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.
The Civil War expenses made the United States (US) became much more reliant on money in the late 1800s than in previous times. The need for money in funding the war paved the way for US to begin implementing income tax during 1862.
The purpose of the Central Intelligence Agency is<u> A. to gather information about foreign countries and conduct secret operations to protect national security.</u>
Western European countries were some of the prime sources of immigrants at the time, in particular Ireland due to the lasting consequences of Ireland's Great Famine, aka the potato famine in the mid 1800's.
