Belgium

What must be known about Belgium's role in the First World War is that country was originally neutral. Before the War began, in the year of 1839, there was a treaty signed called the Treaty of London in which it would be stated that Belgium would remain neutral in any case of war. Later on in the 19th Century, Belgium was beginning to focus on land aquisition rather than actual militarism. They felt there was no need for one since they were in fact neutral. The problem with this is that Germany then felt that Belgium was an easy target to both conquer and destroy because of its proximity to France, and the easy route to this place as well. Once the war began, Belgium was not equiped to fight off the Germans who had an army of 5 million ready to fight, compared to 250,000 that Belgium had.

Once this invasion occurred, it was then that Great Britain found the excuse to fight Germany. Belgium did not want Germany to cross through because they knew this would mean there would be a war, and so it happened. As soon as Germany began to invade Belgium, Great Britain decided to declare war. While invading, all it took was a couple of hours to begin destroying many of the forts established for defense. On September 29th, Wavre St. Carherine, one of the forts was so badly ruined that it was as if it had been abandoned. By the 8th of October, it was decided that due to the increased war activity in Antwerp, it was decided that it had to be evacuated.

Once all of the countries were at war, they basically used Belgium as the middle man. Belgium was in between crucial areas for the Allied and Central powers in the war. Belgium was stuck being affected by the gunfire when they were, in reality attempting to stay out of the war. They were not prepared for such large attacks and were in turn affected the most. Geographically, they were important due to the fact that they were in the way of the German route to France.