State · 1841 – 1962

Belgian colonial empire

A state of 1841 – 1962 — 121 years in Europe. The atlas records 1 thing within it — people 1. Its line of rulers holds 6 people.

Wikidata's English label: Belgian Empire.

For the full story, the article on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0); this page holds what the record says of the state.

Stood: 121 years; 1841 – 1962
Rulers: 6; the King of the Belgians
Within it: 1; recorded row
Symbols: 2; on record, with years

Where it sits in time

Five thousand years, 3000 BCE to 2026; the state in gold.

Rulers

The line of King of the Belgians - the office this state names as its head of state.

died in officeleft alive by a regular roada second row: a reign that began before the last had ended — rival claimants, or a shared throne

Ruler	Reign	Length	How it ended · source	To the ruler before
Leopold I of Belgium	1831 – 1865	34 years	died in office, manner not recordedread off the dates alone
Leopold II of Belgium	1865 – 1909	44 years	died in office of natural causesWikidata's manner of death	child
Albert I of Belgium	1909 – 1934	25 years	died by accidentWikidata's manner of death	nephew or niece
Leopold III of Belgium	1934 – 1951	17 years	left office aliveread off the dates alone	child
Prince Charles, Count of Flanders	1944 – 1950	6 years	left office aliveread off the dates alone	sibling
Baudouin of Belgium	1951 – 1993	42 years	died in office of natural causesWikidata's manner of death	nephew or niece

6 rulers, 6 with terms dated as terms, covering 1831 – 1993. Median reign 29.5 years. 1 of 5 handovers irregular - a killing, a deposition, a rival claimant, a rising or a coup beside it. A blank in the last column means no kin on record, which is coverage, never “unrelated”.

Flags and arms, in order

Each symbol with the years its own statement gives; the timeline flies the one of the year on screen.

flag, undatedFlag of Belgium · Public domain
coat of arms, from 1837Great coat of arms of Belgium · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Sodacan , with some elements by Katepanomegas

What happened within it, by century

Every row the atlas hosts under this state, by the century it began in: wars and battles in red, risings, regime changes and massacres beside them, everything else in grey. A tall bar is a century the record is full for, which is partly a fact about Wikipedia.

1900 – 19991 row

James Kabarebe · politician · 1959 – present

Among all states

Each measure against the states that carry it, never against all of them: a bar is the share of those states below this one.

How long it stood121 years
stood longer than 51% of 3,187 states with a recorded end or still standing.
Wars recorded per centurynone
had more wars on record per century than 44% of 3,187 states, counting the wars the atlas hosts under each.
How long a reign lasted, at the median34 years
had longer reigns, at the median, than 88% of 967 states whose dated line can carry a median.
Rulers on record6
has more rulers on record than 69% of 1,968 states with a line of rulers.

Theories that apply to its ending

Of 3 theories of why states fall, 1 has every condition present at this ending and 1 some of them; each is applied by its own logic, condition by condition, and whether its authors named this case is a footnote.

Dynastic cycle and the decay of group feeling
Ibn Khaldun 1377 · Turchin & Nefedov 2009
Applies by its own logic: the condition it names held here, and this is the kind of outcome it predicts — adverse regime change or the state's ending.
- the state 90 to 160 years old — ageBand 121

Open in the atlas

On the timeline, 1829 – 1974, with everything that stood beside it.
On the map in 1902, live: scrub the year and watch its borders move.
Investigate it: what led to it, what came of it, and its succession analysed.

Wikidata Q815524 (CC0) · symbols from Wikimedia Commons, each credited above · data built 2026-10-06 · Pastlas v2.9.1, by Oleh Voronko. The published atlas and its data are for non-commercial use.