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MODERN WORLD HISTORY
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 1900-1939
Causes of World War One
The Schlieffen Plan
THE SCHLIEFFEN PLAN
- Germany's plan for war
- based on the belief that if Germany went to war, it would be faced with a war on two fronts with France and Russia
- assumptions
~ France was weak and could be beaten quickly
~ Russia was much stronger, but would take longer to mobilise its army
- began to go wrong on 30 July 1914, when Russia mobilised its army, but France did not
.: 3 August 1914: Germany forced to invent a pretext to declare war on France
- got worse when Britain declared war on Germany (4 August 1914)
~ according to a Treaty of 1839: Britain promised to defend Belgium
EXTRA FACTS
1. Plan was the work of the German army chief-of-staff: Alfred von Schlieffen
2. Took 9 years to devise
- started in 1897
- presented in 1905
- revised in 1906
3. Plan imagined a huge hammer blow at Paris
- using 90% of the German army
- swinging down through Belgium and northern France
.: take out France in a quick, decisive campaign
4. Plan of attack
- for Germany, mobilisation and war were the same thing
5. It was Germany's only plan of war
6. Did not plan for a situation where
- Germany was at war with Russia, but not with France
- German chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg asked: "Is the Fatherland in danger?", German general Moltke declared: "Yes".
7. Russia took only 10 days to mobilise
- Moltke was forced to send some troops to the eastern front
.: weakened the main attack on Paris
8. 2 August 1914: German army asked permission to go through Belgium
- Belgians refused
- German army fought through Belgium
.: slowed down and tired the soldiers
- Britain's decision to uphold the 1839 Treaty with Belgium amazed the Germans
- "For a scrap of paper, Great Britain is going to make war?" said the amazed Bethmann-Hollweg
9. The British Expeditionary Force (BEF)
- arrived to resist the Germans
- 23 August 1914: held them up at the Battle of Mons
- army exhausted and many of the best forces killed
.: 6-10 September 1914: Moltke was defeated at the battle of the Marne
- "Sir, we have lost the war," Moltke told the Kaiser
The above information was taken from a BBC website: BBC - GCSE Bitesize, from the History Section
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