Bouvines - in 1214 the French under Philip Augustus defeated a coalition formed against him in one of the greatest battles of the middle ages

Battle of Fontenoy, Fontenoy - a battle in 1745 in which the French army under Marshal Saxe defeated the English army and their allies under the duke of Cumberland

Battle of Waterloo, Waterloo - the battle on 18 June 1815 in which Napoleon met his final defeat; Prussian and British forces under Blucher and the Duke of Wellington routed the French forces under Napoleon

first battle of Ypres, Ypres, battle of Ypres - battle in World War I (1914); heavy but indecisive fighting as the Allies and the Germans both tried to break through the lines of the others

second battle of Ypres, Ypres, battle of Ypres - battle in World War I (1915); Germans wanted to try chlorine (a toxic yellow gas) as a weapon and succeeded in taking considerable territory from the Allied salient

battle of Ypres, third battle of Ypres, Ypres - battle in World War I (1917); an Allied offensive which eventually failed because tanks bogged down in the waterlogged soil of Flanders; Germans introduced mustard gas which interfered with the Allied artillery

Common Market, EC, EEC, European Community, European Economic Community, European Union, EU, Europe - an international organization of European countries formed after World War II to reduce trade barriers and increase cooperation among its members; "he took Britain into Europe"

NATO, North Atlantic Treaty Organization - an international organization created in 1949 by the North Atlantic Treaty for purposes of collective security

Benelux - a customs union comprising BElgium and NEtherlands and LUXembourg

commune - the smallest administrative district of several European countries

European country, European nation - countries occupying the European continent

Belgian capital, Brussels, Bruxelles, capital of Belgium - the capital and largest city of Belgium; seat of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization

Antwerp, Antwerpen, Anvers - a port in northern Belgium on the Scheldt river

Bruges, City of Bridges - a city in northwestern Belgium; connected by canal to the North Sea; the old city is a popular tourist attraction

Charleroi - city in southwestern Belgium; center of an industrial region

Gand, Ghent, Gent - port city in northwestern Belgium and industrial center; famous for cloth industry

Luik, Liege - city in eastern Belgium; largest French-speaking city in Belgium

Namur - a city in south central Belgium situated on a promontory between the Meuse River and the Sambre River; the site of intense fighting in World War I and World War II

Europe - the 2nd smallest continent (actually a vast peninsula of Eurasia); the British use `Europe' to refer to all of the continent except the British Isles

Meuse, Meuse River - a European river; flows into the North Sea

Sambre, Sambre River - a river in western Europe that rises in northern France and flows generally east into Belgium where it joins the Neuse at Namur

Scheldt, Scheldt River - a river that rises in France and flows northeast across Belgium and empties into the North Sea

Belgian - a native or inhabitant of Belgium

Fleming - a native of Flanders or a Flemish-speaking Belgian

Walloon - a member of the French-speaking people living in Belgium