The Rank and File

Draper, Mario

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-70386-2_4

Mario Draper²

210 Accesses

Abstract

The battle to introduce universal conscription dominated the civil–military milieu from the 1860s until its introduction in 1913. In the intervening time, the ballot system with faculty for substitution and replacement persisted, bringing with it a host of social issues; among them, class, religion, and language. Both Catholics and Liberals made a political issue out of the army, which, as this chapter contends, prevented it from adequately preparing for war. It also tackles the question of antimilitarism and argues, through analysis of statistical data, that the process of society’s militarisation was only beginning to emerge by the eve of the Great War. This, coupled with the growing tensions surrounding language, suggests that the army, as the ‘school of the nation’, failed in its task as a tool of nation-building during Belgium’s long nineteenth century.

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Notes

1.
L. de Vos, Het Effectief van de Belgische Krijgsmacht en de Militiewetgeving, 1830–1914 (Koninklijk Legermuseum, Brussels, 1985), p. 34.
2.
L. De Vos and E. Bastin, ‘Du Tirage au Sort avec Faculté de Remplacement au Service Personnel: Le Recrutement des Conscrits en Belgique de 1830 à 1914, une Question Militaire et Politique’, International Review of Military History, no. 86 (2006), p. 42. For more on the French equivalent, see I. Wolloch, ‘Napoleonic Conscription: State Power and Civil Society’, Past and Present, no. 111 (1986), pp. 101–102 and 113–115; D. Porch, Army and Revolution: France, 1815–1848 (Routledge & Keegan Paul, London and Boston, 1974), pp. 61–78.
3.
É. Wanty, Le Milieu Militaire Belge de 1831 à 1914 (Palais des Académies, Brussels, 1957), p. 47.
4.
For more on antimilitarism in Belgium, see F. Lehouck, Het antimilitarisme in België, 1830–1914 (Uitgeversmaatschappij N.V. Standaard-Boekhandel, Antwerp, 1958). For a contrasting view, particularly relating to the late nineteenth century, see N. de Mûelenaere, ‘An Uphill Battle: Campaigning for the Militarization of Belgium, 1870–1914’, Journal of Belgian History, vol. 42, no. 4 (2012), pp. 144–179; ‘Belgen zijt gij ten strijde gereed? Militarisering een neutral natie, 1890–1914 (Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, University of Antwerp, 2016).
5.
J. Hoegaerts, ‘Benevolent Fathers and Virile Brothers: Metaphors of Kinship and Age in the Nineteenth-Century Belgian Army’, Low Countries Historical Review, vol. 127, no. 1 (2012), p. 78.
6.
A. Forrest, ‘La patrie en danger: The French Revolution and the First Levée en Masse’ in D. Moran and A Waldron (eds.), The People in Arms: Military Myth and National Mobilisation since the French Revolution (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2006), pp. 25–30.
7.
R. Boijen, ‘Het Leger als Smeltkroes van de Natie?’, Bijdragen tot de Eigentijdse Geschiedenis, no. 3 (1997), pp. 55–70.
8.
D. Porch, The March to the Marne: The French Army 1871–1914 (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1981), pp. 23–53. For the Prussian model, see W. Diest, ‘Remarks on the Preconditions to Waging War in Prussia-Germany, 1866–71’, in S. Förster and J. Nagler (eds.), On the Road to Total War: The American Civil War and the German Wars of Unification, 1861–1871 (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1997), pp. 312–320; D. Showalter, The Wars of German Unification (Hodder Education, London, 2004), pp. 62–66.
9.
De Vos, Het Effectief, pp. 378–381.
10.
Ibid., Barring the period 1848–1855 where recruits served for seven years, the active engagement in the infantry was for eight years. The number of years passed in the reserve rose over time, from one year (1857–1861), to two years (1862–1885), to five years (1886–1913).
11.
