Editing Limburg (Belgium) (section)

==History==
{{Main|History of Belgian Limburg}}
[[File:Tongeren Ambiorix 02.JPG|upright|left|thumb|Statue of Ambiorix in the main square of [[Tongeren]].]]
The first wave of people who brought farming and pottery technology from the Middle East to northern Europe was the [[LBK culture]], which originated in central Europe and had its roots in south-eastern Europe. It reached its geographical limit in the fertile southern [[Hesbaye|Haspengouw]] part of Limburg about 5000 BC, only to die out about 4000 BC. A later wave of farmers, the [[Michelsburg culture]] which developed in what is now France, arrived about 3500 BC, but shared a similar fate. Pottery technology had however apparently been taken up by local tribes of the [[Swifterbant culture]], who remained present throughout.

The area became permanently agricultural only in the [[Bronze Age]] with the [[Urnfield culture]] around 1200 BC, followed by the possibly related [[Hallstatt culture|Halstatt]] and [[La Tène culture|La Tène]] [[material culture]]s, which are generally associated with [[Celts]]. Under these cultures the population increased in the region, and it is also during this period that [[Indo-European]] languages are thought to have arrived. These new technologies and languages entered Europe from the direction of [[Ukraine]] and southern Russia around 2000 BC. This migration had a similar impact across the continent.

[[Julius Caesar|Caesar]] gave the first surviving written description of the area around 55 BC and described its people as the ''[[Germani cisrhenani]]''. He described them as allies of the [[Belgae]] and [[Treveri]], and reported that they had ancestral links with their neighbours on the east side of the Rhine. Somewhat earlier, we know from surviving fragments of his work that [[Poseidonius]] had already mentioned these same ''Germani'', saying that they roasted meat in separate joints, and drank milk and unmixed wine.<ref>[[Athenaeus]], ''Deipnosophists'', [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Athenaeus/4C*.html Book 4] reports the description of Poseidonius.</ref> Caesar noted several peoples within the ''Germani'' group, the most important of which were the [[Eburones]] who fought against [[Julius Caesar]] under their leaders [[Ambiorix]] and [[Cativolcus]]. Apart from the ''Germani'', somewhere to the west of the Eburones (possibly outside Limburg) were the [[Aduatuci]], who Caesar reported to be the descendants of the [[Cimbri]] and [[Teutones]] who had migrated around Europe some generations before Caesar.

Under Roman imperial rule, the area around Limburg was the "city" (''[[civitas]]'') of the [[Tungri]]. [[Tacitus]] reported that these Tungri were the same as the earlier ''Germani cisrhenani'', and noted that the use of the name "Germani" had been expanded in Roman times to cover many peoples in Germany east of the Rhine. The Tungri are generally accepted to have been speakers of a [[Germanic language]], but modern historians disagree over the extent to which they descend from new immigrants who came from over the Rhine after Caesar. Notably, the Tungri participated on the Roman side in the [[revolt of the Batavi]] against Roman rule, which was a major event in this region.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Wightman|1985|p=104}}</ref> In the north of Limburg during Roman times lived the [[Texandri]].

[[File:Romeinse Kassei B-3840 Borgloon.JPG|upright|thumb|Still in use: the Roman paved road between Tongeren and Tienen]]
The site of the fort where Caesar's soldiers encamped was called [[Aduatuca]]. This was apparently a general word for a fort, associated not only with the Eburones, but also the Aduatuci, and the later Tungri. The Roman city established in Belgian Limburg was referred to as ''Aduatuca Tungrorum'' meaning "Aduatuca of the Tungri". Today this has become "Tongeren", in the southeast of Belgian Limburg, and it was the capital of a Roman administrative region called the "''[[Civitas Tungrorum]]''". Under the Romans, the Tungri ''civitas'' was initially a part of [[Gallia Belgica]]. However, it was later split out with the more militarized border regions towards the Rhine, to become [[Germania Inferior]], which was later converted into [[Germania Secunda]].<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Wightman|1985|p=202}}</ref>

In late Roman and [[Early Middle Ages|early medieval times]], the northern or "Kempen" part of Belgian Limburg became depopulated and uncultivated. This area, still known then by its Roman name as [[Texandria]], was settled by incoming [[Salian Franks]] from the north, who were under pressure from [[Saxons]]. The southern or "Haspengouw" part of Belgian Limburg was an important agricultural region and remained more heavily Romanised, and eventually became a core land of the Frankish empires. 

===Middle Ages===
{{See also|Lotharingia|County of Loon}}
By the 9th century, the Frankish [[Carolingian dynasty]], who had lands in and around Belgian Limburg, ruled an empire that included much of [[Western Europe]]. The [[Franks]] originally had several smaller kingdoms ruling each of the old Roman [[civitas|civitates]] ("cities"), but under the [[Merovingians]] one empire formed, which was divided each generation among family members. In the period around 881 and 882 the areas along the Maas and in the Haspengouw were plundered by [[Vikings]], who established a base on the Maas river. [[Early Christianity]] was established first in the Romanised southern parts of Limburg, around Tongeren, and missionaries went north from there to convert the Franks. The church capital moved from the Roman capital Tongeren to nearby Maastricht, and then [[Liège]]. This was the area of activity of [[St Servatius]], and later, [[Lambert of Maastricht]].

