Belgian literature
Because Belgium is a multilingual country, Belgian literature is divided into two main linguistic branches following the two most prominently spoken languages in the country - Dutch and French. German is the third language in Belgium and is spoken by a small community of about 70,000 German-speakers of the German-speaking Community of Belgium bordering on Germany.
Belgium in &quot;the long nineteenth century&quot;
At the start of the period, French was the dominant language, and was the only one approved for use in legal and government business, however Belgium become officially bilingual in 1870 and Dutch was officially recognized as an equal language to French in legal matters in 1898.