Explain how the Schlieffen plan was meant to work.

place, weather and geological conditions made the matter worse, it had a majorly underdeveloped transport system, a poor communications network and the Russian government was not exactly known for their efficiency.  Germany planned a very careful and well thought out attack on France. The boarder between Germany and France was a heavily guarded point, almost impossible to get through, due to the Franco-Prussian war in 1870-71. France was angry enough that they lost Alsace-Lorraine and they certainly did not want to lose anymore land. Recognising the boarder as a military strong point for France, the Germans decided to attack Belgium and go through there, come round the back of the French army, and capture Paris, leaving a small amount of troops behind to hold off the attack from the French at the France-Germany boarder. The Belgium army was weak and underdeveloped, so it was decided that it would not provide enough, if any resistance. One German general was quoted saying “We could allow them to line the sides of the roads as we pass”. Belgium as country was geographically very easy to cross, as it was flat. It also meant that the army was much closer to Paris than if they had gone over the boarder, and seeing though there plan was to encircle the city and everyone in it, this came as a great advantage to them. It was taken on faith that if Paris had been captured; the rest of France would surrender, which was a fairly accurate assumption to make under the circumstances, and they had done before when Paris was captured in 1871. At the time, the French army was almost entirely stationed near Alsace-Lorraine, and if the assumption on the Belgium army were correct, the Germans would have got to the capital before the France could come up and stop them. It was likely that the French army would push on into Alsace-Lorraine once the capital had been captured, and the German army could easily come up behind them and entrap them. The Germans would then use a railway system to move the majority of their army to eastern Germany (leaving enough troops to fight resistance in Paris) ready to face the Russians. It was believed that the invasion of France would be over and done with within 5 weeks, leaving the Germans enough time to move their troops into position against the Russians. The only problem that seamed to present itself was the fact that Britain had made a pact in 1893 to protect Belgium, but it was believed that the British would not uphold this as it would take too long to move their troops into the country. It would also mean Britain joining the war, something of which they would wish to avoid. It was Germany military arrogance that allowed them to believe that Britain would allow Germany to have control of the important Ports Ostend, Dunkirk Oblong and Calais, even though Calais was only 22 miles from Britain.