page_title: Henri Alexis Brialmont
section_title: Political activities
hierarchical_section_title: Henri Alexis Brialmont / Political activities
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Henri Alexis Brialmont 1821-1903. Monument au carrefour de la rue de Louvain et de la rue Royale à Bruxelles.
context_page_description: Henri-Alexis Brialmont, nicknamed The Belgian Vauban after the French military architect, was a Belgian army officer, politician and writer of the 19th century, best known as a military architect and designer of fortifications. Brialmont qualified as an officer in the Belgian army engineers in 1843 and quickly rose up the ranks. He served as a staff officer, and later was given command of the district of the key port of Antwerp. He finished his careers as Inspector-General of the Army. Brialmont was also an active pamphleteer and political campaigner and lobbied through his career for reform and expansion of the Belgian military and was also involved in the foundation of the Congo Free State.
  Today, Brialmont is best known for the fortifications which he designed in Belgium and Romania and would influence another in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The fortifications he designed in Belgium at the end of the 1880s around the towns of Liège, Namur and Antwerp would play an important role during the early stages of the German invasion of Belgium during World War I.
context_section_description: From his early career, Brialmont advocated expanding the importance of the Belgian army. In 1850, he convinced his father to resign his ministerial post rather than consent to a lowering of defence spending. His stance put him into conflict with Walthère Frère-Orban and the Liberals. From 1855, he began campaigning for restructuring of the defenses of the crucial port city of Antwerp in north-east Belgium. Despite being officially warned off the politically unpopular project, he continued. In the mid 1850s, he published a series of pamphlets arguing for the reorganization and expansion of the tiny Belgian navy, which he believed could be used for imperialist purposes projecting Belgian influence abroad.
  Although Leopold I was deeply opposed to Brialmont's plans, his son (the future King Leopold II) was impressed by his ideas and the two corresponded frequently. Brialmont felt that colonial expansion was essential to make Belgium a world power, and was an energetic supporter of Leopold II's Congo Free State, which he even helped to found, from the 1880s. Nevertheless, Brialmont refused the offer of becoming Leopold II's aide-de-camp.
  In the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War, Brialmont became an advocate for the abolition of the Remplacement system of conscription and the adoption of a form of universal military service.
caption: Statue of Brialmont in central Brussels
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "NIKON", "Image Model": "COOLPIX P90", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "COOLPIX P90V1.0", "Image DateTime": "2012:11:11 11:36:39", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "266", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "300", "Thumbnail YResolution": "300", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "8692", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6093", "EXIF ExposureTime": "5/1132", "EXIF FNumber": "5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "64", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2012:11:11 11:36:39", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2012:11:11 11:36:39", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "2", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "144/5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3984", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2656", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "1008", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "162", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}