Belgium
Following the end of the war Belgium was in ruins. The nation had lost a large percentage of its citizens to the German army, allied bombs, starvation and disease. The nation which had confidently proclaimed its prosperity and strength in the face of the Germans in 1940 could only whimper as Anglo-Dutch troops stormed into the nation from the liberated Netherlands. Belgium it seemed had been well and truly destroyed. Its cities had been leveled, industry destroyed and population shrunk to a number a quarter less than it had been in 1940.
Because the Belgian government had failed to successfully flee the country following the capitulation and due to the Germans, and the nations later participation in the war on the side of the same Germans Belgium was not allowed to send representatives to the peace conference. They had no say as France carved some of its territory away and forced them to agree to pay reparations the crippled nation could never hope to pay. They were forced to watch as the Belgian Congo, the nations only colony was granted independence by the British after less than a month of occupying it. And they were forced to pay sums to the USSR that made the reparations to France seem like pocket change.
Faced with several crisis, a starving population and an empty treasury at home. And French and Soviet diplomats asking daily when they would receive their reparations payments things were not going good for the Belgian republic. A republic whose legitimacy was challenged by the former king Alexander II who had fled to Portugal following his trail by the allied war crimes investigations council. Many of the members of government, themselves often German collaborators during the war, supported the return of the monarchy and actively sought to discredit the government. Large parts of the population also supported a return to the monarchy which promised a return to prosperity such had been the norm in the prewar world.
Things came to a head in 1946, just seven months after the official end of the war when monarchists seized the government and announced the return of Alexander. Some crowds appeared and began to celebrate. While others, namely those which had suffered the most during the war, broke into protest and riots at what they saw as the return of a criminal and a monster. The small army Belgium was allowed to retain after the war proved unable to restore order to the situation and soon massive running battles had broken out in the bombed out streets of Brussels and other Belgian cities. The combatants often lacked weapons and instead used makeshift clubs, spears and bricks. Or simply their fists depending on how long they had to prepare to fight.
Belgium was rapidly descending into a civil war, which neighboring France and the Netherlands feared would spread to their people. France contemplated sending troops into the country to calm things down and restore order. However their military was still rebuilding and what active units there were had already been deployed to garrison the parts of Germany France had nabbed for itself in the peace talks. The idea of sending troops into Belgium was dropped quickly and the French began instead to concentrate on keeping Belgian refugees out of the country. This had the effect of causing a fair amount of animosity on the part of the southern parts of Belgium which had entertained hopes of being united with France.
The Dutch were another matter entirely however and in May of 1946 almost twenty thousand troops poured into Belgium. Quickly overrunning the small monarchist garrisons stationed in the border towns and defeating the small republican army in a battle around Brussels. Much of the rest of the country was taken by the army over the following days. The whole invasion lasted from start to finish little more than nine days. Nine days in which the Dutch had suffered less than a hundred casualties and fired less than a thousand rounds. Most of the Belgian population looked at the Dutch as saviors who had put a stop to a potential civil war before it had begun. There was very little violence directed at the Dutch troops and the occupation went very well.
Queen Wilhelmina had been the one who had orchestrated the intervention. Asking for government permission for the operation herself. She had taken a personal part in the invasion. Consulting with her generals and making certain that her troops knew to not fire unless fired upon. The smoothness in which the operation was carried out is often credited to her.
Following the successful occupation of the nation Wilhelmina invited the two sides to meet in Amsterdam to discuss a compromise. The republicans were willing however monarchists refused unless the Netherlands immediately withdrew its forces from Belgian soil. When the Dutch refused ministers of Alexander swore to force them to do so by any means. Over the next several days a number of buildings, buses and trains were bombed in the name of king Alexander. The victims were treated in Dutch hospitals at the personal expense of Queen Wilhelmina who staunchly refused to withdraw her troops.
The attacks had the opposite effect desired by the monarchists. The destroyed any support for the restoration of Alexander amongsts the population. While the Portuguese government reacted to the bombings very poorly. Arresting Alexander and many of his minsters and storming the Belgian embassy where he had been staying. In this way much of the monarchist leadership were caught. And promptly executed by an emergency session of the UN which labeled Alexander a terrorist and criminal who had incited rebellion against a legitimate government. Alexander himself would be spared death but would spend the rest of his life in a Dutch prison quietly rotting away.
Integration
It was soon decided by the UN that Belgium lacked the ability to rebuild itself. The nation had little money in the treasury and had little hopes of getting it. And the population was starving and beyond destitute. It was soon decided that Belgium would become in its entirety a protectorate of one of the nations that neighbored it. France was out of the question. Although they wanted to. However the republic already occupied so much of the former Germany, already stretching its economy and manpower to its limits, that taking on any additional responsibilities was just out of the question.
