History of Flanders
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The history of Flanders concerns not only the modern Dutch-speaking part of Belgium, which is now called "Flanders" (Dutch: Vlaanderen), but also several neighbouring territories and populations. Its historical core territory was in western Belgium between the coast and the Scheldt river.
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The original medieval county of Flanders spread from the area of Bruges, and later had its capital in nearby Ghent. Its core territories came to include French Flanders, now in France, the Belgian provinces of West and East Flanders, and part of the modern province of Hainaut. During several periods during the middle ages it was a powerful semi-independent state based within the Kingdom of France, but stretching into the neighbouring Holy Roman empire. It was influential in all neighbouring regions including England, and at its greatest extent its political hegemony stretched north into Zeelandic Flanders in what is now the Netherlands, and deep into French-speaking northern France.
Today, "Flanders" is a term referring to the Flemish Region, which is defined as the Dutch-speaking part of the Kingdom of Belgium. It contains within it the original core of the old county, West Flanders and East Flanders, plus three more culturally-related provinces to the east which were not part of medieval Flanders. These are the provinces of Antwerp and Flemish Brabant which were historically part of the Duchy of Brabant, and the province of Belgian Limburg, which was part of the Prince-Bishopric of Liège. The city of Brussels, historically part of Brabant, is now politically part of the Flemish Community, but not of the Flemish Region.