An overwhelming invasion by the German army left Belgium partially occupied by the end of 1914, with its preserved territory shielded by deliberate defensive flooding at Nieuwpoort by the Belgians.
The municipality comprises the city of Nieuwpoort proper and the towns of Ramskapelle and Sint-Joris.
•
Besides Nieuwpoort proper, two small villages in the Flemish polders are part of the municipality, Sint-Joris and Ramskapelle.
•
During the Battle of the Yser, part of the First Battle of Ypres in World War I, Hendrik Geeraert opened the sluice gates on the mouth of the river Yser twice to flood the lower lying land, thus halting the German advance.
He studied Religion at Ghent and has been a teacher at Nieuwpoort.
A veteran of the Battle of Verdun, Moreau-Vauthier had the idea in 1920 to memorialize World War I by installing a series of sculpted stones along the 650 km front from Nieuwpoort, Belgium through Moosch near Altkirch, and on to the Franco-Swiss border.
Zannekin won the neighboring towns of Roeselare, Poperinge, Nieuwpoort, Veurne, Dunkirk, Cassel, Bailleul for his cause as they opened their gates to him.
Later, Charles Florent Idesbald de Preudhomme d'Hailly, Burgrave of Nieuwpoort, Oombergen, Sint-Lievens-Esse and Schoonbergen, Baron of Poeke and lord of Neuville, Kanegem and Velaine (1716–1792), carried out significant work on the castle between 1743 and 1752.
During the Battle of the Yser in the First World War, the river was deliberately flooded between Nieuwpoort and Diksmuide to provide an obstacle to the advancing German Army and keep westernmost Belgium safe from German occupation.