Why had the Western Front been established by the end of 1914?

The Western Front was established due to the stalemate between British/French and German troops, due to the failure of German attempts to capture Paris. The Western Front was 700 Km of trenches containing around four million troops at any one time.

In order to answer this question, it is best to start with the first and most important cause of the western front, the First World War. In order to have a war, you need yet more causes for that to come about, This brings me to my first point of analysis; the struggle between Austro–Hungary and Serbia.

After Serbia has become an independent state in 1878, many Serbs living inside the Hapsburg Empire wanted independence from the Empire and a place in free Serbia. This in turn lead to problems, and the Austrian government accusing Serbia of stirring trouble in Bosnia, a Serbian region and couldn’t face a possible loss of over 8 million Serbs to Serbia, as this would break up the Austro-Hungarian Empire for sure. On the 28th of June 1914, the heir to the Austrian throne and major political target was shot dead during a parade in Sarajevo. A month after this shooting, the First World War had begun. The declaration of war was due to the Austrian government blaming Serbia for the assassination. Although it was right-wing political protester and member of the Black Hand Gavrilo Princip that killed Archduke Ferdinand, the death of a major political player provided Austria with the reason they needed to go to war with Serbia and crush the menace before it was too late. This was why WWI came about, and I therefore feel it a relevant cause to the establishment of the Western Front, as without war, the front would never have been.

After the outbreak of war, I feel that the creation and eventual failure of the Schlieffen Plan was the next major reason why the Western Front had been established. German Chief of Staff, General Schlieffen, drew up the Schlieffen Plan in 1905. It was designed and planned for use in the event of war between France and Russia, and the main purpose of it was to prevent Germany having to fight a war on two fronts, by rapidly taking control over Paris, the French capital. By rapidly removing the French from the fray, it meant that Germany could then focus all it’s efforts on the huge army that Russia was developing. In 1914, when the Schlieffen Plan was eventually put to use, some 9 years after its creation, it fell apart and caused great problems for Germany. The Schlieffen Plan meant the focus of German troops tried to circle over through Belgium and into North-eastern France and circle over to cover Paris, whilst a relatively small force headed south down the Franco-German border. However, things soon went to pot, as the force headed for Paris was smaller than needed and was moving at a much slower pace. Also, the British Expeditionary Force was sent to help France defend itself from the incoming German attack when vicious fighting took place in Mons. By the time they had been forced back, French troops (who had suffered greatly by earlier fighting) were strong enough to re-join the fighting. On September 5th, 1918 the two evenly matched German and French/British forces met at the river Marne, the battle lasted 2 weeks and set up a 240 Km front. Eventually all forces had great needs for food and other supplies to raced to the north of the country towards the northern ports of Dunkirk, Calais and Boulogne. This ‘Race to the Sea’ extended the front all the way from Verdun to the English Channel. This front was the Western Front. It is easy to see how big a part the Schlieffen Plan played in the establishment of the Western Front, alongside the Battle of the Marne, which gave the position of the front and if the battle had never happened, or was in a different place, the western front would have been different to what it was. Without these two events, the Western Front definitely would never have occurred, and the addition of the B.E.F to the war made both sides equal, thus creating the stalemate at the front and meant that it lasted as long as it did.

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Another factor, which affected the establishment of the Western Front, was the growth of German nationalism in the years before and during the war. This had an effect on the Front because, in the years prior to war, Germany had separated from the Austro-Hungarian Empire and become an independent nation, and this new independence gave the German people a great pride in their nation – Nationalism. This in itself played a major part in the establishment of the Western Front, as Germany increased its spending on armaments by over 300% between 1872 and 1912. If Germany had not increased their spending on armaments they would have been crushed completely by the Allied forces, that is if they had gone to war in the first place. Germany has strived to become more powerful and self sufficient, requiring a much bigger army and navy especially. Germany had become aware of the British manufacturing a new class of battleship, the Dreadnought. In an effort to equal the British navy, they began producing their own fleet of Dreadnoughts. This is where the Arms race became an aspect of why the Western front was established – the ships were intended to deliver suppliers to the army, such as food and ammunition. During the collapse of the Schlieffen Plan, Germany, along with all of the nations fighting in the war at that point, began the famous ‘Race to the Sea’. This race to the sea extended the Western Front all the way to the North coast of France.

The arms races also lead to the development of technology and many groundbreaking inventions came about, like the tank (although not until 1916), machine gun, and the trench system. Although the tank did not play a very big part in the war, as it was not very effective on the front line, it went on to become an invaluable military weapon later in the course of history. However, the machine gun and the development of trench warfare revolutionised modern warfare, and were the reasons why WWI was fought like it was. Trench warfare was a new method of warfare and involved trenches being dug out at the front line in a zigzag formation, thus giving cover and a permanent physical line for troops to defend. The trenches were arranged so that they were very easy to defend, thus making life very difficult (and somewhat short-lived) for the offensive side. The western front itself was a line of trenches, almost 600km long, all of which had been dug by hand by the troops, and the fact that the trenches were relatively easy to defend, and hard to attack was a great catalyst to the state of stalemate between the German and British/French armies. In addition to this, the invention of the machine gun meant that the defending army could set up a gun emplacement, and simply cut through the offensive attacks with a hail of rapid fire. This was one of the main reasons why casualties were so high on the Western Front and why armies resorted to attrition in order to win the war. So, the growth of German nationalism created a lot of aspects that changed history and were long-term causes for the establishment of the Western Front.

An important aspect of every war is the alliances involved, a major turning point in the build up to the war was the German backing for Austria, for if this had not occurred, then the war would have been a lot different. If Germany hadn’t sided with Austria, then they may have avoided war with France till a later date and this may have lead to changes like abandonment of the Schlieffen plan. Germany actually ‘egged on’ Austria to go to war with Serbia, and some believe that this is due to German aspirations of world domination and that war (involving Britain, France and Russia) could lead to that. The Alliance systems also link into the Schlieffen Plan because General Schlieffen drew up his plan with alliances in mind. The Alliance involved was the Triple Entente, which consisted of France, Germany and Russia. Germany was central in this treaty, as if either of the other nations sought to side primarily with the other, the other would oppose. If those alliances had changed, then his plan would have no effect and would have been re-written, thus affecting the position and establishment of the Western Front.

The final cause I wish to look at which affected the establishment of the Western Front was the Balkan Conflicts. The Bosnian Crisis of 1908 was caused by a revolution in Turkey, and this allowed Austria to seize control of Bosnia. Serbia protested against this and tried to find support from Russia, and this was so, until Austria gained the support of Germany. This alliance between these two nations was vital to the cause of the First World War, as aforementioned. Equally important was the fact that Bosnia became a part of Austria, because if not, the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand would most likely not have happened. This in itself is a very long-term cause of the Western Front, because it ensured the start of war, and Germany’s involvement in it.

As a summary, there were many reasons why the Western front was established in 1914, ranging from as far back as German independence from the Austro-Hungarian empire, to short term causes such as the ‘Race to the Sea’ and the Battle of the Marne. Although the timescale and relative scale of these causes varies greatly, all play a major part, and without one of these causes, I believe the Western Front would have never been established. It seems there is a pattern emerging amidst the many causes; political causes (long term) are more important over all because there would not have been a situation if the first place for the military causes (short term) to come about.

Why had the Western Front been established by the end of 1914?

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