Verbal Proceeds of the 1852 Recruitment Committee, p. 71 (hereafter Rec Comm 1852). These figures differ a fraction from those published in Belgium, Ministry of Interior, Statistique Générale de la Belgique. Exposé de la Situation du Royaume (Période Décennale de 1851 à 1860), Tome II, p. 437, which states that 9,448 men had contracted a voluntary engagement over the same period.
12.
Figures computed from data in Exposé 1860, Tome II, p. 436; Belgium, Ministry of Interior, Statistique Générale de la Belgique: Exposé de la Situation du Royaume de 1861 à 1875, Tome I, pp. 378–379.
13.
Wanty, Milieu Militaire Belge, pp. 144–145 and 193.
14.
Un Officer Supérieur, Réorganisation du Système Militaire de la Belgique (Brussels, 1866), p. 27.
15.
Wanty, Milieu Militaire Belge, p. 144.
16.
Commission set up to examine whether the current organisation of the army responds to the necessities of national defence in 1866 (hereafter Comm 1866).
17.
Diest, ‘Remarks on the Preconditions to Waging War’, pp. 316–317.
18.
P.P.R., 13 May 1873.
19.
Verbal Proceeds of the Commission Instituted by Royal Decree of 18 April 1871 to study the questions relative to the organisation of the army, published in 1873, 8th Meeting, 14 June 1871 (hereafter Comm 1871); AER POS.2871-521, Malou Papers Report compiled by the Sub-Committee charged with presenting a Bill for the organisation of the army, 1871. It was decided that for the sake of equality, volunteers—one year included—would still participate in the annual ballot once they reached the required age and would only be deducted from the communal quota if they picked a ‘bad’ number; otherwise, simply being incorporated as a supplement to the establishment.
20.
Porch, March to the Marne, p. 25.
21.
Exposé 1860, Tome II, p. 432.
22.
Ibid.
23.
For more on the Belgian Army’s mobilisation and role during the Franco-Prussian War, see G. Hautecler, ‘Léopold II, commandant en chef de l’armée belge mobilisée en 1870’, Revue internationale d’histoire Militaire, vol. 24 (1965), pp. 439–453; C. Bêchet, ‘Les Perceurs de Sedan: Violation de frontière et reactions belges pendant la guerre de 1870–1871’, Journal of Belgian History, vol. 46, no. 2 (2016), pp. 72–99.
24.
Comm 1871, 7th Meeting, 7 June 1871.
25.
Wanty, Milieu Militaire Belge, p. 118; G. Hautecler, ‘L’Armée belge de 1870 face à la crise de Sedan’, Revue internationale d’histoire Militaire, vol. 20 (1959), p. 608.
26.
Wanty, Milieu Militaire Belge, p. 98.
27.
Ibid., pp. 124–126.
28.
Ibid., p. 125.
29.
P.P.R., 21 December 1881.
30.
Ibid., 20 November 1873.
31.
Comm 1866, Report by the Sub-Committee, 20 March 1867.
32.
Ibid.; see also De Vos and Bastin, ‘Tirage au Sort’, p. 43.
33.
Comm 1866, 20th Meeting, 2 May 1867.
34.
A. Grisard, Histoire de l’Armée Belge de 1830 à nos Jours. Tome I De 1830 à 1919 (Tournai, 1982), p. 151.
35.
Comm 1866, Report by the Sub-Committee, 20 March 1867.
36.
Figures computed from a database of 14,848 entries derived from the matriculation books held at the MRA. Three years were selected, 1868 (3,460 entries), 1908 (3,447 entries), and 1913 (7,941 entries) to reflect the evolving composition of the rank and file incorporated for those given years across the ballot system, voluntary recruitment, and universal conscription. A mixture of regiments from across all branches of the service were selected to reflect, in general terms, the makeup of the army. The same regiments were used for all three samples, though in some cases, missing books resulted in some incomplete samples. For 1868, these included: 2nd, 5th, 6th, and 9th LIRs, 1st Grenadiers, and 2nd Chasseurs à Cheval. To this was added: 2nd Guides, 4th Artillery, and 2nd Engineers for 1908 and 1913 (though, for the latter, the 5th LIR was missing). For ease, occupations were broken down into six categories, following Edward Spiers’ model in Late Victorian Army, p. 130. They are the following: (1) professionals, (2) shop men/clerks, (3) mechanics (including trades such as smiths and carpenters), (4) manufacturing artisans (including cloth-makers, lace-makers and weavers), (5) labourers (including domestic and agricultural servants), and (6) boys under the age of 17. All unreferenced figures quoted hereafter are results taken from this database.