Limburg was part of the central [[Austrasia]]n kingdom of the Franks which lay between the parts which would become France and Germany. The divisions of the Frankish empire were eventually fixed in the 9th century when this Middle Kingdom came to be known as [[Lotharingia]] after its first king, [[Lothair II]]. During the 10th-century the region slowly came under the permanent control of [[Eastern Francia]], which was to become the [[Holy Roman Empire]]. Under the [[Ottonians]] the archbishops became responsible for a very large territory stretching up to the delta of the river [[Meuse|Maas]]. Another early saint in the south of Limburg was St [[Trudo]], whose name survives in one of the major towns in southern Limburg, [[Saint Truiden]].

Belgian Limburg corresponds closely to the medieval territory of the [[County of Loon]] (French ''Looz'') which starts to appear in records only in the 11th century. This county originally centred on the fortified town of [[Borgloon]], which was originally simply known as Loon. Although the exact details are unclear today, from an early time Loon was subservient, not only spiritually but also politically, to the powerful [[Prince-Bishopric of Liège]]. When the male line of the counts ended with [[Louis IV, Count of Loon|Louis IV]] in 1336, the bishops began to take direct control, and the last claimant to that inheritance, [[Arnold VI of Rummen, Count of Loon|Arnold of Rumigny, count of Chiny]] gave up his claim.

===Modern history===
[[File:3limburgen.png|upright|thumb|Map showing the two contemporary provinces called Limburg, (the red one in Belgium, and the brown one in the Netherlands), as well as the medieval Duchy they are both named after. Only the villages of Teuven and Remersdaal in [[Voeren]], part of modern Belgian Limburg only since 1977, were in both modern and medieval Limburg.]]

{{See also|Department of Lower Meuse|Province of Limburg (1815–1839)}}
Loon, and the rest of the [[Prince-Bishopric of Liège]], were not joined politically with the rest of what would become Belgium until the [[French Revolution]]. Nevertheless, in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries the population of Loon was constantly and badly affected by the large-scale international wars of the neighbouring [[Spanish Netherlands]] and [[Dutch Republic]], including the [[Eighty Years' War]], the [[Nine Years' War]], the [[War of the Spanish Succession]], the [[War of the Austrian Succession]], the [[Seven Years' War]], and even the [[Brabant Revolution]]. During this period the region's episcopal government was often unable to maintain law and order, and the economy of the area was often desperately bad, affected by plundering soldiers and gangs of thieves such as the "[[Buckriders|Bokkenrijders]]". Nevertheless, the population contained strongly conservative Catholic elements, and not only supported the conservative Brabant revolution, but also rebelled unsuccessfully against the revolutionary French regime in the [[Peasants' War (1798)|Peasants' War of 1798]].

The modern Limburg region, containing the Belgian and Dutch provinces of that name, were first united within one province while under the power of [[French Revolution|revolutionary France]], and later the [[Napoleonic empire]], but then under the name of the French [[Meuse-Inférieure|department of the Lower Meuse (Maas)]]. After Napoleon's defeat, a united [[Kingdom of the Netherlands]] was formed, containing modern Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. While it kept many of the French provincial boundaries, the first king, [[William I of the Netherlands|William I]], insisted that the name be changed to the "[[Province of Limburg (1815–1839)|Province of Limburg]]", based on the name of the medieval [[Duchy of Limburg]]. The only part of Belgian or Dutch Limburg which was really in the Duchy of Limburg is the extreme east of [[Voeren]], the villages of Teuven and Remersdaal, and these only became part of Belgian Limburg in 1977.

After the [[Belgian Revolution]] of 1830, the province of Limburg was at first almost entirely under Belgian rule, but the status of both Limburg and [[Luxembourg]] became unclear. During the "[[Ten days campaign]]", 2–12 August 1831, Dutch armies entered Belgium and took control of several Belgian cities in order to negotiate from a stronger position. Several Belgian militias and armies were easily defeated including the Belgian Army of the Meuse near Hasselt, on 8 August. The French and British intervened, leading to a ceasefire. 
After [[London Conference of 1830|a Conference in London]], they [[Treaty of London (1839)|signed a treaty in 1839]] and established after that both Limburg and Luxemburg would be split between the two states. That happened; Limburg was split into so-called [[Limburg (Netherlands)|''Dutch'' Limburg]] and ''Belgian'' Limburg.

===Twentieth century===
Belgian Limburg became officially [[Flemish Region|Flemish]] when Belgium was divided into [[Communities and regions of Belgium|language areas]] in 1962. In the case of [[Voeren]], surrounded by French speaking parts of Belgium, and having a significant population of French speakers, this was not without controversy.

Only in 1967, the Catholic Church created a [[Roman Catholic Diocese of Hasselt|diocese of Hasselt]], separate from the [[Roman Catholic Diocese of Liège|diocese of Liège]].