Belgium

Attached to France following the vote of the population of Liège in 1793, Belgium will be part of the French territory until the fall of the Empire in 1814. This period was very important for the country:
“It consecrated, indeed, the end of privileges and the seigneurial regime, the birth of human rights, of a new institutional, economic, social and legal order. It places in the forefront of the stage a figure that had hitherto been erased from the political debate: the people”.  – Hervé Hasquin

When Belgium was created in 1830, it was mostly Dutch-speaking but was ruled by French-speaking people, with the Flemish bourgeoisie and nobility speaking French at the time.

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