The United States and Belgium maintain a friendly bilateral relationship. Continuing to celebrate cooperative U.S. and Belgian relations, 2007 marked the 175th anniversary of the nations' relationship.
According to the 2021 U.S. Global Leadership Report, 41% of Belgians approve of U.S. leadership, with 36% disapproving and 23% uncertain.[1]
In 1830, Belgium declared its independence from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. During the ensuing Belgian Revolution, France helped Belgium gain its independence. The United States recognized Belgium as an independent country on January 6, 1832.[2] An American legation headed by Hugh S. Legaré arrived in Brussels that same year.[2] The U.S., Britain and other major countries demanded Belgium pay cash indemnities from Belgium for property damages incurred during its Revolution of 1830. American merchants lost $151,000. Belgium stalled for years and finally paid in 1842 after increasing threats from Washington about penalizing trade.[3]
Many Belgians immigrated to the United States throughout the 19th Century. Today, there are over 350,000 United States residents who identify as Belgian American.[5] Many of these Belgian immigrants settled in Midwestern states, such as Wisconsin and Michigan.
The U.S. legation in Brussels was elevated to the status of an embassy on October 3, 1919.[10]
World War II (1939–1945)
John Cudahy, wealthy scion of a Wisconsin meatpacking enterprise, in 1940 became Franklin Roosevelt's ambassador to Belgium. He developed a close personal friendship with King Leopold III. Germany forced his recall. He denounced Britain, France and the U.S. for a failure to plan an adequate defense. He became an embarrassment to Washington, which was officially neutral.[11]
U.S. troops helped to liberate Belgium from German occupation along with British troops, Canadian troops, and members of the Belgian Resistance.[12] According to Pieter Lagrou, American policy after the Nazis were driven out focused on creating political stability and helping Allied military operations. Washington ignored the fierce ideological debates in Belgium, focusing on whether the King was wise or traitorous in his dealings with the Nazis. Washington and London were neutral on the Royal question, but US Ambassador Charles Sawyer mistrusted the king and the Catholic parties. He saw significant dangers to democracy from those elements and therefore supported the left-wing coalition government headed by the socialists.[13]
Belgium received aid from the United States through the Marshall Plan, aimed at reconstructing the post-war European economy although Belgian economic recovery predated the Marshall Plan.[14] Both Belgium and the US were among the founding members of NATO, a North Atlantic collective defence alliance. Belgium also participated in the US-led UN mission to repel the North Korean invasion of South Korea during the Korean War (see Belgian United Nations Command).
According to Frank Gerits, Washington used the diplomats at the embassy and especially the facilities of the United States Information Service (USIS) in the 1950s to support its Cold War strategy. USIS propaganda influenced Belgian public opinion to favor the United States generally, support NATO, support the Korean war effort, and promote the European Defense Community (EDC).[15]
In 1960, the Belgian Congo gained independence from Belgium as the Republic of the Congo (today known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo). As the newly independent country fell into civil war during the Congo Crisis, Belgium and the United States cooperated to foil Soviet efforts to turn the Congo into a communist country. Both the Belgian and U.S. militaries intervened to rescue captives during Operation Dragon Rouge. Belgium and the United States were ultimately successful in helping the oppressive, anti-communist regime of Joseph-Désiré Mobutu come to power.
The U.S. appreciates Belgian activism in international affairs, including its participation in the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, its reconstruction and development assistance to Iraq, its peacekeeping missions in the Balkans and Lebanon, its frequent provision of airlift in international crises, and its hosting of 2005 and 2007 transatlantic dialogues between European foreign ministers and the Secretary of State. During the January 17, 2006 visit by Prime Minister Verhofstadt, President Bush thanked him for his "leadership" in helping "the people of the Congo realize their full potential."
As an outward-looking nation, Belgium works closely with the United States bilaterally and in international and regional organizations to encourage economic and political cooperation and assistance to developing countries. Belgium has welcomed hundreds of U.S. firms to its territory, many of which have their European headquarters there.[which?]
