Some schools were technical -- the Belgians needed carpenters and mechanics to help exploit the land, and trained many.

Yet there were other motivations and actions which the Belgians took after independence for which history may not find them guiltless.

The Belgians were reluctant to withdraw their troops and often obstructed U.N. efforts.

At most they were sautéed in a pan ...." Some Belgians believe that the term " French " was introduced when American soldiers arrived in Belgium during World War I, and consequently tasted Belgian fries.

Like the majority of Belgians at that time, his family belonged to the Roman Catholic Church, though were not particularly devout.

The real political forces behind this were the Catholic clergy, which was against the Protestant Dutch king, William I, and the equally strong liberals, who opposed the royal authoritarianism, and the fact that the Belgians were not represented proportionally in the national assemblies.

While most of the associates of Marx and Engels were German immigrants living in Brussels, some of their new associates were Belgians.

Wounded and derelict British and French soldiers and Belgians and French of military age were hidden from the Germans and provided with false papers by Prince Reginald de Croy at his château of Bellignie near Mons.

The Rwandans were divided ; a portion of the royal court was wary and the other thought the Germans might be a good alternative to dominance by Buganda or the Belgians.

Reforms instituted by the Belgians in the 1950s encouraged the growth of democratic political institutions but were resisted by the Tutsi traditionalists, who saw them as a threat to Tutsi rule.

Encouraged by the Pan-Africanists, Hutu advocates in the Catholic Church, and by Christian Belgians ( who were increasingly influential in the Congo ), Hutu resentment of the Tutsi increased.

It included 41 Americans and about 25 Belgians and were deployed on 21 July 1948.

On 1 September 1939, when the Wehrmacht invaded Poland, King Leopold III of Belgium ordered a general mobilisation, in which 600, 000 Belgians were mobilised.

These were the Force Publique in the Congo ( victory against Italian troops in the South Etyopia ), expatriate Belgians in Great Britain and Canada ( which eventually formed the 1st Belgian Infantry Brigade ), and after September 1944, Belgians liberated by the Allied campaign in Northwestern Europe.

Henriette and her friends, through bartering and guile, came to travel along Elbe River in a small boat from Waldfield to Coswig, where they were accosted by Russian soldiers and taken to a displaced persons camp populated by Belgians, Dutch, and Italians.

Belgium was the obvious European candidate to run the Congo, but the Belgians were still unwilling.

The French cavalry under Sordet, which Sir John had previously asked Joffre in vain to be placed under his command, were further north trying to maintain contact with the Belgians.

The Belgians and Czechs produced and widely exported their " Mausers " in various calibers throughout the 1920s and 1930s, before their production facilities were absorbed by Nazi Germany to make parts or whole rifles for the German Army.

Among the passengers were 29 Americans, 29 Belgians, 28 Britons, 12 Irish, four South Africans and three Canadians.

He knew that the Austrian Netherlands, where he had with difficulty restored his authority, were full of friends of the Revolution and that a French army would be welcomed by many Belgians.

During their advance through Belgium, the Belgian troops were sometimes mistaken for French Canadians, since local people did not expect that their liberators would be fellow Belgians.

) Belgians were not interested in the road, but were using it as a bargaining tool for other border issues.

At the time, only a verbal agreement, on broad outlines, had been made and when it became time to put things to paper they realized that their € 4 billion was only going to buy them a 50 % share in a company they were only mildly interested in ( Fortis Bank Nederland, later sold for € 5 billion total ; instead of all Dutch Fortis holdings including ABN-AMRO and the Dutch insurance company ) and that the Belgians for their € 4. 7 billion were getting a 50 % share in the overall banking holding ( including not only Fortis Bank Nederland and Luxembourg, but also Fortis Investments and ABN-AMRO ).

Europeans, primarily the French, German, and Belgians, arrived in the area in 1885.

Belgians are primarily a nationality or citizen group, by jus soli ( Latin: right of the soil ), also known as birthright citizenship, and are not a homogeneous ethnic group.

Only a few Belgians managed to profit from the economic growth.

The Belgians have been strong advocates of European integration, and most aspects of their foreign, economic, and trade policies are coordinated through the European Union ( EU ), which has its main headquarters ( the European Commission, the Council of the European Union and sessions of the European Parliament ) in Brussels.

At the same time the Belgians, perceiving their diminutive role on the international scene, are strong advocates of strengthening economic and political integration within the EU.

The Belgians demanded that the territories earn profits for the motherland and any development had to come out of funds gathered in the territory.

it has been made far more difficult by what the Belgians have done, or failed to do, in the Congo since 1885.

A final factor which contributed greatly to the fragmentation of the Congo, immediately after independence, was the provincial structure that had been established by the Belgians for convenience in administration.

The wildly erratic nature of Patrice Lumumba caused constant problems -- he frequently announced that he wanted the U.N. to get out of the Congo along with the Belgians, and appealed to Russia for help.

The Belgians -- at least officially -- departed from the Congo as well, withdrawing all of their uniformed troops.

The Congo Free State was a corporate state privately controlled by Leopold II, King of the Belgians through the Association Internationale Africaine, a non-governmental organization.

* October 27 – In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, rebel leader Christopher Gbenye takes 60 Americans and 800 Belgians hostage.

The UN Security Council was called into session on 7 December 1960 to consider Soviet demands that the UN seek Lumumba's immediate release, the immediate restoration of Lumumba as head of the Congo government, the disarming of the forces of Mobutu, and the immediate evacuation of Belgians from the Congo.

Leopold II (, ) ( 9 April 1835 – 17 December 1909 ) was the King of the Belgians, and is chiefly remembered for the founding and brutal exploitation of the Congo Free State.

Of these ' New Belgians ', 1, 200, 00 ( 49 %) are of European ancestry and 1, 350, 000 ( 51 %) are allochtonen i. e. from non-Western countries ( Morocco, Turkey, Congo, Pakistan, Algeria ).

When Sabena was created, it was partly funded by Belgians in the Belgian Congo colony who lost their air service — an experimental passenger and cargo company ( LARA ) between Léopoldville, Lisala, and Stanleyville — a year earlier and expected the new Belgian national airline to fill this gap.

Widespread rioting against Belgian colonials in the months leading up to, and after the independence of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, caused thousands of Belgians to flee the country.

The Congo Free State was a large area in Central Africa which was privately controlled by Leopold II, King of the Belgians.

Leopold II of Belgium | Leopold II, King of the Belgians and de facto owner of the Congo Free State from 1885 to 1908

The Belgians were already looking at colonising the Congo including the area south of Lake Mweru.

Based in Blantyre, Sir Johnston was concerned about the influence of the Belgians and Germans in the Congo Free State north of Lake Mweru.

Later, he was the confidant of Léopold II, King of the Belgians and the very representative of the Belgian government in the Congo.

** Congo Free State, a government privately controlled by Leopold II, King of the Belgians through the Association internationale africaine

In 1916, the Belgians overprinted stamps of Belgian Congo in several ways, first with " RUANDA " and " URUNDI ," although these were never actually used.

Despite the mandate rules that the Belgians had to develop the territories and prepare them for independence, the Raubwirtschaft practiced in the Belgian Congo was exported eastwards.