Belgian Army - Early History
Belgium has often been a pawn in the game of European power politics. In 1815 the combined armies of Britain, Prussia, and Imperial Russia defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo, making possible the creation of an independent Belgium in 1830. The guaranteed neutrality of the new state was to be ensured by the great powers, who allowed Belgium to exist as a territorial buffer state between them. The guarantee, however, was not enforced.
On March 29, 1831, Congress was opened by the regent: of 200, but little more than half were present. The congress voted to call out the first class of civic guards, amounting to 90,000 men, and to raise a loan of twelve million guilders. Congressn proceeded to elect a king, June 4, 1831. One hundred and ninety-six members were present; nineteen did not vote; ten were opposed to the election of any king; fourteen voted for Surlet de Chokier; one ballot was inadmissible; the rest of the votes were for prince Leopold, whom the regent declared to be king, on condition of his adopting the Belgian constitution.
The person of the king was inviolable, but his ministers were responsible. The king appointed and dismissed his ministers, conferred ranks in the army, and had the right of granting titles of nobility, without the power of annexing therewith any privilege. He commanded the army and navy, declared war and made peace, and sanctioned and promulgated the laws. On 02 August 1831, Belgium was attacked by Holland. The struggle lasted only thirteen days, and covered the boasting Belgians with ignominy. France interfered, and prevented the Dutch troops from marching into Brussels; and protocol number thirty-four decreed an armistice of six weeks, which was subsequently prolonged. The king immediately began the re-organization of the army.
On September 8, 1831, the chambers met. The most pressing business was the re-organization of the army. The king's proposal to introduce French officers into the Belgian army was adopted by the chambers. A committee of inquiry investigated the conduct of the Belgian officers, whose disgraceful conduct, during the war with Holland, had brought the young kingdom to the brink of ruin.
Numerous French and German officers and privates entered the Belgian army. A law was even passed empowering the king, in case of necessity, to open the Belgian territory (which had been left by the French auxiliary army on September 26) to foreign troops. The new Belgian army amounted, in October, 1831, to 54,000 men, with 120 cannons; and, in the following March, it was to comprise 86,000 men.
The army was put on the war establishment, and towards the end of March, 1832, Holland and Belgium stood in a threatening posture towards each other. They remained so subsequently, as the movements of the Dutch administration did not allow the expectation of a peaceable settlement of the difficulties.
Perhaps more than to her army and fortifications, Belgium trusted in the protective influence of international treaties among the Great Powers guaranteeing her independence and neutrality. The Treaties of 1831 and 1839 framed between Great Britain, France, Austria, Prussia and Russia provided that "Belgium shall form an independent and perpetually neutral state;" in 1867 the same powers, with the addition of Italy and Holland, collectively guaranteed the neutrality of Luxemburg.
In 1870, on the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War, Great Britain immediately made separate treaties with both France and Prussia by which the neutrality of Belgium was specially guaranteed during the war. At the same time Great Britain pledged herself to co-operate against either of the two belligerents that might violate that neutrality. In addition, the Treaty of 1839 was positively reaffirmed. When Germany declared war against France in 1914, Great Britain again called upon the two powers to forswear any violation of Belgian territory; France readily gave the desired promise, and Germany refused it.
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