13 ATLASES
History of Belgium in maps
Belgium as it appears in 13 interactive history atlases, from 264 BC to 2015: Belgica, Flanders & Lorraine, Belgium, Austrian Netherlands. Each era below lists who ruled the land and when control changed, linked to the dated map that shows it.
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What was Belgium before it was Belgium? The sections below follow this land through every era covered by the Maps of History atlases: who ruled it, what it was called, and when control changed. Each line links to the dated map. Modern borders serve as an approximation, as each atlas says on the map itself.
Belgica (mod. Belgium) · Ancient Rome
| 264 BC | Tribal peoples & confederations — the opening position |
| 50 BC | Roman territory |
| Breakaway Roman empires (260–274) | |
| Roman territory | |
| Former Roman lands (lost) |
ANCIENT ROME: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Belgium · Norse and Aztecs
| Other peoples and states — the opening position |
NORSE AND AZTECS: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Flanders & Lorraine (mod. Belgium) · Crusades
| Latin Christendom — the opening position |
CRUSADES: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Belgium (Austrian Netherlands to 1795; independent 1830) · Industrial Revolution
Belgium was the first continental nation to industrialize. Coal from Mons to Liège, the Meuse valley’s metalworking skills and John Cockerill’s works at Seraing made it, relative to its size, the most industrial country outside Britain by mid-century. After independence in 1830, its state planned the continent’s first railway network. Later, King Leopold II ruled the Congo Free State as a private colony, where forced rubber collection killed on a vast scale.
| Industrialising — the opening position | |
| Industrialising | |
| Industrial economy | |
| Industrialising | |
| Industrial economy |
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Austrian Netherlands (mod. Belgium) · Age of Revolutions
The Austrian Netherlands rehearsed revolution in 1789 before being annexed to France. Under French rule it acquired the Code and industry, becoming the continent’s first industrial economy. Vienna assigned it to Holland, but a revolution in 1830 brought Belgian secession. The constitution of 1831 became a model for continental liberalism; Belgium’s guaranteed neutrality became a famous scrap of paper.
| The conservative monarchies — the opening position | |
| Republics & revolutionary states | |
| The conservative monarchies | |
| Republics & revolutionary states |
AGE OF REVOLUTIONS: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Belgium · Meiji Japan and post-Soviet Russia
| Western powers and allies — the opening position |
MEIJI JAPAN AND POST-SOVIET RUSSIA: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Belgium · WWI
Belgium’s neutrality made its invasion central to the war’s morality tale. For four years its army held the Yser corner of unoccupied Belgium; the rest of the country endured requisition, forced labor deportations and the atrocities of 1914, including Louvain (Ch. 4). The Congo, Belgium’s African colony, fought too and took German East Africa’s Ruanda-Urundi at the peace.
| The Entente & Allies — the opening position | |
| The Entente & Allies | |
| Under Central Powers occupation | |
| The Entente & Allies | |
| The Entente & Allies |
Belgium · Stalin’s Soviet Union
| Nazi Germany & its allies — the opening position | |
| Nazi Germany & its allies | |
| Other states | |
| Rivals & the Western bloc |
STALIN’S SOVIET UNION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Belgium · Road to WW2
| Neutral & unaligned — the opening position | |
| Occupied — held by force |
ROAD TO WW2: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Belgium · WW2
| Axis-occupied — the opening position | |
| Axis-occupied | |
| Western Allies |
Belgium · Cold War
| NATO & core Western allies — the opening position |
COLD WAR: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Belgium · Feminism and the Tunisian Revolution
| Partial or unequal; treaty signed only; transition — the opening position | |
| Right won in law | |
| No reform yet / outside this story | |
| Right won in law |
FEMINISM AND THE TUNISIAN REVOLUTION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Belgium · Refugee crises
| Western bloc or democracy — the opening position |
REFUGEE CRISES: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Related
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