Belgium Explained!
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- čas přidán 28. 11. 2022
- Get ready to be swept away on an adventure through Belgium, the country that's so much more than just waffles and chocolate!
From being the birthplace of French fries and the "smurfs" to being home to the smallest city in the world (and no, it's not the smurf village!), Belgium is a country of fascinating contrasts.
You'll be introduced to the land of the Belgian red devils, music festivals, an astronomical number of beer varieties, high taxes, and the famous peeing boy statue. So buckle up, because this is one ride you don't want to miss!
Discover the fascinating history of this tiny but mighty country, from its roots in the "Low Countries" to the thriving metropolis it is today. From the mysterious disappearance of the Omalians to the development of the country's complex structure, you'll learn why Belgium is a unique blend of cultures and languages, making it a truly one-of-a-kind destination.
You'll marvel at the intricate political system, which includes communities, regions, and a federal state, all working together in perfect harmony. You'll be amazed at the diversity of the country, with 10 provinces and 581 municipal councils, each with its own character and charm.
And let's not forget the monarchy! Yes, Belgium has a King and Queen, but their role is more symbolic these days. And, of course, the country uses the Euro, which was created by a Belgian!
So, don't miss out on this incredible journey through Belgium. Join us as we explore the country's rich history, culture, and more, in a way that's both entertaining and educational. This is a video you won't want to miss!
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🇳🇱 Netherlands - part 1: • Netherlands Explained!
🇩🇪 Germany: • Germany Explained!
🇹🇷 Turkey: • Türkiye Explained!
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#belgium #europe #travel
I'm Belgian. 95% of the waffles are eaten by tourists. 95% of the fries are eaten by Belgians.
Hmmm... Ik denk dat toeristen frieten met containers aangevoerd krijgen in de restaurants... En hier aan de kust verslinden ze ook wafels aan de lopende band, maar niet zo veel in binneland denk ik.
And 160%of the beer is drunk by belgians
Accurate
I'm a non-Belgian. Thank you very much for leaving the waffles to us. I could eat that thing all day for the rest of my life.
@@Lucas_Ficz you are very welcome :D
I'm a Dutchman and I really like my southern neighbours. I live near the Belgian border, so I get in touch with them easily. It's always nice to visit Belgium.
Ik ben van Brugge, bezoek af en toe eens Vlissingen. Altijd een leuk plekje in NL om eens te passeren. 🇧🇪♥️🇳🇱
As someone living in flanders, the feeling is mutual.
I was in Budapest a few years ago. Next to the hotel, was a restaurant. They claimed to have over 500 kinds of Belgian beers, in addition to around 200 Hungarian. It's insane that one restaurant can have such a huge selection. One evening I was there, they arranged a "Belgian beer tasting event", and I got to taste over 20 different kinds, and everything was so delicious.
Well you couldn't taste 500... you, nor the loo, can handle that.
Saying "there was abuse to the local population" in Congo is one hell of an understatement Leopolds rule was exceptionally brutal even by (already low) European colonial standards
yes understatement indeed that could a few videos on the crap that happened under leopold 😔
Because the Moors and Arabs never violated their black brethren, right? Slavery and castration, oh yes, good times. Even up until the present day. But yes, of course, evil white people, right?
+it was more laisez faire, the law was not especially brutal, it was incompetent, soldiers that shot their rifles had to prove that they did so to do their job, so they would only get bullets in return for hands
oh and the force publique was 90+% native african but not from the congo
Belgian congo was one of the better colonies after forcing leopold II to surrender his personal collony to Belgium
important to note, french and brittish press had focussed so hard on this colony in the believe that the collony would be surrendered to them instead, or that they would be able to just take it, but in the end that never happened
The Brits sure loved to point their blood soaked fingers at Leopold 2 to deflect from their own crimes against humanity in their colonies.
Not saying that Leopold 2 was a saint though, hope he rots in hell.
@@davgg9621 I aint a Brit though
"Record of functioning without a goverment " we barely function with a goverment.
