World War 1 Details, the schlieffen plan, it’s failure and canada’s involvment Maharaj –Canadian history

Recap The rulers of Germany (Kaiser) and Russia (Czar) were cousins The Czar was Nicholas the 2nd The Kaiser was Wilhelm They both expected war with France rather than between family

If war happened in France… Means war to the west or the “western front

But, if Russia joined with Germany--- This means war to the East, called the Eastern Front When Germany allied with Austria in 1879, Russia’s friendship was lost Russia then went to France so they would have an alliance in case of attacks or threats

Europe 1914 Case of Belgium Belgium was considered Neutral Territory, there was an agreement between Belgium and Great Britain that stated the GB would protect Belgium… Germany did not expect that GB would get involved if they used Belgium to access France

Germany’s Fears… Germany knew that invasion from both fronts were possible and appointed General Von Schlieffen to develop a plan in case this ever occurred. He assumed that once war was declared, Russia would take a long time to organize their army He rested his entire plan on this very (simple) assumption

The General thought that France would expect an attack from directly east BUT, he devised a plan to secretly attack from the north and east! BRILLIANT! EXCEPT…. The Schlieffen Plan

Assumptions and the plan The General thought that if he advanced from the West it would be unexpected and confuse the French as to where the attacks were coming from The French Army would then put their defenses along the German/French border rather than the Western areas They expected this plan to be completed in 6 weeks (to get to Paris and conquer it) They expected to defeat and force France out of the war, turning their attentions to Russia

Failure of the Schlieffen Plan The risk taken by Schlieffen was too high and made on assumptions only France, Germany and Britain signed a treaty(agreement of peace) 70 years earlier vowing to leave Belgium alone Germany wrongly assumed that Britain wouldn’t care about their use of Belgium for their sneaky attack

Failure of the Schlieffen Plan Britain did object and used the invasion of Belgium to enter the war and back up their alliance Schlieffen died in 1913 before he could execute his plan, the generals left in charge made a few changes that would jeopardize the whole operation (even though it was already flawed) They tried to enter from the North through Belgium but turned south towards France too soon The French Army at the German/French Border saw them Soldiers from France and Britain were already advancing the same way towards Germany and caught them in their tracks

Stopped in their tracks! They CLASHED at the Marne River where both sides set up “military bases” -They built large trenches that were protected by guns, barbed wire and cannons

A Trench where many soldiers fought and defended their country A trench is a large depression, gully or dig out in the ground It can be man made or natural A Trench where many soldiers fought and defended their country

It failed… The plan obviously failed, instead of knocking out France, they were not trapped between France and Britain advancing from either side Canada at this time had sent troops with Britain to fight This led to the war being fought as they say “in the trenches” This was the beginning of 4 years of war This was called “Trench Warfare”