Chief of the German general staff, Alfred von Schlieffen, came up with the basis of the German attack in 1914. The Germans knew Russia could not gather their entire troop, from all over Russia, because of lack of communication and poor rail links therefore knew it would take a long time. This was seen as a major advantage for Germany because the Schlieffen Plan relied on Russian lack of mobility. The Schlieffen plan had been planned to, firstly, conquer France in 6 week with a quick blow. They knew this was possible because in 1870-1871 the German empire conquered France in the Franco-Prussian War, in 6 weeks, and took control of Alsace Loraine.
In order for this to succeed they had to go through Belgium. Germany could not go through France because of the Mountains and forestry landscape, which would take too much time to cross. Since time was of the essence, going through Belgium was going to make their lives a lot easier. The German Kaiser had not thought about Great Britain interfering, as thought the treaty Great Britain had signed in 1839 as a little scrap of paper.
Belgium was closer to Paris, which is the capital city of France, which was vital to have under control in order to conquer the country. Most of Frances population lived in the heart of France, Paris, therefore if it was knock out so was the whole country. Among other reasons Belgium was convenient because it was a small country that would not show much resistance against the powerful Germans – if any at all.
The theory was, as soon as they got into France the Germans would go though the French coast and surround Paris, hopefully attacking from the North. Germany would of sent five troops into France, towards Paris, to invade it and keep it under control. The first army would attack around the north and later split into two. One, of the two, would have gone around Paris while other toward eastern Paris. The Second troop would go directly towards northern Paris while the third would break into two and attack directly towards Paris. After their mission was a success, their plan was to leave some troops to stop any sort of rebelling and the rest of the troops would quickly travel towards the Eastern front to fight the Russians.
But if the Russians, were to gather their army before Germany could switch Schlieffen and his successor, von Moltke, believed the Austro-Hungarians forces could keep them occupied. A man named von Moltke revised the plan of Schlieffen.
The Schlieffen Plan Map
This diagram shows the five different troops that were planed to enter France to invade the capital Paris. As you can see the Paris is surrounded my armies.
In conclusion to my essay I think Germany had come up with the Schlieffen Plan to avoid fighting on two fronts by quickly beating France and then quickly turn around towards the eastern Front to fight Russia. The Plan mainly depended on speed.