history of the Low Countries

history of the Low Countries, history of the Low Countries from prehistoric times to 1579. For historical purposes, the name Low Countries is generally understood to include the territory of what are today the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg as well as parts of northern France. However, Belgium, although it was not constituted as an independent kingdom until 1831, became a distinct entity after 1585, when the southern provinces were definitively reconquered by Spain and separated...