In August 1914, Germany invaded neutral Belgium, in hopes of a quick victory on the way to invading France. Results did not meet expectations.

As far back the first half of the 19th Century, Belgium had been neutral. In the wars in Central Europe that followed the London Conference of 1830 and the Treaty of London nine years later, Belgium, a newly established independent nation, took no part. Neighboring France fought against Prussia in 1870; in that conflict, neither party involved Belgium, directly or indirectly. Yet as the 20th Century dawned, France and Germany were increasingly at odds in European and world affairs. Belgium joined neither the Triple Alliance nor the Triple Entente and no wish for war or war alliances. Yet as early 1905, officials in Germany were planning to involve Belgium in their next war with France.

Alfred Graf von Schlieffen was chief of the German chief staff in the early 20th Century. Schlieffen proposed what came to be known as the Schlieffen Plan in 1905, in the wake of Japan's victory over Russia. The idea was to avoid a two-front war by knocking one enemy out before the other could fully prepare. And Schlieffen's method of doing that was to knock out France by avoiding the mass of French troops on the France-Germany border by marching through Belgium and Luxembourg in order to envelop the French troops. Doing so would violate the terms of the London Treaty of 1839, to which Prussia had agreed.

A suspicious Belgium increased conscription and otherwise built up its armed forces as the first decade of the 20th Century came to an end and neighboring Germany could be easily observed bulking up its army and its navy. The Belgian defense plan against any invader was to concentrate defense forces in the center of the country, so as to be able to mobilize them quickly in any direction required. Meanwhile, Belgian forces built up the fortified positions at Liége and Namur, on the border with Germany.

Meanwhile, a powder keg was set to go off further south. As a result of the assassination of Austria-Hungary's Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, a series of domino-like actions were taken. Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, whose ally Russia mobilized its armed forces. Germany declared war on Russia and then France. Seeing that the time was right to launch the Schlieffen Plan, Germany demanded that Belgium allow German troops to march through on their way to France. Belgium's King Albert I refused; and on August 4, Germany declared war on Belgium and invaded with full military might.

The first target was the fortified city of Liége. What German war planning had estimated would take two days lasted 12, as the Belgian defenses held out again and again, finally surrendering the last fort on August 16. Both France and the United Kingdom had pledged support for Belgium, and that support began to come.

During this same time period, German forces fought a cavalry battle against Belgian forces near the small town of Haelen. After a brief back-and-forth, Belgian defenders carried the day, by dismounting and turning rifle fire onto the advancing German cavalry. It was one of few Belgian victories during the war.

The German advance continued, however, to the next target, Namur. Another fortified position, it also held out longer than anticipated by the aggressor, surrendering on August 24 after a four-day blitz. Troops from France and the United Kingdom leant varying amounts of aid, fighting against German troops at Charleroi and Mons; both were German victories, paving the way for the German triumph at Namur.

German troops finally rolled into France, at the same time targeting what was left of the Belgian defense, at the National Redoubt at Antwerp. The defending army had abandoned Brussels, the national capital, on August 19, and German troops had claimed it the following day. After a delay of a few weeks, German bombardment of Antwerp began. By that time, some British troops had arrived. The German might was overwhelming, and Belgium surrendered Antwerp on October 10, claiming a large number of weapons and taking a large numbers of prisoners. Many more people escaped, however, fleeing into the countryside.

That was not the end of the Belgian defense force. About 50,000 troops found their way out of Antwerp and moved to link up with troops from France and the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). They reached common ground along the Yser River and together fought against a German advance in mid-October. The Battle of the Yser ended with German troops claiming control of the city of Diksmuide, on November 2.

Ongoing at this time was another desperate battle, at Ypres. Both Allied and German forces had engaged in what historians later called the Race to the Sea, a cascading series of flanking maneuvers, none of which really worked. The two sides ended up at the Belgian coastline along the North Sea, neither gaining a significant advantage. Such was the case with the First Battle of Ypres as well, with fighting ending on November 22 if not my mutual agreement than by mutual exhaustion, of spirit and ammunition.

Germany by this time had occupied most of Belgium and had set up a new military administrative unit, the General Government of Belgium. The military governor General Moritz von Bissing divided Belgium into three occupation zones.

German occupation of Belgium was nearly complete, but the German goal of occupying France was nowhere nearly complete. In fact, as Belgian troops carried on defending their country, German troops that had bypassed Antwerp and other points north and advanced into France ended up busying themselves digging trenches, signifying a change from advancing the line to holding the line. The Belgian resistance had proved stiffer than the German commanders had anticipated and played a part in the halting the German advance in northern France at the First Battle of the Marne.