Explain How The Schlieffen Plan Was Meant To Work

The first 200 words of this essay...

Fourth Form History Coursework On The

First World War.

Explain How The Schlieffen Plan Was Meant To Work?

This was a plan devised by Colonel Von Schlieffen in 1905. The plan was devised to help Germany to avoid a war on two fronts against Russia and France. Graf Von Schlieffen thought that Russia would be extremely slow to mobilise and that would give Germany time (approximately one and a half to two weeks) to attack France and hopefully capture Paris. It was thought that by the time they had captured France the Germans could leave a small token force in France and then go over to fight the Russians in the east. They believed that the whole capture of France would take only six weeks.

One of the major parts of Graf von Schlieffen's plan was that Britain would not enter a war just over a piece of paper that she had signed eighty years previously. This piece of paper was the Treaty of London. It said that Belgium was neutral and that the countries signing it would defend Belgium's neutrality. In any case the Germans thought that if the British did enter