History Log for Week 39

History log for week 39 Cecilie S. Erichsen.

WHY DID THE FIRST WORLD WAR LAST FOR FOUR YEARS AND NOT FOR FOUR MONTHS AS BELIEVED IN THE START?

WW1 was thought to be a quick battle with hardly any resistance offered to the Germans. But something went wrong, very wrong for the fight that was thought to be over in 43 days on the western front ended up as a shoot out for four long years. There were quite a few reasons for this, the main being the failing of the Schlieffen Plan, as well as the new technology and the bad supplies to the fronts. All these things lead to a long and dark period in European history. The First World War. This was the first time the whole war got pulled into one dispute. Before there had only been "local" problems solved between the parts involved. Now, many countries were pulled in without any aims or goals for the war. They only fought because they had signed a treaty saying they would fight if their allied was attacked. This meant that many of the countries entering the war, were not prepared for what was to come. One good example of this were the French, who started the war wearing bright red jackets. But this can not be blamed for keeping the war going for so long. To me the main reason for this lies with the Germans since they did not manage to follow the Schlieffen plan as their whole war tactic was based on. The Schlieffen plan was constructed by the pre war general with the same name. It basically meant that the Germans would attack Paris from the east, going through Belgium and all the way out to the Channel to prevent British troops entering the war. The Germans planed to capture Paris within 43 days. They didn't get closer than 40 miles during the whole four years. The main reason for the Schlieffen plan failing was the unexpected strong Belgian resistance. The Germans used 19 days to capture Brussels and by that tome the French had time to mobilise and organise themselves. The French managed to keep the Germans away from the important Channel ports which made it possible for the British to enter. The British came out of their "splendid isolation", due to a treaty they had signed with the the neutral Belgium, saying they would defend them if they got attacked by a third nation. The Germans had not beckoned with this, and now faced a full scale two front war. In September there was now longer hope of this being just a short battle. In a huge French attack, they pushed the Germans back to the River Aisne, where they dug themselves down. From there on there was hardly any movement on the Western front. The new technology made it "impossible" to break through the enemies lines. The rifle and the machine guns made all frontal attacks suicidal and rendered cavalry useless. The trench warfare created new opportunities for artillery. Its main task was to destroy enemy barbed wire in penetration for infantry attack. It created huge craters and churned up soil. Rain then turned battlefield into muddy swamps which combined with coils of barbed wire made movement impossible and hence lead to the stalemate that lasted for four years. With so many German troops locked on the western front, the German idea of a quick win in the west for so to turn east did not go as planed. The Russians mobilised a lot quicker that the Central powers had foreseen. They wanted to protect their "little Slave brothers" (the south Slaves) from the "horrible" Central Powers. The Central Powers had not reckoned this support to be as strong, but still managed to penetrate deep into Russia territorial due to lack of Russian guns and morality. The country was still felling the heavy losses from the Russio/Japanese war. But the Russians still held up a waste amount of German troops, which meant that Germany could not send all their men to the western front and conquer the land west of Alsace and Lorraine. Another reason for the war lasting for so long, was the continuos trading between countries. If the countries that did not participate in the war, had boycotted trade with countries of war. The war would have ended much earlier due to "starvation" of the marked and the lack of founds to feed into the war. There would be only one problem with total boycott. The neutral countries would still produce the same amount of goods and needed the trade to get a balance in their national budget. The colonies couldn't boycott their "owners" either due to trade treaties signed before the war. The colonies supplied the war powers with food and cotton for the troops and the "boys back home". Another important reason for the war lasting so long was the nationalistic feelings and the high morals of the soldiers. They did not give up fighting for what they were told was right and even in horrible conditions stayed with their leaders. As a conclusion one can say that the war lasted for four years in stead of four months due to the very first days of the war when the Belgians put their foot down and said "they shall not pass" (This quote belongs to general Pètain and was said during the Battle of Verdune)