Matches in DBpedia 2016-04 for { ?s ?p "The Rape of Belgium is the usual historical term regarding the treatment of civilians during the 1914–18 German invasion and occupation of Belgium during World War I. The term initially had a propaganda use but recent historiography confirms its reality. One modern author uses it more narrowly to describe a series of German war crimes in the opening months of the War (4 August through September 1914).The neutrality of Belgium had been guaranteed by the Treaty of London (1839), which had been signed by Prussia. However, the German Schlieffen Plan required that German armed forces violate Belgium’s neutrality in order to outflank the French Army, concentrated in eastern France. The German Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg dismissed the treaty of 1839 as a \"scrap of paper\". Throughout the beginning of the war the German army engaged in numerous atrocities against the civilian population of Belgium, and destruction of civilian property; 6,000 Belgians were killed, 25,000 homes and other buildings in 837 communities destroyed in 1914 alone. One and a half million Belgians (20% of the entire population) fled from the invading German army. Throughout the whole war, the Germans killed 27,300 Belgian civilians directly, and an additional 62,000 via the deprivation of food and shelter (not counting deaths from the Spanish flu epidemic)."@en }
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- The_Rape_of_Belgium abstract "The Rape of Belgium is the usual historical term regarding the treatment of civilians during the 1914–18 German invasion and occupation of Belgium during World War I. The term initially had a propaganda use but recent historiography confirms its reality. One modern author uses it more narrowly to describe a series of German war crimes in the opening months of the War (4 August through September 1914).The neutrality of Belgium had been guaranteed by the Treaty of London (1839), which had been signed by Prussia. However, the German Schlieffen Plan required that German armed forces violate Belgium’s neutrality in order to outflank the French Army, concentrated in eastern France. The German Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg dismissed the treaty of 1839 as a \"scrap of paper\". Throughout the beginning of the war the German army engaged in numerous atrocities against the civilian population of Belgium, and destruction of civilian property; 6,000 Belgians were killed, 25,000 homes and other buildings in 837 communities destroyed in 1914 alone. One and a half million Belgians (20% of the entire population) fled from the invading German army. Throughout the whole war, the Germans killed 27,300 Belgian civilians directly, and an additional 62,000 via the deprivation of food and shelter (not counting deaths from the Spanish flu epidemic).".