The history of Belgium may be divided into the following periods: (1) the formative period, including the time of the Roman occupation, the invasion of the Franks, and the reign of Charles the Great and his immediate heirs (57 B.C. to 843 A.D.); (2) the period of feudalism; (3) the rise of the communes (eleventh to fourteenth century); (4) the political centralization of the dukes of Burgundy (fifteenth century); (5) the Spanish rule (sixteenth to seventeenth century); (6) the Austrian rule (eighteenth century); (7) the French régime (1792-1815); (8) the Dutch rule and the revolution of 1830; (9) the period of national independence. During all these periods of history the names “Belgium” and “Belgians” have not been uniformly those by which the country and its people have been designated. The name “Belgae,” of Celtic origin, was given in Caesar’s time to the confederation of Celtic tribes which occupied the territory of Belgium, when for the first time the Roman legions came in contact with them. The name Belgium, “Belgica,” disappeared with the Roman occupation and does not reappear until the sixteenth century. During the sixteenth century, and especially at the beginning of the seventeenth, the name “Belgium” is to be found in books, but seems not to have been used as a common designation. As a distinctive name for a race or people, the term “Belges” became generally used at the end of the eighteenth century, its adjectival form being then “belgique” (_les provinces belgiques_, “the Belgian provinces”). Between the end of the Roman occupation and the end of the eighteenth century the Belgians were successively known as “Franks,” “Lotharingi,” and “Flemings.” Since the thirteenth century, the country itself has been called “Netherlands” (_partes advallenses_), when the name Lotharingia disappeared as a political term. The term “Burgundian provinces” was sometimes used in the fifteenth century, while the name “Flanders,” “Fiandra,” “Flandes,” was mainly applied during the Spanish rule. During the Austrian rule the name “Austrian Netherlands” was the prevailing designation.[1] The term “Netherlands” was applied, not only to the actual territory of Belgium, but to the countries which today correspond to the territories included in the kingdoms of Belgium and Holland. From the time of the Roman occupation until 1588 Belgium and Holland have, indeed, a somewhat common history. Since 1588, when the provinces of the north separated from the south as the United Provinces of the Netherlands, Belgium and Holland have existed as separate states, and have no longer a common history.