Belgium historical timeline

Chronology

Mid-1st century BC — The Roman Empire annexes the territory of the Belgae, the tribal confederation that had dominated the area. The province took the tribe's name, and so, two thousand years later, does the country.
1214 — Philip II of France defeats the Count of Flanders at Bouvines and forces his submission to the French crown. French control over Flanders tightens for the rest of the century, setting up the confrontation that follows.
1302 — Philip IV's attempt at outright annexation meets a stunning defeat at the Battle of the Golden Spurs. Flanders keeps its autonomy, and its cloth industry makes it one of the richest areas in Europe through the 13th and 14th centuries. The city charters of that boom are why Bruges, Ghent and Ypres have Gothic cloth halls and belfries rather than castles at their centres.
1549 — Charles V's Pragmatic Sanction gives the Seventeen Provinces standing as a stable entity rather than a temporary personal union. During the Burgundian period either side of it, Tournai, Bruges, Ypres, Ghent, Brussels and Antwerp take turns as the commercial, industrial and artistic centre of northern Europe.
1568–1648 — The Eighty Years' War, triggered by Spanish policy towards Protestantism in the Low Countries. The northern provinces separate; the south stays Catholic and Habsburg. That split is the origin of the Belgian–Dutch border, which is a religious line before it is a linguistic one.
1794 — French Revolutionary armies annex the Low Countries, ending Austrian rule and absorbing territories that had never been Habsburg at all, the Prince-Bishopric of Liege among them. A thousand years of independent ecclesiastical statehood ends in a single campaign.
1815 — Napoleon, marching on Brussels to make it his base, is defeated at Waterloo nineteen kilometres to the south. The Congress of Vienna then joins the former Austrian Netherlands to the Dutch provinces as a buffer state against France. The battlefield and its Lion's Mound are a half-hour from the capital.
1830 — The Belgian Revolution separates the southern provinces from the Netherlands again and establishes an independent Belgium: Catholic, bourgeois, neutral and officially French-speaking. That last word is the grievance the next century and a half of Flemish politics is built on.
1839 — The Treaty of London settles the borders with the Netherlands and the five great powers. Eastern Luxembourg stays out of Belgium, which is why there are two Luxembourgs: a Belgian province and a separate country.
1885–1908 — The Berlin Conference hands the Congo Free State to Leopold II as personal property. It is run for revenue and characterised by widespread atrocities and disease; after international outcry Belgium annexes it as a state colony. The Royal Museum for Central Africa at Tervuren, built on that wealth, closed in November 2013 and reopened in December 2018 rebuilt around the colonial reckoning rather than the collection.
1914 — Germany invades in August as part of the Schlieffen Plan, and much of the Western Front settles into the west of the country for four years. The military cemeteries and memorials of the Ypres Salient are the direct result, and are the reason a small corner of Flanders receives visitors from across the Commonwealth.
1940 — Germany invades again in May. Some 40,690 Belgians, over half of them Jews, are killed in the occupation and the Holocaust. The Allies liberate the country between September 1944 and February 1945, and a post-war general strike forces Leopold III to abdicate.
1958 — Expo 58 opens in Brussels, seven years after Belgium became a founding member of the European Coal and Steel Community and a year after founding the European Economic Community. The Atomium built for the fair is still standing and still the city's most visited attraction, at over 600,000 people a year.
1960 — After riots the previous year the transition is accelerated and the Belgian Congo becomes independent in June under Patrice Lumumba. Katanga declares its own independence in July. Sixty-five years of Congolese immigration make Matonge in Brussels the neighbourhood it is.
1962–63 — Four language areas are fixed in law: Dutch, French, German and bilingual. Constitutional revisions in 1970, 1980, 1988 and 1993 turn the unitary state into a federation with power split three ways, between the federal government, three regions and three communities. The language border is why road signs change name mid-motorway and Brussels signs everything twice.
2002 — Belgium legalises euthanasia; age restrictions are lifted in 2014, making it lawful for minors who understand the decision, with parental consent.
2010–11 — The federal election of 13 June 2010 is followed by a record-breaking stretch with no government, resolved only in December 2011. It is the clearest measure of how far the federal machinery had been pulled apart by the constitutional reforms above.
2016 — On 22 March, coordinated bombings at Brussels Airport and Maelbeek metro station kill thirty-two people and injure over three hundred: the deadliest attack on Belgium since the Second World War. The national threat level has stood at 3, ‘Serious’, and the police presence in transport hubs dates from it.
2025 — On 3 February, Bart De Wever of the New Flemish Alliance becomes the first Flemish nationalist to hold the premiership.

Verified against Wikipedia, September 2026.

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Checked against Wikipedia — In antiquity, present-day Belgium was dominated by the Belgae before being annexed into the Roman Empire in the mid first century BC, In 1214, King Philip II of France defeated the Count of Flanders in the Battle of Bouvines and forced his submission to the French crown. Through the…, With the Pragmatic Sanction of 1549 he gave the Seventeen Provinces more legitimacy as a stable entity, rather than just a temporary personal union, The Eighty Years' War (1568-1648) was triggered by the Spanish government's policy towards Protestantism ... The rebellious northern United Provinces…, Following the campaigns of 1794 in the French Revolutionary Wars, the Low Countries -- including territories that were never nominally under Habsburg rule,…, In 1830, the Belgian Revolution led to the re-separation of the Southern Provinces from the Netherlands and to the establishment of a Catholic and…, The Berlin Conference of 1885 ceded control of the Congo Free State to King Leopold II as his private possession, Between 1885 and 1908, the Congo Free State, which was privately owned by King Leopold II of Belgium, was characterized by widespread atrocities and…, Germany invaded Belgium in August 1914 as part of the Schlieffen Plan to attack France, and much of the Western Front fighting of World War I occurred in…, German forces again invaded the country in May 1940, and 40,690 Belgians, over half of them Jews, were killed during the subsequent occupation and the…, Belgium became one of the six founding members of the European Coal and Steel Community in 1951 and of the European Atomic Energy Community and European…, Belgium legalized euthanasia in 2002. Despite earlier political opposition, age restrictions were lifted in 2014, Based on the four language areas defined in 1962-63 (the Dutch, bilingual, French and German language areas), consecutive revisions of the country's…, The Parliamentary elections in Belgium on 13 June 2010 saw the Flemish nationalist N-VA become the largest party in Flanders, On 3 February 2025, Bart De Wever, leader of the New Flemish Alliance, became the new prime minister. He is the first Flemish nationalist to be named…, After Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo in 1815, the major victorious powers (Britain, Austria, Prussia, and Russia) agreed at the Congress of Vienna on uniting…, Napoleon returned to power briefly during the Hundred Days in 1815, but on his way to recapturing Brussels as his intended power base, was finally defeated…, in 1839, the Treaty of London was signed between the two countries and the five great powers of Europe ... By the treaty of 1839, the eastern part of…, Belgium was the second country, after Britain, in which the industrial revolution took place, After riots in the Congo in 1959, the scheduled gradual transition to independence was sped up dramatically. In June 1960, the Belgian Congo was replaced by…, In July 1960, the southern state of Katanga Province declared its independence, Thirty-two people, excluding the three suicide bombers, were killed in the attacks and over 300 were injured. Sixteen died in the airport attack and sixteen…, In November 2013, the museum closed for extensive renovation work, including the construction of new exhibition space, and re-opened in December 2018., The Atomium and gondola lift during the 1958 Brussels World's Fair (Expo 58) (September 2026).