Belgium

The International Mandate for Belgium is a socialist provisional government in Western Europe. It borders France to the south, the International Mandate of the Netherlands to the North and West Germany to the East.

The Kingdom of Belgium entered the first world war unified and confident, but left it shattered and divided. Despite the valiant efforts of the ‘Soldier-King’ Albert I and his army to delay the Germans, by 1918 Belgium was no more. Her colonies were stripped, her industry lay in ruin, and her exhausted people were forced under the jackboot of the German pawn kingdom known as “Flanders-Wallonia”. Belgium’s diminutive neighbor, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, fared even worse, being completely subjugated to the Kaiser as a vassal of the Reich. However, both countries’ fates were tied together after the Germans granted the predominantly Walloon region of Belgian Luxembourg back to the Grand Duchy, reversing a treaty that had held for eight decades.

In the immediate aftermath of the Weltkrieg, much of the population found themselves unemployed, as Belgian industry was still war-torn. A series of “Flamenpolitik” laws were implemented, continuing from Germany’s wartime policy to divide Belgium under the pretense of Flemish liberation from the extensively French-chauvinist former Belgian kingdom. These laws heavily favored the Dutch-speaking Flemish over the French-speaking Waloons, and so in order to keep up their pretense of liberation, Germany devised the federal system of the Kingdom of Flanders-Wallonia, giving extensive legal and linguistic autonomy to both sides, with French-speakers in Flanders, including the capital, Brussels, forced into bilingualism.

For a while, it seemed as though these laws would have the opposite intended effect, strengthening Belgian unity to spite the German occupier, however as the German belt loosened and the wounds of the war healed, there was a small Flemish renaissance. For the first time, rural Flemings could migrate to the cities without learning French, find work in the newly bustling Flemish port cities; taking in goods from all over the world and sending them all over Mitteleuropa, and they could receive full educations in their own language - Flanders had, at least, established itself as an identity rather than a rural backwater.

Meanwhile, the economic situation in Wallonia had still failed to recover. Not only did they now face competition from Germany, but industry had also been brought up by Germans, eager German migrants had come to work the new industrial frontier, and some factories had outright been shipped away to the Reich - as the Flemish ports benefited from the low trade barriers of Mitteleuropa, Walloon industry was paying the price. This situation was fertile ground for the growth of socialism, emboldened, radicalized, and backed by the French revolutionaries across the border. Also, while Belgian nationality still held strong, a Walloon identity was slowly developing in reaction to the rise of the Flanders, which now dominated the supposedly “equal” federation.

In Luxembourg, the situation was even worse, with extensive Germanisation campaigns excluding Luxembourgish as a mere dialect, encouraging widespread German immigration and the encroachment of German capital, threatening the livelihood of Luxembourgers and even the Walloons of Belgian Luxembourg.

By 1938, due to efforts jump-started by the economic shattering of Black Monday, some signs of a genuine recovery were beginning to show themselves, albeit slowly, due to the continued German dominance of industry. Unemployment figures were finally starting to improve, and public unrest towards the federal kingdom started to wind down. However, the population was still far from content, with distrust over the language barrier still fomenting, and “Belgianists” were still present all over the political spectrum; Old-Monarchists, Socialists, Republicans, and more. Although they couldn’t agree how a new Belgium would be organized, all Belgianists still opposed the status quo and the German domination of public affairs.

Then came an infamous day, on the 10th of September, 1939. After a decade of extreme tension, the recently politically upheaved French Communal Republic issued an ultimatum to the German Empire, demanding an end to the repression of German trade unions and the recognition of the new communard government. When the Germans inevitably refused, Belgian blood ran cold. The people of the “battleground of Europe” sunk into despair. As riots and strikes broke out, King Adalbert reluctantly mustered the army. Another European war had come to their strategically located homeland, and the Belgian people wanted no part in it; except for some radical Germanophiles and socialists, the country was once again united in its opposition.

The war rolled over the small kingdom, spreading annihilation wherever it went. Old wounds were opened, oozing gashes where Belgian pride ran like blood. Many family homes were simply turned to ash and dust, and newly-repaired factories were transformed into jagged, flaming ruins, destroyed by British bombers, French tanks, and German artillery.

The Belgian army under Aldebert was no match for France and Britain, and mostly served to assist the German army. Eventually, in 1943, after the Russian invasion of the Reichspakt, the socialists would force their way across the low country as Dutch recruits joined the brutal fight, to no avail.

After the front lines finally pushed east into Germany, the populace was almost granted their wish: the Kingdom of Flanders Wallonia and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg were no more, but in their place were the mere shattered remains of nations, administered by their new socialist occupiers through the “International Reconstruction Mandate for Belgium”, overseen by the “Council for the Reconstruction of Belgium”, an organization of Flemish, Walloon, and Luxembourgish left-wing leaders along with Franco-British military men, created to rebuild the destroyed countries and prepare for their eventual return to civilian rule.

Even after the fighting had moved east, further strife would come to Belgium as the frontlines seesawed back and forth and Germany grew ever more desperate to stem the flow of supplies arriving in Antwerp. When the Luftstreitkrafte's bomber command could no longer muster the planes to reliably raid the ports and the Kaiserliche Marine found itself penned in by the threat of air power and lack of fuel; Germany turned to rocketry. The products of Werner von Braun's programs would rain down repeatedly on Antwerp in a final, vain effort to turn the tide of war. But soon this threat too would cease as the socialists pushed deep into the heart of the Reich itself. Many Belgian volunteers are indeed proud to say that the Vandervelde Division took part in the final offensive at Berlin, and were there for the final curtain-fall on the German Empire. Though no city in the world had suffered more from the rocket scourge than Antwerp, the city survived and would continue the process of healing.

**Modern Belgium:**

In 1950, Belgium sits in political limbo, while the reconstruction efforts are all but finished, the fundamental and difficult questions of state have been bogged down in the Mandate’s bureaucracy. However, new elections are soon to be held, and many suspect this will be the election that will draw up the new constitution. The Belgian Communist Party, of the now famous hero Julien Lahaut, is set to win thanks to its popularity in lieu of any reactionary options. However, politics is a fickle thing, and lady fate may have other plans...