From the point of view of the history of European countries, the territory of modern European countries was roughly formed in the middle of the Middle Ages, in the long Greco-Roman period, the ancestors of the main nations of European countries were still denounced as barbarians by the "civilized people" at that time, when the Roman Empire, which occupied half of Europe, declined, the barbarians rushed into the vast territory of the original Roman Empire like a flood, that is, the west and south of Europe. A regime that combined the old Roman system with the Xi of its own tribes.
Why do European countries love division so much? Why do countries as small as Belgium fall apart?
Why do European countries love to divide so much?
Europe has never been unified in history, so there is no such thing as division.
The so-called Europe has never been "unified" before the emergence of the European Union today, but the existence of various countries is not called division, it is the result of the historical evolution of various peoples, although they have had frequent disputes, and some countries have succumbed to the power of history, but basically there has been no tragedy of genocide, and all nations and their nation-states have continued to this day.
First of all, it has a lot to do with its geographical environment. The main part of the European continent has always been the passage of the northern nomads to the south, so it is difficult to produce a unified civilization system, while the part of Western Europe is densely rivered, mountainous, and separated by natural barriers between regions, so this geographical dispersion has led to the emergence of small cores in Europe for a long time, and the lack of large core areas to unify the whole of Europe. In the 14th century, Europe was divided into 1,000 independent small states, 500 small states in 1500 AD, and after being reduced to a minimum of 25 countries in the final stage of the Cold War period, Europe rose to nearly 40 countries with the collapse of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia in the post-Cold War period.
From a historical point of view, a striking feature of medieval Europe was the protracted power struggle between the papacy and secular monarchs (such as the Holy Roman Emperor and the King of France), which sought to override all secular authority and actually hindered the unification of Europe under imperial power. There were many factions within the church, and different interpretations of the scriptures gave rise to several factions, and the infighting between them also slowed down the process of unification.
Why is Belgium such a small country divided?
Belgium has a land area of more than 30,000 square kilometers and a population of 11.43 million (2020), in our Chinese view, this may indeed be a small country, the area is only equivalent to a prefecture-level city on the mainland, and the population is not as large as some first-tier or even second-tier cities on the mainland, but Belgium is really not a small country among the European countries with an average population of only a few million.
The reason for the infighting in Belgium is because the history is complicated, because the country is adjacent to many countries, but the area is very small, and it has little military strength, so if you are not careful, it will be annexed by the surrounding countries and become part of other countries, such as Spain, Austria once ruled this land.
At the end of the 18th century, the French re-became the masters of the land, and after Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo, Belgium became a pawn of the Netherlands to contain France, until the outbreak of the French Revolution, and the Catholic Belgians ousted the Protestant rulers of the Netherlands and took charge of their own affairs.
In addition, Belgium does not have a unified language, the northern part of the region close to the Netherlands, uses Flemish, a dialect of Dutch, while the southern part of the country next to France uses the local Walloon language and French is very similar, and there is a territory obtained from Germany, and the people speak German, so even Belgium, which is not unified in language, is very difficult to communicate, and in the long run, the contradictions will become deeper and deeper, and it is difficult not to divide.
In order to balance the relationship between all aspects, the Belgian government needs to have half of the seats in addition to the king and the prime minister of the country, and the Walloon and Flemish regions each have a minister of education and a minister of the interior, and the original three major political parties have become six parties with two languages, and the national radio, television, French language, etc. must be implemented in two languages, and the same university will also be divided into French coarse and Flemish departments, and sometimes in order to avoid trouble, English will be directly replaced.
To sum up, due to geographical and historical reasons, Belgium has formed two regions with language and culture in the north and south, and the relationship between the two regions is tense, confrontational and irreconcilable, and Belgium may be divided into two at any time.