37.
De Vos, Het Effectief, p. 61.
38.
Statistique de la Belgique: Population Recensement Général (31 Décembre 1910), Tome I, pp. 247–251. Although occupational groupings are slightly different and distinguishing, for example, labourers from factory workers is difficult, there is an appreciation of the professional (broadly 10.8%) and commercial (17.28%—reduced to 9.1% if discounting its labourers) elements of the male workforce. The prominence of industry is also noticeable, and explains the high number of ‘mechanics’.
39.
De Vos, Het Effectief, pp. 223–230.
40.
R. Gildea, Barricades and Borders: Europe 1800–1914 (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1996), pp. 239–240.
41.
C. Strikwerda, ‘The Low Countries: Between City and the Volk’, in T. Baycroft and M. Hewitson (eds.), What Is a Nation? Europe 1789–1914 (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2006), pp. 89–90.
42.
P.P.R., 16 May 1899.
43.
La Lutte—De Strijd, 23 April 1898.
44.
Le Progrès, 14 January 1912. These figures largely match those published by the Ministry of the Interior computed from statistical data in Exposé 1860, Tome II, p. 414; Exposé 1875, Tome II, p. 9; as well as Statistique Générale de la Belgiqe: Exposé de la Situation du Royaume de 1876 à 1900 Rédigé sous la Direction de la Commission Centrale de Statistique, Tome II, p. 258.
45.
Porch, March to the Marne, pp. 32–37; E. Greenhalgh, The French Army and the First World War (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2014), pp. 8–9.
46.
P.P.R., 15 May 1873.
47.
H. Strachan, European Armies and the Conduct of War (Unwin Hyman Ltd., London, 1983), p. 110.
48.
Gildea, Barricades and Borders, pp. 239–240.
49.
L. Wils, Histoire des nations belges. Belgique, Flandre, Wallonie: quinze siècles de passé commun (Trans. C. Kesteloot, Quorum, Ottignies, 1996), pp. 161–163.
50.
De Vos and Bastin, ‘Tirage au Sort’, pp. 47–48.
51.
C. Woeste, Mémoires pour servir à l’Histoire Contemporaine de la Belgique 1859–1894, Vol I (Brussels, 1927), p. 88.
52.
Comm 1866, 19th Meeting, 1 May 1867.
53.
Ibid.
54.
Ibid.
55.
Comm 1871, 8th Meeting, 14 June 1871.
56.
AER POS.2871-521, Malou Papers, Report compiled by the Sub-Committee charged with presenting a Bill for the organisation of the army, 1872. Other figures suggest an incremental decrease from 1/341 in 1832 to 1/359 by 1839; see De Vos, Het Effectief, p. 378.
57.
De Vos, Het Effectief, p. 379.
58.
MRA, Chazal Papers, F. 18/700, Brialmont to Chazal, 28 June 1873.
59.
Woeste, Mémoires, pp. 116–118; De Vos and Bastin, ‘Tirage au Sort’, p. 51.
60.
Woeste, Mémoires, p. 121.
61.
Wanty, Milieu Militaire Belge, pp. 167–169.
62.
L. Musin, ‘Le Parti ouvrier belge et les élections du 2 juin 1912’, in Destatte, Lanneau, and Meurant-Pailhe (eds.), Jules Destrée. Le Lettre au roi, et au-delà 1912–2012, p. 25.
63.
Comm 1871, 4th Meeting, 21 May 1871.
64.
Le Bien Public, 5 June 1886; Journal de Bruxelles, 30 July 1886; Le Peuple, 2 August 1886.