None of the new German nations could do it. They themselves were already under French occupation and lacked even the ability to feed and clothe their own populace. While Britain could have taken up the job it was nearly bankrupt and already had enough to worry about with their empire rapidly falling apart before their eyes they did not have anything to spare for Belgium. That left the only realistic option. The Netherlands which just so happened to already have troops deployed to the area.
Official control of Belgium was turned over the government of the Netherlands on the 18th of June. The government of the Belgian republic was immediately dissolved and the country was divided into military districts. These districts mostly correlated to the provinces of the previous republic and earlier kingdom. The term military occupational zone is misleading as the area was always placed under the control of a government official and the army had very little control in everyday operations.
The Dutch government immediately put forth a plan to rebuild the country and get it back on its feet. The plan called for a large sum of money, however it was agreed that Belgium would repay the sum once they could. With interest added of course. Work parties were immediately organized and the people put to work clearing the debris of countless bombing raids, artillery barrages and fires. Dutch businesses were then encouraged to established branches in Belgium and use the cheap labor there to manufacture parts and other things. Fokker would lead the pack. Establishing a small facility in Brussels which began to make landing gear for the new J-46 airliner beginning in 1946. Other companies soon followed and soon Belgian industry was back on its feet and the people working once more.
The efforts that the Dutch went to to help Belgium touched many people and its was little difficulty for some politicians to convince Belgium to stay. Holding a referendum about Belgiums integration into the Netherlands in 1950 which saw the yes win with a slim majority of fifty seven percent of the vote in the Netherlands and sixty two percent in Belgium. A plan was immediately drawn up to integrate the Belgian provinces with those of the Netherlands which called for gradual integration over the next decade. In 1960 it was made official and Belgium ceased to exist.
Some immediately began to call for the independence of the country once more. However things within the Netherlands were to good to make leaving a likely possibility. A referendum held in 1975 showed that only twenty percent of the country wished for independence and since then that number has likely shrunk even further as an entire generation has been born as citizens of the Netherlands rather than citizens of the former kingdom of Belgium. The inclusion of Belgium had made the Netherlands one of the most powerful nations in Europe. Second only to France in the European Trade Union and third place in the Entente between Britain, France, the Netherlands and others.
Following the end of the war Belgium was in ruins. The nation had lost a large percentage of its citizens to the German army, allied bombs, starvation and disease. The nation which had confidently proclaimed its prosperity and strength in the face of the Germans in 1940 could only whimper as Anglo-Dutch troops stormed into the nation from the liberated Netherlands. Belgium it seemed had been well and truly destroyed. Its cities had been leveled, industry destroyed and population shrunk to a number a quarter less than it had been in 1940.
Because the Belgian government had failed to successfully flee the country following the capitulation and due to the Germans, and the nations later participation in the war on the side of the same Germans Belgium was not allowed to send representatives to the peace conference. They had no say as France carved some of its territory away and forced them to agree to pay reparations the crippled nation could never hope to pay. They were forced to watch as the Belgian Congo, the nations only colony was granted independence by the British after less than a month of occupying it. And they were forced to pay sums to the USSR that made the reparations to France seem like pocket change.
Faced with several crisis, a starving population and an empty treasury at home. And French and Soviet diplomats asking daily when they would receive their reparations payments things were not going good for the Belgian republic. A republic whose legitimacy was challenged by the former king Alexander II who had fled to Portugal following his trail by the allied war crimes investigations council. Many of the members of government, themselves often German collaborators during the war, supported the return of the monarchy and actively sought to discredit the government. Large parts of the population also supported a return to the monarchy which promised a return to prosperity such had been the norm in the prewar world.
Things came to a head in 1946, just seven months after the official end of the war when monarchists seized the government and announced the return of Alexander. Some crowds appeared and began to celebrate. While others, namely those which had suffered the most during the war, broke into protest and riots at what they saw as the return of a criminal and a monster. The small army Belgium was allowed to retain after the war proved unable to restore order to the situation and soon massive running battles had broken out in the bombed out streets of Brussels and other Belgian cities. The combatants often lacked weapons and instead used makeshift clubs, spears and bricks. Or simply their fists depending on how long they had to prepare to fight.
Belgium was rapidly descending into a civil war, which neighboring France and the Netherlands feared would spread to their people. France contemplated sending troops into the country to calm things down and restore order. However their military was still rebuilding and what active units there were had already been deployed to garrison the parts of Germany France had nabbed for itself in the peace talks. The idea of sending troops into Belgium was dropped quickly and the French began instead to concentrate on keeping Belgian refugees out of the country. This had the effect of causing a fair amount of animosity on the part of the southern parts of Belgium which had entertained hopes of being united with France.