If a Belgian or Dutch government falls (lost the confidence of parliament), they usually simply continue to do current affairs until a successive government is formed by a majority in the newly elected parliament.The fallen government cannot initiate 'big changing laws', but only deal with current issues.
With a diminished ego, such governments are usually regarded as the best a country can have.
@@dutchman7623 if you see what government we have now in Belgium ....
@@spottinggrouprs0676 i know what youre talking about...
The thumbnail is so wrong. They speak German in Brussels? And why is Brussels located mkre to the west and flanders more southern.
I enjoyed the video. I am surprised that Bruges/Brugge was not mentioned at all. Most North American tourists know Bruges more than Bruxelles/Brussel based on friends/family's European vacation photos. Plus, Bruges is called the Venice of the north due to so many canals. Also....the town of Spa is the first place that a spa existed on earth due to the hot springs. Nowadays the word spa is synonymous with health and wellbeing.
Bruges is fake.
@@Bob.martensIt’s not go visit it
@@Bob.martensI do not like you
@@Bob.martensI live there
Idiot@@Bob.martens
liége you could pronounce as lee-yeige like beige :) good vid great facts even i as belgian did not realise :o shame on me 😁
Hi I am from Belguim. This was a really cool video!!
Small mistake the footage you used for Waterloo was of Waterloo, Ontario and not Waterloo, Belgium
And Asterix the Gaul is a French comic strip, not Belgian - though pretty popular in Begium as well.
As i understand it, it was the British who were victorious at All the loos, Liquid or solid.
@@briseboy Nope, it were the Dutch/Belgian forces who held Napoleon back. After that it was the British turn, but they were almost defeated, till the Prussians showed up and beat the hell out of him.
But hey, British exceptionalism! They even turned their defeat into a victory when a Dutch prince put his ass on the English, Scottish, and Irish throne.
@@dutchman7623
typical british coping lol
@@briseboy
your country is a french colony timothy
Little mistake at 5:25 it is a statue of Vercingetorix in Alesia, Burgundy France. Who was an Arverne. Yes a Celt as well but another people. Vercingetorix was the leader of teh Arverne people in the Auvergne region in central France. He fought against Julius Ceasar and unified the Gauls until he lost at Alesia in 52 BC
And Asterix has been mistaken by MILLIONS of illiterate US citizens, for the more succinct *.
(I take no responsibility for the failure of USA to properly monitor third grade spelling classes, thereby unleashing trumps and other microcephalics on the Earth.)
yes, should be Ambiorix in Tongeren (Belgium)
Plot twist: the statue of Ambiorix in Tongeren was actually originally a statue of Vercingetorix. Those who ordered it, didn't want it anymore when it was finished. Then Tongeren wanted a statue of Ambiorix and since no one knows what he looked like, the finished statue was presented as Ambiorix. A guide in Tongeren told me that.
In Belgium, there are 2 main parts: Flanders, the Dutch speaking part and Wallonia, the French speaking part. Flanders has lots of cities, but Wallonia has the Ardennes, with lots of nature and hills. So Flanders is more flat and there you can visit the Nord sea, but Wallonia has a lot of nature.
We have the flemish ardennes but indeed a lot more forest in Wallonia
How come you didn't mention Nationaal park hofe Kempen, the ONLY national parc in the country?!
@@dennisengelen2517 because there are more national parks
Honestly these videos are better than Geography Now’s old videos
why does the thumbnail state that German is spoken in Brussels! :o German is only spoken in an EASTERN canton to the German border...
UPDATE: well at least the video itself makes up for it :)
Didn’t expect my city Halle to get mentioned
I'm Belgian and I can tell this is the coolest country on earth! 🇧🇪 Fun fact : we even created a new beer out of two existing special ones : the bush (12%) and the pécheresse (4%). The mix is generally served by pouring both beers into a large 50 cl cup, and called the "Pêche-mel bûche" 🍺 And it is incredibly good!!
Also as true Belgian students, we have bars inside of our faculties at University (at least in Wallonia) just to enjoy having beers with friends between two classes and this is the coolest thing ever 😍
I went out in Louvain-la-Neuve a few months ago with someone who's a student there and was introduced to that concoction. That was an experience alright.
