Belgium is a country in the Low Countries region of Western Europe, located to the north of France, south of the Netherlands, and west of Germany and Luxembourg. With a small population of 11,250,585 people living in a small stretch of land in the historical regions of Flanders and Wallonia, Belgium is divided between Dutch-speaking Flemish people in the north (which make up 59% of the population) and the French-speaking Walloons in the south (making up 41% of the population). The capital of Belgium is a French-speaking enclave within Flanders, and the country's populace also speaks the Flemish language. From the 1500s to 1830 the region was known as "the battlefield of Europe", as it saw several major battles during the French Wars of Religion, Thirty Years' War, War of the Grand Alliance, War of the Spanish Succession, the War of the Austrian Succession, the Seven Years' War, French Revolutionary Wars, Napoleonic Wars, and the Belgian Revolution. In 1830, Belgium won its independence from the Netherlands, and it became an independent monarchy. Belgium managed to form a colonial empire, with the Belgian Congo and Ruanda-Urundi being colonies of the Belgian Empire. However, Belgium was forced to give up its possessions in the 1960s, and Belgium returned to being a small country in Europe. Belgium's capital of Brussels in a center of the diamond trade as well as Sabena (an airline company that also owns hotels in Belgium and its former colonies), and Belgium is an important member of NATO and the European Union, holding many EU buildings in Brussels.
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