Belgium in World War I The history of Belgium in World War I traces Belgium ' s role between the German invasion in 1914 , through the continued military resistance and occupation of the territory by German forces , known as the Rape of Belgium , to the armistice in 1918 , as well as the role it played in the international war effort through its African colonies and small force on the Eastern Front . German invasion . When World War I began , Germany invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg as part of the Schlieffen Plan , in an attempt to capture Paris quickly by catching the French off guard by invading through neutral countries . It was this action that technically caused the British to enter the war , as they were still bound by the 1839 agreement to protect Belgium in the event of war . On 2 August 1914 , the German government demanded that German armies be given free passage through Belgian territory , although this was refused by the Belgian government on 3 August . On 4 August , German troops invaded Belgium . To this day , the Belgian army is remembered for their stubborn resistance during the early days of the war , with the army – around a tenth the size of the German army – holding up the German offensive for nearly a month , giving the French and British forces time to prepare for the Marne counteroffensive later in the year . The German invaders treated any resistance — such as demolition of bridges and rail lines — as illegal and subversive , and shot the offenders and burned buildings in retaliation . Flanders was the main base of the British army and it saw some of the greatest loss of life on both sides of the Western Front . German occupation 1914 – 18 . The Germans governed the occupied areas of Belgium through a General Governorate of Belgium , while a small area around Ypres remained under Belgian control . The two provinces of East and West Flanders comprised a war zone under the direct control of the German army . Elsewhere martial law prevailed . The German military governor was Moritz von Bissing . Each province had a German governor ; each locality was under the control of a German officer . Many civilians fled the war zones to safer parts of Belgium . Many refugees from all over the country went to the Netherlands ( which was neutral ) and about 300 , 000 to France . Over 200 , 000 went to Britain , where they resettled in London and found war jobs . The British and French governments set up the War Refugees Committee ( WRC ) and the Secours National , to provide relief and support ; there were an additional 1 , 500 local WRC committees in Britain . The high visibility of the refugees underscored the role of Belgium in the minds of the French and British . In the spring of 1915 , German authorities started construction on the Wire of Death , a lethal electric fence along the Belgian - Dutch border which would claim the lives of between 2 , 000 to 3 , 000 Belgian refugees trying to escape the occupied country . On the advice of the Belgian government in exile , civil servants remained in their posts for the duration of the conflict , carrying out the day - to - day functions of government . All political activity was suspended and Parliament shut down . While farmers and coal miners kept up their routines , many larger businesses largely shut down , as did the universities . The Germans helped set up the first solely Dutch - speaking university in Ghent . The Germans sent in managers to operate factories that were underperforming . Lack of effort was a form of passive resistance ; Kossmann says that for many Belgians the war years were " a long and extremely dull vacation . " Belgian workers were conscripted into forced labour projects ; by 1918 , the Germans had deported 120 , 000 Belgian workers to Germany . The Rape of Belgium . The German army was outraged at how Belgium had frustrated the Schlieffen Plan to capture Paris . From top to bottom there was a firm belief that the Belgians had unleashed illegal saboteurs ( called " Francs - tireurs " ) and that civilians had tortured and maltreated German soldiers . The response was a series of multiple large - scale attacks on civilians and the destruction of historic buildings and cultural centers . The German army executed between 5 , 500 and 6 , 500 French and Belgian civilians between August and November 1914 , usually in near - random large - scale shootings of civilians ordered by junior German officers . Individuals suspected of partisan activities were summarily shot . Historians researching German Army records have discovered 101 " major " incidents — where ten or more civilians were killed — with a total of 4 , 421 executed . Historians have also discovered 383 " minor " incidents that led to the deaths of another 1 , 100 Belgians . Almost all were claimed by Germany to be responses to guerrilla attacks . In addition some high profile Belgian figures , including politician Adolphe Max and historian Henri Pirenne , were imprisoned in Germany as hostages . The German position was that widespread sabotage and guerrilla activities by Belgian civilians were wholly illegal and deserved immediate harsh collective punishment . Recent research that systematically studied German Army sources has demonstrated that they in fact encountered no irregular forces in Belgium during the first two and a half months of the invasion . The Germans were responding instead to a phantom fear they had unconsciously