The small country of Luxembourg, surrounded by France, Germany and Belgium, is a secret European garden "hidden in the depths of the unknowable". In this small country, which is less than 1/10 of belgium, the number of labels on its body is dizzying. It is the smallest country in Europe by area and the least populous country, with the title of "Pocket Country". But this "pocket country" is the richest country in the world, with a per capita GDP of more than $100,000. Oil prices in such a rich country are still cheap, and it is the cheapest country in my benelux trip, nearly a euro cheaper per liter than the Netherlands.
Not only that, but it is also the capital of finance. There are more than 1,000 investment funds and more than 200 banks, ranking first in the world. It is the most important private banking center in the eurozone and the second largest investment trust center in the world after the United States. In addition to these, Luxembourg is also one of the three headquarters of the European Union, where many core institutions such as the Court of Justice of the European Union, the Supreme Secretariat of the European Parliament and the European Investment Bank, the highest judicial organ of the European Union, are located.
Luxembourg City
Luxembourg City
Luxembourg City
What is the Luxembourg label? No. In this land of bullets, there are Europe's largest radio and television media companies and Europe's largest cargo airlines; restaurants with the world's largest wine lists and the highest minimum wage in all of Europe; and national leaders for the first time in history with two homosexuals. Moreover, it is the safest country in the world, and this security includes all areas of the environment and finance. Luxembourg's most eye-catching label is "the country of a thousand castles". In its small land, there are thousands of castles, as well as tunnels and bunkers. Because of these castles and bunkers, and also because of its strategic importance, Luxembourg is known as the "Gibraltar of the North" and also known as the "Fortress of Western Europe". Why is its strategic position so important?
It is located in the center of Western Europe, with high terrain in the north and low in the south, and the Ardennes Plateau in the north. If one knows the largest dying Battle of the Ardennes on this plateau near the end of World War II, we know how important the strategic position of this Ardennes plateau, which is less than 600 meters away, is. Although its height is not comparable to turkey's endless mountains, in Western Europe, where the Ichima River is flat, this plateau is like a mountaintop. It is in line with Germany's Eifel Plateau, and luxembourg has been very German for many times in history. Hitler therefore had reason to believe that Luxembourg, with its predominantly Aryan and German-speaking population, was the "real German land." Even when Luxembourg declared its neutrality in World War II, Germany did not hesitate to annex it.
Luxembourg City
Luxembourg City
Luxembourg City
But what kind of past and present life did Luxembourg have before Hitler rightly believed that Luxembourg was part of Germany? How did it "cultivate" into the body of a "fortress in Western Europe"? It all starts with its history.
Like Belgium, Luxembourg was the residence of the Celts before the arrival of Julius Caesar, and later became part of Roman Gaul, meaning the Roman watchtower. When the Roman Empire was weakening, the Franks of the Germanic tribe infiltrated here, established the Frankish kingdom, and then became the Frankish Empire, And Luxembourg was on the main military route connecting the Franks and other Germanic peoples, but at this time, Luxembourg was not even a village, except for a forest, it was a deep valley. When the Frankish Empire was divided into three, Luxembourg became part of The Middle Francia. After the Kingdom of Middle Francia was divided into three by the king's extinction, the Kingdom of Lotalingia was born. The seat of this kingdom was the home of the Franks, and Luxembourg was in this kingdom.
Luxembourg City
Luxembourg City
Luxembourg City
In order to compete for this "homeland", the kings of the East and West Frankish kingdoms did not give up their covetousness for the vikings even when they plundered the two kingdoms, and finally the East and West Frankish kingdoms were divided up because the king of the Kingdom of Lotalingia did not leave a legitimate heir, and Luxembourg was incorporated into the Kingdom of West Francia, which was then transferred to the Kingdom of East Francia, after which the Kingdom of Lotalingia was reduced to a principality, which was the famous Principality of Lorraine, to which Luxembourg was subordinate. When Otto I, the founder of the Holy Roman Empire, reigned, Luxembourg, which belonged to the empire, really came to the fore. From this point on, the "Fortress of Western Europe" began the prologue, and the "water and milk" with Germany also began. The year was 963 AD, just one step away from the first millennium of mankind.
In that year, the sixth descendant of Charlemagne and the founder of the Luxembourg dynasty built a fortress on the ruins of Luxembourg's destroyed, supposedly Roman fortifications, at the intersection of today's Ancient Roman roads in Reims, France, Trier, Germany, and Liège, Belgium. Soon after the fort was built, a market soon developed at this intersection, and the town began to expand outward from here. By the time of Henry V, the second monarch of the dynasty, he was made a count by the Holy Roman Emperor, who was also the Duke of Bavaria, the Luxembourg Berkesian And the Luxembourg Dynasty was born. Because Henry V was the first Earl of luxembourg, he changed his name to Henry I, but the Luxembourg Fortress at this time was not the main residence of the Count.
Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Henry I's successors enlarged the castle, began to call themselves Counts of Luxembourg, built permanent settlements here, built two churches and a monastery, and finally became a little "climate" and the most strategic center of the Duchy of Lorraine. At this time, at the end of the 11th century, the wool textile industry that had wings on the economy of Western Europe was beginning to flutter along the banks of the Rhine, Schheldt and Meuse rivers, like buds, and the medieval wool textile cities of Ghent and Bruges in Belgium and other Low Countries would surface and experience the ups and downs in the great waves of history.
Although the Luxembourg Empire is not directly next to these three rivers and cannot form a center of wool textile industry, it has its own natural endowments, which "contribute to the formation of strategic centers." The lower-lying south is rich and diverse soils that are easy to cultivate, as well as the Moseltal Valley, which is world-famous for its viticulture. Within this valley, the Mosel River, the longest tributary of the Rhine, flows through it. Some people say that the Moselle, which originated in France, resembles a noblewoman with a beautiful figure and curves, and "she" runs to the Rhine river slightly drunk. The reason why "she" is slightly drunk is because the valley was a well-known winemaking center in Roman times, and the world's best-selling Riesling wine is produced in the Moselle Valley. And the status of the Rhine in Europe is well known. It was not only a watershed in the civilization and barbarism of the ancient Roman era, but also a lifeline that stretched endlessly in Europe. The wines produced here are like this, down the river, into the embrace of the Rhine, and then into thousands of households, bringing rich wealth to the Luxembourg Empire.
Eichthnach
Eichthnach
Eichthnach
Of course, the forested Luxembourg Berkech is not only a river of the Moselle River, but more than 10 other rivers flow through the Luxembourg Berkech country together, and when it is "beautiful", it also plays the role of a "conveyor belt". This "conveyor belt" transports not only grapes and wine and agricultural products, but also minerals. Luxembourg is rich in iron ore, so it is called the country of later clay, which gives it a huge advantage in the industrial revolution that followed. How could the innumerable superimposed advantages not impress the neighbors of the four directions?
The most heartwarming is its "master", the Holy Roman Empire. Originally, the Luxembourg Empire was supported by the Holy Roman Empire, and in the era when the Holy Roman Empire dominated Europe, the Country was a "good baby", a good shade under the tree, a smooth breeze, quietly getting rich, and some counts also served as counts of Burgundy. However, when Philip II, the first self-proclaimed "King of France", succeeded to the throne, the combined forces of the Holy Roman Empire and the Kingdom of England were defeated by the King of France in a battle of 1214, and the Kingdom of France began to replace the Holy Roman Empire as the most powerful Christian regime in Europe. By this time, Europe had carried out four crusades, Constantinople had been breached by the Crusaders, and the Latin Empire had been established. The defeat of the Kingdom of England in this battle led directly to the formulation of the Magna Carta of Liberty, which had never been established the following year. This Magna Carta for the first time laid down the principle that the king could not be above the law and sounded the clarion call for England to resist tyranny with law. 50 years later, the British Parliament was born.
Eichthnach
Eichthnach
Eichthnach
In short, 1214 was the year of rewriting the Chapter of Europe. What did the counts of Luxembourg, who had lost the protection of the Holy Roman Empire, do after the year? They were worse than a day in the Holy Roman Empire, and the "hand" of the Kingdom of France was not so long that it was "taking advantage of the fire", taking the opportunity to occupy a large territory of the Holy Roman Empire, including Arlon, the capital of the present-day Belgian province of Luxembourg, all the way to the Meuse River and the lower Moselle, and finally pushed the Luxembourg Dynasty to the peak in the early 14th century through gifts, force and marriage, when Count Henry VII was also the Holy Roman Emperor. His son John, although not Holy Roman Emperor, became king of Bohemia, where the Czech Republic is today. Under John's rule, the Hundred Years' War between England and France began, there was no wool trade with England, and the Count of Luxembourg, who was the father-in-law of the King of France, was firmly on the side of France, and the love and hatred between Luxembourg and France began with him.
After John's death, the dynastic territory was divided among his three sons. Although one of his sons, Charles IV, was elected Holy Roman Emperor and brought the most powerful "Golden Age" of the Czech Republic in the Middle Ages, the Luxembourg dynasty, which produced three Holy Roman Emperors, was permanently divided. However, the Count of Luxembourg, who inherited western Germany, was promoted to duke, but the Duchy of Luxembourg remained an independent fief of the Holy Roman Empire, and the name of the Present-day Grand Duchy of Luxembourg is closely related to the name of the duchy at this time. However, the territory of the Duchy of Luxembourg, ruled by the first Duke of Luxembourg, was not comparable to that of today's Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, which included not only the territory of present-day Luxembourg, but also the western part of present-day Germany and the Belgian province of Luxembourg and other bishoprics of Liège, the ancient cities of Aachen and Trier in Germany, and the famous Belgian cities of Arlon, Dinant and Bujon. How did the territory of the Duchy of Luxembourg shrink step by step?
