A need to share what I know

Our English teacher asked us to go to the library and pick up a book that is somehow related to our subject. I found a book about Europe and I was lucky that this book had a section about Belgium. I read it and I was amazed how many things I didn't agree with. I know I'm not an historian or anything but I've grown up over there and studied a lot of the history of my country and what I know didn't match the book. This book is quite an old book and things have definitely change too but I felt like I had to bring some more information to my American friends.

First, you have to know that Belgium is a little country in Europe (yep, not a province of China) and its neighbors are the Netherlands, Germany and France. Those neighbors give Belgium its official national languages, French, Dutch and German (German became an official language in Belgium after the reunification of Germany). Its capital city is Brussels and is a bilingual region. Because of its location it has often served as a important commerce crossroad but also as an European battlefield. Belgium has belonged to a lot of empires and finally became independent from the Netherlands in 1830, after a revolutionary war against Guillaume d'Orange.

Belgium is a divided country, between the two major communities of Walloons and Flemish. They have always fought for supremacy and have often claimed their independence. But, on the contrary of what you can find in the book, the Walloons back in the 1830's and later, didn't think they were superior to the Flemish because everything was in French, from school to the judicial system. Actually, none of the communities spoke French, this language being reserved to the rich people and so, even the Walloons, at the time, were not favored neither.

I thought it was interesting to find a book about my little country in the library of my high school but when I read it, I was a bit disappointed because what it said wasn't completely correct.
"Global studies: Western Europe" on Amazon