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Belgium under Albert I – King: Ruled 23 December 1909 – 17 February 1934
1932 Silver 20 Francs 37mm (19.54 grams) 0.680 Silver (0.2405 oz. ASW)
Reference: KM# 104 (1931-32)
· ALBERT·KONING · · DER·BELGEN · DEVREESE, Head of King Albert I facing left. Text in Dutch surrounding, designer below.
20 FR G.D, Coat of arms dividing value, year and designer initials below.
Edge Lettering:
BELGIQUE = BELGIE =
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 Albert I (8 April 1875 – 17 February 1934) reigned as the third King of the Belgians from 1909 to 1934. This was an eventful period in the history of Belgium, which included the period of World War I (1914-1918), when 90 percent of Belgium was overrun, occupied, and ruled by the German Empire. Other crucial issues included the adoption of the Treaty of Versailles, the ruling of the Belgian Congo as an overseas possession of the Kingdom of Belgium along with the League of Nations mandate of Ruanda-Urundi, the reconstruction of Belgium following the war, and the first five years of the Great Depression (1929-1934). King Albert died in a mountaineering accident in eastern Belgium in 1934, at the age of 58, and he was succeeded by his son Leopold.
Upon his return to Brussels, King Albert made a speech in which he outlined the reforms he desired to see implemented in Belgium, including universal suffrage and the establishment of a Flemish University in Ghent.
Trip to the United States
From 23 September through 13 November 1919, King Albert, Queen Elisabeth of Bavaria, and their son Prince Leopold made an official visit to the United States. During a visit of the historic Native American pueblo of Isleta Pueblo, New Mexico, King Albert decorated Father Anton Docher with Knight in the Order of Leopold II. Docher offered the King a turquoise cross mounted in silver made by the Tiwas Indians. Ten thousand people travelled to Isleta for this occasion. That same year he was elected an honorary member of the New York Society of the Cincinnati.
In New York the King received a ticker tape parade in his honour. The visit, which was prepared by his private secretary Max-Léo Gérard, was considered a success by the Belgian authorities.
Introduction of universal male suffrage
Since the Belgian general strike of 1893, plural votes had been granted to individual men based on their wealth, education, and age, but after the Belgian general strike of 1913 the promise had been made to have constitutional reform for one man, one vote universal suffrage but the German invasion of Belgium in August 1914 and the subsequent occupation delayed the implementation of the commission’s proposal.
In 1918, King Albert forged a post-war “Government of National Union” made up of members of the three main parties in Belgium, the Catholics, the Liberals, and the Socialists and attempted to mediate between the parties in order to bring about one man, one vote universal suffrage for men. He succeeded.
The Belgian Government sent the King to the Paris Peace Conference in April 1919, where he met with the leaders of France, Britain and the United States. He had four strategic goals:
- to restore and expand the Belgian economy using cash reparations from Germany;
- to assure Belgium’s security by the creation of a new buffer state on the left bank of the Rhine;
- to revise the obsolete treaty of 1839;
- to promote a ‘rapprochement’ between Belgium and the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg.
He strongly advised against a harsh, restrictive treaty against Germany to prevent future German aggression. He also considered that the dethronement of the princes of Central Europe and, in particular, the dissolution of the Habsburg Empire would constitute a serious menace to peace and stability on the continent. The Allies considered Belgium to be the chief victim of the war, and it aroused enormous popular sympathy, but the King’s advice played a small role in Paris.
Later years
Albert spent much of the remainder of his reign assisting in the post-war reconstruction of Belgium.
In 1920 Albert changed the family name from “Saxe-Coburg-Gotha” to “House of Belgium” (van België, in Dutch; de Belgique in French) as a result of strong anti-German sentiment. This mirrored the British royal family’s name-change to House of Windsor in 1917.
Albert was a committed conservationist and in 1925, influenced by the ideas of Carl E. Akeley, he founded Africa’s first national park, now known as Virunga National Park, in what is now Democratic Republic of Congo. During this period, he was also the first reigning European monarch to visit the United States.
 Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a sovereign state in Western Europe. It is a small, densely populated country which covers an area of 30,528 square kilometres (11,787 sq mi) and has a population of about 11 million people.
Straddling the cultural boundary between Germanic and Latin Europe, Belgium is home to two main linguistic groups: the Dutch-speaking, mostly Flemish community, which constitutes about 59% of the population, and the French-speaking, mostly Walloon population, which comprises 41% of all Belgians. Additionally, there is a small group of German-speakers who live in the East Cantons located around the High Fens area, and bordering Germany.
 Belgium is a federal constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. It is divided into three regions and three communities, that exist next to each other. Its two largest regions are the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders in the north and the French-speaking southern region of Wallonia. The Brussels-Capital Region, officially bilingual, is a mostly French-speaking enclave within the Flemish Region. A German-speaking Community exists in eastern Wallonia. Belgium’s linguistic diversity and related political conflicts are reflected in its political history and complex system of government.
 Historically, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg were known as the Low Countries; it once covered a somewhat larger area than the current Benelux group of states. The region was called Belgica in Latin, after the Roman province of Gallia Belgica. From the end of the Middle Ages until the 17th century, the area of Belgium was a prosperous and cosmopolitan centre of commerce and culture. From the 16th century until the Belgian Revolution in 1830, when Belgium seceded from the Netherlands, the area of Belgium served as the battleground between many European powers, causing it to be dubbed the “Battlefield of Europe,” a reputation strengthened by both world wars.
Upon its independence, Belgium participated in the Industrial Revolution and, during the course of the 20th century, possessed a number of colonies in Africa. The second half of the 20th century was marked by rising tensions between the Dutch-speaking and the French-speaking citizens fueled by differences in language and the unequal economic development of Flanders and Wallonia. This continuing antagonism has led to several far-reaching reforms, resulting in a transition from a unitary to a federal arrangement during the period from 1970 to 1993. Despite the reforms, tensions between the groups remain; the formation of a coalition government took 18 months following the June 2010 federal election.
Belgium is a founding member of the European Union, Eurozone, NATO, OECD and WTO, and a part of the trilateral Benelux Union. Its capital, Brussels, hosts several of the EU’s official seats as well as the headquarters of many major international organizations such as NATO. Belgium is also a part of the Schengen Area.
Belgium is a developed country, with an advanced high-income economy and is categorized as “very high” in the Human Development Index.
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