Belgium, or more properly the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Western Europe bordering on Germany, Luxembourg, France, The Netherlands and the North Sea. It's capital and largest city is Brussels, which is located nearly in the exact center of the country. This small country is one of the founding members of the European Union and also home for the Headquarters of this organization. It's also the site for the Headquarters of NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

The country covers an area just under 12,000 square miles and has a population slightly less than eleven million people. It consists of three main regions. First is the Brussels-Capital region, where the languages spoken include all three of the nation's 'official' languages, Dutch, French and German. The northern half of the country, known as the Flemish Region is predominantly Dutch speaking. The southern half, the Walloon Region, is primarily French speaking. Both the Flemish and Walloon Regions are each divided into five Provinces.

The government is a combination Federal Parliamentary Democracy and Constitutional Monarchy. The ruling Monarch is King Albert II. The Prime Minister is names Yves Leterme.

The climate of the country is termed maritime temperate. The coldest month, January, sees temperatures as low as the middle 30s Fahrenheit and the hottest month, July, gets up to the middle 60s Fahrenheit. They experience a good amount of precipitation during every season of the year.

Belgium has a strong global economy, recently ranking as the world's 15th largest trading economy in the world. It's transportation routes are integrated well with the rest of Europe and it is situated in an area of high industrialization. The work force is very productive, the Gross National Product is high and so are exports per capita. Its main exports include finished diamonds, automobiles, food items, petroleum products, iron and steel.