Belgian Legion

Military units under the name Belgian Legion

Several military units have been known as the Belgian Legion. The term "Belgian Legion" can refer to Belgian volunteers who served in the French Revolutionary Wars, Napoleonic Wars, Revolutions of 1848. More prominent the The Belgian Legion of 1864-1867, also called the Régiment Impératrice Charlotte (Empress-Charlotte Regiment), was an expeditionary corps of 1,500 Belgian volunteers formed in 1864 and fought alongside the Imperials during the Mexico Expedition. The unit suffered 204 deaths, 148 of which were due to illness. After the republican victory, the legion was back in Belgium in early 1867, a few months before the execution of Emperor Maximilian of Mexico.

flag of the Belgian Legion in Mexico also called the Régiment Impératrice Charlotte
Soldiers of the Belgian Legion
Belgian Legion in Mexico
Mexico. - Costumes of the officers and soldiers of the Belgian regiment - the bodyguards of the Empress Charlotte
Belgian Legion in Mexico

Quotes

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  • Certainly, in such conditions there is enough to seduce those of our young officers whom Belgian neutrality condemns to a rest of which they are somewhat impatient. The honor of carrying with dignity abroad the name of the fatherland and that of defending the august daughter of a beloved sovereign will soon, we have no doubt, fill the ranks of the Belgian-Mexican legion.
  • Whatever opinion one forms of the enterprise to which Archduke Maximilian has just devoted his life, it is not possible for us Belgians to forget that the princess who shares the destinies of the new emperor is also the beloved daughter of our king, that she grew up among us, that our homeland is her own, and that she has the right to count on the sympathies and the wishes of her compatriots .
  • It is understandable that a colonial establishment organized under such conditions cannot fail to prosper. We are also convinced that the example of the Empress' s guards will be followed by a large number of our compatriots who, trusting with reason in the new situation in Mexico, will take advantage of all this set of circumstances so exceptionally advantageous, to to go bring the contribution of their arms and their intelligence to the beautiful work of civilization undertaken by the emperor Maximilian and the empress Charlotte, his august companion.
  • The moment the remnants of the Belgian legion are going to return to their country, it is necessary to demonstrate all the folly of the undertaking, not to fall out against the foregoing, but to keep public sentiment on its guard against new undertakings. If one were to attempt such. All the dream images that people had conceived of that adventurous expedition have now disappeared.
 
Battle of Tacámbaro

See also

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