Page 32 - Olympism in Socialism

speaking Flemish Community, which constitutes
about 59 percent of the population, and the
French speaking Walloon population, which
comprises about 40 percent of all Belgians.
Additionally, there is a small group of German
speakers, numbering around one percent, who
live in the East Cantons. The capital and largest
city is Brussels; other major cities
are Antwerp, Ghent, Charleroi and Liège.
Belgium is a federal constitutional
monarchy with a parliamentary system of
governance. It is divided into three
highly autonomous regions and three
communities, the Dutch-speaking region
of Flanders in the north, the mostly French-
speaking Wallonia region in the south, and the
German-speaking cantons in the east.
The Brussels-Capital Region is an officially
bilingual (French and Dutch) enclave within the
Flemish Region, though French is the dominant
language.
A German-speaking Community exists in
eastern Wallonia. Belgium's linguistic diversity
and related political conflicts are reflected in
its political history and complex system of
governance, made up of six different
governments.
Belgium participated in the Industrial
Revolution and, during the course of the 20th
century, possessed a number of colonies in
Africa. The second half of the 20th century was
marked by rising tensions between the Dutch-
speaking and the French-speaking citizens fueled
by differences in language and culture and
the unequal economic development of Flanders
and Wallonia. This continuing antagonism has
led to several far-reaching reforms, resulting in a
transition from a unitary to a federal

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