East Cantons
Eupen-Malmedy or Eupen-Malmédy is a predominantly German-speaking region in eastern Belgium. It consists of three cantons around the small cities of Eupen, Malmedy, and Sankt Vith and measures approximately 282 square miles (730 km2). Eupen-Malmedy is often known as the East Cantons (French: Cantons de l'Est, German: Ostkantone) within Belgium.
Part of the Kingdom of Prussia following the congress of Vienna, and later the German Empire, the region was allocated to Belgium as part of the Treaty of Versailles after World War I. It was placed under a transitional administration to prepare for its full incorporation in Belgium, culminating in a controversial plebiscite vote in 1920. In 1925, the territory officially became part of Belgium's Province of Liège. Annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II, the territory returned to Belgium in 1945 and is still part of Belgium today where much of the region is today part of the German-speaking Community of Belgium.
Historically, those territories have little in common. The northern part around Eupen was originally part of the Duchy of Limburg, a dependency of the Duchy of Brabant which was latterly part of the Austrian Netherlands. The Southern part, around Sankt Vith, belonged to the Duchy of Luxembourg. The small village of Manderfeld-Schönberg belonged to the Archbishopric of Trier. Malmedy and Waimes, except the village of Faymonville, were part of the abbatial principality of Stavelot-Malmedy which was an Imperial Estate of the Holy Roman Empire. By the 19th century, the majority of the territory spoke German while the city of Malmedy was split between French and German speakers.
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