History Provinces of Belgium

map of seventeen provinces, red showing border between independent (northern) netherlands , southern netherlands.

the medieval low countries, including present-day belgium, netherlands , luxembourg, parts of modern germany , france, comprised number of rival , independent feudal states of varying sizes. these each had own identities , governments, though in modern period belgian states became part of larger entities (the seventeen provinces (1549-1581) , southern netherlands (after 1581)). prominent states in area of modern belgium included duchy of brabant, county of flanders, prince-bishopric of liège , duchy of luxembourg; smaller ones included county of hainaut, duchy of limburg , county of namur, though there other small states well. each of modern provinces of belgium (with exception of antwerp) takes name 1 of these predecessors, though modern borders in cases differ substantially historical ones.

the french first republic

at time of independence of belgium netherlands in 1830, territory consisted of existing 9 belgian provinces. first article of belgian constitution said: belgium divided provinces. these provinces antwerp, brabant, west flanders, east flanders, hainaut, liège, limburg, luxembourg, namur, except relations of luxembourg german confederation.

in 1839 half of province of limburg became part of netherlands, consequently has own province of limburg.

in 1920, following first world war, belgium annexed eupen-malmedy territory, became part of province of liège.

during second half of 20th century, belgium transitioned unitary state federal state 3 communities , 3 regions. part of state reforms, (bilingual) province of brabant split in 1995 3 ways: 2 (unilingual) provinces (flemish brabant , walloon brabant) , (bilingual) brussels-capital region. (the brussels-capital region not belong province, not province, , not contain provinces.) 2 new brabant provinces became part of flemish region , walloon region respectively. remaining 8 provinces became part of these regions well, flemish region , walloon region each contain 5 provinces.