Today 175 years ago, separist troops forced the Dutch governemental army to retreat after several days of heavy fighting around the warande-park in Brussels. It was the start of the separation of the low-lands and the birth of Belgium.

Thank God, if this hadn't happend, chocolat, waffles and fries would have been a Dutch specialty...   

Long live the Belgians!


Omag

Well done Omag old chap. I always knew that Belgium must be famous for something besides Brussels sprouts.

I went to school with a chap from Belgium. I think his mother came from your country. He told me that there are various languages spoken depending on the region, rather like Switzerland I suppose. One of them is Walloon which I believe is a minority language still spoken in some regions but I forget which one was his natural tongue.

Let us be honest here, the reason so many countries have fought over Belgium is because armies are run by men, and the Stella Artois brewery is in Belgium

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Bleep could very well be replaced by Björn, cause the Germans showed some interest, twice! Lol! As did the Austrians, Romans, Vikings, etc…

Belgium was founded 175 years ago, in 1830, as a result of the separation fights earlier mentioned in this thread. It’s a big deal around here at the moment…

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Doug, Doug, for once not too well informed ( yes, I’m gloating, this doesn’t happen to often I can say that about you!).

There are three official languages.

Dutch – spoken in Flanders, roughly the northern part of the country, if you divide it from the channel to germany.

French – spoken in Wallonie – the southern part, about the same size as Flanders

German – spoken in the most eastern part of Belgium, an area reclaimed after one of the wars if I’m correct. They are a minority, but it still is an official language, which I like…

But then we have a wicked governmental system involving 6 (!) administrations and some hot-spot area’s where language-groups tend to collide… Yep, Belgium, not the most uniform country in the world. But that’s what makes us special.

And Souichiro? We love you guys!

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Well, I do my best but can't be expected to know everything. I learn something new every day. That's why I brought the subject up. Who better to ask than my old mate Omag who actually lives in this strange place.

I'm going from a rapidly failing memory of what this chap told me over 50 years ago. I also checked it out on Google before I mentioned it here. Maybe I know more about this than you think. 8)
http://www.wallonie.com/wallang/

Cause the lazy gits can't be bothered to export it.

And now I'm wondering, how does real, belgian Stella differ from the stuff we get?

I'm gonna have to go to belgium...

I'm safe then as I drink Hungarian beer from our local brewery

Not to ignore all of you potential drunks but, to return to the initial topic:
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What do you mean, "And then... the Belgians came!" Weren't they already there in the timeframe of which you speak, but for (an)other name(s)? ???

Very good; properly informative. Like I thought, but for other names, they (those who became the Belgians) were already there . 8)

Go Netherlands!

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Ahem. The Saxons didn't originate from England. The Anglo's did. Put 'em to gether and you get Anglo Saxon or English Saxon.

Bugga. Should have thought about that one...

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No, they came from Germany or at least the German region. Or was it 'Germanic' at the time? ???

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Beleive it or not the Angloes were really called Angles. Mix 'em up and you get Anglo-Saxons, and the place they live in is called Angleland, which later becomes England!

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You're right

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The Iceni was one tribe of Britons. The one Boadicea originated from.

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The Germans did in WW2, St Trond Nightfighter Base was in Belgium after they invaded Belgium and won after <bleeeeep>-all resistance.

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Yeah, there were many German parts before that. Swabia, Bavaria, Bohemia, Saxony are some parts to name, as well as the land owned by the Teutons under Barbarossa which I think conquered the rest of Germany. Age of Empires 2, anyone? Austria was also around the area too I think.



Bombardier

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The Angles came from a 'hook' of land south of Jutland (Jute Land) in the Schleswig-Holstein area (which was basically part of the original Saxony, now Lower Saxony).
According to legend, there was a race of giants in the land at the time of the Brythonic incursion. One of the British chieftains (or king, if you prefer) kept one of them at his court as a wrestling partner until the said giant crushed his ribs; in a pain-induced rage, the chieftain threw the giant over a cliff. There are similar references in Irish legend although the first inhabitants were not spoken of as giants and, supposedly, came from the west.

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Thus my "Jute Land" rendering. I've  too much else to do right now and haven't used my AoE2 for a very, very long time; preparing my WW1 CFS1 mini-campaign is the least of it.

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Supposedly the ice reached across the north (Scotland), anyway, so whether or not the channel was, itself, crossable is but moot.
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On what frequency do they cross the Channel ??? ?

8)

The shortest distance from Britain to France now is something like 20 miles. It's possible to see the coast of France clearly from Dover Castle (on top of the famous White Cliffs) in good visiblity. The coastline is constantly changing & part of those cliffs sometimes collapses into the sea, thus making us just a little further apart. There is a 'lost' hamlet near me that is now completely covered by the sea & it's rumoured that you can sometimes still hear the church bell ringing although the bell was recovered some years ago & is actually in a museum. I'm sure it was perfectly possible to walk from France to England or vice versa at one time. This is forgetting that they were once part of a single land mass, or that's what my geography teacher used to tell us. I have no idea when this was or if Man had even appeared on the Earth at that point. I was never too convinced of the theory that all Europeans originated in Africa.

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Indeed but we won't go there.

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I know very little about it but I can't see why Man couldn't have developed simultaneously in various places. Why would we all originate from the same small part of the planet & gradually spread to other parts? It doesn't seem logical to me. Of course, my ideas might conflict with the religious concept of evolution. I don't know how much influence this still has on scientific theory but it has proved difficult throughout history to relate the two. Depending on the approach taken in interpreting archeological discoveries (probably the wrong description but I'm no scientist) we could all be completely wrong & I suspect that we shall never know the truth.

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We really don't want to get specific about religious concepts of evolution other than that many such groups have no such concept . As to its influence on scientific theory, as usual, that depends upon the individuals involved; properly, it would have none but at one time long ago 'the two' were virtually the same.
DNA and biological tracing are somewhat seperate from, although applicable to, archeology. It has also been found that, the further one gets away from the equator, there is less need for resistance to ultraviolet light throughout the year. This indicates that less melanin would be produced (which causes skin pigmentation); about every 25,000 years there would be a noticeable change in skin color.
I would disagree that like species (equivelent DNA) would logically occur in seperate places although I wouldn't declare it impossible because I've had things happen that I'd thought were impossible. We'll just say it seems extremely improbable.
In the line of archeology, I see no reason why the same technological things can't originate in seperate places; this is in the area of thought and necessity -- I wouldn't even restrict it to a species. After all, some humans aren't so smart and some animals are smarter (than other animals... well, then again... ). 8)

Before the landmasses split apart or something. Some academics will tell you they floated in on flotsam. Or maybe many millinia ago some well travelled person decided to have a laugh and distributed certain speicies all over the shop just so he could have a giggle at all those idiots in the future trying to find out where they came from and how.

(If the latter is true then I blame the same chap who I believe also built Stonehenge for a joke.)

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Actually, if the truth is that our origins are from one area, then that is sort of what happened.