Htrappeniers

East African campaign

Good additions to the details of the Belgian Congo participation. I've edited your contribution, I hope I haven't changed your meaning, could you please check and rectify if I have. Thanks, Rexparry sydney 00:23, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for correcting my errors in English (I'm Flemish, Dutch speaking) and its my first contribution on Wikipedia, so some help is welcome. (H.Trappeniers 18:16, 2 May 2007 (UTC))

No problem, you deserve credit for being brave enough to contribute in a second language, and I'm very much in favour of encouraging those for whom English is not a native language to contribute to English wikipedia. If you ever want me to check some English for you before you contribute it, put it on my talk page and I'll have a look. Regards, Rexparry sydney 03:30, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

Articles needing some further information

Hendrick — I was wondering if you could check, if you're interested, for Belgian/French/Dutch sources for some things that I haven't been able to find from English-language sources. These are:

• Omer Bodson -- career and exploits before he went on the Stairs Expedition. Also, I think that Captain Stairs was to a large part repsonsible for Bodson's death — he should not have sent Bodson to arrest Msiri because it was a huge insult in Msiri's eyes for Bodson, the second-in-command, to confront him in front of his warriors as he did, and that is why Msiri became angry and started to draw his sword, causing Bodson to react by shooting him. My belief is that Stairs made a big mistake by not going himself, but I can't find any sources which back this view. There is a book by VERBEKEN, AUGUSTE titled "Msiri, roi du Garenganze. «L'Homme rouge» du Katanga." Bruxelles, L. Cuypers, 1956. I haven't been able to obtain it here in Australia but it may have historical illustrations, as well as good material for the Msiri article.
• Christian de Bonchamps -- I could not find any information on what he did after 1897, and the information in English on his Ethiopian expedition is sketchy and needs expanding.
• Msiri - the article badly needs an illustration, I wondered if there might be any sketches of him in any Belgian publications which might be out of copyright by now. Also the Verbeken book would be a very good source for confirming or altering detail in the Msiri article.

Regards, Rexparry sydney 06:22, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

Hello, On wickipedia I did not find anything interesting in French or Dutch. I'll search further on the web but I'm a little bit affraid that I won't find much more. Let you know if I find something. For direct communication, you can always send emails to hendrik.trappeniers@gmail.com H.Trappeniers 09:46, 6 May 2007 (UTC) Nothing found usefull on the net in French or Dutch. Sorry H.Trappeniers 10:58, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

Hi Hendrick,

I have a question related to Belgian history. I actually presented this question to the Wikepedia discussion page on 'Origins of World War one' but they did not answer it. Do you know if the 'Treaty of Guarantee of Belgian neutrality' of 1839 required the signatories to merely avoid invading Belgium or did it ALSO require them to defend Belgium against an invader. The reason I ask this is I was reading some old books at archive.org (it is a great website for finding all sorts of old long out of print books) that were kind of German WW1 propaganda and these pamplets basically made that argument Britain was NOT required to intervene on Belgium's behalf. I believe Britain was required to intervene by the treaty but it could be a legal type question involving international law. My understanding is that the 1871 Belgian Treaty basically said that at the conclusion of the Franco-Prussian war, the treaty would revert back to the 1839 treaty. So in 1914 I believe the treaty in force was that of 1839. There may also be the issue of wether treaties signed by Prussia would transfer to the German Empire, although I believe the treaty did transfer.

I got into the discussion with the editors of 'Origins of WW1' and that article is somewhat biased in my opinion, such as allegations that France was intending on invading Belgium before the Germans did, etc. Thanks 75.84.227.196 (talk) 21:05, 13 August 2008 (UTC)edwardlovette75.84.227.196 (talk) 21:05, 13 August 2008 (UTC)

Hendrik : About the question about the treaty : Indeed the treaty of 1839 still was the treaty that the Belgians refered to when the asked help of the British. Is the treaty was still guaranteed by the German Empire, I think so because but I did not find any written evidence about it.

About Origin of WW1 : France intended to invade Belgium : there is no proof at all about it, and the French always promised to respect the Belgian border. But problem is that the Germans always used has an excuse that the French where invading Belgium and that they had to enter Belgium to stop the French. Its like the myth of the Franctireurs in Leuven (Louvain), an excuse to explain their attrocities, no more no less. 21:35, 30 August 2008 (UTC)