The colony was administered from Brussels, with neither the Congolese nor the resident Belgians having any vote.

Had they been truly ruthless, the Belgians might have exploited the Congolese without compassion.

If internal frictions arose, they could be handled by the 25,000-man Congolese army, the Force Publique, which had been trained and was still officered by white Belgians.

With this plan the Belgians hoped to satisfy the demands of the more moderate Congolese for inclusion in the political process while neutralizing the more extreme Congolese nationalists with the promise of eventual independence.

Faced with increasing instability, the Belgians held a " Roundtable Conference " in Brussels for the leaders of the different Congolese parties.

Between 1940 and 1945 some 350 Congolese and twenty Belgians, under the command of Medical Colonel Thomas, worked together with the British medical services in Abyssinia, Somalia, Madagascar and Burma.

The real political forces behind this were the Catholic clergy, which was against the Protestant Dutch king, William I, and the equally strong liberals, who opposed the royal authoritarianism, and the fact that the Belgians were not represented proportionally in the national assemblies.

The Belgians gave the majority of political control to the Tutsis.

Reforms instituted by the Belgians in the 1950s encouraged the growth of democratic political institutions but were resisted by the Tutsi traditionalists, who saw them as a threat to Tutsi rule.

At the same time the Belgians, perceiving their diminutive role on the international scene, are strong advocates of strengthening economic and political integration within the EU.

On his arrival in 1864 with his wife, Empress Carlota of Mexico, daughter of King Léopold I of the Belgians, he found himself in the middle of a political struggle between the Conservatives that backed him and the opposing Liberals, headed by Benito Juárez.

The era of political dominance peaked with Leopold Friedrich ; born Prince of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, becoming the King of Belgians in 1831 and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, born in Schloss Rosenau, marrying his first cousin, Queen Victoria in 1840.

Tutsi leaders accused the Belgians of abetting the Hutus.

Gort sent the battle-worn 3rd, 4th and 50th Divisions into the line to fill the space the Belgians had held.

* The Northern Rhodesia government would exchange land on the northwest boundary in the Lubemba area for some of the Mokambo land held by the Belgians.

Macdonald first held talks with both the Belgians and French at Chequers and then hosted an Inter-Allied conference in London in July 1924.

The FP was initially conceived in 1885 when King Leopold II of the Belgians, who held the Congo Free State as his private property, ordered his Secretary of the Interior to create military and police forces for the State.

Following the scandal, on October 26, 1996, about 300, 000 Belgians marched in Brussels to protest at the failures of the police force and judicial system in this affair.

While most of the associates of Marx and Engels were German immigrants living in Brussels, some of their new associates were Belgians.

Though unpopular at the end of his reign — his funeral cortege was booed — Leopold II is remembered today by many Belgians as the " Builder King " ( Koning-Bouwer in Dutch, le Roi-Bâtisseur in French ) because he commissioned a great number of buildings and urban projects, mainly in Brussels, Ostend and Antwerp.

* Baudouin, Duke of Brabant, Count of Hainaut, Prince of Belgium, who became the fifth King of the Belgians as Baudouin, born at Stuyvenberg on the outskirts of Brussels on 7 September 1930, and died at Motril, Spain on 31 July 1993.

The Belgians have been strong advocates of European integration, and most aspects of their foreign, economic, and trade policies are coordinated through the European Union ( EU ), which has its main headquarters ( the European Commission, the Council of the European Union and sessions of the European Parliament ) in Brussels.

A discussion of Belgian culture requires discussing both those aspects of cultural life shared by the Belgians, regardless of what language they speak, and the differences between the main cultural communities: the Flemish people from Flanders and the French-speakers from Brussels and Wallonia — although the grouping of Brussels and Wallonia as one cultural community is sometimes rejected, for instance by the Manifesto for Walloon culture as well as certain regionalists from Brussels.

The only daughter of Leopold I, King of the Belgians ( 1790 – 1865 ) by his second wife, Louise of Orléans, Princess of Orléans ( 1812 – 1850 ), Charlotte was born at the Royal Castle of Laeken in Laeken, Brussels, Belgium.

Following that decision, the Belgians decided to alternate their Grand Prix between Zolder and a circuit at Nivelles-Baulers near Brussels.

As a result, the amount of French-speaking people in these regions ( mostly around Brussels ) didn't decline, and contain a growing majority of French-speaking Belgians, even though they reside in the officially monolingual Flanders.

They remained in Brussels, on cordial terms, until the outbreak of World War I, when all Germans were forced to leave Belgium as refugees, to avoid repercussions from the Belgians after the German invasion.

For the national festival of 1880 at Brussels, to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Belgian independence, Hiel composed two cantatas, Belgenland (" The Land of the Belgians ") and Rer Belgenland (" Honour to Belgium "), which, set to music, were much appreciated.