65.
de Mûelenaere, ‘An Uphill Battle’, pp. 156–157.
66.
A. Watson, Ring of Steel: Germany and Austria-Hungary at War, 1914–1918 (Allen Lane, London, 2014), pp. 83–88.
67.
De Vos, Het Effectief, pp. 230–252.
68.
Comm 1871, 3rd Meeting, 17 May 1871. Major Guillaume even expressed this feeling as early as 1852 stating that conscription placed the nation in the army, Rec Comm 1852, p. 27; H. A. Brialmont, Le Service Obligatoire par un Colonel de l’Armée (Brussels, 1871), pp. 28–29.
69.
J. Gooch, Armies in Europe (Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd., London, 1980), p. 127.
70.
For more on the links between hygiene and morality in Belgian civil and military milieus in the nineteenth century, see J. Vandendriessche, ‘Ophthalmia Crossing Borders: Belgian Army Doctors between the Military and Civilian Society, 1830–1860’, Journal of Belgian History, vol. 46, no. 2 (2016), pp. 48–71; for more general information on barrack life, see L. De Vos, ‘Het Dagelijkse Leven van de Belgische Soldaat 1830–1848’, Revue belge d’histoire militaire, vol. 24, no. 5 (1982), pp. 465–494, and no. 6 (1982), pp. 529–560; Hoegaerts, Masculinity and Nationhood, p. 51.
71.
P.P.R., 18 April 1845.
72.
J. R. Leconte, L’Aumônerie militaire belge: Son évolution de l’époque hollandaise à l’organisation actualle (Musée Royal de l’Armée et d’Histoire Militaire, Brussels, 1967), p. 17.
73.
P.P.R., 23 February 1881. This Liberal policy also extended to civilian life where they attempted to reduce the size of the clergy by up to 30%.
74.
Woeste, Mémoires, pp. 340–341.
75.
Anonymous, Les Partis Anvers et la Défense Nationale (Spineux & Cie, Brussels, 1890), pp. 11–12.
76.
Woeste, Mémoires, pp. 327 and 340–341.
77.
Ibid., pp. 358–359.
78.
G. Lorand, Nation Armée: le Système Suisse (Brussels, 1889).
79.
Ibid., p. 65.
80.
P.P.R., 23 March 1893.
81.
Le Bien Public, 22 February 1884.
82.
J. Gooch, Army, State and Society in Italy, 1870–1915 (Macmillan Press, Basingstoke, 1989), p. 1.
83.
P.P.R., 30 November 1911.
84.
The 1894 election saw 900,000 Catholic votes elect 104 deputies, 300,000 Socialist votes elect 28 deputies, and 500,000 Liberal votes elect 20 deputies; see S. B. Clough, A History of the Flemish Movement in Belgium: A Study in Nationalism (R. R. Smith Inc., New York, 1986), pp. 135–136.
85.
P.P.R., 7 March 1894.
86.
RA, Archives du Cabinet du Roi—Règne de Léopold II, 2182, Brialmont to King’s Secretary, 26 February 1897.
87.
H. A. Brialmont, Solution de la Question Militaire en Belgique (Brussels, 1901), pp. 17–18.
88.
Woeste, Mémoires, pp. 315–316. See also, Viaene, ‘King Leopold’s Imperialism’, pp. 741–790.
89.
R. Chickering, Imperial Germany and a World Without War: The Peace Movement and German Society, 1892–1914 (Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1975), pp. 8–9; D. Laqua, The Age of Internationalism and Belgium, 1880–1930: Peace, Progress and Prestige (Manchester University Press, Manchester, 2013), pp. 148–153.
90.
N. Lubelski-Bernard, ‘The Participation of Women in the Belgian Peace Movement (1830–1914)’, in R. Roach Pierson (ed.), Women and Peace: Theoretical, Historical and Practical Perspectives (Croom Helm, London, New York, Sydney, 1987), pp. 81–84.
91.
Chickering, Imperial Germany, p. 387.
92.
J. Vermeiren, The First World War and German National Identity: The Dual Alliance at War (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2016), pp. 19–20.
