Belgica As The Name of The Low Countries
Although the name "Belgica" is now reserved for Belgium, before the division of the Low Countries into a southern and a northern half in the 16th century, the name referred to the entire Low Countries. The Seventeen Provinces of the Low Countries were then divided into the independent Belgica Foederata or the federal Dutch Republic and the Belgica Regia or the royal Southern Netherlands under the Habsbourgian crown. For example, several contemporary maps of the Dutch Republic, which consisted of the Northern Netherlands, and therefore has almost no overlap with the country of Belgium, show the Latin title Belgium Foederatum.
In a Belgian Latin-French dictionary (edited in Brussels in 1826 by P. J. De Mat) the word "Belga" is translated as "Flamand" (Flemish).
Read more about this topic: Gallia Belgica
Famous quotes containing the words the and/or countries:
“There’s always the hyena of morality at the garden gate, and the real wolf at the end of the street.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“Our democracy, our culture, our whole way of life is a spectacular triumph of the blah. Why not have a political convention without politics to nominate a leader who’s out in front of nobody?... Maybe our national mindlessness is the very thing that keeps us from turning into one of those smelly European countries full of pseudo-reds and crypto-fascists and greens who dress like forest elves.”
—P.J. (Patrick Jake)