German Invasion of Belgium and British Entry into the War
On 4 August 1914, German armies crossed into neutral Belgium executing the Schlieffen Plan, which required the rapid defeat of France through a wide enveloping sweep via Belgium before turning east to face Russia. Belgium's neutrality had been guaranteed by the Treaty of London of 1839, to which Britain, France, Prussia, Austria, and Russia were all signatories. Germany demanded free passage; King Albert I refused and ordered resistance. The Belgian army, though small, contested the advance vigorously. The fortresses of Liege, held by General Gerard Leman, resisted for nearly two weeks before falling on 16 August — a delay that threw off German timetabling and forced the deployment of heavy siege artillery. German atrocities against Belgian civilians, including the massacre at Leuven and the burning of its university library, generated worldwide outrage and dominated Allied propaganda for years. Belgium's violation gave Britain both the legal pretext and popular justification for war, and Britain declared war on Germany that same night. German Chancellor Bethmann Hollweg's dismissal of the 1839 guarantee as 'a scrap of paper' scandalised neutral opinion. Britain's entry brought the British Expeditionary Force to the continent within days and, over subsequent years, the resources of the British Empire — India, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand — into a war that had begun as an Austro-Serbian dispute.
- Year: 1914 CE
- Category: Military