93.
Lubelski-Bernard, ‘The Participation of Women’, pp. 85–86.
94.
The Minister of War, Jacques-Joseph Brassine, had actually tried to push conscription through twice while in office in 1894 and again in 1896 during which time the Catholic Party had been severely divided over a multitude of political issues. He even managed to get partial Church support for the matter but was initially rebuffed by the King who thought it imprudent to cause a storm before the 1896 elections. When he tried again later that year, his proposals were rejected, provoking yet another Ministerial resignation over the issue. See Woeste, Mémoires Vol. II, pp. 22–23, 64, and 97–103.
95.
Ibid., p. 201.
96.
P.P.R., 18 May 1869.
97.
Comm 1901, 17th Meeting, 28 April 1901; La Belgique Militaire, 5 January 1902.
98.
Ibid., 14th Meeting, 10 April 1901.
99.
Ibid., 17th Meeting, 28 April 1901.
100.
AER S.2505-360, Woeste, Schollaert-Helleputte Papers, Helleputte, Delbeke to Cousebandt d’Alkemade, 20 February 1901.
101.
Woeste, Mémoires Vol. II, p. 222; De Vos and Bastin, ‘Tirage au Sort’, p. 55.
102.
La Belgique Militaire, 2 February 1902.
103.
L. A. Lecleir, L’Infanterie, Filiations et Traditions (Service de l’historique des Forces armées belges, Brussels, 1973), p. 65.
104.
J. Hellebaut, Mémoires du Lieutenant Général Joseph Hellebaut: Ancien Ministre de la Guerre (Groemaere, Brussels, 1933), p. 72.
105.
XXe Siècle, 8 November 1902.
106.
La Belgique Militaire, 5 January 1902. They equally demonstrated how, in addition to wastage, the fact that men were only required for 22 months of service, the establishment over a two-year period would see a deficit of 1785 men.
107.
A. Duchesne, ‘Aprréciations françaises sur la valeur de l’armée belge et les perspectives de guerre de 1871 à 1914’, Carnet de la Fourragère, vol. 14, no. 3 (1961), pp. 188–189.
108.
La Belgique Militaire, 5 January 1908.
109.
Ibid., 28 March 1909.
110.
AER 1510/37-291, de Broqueville Papers, Report by Etaliez, 21 October 1912.
111.
Woeste, Mémoires, Vol. II, p. 351; Hellebaut, Mémoires, p. 85.
112.
Ibid., p. 357.
113.
AER S.2509-365, Schollaert-Helleputte Papers, Note on the 1909 Recruiting System [date unknown, probably 1909].
114.
De Vos, Het Effectief, p. 381.
115.
AER S.2509-365, Schollaert-Helleputte Papers, Telegrams to Schollaert from NCO Veterans Society of Namur, 15 November 1909; the Community of Léau, 25 November 1909; NCO Veterans Society and Brothers in Arms of Gembloux, 19 November 1909; Veterans Society of Knocke, 21 November 1909; Veterans Society of Jemappes, 21 November 1909; Royal Veterans Society of 1870–1871 of Leuven, 21 November 1909.
116.
La Belgique Militaire, 26 September 1909.
117.
Wils, ‘Le gouvernement catholique’, pp. 37–38.
118.
AER S.2514-370, Schollaert-Helleputte Papers Report: The Military Question in 1914.
119.
Ibid., Collon to Helleputte, 29 November 1911.
120.
Belgique Militaire, 15 June 1913.
121.
Le Soir, 31 August, 1–3, 21 September 1911 and 29 November 1911; Belgique Militaire, 15 June 1913.
122.
AER S.2514-370, Schollaert-Helleputte Papers, Collon to Helleputte, 29 November 1911.
123.
Ibid., Collon to Hellepute, 24 February 1912; Hellebaut, Mémoires, pp. 97–98 and 102–103.
124.
Musin, ‘Le Parti ouvrier belge’, p. 28.
125.
Ibid.
126.
