Why did Stalemate develop on the Western front?

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1b) Why did Stalemate develop on the Western front?

     In this essay I shall be discussing why Stalemate developed on the Western front.

    One of the reasons why Stalemate developed on the Western front was because of the battle of the Marne. Russia had mobilized a lot faster than Germany had anticipated. Due to this, Supreme Commander Moltke, withdrew 100,000 troops from advancing to Paris. This gave the French and British a break. The German advance had been too swift for supplies and ammunition to catch up. A result of this meant that Von Kluck was not going to swing round Paris as planned, but to march straight into it. Whilst the Germans marched o Paris, the French troops travelled on train and taxi! The British Expeditionary Force and the French managed to stop the German advance at the River Marne, later pushing the Germans back to the River Aisne. This is a main reason why Stalemate occurred on the western front as neither side could advance. Both sides turned to digging down for protection against sniper and shellfire this created the trenches. The ideal ‘Blitzkrieg’ war had turned stationary. A result of the battle of the Marne caused the trenches. This lead to stalemate on the western front as the Germans could not advance past the River Aisne, and the British and French could not push the Germans all the way out of France.

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     Another reason for why stalemate occurred on the western front is because of the failure of the Schlieffen plan. The Schlieffen plan was a genius idea that would allow Germany to defeat France, then Russia shortly afterwards. The Germans knew that the French would put a majority of their troops on the Franco-German boarder. Schlieffen devised a plan that would require marching through Belgium, capturing Paris. Once the French had lost Paris they would lose all of their country. After this, the Germans would use their high tech rail network across Germany and prepare for the assault on ...

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