I dont get how your channel is still that "small" bro. Just bingewatched some of your videos and for real bro you always delivere. Keep it going and you will get huge. Keep it going fam
One thing you have overlooked is that everywhere in the world the Belgian flag hangs incorrectly. The constitution drafted in 1831 was in French and says: "Belgium chooses the colours black, yellow and red where black is away from the mast." But when the constitution was translated into Dutch in 1837, the latter was forgotten. And that is why the Belgian flag hangs wrong everywhere: black yellow red.
Never heard this before.
Another fun fact about the flag is that it has pretty strange dimensions. Officially, the Belgian flag is 13:15, so almost square, while most other flags are rectangular (apart from Switserland and Vatican City). This also means that most flags that are used are not the correct dimensions.
I'm from Belgium. What a vid!
I can't believe you didn't mention Bruges.
zie je van Bruhhe, zet je van ahtern
@@SuperDirk1965 what does that even mean?
If you're from Bruges, you're from behind
If you're from Brugge, put yourself behind
@@SuperDirk1965 If you're from Brugge, have a seat at the back.
I like how we annexed half of Wallonia in the thumbnail
Belgium has three official languages. Dutch is spoken by 60% of the population, French 39%, and German 1%
🥰Useful, informative, and helpful. Thank you.
Perhaps the most important smallest invention that changed the whole world. The contraceptive pill. By Ferdinand Peeters.
or plastic
@@gwnfredske6266 and Bertrant!
@@gwnfredske6266 Bakelite...
bro you need to change the thumbnail you used the german flag to designate brussel. That's uncorrect, no german live there, german community is located at the border in the french part. Brussel is more like a frenc enclave in flander with 20% of dutch speaking people in it
Woah. This is SO COOL! You deserve a million subs. Really. Your videos are very high quality!
Not really, too many mistakes in this one.
The video is really well made and the editing really good. However your prononciations in Flemish and French are completely off :/
Horrendous pronunciations that would have been easy to look up beforehand.
Expect the fact you pronounce Liege totally wrong very good video :) also, you should mention the city of Bruges it's probably a way more attractive city for tourists than Ghent even though I love Ghent.
Everybody loves Ghent.
He butchered the cities like crazy
love it i am from Belgium and still learned stuff
BLOOD DIAMONDS FROM THE CONGO.......I LOVE FRENCH FRIES and waffles....JEAN CLAUDE VAN DAMME fan ,thanks for the info learned something new today.
0:03 my city Kortrijk
WE STAY STRONG
12:01 That explains why Belgium is called Bélgica in Portuguese. :0
Belgica is the Latin name for the Low Countries, that includes the north, south, Luxemburg, and the areas stolen by France and Germany.
Great video you've earned my respect cheers from the Kingdom of Belgium 🇧🇪🫡
DID YOU KNOW? the little guy "Manekenpiss" he pees beer once a year, on Saint Verhagen's day, student's day, isn't it great? And yes, Belgium has the best chocolate in the world, and not only according to the Belgians and it's not negotiable!😏
Chocolate was a product of Mexico, and remains exclusively tropical in origin.
You mistake imported fermented bean for your sugar product, although you cheaply employ Nigerian and Ghanian children to gather the additive for you.
Chocolate was first lusted after in Europe for its hallucenogenic properties, which, once you shed your sugar diet is highly noticeable effect of the sugar additive you use, named cacao, along with its amphetamine-like effect of preventing sleep.
@@briseboy what are you talking about? real Belgian chocolate (and I'm not talking about supermarkets) is made of 100% cacao butter that comes from cacao beans. We all know about sugar, imports etc... that's not the point here but if it reassures you, I can say it like this: After using underpaid slaves, after destroying the planet to transport what we stole from these people and by making everyone addicted to sugar, Belgium makes the best chocolate in the world But if no one consumes it anymore, it will be the end of slavery and pollution and all the world will be thin...😅
@@briseboy Did they make chocolate or did they just grow the beans, produce cacao butter or so ? Just wondering. I think i caught a documentary of chocolat producers somewhere in Latin America, forgot the details.
