100 Years of the First World War

The inner circle shows a poppy above the dates '2014–18'. Below these dates, the inscription 'The Great War Centenary', with the mint director's mark and the Brussels mintmark — the helmeted head of Archangel Michael — beneath. Along the upper inner edge, the country name in three languages: 'BELGIË – BELGIQUE – BELGIEN'.

Belgium was directly affected by the First World War from the very beginning: after the German invasion in August 1914, almost the entire country was occupied. Only a narrow strip in the west, behind the Yser river, remained under Belgian control — here King Albert I held out with his troops for the entire duration of the war. The battles on the Western Front, including the repeated engagements at Ypres in Belgian Flanders, were among the deadliest of the entire war. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers from Belgium, Britain, the Commonwealth, and Germany died there; poppies, which grew back on the devastated fields, became a symbol of remembrance — one still associated with the battlefields of Flanders today.

The First World War, known in the English-speaking world as "The Great War," formally ended in 1918 with the armistice of 11 November, which Belgium signed as one of the victorious Allied powers. The consequences for the country were profound: cities such as Ypres, Leuven, and Diksmuide were largely destroyed, and the population had endured years of occupation. Collective memory of the war remains alive in Belgium to this day, not least through the numerous memorials and cemeteries in Flanders that attract hundreds of thousands of visitors every year. To mark the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of war, Belgium issued a 2-euro commemorative coin in 2014, marking the beginning of the four-year commemorative cycle running through 2018.