[Dr Fred]

I am sick of hearing from ignorant Brits that Belgium has no history, as if the soil we call Belgium and the people we call Belgians appeared magically in 1830 out of nowhere. Of course, Belgium as a factice nation is no significant and has no history since it is barely two centuries old, but Belgium is an ARTIFICIAL country (and the people inhabiting it are no BELGIANS) made up of centuries old cultures... and this is hard for Brits to figure out, since their countries are naturally delimited by sea and cannot technically be "artifical", they have no notion of what is an "artificial nation"... (Great Britain didn't suddenly merge from the sea, if you know what I mean)... you can't say to a inhabitant of Wallonia, whose ancestors took part to the history of Godefroid de Bouillon, Napoleon, Charlemagne, Pepin le bref, Jules Cesar, Adolph Hitler, Pepin le Bref, Charles the Bold, various French kings, you can't tell him that he has no history.

The people known as Belgians, the Flemish and the Walloons have one of the heaviest history of Europe, and like most part of the world with a heavy history, it has been consequently war-torn, and their historical relics destroyed(see Japan). Let alone the periodical hijacking of "belgian" inventors or artists by either Netherlands or France (many so-called "american dutch" were Flemish or Walloons, and many so-called "french inventors" were Walloons).

Afterwards, we hear British journalists compulsively telling us that Belgium has no history. They keep on saying "tell us 10 famous belgians" with a sarcastic smile, but can they tell us 10 famous Swiss, or Finns, or Slovaks? so why Belgians? I believe there is a subconscious Belgian-bashing propaganda among Brits, as if they wanted to kill what they created.