BELGIUM

The geographical location of Belgium is at once its blessing and its curse. Its possession of a valuable seacoast, its proximity to the rich and highly developed countries of Germany, France, and England have made it, in spite of its comparatively very small extent, one of the richest countries. Its ships have carried the goods of many other nations, and its ports have been the gateway of an immense international commerce. But these very nations which in time of peace have been the source of much of Belgium's wealth, have brought many wars upon this country. Again and again it has been Europe's battle ground. Whenever France and Germany have gone to war against each other it has always been a question which one would get at the other first—through Belgium. And then through it lies the shortest road to rich and proud Albion.

A change for the better seemed to have come for the little kingdom as a result of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. At its outbreak both of the belligerents reaffirmed the treaty of London of 1831 and 1839, by which they as well as Great Britain, Austria, and Russia were bound to respect Belgium's neutrality and integrity, and to Great Britain it is that Belgium was especially indebted for this promise. For the island kingdom made it plain to both Russia and France that it could not and would not stand by idly if Belgium were invaded. After the end of the war had come, Russia, France, and Great Britain signed a new agreement by which they arranged to respect forever Belgium's neutrality, and if one of the signatories should break the arrangement the other two were to combine for the protection of Belgium. Although this pact has been kept officially ever since, it seems in the light of recent discoveries in Belgian archives as if Belgium itself had placed itself outside of it by arriving at a secret understanding with both England and France that both of these countries should be permitted certain privileges in case of war with Germany. How much truth there is to these claims history will undoubtedly discover and announce.

The fact remains that, secure in its guaranteed neutrality, Belgium has prospered and grown. In spite of its smallness it has become one of the great industrial and commercial countries in Europe. To a great extent this was due to the remarkable gifts possessed by one of its recent rulers, Leopold II, the uncle and predecessor of the present king, Albert I. Leopold succeeded his father, Leopold I, in 1865. The latter had been on very friendly terms with Queen Victoria, and, in a way, English friendship for Belgium dates from that period, although Leopold II was not popular at the English court. Leopold II was married to an Austrian archduchess. His sister was the wife of the unfortunate Maximilian who, as Emperor of Mexico, betrayed by Napoleon III in his hour of need, was stood up against the walls of a Mexican town and shot by his rebellious subjects. One of his daughters, Stefanie, married the unhappy Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria-Hungary, who died mysteriously at a hunting lodge long before his time. But Leopold II himself was of a different mold than all his relations. He was a man of powerful intellect, shrewd business sense, and remarkable foresight. Much against his people's will he became first the promoter and then the king of an immense and wonderfully valuable African empire, the Congo Free State. This enterprise was not at all popular in Belgium. But the king had a will of his own and saw it through, much to the final advantage of his country. By a will made in 1889 he left the Congo State to Belgium, which annexed it in 1908, and which has found it not an unprofitable investment. The Congo question—its finances, development, and administration—is the main feature of internal politics of Belgium in modern times. Of course there were other questions—electoral reform, financial legislation, military expenditures—that offered plenty of causes for political discussions and difficulties, but they were always more or less overshadowed by the affairs of the African colony.

In foreign politics Belgium—on account of its neutrality—had no cause to mix. It stood on the same footing with each of the other nations: it expected from each and gave to each friendly consideration. It might almost be called the irony of fate that the country which kept, due to its special status, out of all international disturbances of the last seventy-five years should be drawn into the Great War deeper than almost any other country. It is quite possible that had Leopold II still been at the helm in 1914, his country's fate might have been different.

His successor was his younger brother's younger son, Albert I, a man who, though lacking, of course, his uncle's greater experience, seemed to have inherited some of his intellectual qualities. He married a Bavarian princess, a sister of the late Crown Princess of Bavaria, and a niece of the late Empress Elizabeth of Austria and the ex-Queen Mother of Portugal.

Belgium's populace consists of two widely different parts—Flemings and French. The former are closely related racially to the Dutch inhabitants of Holland, with which country Belgium formerly was united. The French portion of the populace is very much in sympathy with French ideals and ideas, and has suppressed the Flemish half as much as possible, a great deal of strife resulting. Racially and socially Belgium felt itself closely allied to France, economically its interests were much greater with Germany. If one can speak at all of Belgium's foreign politics previous to the outbreak of the war, one must say that they were influenced by sentiments rather than anything else.[Back to Contents]