The Schlieffen Plan :: European Europe History

The Schlieffen formulateThe aim of the planThe aim of the plan was to avoid involvementing ii state of wars at once (France and Russia) The PlanThe plan was to attack France, not on the main border, which was fortified, but to attack through Belgium and circle the capital Paris. This is completely supposed to happen before the predicted 6 weeks it would take for the Russians to get their military ready for action. This would mean Paris would be taken by Germany, thus capturing France, then the military personnel could go across the country and attack Russia. What very happened* Germans went into Belgium * Belgians blew up railways which stopped Germans * Belgians stopped supplies and reinforcements getting to the Germans * Britain wanted to cooperate war because Germany was attacking France and Belgium * Sir Edward Grey made parliament fight, he said if we dont fight Germany will dominate Europe and trade will suffer * British goernance sent a telegram to tell Germans to l eave Belgium * No rejoinder to the telegram * Britain was at war with Germany * Everyone in all the countries were rushing to join the army, they thought their country was right and they would win * 100,000 soldiers from the BEFC (British Expeditionary Force) landed in France * over 1,000,000 French soldier were ready to use plan cardinal to attack Alasce and Lorraine * after 3 weeks it all went wrong * German troops pushed into France * Russians mobilised more quickly than expected, and invaded * troops were taken from France to defend on the eastern front * French and German soldier met at the river Marne * All the French and English troops went to defend on the river Marne, the battle of the Marne beganWhy did it operate?The Schlieffen plan failed for many reasons. The trip though Belgium did not go as the Germans wanted. They got slowed down because the Belgian army put up a fight. This meant that the German troops were 10 days late. The Germans wanted to get the war over wi th France so that they didnt have to fight Russia at the same time, so when they got delayed, they were in trouble. On the 29th august, Von Cluck (German general) changed the plan, so that they didnt attack Paris as planned, instead they went east and sent more troops to attack the forts.