For posterity | 2014-18.brussels

Rue de la Loi, on 22 November 1918. A cameraman of the British army photographed the general exuberance in the streets of the capital. Expecting a devastated and miserable country, the American war correspondents were surprised to find a celebrating city. From then on, complains about Poor Little Belgium would encounter mockery and indifference.

In 1919, the Versailles Treaty epitomized the deterioration of Belgian prestige. Expecting a lot from the negotiation, Belgium obtained very little. Arguments depicting the suffering endured since 1914 were weak in comparison with the millions of allied soldiers who had died. It was with great disappointment that Belgium retired from the negotiations with only the districts of Eupen-Malmédy and the former German colonies of Rwanda and Burundi as war booty.