A historian and former Belgian diplomat sheds light on the country's tumultuous experience during WWI.
In August of 1914, the German Empire invaded neutral Belgium in order to outflank the defenses of the French army. Yet the Belgian army resisted, managing to hold a small part of unoccupied Belgian territory north of Ypres until the Armistice of 1918. Because of their heroic defense, Belgium and its King enjoyed enormous international prestige after the war.
Occupied Belgium suffered civilian executions and severe destruction. It was widely stripped of its highly developed industrial infrastructure. It was saved from starvation by food shipments from the United States which came in via neutral Holland. Four and a half years later, Belgium emerged a different country with experiences that would leave a lasting on its spirit as well as wide-ranging political implications.
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Verlagsgruppe
Produkt-Hinweis
ISBN-13
978-1-5267-1662-0 (9781526716620)
Schweitzer Klassifikation
Jean-Michel Veranneman is a retired Belgian professional diplomat with a distinguished career and a keen sense and taste for history. He served in embassies in German, at the UN in New York, at the EU and at NATO in Brussels and as Ambassador to Mozambique, Portugal, Israel, Brazil and the United Kingdom.
He is the author of Belgium in the Second World War published by Pen and Sword Books (2014). He divides his retirement between Belgium and Portugal.
