Belgium, between the North Sea, the Scheldt and the Ardennes, has been a crossroads of Europe since early humans left stone tools at La Belle-Roche about half a million years ago. The caves of the Meuse gave the world its first Neanderthal fossils, Neolithic miners dug flint at Spiennes, and in the Iron Age the Belgae, whom Caesar called the bravest of the Gauls, gave the country its name.

Rome ruled the province of Gallia Belgica for four centuries, the Frankish kings Childeric and Clovis ruled from Tournai, and the Carolingians rose from the Meuse valley. After 843 the land was divided along the Scheldt into Flanders, Brabant, Hainaut, Liège and other principalities, whose cloth towns grew rich and won their liberties. The dukes of Burgundy and the Habsburgs united the Low Countries, and Antwerp became the trading capital of Europe.

The Dutch Revolt split the Netherlands, leaving the south under Spain, then under Austria from 1714, France from 1795 and the Dutch king from 1815. The revolution of 1830 created an independent kingdom with a liberal constitution, the first railway on the continent and a great industrial economy, while Leopold II ruled the Congo Free State as his personal possession, with forced labour and great brutality. Germany invaded and occupied Belgium in both world wars.

After 1945 Belgium helped found Benelux, NATO and the European Communities, gave up its African colonies and, through six state reforms, became a federal state of communities and regions, with Brussels as the main seat of the European Union. Explore the ten ages below through selected events from the timeline.