Coordinates: 50 17 N 5 0 E
Area: 6,504 sq. mi. (16,844 sq. km)
It’s all fun and games until somebody loses a province. Or worse yet, an entire region. As Belgium taught us last week, sovereignty and nationalism are not necessarily a laughing matter for many Europeans. In all seriousness, the continent can be rather fractious when it comes to its people and their politics. Sure, Spain, Italy, and Poland may be familiar entities, but what about Galicia, Padania, and Upper Silesia? Or, to use another Belgian example, Wallonia? One of three regions in that small and prosperous country, Wallonia consists of the five largely French-speaking provinces in the kingdom’s southern half. And while it wasn’t a formally established governmental unit until 1970, the inhabitants of the wooded, hilly Ardennes plateau have long thought of themselves as a distinct group. Actually, Jules Destrée, a Walloon politician, may have said it best—and certainly most succinctly—in his letter to the king in 1912. “There are no Belgians,” he wrote.
Ben Keene is the editor of Oxford Atlas of the World. Check out some of his previous places of the week.
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