As the Archduke was driven down the main road the first of the assassins struck, he through a grenade at the Archduke’s car then drank the cyanide each of them had been given. However, neither the cyanide nor the grenade had the desired effect: the grenade, although it went towards the Archduke’s car, was deflected by the Archduke himself and hit the car behind, wounding some of the bystanders and the people in the car. The cyanide, which all the members of the Black Hand Gang had sworn to take, was old and was not strong enough to kill, only to sicken, this meant that the assassins couldn’t get away.
The Archduke was then driven quickly to the town hall, where he and the mayor argued about who was to blame for the assassination attempt. The Archduke demanded to be taken to the hospital where some of the innocent bystanders were being treated.
On the way there, the driver of Franz Ferdinand’s car got confused and instead of carrying along the main road to the hospital, decided to drive up a side street past Schillers café.
Gavrillo Princip, the leader of the Gang, happened to be getting a sandwich from a shop down that street, after hearing that the assassination attempt had failed. He saw the Archdukes car approaching and fired 2 shots into the car, one hit the Archduke in the neck, and the other hit his wife Sophie in the stomach. Both died at hospital later. Gavrillo Princip was captured and imprisoned.
The reliability of Source B can be determined by evaluating the provenance of it. Firstly, we know the source to be from the allies, and, more specifically of British origin. This means that it is likely to be biased towards Britain and in this case, Belgium. The fact that Belgium is presented as a small and vulnerable child, with a small stick, and Germany is presented as a nasty old man, who is threatening the child with a big stick, shows that the artist was trying to emote sympathy for the small child, e.g. Belgium, and horror at Germany for what they are doing.
The sausages falling out of Germany’s pocket, and the clog shoes on Belgium’s feet are typical stereotypes, showing who the countries are. However, that the sausages are falling out of Germany’s pockets, and are not fully in, may indicate that they are rushed and have not fully prepared, not very respectful.
The sticks that both countries are carrying represent the power and size of their armies, that Germany has a big stick and Belgium only has a small stick makes us feel sorry for Belgium because it shows that Germany is much more powerful than them and Belgium is not going to be able to defend itself well without significant help. This is supposed to make the British feel like they need to help Belgium and to promote anger at Germany for bullying Belgium. In the back of the cartoon you can see Belgium’s towns and cities, this could represent civilisation, and that Belgium was trying to stop Germany from destroying their civilisation and hurting the innocent public. The fact that Germany is leaning over Belgium suggests they are being intimidating and pressurising. It could also show that they don’t think Belgium will put up a resistance and so have no reason to fear them.
However, we know from personal knowledge that this source is not too biased and that the situation was indeed very similar to that portrayed. Germany was in fact threatening to invade Belgium and to use their immense force to simply plough through Belgium, destroying anything in their path, until they came to France. We also know that Belgium was a much smaller, weaker country, with a tiny army in comparison to Germany’s. It is also true that Belgium was standing up to Germany, and that Britain should have helped them
In my opinion, there were many factors that helped contribute to the overall failure of the Schlieffen Plan. Firstly, there were the mistakes made by the German Military, these included: the Germans underestimating the time it would take Russia to mobilise, and underestimating the resistance Belgium would put up. Germany thought that Russia would take as long as 6 weeks to mobilise due to the poor transport in Russia. However, due to some good organisation, Russia were mobilised within 4 weeks, this meant Germany had to send back 100,000 men
They also thought that they could push through Belgium very quickly, in time to encircle Paris, which would mean they had taken France, and get back in time to fight Russia separately. Belgium, however, put up enough resistance for the BEF to get to Belgium and delay Germany.
Germany also ran out of ammo and supplies because they were held up longer than expected by Belgium. This led to the German commander deciding not to follow the plan of encircling Paris, but to instead, head directly for it. This gave France and the BEF the chance to regroup and cut Germany of at the Battle of Marne in early September 1914 The Germans “Dug-in” to protect themselves from enemy fire.
The other main reason that Germany’s Schlieffen Plan failed was because of the astute actions of the members of the Triple Entente.
The main ones were: Russia’s readiness to fight and the speed they mobilised, Germany had thought Russia would take 6 weeks to prepare for war, as the transport and communication lines in Russia were so bad, and everyone was so spread out. In reality it only took Russia 4 weeks to mobilise and start sending troops towards Germany, this meant Germany had to send 100,000 troops back to defend the Eastern Front.
The contributions, speed and proficiency of the BEF also played a big part in the failure of the Schlieffen Plan. The BEF was a crack team of soldiers, specially trained to be able to get across to Belgium and France quickly if war broke out. They, and France first held up Germany in the Battle of Marne, in September 1914. France’s troops were so desperate to get back to the first line to defend their country that they actually used taxis to get to the front line in time; they still had to pay the full going rates. Although Belgium was not part of the Triple Entente, they still played a valuable part in delaying the Germans, helping the Schlieffen plan to fail. They held up Germany at the Fort in Belgium for far longer than expected allowing the rest of the factors to happen. It could be said it was only possible because of their effort.