Explain how the Schliefen Plan was meant to work.

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A) Explain how the Schliefen Plan was meant to work

Tension began to mount in Europe when the nations started competing to take colonies for trading overseas.  Each nation was trying to prove that it was the most powerful -  this was Nationalism.  Two European alliances were formed: the Triple Entente (the Allies), which consisted of Britain, France and Russia; and an opposing alliance, the Triple Alliance (the central powers), which consisted of Germany, Austria and Turkey.  When Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated in June 1914 in Sarajevo by Princip, a Serb member of a secret organisation, known as the Black Hand, the outbreak of war was triggered.

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Count Alfred von Schliefen was the German army chief of staff who was instructed to devise a plan to avoid a war on two fronts.  Germany believed that war with Russia was inevitable. However, going to war with Russia meant that France, as Russia's ally, would attack Germany.  As Germany did not want to fight a Franco-Prussian war, Schliefen created The Schliefen Plan in December 1905 to prevent this such an outcome.  Schliefen calculated that it would take at least six weeks for Russia to mobilise its army and so he decided that Germany should send ninety per cent. of ...

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