Today is Belgian Independence Day, and I stand and toast my friends in Belgium, inventors of French Fries and fruit beer, with a glass of Chimay White in my hands. Cheers! Salut! Proost!

Like most Americans, I am woefully ignorant of any independence day other than my own country’s. So after some quick internet research, here’s the story behind the birth of Belgium. After the defeat of Napoleon in 1815, Europe was carved up by the victors with the goal of containing French imperialistic ambitions. What is now Belgium was given to the Netherlands. The French-speaking Catholic population chafed under the rule of the Dutch-speaking protestant king, and simmering tensions came to a boil in the Brussels Opera Riot of August 25, 1830. I’ve never seen an opera that made me want to riot (at least not outside of the theater), but apparently this particularly jingoistic performance excited its crowd to such a point that they left the theater shouting patriotic slogans and quickly took over several government buildings. The Dutch sent in the troops but after several bloody days of fighting in the streets of Brussels were unable to route the revolutionaries. The provisional government declared independence on October 4.

So independence day in Belgium is October 4, right? Well, sort of. The new Belgian government needed a king (don’t all European countries need a king?), and offered the job to one Leopold I, a typical European royal of the day: son of a German duke and a Russian countess, general in the Russian army fighting against Napoleon, etc. Leopold had just turned down an offer to be king of Greece the year before, but apparently the climate or the benefits (or maybe the beer) was better in Belgium. He ascended the throne on July 21, 1831. (Two weeks later the Dutch invaded again in an attempt to regain their runaway province. The French army came to the support of the new Belgians and the Dutch went back home after ten days, averting what could have been the shortest royal reign in history.)

So there are two Belgian independence days. Or one independence day and one national day. Or something like that – I’m not really sure. In any case, it is a good day to drink a fine Belgian beer, and there are many to choose from. And on October the 4th, I’ll do it again. The sacrifices one must make in the name of international solidarity…