The Dutch were another matter entirely however and in May of 1946 almost twenty thousand troops poured into Belgium. Quickly overrunning the small monarchist garrisons stationed in the border towns and defeating the small republican army in a battle around Brussels. Much of the rest of the country was taken by the army over the following days. The whole invasion lasted from start to finish little more than nine days. Nine days in which the Dutch had suffered less than a hundred casualties and fired less than a thousand rounds. Most of the Belgian population looked at the Dutch as saviors who had put a stop to a potential civil war before it had begun. There was very little violence directed at the Dutch troops and the occupation went very well.
Queen Wilhelmina had been the one who had orchestrated the intervention. Asking for government permission for the operation herself. She had taken a personal part in the invasion. Consulting with her generals and making certain that her troops knew to not fire unless fired upon. The smoothness in which the operation was carried out is often credited to her.
Following the successful occupation of the nation Wilhelmina invited the two sides to meet in Amsterdam to discuss a compromise. The republicans were willing however monarchists refused unless the Netherlands immediately withdrew its forces from Belgian soil. When the Dutch refused ministers of Alexander swore to force them to do so by any means. Over the next several days a number of buildings, buses and trains were bombed in the name of king Alexander. The victims were treated in Dutch hospitals at the personal expense of Queen Wilhelmina who staunchly refused to withdraw her troops.
The attacks had the opposite effect desired by the monarchists. The destroyed any support for the restoration of Alexander amongsts the population. While the Portuguese government reacted to the bombings very poorly. Arresting Alexander and many of his minsters and storming the Belgian embassy where he had been staying. In this way much of the monarchist leadership were caught. And promptly executed by an emergency session of the UN which labeled Alexander a terrorist and criminal who had incited rebellion against a legitimate government. Alexander himself would be spared death but would spend the rest of his life in a Dutch prison quietly rotting away.
Integration
It was soon decided by the UN that Belgium lacked the ability to rebuild itself. The nation had little money in the treasury and had little hopes of getting it. And the population was starving and beyond destitute. It was soon decided that Belgium would become in its entirety a protectorate of one of the nations that neighbored it. France was out of the question. Although they wanted to. However the republic already occupied so much of the former Germany, already stretching its economy and manpower to its limits, that taking on any additional responsibilities was just out of the question.
None of the new German nations could do it. They themselves were already under French occupation and lacked even the ability to feed and clothe their own populace. While Britain could have taken up the job it was nearly bankrupt and already had enough to worry about with their empire rapidly falling apart before their eyes they did not have anything to spare for Belgium. That left the only realistic option. The Netherlands which just so happened to already have troops deployed to the area.
Official control of Belgium was turned over the government of the Netherlands on the 18th of June. The government of the Belgian republic was immediately dissolved and the country was divided into military districts. These districts mostly correlated to the provinces of the previous republic and earlier kingdom. The term military occupational zone is misleading as the area was always placed under the control of a government official and the army had very little control in everyday operations.
The Dutch government immediately put forth a plan to rebuild the country and get it back on its feet. The plan called for a large sum of money, however it was agreed that Belgium would repay the sum once they could. With interest added of course. Work parties were immediately organized and the people put to work clearing the debris of countless bombing raids, artillery barrages and fires. Dutch businesses were then encouraged to established branches in Belgium and use the cheap labor there to manufacture parts and other things. Fokker would lead the pack. Establishing a small facility in Brussels which began to make landing gear for the new J-46 airliner beginning in 1946. Other companies soon followed and soon Belgian industry was back on its feet and the people working once more.
The efforts that the Dutch went to to help Belgium touched many people and its was little difficulty for some politicians to convince Belgium to stay. Holding a referendum about Belgiums integration into the Netherlands in 1950 which saw the yes win with a slim majority of fifty seven percent of the vote in the Netherlands and sixty two percent in Belgium. A plan was immediately drawn up to integrate the Belgian provinces with those of the Netherlands which called for gradual integration over the next decade. In 1960 it was made official and Belgium ceased to exist.
Some immediately began to call for the independence of the country once more. However things within the Netherlands were to good to make leaving a likely possibility. A referendum held in 1975 showed that only twenty percent of the country wished for independence and since then that number has likely shrunk even further as an entire generation has been born as citizens of the Netherlands rather than citizens of the former kingdom of Belgium. The inclusion of Belgium had made the Netherlands one of the most powerful nations in Europe. Second only to France in the European Trade Union and third place in the Entente between Britain, France, the Netherlands and others.