It was an emissary from the King of the Belgians, asking him to visit Brussels right away.

* Archduke Lorenz ( 16 December 1955 ), who wed 22 September 1984 at Brussels, Princess Astrid of Belgium ( born 1962 ), only daughter of King Albert II of the Belgians.

In the Brussels gallery are " The Port of Antwerp ," " Coast near Ostend ," and a " Calm on the Scheldt "; in the Antwerp museum, " The Meuse at Dordrecht "; in the Pinakothek at Munich, " The Open North Sea "; in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, " The Festival of the Freedom of the Scheldt at Antwerp in 1863 "; in the palace of the king of the Belgians, " Arrival of Queen Victoria at Ostend in 1857 "; in the Bruges academy, " Port of Feirugudo, Portugal.

While Belgians formed a Francophone, provisional government in Brussels, major European powers were forced to consider alternative plans to contain the Belgicists and preserve its union with the Netherlands.

Among his numerous works mention may also be made of The Feast at the Chateau ( 1851 ), The Unwelcome Guests ( 1852, Brussels Gallery ), generally regarded as his masterpiece, The Rat Hunt ( acquired by Leopold II, king of the Belgians ), The Arquebusier ( 1860 ), and The Stirrup Cup.

In the late 19th century, the Germans, Italians and the Belgians also joined in, beginning the third wave of invasions that would subdue native peoples and economies, and expand European-controlled territory over the majority of the globe.

The Empress consort of Mexico, Charlotte of Belgium was the daughter of Louise-Marie of France, Queen of the Belgians, who Winterhalter painted at the beginning of his career in France.

In 1894, German Gustav Adolf von Götzen crossed the Kagera at Rusumo Falls, beginning the Rwandan colonial era ; and in 1916, during World War I, the Belgians defeated the Germans, entering Rwanda by the same route.

In 1886, at the beginning of their colonial rule, the Belgians changed the city's name to " Coquilhatville ".

They range from the Soviet Embassy on Sixteenth Street, a gray shuttered pile suggesting a funeral-accessories display house, to what Congressman Rooney has called `` that monstrosity on Thirty-fourth Street '', the modern cement-and-glass chancery of the Belgians.

The Belgians also placed great emphasis on education.

Lumumba and Kasavubu blamed it all on the military intervention by the Belgians, and appealed to the United Nations to send troops to oust them.

Following riots in Leopoldville between 4 – 7 January 1959, and Stanleyville on 31 October 1959, the Belgians realised they could not maintain control of such a vast country in the face of rising demands for independence.

Other examples of heads of state in parliamentary systems using greater powers than usual, either because of ambiguous constitutions or unprecedented national emergencies, include the decision by King Léopold III of the Belgians to surrender on behalf of his state to the invading German army in 1940, against the will of his government.

Albert II of Belgium | Albert II, King of the Belgians inspecting Belgian Armed Forces | troops on Belgium's national day in 2011.

* National Day, celebrates the inauguration of Léopold I, the first king of the Belgians, after its independence from the Netherlands on October 4, 1830.

The Belgians administered the territory through indirect rule, building on the Tutsi-dominated aristocratic hierarchy.

The UN Security Council was called into session on 7 December 1960 to consider Soviet demands that the UN seek Lumumba's immediate release, the immediate restoration of Lumumba as head of the Congo government, the disarming of the forces of Mobutu, and the immediate evacuation of Belgians from the Congo.

The city was built four years later in order to become a competitor with Léopoldville ( now Kinshasa ) which was built by the Belgians on the other side of the river.

Had she lived, she would have become Queen of the United Kingdom on the death of her father, and Leopold presumably would have assumed the role later taken by his nephew, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, as Prince Consort of the United Kingdom, and never been chosen to reign as King of the Belgians.

He was elected on 4 June and accepted and became " King of the Belgians " on 26 June 1831.

However, because of the existence of many wealthy Hutu who shared the financial ( if not physical ) stature of the Tutsi, the Belgians used an expedient method of classification based on the number of cattle a person owned.

* Léopold Philippe Charles Albert Meinrad Hubertus Marie Miguel, Duke of Brabant, Prince of Belgium, who became later the fourth king of the Belgians as Leopold III ( born 3 November 1901, and died at Woluwe-Saint-Lambert on 25 September 1983 ).

He ascended the throne and became the fifth King of the Belgians upon taking the constitutional oath on 17 July 1951, one day following his father's abdication.

It included 41 Americans and about 25 Belgians and were deployed on 21 July 1948.

Died of fever on the 9 June 1892 at Chinde on the Zambesi whilst in command of the Katanga Expedition sent out by the King of the Belgians.