Britain went to war in August 1914 because the Government was committed to supporting France. Explain why you agree or disagree

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‘Britain went to war in August 1914 because the Government was committed to supporting France’. Explain why you agree or disagree.

Britain as a country in 1914 was allied with France and Russia in the Triple Entente, a ‘friendly’ agreement that bound Britain to support her allies if the needed. On June 28th 1914, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand brought about conflict between Austria and Serbia when Austria invaded Serbia blaming them for the assassination. A series of invasions then followed as Germany, who was tied to defending and supporting Austria-Hungary thanks to the Triple Alliance and took the opportunity to invade Belgium to get through to France and to the go on to invade Russia.

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        Shortly before war broke out, Britain sent an ultimatum to Germany stating that if Germany failed to respect Belgian neutrality then Britain would go to war. The Germans rejected this demand stating they were not honouring Belgian neutrality unlike France, who chose to respect their neutrality. The German strategy was based upon a plan created years before by Schlieffen and is now commonly referred to as ‘The Schlieffen Plan’. The Plan concentrated on pushing 90% of German forces onto France in the hope of crushing France quickly and decisively before Russia mobilised their army, who had been known to ...

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