The most cunning device of the Germans was the so-called “activism.” They knew that, before the war, a party of Flemings, called “Flamingants,” had asked for more influence of the Flemish tongue in Belgian public life and advocated the creation of a Flemish university. Governor von Bissing tried then to sow dissension between Flemings and Walloons and to destroy the very basis of Belgian nationality itself. He took over the program of the Flamingants and created, with the help of a few traitors, a Flemish university of Ghent. Great privileges were attached to the matriculation at this Flemish-German university. The scheme did not succeed. Von Bissing went farther: he introduced administrative separation between Flanders and Wallony, and created an autonomous “Verwaltung” for Flanders at Brussels and for Wallony at Namur, with separated ministries. In this he was helped by a score of traitors, who called themselves “activists,” and who were particularly attracted by bribes and high positions offered by the Germans. They formed a so-called “Council for Flanders,” whose members went even to visit the German Chancellor at Berlin.

A shudder of revolt passed through the country, and the great majority of the Flemings formally condemned the “activists.” The Belgian magistrates decided to arrest the leader of the activists, Borms, who called himself the Flemish “Minister for War,” under the very nose of the Germans. Borms was arrested at Brussels, but instantly liberated by his German protectors. This clearly showed the relations of the “activists” toward the enemy, but the courageous Belgian magistrates were deported to Germany.

The resistance of the Belgians was never broken, but material life was very difficult. Owing to the requisitions of horses, cattle, fruits, etc., there came a day when starvation was near. Then was founded, in October, 1914, the admirable Commission for Relief in Belgium, with Herbert Hoover at its head, who undertook the great task of revictualing Belgium during the occupation.

The Germans had not only requisitioned food; they also requisitioned the very means of industrial life. According to a scheme conceived and worked out by the president of the “Allgemeine Elektrizitätsgesellschaft,” Walther Rathenau, Belgium was to be stripped of all natural and manufactured products which could help the German army in continuing and winning the war. Coal, metals, chemical products, wood, wool, linen, cotton, copper, rubber, machines, machine tools, oil, transport material, horses, etc., were put under “saisie” by successive decrees of von Bissing and sent to Germany, with the help of German business men, who visited the Belgian factories and marked the things to be requisitioned.

A consequence of this was the closing of many factories and the creation of an enormous number of forced strikers. These men, then, were considered as idlers and, by order of the military, taken out of their houses and sent by whole trains, in cattle-trucks, to Germany. There they had to work for the German army, even making munitions to kill their brethren. This was the origin of the awful deportations, which stirred the conscience of the civilized world. About 150,000 Belgians, mostly workmen, but intellectuals, bourgeois, and even schoolboys not excepted, were either sent to Germany or to the firing-line in France and Belgium, where they were compelled to dig trenches, construct roads, etc. A large number of them refused flatly to work for the enemy. They were submitted in the camps to real tortures, beaten, martyrized, and scores of them died. Others were sent back, exhausted by their martyrdom, and died on arriving in their native home.

The financial wealth of Belgium was also crippled by the heavy war levies imposed on provinces, towns, and villages. In December, 1914, von Bissing imposed on the Belgian provinces a collective war levy of 40,000,000 francs monthly; in November, 1916, this levy had reached 50,000,000 francs monthly. Von Falkenhausen, who succeeded von Bissing, raised it to 60,000,000 francs. It would be impossible to estimate exactly the total of the levies and fines imposed on Belgian towns and villages during four years of war.

Four years, indeed, this terrible thing went on. Then, suddenly, came “the day of revenge,” of which Cardinal Mercier had spoken in 1917 in his letter to General von Huehne. The mighty German war machine collapsed under the combined effort of the Allied forces. At the end of the battle front, near the sea, was constituted the “group of armies of Flanders,” composed of French, British, Americans, and Belgians, under the command of King Albert. In September, 1918, the great offensive began on the Flanders front. The German positions were taken by storm, and, after a short interruption, the drive went on again in October. Soon the Flanders coast was evacuated, and everywhere, in Belgian towns and villages, amidst cries of joy and tears, amidst Belgian flags kept jealously hidden during four years, the sturdy troops of the Yser came home again, as victors of the right over might.

At the beginning of November came the end: the armistice was signed and the Germans compelled to evacuate the country which they once hoped to dominate forever. On a wonderful day in that same month, King Albert and his queen followed by his army and by British, French, and American troops, entered Brussels and saw again rise before their eyes the tower of the historic Hôtel de Ville. The nightmare was over, Belgium was free again. And in ages to come, the children will learn the history of that period, during which Belgium covered itself with glory, because “it stood the test in the hour of the Great Trial.”

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The best work to be consulted on the history of Belgium is that by H. Pirenne, professor in the University of Ghent, entitled Histoire de Belgique, Vols. I-IV, Brussels, 1900-1911. The work is not yet complete: the fourth volume carries us down to 1648. Those wishing to study more in detail the various problems of Belgian history will find the enumeration of original sources and modern books in H. Pirenne, Bibliographie de l’histoire de Belgiques, 2d ed., Brussels, 1902. For a list of books published since 1902 see the Belgian periodical Archives belges, where the important books and articles on Belgian history are reviewed and discussed.