Existing comment:
"You have saved us, great American Nation."
-- Belgian student Paul Mage to President Woodrow Wilson, February 27, 1915
In the earliest days of the war, Germany invaded Belgium after the government refused to allow German troops passage. The violation of Belgium's neutrality provoked Britain to declare war against Germany on August 4, 1914. The conflict caused severe food shortages in Belgium. Though the United States remained neutral, citizens provided humanitarian aid and sent food supplies to the occupied country of seven million people. Belgian schools organized letter writing campaigns to express the population's gratitude to the United States. |