The Belgians were interested primarily in the economic development of the Congo, which is rich in copper, tin, cobalt, manganese, zinc, and uranium, and cotton and palm oil.

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.

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.

The honor of the Belgians in this matter is not to be questioned -- only their judgment.

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

Not only was his Belgian nationality interesting because of Belgium's occupation by Germany ( which provided a valid explanation of why such a skilled detective would be out of work and available to solve mysteries at an English country house ), but also at the time of Christie's writing, it was considered patriotic to express sympathy with the Belgians, since the invasion of their country had constituted Britain's casus belli for entering World War I, and British wartime propaganda emphasized the " Rape of Belgium ".

** The difference of religion between the Catholic Belgians and their Protestant Dutch king.

To this day, the Belgians are remembered for their stubborn resistance during the early days of the war, with the army-around a tenth the size of the Germany Army-holding up the German offensive for nearly a month, giving the French and British forces time to prepare for the Marne counteroffensive later in the year.

The region's ethnic diversity has been affected by repeated waves of immigrant workers from abroad: Belgians before 1910 ; Poles and Italians in the 1920s and 1930s ; Italians and Germans since 1945 and North Africans and Portuguese since 1960 ; and large cities like Lille, Calais, and Boulogne are home to sizable communities of British, Dutch, Scandinavian, Sub-Saharan African, and Latin American immigrants and their descendants.

The Belgians are most supportive of their removal.

Each peasant was required to devote a certain percentage of their fields to coffee and this was enforced by the Belgians and their local, mainly Tutsi, allies.

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.

Recently, having federalised their own country, many Belgians view themselves as the ultimate " European federalists ".

And the Belgians, many of them devout Catholics, also erected small roadside votive chapels like those in their homeland.

Most Belgians tend to view their culture as an integral part of European or Western culture.

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.

On June 6, 1945, Roosenburg and a group of Dutch people was exchanged for a group of Russian POWs ; they made their way to a Red Cross camp where they found that only the French and Belgians would be flying home ; the rest would have to wait several weeks until a truck came.

As a result of their strengthened position on the lake, the Allies started advancing towards Kigoma by land, and the Belgians established an airbase on the western shore at Albertville.

The Germans used their " Big Bertha " artillery to destroy Belgian forts in Liège, Namur, and Antwerp, but the Belgians still fought back, creating a constant threat to German supply lines in the north.

Countess Augusta is the grandmother of many notable monarchs of Europe, including both Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom ( through her mother Victoria ) and her husband, Prince Albert ( through his father Ernst ), King Consort of Portugal Ferdinand II ( through his father Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha ), and also Empress Carlota of Mexico and her brother Leopold II of Belgium ( through their father Leopold I who was elected King of the Belgians on 26 June 1831.

As a result, almost all feminine adjectives are phonetically distinct from their masculine counterparts for Belgians.

Following that decision, the Belgians decided to alternate their Grand Prix between Zolder and a circuit at Nivelles-Baulers near Brussels.