To get around the French defences on the German-French border, the forces had to penetrate Belgium and attack the French Army from the north. Because the Belgians refused to let them pass, the Germans decided to invade Belgium by force on August 4, 1914. Belgium's failure to carry out the Schlieffen Plan to conquer Paris infuriated the German Army. From the top down, it was widely assumed that the Belgians had released illegal saboteurs (dubbed "francs-tireurs") and that citizens had tortured and maltreated German soldiers. A series of large-scale attacks on civilians, as well as the demolition of historic structures and cultural sites, was the response. Between August and November 1914, the German army executed between 5,500 and 6,500[13] French and Belgian people, most of them in near-random large-scale shootings of civilians ordered by junior German officials. Individuals suspected of partisan activities were shot and killed in broad daylight. Historians looking at German Army records revealed 101 "significant" occurrences involving ten or more civilians, with a total of 4,421 people dead. In addition, historians identified 383 "minor" occurrences that resulted in the deaths of another 1,100 Belgians. Germany said almost all of them were in retaliation to guerilla attacks. [14] In addition, a number of prominent Belgians, notably politician Adolphe Max and scholar Henri Pirenne, were held as hostages in Germany.
Nomadic pastoralism is of far greater importance to many economies than the relatively small number of nomads would imply. Nomads produce valuable products like meat, hides, wool, and milk. Traditional pastoralism turns grasslands to economic advantage.
Repercussions of the Nixon visit continue to this day; while near-immediate results included a significant shift in the Cold War balance—driving a wedge between the Soviet Union and China, resulting in significant Soviet concessions to the U.S.—the trip spawned China's opening to the world and economic parity with ...
