Belgium - Brussels Military History museum

With an emphasis on The Great War.

This being the 100 year anniversary of World War I there have been special exhibits. Such as the poppies at the Tower of London.

This is a temporary exhibition and well worth the visit. Very touching and educational. The text was written in Flemish, Herman, French, and English. Only the display pieces were not translated.

The exhibit is broken up into 5 sections. Each section is powerful in its own way.

The first section is pre-war Europe. It appeared war was expected eventually but not expected to last so long. Kaiser Wilhelm II (Germany) told King Albert I (Belgium) that he wanted to go through Belgium to attack France. Belgium was a neutral country agreeing to not invade its neighbors. However France had guns on the French German border incase they decided to invade. Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo, Serbia and Wilhelm decided it was time to go through Belgium to France. Why? Well it has to do with treaties. Germany knew Russia had a treaty with Serbia. Since Serbia was responsible for tge death of the heir of Austria - Hungry it was likely Austria - Hungry would retaliate and attack Serbia. This would bring in Russia who had a treaty with France. Germany had a treaty with Austria - Hungry knowing they couldn't attack Russia without inciting France to attack them. So Wilhelm knew he had to conquer France first. Thus He gave Albert an ultimatum let us through or we will push our way through. Albert responded with we cannot let you through it would break the neutrality. At this Tim Europe was prosperous. Rapidly growing industrially, economically, and artistically.

The second section deals with the Belgian invasion. This was the section I liked the most. The floor was a map of the Belgium of 1914. Each town significant in the invasion had a display with an interactive screen telling you about the various first battles fought in that region. For the most part about 4 million Germans were marching their way through. The Belgians fought hard and held them back some bit were really overwhelmed. The Germans destroyed most of the towns. Captured many Belgians who resisted (about 35,000) and stayed begin to occupy the area. In some cases they even took civilians to use as human shields. It was fascinating to move from station to station across the country reading about the path of destruction from tho budding war. France was woefully unprepared and it took England quite sometime to get there.

Section three is based on the 4 year occupation from the civilian and soldier points of view. A lot of displays about uniforms worn and supplies they had. Even some old radiographs of injuries. The civilians struggled to get food while the Germans took away their freedoms. Prices tripled and crops were destroyed. Soldiers grew bored in their trenches and made up newspapers and games to hide the time. Many died of disease and famine. The displays were setup like trenches where you had to weave about them to get through.

Section five spoke about the Belgian resistance. Of those that had not fled some tried to thwart the Germans as spies. 7000 were caught and imprisoned or killed.

The last section is the aftermath. Rebuilding Europe. They didn't allow Germany a say in the new Europe. They also imposed heavy sanctions on Germany and they had to pay a large fee (they paid 28% of it the last bit paid in 2010). It wasn't a well balanced Europe after the war but it was stable for awhile. Kaiser Wilhelm fled to the Netherlands and Kibg Albert was hailed as the knight King whose little country held back the big almighty Germans!

I'm sure my summary doesn't do justice to the feel of walking through this exhibit. I will simply leave you with - It is one of the top highlights of the whole trip.