's strange to him he can say it's strange.
@@mauritsderuiter2673 He can and we can judge him for it.
and just to be clear, Congo was a private colony of a former king (leopold) and he was a tyrant there, had may people killed, and hands cut off and so on.
Bro I live in Belgium is super Easy to learn all the languages
As a belgian i dont even get the goverment only antwerp is the most important thing for me like they say in antwerp Antwerpe stad en de rest is parking
as someone who has lived all my life in belgium it makes sense to me tbh. dutch speaker = flemish, french speaker = waloon, (ignore the german speakers i never met one, probably just an urban legend honestly) north speaks dutch, soth speaks french and brussels is almost entirely french speaking. all thsoe border shenanigans don't affect us at all except for the few people who live there. maybe a few hundred/ thousand people actualy need to worry about enclaves and such. French fries are actualy belgian the french part of the name actualy refers to the way you cook them and not where the idea came from. In terms of the diamonds enslavement is a minor way of talking about it, king leopold 2 of belgium treated the congo as if it were his private plaything pretty much and he was so unimaginably brutal there that almost every colonial power told his to stop and the belgian parliament stepped in and took control from him because he was so brutal. I'm pretty sure just talking about what happened in a YT comment would violate youtube TOS but let's just say that its safe to say that congo was probably the worst treated colony at the time by a pretty big margin, in about 20 years of rule he killed 10 million people to give you an idea. Also belgium beat the record for the country with teh longest streak without a government which is like 560 days during covid which was previously already theirs because every party in belgium has both a french and dutch speaking version which means that a belgian government needs to be a coalition of at least 3 or 4 parties, up to 6 i think.
During the Corona pandemic, there was a time where there were different rules in Belgium and the Netherlands for stores. I remember seeing on tv that there was a store that was in both countries, but could only open in 1. The part in the other country was closed off.
he forgot to mention that the 'FN" guns are from Belgium
- FN Fall
- FN Five seveN
- FN p90
- Fn Scar-L
- FN Scar-H
etc etc
The people from Congo where forced to work in the mines and if they don't work good enough, they cut a arm or hand of😢 so there are still people with 1 arm cuz Belgium cut them of😐
Sorry for that😔
since you asked about what happened in congo, one of the things they did was they cut off hands from the congolese
The part about Maroccans and Congolese people is 100% right, as a fullblooded Flemming I can say even I am confused about all of the different cultures here
I’m Belgian and uhh nothing is confusing like I mean, everyone understands the way it works.
It may seem hard to understand and work with but actually it’s pretty easy ngl.
its not confusing. its belgium lore
I'm from east flanders, from Belgium. Nice vid.
well as a Belgain, the video from geography now explains everything very more complicated than it is. And yes we speak a bit of all other languages, apart of our mother language. And on the french fries, they are called french fries because in the WW2 americans came to wallonia and saw people eating fries, because they speak french there, the americans named it french fries.
I am a Belgian and the weather is that crazy
Oooh do you know our 'pickles' sauce? 😅
I am Belgian and it is fun to see people trying to keep up with us. for us its just a simple way of living.(btw French fries were supposed to be named fun fries)
We invented Fries
14:22 - I heard a story on a local podcast from a Belgian journalist (Luc Alloo) was filming some documentary in Africa and when he mentioned where he was from, he basically had to make a run for it, because some African people were still not over the whole Congo affair. So, yeah, not everyone has forgotten it.
I believe there was some slavery here, but it was years ago, with King Leopold II, so I don't know all the details.
The way that he said all the things in such a french accent