@@thierryroberfroid9400 Or skip to fair trade brands.... Which is becoming rather populair..
7:58 I don’t know what those images are but that ain’t Waterloo
Edit: it’s actually Waterloo, Canada
Brugge, Antwerpen, Knokke, Leuven and the Ardennen are great to visit to.
Fun Fact: The Netherlands (Nederlanden) means The Low Countries in Dutch
and tbh.. I'm Belgian and I hadn't even heard of Hallerbos before
I hadn't either before I came to Brussels but I went there once and it was indeed incredibly lovely
Thanks for explaining Belgium to us. 👏👏👏👏
The Couple walking with King Phillipe and Queen Mathilde in the pic @ 3:44 are Grand Duke Henri and Grand Duchess Maria Teresa of Luxembourg. Grand Duke Henri (far right) and King Phillipe are 1st cousins. Grand Duke Henri's mother was born Princess Josephine Charlotte and was King Phillipe's paternal aunt, she married Hereditary (future) Grand Duke Jean of Luxembourg in 1953. The Grand Duke's father passed in 2019 and his mother in 2005. Grand Duchess Maria Teresa is Cuban by birth and met her husband while they were studying in Switzerland and have been married since 2/14/1980.
Did I miss it, or did Jacques Brel not get a mention? He should have.
Yes, not only did he write his own texts but he was a most wonderful singer and interpreter. Look up "Quand on a que l'amour" ("when all you have is love"): czcams.com/video/IG6KiBNsrPU/video.html, and "la valse à mille temps", starting very slow but impossibly fast at the end (czcams.com/video/Z08T8hNQMPw/video.html) and is full of play on words
One waffle went wrong, the Gouda waffle, Gouda is not in Belgium, but the waffles are great too.
As a Belgian, I have no idea where you got those strange names for charleroi and Luik lol .. Luik (Flemish) Liege (French) and luttich (German) .. but that fourt name .. never heard :-) and Charleroi is always Charleroi , no matter what region you are in , german, french, dutch .. It still is charleroi .. what language that second words is .. no idea 🙂
it's walloon for Tcharlerwe and i suppose for lidje too but nobody speak that except old people
@@pouf6463 Walloon for tcharlerwe ? .. but what the hell is tcharlerwe ? .. you mean charleroi ? and when you speak about old people .. I am one of those .. and i speak walloon as well as flemish :-)
@@Rebel25965 i don't speak about french but walloon or picard (old french patois)
I speak a bit of the picard spoken near Ath and it looks like it
wa.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tch%C3%A5lerw%C3%A8_(veye)
and by old Imean really old, my grandfather speak it fluently but he's 97
@@pouf6463 The language you are referring too here is Kinyarwanda ... Nothing to do with "old walloon" ... Kinyarwanda is a language spoken by migrants from Rwanda (Africa)... Kinyarwanda, Rwandan or Rwanda, officially known as Ikinyarwanda, is a Bantu language and the national language of Rwanda. It is a dialect of the Rwanda-Rundi language that is also spoken in Burundi and adjacent parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda. We also have a lot of turkish people in Belgium since the 1800's ... It's like saying that Turkish is an old flemish language .. And Kinyarwanda and Picard, are not the same languages.
Your thumbnail is sooooo wrong, you know this, you know that the german speaking part isn't in Brussels, but is in the east of the country, why represent it so wrong in the thumbnail?
Talking about the famous people of Belgium and not mentioning Telex… well that’s a bummer 😬
Anyways thank you for the video!
Marc Moulin... also not mentioned.... Toots Thielemans, also left out, and that's a shame cuz Americans knowing or unknowingly are very familiar with his music.
Hi from the Netherlands 🌷🤘
Hi! 👋
@@CountriesExplained Hi 🤗
Haha, such an interesting and unique channel! Love it my dude. You considering doing a video on Bosnia And Herzegovina at any point? 🇧🇦
Thank you! 😁🙌 Ohhh yes, absolutely will 🇧🇦
@@CountriesExplained thanks! We all look forward to it, has some interesting history despite not being very old
@@CountriesExplained are you inspired by geography now?
