As the typical Belgian questions were exhausted by DukeofFlanders i Belgium quiz 1, I'll have to be innovative and somewhat more difficult in my questions. :D

1) For what kind of "graphic art" are the cities of Charleroi and Brussels famous ?

2) Which "Belgian" prince, leader of the 4th crusade, became Eastern Roman emperor after the crusade had taken Byzantium ?

3) Where was born and educated Holy Roman Emperor Charles V of Habsburg, king of Spain (Charles I), the Netherlands, Burgundy and others principalties. What was is first language and how many did he speak ? (triple question)

4) What Belgian principalty was never part of the Spanish Netherlands, but instead an semi-independant Holy Roman State.

5) Brussels is not only the capital of Belgium, but what other political organisations ? (2 required)

6) For what kind of sweet is Belgium famous ? (easy one)

7) Who is Ernest Solvay ? What did he invent ?

8) What other colonies than Congo did Belgium "receive" from Germany after the WWII ?

9) How many federal governments is there in Belgium and which ones ?

10) subsidiary question : How long will Belgium be a single country ?

Innovative eh? :)

3) Born and educated in the Flanders. Spoke Flemish only.
5) EC and NATO.

That's all for me. :(

these questions are hard indeed.

6) For what kind of sweet is Belgium famous ? (easy one)
-> chocolats

8) What other colonies than Congo did Belgium "receive" from Germany after the WWII
-> Rwanda and Burundi

9) How many federal governments is there in Belgium and which ones ?
-> 3 ,flemmisch federal goverment ,walloon federal goverment and the Brussels capital goverment (brussels hoofdstedelijk gewest)

10) subsidiary question : How long will Belgium be a single country ?

I wonder.Civil war is a possebilety in Belgium.

Well, not quite so.

3) Born and educated in Ghent (Flanders), but raised in French (his father was from Burgundy and French was the Court language at the time). He spoke more than 1 language. How many ?

5) Right, except that EC is called EU since 1992.

:king:

Well, I see that even Belgians don't know how they are governed.

DukeofFlanders, you've got the questions 6 and 8 right, but you messed up for number. 9 ;)

I don't think there'd be any civil war though. Is that correct that some Flemish politicians claimed the independance of Flanders for the 1/1/2002, with the arrival of the Euro, and for the 700year anniversary of the Flemish victory against the French, known as the "Schlacht der Gulden Sporen" (if my Dutch is allright) or"Battle of the Golden Spurs" in English.

"Well, I see that even Belgians don't know how they are governed. "

Well ,they (the goverment(s)) don't really keep it simple for us.

I had 9 wrong? :eek: I thought that this was what you ment.Anyway ,about ten ,i didn't say belgium will go into civil war ,but there is a small possebilety.

Glad to so more Belgian's over here.you live in namur? that's a nice city ,much beter than other major walloon city's like Liege or Charelroi.B.t.w. i'm from Ypres (Ieper) ,south west-Flanders ,not far from Courtrai.

7) Who is Ernest Solvay ? What did he invent ?
Has that someting to do with the steel manufacturing company solvay?

Glad to so more Belgian's over here.you live in namur?

I am from Namur, but it makes a few years I am not living in Belgium anymore. Now I am living in Tokyo.

7) Solvay is a chemical industry (that's a tip as it has to do with this)

9. One ofcourse, the one that rules Vlaanderen, Wallonie and Brussel. (am I right?)
10. You will fall before 2100! (either into Dutch/French hands, 2 parts becoming independent, or into the United States of Europe f.k.a. EU)

1) triptichs
3) Brugge - French, Spanish, German
4) Limburg?

others have been answered...

4 Luik / Liege

Well, nothing is done yet.

Michiel de Ruyter gave the right answer to question 4. It was the principaulty of Liege (Luik in Dutch, Luettich in German, Liejas in Spanish, Liegi in Italian, Liitch in Walloon !)who kept its independance from the Habsburg.

SKM got number 5 right and the DuckofFlanders got 6 and 8.

Still 6 answers to come !

Originally posted by Julien


I don't think there'd be any civil war though. Is that correct that some Flemish politicians claimed the independance of Flanders for the 1/1/2002

For both belgians: what's the name of that funy belgian film director, that's allways talking about his coup d'état to hapen in the 21st May of 2005. :lol:

5) EU, NATO

6) chocolat and bonbons

7) some chemist or something? (there's a company named Solvay near my house)

2) Count Baldwin of Flanders and Hainault

7) Industrial tycoon and filantropist; born 1838
He developed a new process for the production of sodium carbonate

:goodjob: Michiel de Ruyter, you still get these 2 right (2 and 7)!