P. Destatte, L’identité wallonne: essai sur l’affirmation politique de la Wallonie aux XIX et XXèmes siècles (Institut Jules Destrée, Charleroi, 1997), pp. 68–86; Wils, ‘Le gouvernement catholique’, p. 38.
127.
J. Destrée and H. Meert, Lettre au Roi sur la Séparation de la Wallonie et de la Flandre. Gevold door het antwoord: A Monsieur Destrée (M. Wesissenbruch, Brussels, 1912), p. 3. Really interesting findings about the competing Flemish and Walloon movements in the early twentieth century came out of a recent conference. For more on this, see chapters in Destatte, Lanneau, and Meurant-Pailhe (eds.), Jules Destrée. Le Lettre au roi, et au-delà 1912–2012.
128.
L’Indépendence Belge, 11 February 1900.
129.
La Meuse, 5 January 1913.
130.
L. De Vos, ‘De smeltkroes. De Belgische krijgsmacht als natievormende factor, 1830–1885’, Belgisch Tijdschrift voor Nieuwste Geschiedenis, vol. 15, no. 3–4, (1984), pp. 421–460; ‘Het Dagelijkse Leven van de Belgische Soldaat 1830–1848’, Revue belge d’histoire militaire, vol. 24, no. 5 (1982), pp. 465–494 and no. 6, (1982), pp. 529–560; Dierckx and Hoegaerts, ‘Exercising neutrality’, pp. 32–33 and 36–38; Wanty, Milieu Militaire Belge, p. 188.
131.
AER Rogier Papers, POS 2328-417, Note by the Recruitment Committee, 10 April 1850. See also M. Van Ginderachter, ‘How Useful is the Concept of Ethnolinguistic Nationalism? On Imagined Communities, the Ethnic-Civic Dichotomy and Banal Nationalism’, in P. Broomans (et al.) (eds.), The Beloved Mothertongue: Ethnolinguistic Nationalism in Small Nations: Inventories and Reflections (Peeters, Leuven, Paris/Dudley, MA, 2008), pp. 1–13; M. Beyen and M. Van Ginderachter, ‘General Introduction: Writing the Mass into a Mass phenomenon’ in M. Van Ginderachter and M. Beyen (eds.), Nationhood from Below, Europe in the Long Nineteenth Century (Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, 2012), pp. 7–8.
132.
E. Witte, La Construction de la Belgique 1827–1847 (Éditions Complexe, Brussels, 2005), pp. 42–43. For regional consciousness see, A. B. Murphy, The Regional Dynamics of Language Differentiation in Belgium: A Study in Cultural-Political Geography (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1988), p. 9; B. De Wever, ‘The Case of the Dutch-Speaking Belgians in the Nineteenth Century’, in P. Broomans (et al.) (eds.), The Beloved Mothertongue: Ethnolinguisticn Nationalism in Small Nations: Inventories and Reflections (Peeters, Leuven, Paris/Dudley, MA, 2008), pp. 49–50.
133.
Gooch, Army, State and Society, p. 10.
134.
For the Austro-Hungarian example, see G. E. Rothenberg, The Army of Francis Joseph (Purdue University Press, West Lafayette, IN, 1976), pp. 76–77; Deák, Beyond Nationalism, pp. 5 and 99–102.
135.
Boijen, ‘Het Leger als Smeltkroes’, pp. 55–70.
136.
Murphy, The Regional Dynamics, p. 67.
137.
Clough, Flemish Movement, pp. 74–78; Van Ginderachter, ‘Ethnolinguistic Nationalism’, pp. 1–13; De Wever, ‘Dutch-Speaking Belgians’, p. 55.
138.
Clough, Flemish Movement, p. 91.
139.
Wils, ‘Le gouvernement catholique’, pp. 42–43. For more on how the Flemish movement came to be linked with a popular Catholic working-class movement, see Wils, Histoire des nations belges, pp. 185–201.
140.
Belgique Militaire, 25 May 1913.

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Draper, M. (2018). The Rank and File. In: The Belgian Army and Society from Independence to the Great War. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70386-2_4

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