Why is Belgium a thing? How did a cohesive Belgian identity develop

Why is any nation a thing?

Their love of the true faith overcame all obstacles.

Their identity is "not French!" and muh chocolates

>>3369688
Because the british wanted to fuck over both france and the netherlands.

>cohesive belgian identity
there is none
They were catholics under a Protestant foreign rule, at least for Wallonians
I don't know why the Flemish came with them though

From an European's outsider perspective they are just French who make good beer. They should just be annexed to either France or Netherlands.

>>3369688
They went full Pr-aut-estant

there is no such thing as a cohesive belgian identity, most of their identity is based on an inferiority complex.

>>3369688
They're a fossilized borderland between the Netherlands and France. In the old days, they made a lot of money as a sort of intermediary trading state among the various European empires which allowed them to become very wealthy (think Switzerland). It turns out that a well-defined national identity isn't necessary when you're rich.

ITT poltards who have no knowledge of the region outside of XX century

>>3369688
Talleyrand.

>>3369688
Google Burgundian/Hapsburg Netherlands & Prince-bishopric of Liege my friend, these are the predeccessors of Belgium

>>3369688
>How did a cohesive Belgian identity develop outside of being French or Dutch?
It didn't, Belgium exists because the British don't want a netherlands that's too strong, or a bigger france.

>>3369688
The Southern Netherlands had walloons as clergy and nobolity and flemish as burghers and peasants. In the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Southern part of the country had little say in politics (despite being richer than the North) which angered the walloon elites, so they decided to secede and used religious differences as justification

>>3369688
Why is Great Britain a thing? How did a cohesive British identity develop outside of being English or Scottish?

Why do people interpret history like it's a Paradox game? Why doesn't Belgium have a right to exist? Sure, it has a lot of elements borrowed from French and Dutch culture, but Luxembourg has a lot of elements borrowed from German culture and nobody ever gives them shit over it. Just because a country has a similar culture doesn't mean they need to be absorbed by the larger cultural group because of "muh EPIC ethnostate!!!!"

>>3369792
1. What about Brussels
2. What about flemings not wanting to be part of Netherlands (since they would be treated as a little brother)

>>3369703
Flemish are also Catholic, and have a born dislike for the dutch

>>3371977
Because /pol/ thinks all people speaking one language should be one state. Belgium receives their attention because of their role in EU politics, never heard them shit on Switzerland, Luxemburg and other 'non-countries'

>>3371977
>Why do people interpret history like it's a Paradox game?
Because this board is swarmed with paracucks, we just had a "why wasn't Portugal conquered by Spain?" thread recently

>>3369688
>Why is Belgium a thing?
The people living in Belgium,to some extent, want their state to continue to exist, and the international community is cool with that it being a thing.
>How did a cohesive Belgian identity develop outside of being French or Dutch?
How did a British identity form?
At the end of the day, Ethno-nationalism is a pretty new thing, Belgium exists as a legal entity created after the revolution in the netherlands, gerat britain exists as a result of the acts of union 1707, sometimes (most of the time arguably) states exist as a legal consequence, not as a result of collective ethnic action to secure an ethnically homogenous state, it's why bretons and rheinish people exist.

>>3369688
Belgium/Belgica is a french/latin name of the Low Countries.I think the idea was that Belgium would become some sort of french Netherlands

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>>3369688

>>3372000
>paracucks
Honestly, I'll admit that I like Paradox games, but the idea of "blobbing" in real life and other "border simplifications" for the sake of itself are pointless in the real world.

>>3369688
They didn't want to share their gorgeous beer with dutchfags that don't deserve it

>>3372013
If only all real world problems could be solved by cashing in the mana points...

>>3372015
pls share we giv u tulips

>>3372020
Giv Rotterdam

>>3371977
>>3372000
>let me just show everybody on this south californian grand strategy subreddit that I'm a real history buff, not just some paracuck gamer poser

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>>3372032

>>3371918
Turns out nothing is really important when you're rich

>>3371949
Which is also why they REE'd so hard when Germany conquered the area during WWI

>>3369688
>did a cohesive Belgian identity develop outside of being French or Dutch?
It never developed

The whole point of the creation of Belgium, was that the Dutch tried to Dutchify the French, which led to the "Belgian aka French" Reveolution and the creation of Belgium

Since the Dutchification included being calvinist, the Flemish (Catholic Dutch) followed the French in their revolution

>>3369701
Well, sort of. The Flemish were added because they were mostly Catholic (they were a long time in the Spanish Netherlands, while more northerly areas were free to develop Lutheranism, Calvinism and later the Dutch Reformed Church, etc.)

These Catholics didn't want to be a minority under control of weirdo heretics in love with their merchant ideas.

>>3371993
it's because they have so many muslims
they fear a muslim state in Europe

>>3372682
not significantly more or less than other western european countries

>>3369688
They wanted to be their country but they didn't like the liberal bullshit the French and Dutch were spewing.

>>3369694
People with a similar language, identity, history, culture and even religion excel when out into a state together. High diversity causes problems and strife, hence why most multinational empires/states collapsed (USSR, Yugoslavia, Austria-Hungary). It's also why Africa and the Middle East is such a shithole.
People prefer being around people who are similar to themselves.

>>3371993
The idea of the nation state is a lot older than your /pol/ boogieman. We're currently seeing how abandoning it in Europe has backfired miserably.