Explain the failure of the German campaign in the West in 1914.

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Explain the failure of the German campaign in the West in 1914  

        There had been a few reasons why the German campaign failed in 1914 in the Western front. However, the main reason why the campaign failed was the failure of the Schlieffen plan. The failure of the plan lead to other problems arising and bringing the German campaign to failure in 1914.

        Count Alfred Von Schlieffen originally designed the Schlieffen plan in 1894, however Helmuth Von Moltke later changed the plan in 1906.

The plan was to attack France and then to attack Russia. Germany wanted to attack both countries because they felt under threat that France and Russia had an agreement to help each other and also the idea of encirclement. The plan was to have quick victories on both sides. This, unfortunately for Germany, did not happen.

The Schlieffen plan failed because of many reasons. Schlieffen thought it would only take a maximum of two months to defeat France and he also thought that Russia would not be able to be ready for war by the time Germany had defeated France. It is reasonable for Schlieffen to think that it would take Russia a longer time to get ready for war, because it is such a big country and also at that time, the country was not that advanced. However, it is obvious that it would take longer than two months to defeat France.

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The plan also failed because it had too many changes to it. One being going through the Belgium bypass and dropping the idea of going through Holland.

Going through Belgium would automatically mean bringing in Britain into the war, because Britain had an agreement with Belgium since 1839. The Germans, however, did not think that Britain would get involved.

The plan was changed again when Moltke decided to take more attacking soldiers and placing them in the east defending Germany against Russia. This also meant that there were fewer soldiers against the first major attack against France. Attacking ...

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