Why did Germany & Her Allies Lose WW1?

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Year 11 History

Why Did Germany and Her Allies Lose World War 1?

Sameer Patel, 1101.

It can be argued that Germany and her allies faced a daunting war right from the start, but their desire to provoke and enter a war that involved the majority of Eastern Europe led them to being doomed right from the start. There are many factors that contributed to Triple Alliances’ loss of World War I such as inefficient military plans, poor decision making by leaders, food and resource shortages caused by naval blockades, poor morale and conditions and the collapse of allies. In the end however, it was more or less the strength of the Allies that overpowered the numerous weaknesses faced by the Central Powers.

Before 1914, Germany had made many assumptions regarding certain possibilities and outcomes of the war. This all started as early as 1905 in the drawing up of the Schlieffen Plan in which Germany assumed that in the event of a major war, they would have to take out both France and Russia with one swift motion. This meant fighting a war on two fronts, but they believed it would be possible provided the slow mobilization of Russia’s army, the quick and easy defeat of France, lack of resistance shown by Belgium and Britain maintaining its state of neutrality. However, it didn’t work out that way. Germany’s decision to rely heavily on the Schlieffen Plan, which went wrong in all sorts of areas, led to their first major defeat in the war. Even before any heavy engagement in warfare, Germany had lost a crucial battle. According to British historian A.J.P Taylor, “The sole cause of for the outbreak of war in 1914 was the Schlieffen Plan.” With the conclusions drawn by German historian Fritz Fischer, which are from a Post-Revisionist perspective, three main indications outline Germany’s intentions of going to war: Germany hoped for a war as soon as possible due to the growing power of Russia and issued Austria a “blank cheque” as a result, The “September Program” of German Chancellor Bethmann Hollweg showed that Germany always had annexationist aims and the Junker class of Germany who felt under threat from socialism were keen to unite the nation with a military victory. These three conclusions indicated Germany’s desire to provoke and enter a war in the near future, which proved to be costly in their war effort.  

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Another crucial contributor to Germany’s loss was the extremely efficient naval blockade imposed by the British Navy in 1914. The British controlled the North Sea with their powerful naval force that consisted of Dreadnoughts, sinking many German ships which therefore cut supplies of food and raw materials like Nitrates, which were vital in making explosives for the German army and serving as fertilizers for German farmers. As a result of the blockade, German resources were severely depleted and rates of starvation and death soared. Official statistics attributed nearly 763,000 wartime deaths in Germany to starvation caused by the Allied blockade. ...

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