Kaiser Wilhelm II -||- Wilhelm's Chancellors -||- Admiral von Tirpitz and the Naval Race -||- Alliance with Austria-Hungary -||- Relations with Europe -||- Internal Discontent and new Social Orders -||- Industry and Economy -||- The Schlieffin Plan -||- World War I

~~~~~-To Wilhelm IIs Germany-~~~~~

The Schlieffin Plan

    The Schlieffin Plan was either extremely brilliant or extremely stupid.  Whatever the case, the miraculous thing was that it almost succeeded.

            The Schlieffin Plan was made General Schlieffin as a plan to attack France just in case of an emergency.  It called for invading Belgium in order to take France.  Fears of encirclement caused it to be approved.

            The plan was actually just in case of a Russo/French attack.  Since Russia was far away, the Germans considered it less of a threat.  Calculating the time it would take for Russia to mobilize and reach Germany, they figured they would have France by then.

            Ironically enough, the only thing that led to German failure in the Schlieffin Plan was that the troops procrastinated and took a little longer to reach Paris, allowing the French troops time to get there.