The Schlieffen Plan

Georgeanna Cannon

Period 5th

3-16-17

The Schlieffen Plan

The Schlieffen Plan was a complex and well thought out plan produced by the German forces. General count Alfred von Schlieffen was the ultimate creator of the plan in December 1905. The main idea of the plan was to defeat France. The plan was designed in a fast pace nature. The Germans were going to use their new advancement in technology as a way of transportation, the railways. The original plan was to travel through Luxembourg and Belgium to get to France. This was a risky operation because Belgium had neutrality that was guaranteed by Great Britain. The strategy depended on Britain not supporting Belgium in this case. Once secured on the Franco-Germany border, Germany

Germany believed that they would be able to cope with any fighting at all on the Russo-German border while main forces concentrated on defeating France. The six-week predicted time period that would consist of defeating France came from the idea that Russia would need the six weeks to be ready to fight Germany. Once France was defeated, the Germans would then again use the railways to go and fight Russia. They would defeat Russia and avoid a two-front war by using their fast pace plan. By the time the plan was put into use, Alfred von Schlieffen was no longer in office. Helmuth von Moltke was then put in the same official position that Schlieffen was in. He decided to use the Schlieffen plan with a few alterations. He made the decision to move forces solely into Belgium and use Luxembourg as a way to get resources. Everything else about the plan remained the same. On paper, the plan could not have been more perfect. The issues were not shown until after the plan was put into place. The main keys to the Schlieffen plan were assumed such as assuming that it would take France six weeks to be defeated, and it would take Russia six weeks to

A two-front war is simply a war in which one country is fighting on two of their borders. The Germans hoped that by holding off one country while fighting another, it would allow for them not be encounter what seems to have been inevitable all along. Germany had just engaged in a war fought by Russia, France, and themselves. This was one of the contributions to the start of WWI. Their plan ultimately failed but was very close to becoming a success. The actions that would have needed to be different in order for Germany to succeed are that France had to be defeated and that never happened, and also the speed aspect of the plan was non-existent due to unpredictable setbacks of armies, transportation, and communication. The outcome of the Schlieffen plan did change the war because before the main issue was between Austria-Hungary and Serbia fighting over the annexation of Bosnia. When the two of them started fighting Serbia pulled in Russia to help them. Once the Schlieffen plan was carried out Germany had then been added to the war along with France. Great Britain was also added to the war due to the Germans jeopardizing the neutrality of Belgium. All of this tension between