This is a book about shifting national identities in Belgium, a country at the crossroads of the Germanic and Romance culture areas. It aims at explaining why the Belgian identity, which in 1830 was so strong that it could create a new nation-state, has become so weak that today it has to accept a mere overarching role above and in competition with the new national loyalties. The history of Belgium offers a clear illustration of the fact that national identity and nationalism are not natural phenomena, existing from time immemorial, but that they have been created. This is not to say that they are mere ideological constructions. On the contrary, they are realities that emerge, flourish and eventually disappear again. Many factors have played a role: language, literature, fine arts, religion, sports, workers' movements, demography, war, unequal economic development, consociational democracy, institutional reforms.