Partition of Belgium colloquially referred to as "Flemish"), and French is spoken by 40%. Total Dutch speakers number 6.23 million, concentrated in the northern Flanders region, while French speakers comprise 3.32 million in Wallonia and an estimated 870,000 (85%) of the officially bilingual Brussels-Capital Region. The German-speaking Community is made up of 73,000 people in the east of Wallonia; around 10,000 German and 60,000 Belgian nationals are speakers of German. Roughly 23,000 more German speakers live in municipalities near the official Community. The Capital Region having bilingual status obliges its authorities to attend to people and organisations in French or Dutch language as
Military history of the Netherlands present day Netherlands, and various Celtic tribes that bordered their lands, are likely due to their geographical proximity. Belgium, a country with a Dutch-speaking majority, became an independent state in 1830 when it seceded from the Netherlands. Despite the contemporary political boundaries, they share much of the same military history. Germanic tribes are thought to have originated during the Nordic Bronze Age in northern Germany and southern Scandinavia. The tribes spread south, possibly motivated by the deteriorating climate of that area. They crossed the River Elbe, most likely overrunning territories formerly occupied by Celtic people. In the East, other tribes,