Talk:Belgium

Glaring Omission?

No mention of the London Conference (1830) and the Treaty of London (1839) that created Belgium? The treaty by which Belgium "...became internationally recognised as the Kingdom of Belgium."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Conference_of_1830

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_London_(1839)

I have not done any article-archaeology to see it if was mentioned before, and was edited out for some reason, but let's say I find it very surprising, but not eunexpected.

City of Brussels

I clicked on the capital of Belgium which was City of Brussels and not just Brussels. So what's the difference with that? They are not the same thing. City of Brussels seems to have too little content compared to Brussels. 180.244.133.42 (talk) 14:22, 25 April 2024 (UTC)

The city of Brussels is a municipality of Belgium, aka area administered as a city, and it is "actual" Brussels. The page titled "Brussels" is about the entire region of the same name, which consists of many more municipalities than the city itself. Weirdly, it is the city that gets the prefix "city of" and the region is called just "Brussels". This is likely because the entire Brussels region is a metropolitan area, which is often termed a city. Felleno (talk) 06:37, 20 September 2024 (UTC)

The word "city" has several related meanings in modern English. Most commonly in modern English it refer to a large, relatively concentrated settlement, bigger than a town. Brussels, meaning all of it, is one urban area, and commonly referred to as a city. To argue that Brussels is smaller than Antwerp because it has multiple administrations goes beyond the possibilities that the English language allows, except in deliberately confusing jokes. In reality, London was called a city (one city) even when it had more than one administration. I have never seen London or Brussels referred to as multiple "cities". A less common meaning of city in some contexts would be a single council district or municipality, but this secondary meaning tends to be avoided in any contexts where it could cause confusion. For example, people would tend to say "I am going to make the whole city council aware" instead of "I am going to make the whole city aware". English speakers would normally realise that these sentences would have two different meanings.--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 11:59, 20 September 2024 (UTC)

A municipality is either a group of settlements or one single settlement according to Belgian law. Therefore the municipality of Brussels is the actual city known as Brussels, while the Brussels region is a large, metropolitan administrative area, which can be unofficially referred to as a city.

However ignoring all of the above, the current article's revision is plain wrong, as text "Brussels" in the infobox links to the City of Brussels, which is nowhere near as large as the Brussels region, to which the infobox should link in the first place if we consider it a city. Felleno (talk) 12:38, 20 September 2024 (UTC)

Obviously we have to write based on English common usage and not technocratic definitions in other languages. OTOH I have fixed the wikilinks. I think you are right about the distinction between the two definitions of Brussels in the infobox. A very Belgian problem that the one with "capital" in its official name is not the capital! LOL --Andrew Lancaster (talk) 15:58, 20 September 2024 (UTC)

Edit request: Bélgica

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

---

Bélgica (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) currently redirects here. A hatnote needs to address this.

Please add:

{{redirect|Bélgica|other uses|Belgica (disambiguation)}}

"Bélgica" redirects here. For other uses, see Belgica (disambiguation).

-- 65.92.244.237 (talk) 11:31, 28 May 2024 (UTC)

 Done ABG (Talk/Report any mistakes here) 06:58, 29 May 2024 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Edit request: Belgia

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

---

Belgia (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) currently redirects here. The current hatnote needs to be adjusted to address the existence of the passenger ship SS Belgia.

Please change:

{{Redirect|Belgia|the predecessor as an Ancient Roman province|Gallia Belgica}}

"Belgia" redirects here. For the predecessor as an Ancient Roman province, see Gallia Belgica.

to:

{{Redirect|Belgia|the predecessor as an Ancient Roman province|Gallia Belgica|the passenger ship|SS Belgia}}

"Belgia" redirects here. For the predecessor as an Ancient Roman province, see Gallia Belgica. For the passenger ship, see SS Belgia.

-- 65.92.244.237 (talk) 12:06, 28 May 2024 (UTC)

 Done ABG (Talk/Report any mistakes here) 06:56, 29 May 2024 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Brabant Revolution and loss of land

I'd say it's pretty important to go into more detail about the Brabantian Revolution and the fact that Belgium were semi-autonomous during most of the 18th century.

Also a specific mention of how Belgium were forced to give up Luxembourg and Limburg in 1839. Noubit (talk) 09:30, 26 June 2024 (UTC)

Those sound like reasonable proposals. Not sure if I will get a chance today so if anyone else wants to...?--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 11:39, 26 June 2024 (UTC)

Proposal Merged Name of Capital City

With Brussels already serving as the de facto capital of both Belgium and the European Union, do you think it would make sense to officially consolidate Belgium’s multiple capitals into just one? How might this decision impact the country's administrative efficiency compared to other nations with a singular capital city.

in the edit history of here it is stated that Antwerp is the largest city, but this was reversed by the edit on the grounds that Brussels is the capital also largest city in Belgium. But in this last edit which I think is a redundant word. So would it be better if the edit was just one word like in this edit.

So, i want to open discuss about Merged from City of Brussels to Brussels instead. Thank You Baqotun0023 (talk) 15:26, 4 October 2024 (UTC)

I can not understand what is being proposed, or why. What is the problem you see with the present situation?--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 16:04, 4 October 2024 (UTC)

I mean, in the Infobox is displayed 2 Name Capital at Infobox like City of Brussles and Brussels instead. So Is that word perhaps redundant in my opinion compared to just one word, namely Brussels. Baqotun0023 (talk) 01:16, 5 October 2024 (UTC)

I still have to guess a little bit what you mean because you seem to spend very little time on making your posts clear. Apparently you think the distinction being made between the smaller "city" (the municipality) and the larger region (or Belgian federal state), both called Brussels, is "redundant", and so you want to return to the situation we recently had where they were being confused on Wikipedia (which led to a simmering edit war with Antwerp being turned into Belgium's biggest city on a technicality). However, these two things called Brussels really are two different things. I think it is not our job on Wikipedia to redefine reality, and make it easier to understand. Concerning the question of whether the relatively small "city of Brussels" is the official capital of Belgium (and not the whole Brussels region) I should note that I just accepted what other editors have said, and made the logical solution, which was simply to make the distinction clear.--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 06:34, 5 October 2024 (UTC)

Congo atrocities

@Moxy what do you mean by no need 2 times? Its mention in the body doesn't mean it shouldn't be mentioned in the lede. Kowal2701 (talk) 19:40, 10 October 2024 (UTC)

It's in the note attached to the sentence..... Because it needs more than just a link for explanation.Moxy🍁 19:42, 10 October 2024 (UTC)

That's a good way of dealing with it tbh. I'd like to see that more often Kowal2701 (talk) 19:43, 10 October 2024 (UTC)

Shouldn't be in the lead..... not really about this country now is it. Moxy🍁 19:44, 10 October 2024 (UTC)

By that reasoning anything about colonies shouldn't be in the lede since they were a separate legal entity. Kowal2701 (talk) 19:50, 10 October 2024 (UTC)

Settler colonialism should be dealt with in the country where it happened. This is what our FA and GA articles do as you're aware from the previous conversation about turkey....homegrown genocide is dealt with within the country itself and generally not in the lead cuz it's not a defining aspect of the country.Moxy🍁 19:52, 10 October 2024 (UTC)

It feels wrong that the perpetrator gets a clean slate on their page. But that's probably a good way of dealing with it. Kowal2701 (talk) 19:55, 10 October 2024 (UTC)

I suggest you read over WP:RIGHTGREATWRONGS. The lead is for defining what the country is and the major points of the country. Moxy🍁 19:59, 10 October 2024 (UTC)

Agreed. Kowal2701 (talk) 20:00, 10 October 2024 (UTC)