“Belgium is a nation, not a road.”

2018-11-11T22:00:25Z

The day before Germany declared war on France, it wrote to the Belgian government demanding free passage for its troops. Albert I, the ‘soldier king’, famously retorted: “Belgium is a nation, not a road.”

The Belgian army[‘s unexpected toughness against the German onslaught at] Liège and Namur gave both [the] British and French armies time to amass their forces.

Belgium was almost entirely occupied except for a sliver of land in northwest Flanders, which would become one of the most strategic areas of Belgium and the scene of two further major battles, in 1915 and 1917.

The war was an extraordinary era that radically changed society, from technological and medical advances to the politics and economy of the 20th century.

(Quoted From “The Bulletin” article about Belgium in WW1)

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Knight of a Different Era

“Belgium is a nation, not a road.”