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Old March 12th, 2004 #11
Hadding
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Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Florida
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Quote:
Originally Posted by combatfrançais
I agree with most of your arguments and I just want to add some more explanations.

I live in Belgium being half Belgian half French. Indeed Belgium doesn't have any real national identity as France or as the USA but this fact is mosly due to its historical bakcground. Before its independance Belgium had been occupied by Spain, Holland and France. In 1830 Belgium was artificially created for the benefit of the UK and France that didn't ask the new Belgian people's opinion.
The Kingdom of the Netherlands came into being in 1815, carved out of former French territory following the defeat of Napoleon, and Belgium seceded from the Netherlands in 1830. A royal house closely related to the British royal house was then installed in Belgium.

At that time, Germany was not a great power. It appears that the use of Belgium (which had probably also been the original purpose of the Kingdom of the Netherlands) was to weaken France and to box in France geographically so that if France began to expand again the first move would give the British an excuse to get involved. Perhaps it was also the case that the Kingdom of the Netherlands had appeared too formidable to be allowed to continue in one piece.

On the other hand, I don't really know about all the intrigues that may have fueled the secession of Belgium from the Netherlands: maybe there was some French hope already in 1830 of reabsorbing part of the Netherlands into France, but that did not materialize. Instead Belgium was brought into the British orbit.

In both the First World War, and early in the Second, there seems to have been a heavy emphasis in British propaganda on the suffering of the Belgians. As a country with no history, and thus no reproaches such as might come to mind in the case of France, Belgium has been a handy country to portray as the innocent victim in British war-propaganda.

Last edited by Hadding; March 12th, 2004 at 05:19 AM.