created themselves . Bryce Report and international response . The British were quick to tell the world about German atrocities . Britain sponsored the " Committee on Alleged German Outrages " known as the Bryce Report . Published in May 1915 , the Report provided elaborate details and first - hand accounts , including excerpts from diaries and letters found on captured German soldiers . The Report was a major factor in changing public opinion in neutral countries , especially the United States . After Britain shipped 41 , 000 copies to the US , the Germans responded with their own report on atrocities against German soldiers by Belgian civilians . The Bryce Report was ridiculed in the 1920s and 1930s and afterwards as highly exaggerated wartime propaganda . It relied too heavily on unproven allegations of refugees and distorted interpretations of diaries of German soldiers . Recent scholarship has not tried to validate the statements in the Bryce Report . Instead research has gone into the official German records and have confirmed that the Germans committed large - scale deliberate atrocities in Belgium . International relief . Belgium faced a food crisis and an international response was organized by an American engineer based in London , Herbert Hoover . It was unprecedented in world history . Hoover ' s Commission for Relief in Belgium ( CRB ) had the permission of Germany and the Allies for their activities . As chairman of the CRB , Hoover worked with the leader of the Belgian Comité National de Secours et Alimentation ( CN ) , Emile Francqui , to feed the entire nation for the duration of the war . The CRB purchased and imported millions of tons of foodstuffs for the CN to distribute , and watched over the CN to make sure the German army did not appropriate the food . The CRB became a veritable independent republic of relief , with its own flag , navy , factories , mills , and railroads . Private donations and government grants ( 78 % ) supplied an $ 11 - million - a - month budget . At its peak , the American arm , the American Relief Administration ( ARA ) fed 10 . 5 million people daily . Great Britain became reluctant to support the CRB , preferring instead to emphasize Germany ' s obligation to supply the relief ; Winston Churchill led a military faction that considered the Belgian relief effort " a positive military disaster . " Internal politics . The prewar Catholic ministry remained in office with Charles de Broqueville continuing as prime minister and also taking on the war portfolio . Viscount Julien Davignon continued as foreign minister until 1917 , when de Broqueville gave up the war ministry and took over foreign affairs . The government was broadened to include all parties , as politics were suspended for the duration ; of course , no elections were possible . The two main opposition leaders , Paul Hymans of the Liberals and Emile Vandervelde of the Socialist party , became ministers without portfolio in 1914 . In a cabinet shakeup in May 1918 , de Broqueville was excluded altogether . The government was based in the French city of Le Havre , but communications with the people behind German lines were difficult and roundabout . The government in exile did not govern Belgium , and so its politicians instead squabbled endlessly , and plotted unrealistic foreign policy moves , such as the annexation of Luxembourg or a slice of the Netherlands after the war . Belgium was not officially one of the Allies . In turn they did not consult with Belgium , but Britain , France and Russia in 1916 formally pledged in 1916 that " when the moment comes , the Belgian government will be called to participate in the peace negotiations and that they will not put an end to the hostilities unless Belgium is re - established in its political and economic independence and largely indemnified for the damage which she has undergone . They will lend their aid to Belgium to assure her commercial and financial rehabilitation . " Flemish identity . Flemish consciousness of their national identity grew through the events and experiences of war . The German occupying authorities viewed the Flemings as an oppressed people and had taken several Flemish - friendly measures , known as " Flamenpolitik " . This included introducing Dutch as the language of instruction in all state - supported schools in Flanders in 1918 . This prompted a renewed Flemish movement in the years following the war . The Flemish " Frontbeweging " ( " Soldiers ' Movement " ) was formed from Flemish soldiers in the Belgian army to campaign for greater use of the Dutch language in education and government , although it was not separatist . Kossmann concludes that the German policy of fostering separatism in Flanders was a failure because it did not win popular support . Belgian military operations . Belgium was poorly prepared for war . Strict neutrality meant there was no coordination of any kind with anyone . It had a new , inexperienced general staff . It started compulsory service in 1909 ; the plan was to have an army of 340 , 000 men by 1926 . In 1914 the old system had been abandoned and the new one was unready , lacking trained officers and sergeants , as well as modern equipment . The army had 102 machine guns and no heavy artillery . The strategy was to concentrate near Brussels and delay a German invasion as long as possible — a strategy that in the event proved highly effective as it disrupted the German timetable . For example , the German timetable required the capture of the railway center of Liège in two days ; it took 11 . Much of the small army was captured early on as the frontier forts surrendered . In late 1914 the king had only 60 , 000 soldiers left . During the war a few young men volunteered to serve , so by 1918 the total force had returned to 170 , 000 . That was far too few to launch a major offensive . The Germans had nothing to gain from an attack , so the short Belgian front was an island of relative calm as gigantic battles raged elsewhere on the Western Front . The total of Belgian soldiers killed came to about 2 . 