Germany strongly believed that future wars would include short and rapid mobilization, which would be key for achieving victory. Von Schlieffen had produced a war plan, which followed these assumptions. Germany feared a war on two fronts, he decided to use the bulk of German forced to win a speedy victory over France, after which troops can then attack the Tsar’s army. His plan however, required the Germans to sweep through to northern France via the neutral Belgium and then advance into the west of Paris, sweeping back eastwards to defeat the French who would still be defending the German boarder. Germany would then be free to move to the Eastern Front to confront the Russian Army, who would only just have mobilized due to their vast size.
The invasion of Belgium broke the treaty of London, meaning the European powers who had signed the treaty were immediately forced in to action. The invasion of Belgium also nullifies the argument that the plan was deployed for defensive purposes as it was the French who posed a threat while Belgium remained neutral. This point can be furthered as Taylor explains ‘the moment that the Germans decided on mobilisation, they decided for war’ which suggests that the Germans knew their deliberately aggressive actions, such as invading the protected Belgium, had the potential to initiate wide scale war amongst European powers but still invaded. Taylor also stresses ‘that there could be no delay between mobilisation and war’ and in general emphasises the rush that the Germans had to take to ensure they were not trapped in a two-front war with France and Russia that they could not afford over an extended period of time. Taylor’s argument, which heavily uses war by
World War One was finally over. However, at the beginning of 1918, it had looked as if the Germans might win. The winter of 1916 was bad for Russian soldiers and the Russian people. The arrival of the German troops after Brusilov’s successful offensive in the summer saw the Russian army retreating again. Valuable weapons were lost and the army was running short of ammunition and medical supplies.
This reasoned to long-term tension before the war. The Great Powers also began their preparations for war on land long before the war broke out. Again, Germany created the Schlieffen Plan 1905. Named after German general Count Alfred von Schlieffen who created the plan, which later proved unsuccessful (arguably, they didn't actually follow the plan). The main idea of this plan was to avoid fighting a war on two fronts simultaneously, first take out France in the west and then move to the East and fight a slower mobilizing Russia to the
After having given a blank-cheque to the Astro-Hungarians, the Germans’ will for war increased, while awaiting the outbreak of war. The secret meeting, the War council of 8th December 1912, also shows how the Germans were ready to go into war, with their early planning of a possible war. The Chief of the General staff, Von Molkte comments at the meeting: “war is inevitable, the sooner the better”. This shows how Germany is awaiting the outbreak of the war. Hence, Germany played a key role in the events leading up to the war.
The German army had a plan on how they would defeat France before the Russian army were ready to fight, (this was called the Schlieffen Plan), instead of entering France the most predicted way, through the French borderline, they would go through Belgium a neutral country (and taking it), then they would defeat France in 6 weeks, then they would deal with Russia. Britain had been worried about Germany since Kaiser
So the Prussian Army, lead by General Gebhard von Blucher and the Anglo-Allied Army, lead by the Duke of Wellington decided to mobilize and conduct a coordinated invasion against the French in 1815. Napoleon was definitely going to have to think of something to get him out of this one because the Prussian Army was a metaphorical machine and the Duke of Wellington’s army was just as experienced. All the western European countries mobilized together and the Seventh Coalition was attempting to defeat Napoleon. Napoleon had to use strategy to win this battle. He knew that the number of soldiers he had were greatly outnumbered by all the country’s armies that wanted to end his rule, so he had to act fast.
As you can see there were also many other reasons for the war besides the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. After Serbia declined the ultimatum, the Austro-Hungarian Empire waged war on Serbia on 28th July 1914. Since Russia was allied to Serbia, they announced mobilization of troops in defense for Serbia on August 1st 1914. Germany was allied to the Austro-Hungarians and took the Russian mobilization as a threat and declared war on Russia on August 1st 1914. Since Russia and France were allies and France didn’t like Germany due to the lost war against them in 1870, they declared war on Germany on August 3rd 1914.
The pact was the final cause of war as Hitler could now invade Poland without any interference from Stalin. Britain and France had declared war on Germany as they guaranteed Poland’s independence. However, the policy of appeasement in the 1930’s also played a big role in causing the Second World War. Appeasement had led Hitler to believe that Britain and France were weak. Britain and France gave Germany the Rhineland, the Sudetenland and they were allowed to have an Anschluss with Austria.
Why did Germany go to war in 1914? There are many reasons as to why Germany went to war in 1914 such as fear of encirclement, various alliances formed, internal policies and domestic and military factors. I personally think the most important reason was due to their internal politics. Germany was formed as a country in 1871 and so felt like they had to prove themselves as a nation to the rest of Europe. They did this through aggressive policies, which they hoped would achieve their aim and build up their empire.