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:
“So close is the bond between man and woman that you can not raise one without lifting the other. The world can not move ahead without womans sharing in the movement, and to help give a right impetus to that movement is womans highest privilege.”
—Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (18251911)
“We are the sons and daughters of the world they saved. [Now is our moment] to make common cause with other countries to ensure a world of peace and prosperity for yet another generation.”
—Bill Clinton (b. 1946)