Why is Belgium so Divided?

Belgium’s history of linguistic division is as old as the country itself, the northern half being Dutch or Flemish speaking while the southern half is French or Walloon speaking. And we haven’t even got into the German speakers living on Belgium’s eastern fringes! The two larger language groups each attempt to rule their own independently having essentially segregated governments for Flanders and Wallonia, however the crisis of 2007 - 2011 showed that while the northern Flemings wanted more decentralisation and autonomy, the southern Walloons were dead set against it. Since then a split of Belgium along these lines has seemed inevitable, but this led me to question: how on earth did Belgium become so divided? The story will take us back to the Holy Roman Empire and the Kingdom of France, William of Orange and the Eighty Years War, Napoleon, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Belgian Revolution and two World Wars so strap in because this is going to be a good one! Raid the Merch Ma