the powder keg and the fuse - Belgium

Submitted by myth (Germany), Jul 3, 2014 at 04:45

Yonason,

you are right there was a powder keg with a fuse in place. Prussian officer Schlieffen drew a plan years earlier that detailed the pre-emptive military invasion of France. Schlieffen died before 1914. This plan provided the powder for it deployed millions of soldiers which would in practice be readily available by conscription. Half of the scale of WW1 had been in that plan. The path of invasion would lead through Belgium. That was the fuse to spark the participation of Britain. However at the time Germany expected Britain to stay out of a Franco-German war despite guarantees given to Belgium.

Given that plan had been in a drawer in Berlin, Germany was prepared and tempted to react as quickly as it did to Austria's declaration of war on Serbia.

I would trace the blunder back another 100 years. Why did anyone create Belgium and keep it neutral? Belgium sits at a geographically unique spot between France and Germany. The Rhine defines this border between Switzerland and Karlsruhe. Along that strip there are but forests on the German side - no problem here. Between Karlsruhe and Cologne the Eifel and Ardennes mountains form a natural border west of the Rhine. North of the line Cologne-Brussels it is all flat territory - Flanders/Belgium. This territory hits its first natural boundary with the Rhine-Maas river delta. That delta defines the Catholic-Protestant divide.

Belgium, by its geography, is the natural corridor to pass from France into Germany. Unlike Switzerland that has 4000meter mountains, northern Belgium presents no obstacle. Through all history this position shaped the path of invasions and it led to the latin-germanic language divide along that corridor. This is where Napoleon invaded until he was awaited by British forces close to Brussels. Why did the British not learn from that battle in Waterloo? How could they create and promise to protect a neutral Belgium and not have troops in there permanently? Why did they repeat the same blunder prior to WW2?

Leaving Belgium neutral without a strong presence of British troops seems like an invitation to me. NATO finally corrected that mistake and has both Belgium and The Netherlands in the alliance in order to cover the entire flat territory along the North and Baltic sea to guard against a massive tank invasion.

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".