The Brussels Puzzle

... was founded in 1830, when the Francophone Walloons, Dutch-speaking Flemish and the minute German community of Eupen-Malmedy decided to come together and form a single state. Thanks to its fast economic growth, basically in metallurgy and coal mining, Wallonia became the titular group, overpowering the relatively backward, agricultural Flanders. But in the mid-20th century, the situation radically changed, with the Walloon economy declining, to a great extent due to the loss of Congo, Belgium’s key source of raw materials in Africa. At the same time, Flanders was swept over by ...