Before World War 2, King Leopold of Belgium was advocating for a more independent foreign policy for Belgium. Culturally, Belgium is a heterogeneous country straddling the border between the Romance and Germanic language families of western Europe. After the Germans conquered Belgium in May 1940, the Belgian government fled to Great Britain and formed a government-in-exile in London.King Leopold III remained in Belgium under house arrest during the German occupation. Since then the Dutch and French speaking communities have their own country and king, and sealed the year 1831 as the true beginning for modern day Belgium. On December 21, during the battle around La Gleize, Peiper's battle group captured an American officer, Major Harold D. McCown, who was leading one of the battalions of the 119th US Infantry Regiment . With the exception of a small German-speaking population in the eastern part of the country, Belgium is divided between a French-speaking people, collectively called Walloons (approximately one-third of the total population), who are … The date of his inauguration became the national day of Belgium. On the outbreak of World War II, Leopold tried to maintain Belgian neutrality, but after the German invasion in May 1940, he surrendered his country, earning him much hostility, both at home and abroad. The German invasion of Belgium was a military campaign which began on 4 August 1914. On the night of 18 to 19 December the 101st Airborne Division was jammed into trucks and rushed into battle, destination Bastogne Belgium. Before World War II, the Belgian port city of Antwerp was one of the world’s great ports, ranking with those of Hamburg, Rotterdam, and New York. At least 20,000 were German refugees, who, along with thousands of others, hoped to flee to the United States. On the morning of the 19th the 506 Parachute Infantry Regiment marched north and east from Bastogne towards the road from the town of Foy and Bizory in a place called Bois Jacques or Jack’s Forrest. German Occupation of Belgium. At the outset of World War II, more than 100,000 Jews were in Belgium, including 55,000 in Antwerp and 35,000 in Brussels, with smaller communities in Ghent, Liege, Arlon, Mons, Charleroi, Namur and Oostende. World War II broke out on September 1st 1939, with the German invasion of Poland. The bodies of Belgian men, women, and children, killed by the SS during their attack into Belgium, await identification before burial. WW2 did not change the type of government in either country. On two occasions, he advocated for mediation of the conflict between the Western Allies and Nazi forces a few months before and after the war broke out in 1939. 0 0 1 ... What type of government did Belgium have before its constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy? 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