Schlieffen Plan Essay

ambitious military plan in the history of Europe. Before the outbreak of the war the Kaiser instructed his chief staff Alfred Schlieffen to devise a strategy that could allow the Germans to fight against their enemies that surrounded them(France and Russia). This plan was developed in a study written in the early 1906 .It involved the attack the northwest of Belgium and defending the Alsace-Lorraine border with a smaller German army. Once the tactic was archived, the second facet of the plan consisted that

in an indirect attempt to weaken the French Army. Ultimately the plan, first penned in 1905 by German Field Marshall, Alfred Von Schlieffen, involved a swift invasion of France, complete debilitation of its military, followed by a defensive operation on the Empire’s lengthy shared border with Russia. Although the assassination of Austro-Hungarian archduke Franz Ferdinand did not occur for nearly 9 years after the formation of the plan, tensions had been rising within continental Europe for the past

During World War I, Germany was involved in a two front war with France, Britain and Belgium on the Western front and Russia on the Eastern front. In hopes of preventing a loss in the war, Germany devised the Schlieffen plan to ensure victory; However, not only did their plan for war fail to recognize potential threats and factors, but their lack of communication and cooperation also contributed to an overall defeat. Germany’s loss in the two front war and World War I was ultimately the fault of

failure of the Schlieffen plan, The Battle of the Marne, Plan 17 and the Race to the Sea and the defensiveness of weapons. Failure of the Schlieffen Plan To a large extent the failure of the Schlieffen plan was the most significant reason for the creation of the western front. The Schleiffen Plan was a defensive military strategy to deal with the French and Russian forces , staunch allies, in order to avoid a war on two fronts. Which was not what Germany wanted. This plan created by Von

Before World War I, German Chief of staff Alfred von Schlieffen was requested by Kaiser Wilhelm II to create Germany’s army a plan for a war against France and Russia. Germany could not compete with other European powers. Surrounding states afraid of Germany’s quick growth and aggressive attitude were eager to contain it. The Kaiser sought out Schlieffen and directed him to devise a plan that would allow Germany to gain power and assert itself as a dominant state. Because the Franco-Russian alliance

German chief of staff, demonstrated a failure of mission command resulting in defeat. The Schlieffen Plan was a German battle plan to fight a two front war devised in 1905 by Alfred von Schlieffen as the Chief of the General Staff for Germany. The plan called for the German army to apply overwhelming force in France to capture the capital of Paris within six weeks before changing focus to Russia. The plan intended to achieve a quick and decisive victory by sweeping a line of armies through neutral

Austria-Hungary felt uneasy, then Britain, France, and Russia were all in danger of being attacked by Germany and Austria-Hungary. The Schlieffen plan was the plan for Germany to quickly attack France. The plan was for Russia to then move its troops to the border. Germany would have already defeated France, and would be moving back to defeat Russia(16). The problem with this plan, was Germany expected Russia to take six weeks to move its troops to the border, which would be plenty of time for Germany to defeat

A stalemate formed on the Western Front due to four main reasons, one being that the Schlieffen plan had failed, another reason was that the French were defeated by the Germans at the Battle of the Marne, the "race to the Channel" was another factor that resulted in the stalemate and the last reason was that defending positions was far easier than attacking. The Schlieffen Plan began to fail when Moltke, the German commander, altered the balance of the forces so that

September 1914, is an important indication of what the German war aims were.10 One of the key German aims was to create a system known as ‘Mitteleuropa’ which involved a unification of central European lands under German control.11 The main aspects of this plan were to make Belgium and Luxemburg vassal states of Germany, have German control over the Russian Baltic areas as well as Poland and possibly some parts of France thus creating a central German controlled union of states.12 Germany also wanted to create

against Russia to the east and France to the west. Germany believed it had the capability to fight the Triple Entente, but because of the numerical superiority of their enemy, the war would have to be quick and decisive for Germany to prevail. The Schlieffen plan, sought to capitalize on the inability of Russia to quickly mobilize by focusing on the western front in order to quickly knock France out of the war and avoid a more difficult two-front war. For Germany, quick, decisive military action was the