Question

Describe how World War I began with the Schlieffen Plan in 1914 and concluded with the Armistice in 1918.

Answer 1

Hello there:)
I think that "age of Metternich" should get this, since that is some detail!
But from the beginning of the Schrieffer plan play, there are some crustal details.
The history, of course, is that Germany under Kaiser Wilhelm II realized that they were in a sticky position with France on one side and Russia on the other. The two were not only potentially hostile, but where in fact allies of each other, and Germany had to ponder what they would do in case of war. Their response was a plan to move almost all of the German forces to the French line, because they figured France would be able to mobilize faster, and also because they thought they could beat France in two weeks like they did in the Franco-Prussian War. Unbeknownst to Germany, France had bolstered their forces after that loss considerably; while Germany had an effective draft of 50% all military aged men, France had drafted 80% of all military aged men, and were bringing in a considerable number from their North American colonies, as well. Therefore when fighting started Germany was up against a LOT more French soldiers than they anticipated when fighting began.
This also required that Russia, being such a vast continent with a huge population, would have to take up several weeks to fully mobilize. This was actually a very accurate prediction, but unbeknownst to Germany Russia had started the mobilization process several weeks before the actual declaration of war, and so when German trains were sending nearly the entire German army to fight France, over 2 million Russian soldiers crossed the border unopposed and started to march towards Berlin, and there were only about 20 thousand German soldiers defending it.
Here's where fate steps in a little. As it turns out the gauge for Russian trains--the space that separates railroad ties and thus their wheels--was shorter than the German gauge. The Russians did this intentionally, since they always figured that Germany would invade Russia and did all these precautions to make sure that German trains couldn't simply roll on down to St. Petersburg. Unfortunately now that it was the Russians who were invading Germany, the Russians were hampered by their own precaution and were incapable of transporting down German railways. This split up the two Russian armies, which each had a million men. A Russian force of about 200,000 was the first to reach Berlin, and was absolutely trounced by the 20,000 defenders. After that the 1st army of Russia's was summarily beaten, and the 2nd was annihilated by German artillery. In about a month Russia was in effect beaten and out of the war, scramming for the remainder of the war to get another army together, until Lenin came in and the civil war began.
While this was going on, however, the Germans on the French front were not beating the French as quickly as the had thought, but they were still winning. the speed at which that the Germans were able to assemble was taxing the French terribly, and it was assumed by both sides that they would soon fail. Then word came of the horrendously huge 2 million man army that had appeared out of no-where to knock on Berlins gates. A little less than half of the German army was then immediately sent by rail car to the eastern front, to find the war there already won. By the time that the Germans turned around again the French had dug themselves in, and the trench warfare that is known so well marked the face of Europe. The English arrived, and soon battles like the Somme, in which hundreds of thousands died on both sides with little clear victory, or Verdun, a battle that was the same for the French, began to tell people the world over that this war would not end as quickly as everyone assumed.
The Germans, however, were again beating back the French, when in 1916 a third party joined the fray. a first army of 200,000 bolstered the severely weakened French troops, and by 1917 the United States would invest another 2 million. By 1918 the Germans were routed, and the talks began.

Now, the peace talks were another odd event. Britain, France, the US and Italy who started out the war as an ally of Germany but quickly decided against it joined the allies, joined together to decide what to do. As Russia was turning red, the four men began to write out a decree that blamed Germany for the whole war. the proud country would be billed $6 billion in reparations, and would lose a huge amount of its land. US president Woodrow Wilson was appealed at the intricacies of the document, stating that it would destroy Germany, but the horrors that the UK and France had lived through made them deaf to such protests, and singed it. There were also provisions to stop the spread of Lenin communism, and the countries did send about 10,000 soldiers to bolster the "white" Russians fighting the "red" Bolsheviks, but the countries were exhausted by war, and were unable to keep up the fight, by the end of the decade Russia was communist and nothing could be done to change that.
Germany, also, reviled against the full meaning of the armistice they had to sign, but had to comply. Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated, and the new Wiemar republic had to lead a destroyed country in the face of intense international pressure. By 1918 the rate of currency exchange was 4 marks to one American dollar. six years later the value had plummeted alarmingly, and there were 42 TRILLION marks to one American dollar, making the scene ripe for a fascist takeover.
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Answer 2

danggg lol good explanation

Answer 3

yah. WOW thanks so much! this helps a lot!

Answer 4

You're welcome:)