Belgium

For such a small country, has been a major European battleground over the centuries.

Occupied by Germany during World Wars I and II, it has experienced an economic boom in the last 50 years to become a model Western European liberal democracy.

However, there has also been a growing divide between the mainly Dutch-speaking north and the mainly French-speaking south, with some even speculating that the country could break up.

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Brussels is the headquarters of the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato). Thus, it is the polyglot home of an army of international diplomats and civil servants.

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The country stretches from the dunes of the northern coastline through the Flemish lowlands and on to the forests of the rolling Ardennes hills in the south.

reconciles regional and cultural identities in a single federal structure.

The structure includes three communities - Flemish, French and German-speaking - and three regions: Flanders in the north where the official language is Dutch; Wallonia in the south where French is the official tongue and Brussels, the capital, where French and Dutch share official language status. Wallonia has a 70,000-strong German-speaking minority.