Luxembourg, grand duchy, W Europe: Land and People

Luxembourg is drained by the Sûre (Sauer) and Alzette rivers, both tributaries of the Moselle (Mosel), which forms part of its eastern border. The Ardennes Mts. extend into N Luxembourg. The southwestern section is part of the Luxembourg-Lorraine iron-mining basin, once one of the most productive iron and steel manufacturing regions in the world; Esch-sur-Alzette is its main center. The people are an amalgam of Celtic, French, and German ancestry. In the Letzeburgesch language, which is a prevailing Low German dialect, the duchy is called Letzeburg. German and French are both administrative languages, and English is also widely spoken. The majority of the population is Roman Catholic; there are Protestant, Jewish, and Muslim minorities.

Sections in this article:

• Introduction
• The Twentieth and Twenty-first Centuries
• Through the Nineteenth Century
• Government
• Economy
• Land and People
• Bibliography

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2024, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

See more Encyclopedia articles on: Benelux Political Geography