BELGIUM 



670 



BELGIUM 



Italy. Illiteracy, although still great, is dimin- 

 ishing rapidly; the number of persons who 

 could not read or write formed over thirteen 

 per cent of the total population in 1910. The 

 struggle of the Roman Catholic clergy to obtain 

 control over the elementary schools has been 

 one of the burning questions in the politics of 

 Belgium for a great many years. Higher edu- 

 cation is provided by the state universities at 

 Ghent and Liege, and the free universities at 

 Brussels and Louvain; each of these contains 

 good technical schools for arts, manufactures, 

 engineering and mines. Belgium has a good 

 number of high schools, as well as a great num- 

 ber of special schools. 



Government. Belgium is governed under the 

 constitution adopted in 1831, which has justly 

 been admired. This constitution has been 

 taken as a model by several European nations 

 that have gained their independence during the 

 nineteenth century. The Belgian constitution 

 guarantees to the citizen equality before the 

 law, security of person and property, freedom 

 of the press, religious freedom and the right of 

 association, all liberal principles that many 

 European nations gained much later than 1831. 



Belgium is a constitutional monarchy, the 

 crown being hereditary in the direct male line; 

 the king must be a Roman Catholic. The ex- 

 ecutive power is vested in the king, assisted 

 by a Cabinet appointed by him, which must 

 possess the confidence of the legislative cham- 

 bers, which consist of a Senate and a Chamber 

 of Deputies. The deputies, 186 in 1913, are 

 elected directly by the people for four years. 

 The senate consists of 120 members, who are 

 elected for eight years. All registered voters 

 are obliged to vote; failure to vote is punish- 

 able by law. 



For administrative purposes Belgium is 

 divided into nine provinces. These provinces 

 are not artificial divisions, like the depart- 

 ments of France, but are based to a great 

 extent on historical grounds. They are admin- 

 istered by governors appointed by the king, 

 assisted by elected councils. But the chief 

 unit of local government is the commune 

 (which see). Each commune is administered 

 by an elective council and a mayor. In a 

 country like Belgium, where the communal 

 life was developed early and where the glorious 

 traditions of the towns are so cherished, the 

 power and prestige of the mayor is very great. 

 Very often in national crises the joint appeal 

 of the mayors' of the chief cities has exercised 

 a greater influence upon the people than any 



other agency. When Belgium was invaded by 

 the Germans in 1914 the mayors of the cities 

 showed that the trust placed upon them was 

 not mislaid. They all made a plucky fight 

 for the defense of the rights of the people, 

 very often under conditions of great risk to 

 their personal safety. 



Army. Belgium had only a small army, that 

 was recruited by voluntary enlistment until 

 1909, when a light form of conscription was 

 introduced. The peace strength of the army 

 in 1913 was 44,000 men and 3,540 officers. In 

 addition to the regular army there is a gen- 

 darmerie of about 3,800 men, and a voluntary 

 civil guard of about 180,000. It was estimated 

 that the army in war time would reach about 

 350,000 men, but there were only about 100,000 

 available for the national defense at the begin- 

 ning of the War of the Nations. 



Belgium possessed several fortresses that 

 were considered among the strongest in Europe. 

 Among them were Liege and Namur, which 

 guarded the passage of the Meuse at important 

 strategic points. But the pivot of the national 

 defense was Antwerp, with its great fortified 

 camp and its number of detached forts. Before 

 the War of the Nations, Antwerp was consid- 

 ered an impregnable fortress, but all former 

 ideas about the value and use of fortifications 

 have since been greatly altered. 



History. From the time of the ancient 

 Belgae, whom Caesar in his Gallic Wars called 

 his most valiant foes, and from whom Belgium 

 took its name, the territory comprising the 

 modern country shared the fortunes of the 

 other provinces of the Netherlands. It was 

 subject in turn to Rome, France, Germany, 

 Spain and Austria; these earlier periods are 

 treated under the subhead History in the arti- 

 cle NETHERLANDS. 



Differences did exist, however, between the 

 people of the northern and those of the south- 

 ern part of the Netherlands, and these tended 

 to become constantly more and more marked. 

 The inhabitants of the southern country were 

 an agricultural and manufacturing people; 

 those of the northern primarily commercial. 

 The doctrines of the Reformation penetrated 

 the entire Netherlands, but they found no 

 permanent hold in the southern country, which 

 remained true to the Catholic Church. In the 

 north, however, the Reformation triumphed. 



In 1579 a formal division occurred, the 

 Northern, or Dutch, Netherlands declaring its 

 independence, while the southern provinces, 

 those comprising modern Belgium, remained 



