Belgium in "the long nineteenth century" the small duchies, princedoms and counties which had traditionally been the basic territorial units. Aside from Zeelandic Flanders, part of Luxembourg, and Northern Limburg, which were ceded to the Dutch to compensate for the loss of the rest of the territory, the outline of Belgium in 1914 was virtually identical to that established by the French in 1795. The three ceded territories had a total of 300,000 inhabitants at the time. The northern half of Belgium, which would come to be known as Flanders, was a largely agricultural area containing the important port of Antwerp, the city of Ghent and
Parliament of the German-speaking Community a renovated building in Kehrweg that once served as a Sanitorium. The German-speaking Community has powers over cultural, linguistic and "personal" matters (e.g. education, health care) like the Dutch- and French-speaking communities of Belgium. The Government of the Walloon Region exercises regional matters over the territory in Parliament through a representative from the German-speaking Community. However, there has been some debate as to whether or not German-speakers should have their own region. As article 139 of the Belgian Constitution specifies, the Walloon Region may transfer some regional powers to the German-speaking Community, which it has done in the following policy