What if the Belgian Empire Reunited Today?

The Belgian Empire, or Belgian Colonial Empire in full as you may like to call it, was one of the major European Colonial Powers during the late and mid-20th century, up until the period of de-colonization from 1945-1999. Despite being a quite short-lived empire, the empire remained very firm throughout its existence, until during the outbreak of the Second World War, when the far more powerful Nazi Germany invaded the country and occupied its colonies in Africa. However, following the end of the war and an Allied victory, Belgium had its possessions returned to them. Like all empires though, during the mid and late half of the 1900s, the empire gradually relinquished and granted independence to its colonies, all of them in the same couple of years: The Congo in 1960, and finally Rwanda and Burundi, both in 1962, marking the end of the Belgian Colonial Empire. But what if it reunited today?

So, as always, the first thing we would need to look and think about a hypothetical reunited Belgian Empire, if it reunited today to the exact borders it had in its territorial peak in 1939, is the population, land and cities within its borders. To start, a total of just 4 modern-day countries would lose all or some of their territory to the empire: Belgium, Burundi, D.R. Congo and Rwanda (Note: To avoid confusion, the small Belgian colony in Guatemala isn't included because it was obtained in 1943, after its territorial peak). Despite having just few countries making the empire up, its land area would still be quite large if you take into consideration how big these countries actually are.

In total, the land area of the reunited Belgian Colonial Empire would be very large at 2.366 Million Sq Km (913,500 Sq mi), which would place it very high as the 11th largest country in the world, larger than Saudi Arabia (2.149 Million Sq km) and Mexico (1.964 Million Sq km), but slightly smaller than Algeria (2.381 Million Sq km) and Kazakhstan (1.052 Million Sq km). Despite it being massive, the DRC would overwhelmingly contribute to the majority of this land area, at roughly 98% of this. Ironically, Belgium would only represent a puny amount of this at just 1.2%.

Now looking at the empire's population, this would also stand at a very impressive number, totalling at an absolutely huge person count of 130 Million people. This would easily be enough to make it the 10th most populous country in the world, ahead of Mexico (129 Million) and Japan (126 Million), but behind Russia (146 Million) and Bangladesh (165 Million). With its population and its land area considered, the population density of the Belgian Empire would be a quite low 55/km², mainly due to its large land area, sustainable for its population.

A reunited Belgian Colonial Empire would also boast some large and interesting cities, scattered al across its territories. First of all, if we had to choose a capital for the empire, Brussels would most likely take the spot again as it was already its historic capital and is also still today a bustling and significant city today. However, Kinshasa, in D.R. Congo, would easily be the biggest urban-area in its borders with a massive population of 13,900,000. Here would be the rest of the top 10 biggest cities in the empire:

Next, we come to the economy and wealth of the Belgian Colonial Empire, which would also be decently high. Focusing on its Nominal GDP for now, the empire's would stand at $657 Billion, which would be enough to put it in 23rd place, in terms of Nominal GDP, slightly ahead of Poland ($655 Billion), Sweden ($622 Billion) and Thailand ($546 Billion), but well behind Taiwan ($785 Billion) and Turkey ($795 Billion).

Looking at the average yearly salaries of a citizen of the Belgian Empire now, this wouldn't be that high mainly due to the poor living conditions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and Burundi, despite the very high standards in the Belgian part of the empire. When taking all of this into consideration, the average Nominal GDP Per Capita of the whole empire would stand at $5,002, which is higher than $1,000 but still quite below the Global Average of $11,339. Nonetheless, this amount would make the average citizen of the Belgian Empire have the 123rd highest living standard in the world, richer than the average citizens of Kosovo ($4,986) and Iraq ($4,893), but poorer than the average citizens of Tonga ($5,010) and Paraguay ($5,028).

On top of this, the Belgian Empire would also be home to a very significant organization headquarters, the European Union, which is located in the heart of Brussels, in Belgium, the hypothetical capital of the empire we have decided upon. However, whether it would join the European Union or any other inter-governmental organizations such as the African Union would be very difficult to predict and also very controversial indeed.

The religious and ethnic groups of a reunited Belgian Colonial Empire would also be very interesting to talk about, bringing us to the next topic.

First of all, starting with its religious groups, Christianity would by far be the most followed religion in the empire, with just under 91% of its population adhering to the religion, which would be further split between 79% Roman Catholics, 10% Protestants, and 2% Other. Next, being the second largest religion in its borders, and the largest minority religion, would be Islam, represented at a big drop down to 2.3%. The final 6.9% of the population would be a mix of various other small religions and Atheists and irreligious people.

Now focusing on its ethnic groups, various African ethnicities would be the largest ethnic groups in the empire, with the most notable being Bantu people at 56% of the whole population, Luba people at 14%, Hutu people at 12%, Mongo people at 8%, and Tutsi people at 7%. Flemish people and Walloon people would make up a further 4.8% and 2.8% respectively, while the remaining 4% would be a mix of various other different small ethnic groups.

In relation to the Belgian Colonial Empire's religious and ethnic groups, its linguistic groups would also be very similar to the former. Kikongo, a language native to the D.R. Congo, would just about be the most spoken first language by the population at 31.2%, which would be very closely trailed by French at 30.7%. Kinyarwanda would follow behind at 9.2%, while Kirundi would make up 9%. Swahili and Dutch would make up 5% and 4.2% respectively. The final 11% of the empire would be a variety of different small languages in its borders.

Choosing an official languages for the Belgian Empire would be fairly difficult to predict as many languages would share a noticeable amount but in my opinion, French would be the most likely option as it would be widely spoken across the whole empire and also has a significant number of L1 speakers.

The last thing we need to think about a reunited Belgian Empire is its military power.

Starting with its manpower, the empire would possess a big 223,600 active-duty troops, which would be the 20th largest force in the world, having more troops than either Mexico (216,000 troops) or Ukraine (209,000 troops), but behind Saudi Arabia (227,000 troops) and Japan (247,000 troops). The Belgian Colonial Empire would also possess a further 5,100 troops that would be placed in Reserves, bringing its army to a total of 229,700.

The budget to fund this decent military would be slightly lacking, however, at a modest $6.15 Billion, which would be the 36th highest budget in the world, larger than the budgets of Switzerland ($6 Billion) and Nigeria ($5.875 Billion), but smaller than the budgets of Qatar ($5.856 Billion) and Morocco ($5.438 Billion).

Now that we have looked over all main topics that we need to think about a reunited Belgian Colonial Empire, here are some strengths and weaknesses that the empire would have in the real world.