Functionalism

Today in World Wars, I learned that in 1914 during World War I, when Germany invaded Belgium, Belgium citizens also joined the cause. Many of the citizens became snipers and would pick off German soldiers (look at the pictures. It would have been easy to shoot a solider because of easy hiding spots in the surrounding buildings). Even when the Germans killed 10 citizens for every one German soldier killed, the Belgium people still muscled on. Their king even joined the battle and personally led armies, while his 14 year old son was a private in the army and his wife a nurse.

It was impressive to me that almost all Belgium society (even the upper class, which usual just start wars, but don’t actually fight them) united to fight for their nation.  It reminds me of that new term we learned, functionalism, because every part of society was contributing in either small or large ways to get rid of the Germans so they can return to stability after the upheaval the war has caused.