Gallia Belgica

From Freepedia

For other uses, see Belgica (disambiguation).

Gallia Belgica was a Roman province located in what is now the southern part of the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, northeastern France, and western Germany. The indigenous population of Gallia Belgica consisted of a mixture of Celtic and Germanic tribes, often described as the Belgae. The Helvetii settlement area became part of Gallia Belgica.

During the 1st century CE, the provinces of Gaul were restructured. The northern Gallia Belgica was renamed Germania inferior, the eastern part Germania superior and the southern border of Gallia Belgica was extented to the south. The newer Gallia Belgica included the city of Reims. This subdivision roughly corresponds to the current borders between the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium.

The region corresponding to the original province became in the 5th century the center of Clovis' merovingian kingdom and during the 8th century the heart of the carolingian empire. After the death of Charlemagne's son, Louis the Pious, the region was divided into the western and middle Francia, the kernels of the modern France and Germany.

The area is the historical heart of the Low Countries, an historical region corresponding roughly to the current Benelux group of states, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg as well as the French Flanders and some part of the Rhineland.