time of Caesar until Waterloo.
The names of their cities, for the most part, represented great
historic battle fields. Again and again had the ruin of conflict
swept over their unfortunately situated land. At all periods the
Belgians were brave fighters on one side or the other, for Belgium
had been denied a national unity. Doubtless, therefore, they welcomed
the establishment of their independent sovereignty and the era of
peace which followed. Historically, they had suffered enough, with
an abundance to spare, from perpetual warfare. Their minds turned
hopefully toward industrial and commercial activity, stimulated
by the natural mineral wealth of their soil. Thus the products
of their factories reached all countries, South America, China,
Manchuria, and Central Africa, especially of later years, where
a great territory had been acquired in the Congo. The iron and
steel work of Liege was famous, Antwerp had become one of the chief
ports of Europe and growing into a financial power. But owing to
the confined boundaries of Belgium, there grew to be a congestion
of population. This produced a strong democratic and socialistic
uplift which even threatened the existence of the monarchy. Also,
all that monarchy seemed to imply.

The Belgians, doubtless with memories of the past, despised and hated
the display of military. Consequently it was only with difficulty,
and in the face of popular opposition, that the Belgium Government
had succeeded with military plans for defense, but imperfectly
carried out. Herein, perhaps, we have the keynote to Belgium's
desperate resistance to the German invaders. In the light of the
foregoing, it is easily conceivable that the Germans represented
to the Belgians the military yoke. They were determined to have
none of it, upon any overtures or terms. But they relied on France
and England for protection, when common prudence should have made
the mobilization of an up-to-date army of 500,000 men ready for
the call to repel an invader on either of the frontiers, instead
of the practically helpless force of 110,000.

The German General Staff did not believe the Belgians intended
to raise a serious barrier in their path. But with the crisis,
democratic Belgium united in a rush to arms, which recalls similar
action by the American colonists at the Revolution. Every form of
weapon was grasped, from old muskets to pitchforks and shearing
knives. It was remarked by a foreign witness that in defau