World War I question

Belgium had a 60% larger population than Serbia and an economy some four or five times larger. Why was their army and their impact on the war so much smaller than Serbia's, which on its own held a front for about a year and inflicted hundreds of thousands of casualties on the Central Powers? Or Bulgaria, which was in a similar boat? Just because they didn't have time to build a large army before most of their country was occupied by Germany?

Because the Balkan nations have been fighting fiercely for their freedom for a long time, especially in the 30 years before WW1.
They were ready to fight tooth and claw, especially the Serbs because they were invaded by Austria.
And to understand why, you'd have to really dig into 50 years of relations between Serbia and Austria(Hungary).
Serbia operated as an Austrian proxy from 1878 to 1903, and when Austria annexed Bosnia in 1908 there was an overwhelming feeling that they were going to be next on the chopping block.
Now imagine those fears becoming reality in 1914

Because Belgium is a physical meme and a non-country and their greatest achievement ever was chaining a bunch of niggers in the Congo. Serbs on the other hand are a bloodthirsty savage warrior race that spent the previous couple centuries fighting and didn't have time for flamboyant sodomy and eating shitty chocolates like the Belgians.

>they were ready
Is the only thing that makes sense from your bullocks about fighting for freedom. Serbia wouldve been gutterstomped had they shared a direct border with Germany and not that schizophrenic shithole of a memetic empire that wasnt even able to go toe to toe with the Italians...

Well, Serbia did fall after Austria gave command over to August von Mackensen.
Also, the fact that Germans built a small memorial to show respect for and commemorate their enemy, and burried their dead, whereas the Austrians started hanging civilians, tells a lot about their empires.

but serbs aren't human

>Why was their army and their impact on the war so much smaller than Serbia's,
Because from the start Belgium was fighting the a much more capable army than Serbia was. Remember that when the Germans came to play in the Balkans they threw the Serbian Army right out of their own clay.

Serbia had an army that was absurdly oversized, compared to its economic base. The only reason why they could support it were massive French loans. Not only that, but they had also gained valuable experience during the 2 Balkan wars. Serbia is also a far more defensible country than the more open Belgium. And they were faced with a less military capable opponent than the Belgians.

Because Serbia had to fight Austria-Hungary, and Belgium had to fight Germany. Germany had a well trained and organised military. They had well thought out battle plans drawn prior to the war, and competent generals. All of these things Austria-Hungary lacked. Because of all these factors Germany quickly overran Belgium, whilst Serbia humiliated Austria-Hungary for a year until German reinforcements showed up. Serbia also had some experience in modern warfare due to the balkan wars.

The non meme answer

> muh dogs
> muh steel cupolas
> muh fortresses

Because Belgium was a flat roaded land easy for the german army to traverse, while serbia was mountainous and wilderness

In 1914, Serbia had been at war for three years

That's a 3-year head start on everything: mobilization, training, combat fucking experience

Belgium was half the size of Serbia in territory

Germany invaded a non-country by catching a train vs. Austria and its multilingual crock stuck in the Balkans

>That's a 3-year head start on everything: mobilization, training, combat fucking experience

But, just to advocate for Old Nick, also a 3-year head start on casualties, expenses, depletion of materiel, etc. It wouldn't be an unmixed blessing.

Heck there were ethnicities in the Austro-Hungarian army that didn't even want to fight the Serbs

C H O C O L A T E S O L D I E R S
H O
O L
C D
O I
L E
A R
T S
E

Serbia had an experienced army and saw it coming and could hide in the mountains.

The Austrian army was just as capable as any other, though smaller than Germanys.

Belgium had flat ground and the German army was massed 9:1 on the belgium border as per the Schlieffen plan.

You nigger, try saying that in public and you would be fucking dead. Your probably some pudgy Germanic/mutt burger faggot who would get their ass kicked in a real fight.

We know alot of them did because parties like pick related and Petain were so popular.

>World war one

>Hitler

American education.

>tfw didn't actually read the OP
God damn.
Fuck.

Too late user.

I saw your post.

Forgive me.
>literally says World War I in the title
>literally says Central Powers in the post
Kill me.

Do i have autism? I make sick ass references like this all day and nobody gets it.

I guess my autism is what makes it so that I remember htis obscure useless info.

Either that or Veeky Forums has never actulaly read anything but wikipedia history entries.

there were vojvodinan serbs that comfortably fought serbia

who are you referring to?

and despite this the belgian army managed to hold out 300 times as long as the germans had planned

Only to some beachfront properties

>Germany invaded a non-country by catching a train
this made me laugh for some reason

pls explain your obscure meme

even if we do not count that, the belgian army did manage to successfully defend itself long enough the german wargoal was entirely negated
the germans counted on breaching through belgium into france in the matter of a single week, the german army prevented this for 3 months

and this is another critical difference with the serbian situation: the wargoal.
Germany's goal was not the conquest of belgium but rather to open up a route into northern france, this forced the belgian army to defend its entire territory rather than being able to withdraw to strategic regions
if the belgian army had withdrawn to the ardennes the germans would not have significant need to pursue it and could instead have utilized the infrastructure of flanders to advance into northern france

Mackensen's memorials describe the organization and fighting power of Serbian forces, they gave Germans more trouble in the war except the French and British. Also Belgium lies right in the open for any conquering army from either Germany or France, while Serbia then had to be conquered by passing through Danube and then fighting up the Balkan mountains to conquer town after town. And French provided their school boy Peter I, then king of Serbia, with the best artillery in World War I which he used constantly.

When asked about belgian resistance in regards to the schlieffen plan he said they were 'chocolate soldiers only meant for display' and that germany would roll right through them.

Also they Invasion of Serbia 2: Electric Boogaloo featured Bulgarian coming in and fucking Serbia in the ass.

>chocolate soldiers
BIG

BELGIAN

CHOCOLATE