Mr. Beat's video: Belgium and the Netherlands Compared

Thank you Birch for sponsoring. Visit https://birchliving.com/mrbeat to get $400 off your Birch mattress plus two free pillows! Mr. Beat compares and contrasts two of The Low Countries, but they can get high, and they're both amazing places. You know what it is. You know that I'm talking about the Netherlands and Belgium, right? Check out @History With Hilbert's video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5FekxDNmwc Plus, just today I found out he made this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-VDmZ1t2Ik Produced by Matt Beat. All images/video by Matt Beat, found in the public domain, or used under fair use guidelines. Music by YVEN and Bobby Richards. Sources/further reading: https://www.mylifeelsewhere.com/country-size-comparison/belgium/netherlands https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgium https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlands https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20171210-europes-strange-border-anomaly https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/25/shop-shuts-belgian-half-over-covid-19-but-keeps-dutch-half-open https://european-union.europa.eu/principles-countries-history/history-eu_en https://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/countries/belgium/ https://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/countries/netherlands/ https://countryeconomy.com/countries/compare/netherlands/belgium?sc=XE74 https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/1/17/21046874/netherlands-universal-health-insurance-private https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/quality-of-life-rankings https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5be3E1WmJnQ https://uweb.berkeley.edu/2021/04/11/the-duality-of-the-dutch-economy/ https://www.amusingplanet.com/2020/05/vennbahn-railway-that-created-peculiar.html Cameo, yo: https://www.cameo.com/iammrbeat?qid=1614915028 Snail mail Mr. Beat: PO Box 1982 Lawrence, KS 66044 Donate to Mr. Beat for great perks on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/iammrbeat Buy Mr. Beat's book, The Ultimate American Presidential Election Book: Every Presidential Election in American History (1788-2016) https://amzn.to/3fdakiZ Donate to Mr. Beat on Paypal: https://www.paypal.me/mrbeat Buy Mr. Beat T-shirts, coffee mugs, etc.: https://sfsf.shop/support-mrbeat/ More merch: https://www.bonfire.com/store/mr-beat/ Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/mrbeat/ Mr. Beat's band: http://electricneedleroom.net/ Mr. Beat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/beatmastermatt Mr. Beat on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/iammrbeat/ Mr. Beat on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iammrbeat Mr. Beat's Discord server: https://discord.gg/g8cZPjt Mr. Beat's Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@iammrbeat?lang=en Mr. Beat favorites: POP! Icons: George Washington https://go.magik.ly/ml/11jrb/ Useful Charts: https://usefulcharts.com/?aff=12 Recommended books: Republic, Lost by Lawrence Lessing https://go.magik.ly/ml/11jul/ Truman by David McCullough https://go.magik.ly/ml/11jwc/ Studio equipment: Canon EOS M50 Camera EF-M 15-45mm Lens https://amzn.to/3dcNPen Samtian LED Video Light Kit https://amzn.to/3llDwHO TroyStudio Acoustic Panel https://amzn.to/33CkqHn Blue Snowball iCE USB Mic https://amzn.to/2GseOHa I use MagicLinks for all my ready-to-shop product links. Check it out here: https://www.magiclinks.com/rewards/referral/mrbeat/ FTC Disclosure: This post or video contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission for purchases made through my links. Belgium and the Netherlands Or formally the Kingdom of Belgium and informally Holland Two, small-ish bordering countries in Western Europe found, along with Luxembourg, in between France and Germany. They’re Low Countries. Both are along the North Sea, historically at the so-called “crossroads of Europe,” and both do have a lot in common as you might expect, but Europe being Europe, there are lots of differences you maybe wouldn’t expect. Oh before we move forward, I should say that, at least in the English speaking world, we call folks native to the Netherlands “The Dutch.” Now THEY often call themselves Nederlanders. But yeah most of the Flanders region of northern Belgium also speaks Dutch, and this region in particular has much more in common with the Netherlands. Belgium actually has three official languages. Dutch, French, and German. In Belgium’s capital, Brussels, they speak both Dutch and French, and most Belgians can speak both Dutch and French to varying degrees. Down in Wallonia, they mostly speak French. Oh, and if you’re watching this video right now from the Netherlands, you can likely understand me, as nearly everyone there can speak English, while that’s less likely if you are watching from Belgium, as less than half of Belgians can speak English. Before we move forward any more, I suppose I ought to bring up the elephant in the room. No, not literally that elephant in that room. It’s a metaphorical idiom, goodness. Ok, so a really important thing I should have brought up already is that Belgium used to be part of the Netherlands.