RIP the pronunciation of names.
fun fact, we ourselves don't like waffles all that much... it's been 3 years since I ate one xd the beer and mussels however.... :D
Well, maybe YOU don't... Don't generalise! I regularly bake waffles (various receipes) and if they were not so caloric I would have them everyday 🙂
Nice country!
It sure is! 😍🇧🇪
It is ! It was even far more beautiful about 30yrs ago when little cities and townships stood still in time. Little super markets and tiny stores mostly had their well kept 50s, 60s interiors. Old buildings were still there but often in poor conditions. Many are gone now but the ones left are being protected and restored mostly.
oo i from belgium and its just funny how you try to say the dutch names good vid anny way
What about Baarle Hertog and Baarle Nassau?
We have a whole video about that place! 👀
🥰
never heard anyone say that you need to go to hallerbos but i guess its a nice place but I would recommend others i feel like
You could visit the city of Halle the same day. Or the castle of Beersel, also nearby.
The Gaston Lagaffe Comics are also from Belgium 😊
Interesting and informative video! Google translate lets you hear the pronunciation of words as well, by the way.
7:56 The pictures are not from Waterloo, I grew up there
Wrong Waterloo, not the one in Belgium.
Waterloo, Canada.
yeah so it's misleading @@dutchman7623
Is it a video about Canada?@@mardiffv.8775
If you say that Brussels is the biggest city in Belgium, you're wrong. Antwerp is (510 000 inhabitants), followed by Gent, Charleroi and Brussels (180.000). What is called Brussels here is in fact the city of Brussels and 18 surrounding smaller independent towns with their own town councils and municipality. They always cheat like that.
Brussels per se is not the largest city, but it's the largest metropolitan area with approx. a million people.
West-Flanders🎉
West Flemish is most cute dialect of the Dutch-Fleish language. As a Dutchman I love West Flanders.
i think you made a mistake they called French fries because they are frenched fries and its not manneken pid its manneke pis you're doing great btw
Romania Next?
Im com from belgium
Omg thank you for the kwak pic
Not the belgian congo 1908 but the free state or the private state it became part of belgium in 1908 when belgium took it away from the king of the belgian's because of all the crap that happend there and named it the belgian congo .
You may now call the area the "Wagner Congo",as it offers employment to Russian butchers.
Should Europe ever condescend to removal of that group from Africa, it will do the world good.
Simplistic
I thought that you where going to speak more for the festivals
PLS MAKE A VIDEO ON ARGENTINA BRAZIL BOLIVIA CHILE COLOMBIA ECUADOR PARAGUAY URUGUAY VENEZUELA
I remember when this video had like 200k views, WTF
Yeah I had to repost it because I was changing a few things in the video 😁🙌
6:51 Incidentally, that was also the guy who captured Joan of Arc and sold her to the English.
Belgium has a town baarle hartong where u cant have your bathroom in Belgium and room in Netherlands
The Flemish community is also in Brussels ...
Brussels (as the Capital district) has shy over a milion people just as Antwerp.
The city of Brussels has around 1m people but the Brussels region has over 2m. Antwerp city has half a mil and if you take into account the metro area then it has around 1m. So what you're saying is just blatantly false as whichever way you look at it, Brussels has twice the population
@@LonelyRedStrawberry Brussel als 'deelgemeente' van zichzelf binnen het Hoofdstedelijk Gewest heeft absolúút geen miljoen inwoners. Jouw zogenaamde metropoolregio van Brussel is dus gewoon het Hoofdstedelijk Gewest en haar voorsteden. Je hebt wel gelijk wat Antwerpen betreft.
O cool video about the Netherlands-south :)
These north Belgians smh
Around 1839 the British formed Belgium as a buffer zone between the French and The Netherlands, to prevent the French getting use of the Dutch sea ports.
How couls they form Belgium in 1839 while the country exists since 1830??
