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Was the German defeat on the Western Front caused by the failure of the Schlieffen plan? Explain your answer.

Count Von Schlieffen was the general who devised the Schlieffen plan. The plan was devised in case Germany ever had to fight a war in two directions at once. It stated that Germany should invade through the neutral country of Belgium because most of the French army was on the German border. The idea was to go through Belgium to France and then encircle Paris, hoping that this would force the French to surrender.
However, at the time that the Germans had chosen to put this plan into action, it was Moltke who was in charge. Moltke was not fully happy with the Schlieffen plan, and so because of this he made a few adjustments of his own. It is disputed whether the changes that Moltke made were for the better or for the worse, but despite these changes I feel that the plan still would have failed because there were many underestimations, not least the Russian and Belgium forces.
The consequences of the misguided Schlieffen plan meant that many felt, even Germans, that ...

Posted by: Novelett Roberts

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