In 1648 the city received another grievous set-back: it fell into the hands of the Dutch, who closed the Scheldt against sea-going vessels. Then for a hundred and fifty years it remained only a shadow of its former self. In 1706 it surrendered to Marlborough after his victory at Ramillies. The real restorer of its prosperity was Napoleon I., who, you will remember, regarded Antwerp as "a pistol aimed at the heart of England." He constructed a harbour and new quays, and opened the port to the ships of the world. Almost at once the trade of the city revived in an astonishing fashion. The French remained masters of Antwerp down to the year before the Battle of Waterloo, when the British, Prussians, and Belgians besieged and captured it.
In 1830 it once more fell into the hands of an enemy. During the civil war of 1830-32, when the Belgians were striving to throw off the yoke of Holland and make themselves independent, Antwerp was the scene of a very curious kind of strife. A Dutch garrison held the citadel, and day by day bombarded the city. For two years the Dutchmen defied all the efforts of the Belgians to dislodge them. At last a British and French force was sent to turn them out. The French bombarded the citadel for twenty-four days, while a British fleet blockaded the river. In December 1832 the citadel surrendered, and when it fell Belgium had won her independence.
Such, in brief, is the stormy history of Antwerp down to the autumn of the year 1914. A visitor to the old city in the early days of July would have imagined that its peace was secured for ever. No one could believe that in less than three months this haven of peaceful trade was to be a place of slaughter, destruction, and desolation. The "Spanish Fury" was soon to be out-Heroded; the "German Fury" was already preparing.
In July 1914 Antwerp, with its population of 400,000 souls and its vast trade—which exceeded in value £100,000,000 per year—was not only one of the great business cities of the world, but was considered to be one of the strongest of all fortified places in Europe. Before an enemy could capture the city he would have to break through four distinct lines of defence, each of which, prior to this war, was considered strong enough to oppose any force which could be brought against it.
The outermost line of forts began at Lierre,[160] and swept round in a great circle south through Fort Waelhem to the Scheldt, and north through Fort Schooten to near the Dutch frontier. Two to three miles within this outer line of forts was a second line of defence formed by the rivers Nethe[161] and Rupel, which, along with the Scheldt, make a great natural waterway defending three sides of the city. If need be, the valleys of these rivers can be flooded, and thus form an additional barrier to the approach of an enemy. Some six miles within the line of the Nethe and Rupel, and about three miles from the centre of the city, was another chain of forts girdling it from the Scheldt on the south to the Scheldt on the north. Outside this inner line of defence, towards the north and west, were two other areas, which could be flooded in order to keep back the enemy. From the moment that the first German soldier set foot on the soil of Belgium, the military authorities were at work night and day strengthening the defences, and clearing away all the trees and buildings that lay in the line of fire of the guns in the forts.
The Entrenched Camp of Antwerp.
Barbed-wire entanglements connected with the electric supply of the city covered acres of ground; stakes were driven point upwards to form obstacles; man-traps innumerable were constructed, and the fields all around were sown with mines. Preparations were made to blow up the bridges over the network of canals and rivers to the south of the city; machine guns and quick-firers were mounted everywhere; and at night searchlights swept over the zone of destruction, and made it bright as day.
In this way Antwerp prepared to stand its latest siege.