Editing Walloons (section)

===Wallonia===
[[File:Walloon Region in Belgium and Europe.svg|thumb|left|Location of Wallonia in Belgium and Europe (dark green)]]
The area now known as [[Wallonia]] has been settled by various [[Celts|Celtic tribes]] and later by [[Roman people|Roman]] and [[Franks|Frankish]] settlers. From the [[early Middle Ages]] up until the [[early modern period]], the region has been separated between many city-states and external powers. Such changing rule brought variations to borders, culture, and language. The Walloon language, widespread in use up until the [[Second World War]], has been dying out of common use due in part to its prohibition by the public school system, in favor of French.

Starting from the end of the 19th century, the [[Walloon Movement]], aiming to assert the identity of Walloons as French-speaking (rather than Walloon speaking) people of Belgium. In this context, the concept of [[Wallonia]], as a heartland of the Walloon people was invented in 1886.<ref>« ‘Wallonia’ as a concept was invented at that time, and ‘Flanders’ took its present meaning to denote the whole region. » Stefaan De Rynck, « Civic culture and institutional performance of the Belgians regions », in Patrick Le Gales, Christian Lequesne, Regions in Europe : The Paradox of Power, Routledge, 27 of February 2006, 328 pages p. (ISBN 9781134710614), p. 162</ref><ref>« the privilege of educated men who studied a ‘forgotten’, but in effect invented region and celebrated its folkloric traditions, its dialects, its past and its landscape » Maarten Van Ginderachter, « Nationalist Versus Regionalist? The Flemish and Walloon Movements in Belle Epoque Belgium », in Region and State in Nineteenth-Century Europe : Nation-Building, Regional Identities and Separatism, Palgrave Macmillan, 24 of October 2012, 293p p. (ISBN 9780230313941), p. 220.</ref>

Later, this was complicated by the federal structure given to Belgium, which splits Belgium into three communities with the privilege of using their own tongues in official correspondence, but also into three autonomous regions.  The communities are: [[French Community of Belgium|French community]] (though not Walloon, but sometimes controversially called ''Wallonia-Brussels''),<ref>From 1 January 2009, "Wallonia-Brussels International (WBI) "will further enhance the visibility of Wallonia-Brussels international activities, both in Belgium and abroad. WBI will pool all of the international relations work of the French Community, the Walloon Region and the French Community Commission of the Brussels-Capital Region. [http://www.wbi.be/cgi/bin3/render.cgi?id=0134055_article&ln=ln3&userid=&rubr=gen Wallonia-Brussels International] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110706142632/http://www.wbi.be/cgi/bin3/render.cgi?id=0134055_article&ln=ln3&userid=&rubr=gen |date=6 July 2011 }}</ref> [[Flemish community]] (which uses Dutch), and [[German-speaking Community of Belgium|German-speaking community]].  The division into political regions does not correspond with the communities: [[Flemish Region]], [[Wallonia|Walloon Region]] (including the German community but generally called Wallonia), and the bilingual (French-Dutch) [[Brussels|Brussels-Capital Region]].