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Luxembourg History
Luxembourg's history reads a bit like the storybook background its landscape suggests. Though the area's occupation actually extends back further than the Roman era, present-day Luxembourg stems from the loins of Count Sigefroid of Ardennes, who raised a castle here in 963 AD and sowed the seeds of a dynasty that's spawned rulers throughout Europe. The recorded history of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg begins with the construction of Luxembourg Castle in 963. Around this fort, a town gradually developed, which became the centre of a small, but important, state of great strategic value. By the end of the middle Ages, Sigefroid's city had the Burgundians, Spanish, French, Austrians and Prussians all waging bloody battles to conquer and secure it. In 1437, the House of Luxembourg suffered a succession crisis, precipitated by the lack of a male heir to assume the throne. In the following centuries, Luxembourg's fortress was steadily enlarged and strengthened over the years by its successive occupants, the Bourbons, Habsburgs, Hohenzollerns, and the French, among others. Listed as French 'forestry department' during Napoleon's reign, Luxembourg was included in the newly formed United Kingdom of the Netherlands, along with Belgium, in 1814. The Belgian revolution of 1830–1839 reduced Luxembourg's territory by more than half, as the purely francophone western part of the country was transferred to Belgium. Luxembourg was invaded and occupied by Germany during World War I and World War II. In 1942. In 1948, after Nazi occupation during WWII, Luxembourg gave up its position of neutrality to join in various economic, political and military organizations, including NATO and the United Nations. When the steel industry slumped in the mid-1970s, the Grand Duchy reacted quickly by wooing big spenders from abroad with favorable banking and taxation laws. In so doing, it rapidly morphed from an industrial to a service-based economy, although the steel industry still plays a significant role within the principality's modern economy.
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