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.