0 % of its eligible young men ( compared to 13 . 3 % in France and 12 . 5 % in Germany ) . Battle of the Yser . King Albert I stayed in the Yser as commander of the military to lead the army while Charles de Broqueville ' s government withdrew to Le Havre in France . Belgian soldiers fought a number of significant delaying actions in 1914 during the initial invasion . At the Battle of Liège , the town ' s fortifications held off the invaders for over a week , buying valuable time for Allied troops to arrive in the area . Additionally , the German " Race to the Sea " was stopped dead by exhausted Belgian forces at the Battle of the Yser . The dual significance of the battle was that the Germans were unable to complete their occupation of the entire country , and the Yser area remained unoccupied , providing a propaganda coup to the Belgian forces on the Western Front for the duration of the war . Belgian Congo and the East Africa Campaign . German presence in Africa posed no direct threat to the Belgian Congo ; however , in 1914 a German gunboat sank a number of Belgian vessels on Lake Tanganyika . Congolese forces , under Belgian officers , fought German colonial forces in the Cameroons and seized control of the western third of German East Africa . The League of Nations in 1925 made Belgium the trustee of this territory ( modern Rwanda and Burundi ) as the mandate of Ruanda - Urundi . Eastern Front . The Belgian Expeditionary Corps was a small armoured car unit ; it was sent to Russia in 1915 and fought on the Eastern Front . The Minerva armoured car were used for reconnaissance , long distance messaging and carrying out raids and small scale engagements . 16 Belgians were killed in action . Postwar settlements . King Albert I went to the Paris Peace Conference in April 1919 , where he met with the Big Four and the other leaders of France , Italy , Britain and the United States . He had four strategic goals : 1 ) to restore and expand the Belgian economy , using cash reparations from Germany ; 2 ) to assure Belgium ' s security by the creation of a new buffer state on the left bank of the Rhine ; 3 ) to revise the obsolete treaty of 1839 ; and 4 ) to promote a ' rapprochement ' between Belgium and the Grand duchy of Luxembourg . < br > He strongly advised against a harsh , punitive treaty against Germany that would eventually provoke German revenge . He also considered that the dethronement of the princes of Central Europe and , in particular , the dissolution of the Habsburg Empire would constitute a serious menace to peace and stability on the continent . The Allies considered Belgian to be the chief victim of the war , and it aroused enormous popular sympathy , but the King ' s advice played a small role in Paris . Belgium was given much less than it wanted , with a total payment of three billion German gold marks ( about $ 500 million ) ; the money did not stimulate the lethargic Belgian economy of the 1920s . Belgium also received a small slice of territory in the south of the country ( known as Eupen - Malmedy ) from Germany , which remains part of the country to this day . Its demands for a slice of Zeeland in the Netherlands ( which had remained neutral during the conflict , but was widely believed to have collaborated with Germany ) , were rejected and led to ill - will . Britain was willing to guarantee Belgian borders only if it committed to neutrality , which Albert rejected . Instead , Belgium became a junior partner with France in an occupation of part of Germany under a 1920 Treaty . Belgium was also given a League of Nations trusteeship over the former German colonies in Africa of Rwanda and Burundi . On the whole , Belgian diplomacy was poorly handled and ineffective . Between 1923 and 1925 , Belgian and French soldiers occupied the Ruhr to force the Weimar government to maintain payment of reparations . Commemoration . Due to the hundreds of thousands of British and Canadian casualties , the blood - red poppies that sprang up in no man ' s land when fields were torn up by artillery were immortalized in the poem " In Flanders Fields " . Poppies became a symbol of human life lost in war . The suffering of Flanders is still remembered by Flemish organizations during the yearly Yser pilgrimage and " Wake of the Yser " in Diksmuide at the monument of The Yser tower . British veterans and civilians in the 1920s created a shrine of sacrifice in Belgium . The city of Ypres was made the symbol of all Britain was fighting for and was given an almost sacred aura . The Ypres League transformed the horrors of trench warfare into a spiritual quest in which British and imperial troops were purified by their sacrifice . After the war Ypres became a pilgrimage destination for Britons to imagine and share the sufferings of their men and gain a spiritual benefit .