Abstract
The conclusion ties together the major themes and arguments of this book. It suggests that the army largely failed in its task as a tool of nation-building, despite its seeming unity of action throughout the Great War. Projecting forward to the interwar years, however, it is clear that many of the social issues that dominated the nineteenth century civil–military debate emerged once more, and, in the case of the Flemish movement, developed apace. As such, this chapter contends that party-politics and local interests were largely to blame for the army’s ultimate failure to develop a corporate sense of nationalism as well as adequately prepare for war. Belgium’s antimilitarism proved a difficult ‘nut to crack’ and was only just evolving into patriotism among the bourgeoisie by 1914.
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Notes
- 1.
E. Witte, La Construction de la Belgique, 1828–1847 (Éditions Complexe, Brussels, 2005), pp. 41–42.
- 2.
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. 55–56.
- 3.
R. Boijen, ‘Het Leger als Smeltkroes van de Natie?’, Bijdragen tot de Eigentijdse Geschiedenis, no. 3 (1997), pp. 55–70.
- 4.
See D. Stevenson, ‘Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Defence of Western Europe, 1914–1920’, International History Review, vol. 4, no. 4 (1982), pp. 504–522.
- 5.
A. Crahay, L’Armée Belge Entre les Deux Guerres (L. Musin, Brussels, 1978), pp. 88 and 138–141.
- 6.
É. Wanty, ‘Le milieu militaire belge 1830–1945’, in Actes du Colloque d’Histoire Militaire Belge (1830–1980)/Akten van het Colloquium over de Belgische Krijgsgeschiedenis (1830–1980) (Musée Royal de l’Armée/Koninklijk Legersmuseum, Brussels, 1981), pp. 399–400, 26–28 March 1980.
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Draper, M. (2018). Conclusion. 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_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70386-2_8
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