The Winds of Time Swept Through Belgium Quiz

Answer: Brussels

Discontent against the rule of King William I had been simmering for a few years before the revolution actually began. The king was celebrating his 15th year of reigning and a performance of Daniel Auber's opera "La muette de Portici" was to round off the three day festivities in Brussels.

The Belgian nationalists had already chosen the final day as the start of the revolution. The fact that Auber's opera was about a revolution is considered to be coincidental. The riots that began on 25 August 1830 spread to other parts of the country with the period now known as the Belgian Revolution.

Answer: The Netherlands

Immediately prior to independence, Belgium had been part of the Netherlands. However, the people were unhappy with differences cropping up on linguistic basis as well as the differing cultures of the mainly Roman Catholic population of Belgium versus the Reformed Protestants of the Netherlands.

The Belgian Revolution of 1830 finally saw the country make a serious bid for independence. Belgium was recognized as an independent country by London Conference of 1830 which had representatives of the major European powers - Austria, Britain, France, Prussia and Russia.

It took until 1839 for the Netherlands to accept Belgium as an independent country.

Answer: Leopold I

Leopold I was a German prince from the small duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. He joined the Imperial Russian Army and fought against Napoleon. Later he moved to Britain and married Princess Charlotte of Wales, who was at the time second in line to the British throne.

Unfortunately, she died within a year of their marriage. Leopold I was then offered the throne of Greece after the Greek War of Independence. He turned it down and instead accepted the offer to lead Belgium becoming the first king of independent Belgium.

Answer: Auguste Beernaert

The country received its first Nobel Prize in 1904 when The Institute of International Law, established in Belgium in 1873, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace. Five years later, Auguste Beernaert became the first Belgian individual to become a Nobel Laureate when he was a co-recipient of the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1909, along with Frenchman Paul d'Estournelles de Constant. Auguste Beernaert was the 14th Prime Minister of Belgium.

He was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work at the Permanent Court of Arbitration.

Answer: Germany

The Schlieffen Plan was the name given to the German invasion of France and Belgium on 4th August, 1914. It was named after Field Marshal Alfred von Schlieffen, who had drawn up such a plan years earlier in 1905-1906. The name Schlieffen Plan was ascribed to this invasion much after the actual event. Though Belgium had declared its neutrality before the war started in earnest, Germany disregarded this and invaded it in a bid to quickly attack France.

Answer: Antwerp

After the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, Berlin was slated to host the next edition of the games in 1916. World War I put an end to this and the games were not held again until 1920. While Belgium had bid for this edition much earlier in 1912, no host city had been designated. Eventually Antwerp was picked as the host.

Many countries including Germany, Hungary and Austria, which had been on the opposing side during the war, were banned from participating in the games.

Answer: Mechelen incident

The Mechelen incident was also known as Mechelen Affair. It occurred on 10 January 1940 when a Nazi Germany aircraft crash landed near Vucht in the Limburg province. An officer on the plane was found to be carrying German plans for an invasion of the Netherlands and Belgium.

This was part of the Nazi plan to attack these countries and then France. While it is not known with certainty whether the discovery of these plans caused Germany to change their strategy significantly, the attack was delayed by a couple of months.

When it eventually occurred in May 1940, the countries were caught off-guard as they had expected the plans to have been revised.

Answer: Leopold III

As in World War I, Belgium again adopted a position of neutrality in World War II. Despite this position, Germany again invaded Belgium. This split the king and his cabinet into opposing sides. King Leopold III wanted to continue to maintain a neutral position while trying to regain control of the country. On the other hand, the cabinet felt that Germany's invasion had left the country with no choice but to join hands with the Allies.

They wanted to continue the fight in exile while allowing Britain and France access to fight from Belgium.

In the end Leopold negotiated a cease fire with Germany and was placed under house arrest. After the war, when Leopold returned to the throne, there was a crisis as it was felt that he had violated the terms of the Belgian Constitution with his actions.

This was the "Royal Question" which was eventually resolved with Leopold III abdicating in favour of his son, Baudouin.

Answer: Eddy Merckx

Eddy Merckx was born as Édouard Louis Joseph, baron Merckx on 17 June, 1945. After a successful stint as an amateur, he took up professional cycling in 1965. He was the first cyclist to win eleven Grand Tours, a record that stood unbeaten till the time of writing this quiz in 2018.

The Grand Tours are the three major European professional cycling stage races: Tour de France (Tour of France), Giro d'Italia (Tour of Italy) and Vuelta a España (Tour of Spain).

Answer: Dioxin Affair

The Dioxin Affair struck in 1999. It was found that the animal feedstock had been contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyl (PCBs) being well above the accepted thresholds. These dioxin-like toxins were carcinogenic and after toxicity was detected in eggs and poultry, the contamination was traced to their feedstock. Once detected, the European Union ordered a complete ban on Belgian agricultural exports of eggs, chickens, pork and beef.

The resultant impact on the Belgian food industry was estimated at 625 million euros.

This crisis played a major role in the federal elections of 1999 with the ruling party losing the elections.