Among the European powers, Belgium is not well known, not only small in size, but also independent in 1830, making it a late start in its colonial journey. However, such a small European country occupies a place in the gap between the traditional powers of Britain, France, Germany, and Italy, and Belgium has more than 2 million square kilometers of colonies in Africa.
Belgium is located in Western Europe, facing the British Island across the Strait of Dover in the northwest, and is known as the "Three Low Countries" with the Netherlands and Luxembourg due to its low-lying terrain. Belgium covers an area of about 3070,000 square kilometers, about 37% of Chongqing, and the population is almost 1 3 of Chongqing, about 11.69 million (2023).
Belgium's neighbors, in clockwise order, are: Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, France.
Historically, Belgium was ruled by the Celts, Romans, Gauls, Germanic peoples and other peoples, and did not form its own language, and now the languages of the Belgians are mostly French and Dutch.
The territory of Belgium is roughly divided into the Flemish region (north) and the Walloon region (south). The North End is close to the Netherlands and speaks Dutch; The South District is close to France and French is spoken. The capital of Brussels is in the northern district, but there are also many French speakers, and Dutch French is spoken. Part of the territory to the east of the Southern Zone was divided from Germany during World War I and World War II, and it is German-speaking.
A Belgian named Forbister, born in Brussels, whose Chinese name is Nan Huairen, came to China as a missionary in 1658 and later became the scientific teacher of the Kangxi Emperor. Nan Huairen is proficient in the astronomical calendar, good at casting cannons, is the person in charge of the Qin Tianjian (National Astronomical Observatories), the official to the Ministry of Works, and is the second grade.
Nan Huairen drew the Kunyu Quantu for the Qing Dynasty and printed it on wood. The layout of the whole picture is reasonable, magnificent, lush, exquisitely made, and the colors are distinct. The geographical theories and world knowledge conveyed in the book include the theory of the circle of the earth, the concept of the five continents, the concept of latitude and longitude and measurement methods, the division of climatic zones, the new achievements of geographical discoveries, and the customs and customs of various parts of the world, which are unheard of.
Kunyu Quantu is the culmination of the ancient Chinese version of the world map, the first relatively complete world map in the history of maps, and has milestone significance.
In 1830, Belgium gained independence from the Netherlands. In 1867, it was declared a permanent neutral country.
After Belgium's independence, the soup of the world's colonies has long been divided by Britain, France and other powers, and only a little scum remains. Compared with the old colonial empire, Belgium's strength is too inferior, and it is certainly not possible to be tough, and if you want to get a piece of the pie overseas, you can only survive in the cracks of the big powers.
Belgium took a fancy to Africa, and King Leopold II sent people to go deep into the Congo River valley and establish a stronghold in the name of "scientific expeditions". Although there are many tribes in the Congo River Valley, the people are scattered and there is no unified government, and Belgium and Britain, France, Germany, Portugal and other countries have done the same thing in Africa, constantly provoking tribal contradictions, and then breaking them individually. Belgium established colonies in the Congo River Valley, and Britain, France, Germany and other powers also noticed the movement of the Belgians, although they did not welcome Belgian intervention, but they were not monolithic.
In 1884, the European powers held a conference in Berlin on how to divide the Congo River Valley Colony, Britain, France and Germany had serious differences, and the Belgian fisherman benefited, and the following year officially announced the establishment of the Congo Colony, with an area of about 234490,000 square kilometers.
Congo River, the volume of water reaches 4120,000 cubic meters per second, only less than the Amazon River, ranking second in the world, larger than the Yangtze River, Yellow River, and Huai River combined.
With a total length of about 4,700 kilometers (with the Chimbezi River as its source), the Congo River is the second largest in Africa, second only to the Nile River and ninth in the world.
The Congo Basin is the largest basin in Africa, with an area of about 3.37 million square kilometers. In a clockwise direction, the Congo Basin is bounded by the Adamava Mountains, the Azander Plateau, the Mitumba Mountains, the Katanga Plateau, the Ronda Plateau, and the Bié Plateau.
With an area of nearly 2 million square kilometers, the Congo Basin has the second largest tropical rainforest in the world after the Amazon. If the earth has lungs, the Amazon plain and the Congo basin can be said to be the twin lungs of the earth.
Although the Great Powers ceded the Congo River Basin to Belgium, they also set up bottlenecks, and Belgium's Congolese colony had only 37 kilometers of coastline.
The Belgian rule in the Congo was so brutal that the slaves could not complete their work, so the Belgians chopped off their hands and feet, sometimes not because they were still required to work, but chopped off the hands and feet of the slave children. In a few decades, the population of the Congo Basin has plummeted by 10 million.
In 1960, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) gained independence from Belgium.
The area of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is about 234With 490,000 square kilometers, it is the second largest country in Africa, after Algeria. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has a population of about 102.3 billion people (2023), about twice as many as Algeria. The forest coverage rate of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is 53%, accounting for 47% of the forest area of the whole Africa, if you only look at the area and population, the Congo (DRC) is the largest country in Africa with the best natural environment.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is rich in natural resources and is simply the "world's raw material warehouse", mainly exporting mineral resources. The main mineral reserves are: 30 million tons of niobium-tantalum (80% of the world), 4.5 million tons of cobalt (50% of the world), 75 million tons of copper (15% of the world), and 700 million carats of diamonds (second in the world).