2) It was indeed Baldwin of Flanders & Hainault who leaded the forth crusade (if my memory is good) that ended taking Constantinople by "mistake" (it was not the aim of the crusade as Byzantine were an Allied of the West). He became Eastern Roman Emperor after that.

Questions 2,4,5,6,7 and 8 were answered.

I answered the first part of question 3. I still want to know how many languages spoke Charles V of Habsburg.

1 isn't difficult. I am sure most of the Europeans in this forum have already bought one of these "graphic art"(it's not only graphic, by the way) and maybe American as well.

Number 9 is more hard than I thought. It is not the central government in Brussels that has all the power. In fact, it has almost no power left except for the defence, taxes and foreign affairs. The economy (inculding agriculture, industry, business...), education, culture, tourism, accomodation and so on are all in the hands of regional governments. There are 2 kinds of regional governments. How many does it make ; what are they called and what is their respective power ?

10) It would be very easy, in consideration of question 9, to split the country in 2, 3 or 4 different ones. Brussels (and the king, say some people) is still responsible for the "unity" of Belgium. There was the curency as well, but in January 2002 (Euro coming), this will not be a factor anymore. That's why some people think it will be the final blow towards the full indepenance of the regions. As the European Government already exist (80% in Brussels), each region might later become the first integrated European regions. It means that the country will be the EU and the regions Flanders and Wallonia. Later the German laender, Spanish federal region, as well as other European region (Scotland, Wales, Corsica, Basque Land...) might also become Euro-regions, politically independant but giving a part of their power to the European government rather than their national government now (ie, Germany, Spain, France, UK...). In a more remote future, we can hope that the whole of Europe will be composed a federal regions with a decentralised European Governement.

1) Nude art? :)

1) Bande dessiné.

That's it, McDread ! Bande dessinee or comics in English. Many of you know Tintin. Some might also know Spirou & Fantasio (& Marsupilami), Lucky Luck, the little blue Smurfs (Schtroumfs) with their white hat, "Les tuniques bleus" (during the Secession War in the US) and so many others.

I will give the answer to question 9.

There are 6 or 7 goverments in Belgium 8depending on how you count). The Nationa/Federal one, which only care about the defence, foreign affairs and the redistribution of the taxes to the regions.

There are 3 Regional goverment (Brussels, Flanders and Wallonia). They have the economical power, from road building to agriiculture, or construction to industry or business.

At the same level, there are 3 Communities government : the Dutch-speaking community, the French-speaking com. and the German-speaking com. Their territory is not exactly the same as the one of the region, otherwise they wouldn't have made two kinds of gov. The communities have the charge of education, culture, tourism, and language related affairs.

The French-speakers represent 85% of the population of Brussels and 97% of Wallonia. German-speakers are a minority (60000 people only, all in Eastern Wallonia) but have their own communautarian government (because we want to be fair for all :D) . Dutch (or Flemish) speakers make for almost the whole population of Flanders as well as 15% of Brussels.

To make it more complicated, the regional goverment of Flanders has fused with the Flemish Community gov. to create the Vlaamse Raad (Flemish Council).
Brussels, which is dominantly French speaking is situated in Flemish homeland. Flemish people claim it has their capital - for historical and geographical reason), but it is where a great part of the French-speaker Walloons actually live.

With the tension between Flemish and Walloons, it has been suggested more than once to separate the country in 2. But with the unsolved problem of Brussels (who gets it?), it might not come tomorrow. If the country splits, Flanders could become a new country easily, but without Brussels. Brussels would become a city-state (a capital of the EU and NATO, so maybe a future Washingon, Ottawa or Canberra for the EU). Walloons have thought about joining France with which it has narrow tights. The German cantons could rejoin Germany from which it had been taken after WWI, but they don't want it. They say they don't feel Germans anymore and think about uniting with tiny neibouring Luxemburg.

The future will tell us.

waw i am belgian and i didnt know so much:confused: :eek:

Originally posted by Julien

[quote]5) Brussels is not only the capital of Belgium, but what other political organisations ? (2 required)
EU, NATO

6) For what kind of sweet is Belgium famous ? (easy one)
Praline chocolates? (amonsgt others)


9) How many federal governments is there in Belgium and which ones ?
Err 2 or 3 The waloon, the flimish and maybe the other strange little one? ;) :D

10) subsidiary question : How long will Belgium be a single country ? [/B]
As long as Vlaams Blok remains down ;)