Resident diplomatic missions
Former embassy building of Belgium in Washington D.C.Embassy of the United States in Brussels
^Pierre-Henri Laurent, "Anglo-American Diplomacy and the Belgian Indemnities Controversy 1836–42." Historical Journal 10#2 (1967): 197-217 online.
^P.H. Laurent, "Change and Continuity in a Diplomacy: the First Americans in Brussels." Revue belge de Philologie et d'Histoire 45.2 (1967): 388-407 online.
^Johan Den Hertog, "The Commission for Relief in Belgium and the Political Diplomatic History of the First World War." Diplomacy & Statecraft 21.4 (2010): 593-613.
^John Wells Davidson,
"Brand Whitlock and the diplomacy of Belgian Relief," Prologue (1970) 22#3 pp 145-160
^Pieter Lagrou, "US Politics of Stabilization in Liberated Europe. The View from the American Embassy in Brussels, 1944-6." European History Quarterly 25.2 (1995): 209-246.
^Frank Gerits, "Taking Off the Soft Power Lens: The United States Information Service in Cold War Belgium (1950-1958)." Belgisch Tijdschrift voor Nieuwste Geschiedenis. Journal of Belgian History 42.4 (2012): 10-49.
Bertrams, Kenneth. "The domestic uses of Belgian-American ‘mutual understanding’: the commission for relief in Belgium educational foundation, 1920–1940." Journal of Transatlantic Studies 13.4 (2015): 326-343.
Den Hertog, Johan. "The Commission for Relief in Belgium and the Political Diplomatic History of the First World War." Diplomacy & Statecraft 21.4 (2010): 593-613.
Dworkin, Ira. "On the Borders of Race, Mission, and State: African Americans and the American Presbyterian Congo Mission.”. Borderlands and Frontiers in Africa 40 (2013): 183+ online.
Grosbois, Thierry. "Diplomatic Relations between the London Belgian Government and the United States (1940-1944)." Guerres mondiales et conflits contemporains 2 (2001): 167-187.
Huistra, Pieter, and Kaat Wils. "The Exchange Programme of the Belgian American Educational Foundation: An Institutional Perspective on Scientific Persona Formation (1920-1940)." BMGN-Low Countries Historical Review 131.4 (2016): 112-134. online
Kaplan, Lawrence S. "The United States, Belgium, and the Congo Crisis of 1960." The Review of Politics 29.2 (1967): 239-256.
Lagrou, Pieter. "US Politics of Stabilization in Liberated Europe. The View from the American Embassy in Brussels, 1944-6." European History Quarterly 25.2 (1995): 209-246.
Maga, Timothy P. "Diplomat among Kings: John Cudahy and Leopold III." Wisconsin Magazine of History 67.2 (1983): 82-98 online
Mountz, William T. "Americanizing africanization: The Congo crisis, 1960-1967" (PhD dissertation. University of Missouri-Columbia, 2014). online
O'Malley, Alanna. "‘What an awful body the UN have become!!'Anglo-American–UN relations during the Congo crisis, February–December 1961." Journal of Transatlantic Studies 14.1 (2016): 26-46. online
Rooney, John W. Jr. Belgian-American Diplomatic and Consular Relations, 1830-1850(1969)
Shanahan, Christopher. "The Diplomatic Career of Bellamy Storer In Belgium and Spain, 1897-1902." Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia 79.1 (1968): 50-64. online
Primary sources
Gay, George I., ed. Public Relations of the Commission for Relief in Belgium: Documents (2 vol 1929) online
Gibson, Hugh. A Journal from Our Legation in Belgium (1917) online
Hoover, Herbert. An American Epic: Vol. I: The Relief of Belgium and Northern France, 1914–1930 (1959) text search
Hoover, Herbert. The Memoirs of Herbert Hoover: Years of Adventure, 1874–1920 (1951) pp 152–237
Hunt, Edward Eyre. War Bread: A Personal Narrative of the War and Relief in Belgium (New York: Holt, 1916.) online