Schlieffen Plan

5. What was the Schlieffen plan and how did it complicate the events leading to World War I?

Sergio Casasola

The Schlieffen Plan was created by General Count Alfred von Schlieffen in December 1905. This Plan was the operational plan for a designated attack on France. and modelled a Franco-German war, which would not involve Russia but was expected to include Italy and Austria-Hungary as German allies. Schlieffen did not think that the French would necessarily adopt a defensive strategy in such a war, even though their troops would be outnumbered, but he recognized that this would be their best option. In Aufmarsch I, Germany would have to attack to win such a war, which entailed all of the German army being deployed on the German-Belgian border, to invade France through the southern Dutch province of Limburg, Belgium, and Luxembourg. The deployment plan assumed that Italian and Austro-Hungarian troops would defend Alsace-Lorraine. This plan was for a two-front war and reduced the forces available in the west by a fifth, which meant that a German offensive was too weak to inflict a decisive defeat. The execution of the Schlieffen Plan led to Britain declare war on Germany on August 4th, 1914.