Albert I of Belgium Biography

Albert I of Belgium

(Brussels, 1875-Marche-les-Dames, 1934) King of Belgium (1909-34), nephew and successor of King Leopold II of Belgium.Son of Philip, Count of Flanders, and Princess Maria de Hohenzollern, from childhood he received a careful education and entered the prestigious École Militaire de Bruxelles.In 1900 he married Princess Isabel de Baviera, with whom he had two children: Leopoldo Felipe Carlos, future King Leopoldo III, and Carlos Teodoro Enrique.

Albert I of Belgium

That same year he made a long trip through the Belgian Congo in which he examined the hardships and needs that the territory demanded, so that, On his return, he recommended to the government the need to build a railway network in the colony, in addition to demanding a radical change in the treatment of its indigenous inhabitants, treated as slaves.

In 1913, already as King of Belgium, Albert I made a diplomatic visit to Berlin, where he was informed by the German Emperor himself, Wilhelm II, of the intentions to go to war with France and of the invasion plan of that country, which included the passage through Belgium of the German armies.Back in his country, Alberto I devoted himself to reinforcing his army in anticipation of the imminent war: he substantially increased the number of troops and established compulsory military service.In turn, Albert I informed the French government of Germany's plans.

Finally, after the outbreak of World War I, on July 31, 1914, Albert I sent a letter to the German emperor informing him of Belgium's neutrality in the conflict.On August 2 of the same year, Wilhelm II issued an ultimatum to Belgium in which he asked Albert I for free passage to German troops in Belgian territory, all of this to carry out the plan devised by Marshal Alfred von Schlieffen and directed by General Helmuth von Moltke, which consisted of carrying out a lightning occupation of Belgium and penetrating France from the north, which would allow, once Paris was occupied, to transfer the bulk of the German troops to the eastern front.

After the resolute refusal of Albert I to the German requests, the invasion of Belgium began two days later.Alberto I was placed at the head of the Belgian army, in which he distinguished himself under the orders of the French general Ferdinand Foch, operational chief of the Belgian troops.After the hard battle of Autweup, in October 1914, the German army occupied practically the entire country and forced the troops of Albert I to retreat to the southwest of Flanders, the only Belgian area that had not yet fallen into German orbit.While the Belgian government was transferred to free France, King Albert I remained on the battlefront, where he energetically resisted the continuous attacks of the German forces and closed the way to Dunkirk and Calais, necessary to maintain communications, to the invader.with the British Isles.

After the end of World War I, Albert I appealed to the allied powers to abolish the Treaty of London (signed in 1839), by which Belgium was considered neutral country and therefore conducive to being violated and invaded in the event of a warlike confrontation, as had happened.The request of Alberto I was accepted, incorporating the measure between the points fixed in the Treaty of Versailles (1919), by which Germany had to pay Belgium large war reparations, both economic and territorial.

Alberto I personally led, until his death, the reconstruction of his country, destroyed and devastated by the occupation of German troops.It carried out effective support work in the reindustrialization of Belgium, in which the effort made in the construction of a powerful merchant fleet stands out.After having encouraged the national pride of his subjects with his direct participation in the war, Albert I established the services of voluntary work for the sake of the reconstruction of Belgium, a measure that all the political forces of the country unanimously supported, which always accepted the arbitration of the king in all serious or delicate matters of government.

In 1926, Albert I of Belgium helped introduce a monetary reform, necessary for the country, whose consequence was make the internal and external economy of Belgium more flexible.A great fan of extreme sports, he met his death while practicing mountaineering, on February 17, 1934.He was succeeded to the throne by his son Leopold III of Belgium.

Comments

Carlos Suriñach Biography

Carlos Suriñach (Barcelona, 1915-New Haven, Connecticut, 1997) Spanish composer and conductor, nationalized from the United States.Trained in Barcelona, Cologne and Berlin, he spent most of his career in the US.His work, symphonic, for stage and chamber, is influenced by flamenco ( Andalusian dance , 1946; Magic Fair , 1956; Spanish Suite , 1970; Concerto for piano and orchestra , 1973).

John newcombe Biography

John Newcombe (Sydney, 1944) Australian tennis player.His sporting life began as a soccer and cricket player, and it was not until 1957 that he began in tennis, a sport in which he was junior champion of Australia at seventeen, which earned him being selected for the Australian Cup team.Davis, formed by a group of Australian tennis players who won all the most important tournaments that were played (Rod Laver, Ken Rosewall, Emerson, etc.). In 1966 he won the Davis Cup against Spain in Sydney , forming a couple with Tony Roche, with whom he formed one of the best couples in the history of world tennis.He returned to renew the title two years later, in 1968.He was individual champion at Wimbledon in 1967 and 1968 and won the United States Open, in Forest Hills in 1967.However, he obtained his greatest successes in the doubles modality, always with Tony Roche and sometimes with Fletcher; with them he was awarded the Wimbledon title in 1965, 1966, 1968, 1969 and 1970.After his retirem...

Ilias Venezis Biography

Ilias Venezis (Aivali, Asia Minor, 1904-Athens, 1973) Greek writer.The novel Matrícula 31328 (1931), which recounts his experience of deportation after the Greco-Turkish war (1920-1921), is his main work.He is also the author of novels ( Serenidad , 1939; Tierra eolia, 1943, and Los vancidos, 1954), of short stories ( The archipelago, 1969), from travel books ( Autumn in Italy, 1950, and Eftalón y viajes, 1973) and from the historical essay Los argonauts (1962).

