The Schlieffen plan

The Schlieffen plan

- Germany had a problem of what do do if faced with a war on 2 fronts from Russia and France. 

- In 1905 Von Schlieffen, the leader of the German army decided that the only way to prevent this was to invade France and defeat them within 6 weeks.

- The French would be expecting an attack in Alsace - Lorraine where they shared a border with Germany 

- The French, however, would not be expecting an attack through neutral Belgium where they had a border. 

- If the Germans attacked through Belgium the French would be taken by surprise. The speed of the German attack…