@@dennisengelen2517Indeed... and that's when the Belgian population had a revolution to claim its independence from the Dutch.
@@dennisengelen2517 He got his numbers mixed up : Belgium gained independence in 1830 but this was only accepted by the Dutch in 1839, after a failed invasion of Belgium.
@@flitsertheo
Wrong
Please .. tell the whole story
@@robdehoogh6742 There is nothing wrong with my story . The Dutch could have won in 1839 if it wasn't for the French army that helped the Belgians. This was followe by the Treaty of London where the Netherlands finally recognised the independence of Belgium.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_London_(1839)
gotta love americans trying to pronounce belgian words and names.
Do Bulgaria
Dapper Voorwaarts!
I know u don’t speak English very well but the way u said Astérix and obélix cracks me up. Good job and keep it up really good work 👍🇧🇪🇧🇪❤️
the duchy of brabant predates the time of the duchy of burgundy in the low countries tho... and burgundy used the colours red-blue-white-yellow... the duke of burgundyhad become the duke of brabant however, that's how the burgundians came to power in the low countries in the first place. the brabantine dialects were the basis of modern standard dutch, the hollanders (another county) also had an influence later on... that is why the dialects of east- and west flanders in belgium sound so different nowadays (the historical county of flanders only comprises half of the modern region of flanders that is why the province of east flanders still lays in the western half of the modern region of flanders). also you skipped over the 1789 Belgian revolt and the short lived United States of Belgium, an important event, first time the tricolor flag was used.
ITALY PORTUGAL SPAIN MAKE A VIDEO ON THESE COUNTRIES
🇮🇹🇵🇹🇪🇸🫡
I GUESS HE HAS TO SCREAM THEN BECAUSE THOSE FUCKING SOUTHERN PEOPLE ARE INCAPABLE OF SPEAKING NORMALLY WITHOUT SCREAMING IN AN OBNOXIOUS WAY!
A very beautiful country. 😍
Flamishs is our own language
To correct, Hum from Croatia is the smallest city in the world🧐🧐
im belgian
that front image is already wrong
Is there speak English Dutch.☺️👍
Districtus Trectis Codex Napoleon de Limburgse smurfen vlaai
Is me contry
I was Horn in belguim end i live here
i missed Brugge, my favorite ... ehm, is it a city? anyway, as the first Börse (stock exchange) was there. and did i mention Spa? a sidenote to all ignorant americans: there actually is a place called Spa... as it was invented there, and not in California or Florida or whatever you thought. 😂
Brugge or Bruges is only important for tourism nowadays. They have 2 small football (soccer) teams too.
It's not just French Fries which were lost in translation. In general, and we can brag about this... our food is a whole lot better than French cuisine which is seriously overrated due to these miss understandings.
Great video. I don't know much of our history but the tourist section of the video is spot on.
Sadly you did forget to mention Brugge, the most attractive city of our country. It's well known by American tourists, as probably their favorite go to place when visiting us.
Nice work but take a course in pronunciation of French. Liège is pronounced 'Lee-ège' (g as the j in jewel). So you have a start...
1:45 "lieguh"
So my dude, on currency map you show countries like UK switserland and norway not using the euro but Denmark also doesnt use it, like you yourself said in another one of your videos.
Dont get me wrong these videos are nice but soo much research that you guys dont do. Also who on earth do you manage to say the w in sword when talking about the iron sword !??!
That made me tick too, lol
There is another place in belgum that you can visit, Harelbeke it is nown by its cycling and has a cool history
😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢စက်ဘီး
why was this re-uploaded also yes we are just food and comics
Nobody can live without food and comics!
But rather comical to see Belgium that way, I agree!
Bros saying brussels is german in thumbnail
No history of Belgium is complete without mention of Eddie"The Cannibal" Merckx. More influential than Char
-lemagne.
I wasn't aware that any countries in the Americas colonized parts of Africa
According to the Muscovites, we are indeed high colonics.
You're joking right? WHY THE FUCK DO YOU THINK HALF OF BLOODY FUCKING AFRICA SPEAKS FRENCH?!?!