The Legend of the Holy Grail

No other medieval fable is so rich in symbolism, so diverse and, in many cases, as contradictory in its meaning as the legend of the Holy Grail . Is there any historical proof that allows us to suppose that there was a Grail that could be found? Or its legend is nothing more than a charming literary tale created by troubadours to entertain the members of the European courts? The legend of the Grail was recorded in history at the end of the 13th century.The mind of a talented French poet called Chretien de Troyes . However, when he wrote his Grail Story , Chretien included a host of pre-Christian elements.The legend went back, in fact, several centuries ago, to the Celtic stories of King Arthur , to the Irish tales, to the Welsh bards, where Christianity had not yet arrived. In fact, for the first Christian narrator of the legend of the Grail , Chretien de Troyes , the Holy Grail was not even a glass, but appears as a lavish and magical dish whose function is ...

The fusion of the Romans and Germans

In the first years of the 5th century, the Germanic peoples , pushed by the Hungarian horsemen, crossed the Roman borders and entered the Roman Empire of the West. At the beginning of the 6th century, these villages were installed in the ruins of a Rome that had been unable to maintain control in its vast territory. The date of 476 marks in the traditional history the break between existence of the Roman Empire and the beginning of a new order arbitrarily called the " Middle Ages ", however, that new order was not built overnight and, Changes in everyday life did not have the rhythm of the hectic political sphere. During this period of slow social transformation, there was a coexistence throughout the European territory between two types of and different cultures, the Roman and the germanica . It took long years for communities to associate to the point of mixing their traditions and forming a true nation.The obstacles to this merger were certainly numero...

The history of the flags of the world

Maybe you've ever stopped to think where the flags come from, because they have those colors or shapes, because some have drawings and others have stripes.Because there are flags of different countries that are very similar, it may be a coincidence or perhaps they have something in common.To this and other questions we will answer in this article that we have titled The history of the flags of the world. History of the flags of the world | Origin of the Flags The flags are responsible for generating the identity signals of a country , it is the embodiment of a series of values that hold a community together or region that share a series of characteristics, whether geographical, cultural or historical. When several nations have shared a common period in history, it is normal that they also share symbols, examples such as the flags of the Nordic countries or as with New Zealand and Australia. Today all countries are represented by their corresponding flag, but ...

Menstruation in the Middle Ages: aphrodisiac blood

At present, talk about menstruation or monthly bleeding , is something normal and assimilated by society.When the girls begin to stain, either they already know what is going on, or they are explain calmly and in detail. However, and Assuming that 99% of people in the world know what menstruation is, there is an undeniable fact: the scandalous thing of the matter.said Chef, one of the most polemic characters in the animated South Park series, about women: « I do not trust an animal that is bleeding for five days and does not die «.For the tranquility of many, the character was removed shortly. Menstrual scandal But it is true that a woman, in menstrual period, can lose 40 ml if everything is normal .If the bleeding is abundant, the amount can be doubled.The question is, what to think ian of this circumstance who lived it in the Middle Ages? At that time people were burned for witchcraft, diseases were cured with leeches and other irreproducible barbarities here. As expecte...

Gregorio Vazquez de Arce Biography

Gregorio Vázquez de Arce (Gregorio Vázquez de Arce y Ceballos; Santa Fe de Bogotá, 1638- id ., 1711) Colombian painter.Of Andalusian origin, he studied painting in the workshop of Baltasar de Figueroa, appreciating in his work the influence of Murillo and Zurbarán, who received through the Andalusian artists who worked in Santa Fe.He made numerous series of paintings on religious themes, in addition to cultivate the portrait and allegorical painting.

Elijah Querejeta Biography

Elías Querejeta (Elías Querejeta Gárate; Hernani, 1930-Madrid, 2013) Spanish film producer.He studied chemistry and law, while at the same time he was part of the Real Sociedad de San Sebastián football team, a career he abandoned at the age of 24.He was a regular at the screenings held by the city's film clubs, where he met other young people-Víctor Erice, Antonio Eceiza-who would study at the Official Film School of Madrid. Elías Querejeta In 1961 he founded his first company, Laponia Films, at the same time that he collaborated with other production companies on his first films.After directing several short films, in 1964 he decided to found Elías Querejeta P.C.From his first films, he defined the style he wanted to print in his works, intervening in almost all of them as co-screenwriter, while gathering around him a group of professionals who would guarantee the finish of each film (Luis Cuadrado and Teo Escamilla as directors photography; Primitivo Álvaro, in the produc...

Grace Querejeta Biography

Gracia Querejeta (Gracia Querejeta Marín; Madrid, 1962) Spanish film director.Daughter of the costume designer María del Carmen Marín Maiki and the film producer Elías Querejeta, she studied Geography and History at university and received a degree in Ancient History.Although she never wanted to be an actress, she had two circumstantial appearances in front of the cameras: the first, when she was only seven years old, in the film Las secretas intenciones by Antxon Eceiza, and the second when, at the age of thirteen., played a small role in Las Palabras de Max , by Emilio Martínez-Lázaro. Gracia Querejeta His first professional experience behind a Camera was as assistant director in Sweet hours (1981), directed by Carlos Saura and with his father as producer.After finishing his degree, he had the opportunity to direct Tres en la marca in 1988, as part of the collective project Seven footprints , with which he won the Arriaga Theater Award in Bilbao.The film Seven footp...

History Today Online

Search This Blog