WWI: The Siege of Antwerp - The Defeat and Retreat of Belgium

by Daniel van Basten

In so many ways, “The War to End all Wars” was a military holocaust rooted in the treaties, arrogance, and insecurities of the previous generations. The initial victim of the past was Belgium, which, owing to the misfortunes of geography, was located in the path of the German invasion. The Belgian Army, which had seen its cities fall, one by one, to the Germans, looked to Antwerp and its fortifications to save the country.

Antwerp was a sufficient distance from Sarajevo, the place where World War I truly began. The war, with its roots in the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, began in August 1914. But in truth, World War I possessed roots that were firmly entrenched in the Europe of the 19th century. The 19th century had been very good to the nations like Great Britain, whose colonization efforts yielded an empire, but not so beneficial to countries like Germany, which wasn’t unified until 1870. This meant that by the time the Germans got around to claiming territory outside their borders, the pickings were slim.

116 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 11, 2016