ABSTRACT
Introduction This chapter focuses on the centenary of the First World War, its planning and potential effects on battlefield tourism in Belgium, especially in the northwest Westhoek (“west corner” or “west hook”) region known in Commonwealth Countries as Flanders Fields. This region experienced major battles in 1914, 1915, 1917, and 1918 (Figure 20.1; Bauwens 2008; de Vos 2003). These arose from the Westhoek’s strategic location as the northern anchor of the Allied line blocking German advances into France from the east through neutral Belgium. The region was also of symbolic importance because Ieper (Dutch; French: Ypres) and its small surrounding territory (the Ypres Salient) were, by late 1914, at the edge of the last unoccupied area of Belgium, the neutral nation whose invasion by Germany in August had sparked the war along the western front.