Dickey
Dickey
Dickey
After the formal split of the Luxembourg dynasty, a duchess Elisabeth appeared in the Luxembourg Duchy of Luxembourg, the "land of dragons". After the death of the last Emperor of the Luxembourg family as Holy Roman Empire, she sold the principality to her distant relative, Philip III, Duke of Burgundy, who had "profited from the Fishermen" during the Hundred Years' War between England and France. This man annexed the lowlands of Western Europe, such as Belgium and the Netherlands, by means of marriage and war, and established the framework of the Netherlands, which would later become famous. When the European super monarch Charles V, who inherited the family's vast territory, came to power, the Duchy of Luxembourg was incorporated into the rich Netherlands of the Spanish Empire, and has since formed an indissoluble relationship with the Netherlands.
The Duchy of Luxembourg then stood firmly with Belgium and the Netherlands, both during the reign of Charles V and the rise of the Dutch Republic. However, when the seven northern provinces of the Netherlands became independent, the Spanish Empire desperately wanted to keep the Duchy of Luxembourg under its jurisdiction. In addition to Luxembourg's inextricable blood ties to the Spanish Empire, it is also because of Its strategic location. Such an important strategic position allowed the Duchy of Luxembourg to take possession of the French King Louis XIV immediately after he won the Franco-Dutch War, which was the first time luxembourg had been annexed since its founding. By this time, the heyday of the Dutch Republic had passed, the Spanish Empire was already crumbling, and the golden light of Europe was shining on the head of the new European overlord, Louis XIV.
Vianden
Vianden
Vianden
Although France returned the Duchy of Luxembourg to Spain in order to curry favor with the declining Spanish Empire in the Grand Alliance War, and transferred it to the Austrian Habsburgs after the War of the Spanish Succession, when Napoleon came to power, it was once again annexed by France. From here, the Duchy of Luxembourg was on the fast track to dismemberment. After Napoleon's defeat at the Battle of Leipzig in present-day Germany, the eastern part of the Duchy of Luxembourg, the territory of present-day Germany, was divided among Prussia, who participated in the Anti-French Alliance, and bismarck's great cause of German unification had not yet begun.
Two years later, after Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo in Belgium, the Duchy of Luxembourg, along with Belgium and the Netherlands, was incorporated into the United Kingdom of the Netherlands and promoted to Grand Duchy. But unlike both the Netherlands and Belgium, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg was a member of the German Confederacy, with troops stationed there in the Kingdom of Prussia and retaining its own language. Shortly after Belgium's independence, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg was again divided, and most of the western territory was given to Belgium, leaving only the territory of today, but retaining the nominal title of Grand Duchy.
Vianden
Vianden
Vianden
From the construction of the first fortress to the last partition, Luxembourg has gone through nearly a thousand years. In this millennium, Luxembourg, with its mountainous terrain overlooking the plains of Western Europe, with its rich and fertile river valleys and iron ore resources, with the key position between the ancient Roman road intersection and between Germany and France, and the terrain of the river valley that is easy to defend and difficult to attack, let the people and horses occupying this land, whether it is the Luxembourg Country, or the Luxembourg Principality, or the Luxembourg Dynasty in its heyday, the first thing is to build castles and fortresses to protect this fertile land "fertile water does not flow to outsiders' fields". Built by successive holders for nearly a thousand years, Luxembourg's fortifications continued to expand and strengthen, becoming one of the most powerful fortresses in Europe and earning itself the nickname "Fortress of Western Europe".
However, such an important geographical location doomed Luxembourg to be sent to the "front line" in Germany and France. Although it broke away from the German Confederation in 1866 and became an independent neutral country, Germany in World War I and World War II never regarded it as an "outsider" and regarded it as "its own family". In World War I, Germany attacked France through this place, and Luxembourg's neutral status was useless. After the German military occupation of this place, Kaiser Wilhelm II directly set up his base camp here, and in Order to attack France in World War II, Germany had no scruples and directly annexed it, and the Duke of Luxembourg was forced into exile.
Clervaux
Clervaux
Clervaux
After World War II, a new international order was formed, and luxembourg, the "fortress of Western Europe" that has historically been transmitted in Germany, France, Spain, the Netherlands and Austria, should be attributed to which side? France, as the victor of World War II, has the most confidence to want it, but France is only thinking about it, and the United States and Britain will never let France occupy Luxembourg, the "artery" of Western Europe. Luxembourg, like its former partners Belgium and the Netherlands, had to exist as a buffer state between Germany and France.
If the claim that Belgium exists to disgust France is true, then Luxembourg's existence is meant to disgust Germany. But to the disappointment of the Germans, Luxembourg made German the official language. I don't know if there are still Germans who fantasize that Luxembourg will one day return to Germany's embrace, but if there is such a day, the land of Western Europe will surely be destroyed again. So, whether it's a good or a hated past, let them all stay on the sign of time, as the movie The Legend of 1900 says, "We laughed and kept saying 'see u soon', but inside we both knew we'd never see each other again"
Luxembourg
Luxembourg