Fantasy map of Europe with the territory of Germany and Austria-Hungary incorporated into France, Russia, Italy, and Serbia. Children representing Belgium, Great Britain (pen in hand), Russia, and France admire the result as Germany and Austria-Hungary walk away bearing their dead or dying national symbols, the eagle or double-headed eagle. A postcard by Aurelio Bertiglia.
Nuova EuropaL'Europe NovelleNew EuropeA. BertigliaReverse:Logo: C.C.M. in a circle
"I propose first of all to discuss the question of peace and conditions preliminary to this.. . . [The Belgian Minister of Finance] is of the opinion that we should accept territorial aggrandisements if they are proposed to us.I point out that the question of maintaining or not maintaining our neutrality must be solved before everything, as it governs our political orientation. We cannot, on our own account, launch into a policy of conquest which would eventually exclude us from the benefits of neutrality. . . .The annexation of Luxemburg meets with general sympathy.I recommend prudence in the utterance of these ambitions. The result of the war remains indecisive, and our recent offensives have hardly been crowned with success. It is possible that peace may be signed on the present-day line and that the reduction or splitting up of Germany may turn out to be false dreams."
Excerpt from the entry for a cabinet meeting on April 7, 1915 by Albert, King of the Belgians. The King continued to restrain the cabinet from planning on a larger postwar Belgium. Other cabinets and rulers, in both large and small nations, had similar dreams of expansion at the expense of defeated neighbors. As Albert wrote on April 17, 'this question must be left open, particularly in view of the indecisive character of the war.' In response to Germany's invasion of neutral Belgium, Britain had declared war on Germany on August 4, 1914. Nearly all of the Belgium was overrun in the first weeks of the war, and nearly all of it was occupied as Albert wrote.
The War Diaries of Albert I King of the Belgians by Albert I, pp. 32, 33, copyright © 1954, publisher: William Kimber
1915-04-07, 1915, April, Bertiglia nuova Europa
