Chapter Five - Belgium, You Good?

CHAPTER FIVE

Belgium, You Good?

BELGIUM WAS SUPPOSED to be neutral.

Everyone agreed on this. Britain, France, Germany — hell, even Belgium. In 1839, the big powers literally signed a treaty promising not to touch the place. Belgium was like the quiet kid in class who just wanted to do their homework and not get punched.

So naturally, Germany invaded it immediately.

See, Germany had a problem.

Their whole plan — the Schlieffen Plan — was built around speed.
Crush France fast, then spin around and deal with Russia, who’d take forever to mobilize.

But France had fortresses on the German border.
And trenches weren’t in style yet.

So instead of fighting through France’s defenses, Germany decided to go around — through Belgium.

Belgium, they assumed, would just kind of... let them.
Like a doormat.

They were wrong.

The Germans sent a letter to Belgium saying, essentially:

“Hey. We need to march our army through your country to go attack France. Nothing personal. Let us through, and no one gets hurt.”

Belgium responded with the diplomatic equivalent of:

“Go fuck yourself.”

They blew up bridges.
They sabotaged roads.
They resisted — way harder than Germany expected.

Suddenly, the “quick march to Paris” got bogged down in sieges, street fighting, and railroad sabotage. Towns like Liège held out for days, buying time for France and Britain to scramble.

Which brings us to… Great Britain.

Britain wasn’t automatically committed to war when all this started. They weren’t part of some ironclad alliance. They were watching from across the Channel, trying to decide if this was their problem.

But Germany invading Belgium?

That was the line.

Britain had guaranteed Belgian neutrality. Not for love of Belgium, mind you — more for balance-of-power reasons and access to ports. But still. This was their excuse.

So on August 4, 1914, Britain declared war on Germany.

Now it was official.

A global empire, a rising industrial power, two fractured monarchies, and a couple of panicked alliances — all locked in.

And poor Belgium? Bombed, burned, and occupied — but defiant as hell.

The Great War had truly begun.