Belgium
Belgium is best described as that part of the Low Countries formerly ruled by the Hapsburgs. It is useless for Englishmen to try to follow those fluctuations of national borders which are such a feature of life on the Continent: let us merely define modern Belgium as a small country somewhat ticklishly situated among the French, the Germans and the Dutch. Indeed its central position has led to its being chosen very often down the centuries as a battlefield for the armies of Europe's great powers, which generally prefer to fight there rather than within their own borders; and so it has come to be spoken of as "the cockpit of Europe". No doubt it was a consciousness of this tradition which swayed the French emperor Buonaparte to invade it on his return from exile, as soon as he had gathered an army sufficient[40].
Of course, while Belgium did not exist as a separate nation during the time of Buonaparte's wars, the author occasionally finds it more convenient to refer to the area by its modern name rather than as part of the Empire of France or the Kingdom of the Netherlands, since it is now neither.