Germany thought that due to the Russians poor infrastructure, it would take them up to 6 weeks to mobilise its huge army, once more they were wrong, The Russians mobilized in a matter of a few weeks and started to make their way over to Germany, the Germans were in trouble they were well behind on there original plan and Russia were already making there way across to Germany. The Germans had to come up with a solution and fast, they finally came to a decision- they would no longer come around the north of France taking over the ports on the way stopping the British entering the war, and then take the capital of France, Paris from behind. The Germans thought that Paris was to far for there already tired army and Marne was closer and they could fight the French there, this was ultimately the key factor in why the schlieffen plan failed, the plan revolved around the capture of Paris, once they had control of Paris they could shut off all transport and communications, come from behind to take Alsace Lorain and take the morale of the country.
Another reason why a stalemate developed on the western front was down to the technology each side had. Both sides had the new invention of the machine gun and this meant that it was very difficult to advance, when a machine gunner could fire up to 600 bullets a minute. Take the battle of the Somme for example, marshal haig thought that a continuous bombardment on the Germans would come to an advance for the British and French armies, however most of the bombardment failed to destroy the Germans concrete bunkers and barbed wire, and with the Germans being at a higher point this meant that they were defensively stronger. The bombardments continued from both sides and between July-November the British lost nearly half a million men and the French almost 200,000 men, the allied forces did gain some land but it was only 5-6 miles at its deepest points, it was half a year of fighting and 700,000 soldier’s lives, all for six miles of land.
As well as the machine gun that both sides used, they both had different types of gases, the Germans were the first to use there chlorine gas at the battle of ypes in 1915 and it proved to be a very affective weapon killing thousands of men, so within a few months the British and French had acquired there own gas and this meant that neither side had any advantage when it came down to weaponry.
The 'Race to the Sea', between September-November 1914, ended with the beginning of trench warfare in the Western Front.
The Race to the Sea was the last significant movement during the war until the German spring offensive in 1918. Allies attempted to force the Germans to retreat in the battle of the Marne and Anise but ultimately failed as the Germans firmly dug into their trenches and proved to be almost impossible to move with there trenches being made of concrete and the barbed wire all over the top of the trench line
Both sides attempted to gain an advantage by moving their attacks further north in Flanders, the only open flank remaining which was open for manoeuvre, each side was constantly striving to outmanoeuvre the other .Once the trench lines had reached the coast, the Allies who were defending against the German attacks, their focus switched to the Swiss border, which was 400 miles in length. Before this happened the channel was deemed to be a key strategic priority and at the end both sides had possession of different channel ports. Deemed somewhat of a draw at the end of November, trench warfare set in for the next four years with the occasional allies trying to puncture the enemy lines.
So I conclude that there were a fair amount of reasons that contributed to the stalemate developing on the western front but I feel as if the failure of the schlieffen plan contributed the most as it started it all off, if the schlieffen plan had not gone ahead then Britain would not got involved and there wouldn’t be devastating and somewhat pointless battles like the Somme.
